my turn - 525

[porthios]

alright. wanted to wait til i had some good photos to show you guys and here we go..

i'd pegged this spot for a tank when my wife and i first looked at this house. it will nicely divide my living/dining rooms and a great attention grabber as guests come through the front door. the planets aligned and we're finally able to build the tank we wanted.

the tank we had built is 96x42x30 and made of 1.25" acrylic. it has 4" eurobracing and no crossbracing. it will be viewable on 3 sides and the internal overflow contains two dry boxes which will house vortech motors and hide their cables. the tank will be plumbed to a fish room located directly below it, in the basement.

equipment so far
lights - 4 400w reeflux 12k bulbs in lumen bright pendants driven by dimmable coralvue ballasts
flow - 4-6 mp40w
return pump - reeflo xxx. planned on a barracuda but have since moved the fish room closer to the tank so i might not need quite that much..

the substrate will be made up of a 5" dsb (probly), marco rock, marshall island and pohnpei live rock. about 200lbs live, the rest dry.

here are some of the pics i have so far..

this is the stand my uncle and i built. woodworking is another hobby for me so i'm looking forward to skinning it.

my wife and kids, stress testing the frame..

the buds getting ready to lift the beast onto the stand. the tank weighs 900lbs+ and the builder showed up nearly an hour early so there were only five of us there to get it off the truck. fortunately, no one was killed, but most importantly, the tank wasn't damaged .

the crew's all done!

next on the agenda is building the new fish room. i'd originally planned to just plumb the tank to the existing fish room, but it's at the other end of the house. building a new one, closer to the tank, will pay off in the long run and let me learn from a few mistakes i made on the first. i'll try to keep up with pics as i go but here's a first draft - sketchup style..

please give any feedback you'd care to share and thanks for watching ..

 

[REEF-n-Chicago]

Just want to be the first to say.... congrats!

Please give dimensions and your tank stocking preferences!

 

[Ed Reef]

Great build Jason..... LOVE when you say quote "fortunately, no one was killed, but most importantly, the tank wasn't damaged" unquote

That already tell us where the priority is

 

[Tangwich]

Great tank, this is going to be a great build...I can feel it in my blood
Those dimensions are close to what my next tank will be (96x48x27), which leads me to my question. Currently my 225g is 30" tall and I can't reach to the bottom back of the tank which is 24" deep and I have pretty long arms. I realize you have access from both sides but do you anticipate that being a problem in the future with placement of corals? And lastly, what are your livestock plans, mixed reef, sps only? types of fish?
Can't wait to see what's next

- Jesse

 

[Oldude]

Awesome.....love the dimensions!!

 

[porthios]

thanks guys. i'm stoked..

rnc - 96x42x30

ed reef - lol.. i told my buddy he had to throw himself under the tank if we started to lose it. he was completely caught in the tractor beam of coolness inherent to bigger reef tanks. 'yeah man, no problem'..

i've really enjoyed your build thread btw. thank you for taking the time to keep it up.

tangwich - thanks man. keep those karmic thoughts comin.. i've designed the stand to have a 6-8" ledge all the way round the tank so it's pretty easy for me to jump up there and reach in as necessary. i also have tongs for the times i'm feeling less athletic. i'm still working on the 'canopy' but my design should allow me a good deal of access as well.

i'm planning for sps/lps. some of which i'll be migrating from existing tanks. the tank was originally designed to house a gorgeous alessandrathus ambrosious from the genus mermaidicus but the wife killed that idea so i'll probly throw some tangs in there..

current fish moving to the new home will be:
sixline wrasse - lucy
flame hawk - wife just calls him 'the bastard'
kole tang - (no name yet)
sailfin tang - samiam

fish i believe i'm inheriting from a reefing cousin:
purple tang - poon
yellow tang - queso
white cheek tang - commando

i've never really considered myself a fish guy so i haven't given much thought to the rest of the list.. i dig achilles/naso/dussumieri tangs but i guess i'll need your help to flush out the complete list. lots of time left for that tho..

 

[RayAllen]

Wow, great progess and beautiful aquarium. My only question would be; why did you leave the carpet underneath?

 

[Ed Reef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13927780#post13927780 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by porthios
ed reef - lol.. i told my buddy he had to throw himself under the tank if we started to lose it. he was completely caught in the tractor beam of coolness inherent to bigger reef tanks. 'yeah man, no problem'..

i've really enjoyed your build thread btw. thank you for taking the time to keep it up.
[/B]

You have great friends who willing to do that for you... No question asked

Thanks for your comment on my thread - didn't know so many people are actually reading it!!

 

[porthios]

why did you leave the carpet underneath?

i'm not sure it will remain but i need to find a good way to line the inside of the stand (pond liner ish?) if it will. would hate for small leaks under the stand to wick out into the rest of the carpet. i'm also considering building up the floor of the stand, allowing me to insert cabinets easily into the frame. a drawer full of tank related eq is all i plan to store there.

the wife's sweating the required demolition a bit so this is kind of a touchy subject atm. proceeding with due caution and distracting with expensive gifts as needed..

 

[stunreefer]

Many times these days I see a shallow "box/pan" built that fits the inside of the stand, and paint it with epoxy to seal.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13927780#post13927780 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by porthios
the tank was originally designed to house a gorgeous alessandrathus ambrosious from the genus mermaidicus but the wife killed that idea so i'll probly throw some tangs in there..

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Maybe really expensive gifts will sway her opinion...

 

[~sp0ok~]

nice going on that tank and stand
looking good

 

[Lunchbucket]

Love the pic with the fur kids!! They are the best kids.

Can't wait to see more

Lunchbucket

 

[skrtcsr]

Amazing Build, that is quite a project.. cant wait to see more pictures when its done.

Excellent work!!

 

[porthios]

Maybe really expensive gifts will sway her opinion...

interesting.. i like where your head's at..

thanks all for the well wishes. this is fun to share..

alright, turns out i really suck at pics but here are some more.

first a pic of the tank without all my peeps in the way..

thought i'd show a pic of the lifts i rented. there were enough of us that the installation was easy but should anyone else find it useful, these are duct/material lifts and 3 of us could've probly done the job with their assistance. they cost about $50/day each. if your tank is wider than 24" i'd recommend getting the arm extensions that are available for them as well.

here are a couple pics of the old fishroom. it's sufficient and many people would consider it a luxury, but i think i can do better with v2.0.

after spending last night moving all this

i have a great new space to start on 2.0

this plumbing is in the corner of my planned area. does that look like a toilet rough in (at lower left) to anyone else? can anyone give me a good reason not to use that as a drain?

 

[dougie]

love the tank, great size! fish room looks great to. good luck. :thumbsup:

 

[edandsandy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13932219#post13932219 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by porthios

this plumbing is in the corner of my planned area. does that look like a toilet rough in (at lower left) to anyone else? can anyone give me a good reason not to use that as a drain?

[/B]

It looks like it to me. If I were you I would call a plummer to snake it to find out where it goes!

I like the lay out plan you have.
Best of luck with the new room.

 

[porthios]

someone requested pics of my vortech housing dry boxes in steve hurlock's thread and thought i'd post them here as well..

the overflow. you can see the dry box chambers on either side. the overflow height will be adjustable to control water height in the aquarium with a nylon screw secured weir that has yet to be installed..

the center chamber with the drain/return plumbing..

the right dry box. you can either drill the bottom to run power cords through, etc.. or leave them sealed and run the cords out the top..

steve gave me some good recommendations when i designed this tank. here's a video of the vortech setup on his gorgeous aquarium..

 

[Oldude]

Great video, thanks for sharing that.
I would like to hear more about that actual breakdown and details of fishroom sketch.

 

[Lowredranger]

Great looking tank. How many vortechs do you plan on using and any plans for additional flow?

 

[porthios]

yeah, i'll post more details on the fishroom layout when i get a little further along. still playing with it quite a bit. the room is a little over 12' square so i should have plenty of room. famous last words i know.

i plan to start with 4 vortechs and see what that looks like. i figure i can go as high as 6 in the dry boxes (3 each) before the bottom ones are too close to the sand. i won't hesitate to put more flow at the other end of the tank if i think it's needed but i'd like to see how far i can get with just vortechs in the dry boxes first.