Fishfreak's Upgrade: 340 gallon shallow

fishfreak2009

Swimming in the School
So I made the plunge and brought home a 340 gallon aquarium last night. 96"x48"x18". All my fish are currently waiting to go into the tank in a 150 gallon water trough from tractor supply, which I plan on using as the sump. I'm upgrading from a 180.

I am completely lost as to what I should be using as far as a return pump (would like to use a submersible pump) goes, and also as far as plumbing goes. Every tank I've had previously has either been installed by a company, or hasn't come predrilled, so I used a hang on the back overflow system. I plan on using a 150 gallon stock tank as my sump, with an area for live macroalgae separated off. The return from the pump has to make a T before going into the overflow box, and then make another T in order to use all 4 returns going into the tank. The tank has a center overflow and is designed so you can walk around it 360 degrees. All electrical for the lighting has to go through a small pipe that goes out through the overflow, so that there are no wires going out over the back of the tank. Anyone have any suggestions as far as a submersible return pump for a tank this size?
 
What pump you get kind of depends on budget. Maybe look into a 12000 on a tight budget, or vectra if you got plenty of money.
How far are you on the stand, fish room, light rack, etc?
 
What pump you get kind of depends on budget. Maybe look into a 12000 on a tight budget, or vectra if you got plenty of money.
How far are you on the stand, fish room, light rack, etc?

Light rack will be built into the canopy. I don't need a ton of light as this will be a fowlr since my fish love to eat coral, but the system will not have a fishroom. I have a 40 gallon quarantine setup in another room with a mandarinfish and maroon clown currently living in it. The tank is in a finished walkout basement, and is the focal point of the living area down there. Can't build a fishroom in the room behind the tank as that is the kitchen.
 
Are you planning on covering the tank to cut down on evaporation? I've got a tank with a 10' x 4' footprint, so pretty close to the same as yours, and am trying to figure out a way to cover it. Glass is too heavy and worried about it breaking it and acrylic will bow like crazy over a 4' span like that.
You put any thought to that?
 
Covering the tank will reduce gas exchange. This can cause an increase in CO2 in the water which will affect your corals, reduce your pH levels, as well as cut down on skimmer efficiency.

Better to include an exhaust system run off a humidistat directly to the outdoors to deal with humidity.

Dave.M
 
I'm using eggcrate as a cover. It's cheap and prevents the majority of my fish from jumping. I'm not worried about evaporation really, I had 28 decent sized tanks running until about 2 months ago plus a bunch of tropical terrariums.

On a separate note, I moved all the fish into the tank last night along with all the rock, so they had more room then in the tub on the floor.
 
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