Looking into a 1300g - Have Lg tank Questions

[dellrio]

1 - Will a standard Calcium Reactor be sufficient or will i need more than one... The one i currently have on my 125 says it is good up to 300 gallons.

2 - The dimensions are 120L X 48W X 60Tall - for lighting i was considering 4 - 1000 watt halides, 4 - 400Watt halides - 8 - 48"VHO's on two ice cast dimmers. Will this be enough light for this deep of a tank?
( This tank will have its own breaker box seperate from the house )

3 - For Water Flow it will have 2 - 30 gallon surge tanks 8 turbelle streams, 2 closed loops with a SCWD on each for a total of 4 returns each at about 700 GPH and 2 5600 GPH return pumps with 4 or 6 returns.
Would this be enough flow or even too much perhaps 4 of the streams would be better.

4 - A pallet of Southdown and 2000 lbs of base rock from www.hirocks.com ( anyone have a cheaper place ) along with the 300 lbs of LR i currently have and the sand i currently have to seed the new sand.

5 - the tank room will be covered in epoxy or something similar to prevent the walls from rotting out and will have ventilation striagt from the lighting enclosure to the outside. Will have 2 150 gallon rubbermaid sumps and 1 150 gallon rubbermaid refugium will build my own very large protien skimmer.

This is all just my plan - is it feasable? What other things do i need to think about or consider? I have already approxamated the electric bill for the tank alone to be at about $250 per month i figure with all factors included the tank will cost approx $400/month to operate on top of inital set up costs.

Anyone with large tanks out there give me ideas, suggestions, correct my cost estimates for monthly costs...

Thanks for your time
Nick

[KenT]

1. The question answers itself.
2. You will not be able to reach the bottom without flippers
3. Flow is good
4. I'm not sure about the lighting, but it will make alot of heat.
5. Should be enough, Oceanlife International has Marshall Is. base rock for less than $2 lb
6. I would go with 300 gal sumps and definately make plans to vent humidity
7. Your plan is definately feasable, but very expensive, it will take a long time to set up, and require lots of maintenance. It can take me over 2 hrs to clean the front panel of my tank, 96"x32", if I let it go too long. I would also go with professionally made skimmers.

Good luck

[mhurley]

I think you're monthly costs are low. electric alone costs me $150 a month, and I only have 4x400 halides. You're basically tripling that. A quick pass through the RC Electrical calculator for your halides and VHO's give me $209 / month, that's just lights. (Not sure what your electric costs you, I used the default that's in there of $.12 /kwh.

I also agree about the professional grade skimmer instead of DIY.

BTW, you're a student at Iowa you're profile says...Are you the sole supplier of beer to the university campus that you can afford this type of monster? :)

Mike

[dellrio]

my electric is .06 Kwh right now - my town has its very own personal power plant.

[dellrio]

actually this will be after i graduate... Computers are good money i hear, plus my girlfriend assuming she still likes me in 2 more years will graduate 2 and i think she wants it more than me- our combined income should help to do this - i am figuring 20K for the inital setup hoping to get that included into a house mortgage (dont quite know how to pull that off yet) but will try - anyways if all else fails we might knock off a bank or 2... JK

[Vistabald]

well one thing you have to keep in mind is the evaporation on a system like that it has to be vented outside (unless you like the humidity of a rainforest) i would like some more thoughts on the system you are planning so it can be crituqed better

[dellrio]

well i had planned to isolate the fish room completly sealed off from the house and all walls ceilings inside coated in epoxy or something so they dont rot - I will probably use an exterior door as well (like going into front of house) so that would be sealed. There will be a vent tube going directly from the (enclosed) lighting fixture to the outside window. I have also thought about having a motorized retractable shield on the light enclosure that would retract when the water dropped a degree or two to use the heat from the lights to heat the water as to consume less electricity by not running tons of 1000 watt heaters. I dont know i am really looking for creative ideas here and perhaps things that i have overlooked - I am planning on at least 2 years before i even start to begin with a project of this magnitude, and probably 2 more years in the actuall setup and getting it running.

[dgasmd]

The key to running big tanks I think is efficiency. The larger the system, the harder it becomes to accomplish some things and the more work it takes to keep it all running smoothly. Also, the more stable the system becomes as well. Despite it all, I like to simplify and to make things as efficient as possible. Here is what I would do if this was MY tank:

Originally posted by dellrio
1 - Will a standard Calcium Reactor be sufficient or will i need more than one... The one i currently have on my 125 says it is good up to 300 gallons.
Nick

This screams custom unit all over the place. Talk to GEO and have him build you a custom unit 10" diameter and 36" tall woth a little giant 3 or 4 for recirculation. Use crush coral for media unless you want to spend hundreds of $ to fill it up with glorified ARM or something else.

Originally posted by dellrio 60Tall - for lighting i was considering 4 - 1000 watt halides, 4 - 400Watt halides - 8 - 48"VHO's on two ice cast dimmers. Will this be enough light for this deep of a tank?
( This tank will have its own breaker box seperate from the house )
Nick

CUT the tank in half and make it 30-36" tall. Anything past that and you are going to ahve to get inside completely to get it cleaned. You'll be surprised how often that will be and how soon that will become a huge PITA. Have you though about the cost of bulb replacement you are talking about here yearly?? It would feed a small country:D :D I would go with 5 x 1000 watt with lumenarc 3 reflectors by themselves. I head the corallife 20K are good choices in this wattage. If not, go with the ushio 10K and add another 4 or so 250 watt 20 radiums or other blue for color enhancement only. forget the rest. It is overkill.

Originally posted by dellrio
3 - For Water Flow it will have 2 - 30 gallon surge tanks 8 turbelle streams, 2 closed loops with a SCWD on each for a total of 4 returns each at about 700 GPH and 2 5600 GPH return pumps with 4 or 6 returns.
Would this be enough flow or even too much perhaps 4 of the streams would be better.


Again, very unnecessarily redundant , overcomplicated, and very costly too. I would put 5 x sequence 5800 pumps on close loops and 2 iwaki 100 with 2 eductors each for returns. With that much, a whale would have a hard time swimming there:D :D :D

Originally posted by dellrio 4 - A pallet of Southdown and 2000 lbs of base rock from www.hirocks.com ( anyone have a cheaper place ) along with the 300 lbs of LR i currently have and the sand i currently have to seed the new sand.


I would highly encourage you to skip the sand here. It is the one thing you will regreat in your life. Also, don't go crazy putting tons of rocks there. I would say 350lb of dead rock and then your current LR on top of it. In 6-9 months, you won't be able to tell which was which. I did exactly that in my tank.

Originally posted by dellrio
5 - the tank room will be covered in epoxy or something similar to prevent the walls from rotting out and will have ventilation striagt from the lighting enclosure to the outside. Will have 2 150 gallon rubbermaid sumps and 1 150 gallon rubbermaid refugium will build my own very large protien skimmer.
Nick

I would skip the multiple sump idea and have a single 150g sump for the equipment and then another 300g one for a refugium lit by NO bulbs. You won't really need more than that. Also, I would put a direct duct sucking out the air directly to the outside set by a humidity or temp controller. It is a must unless you install a heat/air exchanger in the room, which is not a bad idea either.

Originally posted by dellrio This is all just my plan - is it feasable? What other things do i need to think about or consider? I have already approxamated the electric bill for the tank alone to be at about $250 per month i figure with all factors included the tank will cost approx $400/month to operate on top of inital set up costs.

Anyone with large tanks out there give me ideas, suggestions, correct my cost estimates for monthly costs...

Thanks for your time
Nick

Your cost will be more like $25-30 to start and a lot more to run than what you ahve planned. You have to remember a lot of other things you did not mention like heaters (would use fireplugs on the returns), chiller (likely a 1 HP unit or 2x3/4 HP units for some built in redundancy), etc. Also, think of all the things you will have to use and buy yearly for maintenance like carbon, phosphate reducing media, magnet replacement pads, fish food, additives, Ca reactor media, equipment, etc. It won't be cheap.

All that and we haven't even talked about anything live yet. That will actually be the dictating factor as to what you actually get. Go with softies mostly and you won't need the 1000 watt MH at all for example.

Oh, for a skimmer, I would go with a quad beckett unit driven by 2 iwaki 100.

Any other questions??