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-   -   My new 400 G tank (https://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=630143)

Crusty Old Shellback 03/07/2006 09:57 AM

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6896306#post6896306 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thrlride [/i]
[B]Nice room and nice reactor! How many pounds of media does it hold? [/B][/QUOTE]

Don't know yet. I'm still waiting for my order to come in but I ordered three units from Aquatic eco at 2.2 lbs per unit. I hope that's enough for it. It should be here later this week.

jony5 03/07/2006 04:47 PM

holy nice tank

Crusty Old Shellback 03/09/2006 12:49 PM

OK filled up the reactor with 9 lbs of meida. It only filled up half way. But I think that should be enough for now. I still had to throttle back on the recirc pump a little as it was moving the media around at W.O.T. So far so good.

I've got to mount the stairs this weekend, clean out teh laundry room area and install a little drywall. Then I can get it inspected and the permits signed off.

That's when the fun starts. Build a 1 foot extension for the stand, cut a new hole in the wall, and drain/move the tank in place. I won't be draining the tank though til late April.

Snap-on 03/13/2006 09:47 AM

Hey buddy, long time no see man. Very nice work, you’re good with your hands. How’s the mermaid? Where is she? I don’t see her in your pics? LMAO Just kidding, I couldn’t resist.

Wow I’ve been away a long time, too long. Maybe I should go fill up my tank. Hahaha It’s still just the way I left it. empty :(

Crusty Old Shellback 03/13/2006 10:10 AM

ROTFLMAO. STILL EMPTY???:eek2: :eek1:


What's wrong with you? Too much time at the beach?

mermaid is doing fine. I just haven't gotten her into the room yet as she's waiting for her furniture and the tank to go in. Soon.

Snap-on 03/13/2006 10:29 AM

ROTFLMAO too! Funny, aren’t I?

Okay, now make sure we get to see her laying in the sunroom when it’s all furnished. She can be sunbathing if she wants to? :confused:

:lmao:

Crusty Old Shellback 06/27/2006 10:01 AM

OK here's an overdue update on things. :D

The room is finished and the furniture is in. :D Yea!
The main room as viewed from where the tank is going.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/sunroom/final/P1010045.jpg[/IMG]

view looking from the other end. The unfinished area is where the 400G tank will be built in. The two sets of windows next to the wall will be replaced with removable panels so that I can get to the back of the tank when need be.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/sunroom/final/P1010047.jpg[/IMG]

And the tank, still in the garage. :(

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/sunroom/final/P1010048.jpg[/IMG]

I now have a 190G tank W/ a 60G sump set up as a holding tank. It's full of NSW and finally got the temp up to 76 last night. I started moving some of my LR from the main tank into the sump of the holding tank. Hopefully tonight I'll be siphoning off some of the sand bed to move into the holding tank.

I know I can't put it all in there but I want at least 2" in the tank so I can keep my sand alive somewhat. I'm going to have to keep some of the sand and some LR in trashcans for a while. I'll put powerheads in there and hope for the best.

AS for equipment updates, I picked up a OM 4 way which will be going on my return. I'm going to replace the drum with one that opens one port at a time. I'll have one port in eact corner of the top of the tank. That way i can set it up for a cross tank reversing flow. I'm also going to be putting eductors on my C/L to help increase the flow.

I have a design now for the cabinet to cover the tank but that will be a while before I get to that point. The main part now is to transfer the LR and live stock into the holding tank and start tearing down the setup. More to come later. :D

melev 06/27/2006 12:16 PM

The room looks great.

Your tank will go perpendicular to the unfinished wall, in front of the windows, right? You stated removeable panels, so does that mean two windows are going to be removed?

Looking forward to the next update. :D

Crusty Old Shellback 06/27/2006 01:05 PM

Yep, two sets of windows will be removed. The tank will center on that wall with the skimmer sitting to the right of the tank. There will be a cabinet to hide the skimmer. You will be able to see the tank from the front as well as the left side. I'll have almost 12" behind the tank. The removable panels will make it that much easier to work on the tank from the back if need be.

melev 06/27/2006 01:16 PM

Sounds great. :thumbsup:

Crusty Old Shellback 07/03/2006 10:45 AM

OK a little up date but no pics yet.

I got the tank tore down this weekend. 2 X 55 G trashcans full of LR w/ powerheads running in them. 65G trashcan full of LS. I moved a bunch of rock and LS into a 190 holding tank. about 2" of sand on the bottom and a nice long ridge of LR. I also filled up about 3/4 of the 60 G sump with LR. I moved the fish and corals into the holding tank and they seem to be OK. I had some Amoina yesterday so I'll be keeping and eye on that. I put up a 400W MH light on a light mover for now so that the corals have some light. Now I have to start cleaning and rebuilding everything.

One thing I noticed when I too my skimmer down was that it was filled, both the inside of teh skimmer and the 30G skimmer sump, with a ton, and I lreatley mean a ton, of baby snails. The whole inside of the skimmer and the bottom of teh sump. The bottom was so rough it was werid. All snails on the bottom. I guess I was doing something right in the system.

Also I found some pods growing in the system. Weird in that besides the usual brown ones, I had some that were black and some that were white. And I'm talking a bright pure white or a coal black.

MargaritaMan 09/11/2006 05:02 PM

HEY STRANGER!!! Geez, It's been forever since I've been on here! That room looks great. Glad to see some of the Big Boys are lookin' good. Rudy, Green Hornet, and the huge Vlamingi; I miss those guys but not the upkeep. Post some more pics please. Click this link to see what I've been up to and where the money went. [url=http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43770]http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43770[/URL]
Still have the 180 and all is well. Rose anemones just keep multiplying.

MM

melev 09/11/2006 05:06 PM

Congrats MM!

Snap-on 09/11/2006 07:44 PM

[b]MM:[/b] Speechless

[b]Ray:[/b] Nice work, but no princess. :thumbdown








:lol:

Crusty Old Shellback 09/12/2006 09:00 AM

Hey strangers.

MM, I can't see the photo bucket pic's due to work. I'll have to check them out at home. Damn govt. But from your avatar, looks like you got the blower motor built. Congrats. Also on the magazine.

As for the fish, the Vlamingi, sailfin and rabbit all went to a local here who has a 1100 G tank in his office. I was just running out of room with all of the fish and the fact that I want to put corals in the tank. They were beautiful fish but I needed to thin out the big guys. The two Naso's and the pink tail are staying with me. They seem to be doing fine and will follow me around the tank, waiting for me to feed them a sheet of nori.

Thanks everyone for teh compliments on the room. Yea it took me a year to build it but I did it all by my lonsome. The tank has been moved into the room now and I'm starting in on the plumbing nightmare. I say nightmare as I'm trying to incorporaite a backflush system for the C/L filter system. It should work in a way that I can isolate the filter from the system for cleaning and at teh same time, reverse the flow thru the C/L so that I can flush out anything thats stuck on the intake screens. The main plumbing is done and checked out except for the pump return. I'm hooking up a OM 4 way to that return and just need to plumb it. I'll get some pic's posted when I get the chance.

Take care everyone and MM glad to hear from you again.

Crusty Old Shellback 11/07/2006 10:39 PM

OK here we go with a update finally. With picturs even.

First off, the tank and stand are now in place in the new room thanks to the help of some MASVC club members and a few good neighbors. Thanks everyone.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010005.jpg[/IMG]

Me and my tank. :D

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010003.jpg[/IMG]

Crusty Old Shellback 11/07/2006 10:39 PM

My CL returns from a OM 4 way run by a Barracuda pump. This end of the tank will not be viewable. The returns make a nice wave across the water.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010012.jpg[/IMG]

This is the other end and returns. They will be coverd by some rocks/sand. The plumbing on the outside will be covered by a small shelf as this end will be viewable. Also the white plumbing you see on the bottom of both pic's is the return from my other CL which is run by a Hammerhead and has my swimming pool canister filter on it to keep the big stuff out.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010013.jpg[/IMG]

Crusty Old Shellback 11/07/2006 10:43 PM

Access to the back of the tank. I made 2 removable wood pannels to replace the windows that were in the wall. This provides 2 purposes. 1 to block out the sun from the back of the tank and 2 to allow easy access to everything behind the tank.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010019.jpg[/IMG]

In this one you can see the far pannel installed along with my swimming pool filter. The filter is all plastic so no big deal that it's outside. I'll eventually make a cover for it to hide it some. Just not enough room inside for it.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010023.jpg[/IMG]

Crusty Old Shellback 11/07/2006 10:47 PM

And finally some of my rock work.

The large arch over to the left is all one peice of LR. It weighs about 50 lbs and is about 2 feet long. I'm going to place my monti caps on top to cover it with.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010035.jpg[/IMG]

This is the other side. I think I'm going to raise this pedstal some more. I'm still depating on leaving it as an Island or making it a ridge back to the corner. The wife syas Island. It too will be covered with some monti caps as will all of my upper platform I put in.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/blown63chevy/400%20build/P1010028.jpg[/IMG]

My next big task is to go collect another 600 G of NSW to fill the system. I had done this before when I ran into some leaks and had to drain it all. But that's another story.

melev 11/07/2006 10:59 PM

Good update. The saying "Just add water" comes to mind.... ;)

Snap-on 11/07/2006 11:41 PM

Holy crap, I thought you dropped off the face of the planet!!! I figured maybe you turned to sex as a new hobby. LMAO Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Everything looks really good bud, really good, nice work, can’t wait to see it filled. Should look awesome!!!

dougie 11/08/2006 07:31 AM

Congratulations and Good luck mate.

Crusty Old Shellback 11/08/2006 10:02 AM

Thanks. As they say too, "good things come to those that wait". :D i just didn't think it would take 2 years to do all of this. :rolleyes:

As for the water, I had been filling it up from the hose and checking for leaks and all. Thought I had everything fixed. I went and took 3 100 mile round trips to get 600G of NSW to fill the tank with. Took me 2 days. Well, next morning i find the room flooded again for the second time. Wife IS NOT happy at all.

I almost lost the whole project when I flooded the room and her brand new pergo flooring the first time. Even more so when I went to get some replacements and found out the style we bought had been discontinued. So yea, I was in the dog house for a while until I finally found some more flooring. I'm now waiting until I get the tank filled and everything stable before i replace the flooring. Don't want to go thru that again.

The rockwork in the middle of the tank covers my overflow box which also has my intake screens for my 2 closed loops. Figured that was the easiest way to hide them. I did run a flow test with everything on line.

The 4 way makes some nice wave action in the tank, almost too much, so I don't need a surge tank. From the 2 lower returns, I get a upswelling flow that rotates in a clockwise direction. Then the 2 upper ones on the oppisite end open and I get a counter clockwise rotation and a nic elittle wave across the top of the water. The openings are only on one at a time so all the flow from the Barracuda is coming out of a 1 1/2" pipe. :D

I hope to get water in it this weekend if I get my other pump repaired. I had replaced the bearings in it and apparently got a bad set of bearings. While they were quiteir than the last set, they were still too noisey. When I pulled them out, I found that there was a rough spot in them so I'mm off to the bearing shop to get a replacement.

mflamb 11/08/2006 10:11 AM

...A Barracuda flowing through one 1.5 inch pipe...can you surf that wave!!! WOW...great system...looking forward to seeing live activity in it.

Snap-on 11/08/2006 02:18 PM

Wow bud, sorry to hear about the prior flood. Explains a lot man. Feel sorry for you, the misses must have put your nuts in a vice over that one. Lucky you still have a tank. That incident must have cost you a diamond tiara and a bag of chips.


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