The Dream Tank 400 Gallon Display - IN THE WORKS - Input appreciated!!!!

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obiwanthegoby

Hair Algae cultivator
Starting construction of the fish room that will house my in wall 84"X36"X30"T Acrylic tank. Plans are to include a 180 or 220 gallon for a fuge, a 40-60 gallon growout and a 150 gallon rubbermaid sump.

Lighting has become an issue because of the depth. The tank was originally ordered as a 25"T tank, but I changed it at the last minute to 30" so that I would either have extra depth for rock work or room for a DSB. Original plans were to leave the DSB out of the display and utilize it in the fuge. Trying to weigh things out with this one, its going to be the "dream tank". Due to the 30" of height my worries are having to upgrade to 3 -4 00 watt halides and the heat and electric associated with it vs using the originally planed 3 -250's. (The MH will be supplemented with T-5)

With the 36" width I am looking at reflectors that will spread the light out good. Any one with a 36" wide tank using Lumenbrights, Lumenmax, Lumenarcs how doo you feel about them? Any pictures?

I started construction on a wooden stand a few weeks ago. Using all glued and screwed 2 X 6's. I formed an 85" X 37" top perimeter with plans to use 10.5" centers for the cross members (havnt gotten overflow locations yet to confirm crossemeber locations). Under this will be a 2 X 6 plate, with 6 glued and screwed 2 X 6 legs. I will top it with a piece 3/4" 7 ply plywood. Anyone have any ideas if this will be sufficient? Ive been looking at going to steel and using the wood stand for the fuge.... I dont want the tank to fail a year from now.. 10 yrs for that matter.

I will be posting fish room plans, and the systems equipment shortly.
 
OK, due to finding pictures of a few reef tanks that have the external over flow boxes on them I just haulted construction of the tank until we can figure out how to size the "holes" for the external overflows. Until them I have posted my Excel sheet of the plannings for the reef.
 

Attachments

I'm sure you've seen this, but this is the stand I used on my 400 acrylic. My tank is 6' x 4'. The stand is 2x4 stud walls, with a 2x6 floor on top. Without plywood walls, this stand has no lateral strength. That's important because if you are going to leave the stand open at the back or have a lot of doors, you need to provide the stand with more lateral support than you see in my stand.

Weight wise...your plan seems fine.

100_0227.jpg
 
The plan was to leave the back side open on one side. So that the sump could be half under the stand. the other side will probably recieve 2 X 4 on 16 inch centers so that I can hang drywall on it and get the tank as flush as possible with the wall.
I have actually been looking at the steel I beam and concrete block type that Sanjay talked about in his thread. Then I could use cut the wooden stand down a bit and use it on the fuge.
 
Tank is a go at 84" X 36" X 30" with an external overflow 2 external oerflow boxes.. Should be picking up the tank 1st of December!!!!!
 
Alright. Tank will be picked up sometime this week when my busy life gives me a break, work is hectic and I have final exams this week also, but in the mean time I have been trying to plan out lighting.

Will 3 250 DE Pendants plus about 400 - 500 watts of T5 be sufficient to light a tank full of SPS and clams?

I really don't want to bump up to 400W Halides if I don't have to due to heat issues as well as an electrical bill. I also can't get my bulb of choice in a 400W DE. (Reeflux 12K). I was thinking of 3 Lumen Bright Wides (250W HQI, down the center of the tank) turned on about 4 - 6 Hrs a day and bank of 6 36" T5's on each side of them, possibly overdriven by an ICE CAP 660, for 12 hrs a day (10 hrs for the daylight bulbs and 12 for the actintic.)
I really don't know if this is going to be enough light output towards the bottom of the tank as at the lowest point of the tank there should be about 26" of water on top of the sand bed.

What do you guys think?
 
"I really don't want to bump up to 400W Halides if I don't have to due to heat issues as well as an electrical bill. I also can't get my bulb of choice in a 400W DE. (Reeflux 12K). I was thinking of 3 Lumen Bright Wides (250W HQI, down the center of the tank) turned on about 4 - 6 Hrs a day and bank of 6 36" T5's on each side of them, possibly overdriven by an ICE CAP 660, for 12 hrs a day (10 hrs for the daylight bulbs and 12 for the actintic.) "

I should have said 6 rows of 2 39W overdriven T-5's. 3 rows on each side of the Halides, for a total of 12 T-5 bulbs.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13852621#post13852621 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JRaquatics
Can't wait till you get started. What are your plans of other equipment outside of the lighting?
Click to expand...

Much as my tank size and lighting has been evolving so is everything else. I actually posted an excel file but things have changed a lot since i posted it just a week or so ago. I am trying to be as energy efficient as possible but here goes the specs as of now.

Main Circulation pump:
Hammerhead Gold - split between main tank and fuge.
Fuge will have 1 overflow flow into growout.
I may resize this pump, not sure as of yet. Have been looking at other similar setups and most are not utilizing the 2000 GPH I would likely see going into the Display, I may down size a bit to conserve energy.

Primary circulation in display:
4 Vortech Mp40w, hopefully will provide enough surge to get a wave going in the tank, if not I will be using a homemade Tunze wavebox or two.

Calcium Reactor:
Shoot out between a Knop S-IV or a Korallin C-3002.
I may have one custom made by my acrylic guy here locally.

Kalk Stirrer:
Probably a home made apparatus.

Protein Skimmer:
Up in the air as of now. I have an ASM G-3 or an EV120 that I will probably use to start up the tank but I will eventually need something bigger and the ASM and EV will be sold.
Acrylic guy in the area is quoting me a large recirc model currently.
Body would be 12" diameter and between 3 and 4 ft high fed by one of the overflows from the display. would utilize 3 mesh wheel pumps processing around 1200 Gallons an hour.
I like the bubble king models but don't like the price....suggestions?

The Fuge Lighting:
Will be a 180 with 5.5 - 6 inches of sand... used to cultivate pods and hopefully green ulva and gracilera.
Im hoping to get rid of my old dual 250 Reefstar lighting and possibly move to T-5's for the Fuge, for efficiency. Given the surface to sand depth I think T-5's would be sufficient for algal cultivation?

Growout lighting:
Will probably utilize a single 250W ice cap pendant system that I have on hand or T-5's havn't decided. Tank will be 48" X 24" X 12" tall... so I am leaning for the T-5's. I also have a marine land Quad T-5 unit I've thought of modding for individual reflectors and using.

This is a brief overview of the key ingredients and nothing is ironed out. I won't be filling this thing till Feb. and it's likely Live rock won't get added till March or April. So MANY MANY things can and will change between now and then I'm sure. As I have stated any suggestions, comments, or smart remarks are taken into consideration and since this is my first BIG BIG tank I'd love to get as much input as possible.

:)

OBI
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13853702#post13853702 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by obiwanthegoby


Calcium Reactor:
Shoot out between a Knop S-IV or a Korallin C-3002.
I may have one custom made by my acrylic guy here locally.

Kalk Stirrer:
Probably a home made apparatus.

Protein Skimmer:
Up in the air as of now. I have an ASM G-3 or an EV120 that I will probably use to start up the tank but I will eventually need something bigger and the ASM and EV will be sold.
Acrylic guy in the area is quoting me a large recirc model currently.
Body would be 12" diameter and between 3 and 4 ft high fed by one of the overflows from the display. would utilize 3 mesh wheel pumps processing around 1200 Gallons an hour.
I like the bubble king models but don't like the price....suggestions?

OBI
Click to expand...

Take whichever of the Ca reactors has the LARGER chamber. Size matters...you can always turn the reactor down, but if it isn't large enough you can't get more out of it.

I like the direction you are headed with the protein skimmer. Again...size matters...and taller IS better.
 
I will most likely go with the custom done protein skimmer, he does good work, and has several of them running in his store all producing lots of dark skimmate. Don't think I could beat his price getting a comparable skimmer either.

As far as the calcium reactors go, I'm in the dark on them. Never used one. My current 120 NEEDS one, but since I'm moving away from it in a few months and everything will be transplanted I will continue to use the Seachem Calcium, Builder and Kalk combo I have been using. (unless I run out of the powder... which is quite the possibility...) I have had several recommendation for the Knop, but the Knop says it handles up to 600 gal. The tank in reality after rock/sand/equipment displacement will likely be around 600 gallons of actual water but I don't want to run on the border and have no room for growth. The korralin however indicates an 800 gallon limit which is what the system adds up to without accounting for displacement from sand ect. I've been looking at DIY models and may have one custom done to match a proven design. Anyone running DIY's?
 
I think 3 400 watts is a good choice for your tank, I have a very similar tank (76lx37wx29h) with 3 large lumenbrights 18 inches off the surface and heat is not a big issue with fans blowing in the canopy, I can keep the tank temps at comfortable level of 78 - 80 with room temp about 75.

I am using coralvue ballast with 12K reeflux bulbs, here is a picture with no suplemental light, just the halides, and tank is about 2 monts old in this pic.

tanktour093102808.jpg
 
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