moving up to a 450...

[juststartingout]

Last year about this time we decided to build a larger system downstairs. I am very busy going to school and working but will try and get this going between semesters. We currently have a 160 upstairs with the sump and equipment in the basement. The 160 will be torn down in a matter of a couple of months, and everything will be transferred to the new tank.

The new tanks dimensions are 96x36x30 built by the Aquarium Company in Minnesota using ¾ Acrylite GP throughout. As for equipment we will be using 4 Luminarc III© lamp fixtures with IC e-ballasts driving 250 watt MH (thinking xm’s) supplemented by an IC 660 driving actinic VHO’s. For in tank circulation we have 2 Tunze 6200’s ran by a 7095 multi-controller. In time I will likely add 2 more 6200’s, or a wave box. The sump will have a drip tray that I can run filter media from time to time to clear the water of debris. For filtration we are going to run an MRC 7-R recirculating skimmer driven by a Sequence 4300. I will likely try to feed this skimmer by gravity but may have to resort to running a mag 12 we have laying around. There will be an Aqua UV 114wt sterilizer that the return pump (yet to be decided) will pass the water through back to the tank. As far as the chiller goes, it is winter and I should be able to keep the tank/room cool enough by opening a window. Eventually I will either purchase a ¾ or 1hp chiller or make my own by using a mini-split system like sidewinder 770 did. I really like the mini-split idea as it pumps the heat outside, and some of them can be ran @ 0 deg F without modifications.

As for controllers we currently have an AC2 that will run 2 DC-8’s and some x-10 outlets to control the 2 1000wt heaters and future chiller.
All right enough typing, here the pics….

The tank & stand in the garage, waiting...

DIY sump 72x36x20...

Tank room under construction, view from the doorway entering...

Several weeks later, working aroud my classload, the finished room. It is L shaped, with both "legs" being about 10'x15'...

Thats about it for now

 

[juststartingout]

mmm? some of the pics did not show up, I'll try and fix it later.

 

[juststartingout]

 

[invincible569]

Wow, that is a big sump? Why did you make it so big?

 

[juststartingout]

The actual return area is in the center of the sump and measures approx 24x36. I can keep some of the bulkier equipment like say the calcium or kalk reactor in the sump if I want.

For some reason the pics that started with images1 in the url were able to post, but the ones with rendering2 were not ???

 

[juststartingout]

The wall partially completed so I can get the tank into the room..

One perspective...

another ...

and one more..

For some reason I can only post the smaller pictures, even though their hosted elseware

 

[asnatlas]

Those last pics you posted are a little small...

 

[jmccown]

Why such big heaters? I think that is too much, my personal opinion. I run 2 400 watters on my 380 and they don't come on that often. Maintain about 78* with ease.

 

[Craig Lambert]

Can you post a couple of additional pics of the sump? Looks interesting.

 

[juststartingout]

Craig, here is the only other shot I have of the sump, I'll try and take some more if you would like. For some reason I have only been able to post the thumbnails of most of my photo's.

jmccown; I looked at a site from one of the sponsors here @ RC that also has a 450 and thats what they were running, seemed reasonable at the time so whithout much consideration, thats what I bought. I will look into this a little further, I'm all for keeping my energy costs as low as possible, all things considered. This setup is in the basement where it tends to be cooler most of the time, so I thought the larger wattage would be better.

asnatlas: for some reason I have been having trouble with the pictures that are stored on my comcast hosting site. I can post the thumbnail but when I click to enlarge and then copy the url it does not work. One thing I have noticed is the pics with "images1" in the beginning of the url will post, but the ones with "render1" will not.
heres an example of the same picture...

This one I enlarged before I posted it from the host site...

 

[juststartingout]

Update coming soon for this stale thread, gonna post pics with webshots or photobucket

 

[juststartingout]

this is a test...


This is the partially finished wall in the tank room.

mmm? I can get a link up, but not the picture in the thread?

 

[20 20]

heh, I tried to post the image for you, but it's huge. Try and resize it, and then use the 'img' button above to insert the resized image.

 

[juststartingout]

Alright, I think I've master posting pictures.

Here is the stand. It's fabricated from 1 1/2" square steel, powder coated battleship gray. It's 96"lx36"wx30"h

Here is the wall that the tank is going up against, from the tank room side. I could not finish out the room until the tank and stand were set. We have an english basement, so I pulled out a window and had a few friends move the stand and tank through it.

 

[juststartingout]

Fast forward a few months... ok almost a year :dance:
Here is the tank in it's final resting place.

The only major task that I have to do is the lighting. I currently have 400 wt 10k MH on my old tank, I am going to run 250 wt xm's on IC ballasts, but still on the fence... I am thinking about all T5's.

 

[juststartingout]

Here is some of the plumbing.
The tank has 4- 1 1/2" drains, 2 in each overflow box. Those drains are tied into a 3" main drain (thanks stlouisguy!). The drains are split off and mounted at the rear of above the sump, 1 drains into the fuge area, where the other 3 drain into another area of the sump.

This is a shot of the 114 watt UV sterilizer. It will be controlled by the aquacontroller by a DC-8

 

[juststartingout]

Here is the drain area of the sump...

The filter socks are mounted on a sliding plate. To change/remove them, I just slide the drain pipes down from the bulkheads into the socks, slide out the plate.

Here is a shot of the MRC MR-7 Recirc skimmer...

Its fed by a Mag 12, the skimmer is driven by a Sequence 4300. I still have to make a plate to hold a filter sock for the skimmers output. I want to have the ability to run the water over carbon. You get the idea by the mock filter sock in that area. Its just on the wrong side.

 

[Brandan]

WOW!!!! Man. . . . Only if I had an extra 10grand. Oh the possibilities. . . . lol

 

[alden168]

450

450

Nice one......you should go to 1" acrylic...for assurance and curved all the sides....but anyway, nice setup

[/IMG]

 

[DiazE]

Does the Aquarium Company have a website.
I see many members have built their tanks with them.

Awsome workmanship stand and tank!