Stats:
Tanks:
Living Room
-240G acrylic tank, used - drilled, 84â€ÂL x 24â€ÂD x 28â€ÂW
- four 2†durso standman drains
- four ¾†returns
-2†deep sand bed of silica, really for aesthetics only not filtration
Dining Room
-75 gallon glass tank, used â€"œ drilled (soon)
-Common sump w/ 240G
-two 1.5†durso standman drains
-one 1" return
[COLOR= blue]Water movement: [/COLOR]
-4600gph sequence return pump w/ 1.5†return line
-three ¾†seaswirls
-three to four maxi jet mods w/ 2000+GPH
(I estimate 2000gph coming from the return after head loss and 6000-8000gph from the maxijets flow in the main tank, giving around 20X turnover of total water volume/hour)
[COLOR= blue]Filtration: [/COLOR]
-RO/DI input for the water source of course
-50 gallon refugium for phosphate/ammonia chaetomorpha
-425 lbs of Live rock for ammonia/nitrite nitrate
-50 gallon remote deep sand bed for nitrate nitrogen
-media reactor for carbon mostly
-UV filter, maybe, for parasite control and water clarity
-custom made calcium reactor for maintaining Ca/Alk â€"œ may add dolomite for Mg
-skimmer for removal of dissolved organics, being custom built by a friend cheaply, similar to
deltec 701 model
[COLOR= blue]Lighting: [/COLOR]
-T5 icecap660 ballasts x 3 that will run twelve 39W bulbs (36†on both sides of tank)
FRONT L & R
Blue Plus
Aquablue
GE 6500K
Blue Plus
Aquasun
Blue Plus
-DIY Luxeon K2 470nm moonlighting w/ dimmer controls (see my link if you want up top)
-nothing special for the agro 75G tank
[COLOR= blue]Coral: [/COLOR]
**Mainly acropora SPS and maxima clams**
Some LPS â€"œ gonipora, torches, frogspawn
Some zoanthids, mushrooms, GSP, ricordia
[COLOR= blue]Livestock: [/COLOR]
Mandarins â€"œ see below to see the copepod planned cultures
School of flame angels
Percula clowns
Regal tangs
Blue hippo tangs
Powder blue tangs
Yellow tangs
Queen Angels
Cardinals
Maybe copperband, maybe six line wrasse â€"œ talk about that later
Cleanup crews
[COLOR= blue]Maintenance: [/COLOR]
-planned monthly 15-25% water changes based on need (this is done by twisting valves basically, simple)
-calcium chloride for boosting Ca if needed, mag flakes for boosting Mg if needed, Baking soda for boosting Alkalinity if needed, may add lugols iodide on occasion.
[COLOR= blue]Backup: [/COLOR]
-undecided, either a gasoline generator
- or a deepcycle battery auto-switchover for running airlines into the displays to protect the fish in case of power outage
[COLOR= blue]Cultures: [/COLOR]
-nanochloropsis phytoplankton
-isochloropsis phytoplankton
-tetrachloropsis phytoplankton
-copepod cultures
-maybe brine or mysis shrimp cultures
Progress and background:
I finally get to start my tank system. I’ve been living with a buddy nearly rent free for 3 years and saving all of my money for a house and tank project. I passed my goal years ago and saved around $47K, pretty damn good for only being 25! I then pumped half of my money into my house (roof, gutters, central air, remodeled bathroom) and the other half was set aside to furnish my house and then I left around $10K for the tank project.
I got lucky and got a good deal on my tank and some equipment. I bought the 240G tank, sump tanks, return pump, seaswirls, 175lbs of figi and stand along with a lot of other smaller stuff from holeinone1972 on RC for $1500, it was a fun drive in the mountatins from his house in Pittsburgh, PA back to Michigan in the sleet. I held onto the tank for almost 3 months until I found my house in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and moved in. I had other projects to do around the house as you can see in my photobucket albums for the first two months.
I made DIY LR, gave up do to time constraints and ordered some cheap baserock instead. It’s still curing in freshwater. See links at bottom for more detail about DIY baserock.
I setup my RO/DI unit and arranged my tank room before starting plumbing. I have the RO/DI reservoirs setup so I can do water changes via gravity feed in 32gallon increments as needed. It’s handy and quick. Very tidy and nifty.
I did all the plumbing for around $300 and enlarged the holes in the top of the tank for T5 lighting. The tank drains into my main house drain line when doing water changes by twisting 2†ball valve. Very nifty indeed.
I Made a great stuff foam background and covered it with ½†of Portland type 1 cement/sand. I have done this before on my prototype tank linked above. Great stuff is inert and does not breakdown under water, yes it’s reefsafe, hence the proto tank, also see the link at the bottom for a longer thread.
I made a PVC skeleton to mount all of my baserock onto. There are a lot of reasons for this. I can’t think of any real good reasons NOT to do this!
Pros for PVC rock skeleton:
+It gives the tank very very good flow due to the emptiness in the base.
+It gives the fish lots of swimming space, which means I can have more fish.
+I have plenty of unique mounting locations for frags.
+I don’t have to fear rock slides or random collapses against my acrylic walls.
+Mobility, when I move to my future home (hopefully not for atleast 6 years) , I can easily cut pieces of the skeleton out and splice them back together!
+The display looks very “full†without using much rock at all!
Cons for PVC rock skeleton:
-ugly zip ties (will be covered by coralline and frags soon enough, but still!)
-zip ties may eventually rot and need to be re-inserted (that will be a total pain in the ***!)
-I can’t re-rockscape easily (is this really a con?)
Now my tank is constantly draining into the house drain with freshwater while the cement background cures. Next on the list is Electrical! I plan to run THREE 15 amp breakers. I haven’t really figured out what I’m doing for sure yet. I know I have around 30A at full load, so I’m splitting the load up evenly. 12.5A or so from heaters on one breaker. Around 10A for upstairs lighing and powerheads etc. Around 7A downstairs for the return pump, filtration and small lighting for the cultures, growout and fuge. I want GFI breakers, but I’m not putting them on everything. I’m toying w/ putting all lights on their own GFI breaker and everything else on standard breakers. Powerheads will have GFI outlets, but everything else will be standard sockets. Ideas/feedback are welcome!
Planned projects phases:
-electrical is next (three 15A breakers and a lot of friggin sockets/timers, I need help!)
-setup filtration equipment and fuge
-order lights and other various items
-build lighting hood and luxeon K2 LED moonlighting
-setup lab/cultures and start culturing
-make my maxi jet mods
-fill and start cycling tank w/ seed rock
-decide on a backup generation plan of action based on budget
-start buying fish and later coral
Items left to order:
-T5 lighting setup & fuge/growout lighting
-electrical supplies
-New test kits (Ca, Mg, Alk, PHprobe, Nitrate, phosphate)
-Tropic marin Salt, refractometer, periostatic pumps x2
-maxijets w/ mods
-media reactor
-Carbon (I found a source that can get me low ph, granulated activated carbon, 55lbs for $90 shipped)
-Calcium, Magnesium supplement(also bulk source, lifetime 50lbs supplies of Ca/Mg chloride via mag/dowflakes)
-undecided on phosban, will order if needed
-heaters
-cultures for the lab
- random supplies to finish the 75G
-generator, dehumidifier (if needed)
-actual live rock
-Fish/Coral/cleanup
Items on the way:
-Calcium reactor
-Protein skimmer
-glass hole saws
*I have $5500 budgeted for all of the mentioned items above still (skim/reactor paid for)
Why I’ll become tank of the month in 2-4 years
-Interesting background on the tank, will look very lifelike
-Inventive rockscaping will bring the tank to life even more
-Ingenius waterchanging system
-Giant DSB!
-Fairly simple and clean setup
-Dual display tanks could be interesting
-LED custom moonlighting is always cool
-I’ll have a tank room and a lab for my cultures… nuff said
Advice Requested:
-electrical ideas needed for breaker layout
-what to do with my 75gallon tank!?
-stocking numbers for fish, this can come later obviously
-do you really need to shutoff powerheads during feeding?
-importance of a relay on the float switches? Why not just GFI it? It’s cheaper and quick!
-should I do LED or cold cathodes for moonlight?
-problems with the silica sand as a substrate in the display?
-maxi mod input? I can’t afford tunze, sorry buddy
-I need ideas on how to hook up all the heaters? I set the dials independently on each? How will I know if any of them are never turning on since they don’t have pilot lights? I need ideas on this badly quickly.
-Do I really need Kalkwasser with a calcium reactor and the ability to add Ca chloride or baking soda as needed?
-any problems w/ bulk granulated activated carbon, low ph from general carbon.com?
-dolomite as a magnesium supplement
-generation ideas, I can’t afford a full house generator, but I can aerate the water to keep fish alive, but will this keep corals alive? I’m only planning on a max of 24 hours w/o power. Temperature will have to rely on foam and blankets while aerators keep the fish alive, I’m not sure if SPS will die w/o flow, obviously not since they get shipped like that, as long as I can keep it fairly aerated for the fish and temp fairly controlled.
Zachtos’ Myspace 
, no wonder all the hole saws kept burning up, that’s why I bought the reciprocating saw! 
