Bart's 327 Gallon Reef...

[Adrian]

Hey all, im posting this for a friend who has hired me to help him revamp his 327 gallon tank. Basically the tank was set up and running with corals and fish and he wanted to tear it down and start from scratch, so thats basically what we did. Its not quite finished yet, and there will be more pics to come, but for now heres what weve been up to:

Lighting: The lighting consists of 4 400 watt MH driven by Ice Cap electronic ballasts with Luminarc III reflectors, and 6 72" VHOs also driven by Ice Cap ballasts.

Plumbing: So far the tank consists of two closed loops running 2 Dolphin pumps and two Oceans Motions. The return is also a dolphin pump which feeds two sea swirls. There are also two Tunze 6100s, and a wave box is to be added to the mix soon.

180 gallon sump just after installing new baffles:

And finally the tank :

More to come...

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

wow nice!

 

[FishyBiz]

Shweet.

 

[hawaiianwargod]

Wow! very nice setup.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

very nice...

 

[scaryperson27]

What are the dementions of the display?

 

[huge1day]

The tank is 7'x30"x31". Glass cages made it for me. I know some of the seams are not perfect but in the wall you can't see them.

Bart

 

[jnarowe]

Nice re-start Bart! I am interested to know how the MH lamp light gets past the VHOs. It seems the VHOs are blocking the MH, or am I looking at that wrong? I like the idea of the return water going to sea swirls. I wonder if I couldn't do something similar.

 

[melev]

I'm subscribed.

 

[Cuby2k]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8482715#post8482715 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe
Nice re-start Bart! I am interested to know how the MH lamp light gets past the VHOs. It seems the VHOs are blocking the MH, or am I looking at that wrong?

I have a similar setup although not as large, but the VHO's do sit in the path of the light from the MH's. I just look at it as a necessary evil, something that can't be avoided given the limited space. Besides, I think much of the reflected light still makes its way to the water.

Nice looking setup, can't wait to see more.

 

[Lunchbucket]

looks very nice!!

what equipment you running? skimmer, po4 reactor, ca rx, kalk, etc? pics of equipment?

how many times turn over you have through that baby?

Lunchbucket

 

[huge1day]

WOW!! On my very first thread (that I did not even start) I have both Lunchbucket and Melev as posters.

jnarowe: All of the pictures are about 2 weeks old and I had just hung the reflectors so the vho lights were the only light on the tank. I only have 4 running now and they are spread out -2 on the front and 2 on the back. Still plan on getting some type of acrylic holder and move them even farther out toward the edges...

Cuby2k: I read someone's thread (maybe Energy) that they were running lights perpendicular to the front of the tank. I could run a couple on each "joint" where the reflectors meet. I might try that later??? I only have the vho lights for the "blue look". I have 3 icecap 660's so I could run up to 12 -30" bulbs??? Not sure what the light would look like? Any ideas? Would it light the front of the tank?

Lunchbucket: I am running 2 ASM 4x skimmers, just bought 3 phosban reactors -2 for phosphate removal and 1 for carbon. Never used them before. A little trial and error coming... my ca reactor is one I got from Mr 4000 when I bought his 750 gallon tank and contents over 5 years ago. Not sure of the brand. Doesn't have any names on the reactor. The co2 tank has been offline for about 6 months and the valve must have been slightly on because it is almost out of co2. But it will last forever as big as it is. (You can see the tank in one of the pics)

Now I guess I am like everyone else. Need to get more pictures online. The livestock minus corals have been in the tank now for 2 weeks. The corals are in a holding tank. I not sure if I should have done it or not, but I bought a guys tank contents here on RC. He is moving and tearing his tank down. I did (do) not want a tank full of 1" frags...So I have about 40 sps colonies coming in a couple more weeks. Just trying to let the tank mature as much as possible before then.

 

[huge1day]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions -keep them coming

 

[huge1day]

Just reread the thread and saw I did not answer a couple more things...

I am running 3 ampmaster 3000/4000. I am running 2" pvc so it equals the 4000. One pump is on the return from the sump that run to two sea swirls. The other 2 pumps are on 2 closed loop with ocean motions. I do have 2 tunze 6100's. One is quiet, the other on I can hear it pulsing on and off. Not sure what is wrong with it? Anyone else had this problem.

Not going to use the wavebox, after seeing it running on melev's friend's tank I don't have enough room at the top of the tank plus did not like the gurgling sound of the water going into the overfow. Might add one more stream or maybe a vortec...

Bart

 

[melev]

I don't believe you'll find 30" VHO bulbs, nor T5s. 24" you should be able to get to put of your tank, if you want to run them perpendicular. Spacing them out might be your best bet.

Or if possible, put the majority in the front and one in the back. You want to look through the swatch of blue, and let your MH light behind that. imho.

Regarding all your new corals - stability is key at this point. If you can keep the parameters rock solid, not tweaking stuff daily, they'll have a better chance at survival.

 

[NuclearReefs]

Nice setup,, any reason why you used 90 degree elbows over 45's? seems that would throttle yoru flow back alot with all that extra resistance.... Love the flush wall look... .

 

[huge1day]

NuclearReefs: Maybe I wrong and don't know but I was taught that a 45 adds 1/2 foot of head on a pump and a 90 adds 1 foot of head on a pump. So I would agree that on those statements that 45s would be better except everywhere I have 90s I would have had to use 2 45s instead of the 90. So it would have added the same amount of head.

??Am I wrong?

Bart

 

[motoxracing782]

good luck on you rebuild

 

[roushboy2857]

Nice lightning!

 

[dgasmd]

I never understood the multiple snake like loclines all over the tank. Very distracting visually. Why not just cut them shorter or hide them altogether? The tank's frame looks very clean and nice.