330 gallon build.

[Giovanni]

Just agreed to purchase this use 330 gallon tank. Will be picking it up 11/03/12. I had a glass 220 once for discus but my largest reef has been a 70 gallon. Never had an acrylic tank before so this will be a first for me. Tank looks to be in good shape from the photos and the description. I will have to polish out a few scratches, replace some of the vinyl backing, cut the stand down about 6 inches and epoxy paint the stand all before I can move it in the house.

I plan on a remote sump area in the garage to minimize the hassle of water changes as this will reside in my living room.

Tank and stand specks:

330 acrylic aquarium 96x30x30 with 3/4" panels. Has two overflows with two holes per overflow. Tank is drilled for a closed loop, 2 drains inside tank and 4 returns. Stand is 42" tall and I plan on reducing this to 34". It is made from 1.5" square tubing. I plan on manufacturing wood panels for it.

I will post photos of the move and progress.


Here is what it looked like when it was new.

Here it is in storage.

 

[todd rose]

Large Reef Tank forum.......Congrats!:celeb3:

 

[laredo300c]

congrats , my all time favorite dream tank size..... wow...keep us updated

 

[muttley000]

Looks like a great tank! How do you plan on lighting it and what other equipment will you be using?

 

[biecacka]

You got a GREAT deal on the tank. I'll be watching too buddy

Corey

 

[Giovanni]

I will be doing a DIY LED. I have an apex for control, a 125g tank to build a remote sump/ reafugium. I have not found a skimmer yet. I plan on doing bio-pelets. I have a Deltec PF-501 for calcium or may convert it to a bio-pelet reactor.

Live stock will be mixed reef (70% SPS/30% LPS/softies), schooling fish and clams. I will not be able to Poof (instant reef) this tank as it is so large so it will have to take some time to mature.

 

[Giovanni]

I have the tank home. Left home at 04:30 Saturday and got home Saturday night at 01:30 with about 1280 miles driven. Tank looks better than I thought it would. I felt the stand was to tall so we moved it in the house this am to see. Everyone but me feels it is good. I am worried that the most colorful part of the corals will be on top and I will be looking from the sides and up. Stand is 42 inches tall. Any way I loaded the tank is a 4x8 uhaul. It was a perfect 97.5 inches long so with moving blankets the doors were tight and held the tank in place for the trip. I strapped the stand to the top. Shhhh don't tell uhaul!:lmao: I moved the stand back out to sand prime and pain it.

Here are some photos. First is the moving rig. Next is a normal shot of the tank on the wall and the third is a panorama of the room.

 

[laredo300c]

looks small in your huge home, but dont be fooled. that is one big tank

 

[Myke2813]

It does look pretty tall

 

[biecacka]

You could have someone cut the stand down to your desired hieght
Corey

 

[todd rose]

Are you going to shorten the stand?:deadhorse:

 

[todd rose]

yawn....stretch.....any updates?

 

[Giovanni]

The 125 I plan to use for a sump I purchased for $50. It was leaking. I cleaned all the silicone from the inside and resealed it.

I decided not to cut the stand down fro 42" to 36". If it was going to be easy I would have, but it was not worth the effort. Also a friend of mine thought it should be taller. I will give you three guesses to figure out who that friend was. The stand also had to be cleaned of rust, that took over three hours with a side grinder and wire wheel. I decided to paint it with a product from valspar that is a primer and paint all in one. I still had to put 3 to 4 coats on.

Will begin polishing out the fine scratches from the inside of the tank on Saturday. Sunday I will move the stand in and place the tank on it.

I am trying to decided on rock and sand. I have decided to go with a SRO XP-5000 external skimmer with auto neck cleaner.

 

[muttley000]

Nice work, did the reseal project work out?

 

[Giovanni]

Nice work, did the reseal project work out?

I have not tested it yet. Waiting a couple of weeks before I put water in it. I put the silicone on thick in places and want to make sure it is dry full thickness.


Moved the stand in to it's permanent placement last night thanks to some friends. I used a 3/4 advantech engineered product instead of plywood. It is supposed to be stronger and more moister resistant than marine grade plywood.

 

[Giovanni]

When polishing my tank, I was using an led light over the end of the panel being polished. This illuminates the scratches much better. I had noticed some crazing on the end of the top piece used for euro bracing. It appears that this crazing has migrated across the seam and into about 1/4 inch of the front viewing panel. Not sure what to do at this point!

 

[Giovanni]

Oops DP. Double post.

 

[TundraGuy]

Stand hight is right on the money to me. People always say think about how had it will be to work on. But I always say think how cool it is to walk up and not bend down to look in. updates are going to be watched. Good stuff so far

 

[Giovanni]

Well I have all the medium to large scratches out of half the tank. That half needs a polish with novus #2. The other half has yet to be worked on. There were more scratches than I had noticed when I purchased it, but no worries.

I ordered and received schedule 80 bulkheads for the closed loop holes that were already in the tank. I do not plan on using them but did not want to glue acrylic over them incase I decided to setup a closed loop. As it turns out the 1" and 3/4" bulkheads were oversized. I called the seller and got a very obstinate sales person on the phone. I decided to use a sanding drum and enlarge the holes in the tank which took several hours yesterday. I will not be using that online store again.

I also ordered a Deluxe Puratek 100GPD RODI. Very nice unit that was producing water at 1PPM before the DI resin. I am very pleased with the quality.

I got 3 x 200g reef crystal boxes in today from DRsF&S. Got a good deal $48.95 a box shipped. I also decided on carbisea select sand and ordered 240lbs of that from premium aquatics Thursday. Their site says most orders placed before 2pm ship the same day. I got my order in at 1:59pm and it still shipped. Guess who my new online reef store is?

I was able to purchase 6 AI sol led units Thursday. Three are blues and three are white. I prefer the blue but the price was very good so I purchased both. I plan on swapping half the pucks in the blues for half from the whites in an every other pattern.

This weekend I will finish polishing out the scratches and water test. My tank sits on a load bearing wall but I want to see if my floor shifts and cause the tank to lean in any direction so I can address this now. When my sand arrives the long three day RODI fill with my new 100GPD RODI begins. It will take >85lbs of salt to fill just the tank!

 

[Squidward5]

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