Sorry I haven't posted any updates for a while. The tank finally arrived last week, it is very nicely made! DSA did a great job on both it and the stand and were pretty quick all things considered. Of course, seeing it in the flesh, there are some things I would have done differently and a couple things on the final drawing I overlooked, which I'm now kicking myself over, but mostly these will create some headaches for my fish guy who will be doing the plumbing.
The coast-to-coast overflow in the back is simply massive and I somewhat regret not doing a smaller external or internal one... that said, there will never be any concern about an external overflow separating or leaking, and there is so much volume back there that I can use it to introduce new fish until they are acclimated (avoid combined stress of harassment and acclimation), place XL biopellets around the skimmer siphon drain, etc. Only other issue is the holes for the return lines are too close together, somewhat jailing-in the skimmer head; will just need to use some extra plumbing fittings to route them out of the way. I am going to be ordering a bunch of sweep ells to minimize flow resistance.
The sump is currently being built locally and should be ready in another week or two, then the plumbing will begin. Sump is being made as large as possible - 69 x 24 x 20 - as my old system had an undersized sump that was quite problematic. All the equipment, excluding closed loop pump and chiller and the associated plumbing, will be within the sump to minimize risk of leakage. The sump sits atop a floor drain, and I am having a bulkhead installed over the drain to make for easy water drainage.
I am also building a high end DIY light rack for the (4) GHL Mitras 6200 LV, basically a copied and slightly beefier version of the ReefKoi Radion rack. All the 80/20 aluminum extrusion, fasteners, brackets, etc. will be arriving on Monday and I'll post some photos of the assembled product. It should look much, much better and be far sturdier than my old MH/VHO setup with aluminum angle frame and bicycle rack
I've played with the Mitras a little, wow they are nice lights! I'm hoping I get adequate coverage from the four - which I will hang perpendicular to the tank - but can add some Kessil's or T5s if needed.
A local craftsman is doing the millwork for the theater including the tank surround. He does fabulous work (also did the rest of my home) and has tanks himself. I have not seen his design yet but am confident it will be fabulous.
Well an update to this thread is worthless without some photos from the delivery and move. The tank is incredibly heavy, probably approaching the limits of a glass tank... took 8
very strong guys (including me, I workout a lot) to get it from the floor up onto the stand. Kudos to "Muscular Moving Men" - they were pretty awesome and I recommend them highly if you're in the Phoenix area.
Here is the plumbing/system schematic I made in CAD. Most of the plumbing is mapped out (open loop in magenta, closed loop in red).
A diagram of the sump design is attached. I modeled it after the Royal Exclusive Dreambox systems. Basically first compartment (fed by air channel / low flow drain) has an area for filter socks then a refugium; rest of the sump is for skimmer and reactors and the return pump. The stand was built with cross struts on the bottom and I had limited clearance between the floor and tank because it is sitting on an elevated slab; because of this, the bottom of the sump has to be built with cutouts to fit over these struts, otherwise I wouldn't be able to remove the skimmer head which is outfitted with a Vertex cleaner.
