Triple-S Fish Ranch - 1700gal 164” x 48” x 56” SPS peninsula build

pmrogers

Premium Member
After almost 2 years of architecture, engineering and construction, my 'new' tank project is finally close enough to reality to start a build thread.

Vision: A see-through wall of ocean, sparsely aquascaped with a mix of pillars and atolls. Corals: mostly SPS, LPS, small selection of softies. Fish: assorted tangs, large schools of chromis and anthias. All equipment located remotely and completely inaudible in the living space.

The S's of Triple-S are:

Starphire - No more acrylic for me. 8 years of dealing with scratches on our 750gal was about 7 more than I needed to know that glass was the only choice for me.
Silent - The tank must be completely silent as it opens onto a family room/media room with a noise floor target of 21dB.
Slow - Absolutely nothing living goes into the tank until it has been through 2 full months of quarantine.


Setup Details (so far):
Tank: 164" x 48" x 56" FRP & Starphire with external overflow
Fish room: 39' x 9.5', roughly, (irregularly shaped)
Sump: 125" x 35" x 44"
Quarantine Tanks: Four 75gal 48" x 18" x 21"
Coral Prop tank: 36" x 36" x 18"
Lighting: 8x Ecoxotic 120W Cannons
Filtration and Flow: TBD

To get the pictures started, the tank delivery...

Tank arrival:
tank+arrival.jpg


Uncrating:
tank+uncrating.jpg


Hoisting:
tank+lift+1.jpg


tank+lift+2.jpg


And finally, on the stand:
tank+on+stand.jpg
 
Sump

Sump

The sump took about 2 months of back and forth email with the (incredibly patient) folks at MRC to design. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Full tank shot - bulkheads on bottom are for draining the sump.
sump-fts.jpg


Drain area. Six 32" filter socks and an overflow lip (not shown) in case the socks ever clog

sump+drain+zone.jpg


Reactor, Skimmer, and support tank returns
  • Area 1 - Five bulkheads on the right flow through 3 additional 16" filter socks: these won't typically be installed, but when I swap out GFO or Carbon I will temporarily install these socks to pick up fine dust from the media.
  • Skimmer Return - the small square opening on the left has a drip plate for a carbon bag. It will be used to strip any residual ozone from the skimmer.
  • Unfiltered returns - Left of the skimmer return are 4 1" and two 1/4" fittings are for returns from unfiltered tanks and reactors: refugium, cryptic live rock tank, frag tank, denitrator, calcium reactor, dosing pump returns.
sump+skimmer+and+reactor+return+area.jpg


Looking from the drain area (off bottom of image) past the reactor, skimmer, and support tank return areas. Bubble trap and return pumps are at the end:
sump+lengthwise+view.jpg
 
Thanks everyone for the nice welcome.

Can i ask who built your tank?
Brya

Waterdog Products. I'll put up a full post on the tank later. For now I'll just say this is a small tank for them, and I had to politely beg to get them to take on this project.
 
wow, speechless.....however, question: it appears that $ are not much of a factor here, and sps' are the top priority. why leds, which have an uneven record with sps', and not MH/t5s to ensure success.
 
Looking forward to watching this develop. Given the obvious planning, I'm sure you have the LED situation well in hand. Other's poor experiences notwithstanding.
 
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