This is a great thread, a very intuitive look at setting up such a large tank and the details involved with squad aquascaping. I am also looking to upgrade to a 300DD. I was not aware that they can customize their glass tank. According to my LFS, they could not get custom glass tank from Marineland. I was going to go acrylic because I was not able to get glass but this changes the plan. BTW, great looking tank and stand combo.
Mike's 300 Double-D
- Thread starter prop-frags
- Start date
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Awesome job Mike. That's my next project as I have my eye set on a Melanurus Wrasse. I keep telling my fish, no surfing allowed!Any specific tips or tricks to get the mesh lined up straight in the frames as you push the spline into position?
Great choice, Brett. The Melanurus are stunningly beautiful. As far as the mesh and getting it lined up, it took two of us to get it done. We went with some packing tape to hold down one (long) side of the mesh, then we started with the other long side and got it stuffed into the frame. Then we pulled the mesh across the width of the frame and stuffed in the other long side. Finish up by stuffing the two short sides.
Thanks Brett - ours isn't nearly as pro as yours, but it's functional. And wouldn't you know it, the day we were working on the nets, one of the linneatus jumped and crashed into a light fixture and busted his lip. :headwallblue: Hopefully he won't get infected.
Since we are on the subject...
I can't see from the pics but how did you go around your overflow with the screen material? I have 2 corner overflows in the back of my tank and I'm wondering the best method to screen in around those...? Any suggestions?
Ah, you're quite observant sir! While many folks who install these craft them in a way to fit within the tank trim sections, that was not a possibility for our setup due to the way the canopy sits on the tank trim:
You'll notice that the canopy base overhangs the tank trim a bit, and the other complication is with the overflow box. So we chose to have the new screens simply sit on the canopy base. It's not the cleanest of installs, since the cables for the tunze stream pumps are lifting up the screens in spots. Still thinking about how best to solve for that.
Thanks JMN - we appreciate the kind words. While it is possible to get custom work done at Marineland - we wouldn't recommend it. As evidenced by our most recent experience, they didn't do a very good job, and are fairly rigid in what they will and will not do. The choices seem to come down to paying the premium for a custom-built tank, purchasing a stock tank and doing the modifications yourself or through a contractor (and voiding the manufacturers warranty), or going the route of having the mass-producer do some custom work.
Thank you BDean! Appreciate you checking out our thread.
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othercents
New member
This has to be the best thread showing what could possibly go wrong with an aquarium along with the patience needed in this hobby to keep going. I have seen one thread where someone quit after getting their aquarium delivery and seeing a bubble in a seam. I have to applaud you all for going on.
I love the DD tanks and your setup is very classy. I think my cats would like the warmth on top of the tank along with the view from the sides.
The aluminum for the screen tops can bend slightly, so I typically just wedge the wires around the center of the screen. You could also cut a small notch into the back of the aluminum without cutting all the way through, but if I did that I would put the notches near the edges, so they don't cause the aluminum to bend. You should be able to use a drill bit to cut a small notch the cable will fit in. I think I'm going to try that when I get home.
I love the DD tanks and your setup is very classy. I think my cats would like the warmth on top of the tank along with the view from the sides.
The aluminum for the screen tops can bend slightly, so I typically just wedge the wires around the center of the screen. You could also cut a small notch into the back of the aluminum without cutting all the way through, but if I did that I would put the notches near the edges, so they don't cause the aluminum to bend. You should be able to use a drill bit to cut a small notch the cable will fit in. I think I'm going to try that when I get home.
yoccm
New member
Hey Mike - Tank is looking great!!
I had a question for you. I am still trying to decide what to do for lights over my 300DD and am thinking about building my own MH/T5 system much like you did. I only have about 20" from the top of my tank to the ceiling in my fish room. I was wondering how high off the tank you have your Lumenmax mounted and how good the light spread is front to back? Also wondering how you are cooling the fixtures?
Thanks, Chris
I had a question for you. I am still trying to decide what to do for lights over my 300DD and am thinking about building my own MH/T5 system much like you did. I only have about 20" from the top of my tank to the ceiling in my fish room. I was wondering how high off the tank you have your Lumenmax mounted and how good the light spread is front to back? Also wondering how you are cooling the fixtures?
Thanks, Chris
launchnukes
New member
the netting looks great. I did the same thing and was stoked when everything fit perfectly....until I mounted the tunzes. lol. I did the same thing! I still havent had the time to fix it yet. I normally wouldnt be concerned with such a small gap but I've lost 3 male flame wrasses to one-in-a-million jumps so i am a bit concerned.
oh, and i wish i put a door on the side of my canopy!!!!
oh, and i wish i put a door on the side of my canopy!!!!
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Thanks Othercents - we truly appreciate the encouraging words. Our cats haven't figured out how to get up there on the canopy - YET. As far as the notching for the new screens - that's a good idea. We only have to have enough of a notch for the tunze stream pump cables (maybe an eighth inch diameter?). Let us know if you try it and we can go to school on your experiment
Appreciate it, Chris! The light rack is about 10.5" above the water level, and that makes the bulb about 12.5" above the water level. The reflectors do a pretty good job of light spread, but we have our rock structures pretty well centered (they are several inches away from the back glass).
Here is how we originally had the reflectors installed:
Then we flipped them like this:
And now we have the center reflector turned where the bulb is facing forward towards the front of the tank. It's working out OK, but I think at the end of all this, to get a really good spread on a tank this deep front-to-back, these reflectors need to be even higher up, or we need bigger ones. As far as cooling, we aren't doing anything yet, but that is on our list of things to tackle. The easy thing is some kind of fan in the canopy. The better approach would be some kind of evacuation of air out of the canopy.
Thanks 'Nukes. The wrasses certainly love to fly. Our goal is to seal it up as best we can.
Speaking of wrasses... we saw a specimen on divers den that was too nice to pass up, so here is our latest addition sitting in the acclimation facilities. Say hello to Mr Rubrisquamis:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5867846672/" title="nt 1181 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6046/5867846672_d089d0bcc9_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1181"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5867292129/" title="nt 1182 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/5867292129_8c04fb711c_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1182"></a>
aquaph8
Love The Fish
launchnukes
New member
What a beauty. I find myself becoming a bit of a wrasse nut.
AJT
Member
Wow, what a thread. Beautiful tank, what a wife! That tank failure would have cost me a dozen new pair of shoes for the wife.
I have a 750 gal AGE tank being delivered in 2 weeks & your tank failure scared the heck out of me.
I am very interested in your light rack. You stated you had EZTube made it?
If you don't mind can you tell me the cost & process for having them design/build for you? you can PM me if that would better.
Amazing tank!
Thanks
Andy
I have a 750 gal AGE tank being delivered in 2 weeks & your tank failure scared the heck out of me.
I am very interested in your light rack. You stated you had EZTube made it?
If you don't mind can you tell me the cost & process for having them design/build for you? you can PM me if that would better.
Amazing tank!
Thanks
Andy
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Thanks Nick! Ours was a Fosters & Smith, IIRC. But the one Brett linked is better!! We will probably try to build one for our next upgrade.
Thanks Brett! He's had a rough acclimation (some conspecfic aggression), but today he was looking like he's finally been accepted into the herd.
Thanks 'Nukes. You've got a nice start on your collection!
Mike, we appreciate your comments - it means a lot. We aim to help others learn some stuff that we've picked up over the years (much of it from the great builds in this forum!)
Terry is blushing, Andy! She really is the best wife a reefer could ever want! She not only puts up with it, she has the bug just as bad as I do, and sometimes even more. That's priceless, given our recent trials because there certainly have been times where one or the other of us has been about ready to throw in the towel. Are you going to start a build thread for your 750? That must be a daunting and exciting feeling to be setting up a system that huge! As far as our light rack - yes, we used EZTube and highly recommend them. You basically provide them with measurements (they are very helpful and flexible to work with and will guide you on some of your design choices), and they will cut the parts to your specifications. If you look back on page 5 of the thread, you'll see a copy of the drawing we provided them and what they shipped back to us along with some descriptions of the assembly. The pricing was very reasonable - IIRC it was around $120.
_________________________________________________________
OK How about an update!
Since it is hurricane and thunderstorm season, we needed to update our power protection and redundancy. Over the years, we've had several incarnations of the Playfair DIY Battery Backup Unit. With the global warming, and all the crazy weather that is increasing we decided to up our game.
I wanted to retire the old system and replace it with something a bit more turnkey and dependable. The first place to start is with your requirements. We took out the trusty Kill-a-Watt meter and measured the current draw for our main return pump and the skimmers...
The PanWorld PS200 draws 261 watts at a 94% power factor.
The Reef Octopus SSS6000 draws 68 watts at a 93% power factor.
The Deltec AP851 draws 43 watts at a 51% power factor (!)
So what we want to do is run the reef octopus and the panworld on the battery backup unit so if power fails, we will at least maintain circulation through the sump to the display and have plenty of oxygenation.
Next a few calculations:
Total Load = 261w + 68w = 329w
AC voltage at our Apex Energy Bar = 117v
AC amps = watts/volts = 329/117 = 2.8 AC amps
DC amps = watts/volts = 329/12 = 27.4 DC amps
OK, so we are going to have ~30 DC amps of load.
Now, how long do we want to be able to run on the batteries?
Well, Terry and I talked it over and came up with 6-8 hours would be about right. If we were out of town, or sound asleep and the power failed, we don't want the tank dying on us before either the utility kicks back in, or we can get the big generator out back fired up.
Alrighty, so we need 30 DC amps for 6-8 hours. This means we are going to need a minimum of 180 amp-hours (AH) worth of battery power.
Deep cycle batteries are what you need for this application. You don't want a car battery or anything like that because they won't appreciate being drained and recharged repeatedly and they also don't like to handle a low, sustained load for long periods. So typically we go looking for something like a marine deep cycle battery like this:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5892546749/" title="nt 1183 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5279/5892546749_4e8f988ced_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1183"></a>
Next, you'll need a nifty DC-to-AC power inverter. Magnetic pumps DO NOT appreciate cheaper inverters that produce choppy electricity (aka modified sine wave), so we shopped around for true sine wave inverters that have an auto transfer switch and built-in charging capability. We came across this one, the AIMS 1500w sine wave inverter:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5893115026/" title="nt 1184 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5160/5893115026_8dbd5df15f_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1184"></a>
The guys are the inverter store were very knowledgeable and helpful...highly recommended!
Here are all the cables and stuff that are going to be needed:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5892547963/" title="nt 1185 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5035/5892547963_c31e099bd8_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1185"></a>
We picked up the batteries at a local Batteries Plus store in town. The biggest battery they had was a 92AH unit, so we picked up two of those:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5892548509/" title="nt 1186 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5034/5892548509_2d17668961_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1186"></a>
and wired them in parallel (positive to positive, negative to negative). This has the effect of keeping the voltage the same (12v DC) and simply doubling up on the AH provided to the inverter...so we should end up with 184 AH:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5892548953/" title="nt 1187 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5191/5892548953_48187076d4_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1187"></a>
Here they are all snuggled in the plastic cases:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5892549365/" title="nt 1188 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5274/5892549365_7727472eda_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1188"></a>
Next up was to stack the battery cases, put the inverter on top and wire it up. This model has a wiring strip for the AC connections (AC in, AC out), and on the other end is where you hook up the cables from the battery bank:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5892550393/" title="nt 1191 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6043/5892550393_0d36d6bfd0_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1191"></a>
Last step was to put everything into place and wire it up. We attach the batteries to the inverter, plug the inverter into the wall, and plug the pump and skimmer into the inverter. Now we have got some great peace of mind for the upcoming summer season!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5893118742/" title="nt 1195 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6046/5893118742_be66572edb_z.jpg" width="425" height="640" alt="nt 1195"></a>
This is not an inexpensive solution by any means! These AGM batteries are pretty pricey, and so are the true sine wave inverters, but considering the cost of replacing everything in the tank, the insurance policy is worth it!!
Thanks for watching and have a safe and happy Fourth of July!
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cougaran
New member
I like your DIY battery backup. I started a power loss thread after the Spfld,ma tornado last month-- http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2027543
I can see one of the price tags on one of the batteries, if thats close to the price then this is a fairly expensive project, as you have two of them......
The best option seems to be and most expensive for a long term power outage was a natural/propane gas powered generator that comes on automatically. I'm really considering this for future not only for tanks but for peace of mind from storm related damage, especially if power was out longterm in the winter.<ouch> A number of years back a friend told me about the icestorm in Maine that knocked out power for weeks....I can only immagine what havoc that would create for them, nevermind the fishtank..
I can see one of the price tags on one of the batteries, if thats close to the price then this is a fairly expensive project, as you have two of them......
The best option seems to be and most expensive for a long term power outage was a natural/propane gas powered generator that comes on automatically. I'm really considering this for future not only for tanks but for peace of mind from storm related damage, especially if power was out longterm in the winter.<ouch> A number of years back a friend told me about the icestorm in Maine that knocked out power for weeks....I can only immagine what havoc that would create for them, nevermind the fishtank..
aquaph8
Love The Fish
That looks great Mike. Way better than a couple of Vortec backups IMO. Some where down the line I may have to copy you on this one. With the contents of our tanks these days an insurance plan incase of emergency cant be a bad idea. Thanks for sharing how you made it work, Im sure Ill have more questions for you in the future.
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Sleep when the work is done...How you guys doing, Rick? Nice to hear from you. You guys gotta come by sometime.
Thank you guys for chiming in on this important topic.
We certainly feel strongly about it to put that kind of investment down. Again, it comes down to how much would it be worth if we were unable to be here when the power failed for a few hours. At our most recent club meeting, John Coppolino Copps spoke about the importance of protecting against oxygen depletion. We saw the consequences back last winter when we had a power strip fail for a few hours and lost our 10 year old flame angelfish
Anyway, our new UPS system got it's first "production workout" this evening - let's just say we had some rather ugly weather in the mid-Atlantic:
The utility was up and down several times. Main pump and skimmer didn't miss a beat.:beer:
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