New 600 Gallon Aggressive

[chicken]

Ok, finally starting to get a little time between business trips to start working on this beast. My current 200g is getting way to small for my fish, so it is time to upgrade and give them a bigger home. After that I will convert the current 200g to a SPS dominated reef setup.

New Tank. Custom Acrylic by a local builder 120x30x36x1"

Stand was custom built by a local metal fabrication company. It is all 2x2" tubular steel. I am sure it is extremely over engineered, but I did not want to take any chance with an earthquake since I leave near San Francisco.

H & S Custom Skimmer with 5 Pumps

In order to support all of this, I am going to be building a 9'x12' shed on the side of my house to support all the filtration equipment. Here is the current sketch of that layout.

On top of that I just got 1400#s of live rock from Tonga. This will be used to aquascape the new tank, filtration in the sump/fuge and to add to re-aquascape the existing 200g tank. So thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s pretty much it. I'll try and keep this thread up to date as we build the system.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Hmmm I've seen that skimmer before! I think someone referenced it in the BAR club forum just to show how flippin big it was..

Nice tank though, going to interconnect all the tanks to that beast of a skimmer though?

And btw where does the 600 gallon tank fit in your drawing? Is it another room? I would hazard a guess so for the size of it

 

[Mrbeachbum2]

WoW Cheers to your new tank

 

[lilbuddy]

awesome!!!!

 

[JazzMan]

This looks great. I can't wait to see it filled.

 

[Mr.Lloyd]

I see you had to take down the picture of naked people and the hockey table will likely move to enjoy the view.Looks like quite a project.I wish the best with that monster of a tank.What kind of floor do you have and who made the tank?Are they called Custom Acrylic?

 

[chicken]

Yah the picture is on of my roomates and it had to go As for the tank it is made by TruVu. As for the foosball and dome hockey tables I am trying to figure out what to do with them right now. I want to keep them but also want a better view of the tank. Might move them to the other side of the room and put a couch near the tank for viewing. I'll post a bunch more pics in the next few days.

 

[chicken]

BTW the floor is a 14" pretensioned steel reinforced slab foundation, so it should have no issues with holding the tank.

 

[Mr.Lloyd]

Gee with a 14" slab why did you not go for a really big one?Is not that about as thick as Interstate Highways?You have a lot of work ahead and I hope you enjoy it.We are looking forward to seeing it as you progress.

 

[Fliger]

Fantastic tank and fantastic skimmer. Please continue to post pictures. Man, 5 recirculating pumps, that thing is awesome. My skimmer has only 2 and it's pretty awesome. Adds a lot of heat, though.

 

[willra]

I was looking at this crazy tank website that someone pointed out on the reef discussion forum and it looks like they have a similar looking skimmer to yours chicken. Its not the exact same, cause its a deltec, but it reminded me of yours. Its big, with 5 recirculating pumps. Near the bottom of the page:

http://www.ultimatereef.net/TOTM/Aug04.htm

 

[chicken]

Ok, time for some updates. I am finally home for a few weeks so I could put some time into the tank. With the help of a friend, we were able to get the sand in the tank, the drains plumbed outside, water in the tank and the rock work done.

Here is the combination of my two RO units and my friends. With this we were able to make about 30 or so gallons an hour.

Here is the 640#s of Sand we put in. Even though I don't believe that Live BS about the sand, I love the grain size and color of the sand. My triggers and puffers love digging and playing in it and it does not leave a dust cloud at all.

Here is a shot of the tank with some Salt Water in it.

Here it is with the sand in it. That's the one thing I hate about the live sand (besides the price) is the twigs and junk that is in it.

 

[chicken]

Quick shot of the return lines.

The return lines running through the wall to the outside where I am going to build a shed to run all the filtration from.

This is a picture of the 3" ABS pipe I ran partially under the sand and behind/under the rockwork for my Hawaiian Dragon Moray Ell

Pictures of most of the 1400#s of Tonga Rock. I ended up putting about 800# in the tank and the rest is going to be split between reaquascaping my current 200g tank and the fuge of this system.

And finally a shot of the tank after it is aquascaped. The T5s are from my 200g tank's fuge just so I could see how it looked.

And one more shot of the plumbing. Currently I ran some vinyl from the sump outside through the window as I did not feel like drilling anymore stucco for the day.

 

[aragongod]

very nice tank. can't wait to see more pics!!
tony.
uk

 

[Julio]

nice setup, love yoru diagram for your filter room, what i like most is the volume of water that you are using in the tank!!

 

[sixxer]

Very nice. Love the Tonga Rock!!!!!

 

[yoink326]

Jesus man. When I'm back at home in Pleasanton for Winter break, I'm coming over.

 

[chicken]

thanks for the comments. You are more than welcome to stop on by yoink, just let me know.

Later,
Chris

 

[sfsuphysics]

Oh wow, didn't realize this was a local tank!

Sweet. Guess you could save some money on lighting since it's going to be primarily fish though right?

 

[chicken]

Yah hopefully My goal is to run 4 x 48" T5 bulbs on a daily basis. I have two on one side right now and it lights it up pretty well. The overall lighting is going to be 8 x 48" T5 and 4 x 175MH. The MH are mostly for show when people come over as nothing can compare to them.