krazysvede
New member
I've been planning a big boy tank since the day after I transferred all my livestock from my old 40 to my current 90. In February we purchased a home and my planning for an upgrade went into full swing. Unfortunately my fish tank money kept turning into things like tile, ceiling fans, paint, blinds, backyard landscape and furniture"¦ I will say that for as much as it sucked to watch my fish tank money turn into a sofa, at least the sofa is comfortable and placed directly opposite where the tank will be, but don't tell my girlfriend I said that. Anyways, now that I have tiled, landscaped, painted, furnished etc"¦ It's upgrade time!
So here's the plan; SketchUps to follow"¦
-Tank, Sump and Stand-
-180 gallon tank from Deep Sea Aquatics (72 x 24 x 24) with external overflow on right side of the tank
3x 1.5" holes for Bean Animal overflow
1x 1.5" return hole
-I will be making the sump myself and am thinking it will hold about 60 gallons, at appropriate water levels. I plan to build a frag area into the sump. Sump dimensions 48"L x 20"W x 16"D.
-Stand will be a steel frame. I built a steel stand for my 40 gallon tank a few years ago and had it powder coated. Unfortunately is rusted like crazy so I'm thinking of coating this one with X-liner or whatever the truck bed liner material is. I think that may hold up a little better. I'll have someone come in and cover the frame with some nice looking cabinetry that matches the rest in the house, as my woodworking skills are non-existent.
-Waterchanges-
I was determined to not have to lug buckets around to do a water change, I thought about running pipes and automating the process and still may in the future depending on how my current set up ends up working, but with the location of several things would be a major project (thank you inconveniently placed fire sprinklers and electrical panel"¦) So several weeks ago I built a water change station in my garage which is about 15' from the tank down the hall. I will pump SW from the garage to the sump for a WC and pump water out of the tank into a drain in the bathroom also about 15' away on the other side of the hallway. If my WC hoes springs a leak during a WC I may rip open my walls and run pipes anyways but at least the hallway has been tiled"¦
-Flow-
In tank flow will be a combo of Tunze 6105s and MP40s. I am undecided on a return pump at the moment. I am thinking of either a Waveline DC pump or an Octopus Water Blaster pump (I'm using a Bubble Blaster pump on my current skimmer and it's awesome!) I am not quite sure what model I will need, but it will need to be slightly over sized as it will feed a manifold which feeds the Zeo and Ca reactors.
-Lighting-
Growth and coloration has been great with my current lighting combo, so I am going to scale up my current set up, which is a combo of AI Sol Blue LEDs and T5s. I'm planning on using 5x AI Sol Blue and 4x 80W T5s. T5s will be a combo of 2x ATI Blue Plus and 2x KZ Fiji Purple bulbs. For the frag area in the sump I'm thinking about an AI Nano or maybe I'll build a small LED fixture for down there. When initially designing the system my thought was to have the light rack fixed at a predetermined height, once I saw it in sketchup I realized that idea was horrible and would have made it very difficult to do anything in the display. I have since decided my canopy will extend all the way to the ceiling and I'll mount a lift or install a pulley system to raise and lower the light rack when needed.
-Filtration-
I am currently running Zeo and have had great results and will continue. I will be reusing my current Vertex Zeo reactor (modified to feed using my return pump)
I picked up an old ATI Bubble Master skimmer for a killer price and will give that a shot and see how it goes. If it doesn't work out I will probably end up using an ATB.
I am currently using an Octopus dual chamber Ca reactor, at some point I would like to upgrade to the aquarium plants regulator.
-Controller-
I currently have a Reefkeeper Elite but have had too many issues with it so I'm looking for something else. I'm looking forward to the release of the Vertex Cerebra as that looks interesting.
-Stocking / Aquascaping-
Tank will be SPS dominant but I love Acans, Zoas and have 2 BTAs that will end up in the tank also. I really like the look of the tanks with minimal rock and bonsai style aquascaping. I'm thinking of doing something along those lines. The plan is to order a bunch of dry rock and see what I can make. The perspective fish list is as follows;
-1x Flame or Potters Angel (or both if they behave)
-3x Disbar Anthias (have)
-3x Purple Queen Anthias
-2x Clownfish Pair (have)
-1x Yellow tang (have)
-1x Hippo Tang (have)
-1x Blue Spotted Jawfish
-1x Helfrichi Firefish pair
-1x Copperband Butterfly
I'd love to hear some thoughts and feedback.
So here's the plan; SketchUps to follow"¦
-Tank, Sump and Stand-
-180 gallon tank from Deep Sea Aquatics (72 x 24 x 24) with external overflow on right side of the tank
3x 1.5" holes for Bean Animal overflow
1x 1.5" return hole
-I will be making the sump myself and am thinking it will hold about 60 gallons, at appropriate water levels. I plan to build a frag area into the sump. Sump dimensions 48"L x 20"W x 16"D.
-Stand will be a steel frame. I built a steel stand for my 40 gallon tank a few years ago and had it powder coated. Unfortunately is rusted like crazy so I'm thinking of coating this one with X-liner or whatever the truck bed liner material is. I think that may hold up a little better. I'll have someone come in and cover the frame with some nice looking cabinetry that matches the rest in the house, as my woodworking skills are non-existent.
-Waterchanges-
I was determined to not have to lug buckets around to do a water change, I thought about running pipes and automating the process and still may in the future depending on how my current set up ends up working, but with the location of several things would be a major project (thank you inconveniently placed fire sprinklers and electrical panel"¦) So several weeks ago I built a water change station in my garage which is about 15' from the tank down the hall. I will pump SW from the garage to the sump for a WC and pump water out of the tank into a drain in the bathroom also about 15' away on the other side of the hallway. If my WC hoes springs a leak during a WC I may rip open my walls and run pipes anyways but at least the hallway has been tiled"¦
-Flow-
In tank flow will be a combo of Tunze 6105s and MP40s. I am undecided on a return pump at the moment. I am thinking of either a Waveline DC pump or an Octopus Water Blaster pump (I'm using a Bubble Blaster pump on my current skimmer and it's awesome!) I am not quite sure what model I will need, but it will need to be slightly over sized as it will feed a manifold which feeds the Zeo and Ca reactors.
-Lighting-
Growth and coloration has been great with my current lighting combo, so I am going to scale up my current set up, which is a combo of AI Sol Blue LEDs and T5s. I'm planning on using 5x AI Sol Blue and 4x 80W T5s. T5s will be a combo of 2x ATI Blue Plus and 2x KZ Fiji Purple bulbs. For the frag area in the sump I'm thinking about an AI Nano or maybe I'll build a small LED fixture for down there. When initially designing the system my thought was to have the light rack fixed at a predetermined height, once I saw it in sketchup I realized that idea was horrible and would have made it very difficult to do anything in the display. I have since decided my canopy will extend all the way to the ceiling and I'll mount a lift or install a pulley system to raise and lower the light rack when needed.
-Filtration-
I am currently running Zeo and have had great results and will continue. I will be reusing my current Vertex Zeo reactor (modified to feed using my return pump)
I picked up an old ATI Bubble Master skimmer for a killer price and will give that a shot and see how it goes. If it doesn't work out I will probably end up using an ATB.
I am currently using an Octopus dual chamber Ca reactor, at some point I would like to upgrade to the aquarium plants regulator.
-Controller-
I currently have a Reefkeeper Elite but have had too many issues with it so I'm looking for something else. I'm looking forward to the release of the Vertex Cerebra as that looks interesting.
-Stocking / Aquascaping-
Tank will be SPS dominant but I love Acans, Zoas and have 2 BTAs that will end up in the tank also. I really like the look of the tanks with minimal rock and bonsai style aquascaping. I'm thinking of doing something along those lines. The plan is to order a bunch of dry rock and see what I can make. The perspective fish list is as follows;
-1x Flame or Potters Angel (or both if they behave)
-3x Disbar Anthias (have)
-3x Purple Queen Anthias
-2x Clownfish Pair (have)
-1x Yellow tang (have)
-1x Hippo Tang (have)
-1x Blue Spotted Jawfish
-1x Helfrichi Firefish pair
-1x Copperband Butterfly
I'd love to hear some thoughts and feedback.
