New guy living in N Knoxville needs help w/ big tank

shawn.short

New member
Hello I just bought a 324 gallon Rectangle tank 96x24x23.5
My sump is about 80 gallons with a refugium
I purchased a Aqua Illumionations Sol blue LED system
I have about 200lbs of rock and have about 300 more curing.
i want to put a canopy and dress this thing up let me know some ideas.
thank you looking foward to joining.
 

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Welcome. Not a club member here but just shut down a 320 and can probably help you out some. Give us some idea of your goals for the tank. That will go a long way towards us giving you ideas on things to consider, recommendations, etc. Tanks that size are expensive. My electric bill dropped by more than half and a bucket of salt lasts me 6 months now with larger percentage water changes.

Dave
 
well I had a 120 that had 2 t5/8bulb total and the new sol is actually cheaper to run,lol. The only thing that is more than what i had before is 2 Hydor 1400's. but I am looking to do a mixed reef tank with a fair amount of fish, I'm open to all ideas of what to do next. right now i have 2 clowns, 2 cromis, and a sleeper gold head goby. and a few blue hermits. I want to do a nice canopy above only for the finished look and to hide escaping lite.
 
Hey

Looks like a good start. I almost wish I did not have all the money I have invested in MHs. Costs a lot more and it much hotter.

I think a 4x2x2 tank is a 240g. :D:D

Welcome to the forum.
 
Hey

Looks like a good start. I almost wish I did not have all the money I have invested in MHs. Costs a lot more and it much hotter.

I think a 4x2x2 tank is a 240g. :D:D

Welcome to the forum.

4X2X2 is 120 gallons, 8X2X2 is 240.
 
First, get a really good skimmer if you want a high fish load and the ability to keep all types of corals. I like the ones that use the Askoll 1500 pinwheel or the Bubble Blaster pumps. Those things are super efficient, mix a LOT of air for the wattage draw, and can be had for <$1000 (sometimes around $500-$600). Not sure what you're running under there at the moment. Second, you're going to need a lot more flow, random flow is better. I had a total of about 15,000 gph in my 320 total. By mixed reef I assume you're talking about SPS as well.

You can skin that stand in 1/4" oak ply from Home Depot or another wood from one of the woodworking supply stores. Finish the corners and edges in 1/4" solid wood. You can build a canopy which rests on the top of the tank with panels for access or use pocket door hardware and run the canopy from the ceiling to the top of the tank like I did. However, since your T5s aren't very "tall" the canopy with access panels or just hanging from steel cables will probably look the best.
 
CEE, thnks for the info, those kights are AI LED's i did away with the T5's. As for the canopy do u have some specs/pics of that canopy so i can build it?
 
No, I just ad lib. I've built several over the years so I get a vision in my head and build it.
 
ok, so, I typed in a 4 instead of an eight. They look almost the same. :bounce3:

96 x 24 x 24 / 231 in3 per gallon = 239.4 gallons

or

8 x 2 x 2 x 7.5 gallons per ft3 = 240G

but, if you use 32.5 inches high instead of 23.5, then

96 x 24 x 32.5 / 231 does equal 324 gallons

:bounce2::bounce3::bounce2: Merry Christmans ---- oh, too early.
 
I'm curious why your sump is so small. 80 gallons seems a little light for such a large tank but I guess if you can fit all of your equipment in there and not have it overflow when your pumps go off, then you're good.

I had a 240g long and my sump was a 100g long. It was nice to have the extra room. Currently I have 120 with a 40 breeder sump.

I will definitely second the idea of getting a good skimmer. I've got an IN180 in my 120 and I love it. But with those types of skimmers you have to have them in a chamber where the water level doesn't fluctuate much because the efficiency is very much affected by the water level outside of the skimmer. It wasn't a big deal for me because when we built my sump, I placed baffles that created a chamber with a constant height of water.

I think the next meeting might end up being in December, unless someone volunteers to host November but it's a bit late in the month to plan it out at this point...so yeah...probably December.
 
oh, yeah. We are looking for a host for the next meeting. I looks like it is going to be on December 10th. Both November and December have holidays which throws a curve into the meeting planning effort. I am hoping the 10th will be sufficiently between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ha! HA!!
 
Mel, The area where my skimmer is, in fact is a constant water level. I have done many many "simulation of loss of powe rand no over fill. What would u recommend for my 324?
 
That's a good question...about what size of sump.

I don't know but I'd say at least 100g. I depends on the dimensions of your stand and where the bracing is, so you can figure out the size you can fit. I'm always up for putting as large a sump under there as possible, still leaving a bit of room if you later decide you want to use an external pump or something like that. When I had my 135 I basically could not fit a sump underneath based on where the bracing was. I wasn't sure whether the posts were load-bearing but I knew they were stabilizing the stand. So I couldn't cut them out.

What kind of room (dimension-wise) do you have underneath there? I like a long but low-ish height sump, but these guys may have other opinions. If you have a larger height sump, obviously you can get away with not having it be quite as long/wide.
 
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