300+ gallon tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

[concept3]

This is what I've been working on the past month or so: an 8 foot by 2 foot by 2 1/2 foot acrylic in wall tank.....

NO, this is NOT my tank, but rather a friend's tank that he wanted converted from FOWLR to a soon to be all-out reef tank after seeing pics tanks on the web and my SPS tank.  FOR ALL INTENSIVE PURPOSES, I WILL CALL IT MY TANK RATHER THAN "Paul (or HIS) tank"........


Paul has had this 300+ gallon monstrosity for over 4 years now, but the acrylic had WAAAAAAY many scratches on it from crushed coral getting stuck between the magnets and pads.  He asked me for advice on getting the scratches out, and at the same time we started talking about reef tanks.  After a visit over my condo (he lives 5 minutes away), he was hooked.  Out went the 18" clown trigger, 12" puffers, 13" tangs, and here came the 8 step buffing compound and a whole lotta plans for the tank........ with some equipment to boot....

Here's a teaser pic of the tank I'm working on, I'll add more updates tomorrow.....


from the front, looking into the living room:

the back of the tank, in the garage:

 

[MCWarhammer]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

That looks awesome! Wish I had the space/money for something like that, def keep us posted on "your" tank

 

[sinkingbeach]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

I know your further along than that ;D more pics please!!!

 

[Marcelog]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

Looking good Merv. Keep us updated on the progress please.

Marcelo -

 

[steve68]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

cool did u get all the scratches out?

 

[doswari]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

Merv, You sure know how to keep somebody in suspence. Looks awesome.

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

yes, steve. 98% of the scratches came out, the remaining were just way to deep to get buffed out. the remaining scratches i would actually consider as gouges, but they are mostly at the bottom of the tank....



pics will be up in a few minutes guys.....

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

Well, Paul used to have a wet/dry filter, a fluidized bed filter, phosban reactor and 2 powercompacts on the tank. He also had two Iwaki's, a 100 to run his wet/dry return and chiller, and a 40 to run his skimmer and fluidized bed filter/canister filter. The system was heated by a 1000Watt WON brothers titanium heater that was completely oxidized, bubbling and green with all sorts of deposits (and he was wondering why he fish were dying, LOL)

The new acquisitions:
Blueline magnetic 400 W ballasts (X3)
reflectors and sockets to match
MRC-6 Dual chamber Calcium reactor
5 lb CO2 tank 80% full
A 30"+ tall skimmer (forgot name as I typed)
Iwaki 70
75 gallon CUSTOM refugium/sump
Coralife 24" Dual PC lights (for fuge)


Best deal of the year: $750 for the LOT!!!
Traded off: 9-10 Huge Coral skeletons from the FOWLR display.

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

here's a pic of what the back of the tank looked like when we cleared all that old junk out.  the garage was also being worked on, they were finishing up the sheetrock and painting the garage that week.  there was a lot of dust in there when i was "working" those few weeks.

this is the space above the tank. i only had less than 26 inches to work with for the light fixture i was planning on making....... Oh yeah, and everytime I needed to do something in the tank (like buffing to take the scratches out), I always went home with a lower back ache.......



WAIT until you see the contraption of a hood that I sorta came up with..........

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

So as I painstakingly buffed out the tank which took me about a week and a half, (you have to do it by hand 8 different times and direction), I order the Liverock..... I figured i could cook the rock in my 55 gallon drum that I live in, and let it sit in there cooking and skimming while I finish playing with all the new equipment and new tank design...


We ordered about 200 lbs of quality liverock, all about 20+ lbs or more. See, I didn't want to skimp on quality at this point, and he wanted to see all of the same thing, so we went ALL 100% liverock; no base rock on this one. the rock sat in the drum for about 2 weeks, and I installed the skimmer to it. The first week had the most gunk skimmate, and after that it tapered off to almost nothing...... Hmmmm, awesome skimmer i thought.

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

Here are some pics of how the live rock came in:

 

[Marcelog]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

More, more, more!

Marcelo -

 

[BobCReef]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

where did the live rock come from? and what kind of price did you get on it?

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

where did the live rock come from? and what kind of price did you get on it?

Bob, there were two batches of rock. the pics show the first batch. they are from Vanuatu. (I'll PM you the price of the rock).

The second batch of rock that I'll be posting pics up later are from Fiji and Tonga, Tonga deepwater branch and Ultra porous Fiji rock, very very full of life.

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

more pics of the 1st batch of jumbo rock that was purchased. this is the layout that I was planning for the tank, so I spread it out on the garage floor for a look and "feel"..... We wanted to construct a reef wall, since the owner wanted to have the same look as my tank. I explained the benefits of having an open look, but he really really wanted the "wall look"

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

for the lights, I opted to build a sliding rail since there was a very limited space above the tank.  i couldn't find anything pre-made, so I decided to use garage door rails.  I've seen it somewhere before, and a little bit of elbow grease made it happen.

I basically built a light box out of scrap 1/4" plywood lying around the garage, here it is with some cutouts for ventilation.

and how I plan on sliding it around when I need tank access......

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

here is the sliding light box painted (along with the garage):

Here are the lights fired up after I soldered the connections together. The ballasts are on 2 separate manual timers ($12.99 ea @ HD). One is hooked up to the middle ballast for 9 hours, and the remaining two halides are running of one timer (tank corners) for 7 hours.

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

leak test of all my return drain plumbing. I used 3" as the main return for the drains only because we had it handy. I also opted to use 3 sets of ball valves spaced evenly across the span of the tank to make it easy for further applications.

 

[concept3]

Re: 8' X 2' X 2.5' Tank build.....my side project for Paul C.

flex pipe is the return drain, black pipe is the return line up.
here's a pic of the left side rear:

The right side of the sump, with an interesting Tee off of the return pump..... one goes directly back up to the tank, while the other one goes under the sump into a chiller, then up to the left side of the tank return.

 

[concept3]

More Live rock!!!

Anyways, back to the rock.....  after placing all the cooked rock in the tank, Paul really really wanted MORE rock, so we bought our second batch.  This time, we ordered 100 lbs of Fiji Ultra and about 50-75 (I forget) lbs of Tonga deepwater Branch rock.....

The original boulder rock as I like to call it was placed in the tank with my peglegs since we are going Bare bottom with this tank.....  He was tired of getting scratches from the sand/crushed coral, so what perfect way to prevent that!  No substrate for this tank!!!   "Beautiful!"  I said, especially since I ordered a pair of 3000 GPH Tunzes last week, LOL

Here are my peglegged Liverock boulders:

Here's me trying to slowly place the rock and NOT scratch the front acrylic *sigh* my back hurts!!!

My first attempt at aquascaping, believe it or not, this is about 200lbs of that super dense Live rock!

The PEGLEGS enable me to raise the rock completely OFF the bottom to allow water to circulate completely around to prevent anoxic areas. It would also allow me to place water jets to shoot any accumulated detritus forward for ease of simphoning. The legs were hammered into a pilot hole that was made using a drill bit, and the legs were made out of Dollar Store Black coat hangers cut to length of course........ there you have it! Peg-leg Live rock! (hmmmmm.....maybe I can market the stuff at $9.99/lb )