New money pit.

[bubbaOPPD]

Well I decided to share my experience with my newest black hole of money from the time I got it to hopefully the day its up and running. The tank is a 8ftx2ftx2ft 240gal tank the sump is a 90gal tank I got for free for removing it from their house. The stand was built by a friend of mine it needed to be 42in high since I will be puttinga ASM g4x which is 30in high and I will have a Sequence Reef flo Dart which should put about 2700gph. Thats it for now hopefully next week I can put up some more photos.

Sitting in the basement.

Finally on the stand in my family room.

 

[lvpd186]

Wow, that tank is big. Cant wait to see pics of it up and running. Did you do the glass work or did you have it custom made? Also, since I will probably upgrade my tank someday, did you have someone come out and look and your floor joists to make sure they can take the extra weight? The water alone is almost 2000 pounds and I'm sure the tank (plus stand and sump) is no feather weight.

 

[Mercutio]

Wow, that's going to be amazing. You know it's a big tank when a 90 looks tiny.

 

[sullyfish]

looks great so far. That will be a very nice set up. Cant wait to see it up and running

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Well I live in a tri-level so the tank is on the concrete in my family room. The tank I got from Glasscages which I picked up in Des Moines at a fish show so the whole tank ended up costing me $800 the thing must weigh 400lbs or more it took 4 people with glass suction cups to move. Now if I can only find clear PVC for the return and overflow since my overflows are made from the same glass as the tank.

 

[tangdiver]

Check out Aqutic Ecosystems...they have it...but $$$...also will fill with algae like overflows...put in a acryic liner so becomes black...then not bad algaes to see...

not being picky just giving out info I have learned...

Grant

 

[lvpd186]

I agree with Tangdiver, the clear pvc would get covered with algae and probably look bad, not to mention it would be hard to clean out. I like to paint the back wall of my tanks (usually black). I would imagine that if you painted yours the overflows wouldn't stand out as much even if they did get algae on them. If you still want clear pvc you could try US Plastics. I bought a water tank from them and saw in their catalog that they sell the clear pvc. Clear pvc or not that tank is going to be sweet.

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Finally an update, here is the sand I bought from Petworld, just think if Dylan hadn't made me angry over a $30 clam I would have bought all this from him. That doesn't include the 2 Lineatus Fairy wrasses, Declivis Butterfly I have waiting at Petword, and everything else I got from Petworld and not Aqua-pets.

Here is the sump I made.

Here is the plumbing in the tank.

Here is the 3"drill I had buy for the external pump, I can't believe I drilled it and nothing broke and the drill bit is still usable.

 

[TonyQ]

I not sure how soon you going to start stocking your tank but I have about 70-90 lbs. of live rock and clean up crew that am selling for 300. I got it from Tampa bay salt water and it looks great, Its been in my tank for about 2yrs. I know your going to need a lot more rock than that but its a start. I used black out window tint on the back of my tank, it was very easy to do. Nice tank Anthony

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Here it is holding water.

Here is the pump, this little thing almost is too much for the 3x1.5" overflows.

 

[Reefski's]

i would put a shut off valve in the return line as well.

how much room is there from the top of the overflow to the top of the tank?

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Don't need one ,when I shut off the pump the return lines flow into the sump so when I shut the intake valve I only have about 2 cups of water to drain from the pump. Plus I don't need to throttle the outlet, the gap from the overflow to the top is about 2".

 

[garvin90]

Looks great, we just got in a order of large pieces of table type tonga rock today that would look great in your tank!

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Here it is with the cabinet doors on and water flowing through it.

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Here is one of the first inhabitants to the tank my Declivis Butterfly, he is in there with a Lineatus Fairy wrasse pair, Midas blenny, Exquisite wrasse, and 3 "test" Chromis. Plus a bunch of snails and hermits from my 55gal purgatory tank, since it is no longer up and running I had to get rid of my Black Volitan he is at Petworld...uh-oh did I do a bad...I would like for him to go to a good home, he is trained to feed from your hand and he eats krill and mysis. I had him for over a year and he has not eaten a fish from my tank, he's too lazy to chase them, he's big.

Here is the Lion, hopefully some one will take good care of him if not I'll reclaim him and put him in another tank.

 

[spineshank385]

what are the benefits of feeding red baron french bread pizza over any other brand? are there any? or is it just what the lion prefers?

i heard tony's is too high in fat, but i havent checked myself

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Who would have thought how small 250lbs of liverock looks in a tank.

I have no idea what that guy was smoking when he posted that last post.

 

[Kisskiss Girl]

Ha Ha Ha Look at the first pic on this thread! I took me a min. too. Tank is lookin' good.

 

[bubbaOPPD]

Ok finally its here, the new skimmer a H&S A200 3xF2001 rated for a 500gal heavily stocked tank, I got it from FinsReef online. They were out of the 325gal rated skimmer so they gave me this monster for the same price, thumbs up to FinsReef.

 

[lvpd186]

Holly cow, that looks like a sweet skimmer. Are you going to feed it directly off of the tank via gravity feed or a pump in the sump?