OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[jnarowe]

HOP: He he...

I am finally into the tank polishing and I have a couple of photos for you. The top one is of the scratch sent by the guy who sold me the tank, and the bottom one is after it had been fixed. I didn't have good natural light and when I used the flash it was too bright, but you get the idea. It doesn't really matter because the scratch area will not be visible, but I just wanted to see if I could remove it.

This scratch was at least an 8th of an inch deep. VERY deep. So I used a grinder with a 60 grit first. Then in order, 150, 220, 400, 1500, 2400, 3600, and buffed with poish.

 

[kysmith]

how about some more shots?

 

[jnarowe]

Funny, I was just reviewing the thread and noticed not many photos of the tank. Here are some from before I bought it:

 

[kysmith]

What a MONSTER that thing is!!

 

[jnarowe]

LOL...yeah, it was in his Mom's garage!

It will be plumbed completely different with no corner overflow. It was originally a shark tank.

I am building an external overflow the length of the tank (96") and will have four 1" return lines going to the front 2 corners and in the middle of the 1/3rd lines. The overflow will have two 2" bulkheads and one 1-1/2" bulkhead feeding the skimmer directly.

The return pump will go to the 4 return lines and the refugium, which will also overflow into the display from above.

The rest of the flow will be the yet to be released magnetic power heads from Ice Cap/Eco-Tech.

 

[sixxer]

WOW!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait to see that set up as a Reef. The tank will look much larger than it did as a shark tank when it's filled with corals!!!!

Damn-it!!!!! My tank is not even holding water and I'm ready to upgrade!!!!!:lol:

 

[rjwilson37]

I can't wait to see it setup and running, it is going to be awesome.

 

[jnarowe]

When I was thinking about buying it, I took my wife down South to see it. We visited, messed around in Portland for a couple of days and went home. I made the deal and picked it up with a buddy.

About a week later my wife comes out on the deck and is chatting with me while I screw with the garden. She looks down and says, "What's that?" I replied, "That's the tank." She said, it looks so much larger than when we first saw it."

Total crack up. I really wanted to do a 3-sided in viewing room install, but there were so many reasons not to do it that I am going with in-wall.

Your stand looks great. Mine is entirely built with 4 x 4's so I am fairly confident of that. I have the whole thing on wheels right now while I work on the room and polish the tank. I had to bring it inside before I could complete the walls!

 

[jnarowe]

BTW, in those pics, that is over 200lbs. of MI rock. I have it in a tank waiting for me to finish the install.

 

[dzovi]

Just out of curiosity, what where the reason to not have a 3-sided viewing room in your opinion? A tank that is able to have that capability is a far cry from my 29 gallon but I'm just curious.

 

[jnarowe]

rjwilson37 Well, if I had you consulting maybe...

 

[jnarowe]

With a 29g it is easy. When tanks get larger, so do the impacts on the living space:

Cons:
--glare
--smell
--noise
--water damage
--moisture in the air
--it's much more difficult to do maintainance
--it's much more difficult to change equipment, plumbing, etc.
--you still need a place for a QT, storage etc.

Pros:
--3 dimensional world
--can look down into tank and follow inhabitants more easily
--much easier to aquascape when you can stand in front and move stuff around

With an in-wall, I can control room temp, humidity, noise, water seapage, salt creep, and be able to alter equipment much more easily. I can also have a 6' tall skimmer gravity fed. With a tank this size, there really is not practical way to get all the equipment, sumps, etc. under the stand, so I would have to go through the wall anyway. That would make changing plumbing, controlling noise etc. more difficult, and I would still have the noise, glare, heat, and moisture in the living space.

What really made the decision easier was that I (me, myself, & I) can look at all 4 sides of the tank any time I want and I can keep guests' hands out of the tank. The tank room has an exterior door with a dead bolt lock. I have seen some fabulous in-viewing room tanks, but I can't afford a cleaning crew and a maid to clean up after the cleaning crew.

 

[dzovi]

Very well thought out. Another quick question, how do you plan on controlling the moisture from evaporation from the tank? Do you have to have an exhaust system? I noticed that you don't have FRP (Fiberglass reinforced plastic) walls. My question shows my naivety toward having a tank this large.

 

[jnarowe]

Not naive at all. Fiber glass refinforced wall panels were a consideration but the expense was steep ($30 each) and they are not very good for attaching equipment, shelves etc.

In hindsite, I think the cost would have been not too bad and the labor significantly reduced. The issue is that you cannot just install that over studs. You still have to install sheet rock for sound abatement and fire safety. So in theory, you still have to do the whole mud and tape, paint etc. on the sheet rock before you install the FRP.

I could have skipped the bilge paint though, and the mud/tape job would have been much much faster. Truthfully though, with the bilge paint I have a seamless and totally waterproof room. If you saw it in person you would flip. I used the bilge paint primarily for it's benefits, but also because I own a marine store and can get it cheap. In fact, we sell all marine products at cost +10% so any reefers that want stuff should PM me.

As far as moisture, the room is totally sealed off from the house and I have three 6" fans to utilize for exhaust and a 12 x 12 attic vent for incoming air. I will have 2 fans on the tank area controlled by the AC III and one fan for the room controlled by a separate humidistat/temp controller. I am confident that this will be plenty, and in fact, I may not need a chiller because of the low ambient temps. here in the NW. My intake is actually under my deck soth air will always be cool.

 

[rjwilson37]

hmmm.... sounds to complicated for someone like me, I like my simple little setup to the max right now. But... I am thinking I will have an in wall tank around a 180g, it will be sometime before that day comes though so I have plenty of planning time for that.

It is amazing how quickly I dove into my first 29g reef tank, moving from freshwater to saltwater. I planned and priced it out for about 2-3 weeks and I thought I had things figured out pretty good. ( hehehe... boy was I wrong) The price quickly almost doubled by the time I got things going and then the ich thing came and the loses from reef safe ich medicine, then a quarantine tank so the price was still going up for this hobby. I have learned a lot over the past 3 years, moving from the 29g over to the 55g and then from the 55g to my current 90g tank, what a ride it has been.

All in all what I am trying to say, is that I admire your patience, dedication, and pay attention to detail attitude which will make this an amazing tank and I can't wait to see it going.

 

[jnarowe]

Thanks for the compliments and they are a bit pre-mature!

I hear ya on the complexities of "moving up". I really distilled it to the fact that no matter what size tank I did, I would still have to deal with the sames basic issues. Keeping that as my "mantra" I found a large tank and dove in. It is not without its hardships and surpises, but I have seen so many successful tanks configured in so many different ways, that the odds are with me that whatever I do, as long as I don't panic, will be managable.

I didn't want to do the 125g and not be happy with the depth. I didn't want to do a 200g and have higher costs but run out of room. I didn't want to do a 300g because the tanks cost an arm & a leg. Then I fond the 1000g (used) for less than a new 200g. And BTW, I have testosterone in my system.

Please keep in mind that my system will be much simpler than most of this size. I will have limited number of pumps, only 3 lamps, gravity fed skimmer, sump, and the refugium will gravity feed the display. Less parts=more easy. I may not even have ball valves on my overflow lines because they aren't really needed. They would remain open all the time during operation and if I had to change something or clean the line, I can just screw a plug into the bulkhead.

A 180g will not be big enough for you.

 

[prostaff]

Jonathan
What did you end up using to seal your concrete floor? or is that not done yet?

 

[prostaff]

Jonathan
What did you end up using to seal your concrete floor? or have you not done that yet?

 

[jnarowe]

I just finished putting 6 thin coats of Jasco Cure-Seal last night. I applied it with a squeegie and it seems to be OK. I lament the fact that I had to get a "big box' store sealer, but the commercial grade stuff was not available in my immediate area and with the cost of shipping was just way too much money. Jasco makes good products so hopefully it will do fine.

Depending on what it looks like this morning, I may do more coats. I am so ready to get the base coving done and set the tank in place, but I suppose rushing at this point is not a good idea!

 

[prostaff]

What would you recommend using to seal the floor if time was not a factor