My New AGE tank build! It's big! ~1500g DT

muttley000 said:
Hey prickles! Wanted to tag along, sounds great so far. Have you picked out much of the other hardware yet?
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Thanks, glad to have you along!

I'm purposefully waiting on stuff until I need it. Well at least I'm trying, so far my willpower is not strong. I figure it will be a couple months until I need lights for example. So I'm trying to wait because either something new will come out that I want or the old ones might go down in price.
 
bigrock said:
Ya I have been looking for equipment and thinking around 5000gph for my return would be sufficient but after head pressure there isn't to many pumps that are available. I wish someone would build a dc pump with higher flow rates than are available.

Do you already have the vortechs? If not take a look at pmrodgers thread. He is just now testing out the hydro wizard medium which looks promising for large tanks.
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It looks like syncra 16 runs at about 3,000GPH at 6 feet or so of head. I therefore might need two of them or maybe two of the slightly smaller ones to get to my desired turnover.

On that note, how much turnover should I have through the sump? I thought it was 4-5 times, but I can't remember if that's of DT or total volume? If it's DT, then I need about 6000 GPH if it's total volume I need about 8-10k GPH total. Anyone know, is my memory correct?

I have some of the vortechs on my old tank. I have read his extremely impressive thread twice (and copied his water changing idea), but the thing that really makes me happy about the vortechs is the battery backup. I plan to run maybe half a dozen of those. Every time the power goes out currently it seems to come back on right when I get my generator set up and running. Then I have to take it back apart and prep it for long term storage again. The battery backups will make it so I have at least 12 hours before I need to pull out the generator.
 
Finally feel like I got some stuff done!

So the rock has been soaking for a week. I am trying TKEracer's LC dosing regimen on the rock so far. It looks like I got some diatoms, so I switched to black plastic today to keep algae growth down.



the 300g rubbermaid



the 150g rubbermaid



And then the mockup of the water mixing station with the frankenRODI. I took two RODI's and plugged them together similar to one of the dual membrane systems but will be running an extra carbon and DI resin. I'm going to try a second sediment filter too if I can get enough pressure. Please excuse the cord management (or lack thereof.)

The water changing station has no glue and I hope to straighten it up when gluing and clamping it to the wall. You can see off to the right where it makes it way into the ceiling for the 100' pipe run to the fish room.

Its got three pumps. The first and largest pump is to move water from the freshwater to the salt tank and also can work for a manual water change if I have to do that in a hurry. It's a syncra 16 and should move a couple thousand GPH at that head pressure.

The other two pumps are Eheim 1262's. The first is for circulating the salt after mixing and hopefully to mix the salt using the conical bucket. The second is for the genesis system. You might be able to see in the top right some rough electrical. Those aren't power cords, but actually to be used as extension cords back to the fish room so I can control these pumps from there.

 
So what are some good protein skimmers I can research for now? I don't plan on upgrading my skimmer right away, but I need to start thinking about it.

Most of what I see is a bit too small.

thanks!
 
Maybe take a look at the reef octopus Sro 8000 or 9000. Haven't heard from any users but they look like they are built well and their smaller skimmers are used by thousands with great success. The other line I have looked at is the mrc orca pro 2 or 3.

What size are your water change tanks? Does the cost compare to the cylinder kind we see most people using?
 
bigrock said:
Maybe take a look at the reef octopus Sro 8000 or 9000. Haven't heard from any users but they look like they are built well and their smaller skimmers are used by thousands with great success. The other line I have looked at is the mrc orca pro 2 or 3.

What size are your water change tanks? Does the cost compare to the cylinder kind we see most people using?
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I will check those out. I have had good luck with the octopus in the past. I have done some quick research on the MRC's too, and they look reasonably priced.

the water change tanks are each 275g. you can get them in 330g. They were $275 delivered for both of them (used food grade tanks.) The 300g tall tanks would have been about $1,000 for the two with shipping. I'm pretty happy with them so far.
 
so the orca pro 2 says only 800 gallon systems. the orca pro 3 says 1000+ gallons, but handles a system with 2,000 fish with no problem? There seems to be a bit of a jump between the two models if they can be believed.

the octopus sro 8000 is up to 1000g and the sro 9000 up to 2600g. I would guess the SRO 9000 would be better suited out of these two as 2600 is closer to the actual water volume. Its footprint is a bit big though. I'm not sure where I would put it. The MRC has a better footprint at 24x24. Strangely, neither the octopus nor the MRC is cheap.
 
Impressive, the builds that are going on right now are amazing. We can't complain about the economy, at least not on this website(we would be hypocrite's, no questions asked) :D haha
 
Reefsi said:
Impressive, the builds that are going on right now are amazing. We can't complain about the economy, at least not on this website(we would be hypocrite's, no questions asked) :D haha
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Yes there are some beautiful builds going on right now. I think I've read all of them. I personally think the economy is fine. I know some people are hurting, but there's always been and always will be some people who are doing poorly no matter what's going on in the world.

I know 2008-2010 hurt me bad, but that's been a while now.

I am so jealous of your room where you are putting the tank. Unfortunately for me, I didn't plan on a fish tank very well in this house and the only place I can put one reasonably is in my home office. I'm also really jealous of your progress!!
 
Making some slow progress on the fish room. Texturing is happening today and this weekend. The hope is to have it painted by Monday and finish the electrical on Wednesday. I'll try to get some pics this weekend. The stand should hopefully arrive next week and the tank in a couple of weeks.

I got a pic of the rough stages of the build from AGE. If you look closely you can see the seam in the PVC bottom where they added to a 4x8 sheet to make it big enough. You can also see the difference in glass color from the low iron glass to the regular color glass. It's still missing quite a bit of stuff like the external overflow, hopefully I'll get pics of that stuff in the next few days.
 
prickles said:
so I went to see danfeig's tank today. Let me start by saying THE PICTURES DO NOT DO IT JUSTICE!!! I would rate the pictures as awesome. The reality is mind bending!

It is absolutely gorgeous! If ever you have a chance to see his tank in person TAKE IT! I'm pretty sure my blood pressure dropped about 20 points by standing in front of his tank for 5 minutes.

I went to see it because the person that helped dan set it up is now running a LFS called Fishy Bizness in tucson AZ and that is where I am getting my tank. I am planning to blatantly "borrow" much of dan's research and experience in making decisions on my tank.

Thanks dan!
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I thought we were all borrowing ideas from Dan.... I know I've used a few already and I'm still in the planning stages of my big upgrade
Daniel. :wildone:
 
Have you looked at the pumps from abyzz? They are DC pumps that push out over 5000 gph I think. Pressure rated for long runs too if I remember correctly. Ask Mr. Wilson. He engineered Peter's tank in Canada.
Daniel.
 
scubadan206 said:
Have you looked at the pumps from abyzz? They are DC pumps that push out over 5000 gph I think. Pressure rated for long runs too if I remember correctly. Ask Mr. Wilson. He engineered Peter's tank in Canada.
Daniel.
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Daniel,

Their website is too advanced for me to navigate. I can't make it move left to right...I think that means I don't qualify to buy their products.

i do love Peter's tank! I've read his thread several times. (It took several weeks)
 
I hear that! I never did finish Peter's marathon thread.... As for the pumps, I think it must be a Canada thing. I've seen several on tanks from Canada, but not much presence here in the states. Good pumps though, if you've got 2K to burn huh? What about the Red Dragon brand, like on Ching Chai's tank. Daniel:wildone:
 
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