600gal (96x48x30)

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Travis

That is a good choice on the lighting. I would have done the same, with maybe only 3 MH's.

I ordered 4, but I will try it with 3 and see how that does... If I don't need the 4th, I can place it over the frag tank, or ref...

Now that this thing is really starting to move along we expect pictures SOON.

I will be signed up very soon and will have many pics

What materials did you use for the stand?

I used wood... Two 2x6's and the rest 2x4's with some particle board...

What are your plans for the light rack? Will it be movable with a rail or pulley system?

Where I am placing the tank, I don't have alot of room, but I will be trying a pulley system, it maybe just hanging the rack with some chain... Still debating...

What do you plan on using for a skimmer? I don't think that has been brought up yet.

I am working with GEO on this, I still have not decided... It will prob be a needlewheel skimmer of some kind... Last thing I was asking him about was about a 16" wide body...

Is this tank going to have a sandbed?

I am going to go with a faux sandbed... I will have 1 or 2 "sandboxes" made from acrylic in the main tank as I would like to keep a few gobies... I will have a DSB in the ref, so I am hoping to keep a good supply of PODs... I will also be raising PODs in a 10gal tank and adding some ever few wks...

Not sure what your plans for rock are but I found a great way to save by making PVC rock racks that look so much like live rock that you literally can't tell the difference. I went and saw a home 1700 gallon reef a couple weeks ago and the guy was using these. Do a search through the 1700 gallon tank thread in this forum for the pics I took and a description by the owner if you are interested. With these, you could easily cut your total weight of Live rock in half, and double the amount of swimming room your fish have within the rocks. Another cool idea is the new reef ceramics. Not sure if you've heard about them yet. I've seen pics of them in a few people's tanks and they look amazing. Just figured I would throw a couple ideas out there for ya.

I have been on that thread and still drooling from it I have been watching every update... I love how he did his rock work and the racks... I have already ordered a little over 500lbs of base rock from reeferrocks.com and I have like 600lbs of other LR cooking right now... I will be using around 400lbs of the base rock and some of the LR... I am not using all 1000 lbs of rock I have in the 600gal as I am also setting up a 220gal tank for FOWLR... My plans for the 600gal (for now) is it's going to have like 7 or so diff rock structures so that when you look in from each of the 3 viewable sides you will get a different "picture"... Once I get playing around with the base rock, I will keep in mind the PVC racks and use them if I am able to...

Shawn

 

[asnatlas]

My set up is nothing special compared to yours, but while researching what lighting I was going to go with, T-5 or MH. i decided on going with T-5 for there heat and the power issue. I really didn't want to put in a chiler and this summer as long as i had a fan pointing over the tank the heat was never an issue. And from all that i have read and seen you can keep anything under T-5's
As for my set up it is a 4 54 watter. blue+, 65k, 65k, blue+. im poor so i haven't put in a 10k bulb in to whiten it up. Tthat will happen in the next few weeks and i'm hoping to get additional growth from my corals.
I currently have about 10 SPS frags, some for 8-9 months and have seen amazing growth on them. I recently got a staghorn frag that was placed on the bottom of a 180 that was under 400w MH that was mostly brown with a little purple, and since putting it in my tank fairly high up it has really gotten some color to it. One thing i have notice is that certain corals such as mushrooms really dont like T-5's. They shrivled up quite nicly until i put them in the shade. after that they were just fine.
If you have any detailed questions the grimm Reefer seems to know alot about t-5's and i'm sure he would be more then happy to help you out.
BTW love the size to your tank. that is the perfect size tank IMO.


Chris.

I have already talked with Grimm and he stated that I would need like 24x T5's or so... I would really like to have gone all T5's but I keep getting mixed reviews... Once I get my 4x T5 actinic's and see how they do, I may add some more T5's to the system down the road... The main focus of this tank will be LPS and will be adding a small mix of other corals as I do research because I don't want to keep placing corals into the system and having them only last a few wks / months...

As for temps, with the tank being in the basement and only running 250w MH's I am hoping not to have any issue with heat... I will have a few fans running over the main tank along with the sump, ref, and frag tank in the fish room...

I hope this size will do me for a while as about 2 wks before I placed the order for the 600gal, I went and got a used 220 tank that I was hoping to hold me over for awhile... Well it's still in the garage empty, but I will be using it as a FOWLR setup plumbed into the 600gal system, I am totaling the water volume close to 1k...

Shawn

 

[Travis]

With the size of that tank and only running 3-4 250 watters, I can almost guarantee you will be fine without a chiller. Especially, considering your flow will all be provided by streams. As long as you run your AC in the summer and the basement doesn't get too hot, I think you will be more than fine. Heck, you could probably easily run the tank at 75 and not have a problem. Just make sure you've got some big heaters because they are going to be working hard on that tank.

 

[starpolyp]

hmm. 4X250W MH plus 4x54W t5s for a 30" 600 gallon just doesnt seem like enough light for LPS and clams. I also suspect you will need a chiller most of the year regardless of the lighting, your system pumps will likely add a lot of heat to your tank.

 

[Mantis]

Really not sure that's enough light for that large of a tank.
I think your going to have a lot of dim areas.

...but if it is enough light, you will not need a chiller if you have a fan or two blowing on your sump/refugium

 

[Mantis]

When is Will going to have your tank done?

 

[starpolyp]

I don't understand why you would spend all this money on a beautiful aquarium, and not get a chiller. even if it is just for emergency situations, or an occasional degree drop in the middle of summer. what if your home air conditioning bites the dust in the summertime, is it worth risking the life of the reef?

regarding the lighting, I have half of your proposed lighting scheme over a 75 gallon. 2x250 watt MH and a 96 watt PC.

 

[sixxer]

I think the lighting will be sufficient if it's not a 100% SPS Reef.

See the details on TLP's tank as an example

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/totm/index.php

I was planning on going with lighting similar to TLP's set-up for my 96x48x30

 

[pwhitby]

Asnatlas,

AS you know i am also doing a 600g, same dimensions as yours. I am going with 4 400W 20K XMs. I have run the hamiltons and wasnt impressed with the brightness from them. The 10K hamiltons were incredibly bright, but a little too yellow for my tastes.

I may supplement the 20Ks with a set of 250W MH with hamilton 10ks, but these will only be on for a few hours......during the time when im home and have time to tank gaze.

Paul.

 

[Mantis]

I don't understand why you would spend all this money on a beautiful aquarium, and not get a chiller. even if it is just for emergency situations, or an occasional degree drop in the middle of summer. what if your home air conditioning bites the dust in the summertime, is it worth risking the life of the reef?

Because they are noisey, put off way too much heat, and are generally a pain in the you know where.

I had a chiller on my tank for ten years before I finally figured out I could control my temp better with a computer aquarium controller and some fans.

I have a 400 gallon tank with 1850 watts of halides and my temp never goes above 79.

If the temp would ever reach 81 my lights would automaticly start to shut down, 2 at time.

 

[pwhitby]

I have a big chiller, its noisey, but does its job. For me its not a major concern since it will be in another room, but I am also going with the controller turning lights off as a backup. I will also have it controlling fans and stuff. The tank room itself will have a humidity/temp controlled fan exhausting moist air outside.

P.

 

[asnatlas]

With the size of that tank and only running 3-4 250 watters, I can almost guarantee you will be fine without a chiller. Especially, considering your flow will all be provided by streams. As long as you run your AC in the summer and the basement doesn't get too hot, I think you will be more than fine. Heck, you could probably easily run the tank at 75 and not have a problem. Just make sure you've got some big heaters because they are going to be working hard on that tank.

I am only running 6 Tunze's and a Dart on the system, other then a few smaller pumps for the reactors and what not... Now I have not worked out the details with GEO yet, so I am not sure about the skimmer...

I was going to try to keep the tank at 79 deg ?? I know some like higher and some like lower... 75 deg seems a little too low... I know a few people who keep it around 77'ish...

I will be running 3x 500w tubes on a Medusa Dual Stage Temp Controller... I have this controller on my 92gal for now and its awesome, I have a small heater connected to it and a fan and the temp has not gone any higher then .6 deg and no lower then like .2 that I have seen...

Shawn

 

[asnatlas]

Really not sure that's enough light for that large of a tank.
I think your going to have a lot of dim areas.

...but if it is enough light, you will not need a chiller if you have a fan or two blowing on your sump/refugium

Well I am hoping that 4x 250w will give me good light, I have a dual 250w HQI setup over my 92gal and I really like it... So I am hoping I get the same effect over the 600gal.. I don't mind some dim areas... I will prob have at least 4 fans setup over the system...

Shawn

 

[asnatlas]

When is Will going to have your tank done?

The last time I spoke with him he stated that it would be finished in in less then 2wks... I need to get back with him on a status... I am hoping to have it delieved before Dec...

Shawn

 

[asnatlas]

I don't understand why you would spend all this money on a beautiful aquarium, and not get a chiller. even if it is just for emergency situations, or an occasional degree drop in the middle of summer. what if your home air conditioning bites the dust in the summertime, is it worth risking the life of the reef?

regarding the lighting, I have half of your proposed lighting scheme over a 75 gallon. 2x250 watt MH and a 96 watt PC.

I will not have a chiller at first as when / if I do get one I want a good one, not a POS... I will prob only be getting one for emergencies... So far with my 92gal that is upstairs I have not had a problem with it as long as I run the AC in the summer, I would rather pay for the house AC to run then a chiller for a tank as it would prob cost the same monthly but the whole house gets cool, not just a tank... If I need a chiller I will get one, but I am going to be running the system for a few months before anything lives go in (other then rock) as I want to dial everything in and make sure everything is working, during that time I will see if a chiller is needed and when summer comes if I don't already have one I will make haste to get one... I really don't see it being an issue...

Shawn

 

[asnatlas]

hmm. 4X250W MH plus 4x54W t5s for a 30" 600 gallon just doesnt seem like enough light for LPS and clams. I also suspect you will need a chiller most of the year regardless of the lighting, your system pumps will likely add a lot of heat to your tank.

The T5's since on IceCap ballasts will be running around 80w (80wx4 = 320w)... And as stated before I will be starting with 4 and adding 4 more if needed...

Shawn

 

[pwhitby]

i really like the Arctica 1/2hp chiller

 

[asnatlas]

I think the lighting will be sufficient if it's not a 100% SPS Reef.

See the details on TLP's tank as an example

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/totm/index.php

I was planning on going with lighting similar to TLP's set-up for my 96x48x30

sixxer, thanks for your input... I will only have a SPS colonies in the tank and at that time if I need more light I can upgrade that part of the lighting that are over the SPS colonies to 400w or add more T5's in that area... If and when that time comes I will look into those options...

Thanks for the link as well, I have looked over his setup a few times before... With the way I am planning on doing my rock work, I don't think that "spot" lighting like that would have worked too good...

Shawn

 

[asnatlas]

Asnatlas,

AS you know i am also doing a 600g, same dimensions as yours. I am going with 4 400W 20K XMs. I have run the hamiltons and wasnt impressed with the brightness from them. The 10K hamiltons were incredibly bright, but a little too yellow for my tastes.

I may supplement the 20Ks with a set of 250W MH with hamilton 10ks, but these will only be on for a few hours......during the time when im home and have time to tank gaze.

Paul.

Yes I know, I been following your threads I was going to do 3x 400w, but that seemed like too much for what I am looking to do and heat may have been an issue... I run dual 250w HQI Ham over my 92gal and like them, I am hoping that the SE 14k looks near the same... I am starting with 14k and may end up switching to XM 10k down the road...

Shawn

Shawn

 

[sixxer]

As far as rock work goes. I thought I saw you mentions 5 or 6 rock formations.

Are you planning on doing pillars, islands, walls, etc.?