Swoop's 300g Deep Dimension Build

Looks like things are coming along. As far as the lighting goes, I think your best best is to do Retro kits. Did you get the wooden canopy that matches the stand? I've seen 6 foot tanks with 5 foot bulbs and there is a noticible shadow in the corners. I honestly think that for that size tank you should really look into running 3 250 MH bulbs and supplement with T5 bulbs. The good part is that since the tank is so deep you could run two rows of T5s up front and two rows in the back. Use 5 foot bulbs and stagger them. One up against the left side and the other up against the right side. Then you would have 4 t5 bulbs at 30 a piece instead of a million of them at 24 dollars a piece.
 
Quick little morning update. Made one change to the scape and it made it better.

DPP_0049.jpg

In this pic if you look to the bottom left you can see how those two big rocks that sit on the glass touch each other and make a sorta cave that goes straight down. I wasen't 100% happy with that so I moved the rock on the right over some and now they aren't touching and I have about a 4" path between them that goes into the cave area. It will make it alot better for being able to view anything that may go on inside that caved area. I'll snap a pic tonight and post it.


Reefmaster, I went a little against the mainstream with regards to a skimmer. Call it naivety or stupidity, I call it an experiment. Anyway I bought the Marineland 300 series in sump skimmer that Marineland designed to go well with this tank. Wether it works well in the real world is the magic eightball question. I liked it for a few reasons, one is that it has a very small footprint and two it has a nice price.

My bioload will be very light for a tank this size. Like I was telling a guy at my LFS the other day, a year from now if I have 10 fish in this tank I would be shocked. My main interest is corals. Softies, LPS, SPS. Oh and I like Emerald Crabs. :)

Anyway with what I anticipate to be a light bioload I figured a skimmer that perhaps doesn't work as efficient or as fast as something like a Bubble King or an ATB might get the job done. If things change and my bioload ends up heavier or the Marineland skimmer isn't removing enough organics to not cause water issues then I can always upgrade and have prepared myself for that possibility.
 
So I think I'm leaning towards a 2/3 to 1/3 mix of CaribSea Ocean Direct Original Grade and Ocean Direct Oolite for my substrate.
 
Lighting update.

After much internal debate, opinions of others from this thread and talking to Premium Aquatics I have decided to go with 5ft 4 bulb IceCap T5 Retro Kit x 2 for a total of 8 5ft bulbs front to back.

Kit should be in later this week and then I'll get it mounted into the canopy.

Anyone know how far off the water I should aim for with these bulbs? Also I ordered 2 4inch fans for the canopy. Sales guy (sorry can't remember his name) said I should put one on each end of the canopy blowing into the canopy. Since the canopy is completely open on the back and has 2 full length 2" openings on the top he said that he would blow air in from both sides and it will exhaust out the back and out the openings in the top. Thoughts?
 
mcliffy2 said:
I respectfully disagree, not a waste of space at all. It creates much more room for the fish to swim (two long channels versus one and allows them to swim circularly around the tank), and almost as importantly, allows you to keep the back scraped. I will not bash anyone, but state my opinion that I agree with Delbeek when, referring to the coralline covered back wall, he says:



IMO, you've got three feet of width to work width and a glass tank (which is easy to scrape if appropriately aquascaped), so keep all walls free from rock and scraped clean. Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

Maybe not a waste of space, but since I have mostly frags at the moment, my snails would always knock them between and behind the rocks and I was getting annoyed. I agree about having 2 channels instead of one is better, but it still can be done w the rock against the back glass.
 
KJAhp098 said:
Are you getting the 660 ballast? I keep mine about 8 inches from the surface.
Click to expand...

430 ballast. 2 bulbs per ballast. 4 ballasts. Its the way the kit comes.

I've posted in the T5 Q/A thread but I'll post it here as well, anyone have any thoughts on what bulbs from front to back and also what bulbs should be paired for proper dawn/dusk simulation.
 
Well here is what The Grim Reefer came up with for me for my T5 lights.

Front
ATI Blue Plus
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Blue Plus
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus

I'd do 2 of the Blue Plus for dusk dawn.
Click to expand...
 
Looks like you will be going with a totally overdriven system. I would suggest adding more than a couple of fans since the bulbs do run hotter than normal. This is to keep the life of the bulbs longer then less than 8 months. Also with such a spread of how wide the tank is why not add 2 more giving more of a spread?
 
Thats wierd that it comes with 4 ballast. I would think that would make it much more expensive. But I think the retro kits are the way to go. The cool thing about those is if you decide you have too much light fall off on the sides you can get a 36" 4 bulb retro and put two on the left and two on the right, running the bulbs front to back

Can't wait to see this tank up and running..its gonna look really good!
 
I to was figuring 4 lamps per ballast, but according to IceCap you can only run 2 T5s on a 430 ballast. I also think running 4 5ft lamps on a 660 ballast would exceed the max lamp length. So I guess those two things combined are the reason for 4, 430 ballasts.

I ordered a Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Elite with Network Interface controller today, also ordered their lunar simulator addon and 6 white led pods for the lunar cycle simulation.

Is it okay to mount the IceCap Ballasts inside the canopy on the back or would I be better mounting them somewhere inside the stand?

Galantra, I'll start with the 2 4inch fans and go from there. I don't want this thing to sound like a tornado. I think the fact that the top of the canopy has the openings in it that it does, plus the back being open a good bit should dissipate the heat enough. But I can always add more. Also I went with 8 bulbs based on feedback from a couple people earlier in the thread. But I can always add more :)

Don't even have the kits in yet and already happy I went with a retro setup.

As we speak RO/DI water has been going in for the better part of 2 days now. Possibly by tonight it will be at the top of the overflows starting to overflow. Hope to start adding salt tomorrow, worst case Thursday.

I have my fingers crossed that my retro kits and the lunar leds come in Friday so I can spend the weekend getting my canopy wired up and ready to go.

Picking up 360lbs of CaribSea sand on Saturday from my LFS. Went with 6 bags of their Ocean Direct Original Grade and 3 bags of the Ocean Direct Oolite. Assuming I get the water and salt mixed I'll be dumping sand in Saturday night. Then start testing for a cycle. Might add a few pieces of live rock from my LFS in as well.

I've also been ordered by my wife to construct a bench to place infront of the tank for comfortable eye level viewing.
 
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wow i thought I had problems figuring things out. I'm going with 3 660 ballasts with 4 lamps each for a total of 12 lamps on a 200DD.

I also pickup the RKE with net, got a good deal at DIYreef, I was thinking about doing the lunars as well but only with one pod and somehow having it travel from one side to the other.
 
Looks like you've got a real good start. I'm getting ready to upgrade my 180 and was all but ready to start filling a custom 240 (tall) but seeing this and a couple others has me second guessing myself and wondering if I shouldn't bite the bullet and go with the 300 DD instead.

If I do I'm thinking of getting rid of my current 3x400MH / 2x80 T5 setup and try out a 12x80 T5. I'm really curious if the 8x80 is enough so hurry up and try it out so you can let us know :) I've got one IC660 now so all I'd need is 3 more...
 
mlb75 said:
Looks like you've got a real good start. I'm getting ready to upgrade my 180 and was all but ready to start filling a custom 240 (tall) but seeing this and a couple others has me second guessing myself and wondering if I shouldn't bite the bullet and go with the 300 DD instead.

If I do I'm thinking of getting rid of my current 3x400MH / 2x80 T5 setup and try out a 12x80 T5. I'm really curious if the 8x80 is enough so hurry up and try it out so you can let us know :) I've got one IC660 now so all I'd need is 3 more...
Click to expand...


My Retro kits should be here Friday so hopefully the first of the week I'll have the canopy on the tank and light her up.
 
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