It's now or never, the 230 phoenix project.

[Im14abeer]

Ok Reefcentral, I need your experience, enthusiasm, criticism, and realism.

In my basement resides a 230 gal. trapezoid tank. It has two 400w MH and 48" vho in the canopy + moonlights.
It's acrylic and scratched to, well, that's the first project and it begins this week.

What I have in my possession that belongs to this tank:
A small sump
A CSL titanium 3 pump
A Sequence hammerhead pump
One half a working dual tar ballast 400w MH
A working electronic 400w MH ballast
Two newer 400w generic 10,000k bulbs
A 220w electronic vho ballast
2 newer 110w actinic vho bulbs
300 lbs (wet) formerly live rock. consider this reef bones.
200 lbs easy southdown
All kinds of odds and ends.

There are some pretty tall odds to overcome, foremost money, but also space/location, electrical capacity, money, time, money, time...

What I really want to do is have a seagrass/coral atoll "theme." I want to work with what I have, and I want to keep the budget restrained. Let's start with $700, I believe most of this will be spent on plumbing and electrical; but i think it will be enough to get saltwater into the tank.

My first thoughts as to what needs to come out of that $700 are:
2 buckets of reef crystals salt, an OM 4 way, a 30 amp gfci circuit breaker, 40 ft of 10/3 with ground, a grounding probe, a few elect. boxes, some plumbing fittings, and a bunch more I'm sure.

If you've read this far, you're the reefer I'm looking for. I need people to bounce ideas off of that will take interest in an ongoing project. I know there are plenty of you out there, because I've lurked and been an occasional contributor here for a long time.

I have modest expectations, but I want this to be the best that circumstances and money allow. All comments are welcome, criticism is anticipated.

I'll put up pics soon, but expect it to be a slow go.

Thanks in advance for your input,

14abeer

 

[Im14abeer]

So the UPS man didn't show up today with my sandpaper. I decided to take a few "before" pictures to get things started. Tonight or tomorrow I'll be wiping the tank out to prepare for sanding.

These pics should give you some idea of the trapezoidal shape I'm working with.

This is the long side, 88 inches the depth is 30 inches

This is the short side, 60 inches

This is an end view, about 9 inches

The opposite side of the end view is also black acrylic and is about 65 inches. That is where the overflow is. All the equipment will have to go under the tank. The floor to top of the stand is 29 inches. Obviously space is at a premium.

 

[acpoweradapter]

Looks like this is gonna be a cool tank. Very different.

 

[jmarko]

have you seen the tank with water in it? my understanding is alot of the small issues in acrylic tanks are not nearly as big of problem when there is water in it. I'm just wondering if you got to see it before it was empty and if you did how bad were the marks then?

 

[Im14abeer]

Yes, jmarko i filled the tank in my garage before bringing it in the house. Better safe than sorry. Most of the scratches do disappear, but there are a few pretty good ones. My thinking for polishing the whole tank is 1: it's empty 2: I don't want the polished spots looking "different" than the rest of the tank, and 3: I'm a glutton for punishment.

 

[jmarko]

I wish you the best and Ill be watching please keep us up to date.

 

[Jflip2002]

Polish the whole thing. I didnt polish mine, like others said I should. There are a couple small scratches onthe side that are a real PITA to clean, because they turn dark green.

There was a tank like that at a local restaurant. They turned it into what looked the a ship. It was pretty cool looking. Definitely smaller than yours, though.

 

[couchpotato300]

good luck

 

[Toddrtrex]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13136914#post13136914 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by couchpotato300
good luck

I strongly suggest that you stop padding your post count so that you can sell.

 

[Im14abeer]

Ok, I think I'll open the protein skimmer can of worms so I can start watching for one on ebay and the seller's forum. One major consideration is it has to be serviceable in an overhead space of 29 inches. That is external to the sump, I can probably modify the sump to accept a skimmer, but it would have to be a fairly small footprint. I'd like to keep it under $450. Good customer service from the manufacturer is a must, as I'll probably buy used, and if it's not working when I get it, I need to be able to fix it. I'm willing to spend more if there is a really good deal out there or nothing adequate can be found in budget, but there's no $2000 BubbleKing or Deltec in this tank's future.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Very intresting shape.. I just bought a used 180 with a couple scratches, ordered four different grades of sandpaper. I've never buffed a scratch out, we'll see how it goes.. I'll be checking your thread to see how it worked out for you.