375 Gallon Tank Project Under Way

[The R/C Man]

Hey Everyone!

Well after a long process of designing and saving money the project is finally made some significant progress.

This is the plan for the project.....

 

[The R/C Man]

Next thing I did was have a stand welded to support all the weight. I just used rustoleum to paint it.

 

[cali_reef]

Nice.. You built your own tank?

You better order a bigger skimmer from Brent, the SK1200 you planned is too small for your water volume.

 

[The R/C Man]

Yeah we are just finishing it up now...... The skimmer is going to be a modified 5200. It will be a duel beckett design with an 8" or 10" tube to allow for the same amount of contact time using a much shorter skimmer. (it will fit under the stand)

 

[The R/C Man]

Here is the Oceans Motions 8 Way that will control the closed loop return. The pump is going to be a Sequence Hammerhead/

 

[The R/C Man]

System management...

 

[Johnsteph10]

That is one of the sickest tank diagrams/drawings/blueprints that I have seen. Nice!

Sounds like you have everything planned out well! Who are you getting your tank from?

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Hey Greg, glad to see you are moving up. haven't seen you post around here in a while.

I can't read all of the details but it looks good. Feeding your skimmer with water directly from the overflows the way you have it is perfect. Not for sure how the auto top off will work since it looks like it's hooked up on a small area.

What are you going to feed your calk reactor with? Or is that a kalkwaser stirer? I've read in several places to force fed the calk reactor with a powerhead rather than try and gravity feed. You control the flow on the output rather than the input. I've got a small PH in my sump that feeds mine. If it's a stirer, then you need to feed it from your R/O unit.

Are you also using a hammerhead on your return? I'm currently running two hammerheads on my 400. One on the return and one on a C/L. I'm thinking of adding in another C/L using a baraccuda that I have. It dosen't look like I have a lot of flow in there right now even with the two hammerheads.

Good luck with it.

 

[The R/C Man]

More equipment!!!

 

[The R/C Man]

Hey John!

Thanks! I am building the tank with the help of a friend....

I will get some pics up after I am done resizing them...

blown63chevy,

Yeah I have been moderating Reefland so I don't spend to much time here anymore.

The Kalk reactor will run off of my top off line which feeds straight from the RO/DI.

The Calcium reactor gets its supply from the sump return line. Less pumps the better.


Here is a pic of the lighting rack I assembled using U channel aluminum... There will be 4, 400watt 20K suplimented with 8 24" VHO's in the 6700k and 10K spectrums.... This will be mounted in the hood with pin to allow for vertical adjustment.

 

[The R/C Man]

Here is the sump that I built for the tank. It is 48x24x20 and will hold 100 gallons and about 70 gallons running. The top is designed as a noise reducer and to keep in salt creep. The back has holders for the heaters and probes. There will be further add-ons as it progresses. One will be the mounts for the float switches. I am also planning to added wire holders and fittings for calcium and kalwasser inputs......

 

[The R/C Man]

After all the pieces were cut and routed to matching sizes the assembly began. This was the first step. The back of the tank was laid out and the ends were glued to that...

 

[The R/C Man]

Next, the front panel was laid out and the already assembled portion was flipped over and set on to it.

 

[Ginzo]

Superb RC/Man, I'll be tagging along for sure !

Can you tell me with what program you did your plan ???

 

[The R/C Man]

Now we had to create a template from wood to give the router a guide for cutting the access holes in the top.

The template was transfered to the top and rough cuts were made before the routing was done.

Here I am with the template vacuumed to the top and routing away....

And done!

 

[The R/C Man]

Thanks Ginzo!

I used Micrsoft paint.... It looks much better in actual size.

I thought I should mention that these steps were all done a week apart from one another working only a few hours each sunday.

Here was the next step.

 

[The R/C Man]

Here is the tank assembled before flush trimming.....

While flush trimming the bearing came off the router blade.... OUCH!!!! :eek1: :mad2:

Good thing it was on he bottom. It is repairable and shouldn't be a problem.....

 

[The R/C Man]

This was just yesterday. I am finishing up the trimming and rounding over. I also made a template for the overflow openings and routed them out as well...... More pics to follow...

 

[Ginzo]

You did your plan with Microsoft Paint ? wow !!! :eek1:

 

[Chihuahua6]

Question please. I see two intakes to the skimmer from two different places in the sump. Please explain this to a non-tech chick like myself. I have an older ETSS skimmer that I hope to use on my future tank but I have no idea how to hook it up. Thanks.