Our 375 Gallon project

[sidewinder770]

Ya- I would like a copperband- they are beautiful fish. I'm just not to sure how well it would do with my LNB. Maybe someday but I'm pretty maxed out on larger fish right now .

The sand is a combo of southdown and aragonite. We were fortunate enough to have several bags of each at the time we needed it (thanks again Fliger) . I think I have a total of 250-280 lbs right now and it's about 2"-3". Looks much better than the play sand- brilliant white!

Thanks for the compliments and feel free to use and upgrade any of my plans.

 

[CLC]

Great tank Scott, well thought out and nice clean set up!
What are those two taps at the back corners on top of the tank?
How far are your lights off the surface of the water?
I have basically the same tank just 5 inchs shorter, wish I would have went 30" tall know. Do you find that you have enough light with the 250w DE to reach the bottom of your tank being 30" deep. Great job!

 

[Catharsis70]

This might have been asked and I missed it so sorry in advance if it has. What kind of weight are we talking about with the cured foam? Does it expand as it cures like spray insulation does? If so it might now be a great idea in a glass tank where it could stress the seams.. Just curious......

 

[rottface4]

I have a slime problem similar to what yours sounded like when you first setup your tank. Did you do anything to resolve it or did it go away on its own? I can't seem to get rid of my problem, so any advice on how to get rid of it or what it even is would be great.

 

[chetm2]

Well it looks like your done with your woodwork just in time to come over and do mine! Looks incredible as usual. Congrates!

 

[sidewinder770]

CLC- The two valves at the top that you can see in that pic are some plastic hose bibs that I am using to control the airflow into each durso. Works pretty good and makes it easy to adjust. The lights are about 5 or so inches off the water. In the picture above it looks farther away because the lights lift up and back when the canopy opens. So far the 250w DE's are doing a great job. I plan to add some T5's just for a little fill in color but most of the SPS is on the top half of the tank with LPS and such on the bottom. I don't think I'd do it any differently since everything seems to be doing pretty well so far.

Catharsis70- It does expand like the foam you can get at Home Depot but I couldn't tell you how much it weighs- it does float if not attached to anything. As for stressing the seems- I don't think there would be a problem and I also didn't run the foam all the way to the edges of the tank. So far a few people have used the foam and I haven't heard any bad reports yet.

rottface4- That stinks!!!! I wouldn't wish that elephant snot on anyone- it's nasty!!! I try to block that out of my mind baceuse it was so nasty and strange. If I remember correctly it went away after about a week- on its own. Good luck with it and all I could do was scoop out what I could a few times a day where is gathered up in my sump. I think I had a salt bucket almost half full of that slime one time- nasty nasty stuff!

chetm2- Well, actually it's not done yet. I haven't done any more work on the cabinets. I still have a few doors to stain as well as some trim work yet. It's just been to hot to get the staining done.

Thought I'd post a pic i took of our clown eggs. When we first started the tank we transferred a single female clown over and about 6 months ago we were able to mate it up. within a month of that they were mating and laying eggs. Now, every few weeks, they lay more eggs- it would be cool if some of them hatched but sadly they only last a few days in this stage before something eats them. very cool to see and if the rock weren't turned sideways where they always lay the eggs I might be able to get a better picture-

 

[sidewinder770]

Here's another shot of the female- you can barely see the male towards the bottom of the pic as well. They certainly love their RBTA- they never venture more than 2 or 3" from it- even during feeding time!

 

[Insane Reefer]

The "nasty snot slime" couldn't be a side effect of the foam, could it?

Where does one find this foam at anyway? I just heard of it.

Lovely tank, btw.

 

[CLC]

Hey scott- I didn't realize that the lights moved up and back when the canopy opened. That is awsome I bet it makes it easier when working in the tank. Cool idea! What do you plan on using for a T-5 set-up on your tank? Size and color of bulbs? I myself am thinking on adding some supplement lighting to get a better color I am not sure if I should go with T-5 or VHO? or what combination of bulb colors to use? I don't think I need more wattage, just a more pleasing color overall.

 

[rottface4]

I would say it is not a result of the foam, as I have not used the foam. I have had it for the third time now and the first two time it went away on its own. It is extremely disgusting, and it is funny that Scott discribe it as snot, because thats is exactly what I described it as. I started a thread on the topic without much response Slime Thread where I included a old picture. I will try to get a more recent picture of it though. It seems to occur every time I have to drain my tank. First time was moving from Gainesville after I graduated, second was when I drilled the tank, and third when I had to move the tank for new carpet. Except this time is does not seems to go away. When I do a water change I syphon out as much of it as I can, and for a little while after the water change it seems to get worse.

 

[sidewinder770]

Insane Reefer- I'd have to agree with rottface4. I had the foam in the tank with no rock for about 1 or 2 weeks with no problems. We had also used the foam in a previous tank with no issues. I think the problem came from something on the shipment of LR we got. And that makes sense- if we were to move the tank and disturb the slime monster again I suspect we would probably have it pop back up again. It is definately nasty, slimey stuff and the only good thing is that it did go away and I have no ill effects from it. As for the foam itself- you can get it at Dr Foster Smith, Custom Aquatic, and a few other online places. It's black pond foam called 'Handi foam'. Look in some earlier pages of this thread and it's well talked about and should answer most of you questions.

CLC- Having the lights move makes it very easy to work on the tank and I am definately glad I did it. The nice thing is if I need to I can adjust it to raise even higher very easily. On the T5's, I think I will be adding a 24' fixture to each end of the tank as well as one in the middle going front to back and possibly 2 towards the rear of the tank aligning side to side. For the bulbs I think I will be using the 11000k bulbs. I should be getting the ballasts today and will be playing around with that the next few days. I just want a little more "filler" light so I don't think I'll be using a lot of bulbs or overdriving them. I would say get T5's over VHO but that's just me.

rottface4- That is kind of strange that it won't go away this time. I was lucky in that I didn't have any corals or fish in the tank when it happened to me. If you have any livestock I'd be curious to hear how it affected them. I hope when it comes time to move this tank that it won't come back but now you got me wondering.

 

[rottface4]

Scott - I had livestock in the tank each time I moved it. The first two time I had now problem effecting my livestock. This time I have had some SPS STN, and everything else in the tank is fine. However, I have a feeling that something else caused the STN'ing. My inlaws painted the whole inside of the house before we got new carpet, and I noticed that it was effecting my skimmer, so I assume that the fumes effected my pH and that caused the STN'ing. But not positive on that one.

 

[newtophish]

Scott, Awesome thread and fantastic project. I just read throught he thread. I heard about it on Melevs reefcast.

This morning listening to reefcast this afternoon reading your thread...I might have to get some work done now!

 

[fgarner]

That's awesome!!!

 

[WDLV]

I just noticed this thread. I read the first few pages then scanned the pics. Wow! You did a great job from start to present. Nice job planning and great use and choice of materials. A lot of great foresight went into that tank.
Keep the pics coming.

 

[Kyle12781]

Awesome thread... I really would love to build something like this some day. The only thing that scares me, is how much do you think it costs to operate this tank on a monthly basis? Not including the new livestock purchases, just electrical and additives...

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7736769#post7736769 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by newtophish
Scott, Awesome thread and fantastic project. I just read through the thread. I heard about it on Melevs reefcast.

This morning listening to reefcast this afternoon reading your thread...I might have to get some work done now!

Bah. Work is overrated.

 

[Genin]

congrats on the breeding clowns. the finished product is awesome looking.

 

[sidewinder770]

rottface4- Glad to hear it's not affecting your livestock but it kind of suprises me as well. Is it getting any better yet? I would think that snot might cover some SPS to the point it makes them RTN but then again mine was mostly on the surface of the water and there wasn't a lot in the water column. Hope it all goes away soon for ya!

newtophish, fgarner, WetSleeves, Genin- Thanks for the compliments. It's been a long project and hopefully someday soon it will be complete. We'd really like to finish the cabinets but I also really don't want to be doing much work outside right now. It's suppose to be 116 degrees today!!! I think the chiller will be working OT today!!! The clowns are definately cool to watch and they seem to be breeding all the time now. I'll try to keep the pics coming as I know a thread is worthless without pics

Kyle12781- I think our monthly operating costs with water, salt, annual bulb replacement, suppliments, etc is probably about $60-$70 a month. The electric for just the tank itself is about $200 a month this time of year since it gets so hot and the summer rates are a lot higher. In the winter I'd say the electric is about $100 on average...maybe a little less since we don't really have to use the house heater hardly at all...the tank keeps the house warm in the winter

 

[sidewinder770]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7740534#post7740534 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Bah. Work is overrated.

I'd have to agree with you there!! . I actually listened to your reefcast #7 & 8 yesterday at work......... so I guess work is good for something

I have to admit- until yesterday, I had only listened to the first 6 reefcasts so it was a suprise to hear my tank mentioned (I didn't expect a new Reefcast so soon- you guys are making regular shows now). Your reefcasts are definately cool and to anyone who hasn't listened you're missing out. Just in case people don't know where to go it's http://www.reefcast.com/ or follow the link on Melev's site.

We'll probably be out in the Dallas area in the next month or 2 and would love to stop by and see your tank and if you happen to be doing a reefcast I'd be happy to be part of it. And of course I'd bring some Crown and Coke with me or . If things go as planned we'll be living in TX down the road as well.