470g inwall construction thread

Progess has been steady on the tank. 550lbs of Marshall LR has been added. I really like the Marshall and prefer it over the Fiji I had in my 155g tank. A couple of pics. The cabinets are not finished as they lack hardware and the 1 1/2" granite shelf that will hide the starboard is not yet done.
Tankc1.jpg


A couple of up-close pics. The tank doesn't look like a 500g tank from the pics as the 44" depth of the tank won't be apparent until I get more coral.
tankview1.jpg


Couple of pics of the lighthood
lighthood1.jpg

lhood2.jpg
 
Still have some work left on the sump as I want to get the foam out and elimate some bubbles that are making their way into the display.
sumppic.jpg
 
Everytime he posts pics hehe it makes me drool with envy :P I wish I had the cash, and house to build something of this magnitude.. Great work, surely a TOTM in the making..
 
You might want to pull the handels off of your ball valves that are on the top of the tank. becuase of the UV and heat from the light can warp them and make them hard to deal with. or some sort of cover will work well.

Tank looks good. Are those all you corals from your 155? There is A LOT of room for many new corals in that tank.
 
Explain the point of the "Starboard" again? As I understand it, it's meant to protect the bottom glass from breaking in the event that a rock falls; although in my 20 years of reef keeping I've never heard of a single instance of this happening and think it's a complete waste of time, space and money. But don't you have an acrylic aquarium? In that case, you already have a "plastic" bottom, so what's the point?

While I'm nitpicking :) , I would never build an aquarium with bulkheads below the water line, especially through the bottom or lower back. That's just tempting fate. As time goes by, valves stop working, pipes get clogged, leaks can develop, and you may want to changing the plumbing. I'm in the process now of re-doing my 7 year old plumbing for a variety of reasons. I would never have been able to do it if my aquarium was plumbed like yours; unless I tore the entire thing apart. I'm a great believer in keeping things simple and building things with the expectation that something bad will happen one day, but that's just me.
 
How else is he supposed to do a closed loop and avoid pipes running anywhere. Yes valves/pipes/etc can go bad or leak, but everything can be replaced, just block the holes with some $.50 plugs and teflon tape while you're doing your work.

I think the starboard is to give the appearance of a sand substrate but keep the bare bottom, is that right?
 
Hey curt I agree with GSchiemer, I think you should rip out all the plumbing and start over your plumbing sux and your starboard sux I think that an acrylic tank bottom with scratches all over it would look way better than starboard on the bottom, then you could use the starboard to rebuild your light hood with so when that aluminum starts rusting the rust flakes wont fall in your tank. I would also send all of those valves back and get some that are uv resistant, I hate it when the handles are warped, but that's just me.

While I'm nitpicking, I (now i am just speaking of me alone) would probably tear out the whole damn thing including the room you had built to put that piece of crap in and reassemble about 50' away from your house and just buy a couple pairs of binoculars so you could still enjoy it from the comfort of your house, or better yet totally get rid of it find another hobby so that way you would never be tempted to kill your daughters horse you know BUT NOW THATS JUST ME! you think about it long enough this hobby is a complete waste of time, space and money but if you think about it arn't all hobbies? FWIW your tank is pretty cool.

Larry
 
You guys are absolutely right.....I'll have pics up tomorrow of me ripping out the tank and my wife's new walk-in closet!

Starboard is not necessary in an acylic tank like it would be in a glass one. However, a scratched up acylic bottom is not the look I wanted. The starboard gives the look of sand and provides great relectivity.
While I'm nitpicking , I would never build an aquarium with bulkheads below the water line, especially through the bottom or lower back
Click to expand...
How do you get flow in the bottom portion of your tank without numerous powerheads everywhere? The point of bb is flow at every level of the tank which keeps your waste suspended in your water column where an efficient skimmer can process it. This theory requires flow at the bottom of your tank, behind your rockwork, etc... I'm not sure how you get the flow you need in a tank this size without returns set low in the tank.....but I haven't been in the hobby 20yrs either. All BH have a dedicated double union valve as well as a double union valve going into and out-of the pump. Why is a tank plumbed with low bulkheads harder to modify than a tank having higher bulkheads? Can't you turn the valves off or plug the bulkhead in order to do any necessary modifications?
 
springerhd said:
How else is he supposed to do a closed loop and avoid pipes running anywhere. Yes valves/pipes/etc can go bad or leak, but everything can be replaced, just block the holes with some $.50 plugs and teflon tape while you're doing your work.

I think the starboard is to give the appearance of a sand substrate but keep the bare bottom, is that right?
Click to expand...

Simple: All plumbing goes over the top, through the top, or through the sides and bottom of an overflow box. With a tank inside a wall there are no pipes visible anyway! This way if there is a leak ANYWHERE in the plumbing, the tank will drain to the level of the overflow box and not completely empty. Unfortunately, leaks are not rare events.

And what happens when a bulkhead leaks?

Oh, and white "Starboard" doesn't look like any sand that I've ever seen. :-)

And you don't need to put pipes behind rocks to get flow behind rocks. I don't know where this came from.

FWIW, I'm in the camp that believes a sand bottom is beneficial. Check out Toonen's articles in the June & July issues of AAO for a scientific discussion on substrates. AAO
 
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You're not looking through the bottom, so who cares if it scratches. You don't see scratches inside the aquarium anyway. And if you wanted a white bottom, which I personally think is hideous, you could have painted the bottom white.

I don't mean to pick on you, it's just that I find this whole "Starboard" thing ridiculous. It's just today's fad.
 
Simple: All plumbing goes over the top, through the top, or through the sides and bottom of an overflow box. With a tank inside a wall there are no pipes visible anyway!
Click to expand...

The pipes would be visible to anyone looking into your tank though!! I can't imagine having a nice tank with 1 1/2" pipes running down the back and sides....one of the reasons people choose external overflow boxed is to keep the inside lines of the tank clean....and your suggesting pipes running down the back and sides.....to each his own I guess! Can you post of pic of your large tank with returns at the bottom so we see what your pipes running up and down the inside of your tank look like? Starboard may not look like sand to you but we can agree that it looks a whole lot more like sand than scratched acrylic.
 
As far as a BH leaking....if the BH couldn't be fixed you would obviously have to drain your water down to the BH into a tub, replace the bulkhead, and pump the water back into the tank. The sps should be fine out of the water for a short peroid of time and you could either leave the fish in the remaining water or remove them as the water drains. I have a friend that does 100% water changes twice a yr by completely draining his tank then re-filling it with fresh saltwater....its really not as big of hassle as your making it if you have a good pump and a couple 150g tubs.
 
Curt, I have to agree with GSchiemer about the plumbing over the top theory, nothing looks more natural than to have pipes running in every direction inside your tank and just think of if there was some way to make them light up that would be too cool! and as far as getting flow behind the rocks you could just put 3 or 4 tunzes on the front of your tank and aim them towards the back? see there are lots of ways to get the flow back there. and I love the way that the back of tunze pumps look. Oh and also about the when bulkheads leak? to answer that for you, water "will" leak in a downward direction. you might want to print this so when your new tank comes in (without any holes) you can get it right. also you might want to post those pics you took of planet Uranus's beaches with the miles and miles of starboard sand so GS can see where you got the idea in the first place.

Larry

P.S. remember that any fish you put in your tank will die!
 
GSchiemer__ I think mothers said it best when... "If you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing at all"

FYI GSchiemer BB tanks have been around longer than you prob. have been in this hobby. Just a thought. Yes starboard is new and it is not a BB but it is darn close.

Curt seems to know what he is doing and if he doesnt then he is really good at making things up as he goes.
 
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