I got one

[samuraiguytn]

Well the other weekend I drove out to Cookeville, Tn and picked up a 120 gallon with stand and hood. Its a custom built tank with similar demensions as a standard 80 gallon on a few inches taller and deffinitly more depth to it. Plus it has a built in over flow. The glass is super thick and has reinforced bottom and top. Plus I feel I got it for a super great deal.

The First thing I did was paint the hood and stand black. Then the inside of the hood I painted chrome. I figured it woul dreflect light well and so far it does. Its deffinitly gonna take a while to put all together. But I plan on running the sump in the garage along with several smaller sumps that will be used for fresh batches of salt water for replacement.

I plan on using one pump for the tank to minimize cords and electrical use. SO the rest is going to be gravity fed. the returns are gonna split into three just inside the hood with those lock lines coming off and point to different parts of the Tank to maximize flow. I also will set up a lighting system with only two cords one for day and one for night both on timers, unless some rearch dictates that some lighting requirments need to be changed, then I can do that later. I feel all in all the tank system should be close to 250- 300 gallons with most of the elements hidden in the garage. Should make for a nice tank.

So what kinda pump should I run and if I could get some links to where I can see them it would be great. I will try and post up some pictures of the Tank here soon.

Thanks for reading
Nick

 

[ct_vol]

The only problem with "chroming" your hood is that you will more than likely create hot spots... People have tried it before as well as using mirrors for tank walls instead of glass... What happens is that certain spots will fry corals... Thats why most people paint the inside of their hoods white... It reflects light, while not reflecting the intensity of the bulb directly... But again, it all depends on how you set it up... Just something to be cautious of...

How are you coming to the 250g-300g total??? What size sump you running??? Just curious...

 

[samuraiguytn]

Well I dunno about the intensity just yet. It seems that if the light is in a housing of some sort, most of the light just goes into the tank. However some light reflects off the water itself bouncing up and hitting the paint and reflecting back into the tank. I do plan on running some fans to help aid in cooling the lights. I do see what you are talking about with the intensity though. I think I have away around that using the white plates that came with the tank.

As far as a pump goes I dunno, I don't have one. All I have is the Tank, stand and hood. As far as my guestimation on water volume, I plane to use one of those horse watering troughs for the sump. They can be rather large. JUst ideas and I am looking for other's opinions.

 

[samuraiguytn]

Here is the new Tank

This is from the back of the hood. I have a 24" light in there right now just to show the reflectiveness. Now some of the light is from the flash of the camera. But I think you get the picture. No pun intended.

Here is the hood with the front open.

Here is my other tank :rollface:

 

[samuraiguytn]

after doing some thinking the amount of water should be around 200 gallons or so. But the pump is going to be under the tank.