New 240-tall in-wall setup (been out of the scene for a few years)

[avatarr]

Hello, all. This is my first post on RC but I'm not a total n00b to the aquarist community. I have done a fair amount of research but I want to get thoughts on a few things / feedback on what I have decided or am trying to decide.

A little background:
I had a 55 gallon about 5 years ago with a siphon overflow into a wet / dry sump (that I only used as a sump - took the bio balls out and ran LR / Skimmer). I had a few power outages and of course the siphon caused my living room to get wet a couple times. I vowed that the next time I did it, I was going to do it right. Well, I bought a house a little over a year ago and it has always been my plan to have a tank built into a wall in our basement and it's finally coming to fruition.

I decided on a 240-tall from glasscages.com (72x31x24) and a 65-gallon sump also from glasscages. The 240 has two overflow chambers.

I had a 240V circuit wired into the ceiling above the tank so of course my plan is to run the lighting off that. So far I have only found one supplier of 240V ballasts. Ideas on where to get that?

Next question is about lighting. I don't really want to run actinic supplementation, so I was thinking about going with >10k MH - I forget what was "ideal" - I'll have to check my notes. I think 17k was too high, somewhere in the middle was the sweet spot IIRC. So, color temp is one thing but the question is, do I go 4x400W MH or 4x500W MH? My feeling is that I should probably just go with the 4x500 but I'm not sure. Oh, you probably want to know what I want to keep in the tank. Well, I would like to keep a pretty diverse collection of corals and really at this point haven't decided which ones I will want to keep. My feeling is that even if I decided now, it's quite possible that I would change my mind. I also want to have some clowns and some host anemones but realize they require far less light than corals. Spec for the corals and the anemones will be fine I think.

I will be going DSB - probably using some Southdown along with maybe 100-200# of LS though I'm curious about IPSF - would it be beneficial to pick up some of these packages rather than the LS, just get the LS, or some of both? (the last being my personal feeling) also, 4-6" of sand good or is 6" overkill?

I will have a skimmer but at this point I haven't even gotten into figuring out what kind to get (or make). A detail I will figure out later.

The tank will not be next to a window - not one that will let much light in anyway. It's in a basement (has to be since it will be more than 2000#) and the small window that is near it is covered up. The room that the tank will be in has an exhaust fan to expel the heat created by the MH's - that's the design anyway. I'd like to stay away from having to have a chiller but I guess we'll see how the fan pans out.

I was going to have a vent installed in that room for A/C in the summer but the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that I should just forget it. It's below ground in the basement so I don't think it'll really be too much of a concern to be honest. I think heating will be more of a concern. Which brings me to my next question. Will 250W be enough heat for this setup (approx 300 gal capacity)? I plan to have two heaters - one primary and one backup with the backup being set just a tad lower than the other one.

I realize I'm jumping around here so you'll have to bear with me. I'm going to pick up an RO/DI unit first. I have not yet run the search on these forums and I am confident once I do and read the results that mystery will be solved for me.

I want to automate as much of this as I can. I would like to have a container that is filled by the RO unit automatically and that automatically tops off the tank when necessary (presumably both controlled by float switches).

I have access to industrial monitoring and PLC equipment and wonder if there are measuring devices out there for pH, Salinity, Calcium, Temp, etc that output 4-20mA signals. Anyone know off hand? I would like to look at all the parameters of my tank from a web interface. I could possibly build my own with these probes, it's just a matter of finding them.

Oh, live rock - what's the rule of thumb now for #/gal? Again, haven't gotten that far in the setup thread so I suppose I shouldn't be asking that question but if you want to give insight, it would be appreciated.

I want to have the system on an alternating light schedule - main tank & sump, with two lights in the main tank coming on at one time, a little later the other two come on, later those two turn off, then later the original two turn off. Sort of trying to simulate morning, noon, evening. In the sump, I'm tossing around the possibility of simply having some VHO's on constantly to prevent the macro algae I plan on having in there from going sexual. Not too sure about that though. Thoughts?

... and I suppose maybe the most important question to ask is how should thise be supported? right now, I have the front of the tank sitting in a 2x4 framed wall with the front studs 12" on center providing the structural support for the front. The thought is that the sides will be built the same way and the back will be 2x6 beams or a steel I-beam across. I don't want to have a wall in the back obviously for access to the sump. I sort of thought about possibly building a wall of brick on the sides and using an I-beam for the back. Not entirely sure how to tackle this - only thing I am sure of is that I want to do it right the first time. Once the beast it put up on the base and water goes in it, I want to make damn sure it's going to hold all that weight.

So anyway, this is a good start to a thread. I will post pictures later. Give me your thoughs / comments / questions and as always, thanks for your feedback.

-Jason

[20 20]

First thing that comes to mind when reading that is you mentioned not worrying about a vent for AC. You might want to think about the humidity that tank/sump is going to generate, and find some way to handle that.

[ahill3780]

To Reef Central

I know you said you aren't really a newb but your first post still warrents the intro!

I don't have too much comments or insight at the moment as I am pressed for time but I saw the thread and read through it. I have to say that this sounds like it is going to be a great project! I am onboard with you to see how things go, and I can't wait for some pics! I hope you plan on showing us some shots of the whole process as I am interested in following along since I plan to do a similar sized setup in the future (hopefully sooner than later - but only time will tell).

Anyways, great start, good luck, and I hope to see some great progress! I'll chime in a little later if I find anything that might be helpful.

[avatarr]

I did mention in all that mess that there was an exhaust fan for that room, similar to that of a bathroom. That fan was installed for heat and humidity. I figure it will take care of both - what do you think?

-Jason

Originally posted by 20 20
First thing that comes to mind when reading that is you mentioned not worrying about a vent for AC. You might want to think about the humidity that tank/sump is going to generate, and find some way to handle that.

[avatarr]

And yes, I will provide pictures along the way. If only I would have started with pictures when we were taking it down to the basement. No walkout makes carrying 400# of glass down the steps (with a landing and a 180 degree turn) very difficult. Had I gone any bigger, it wouldn't have made it down - it was that close.

-Jason

[20 20]

OK, I missed the mention of the exhaust fan, so yeah, that would help a great deal.

[avatarr]

this is exactly what i was looking for (from http://www.automatedaquariums.com/cont5conf.htm):


It seems a little outdated and quite possibly there is more out there that will accomplish it with a little better interface than what this offers but the idea is right (not quite sure about the modem [blech]).

-Jason