500 Gallon Adventure~

[wings516]

Hello everyone! I grew up and lived in Key West, FL for the majority of my life, and now I am stuck in Ohio! I have been in the FW hobby for about 10 years now, and looking at bringing a slice of home to my house (aquacultured style). I grew up free diving after school just about every day in 10-40 foot reefs until I was old enough to strap on the ol' air tube. I've finally saved up enough pennies to afford the custom scene.

Enough of the sentiment, looking to dip into the saltwater scene obviously... Doing 50% water changes (250+ gallons a week) sounded a bit crazy to me :hammer:

Can I get some thoughts/Opinions on tank size and accompanying ideas?

I think we all want to do the biggest most bad$*@ aquarium, and I originally started at 1300 gallons, but I had this design in mind with 3 things to ponder.
1. Does it function as good as it looks (with respect to the location)?
2. If I move, can I make it work in another house?
3. How much time am I willing to dedicate to this being new to the SW hobby?

Tank specs
-84 x 50 x 30 (Approx 545 gallons)
-ALL Acrylic (Reynolds)
-Steel frame with wood canopy and cabinets (unspecified currently) for aesthetics.
-1x Hammerhead pump
-4x Tunze controllable
-1x Emperor 80W UV
-~6x Radion Pro (or TMC Aquaray, haven't decided!)
-1x Tunze ATO

I haven't decided on skimmers (I saw a cool one on a thread a bit below), reactors (looking at kalk?), fans, etc all to be decided later.


Location - Between these here poles. My main entertainment area is to the right and I will have a bar positioned on the other side of the tank. The ceiling and poles are for the most part, empty. I planned on cutting out a lot of the ceiling to make a retractable canopy for maintenance, running the electrical and plumbing up there for a salt mixing station, etc.


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Looking to do a shallow reef setup, like so (400 gallon setup pictured). I thought about doing a deep reef so I could get some coral caves going, but I just can't keep my attention away from the shallow reef look.

If anyone has comments, suggestions on equipment, all of them are welcome!

 

[Drae]

No need for 250 gallon a week water changes... I would probably do 50 to 75 gallon changes every 15 days. Jmo

 

[SPotter]

Awesome plans. you might consider going with the 120w UV since the 80w is rated for up to 600g. by the time you add in the sump you will be pushing the max capacity of the unit. Definitely no need to do 50% water changes weekly. 10-15% every two weeks will suffice.

 

[has no life]

this should be a good one cant wait too see some updates

 

[dave.m]

You should know that not everyone is so keen on the huge water changes. Some do no changes at all. Personally I have found 10% once per month to usually be sufficient.

But it really depends on the needs of the individual reef tank. No two are exactly the same. They each have different quantities of life, some are over filtered and some are under filtered, they each are in different physical locations with different challenges, etc. And some people like to have expensive automated features to run their tanks while others insist on a much more hands-on approach every day.

You will come to learn of your own tank's needs as it grows and changes over time. With vigilant testing you should be able to monitor and observe what your tank needs on an ongoing basis and adjust as required.

Here's a good article on water changes in a reef and some thoughts on frequency. (link)

Dave.M

 

[muttley000]

Looking forward to watching your build come along! Where are you in Ohio?? I would recommend reading several of the large tank build threads and seeing what others do before making expensive decisions. In particular I would read the treads by Chingchai and Peter on their epic large builds. There are a ton of great ones but these two in particular are packed with info.

 

[wings516]

Whoa! Glad I got responses on this! I almost gave up on it because it was dead for so long.

Haha, I mean going freshwater, I would be doing 30-50% WC's weekly because I would be dosing high ferts as I do with all my other FW projects (throwing about 150 gallons down the week as it is). Doing 10% bi-weekly for SW was a huge selling point

wesome plans. you might consider going with the 120w UV since the 80w is rated for up to 600g.

Will do! Nothing wrong with a little more UV juice

Looking forward to watching your build come along! Where are you in Ohio?? I would recommend reading several of the large tank build threads and seeing what others do before making expensive decisions. In particular I would read the treads by Chingchai and Peter on their epic large builds. There are a ton of great ones but these two in particular are packed with info.

Just South of Columbus. Already read Chingchai up and down as well as nineball's build. Nothing better than awe inspiring builds with all around what seems to be great people behind them. The SW community seems to be a lot different than the FW.

I have recruited a local guy that has a lot of good rep and extensive experience with custom builds, and he has been a lot of help so far, and I plan on using him for a long while to keep things going smoothly.

I appreciate the interest. I am going to spend the following couple months researching researching consulting and then researching. I'm a firm believer in giving projects like these time to mature instead of rushing in, especially in the beginning of winter. I already have my soft costs in place and the tank designed ready to order.

I'll see about getting helpful updates and photos when they roll around.