The start of my 300Gal starfire SPS tank

[makoJ]

Never done a tank build thread so here is my go at it.
Thanks to John and Brian at KingFish Aquariums in Austin for all of their help and time in planning and furture building of this system.

Tank:
Tank will be here in 2 1/2 weeks its going to be 96" x 30" x 25" tall, front is 3/4" low iron glass and the back and side panels are 3/4" standard glass. Made by Aquarium Environments
The bottom plate is type sch. 80 pvc with 5 holes counter sunk for my close loop.

CAD drawing:

Flow:

Closed loop:
oceans motions 4-way plumbed with a Sequence Barracuda

and using 4- 1.5" Omni Flex Nozzles

Tunze Streams:
I don't know how many of these I'm going to use but I currently have:
1-6200, 5-6100's,1-6080 and a 6060 as well as a multi-controller.
I will have to see where to place these as the tank gets plumbed up.

Return pump:
Sequence Dart

Sump
I designed the sump to run 4 - 7" filter socks and made it large enough to fit under the Iron stand that Aquarium Environment's is making me.

My CAD drawings:

Dan at Dan Aquatic's in San Antonio made my sump to my CAD drawings.

Room
The tank is going in between the windows and I will make a fake wall which will give me a small fish room behind the tank to work with.

I will keep updating the post with new pictures and progress and thanks for looking!

 

[invincible569]

Nice to see another AE creation. Welcome to the club! The guy who builds these tanks is considered a whiz and is very well respected. I didnt see anything about the top.. is it open top?

Also, what kind of lighting do you plan to use?

 

[Bebo77]

what are all those little pieces of acrylic doing all over the sump?

 

[makoJ]

invincible569
Thanks I totally forgot to add lighting LOL
I'm going to be running 5- 400w 10k reeflux MH and 4 - 8' VHO actinic's. I'm going to build a custom hood that I can raise, out of aluminum. Eventually I will be adding Lumenarc's but right now it will be spider reflectors.

Bebo77
those are there for extra bracing, I don't think they are needed but it doesn't hurt either.

 

[invincible569]

Post pics when you get it! Are you picking it up or are they delivering to you? The PVC idea is a great idea. You can accidentally drop something, not worry about your tank blowing up from all that stress.. and so on. LGAquaria in Italy also uses PVC with glass. Thats the only other place I know of that uses this technique. I do know that AE has been doing this for more than a decade though without any problems.

 

[makoJ]

They are delivering it to me. I will take lots of pictures I can't wait!!

I have to get it plumbed quick b/c I have to transfer my 150gal into it by the end of December.

I was blown away by the pvc bottom, its like built in BB lol

 

[adddo]

Looking at your 75g im thinking this will be a killer tank!

Keep us updated!

 

[jnarowe]

Strange. I saw a 150g...and it was sweet. Love this picture:

 

[alien9168]

Lookin forward to this build!
It looks like your off to a great start

 

[JGross4]

Nice! what thickness acrylic did you go with on the sump?

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

way to go mako...following along on this one.

 

[Reefinabox]

Looks like it will be fun. Tagging along

 

[makoJ]

jnarowe--I have a 150gal and my wife has a 75gal

JGross4-- its made of 1/4" acrylic

thanks everyone! wish me luck

 

[jnarowe]

nice.

 

[boozeman]

good luck!!
wheres the popcorn

 

[naka]

Congratulations Brian on your new setup. Keep us updated w/ your progress b/c I love your photo taking skillz. Nice job on going w/ external overflow box. If your front glass is low iron from AE, then I'm pretty sure your getting Starphire (PPG). I'm going to follow this thread for sure.

James

 

[makoJ]

Thanks James!

I pretty sure its Starphire also can't wait to see the tank

 

[z28pwr]

Congrats on the new tank Brian. You'll have to invite us over to take a look at it once it's up and running. I'm really curious about that PVC bottom.

 

[KingfishJohn]

John from Kingfish here and a few quick notes about Brian's tank.

The tank is actually 1/2" glass with the front panel being starphire. Then the whole tank is eurobraced using 3/4" acrylic.

The other big one is that the tank is actually being manufactured by Acrylic and Glass Exhibits (AGE). Their website is here www.acrylicandglassexhibits.com

I'll be following this thread

John

 

[invincible569]

Brian.. check out AGE's website which is building your tank.. there they talk about Tommy.. the guy I told you about.

http://www.acrylicandglassexhibits.com/