Tall 485 gallon in-wall build
- Thread starter CrazyDiamond
- Start date
woodnaquanut
Active member
So are you planning on mixing a really concentrated salt mix in the 40G Brute to add to the RO/DI already in the tank? If that is the case, you might have a problem. Most salts won't mix correctly that way. The ions will recombine to insoluble solids.
Please forgive me if I misunderstood what you wrote.
BTW the tank looks great.
beautiful build!!! question.. looking thru your pics it looked like a pier and beam foundation.. what did you use to compensate for the weight during construction... near 5000lbs of water and all the other weight always makes me think... my foundation is slab but my current system is a 240g with a 75g sump... and I guess i'm always a little paranoid.. I love your casing and wall work too! big tanks just bring out my happy lol
CrazyDiamond
New member
ThX - MJNTWise! appreciate the mention - I happen have a DA lite controller and am interested in your feedback on their Archon application - are you happy with it ?
CrazyDiamond
New member
woodnaquanut - thx for catching that regarding my approach to mixing the salt. you understood exactly what I am attempting to do with the concentrated mix and I appreciate the heads-up. If you think it is too risky, I will have to think of a better way to introduce the salt to the RO/DI in the tank since I have not mixed it all in advance. Much appreciated.
CrazyDiamond
New member
:lolspin::lolspin::lolspin
ruzzelle - yes; you aint kiddin ! We built the addition over the existing beams where I previously had a deck. However, we extended the floor (where the tank is located) an additional 5 feet. So, when I submitted the plans to the town, they required my architect to have a structural engineer design the section where the tank would sit; due to the expected weight of the aquarium.
Very long story short, the engineer required the contractor put extra concrete footings under the aquarium location and triple-up the beams under the floor beneath it. It was a fairly significant undertaking to construct and the town had to come and inspect everything. The inspector and structural engineer were both really good dudes - they required special cross bracing between the beams running off the foundation and ensured the load calculations were more than adequate to carry the load.
Moral of the story, if you ever put a big *** tank in your house; hire a structural engineer- it helps with the paranioa (a little)
ruzzelle - yes; you aint kiddin ! We built the addition over the existing beams where I previously had a deck. However, we extended the floor (where the tank is located) an additional 5 feet. So, when I submitted the plans to the town, they required my architect to have a structural engineer design the section where the tank would sit; due to the expected weight of the aquarium. Very long story short, the engineer required the contractor put extra concrete footings under the aquarium location and triple-up the beams under the floor beneath it. It was a fairly significant undertaking to construct and the town had to come and inspect everything. The inspector and structural engineer were both really good dudes - they required special cross bracing between the beams running off the foundation and ensured the load calculations were more than adequate to carry the load.
Moral of the story, if you ever put a big *** tank in your house; hire a structural engineer- it helps with the paranioa (a little)
woodnaquanut
Active member
I've never tried to mix salt in the display tank. I'm not sure it would mix well with all the aquascape installed.
How about purchasing real ocean water for the initial fill? If it's available in your area, most suppliers can deliver it and pump directly into tank.
Perhaps some others here will chime in with more workable suggestions.
CrazyDiamond
New member
Good idea
Good idea
John- thats a good idea - I will see if there are any companies around here that can deliver real saltwater to the house and pump it directly into the tank. Thanks.
Good idea
John- thats a good idea - I will see if there are any companies around here that can deliver real saltwater to the house and pump it directly into the tank. Thanks.
danrobberg
New member
Are you going to be able to fit a skimmer in that sump with all that trim in the way?
CrazyDiamond
New member
The skimmer will be external & located in the closet.
CrazyDiamond
New member
6 month update
6 month update
Hey everyone-
The Tank is running great & doing well!
To bring everyone up to date, I never wound up filling the tank with natural seawater. I decided to go old school & mixed synthetic salt into 44 gallon cans to make the salt water. It was a painful process. I was pumping 150 gallons a day for 4 days thru my RO unit. But, 12 batches later, she was all filled up at 1.025.
Cycle went smooth; everything spiked and stabilized in about a week. However, my phosphates went thru the roof. I believe the pO4 spike was due to not 'cooking the dry rock in advance of introducing to the display. I got some heavy 'die off' from the dry rock before it began to develop the beneficial bacteria. So, I did two 50% water changes over a 2 week period (in two shots) to knock the phosphates down to almost zero. That was another fun process. The good news is that everything has stayed perfect since.
Tank is running 2 filter socks in sump (which I change weekly) for mechanical filtration. Live rock (in DT) & MRC biomedia (in sump) for biological filtration. Three Jäger 300 watt heaters (in sump); An aquamedic Kalk stirrer fed thru a tunze osmolator ATO. I am also running a small amount of Carbon and GFO through a BRS dual media reactor on a very slow flow. A reeflo snapper for my return pump (full throttle) a vectra closed loop pump (full throttle) and a digital aquatics RKL with probes for PH, Salinity and Temp which are programmed to the NET module to send me updates. My lights are fluorescent 6500k and 50/50 actinics that I had from an older tank set-up (these need to be upgraded) and I also need to get an appropriate sized Protein Skimmer connected. One of my favorite features in the design is the Semi-Automatic water change system; it can change water in about 15 minutes with the turn of two valves and a press of a button- took some planning, but this was a good decision.
I have added the following fish:
-3 yellow tangs (2.5")
-1 purple tang (2.5")
-1 Midas Blenny (3")
-1 Mated pair of mocha clown fish (2" female : 1" male)
-1 hippo Tang (2.5")
I have also added about 10 small random soft coral and LPS frags to see how they respond:
- random zoos
- hammer coral (2 heads)
- blasto (3-4 heads)
- green mushroom
- red mushroom
- green frilly mushroom
- galaxia
All the live stock is doing well and the tank inhabitants have a nice vibe going.
Once I get the skimmer going and lights upgraded, I am going to look to start a dosing program for Ca, Alk and Mg. Right now, everything is good for my bio load with just mixing some calcium carbonate into the H20 change water and changing 10% a month on the automatic water change set-up. I am a believer that running the kalk keeps the parameters stable.
Going slow and being patient is a good model - that's what I keep telling myself
Will keep making posts on my progress.
6 month update
Hey everyone-
The Tank is running great & doing well!
To bring everyone up to date, I never wound up filling the tank with natural seawater. I decided to go old school & mixed synthetic salt into 44 gallon cans to make the salt water. It was a painful process. I was pumping 150 gallons a day for 4 days thru my RO unit. But, 12 batches later, she was all filled up at 1.025.
Cycle went smooth; everything spiked and stabilized in about a week. However, my phosphates went thru the roof. I believe the pO4 spike was due to not 'cooking the dry rock in advance of introducing to the display. I got some heavy 'die off' from the dry rock before it began to develop the beneficial bacteria. So, I did two 50% water changes over a 2 week period (in two shots) to knock the phosphates down to almost zero. That was another fun process. The good news is that everything has stayed perfect since.
Tank is running 2 filter socks in sump (which I change weekly) for mechanical filtration. Live rock (in DT) & MRC biomedia (in sump) for biological filtration. Three Jäger 300 watt heaters (in sump); An aquamedic Kalk stirrer fed thru a tunze osmolator ATO. I am also running a small amount of Carbon and GFO through a BRS dual media reactor on a very slow flow. A reeflo snapper for my return pump (full throttle) a vectra closed loop pump (full throttle) and a digital aquatics RKL with probes for PH, Salinity and Temp which are programmed to the NET module to send me updates. My lights are fluorescent 6500k and 50/50 actinics that I had from an older tank set-up (these need to be upgraded) and I also need to get an appropriate sized Protein Skimmer connected. One of my favorite features in the design is the Semi-Automatic water change system; it can change water in about 15 minutes with the turn of two valves and a press of a button- took some planning, but this was a good decision.
I have added the following fish:
-3 yellow tangs (2.5")
-1 purple tang (2.5")
-1 Midas Blenny (3")
-1 Mated pair of mocha clown fish (2" female : 1" male)
-1 hippo Tang (2.5")
I have also added about 10 small random soft coral and LPS frags to see how they respond:
- random zoos
- hammer coral (2 heads)
- blasto (3-4 heads)
- green mushroom
- red mushroom
- green frilly mushroom
- galaxia
All the live stock is doing well and the tank inhabitants have a nice vibe going.
Once I get the skimmer going and lights upgraded, I am going to look to start a dosing program for Ca, Alk and Mg. Right now, everything is good for my bio load with just mixing some calcium carbonate into the H20 change water and changing 10% a month on the automatic water change set-up. I am a believer that running the kalk keeps the parameters stable.
Going slow and being patient is a good model - that's what I keep telling myself
Will keep making posts on my progress.
Attachments
Zacktosterone
Active member
Pretty awesome looking
CrazyDiamond
New member
Thanks - much appreciated. Sittin back and enjoying it. It was a great build and it is only gonna get better over time !
CrazyDiamond
New member
Lights for a Deep tank
Lights for a Deep tank
saf1- thx - yes I think their are company's that make leds these days that can deliver decent par readings in very Tall Aquariums, all the way down to the sand bed. I think 30-36" is a very nice height for a tank - go as tall as u can I like seeing the fish swim in all of the open space in a tall tank, but placing corals on the lower rock structures will challenge you. So, you'll need to get some long grabbers and/or tongs for that.
Have you researched the led's ?
Which brand(s) / model(s) have you found that would be suitable for a tall tank?
Lights for a Deep tank
saf1- thx - yes I think their are company's that make leds these days that can deliver decent par readings in very Tall Aquariums, all the way down to the sand bed. I think 30-36" is a very nice height for a tank - go as tall as u can
I like seeing the fish swim in all of the open space in a tall tank, but placing corals on the lower rock structures will challenge you. So, you'll need to get some long grabbers and/or tongs for that.Have you researched the led's ?
Which brand(s) / model(s) have you found that would be suitable for a tall tank?
saf1- thx - yes I think their are company's that make leds these days that can deliver decent par readings in very Tall Aquariums, all the way down to the sand bed. I think 30-36" is a very nice height for a tank - go as tall as u can
Have you researched the led's ?
Which brand(s) / model(s) have you found that would be suitable for a tall tank?
It will be more of a DIY route which I've been using for some time on my 29 gallon bio-cubes and now the 40 breeder. I've been using LED's for a while now over my daughters planted tank and then later retro fitting the bio-cubes.
The 40 breeder probably has too much light but I have it dialed down substantially. I'm using two Rapid Led Borealis Luxeon Z Array's over it. I've supplemented some additional blue and whites, about 6 total, that come on during the small peak/tip of the lighting period. The lights are currently about 12 - 16" above the waterline. More than likely I'll carry over the two Borealis chips and add a pair of 48" wide heat sinks and build out LED's horizontally. This way I'll have two wide LED distributions at the front and back of the tank with the two Luxeon's in the middle. At least that is my thought anyway.
I keep mostly soft corals anyway. Xenia, Kenya trees, green button polyps, with a Hammer has grown out of proportion. Then there are about 5 to 6 rose bubble tips mixed in. I started with one but over the past 5 years it has cloned time and time again. Go figure.
Edit: Forgot to say I like how it all came together. I was re-reading and see that I missed one of your full tank shots showing everything finished, trim, etc. Very well done, talent.
CrazyDiamond
New member
Well, I went with the ReefOctopus Regal 300 External skimmer 12" and hooked it up in the closet on the left of the tank- right next to my aquamedic ks5000 kalk stirrer. It has been running for 48 hours and is just starting to produce some skim. I hard plummed the inlet to a Sicce pump which sits in the sump and T'd the outlet of the skimmer into my 1.5" pvc salt water feed to the sump from my water change station. So, all said and done ; it is a pretty nice set-up. I never had an external skimmer before and really like the way the skimmer allows you to 'dial it in' with the gate valve. Still gonna need to run a waste line from the collection cup and monitor it a bit to get it optimized as it 'breaks in'. The skimmer water output to the sump is producing alot of micro bunbles which are making their way back to my DT. I am hoping this is part of the 'break in' ; worst case, I may have to insert a piece of foam in the sump (between the baffles) to get rid of the micro bubbles. Interested in anyones thoughts on how to deal with this.
Also, picked up two dosing pumps and mounted them on the wall. I had to get another power bar for the reefkeeper lite to support the additional equipment and plan to hook the dosers up to the controller on timers. This is also a 'first' for me as I have always had smaller tanks & dosed manually. I have 5 gallon jugs for the calcium and alkalanity resivoirs & I am looking forward to mixing up the 2 part supplements and figuring it all out. Hopefully this tank doesn't blow through the mixture too quickly. Probably will be a while before I start hoising corals that demand lots of calcium,
so, should this should be a good method for a while.
Hope you guys like the set-up. Certainly appreciate everyones thoughts - please share your wisdom as I continue to take this build to the next level & beyond !
Thx-
Also, picked up two dosing pumps and mounted them on the wall. I had to get another power bar for the reefkeeper lite to support the additional equipment and plan to hook the dosers up to the controller on timers. This is also a 'first' for me as I have always had smaller tanks & dosed manually. I have 5 gallon jugs for the calcium and alkalanity resivoirs & I am looking forward to mixing up the 2 part supplements and figuring it all out. Hopefully this tank doesn't blow through the mixture too quickly. Probably will be a while before I start hoising corals that demand lots of calcium,
so, should this should be a good method for a while.
Hope you guys like the set-up. Certainly appreciate everyones thoughts - please share your wisdom as I continue to take this build to the next level & beyond !
Thx-
CrazyDiamond
New member
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