270 Gallon SPS tank for JBNY

[JB NY]

I thought I would finally get moving with this thread.

If you missed some of my postings a few months ago I decided to take down my tank after being set up for 5 years to make way for a larger one. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it , I am doing some renovations around the house. One of the renovations is having the existing hardwood floors re-sanded and re-finished. In order to do this I felt the best thing to do was to completely break down my tank and move all salt water creatures out of the house. So over the course of a month or so I split up my live stock between 3 friend's tanks. With the thought that if something happened to one person's tank the others would be a backup for me.

Here are a few old threads

Giving livestock to a local aquarium.
Tank pictures from last year
Tank of the month 2002

So finally on June 10th with some great help from a few friends the tank was fully broken down and all livestock and hardware I was not keeping was given away or sold. For the most part, nothing has been done for the last two months as the summer crept in and I got some work done around the house.

But, the hardwood floors were finally done this week, so now I am picking up this project and thought it would be great to have a little thread to discuss it and learn any new tricks from those who have put up big tanks as well.

So here is what I am planning on doing.

270 gallon SPS tank. (72x36x24) Starfire glass on three sides with Eurobracing.

For equipment I am going to try and use as much of the old equipment that I can.
My basic equipment list right now is.

Skimmer: Barr Aquatic SK4200 Duel Beckett Skimmer
Skimmer pump: Using circulation Pump
Sump: Custom Sump to be made
Refugium: 55 gal. BB with Chaetomorpha macro algae not sure if I will keep this
Return/circulation pump: Sequence 6000SEQ23
Circulation UPS: Tripplite APS512 Power Inverter/Charger 95AH Deep Cell Battery
Circulation: (2) 1" Wavy sea
Circulation Powerheads: (2 or 3) Tunze Turbelle Stream 6110
Lighting Ballast: (3) 250 watt IceCap electronic MH Ballast
Lighting Ballast: (1) Icecap 660 VHO Ballast
Lighting Bulb: (3) 140w URI Super Actinic
Lighting Bulb: (3) 10000K XM MH Lamps
Lighting Bulb: (2) 11w blue bulbs for moonlight
Tank Automation: Aquacontroller 3
Ca reactor: MTC ProCal
Ca Re-circulation Pump: Little Giant 2MDQX-SC
Nilsen Reactor: EcoTech Marine
RO/DI: AquaFX 4 Stage 75GPD RO/DI
Heater: 300w & 250w Won Titanium
Chiller: Aqua Logic 1/3HP Delta Star In-Line
Temperature Controller: Aquacontroller 3
pH Monitor: Aquacontroller 3
ORP Controller: Aquacontroller 3
Ozone Generator: Red Sea Aquazone Basic 200mg/hr with air dryer
Top-Off Float Switch: Lifereef Float switch
Top-Off Pump: Dolphin DP800 1400

here is a quick picture of the tank as I am thinking of it.

[JB NY]

Here are some pictures of the fish room I am going to re-do this area as well. It sits right under the main tank. I am planning on reinforcing the floor in this area as well.

[nine9d]

This is going to be a great build, I will be watching closely.

[thor32766]

yeah that is a sweet setup, keep us updated!

[Arch01]

Your 180 was definitely an inspiration for me. Good luck with the new tank and I look forward to watching your progress.

[reefing102]

very nice

[JB NY]

Thanks guys, I'll be sure to update with lots of pics as things get moving.

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on only having one overflow on one side of the tank?

[tony13]

Joe think about putting the overflow(s) on the back. I did this with my new tank and it's much cleaner on the inside.Who's building the tank?

[JB NY]

I don't want to put it on the back. With were I will be putting the tank. I won't have much room to work with at the back of the tank. So if anything ever went wrong with one of the overflows, I would be really cramped for space if I had to get in there and fix something.

I am thinking of using Miracles aquarium for the tank.

[invincible569]

Nice JB! I cant wait to see the outcome. Miracles is a great choice from what I have heard.

[Milleme]

This should turn out pretty sweet. Im subscribed, just so I can feel like I am part of a legend in the making. Im guessing it will not be in wall since three sides are starfire glass, correct? Can you give us a pic of were the tank will be going? Thanx and GOOD LUCK!

On the overflow question I have no experience with a big tank so i can't tell you anything useful. But it works on my 58 so it seems if it was long enough and had big enough holes drilled it would work fine....

[alien9168]

Looking at the pics of your old tank...i am filled with mixed feelings of happinies--knowing what the future will bring--and sadness...realizing that such a beutiful tank had to be takien down.

Nonetheless...this will obviously be an awsome tank!!!

I wish you the best of luck and cant wait to see this tanks birth and progress!

[wjhuie]

Do the blue party bulbs give you shimmer lines like the LED moonlights?

[Crooke]

JB -

I installed a single corner overflow in my 150 (72 x 24 x 20) and am very happy with it so far. From your diagrams, my overflow is very similar to what you're planning albeit on a slightly smaller scale; 13 x 6 as opposed to your 18 x 9.

I planned the tank out this way mainly for aesthetics, but it's performed well to this point. What are your reservations?

[JB NY]

Originally posted by Milleme
This should turn out pretty sweet. Im subscribed, just so I can feel like I am part of a legend in the making. Im guessing it will not be in wall since three sides are starfire glass, correct? Can you give us a pic of were the tank will be going? Thanx and GOOD LUCK!

On the overflow question I have no experience with a big tank so i can't tell you anything useful. But it works on my 58 so it seems if it was long enough and had big enough holes drilled it would work fine....

Yeah the tank will be up against the back wall in the living room. It is going into the same space that the old tank was. That is the main reason the tank will stay at 6' long. As you can see from the picture it will be in between two shelving units that occupy the rest of the wall.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by alien9168
Looking at the pics of your old tank...i am filled with mixed feelings of happinies--knowing what the future will bring--and sadness...realizing that such a beutiful tank had to be takien down.

Nonetheless...this will obviously be an awsome tank!!!

I wish you the best of luck and cant wait to see this tanks birth and progress!

Believe me I wasn't too happy about pulling the old tank down. But I really wanted to do some improvements to the house that would have been impossible to do with the tank in my home. I really think the new one will be even better.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by wjhuie
Do the blue party bulbs give you shimmer lines like the LED moonlights?

Yeah they do.

Originally posted by Crooke
JB -

I installed a single corner overflow in my 150 (72 x 24 x 20) and am very happy with it so far. From your diagrams, my overflow is very similar to what you're planning albeit on a slightly smaller scale; 13 x 6 as opposed to your 18 x 9.

I planned the tank out this way mainly for aesthetics, but it's performed well to this point. What are your reservations?

I planned the overflows this way mostly for aesthetics as well. I think it will work fine. I really didn't have any reservations about doing it, but a few people mentioned that I might want to go with a center overflow, so it cast some doubt in my mind. But I am still leaning to doing the one overflow on the left side.

[cali_reef]

JB, no wave box in your plan?? I would suggest having one overflow in each corner or one large one in the center if you plan to use one down the road.

Andrew(montepora) bought a same size tank from Miracles in Glass, it looked pretty nice and I placed my order for the cube few weeks ago too. You should check with him on his thoughts.

[JB NY]

I spoke with Andrew a week or so ago.

I was thinking about maybe using a wave box. Why would that change having the overflow on one side?

[scarletknight06]

I've never had a large tank before so take my advice with a grain of salt...........
However, I would urge against the center overflow (unless its external). I have one in my tank and its the only thing I hate about it. It really breaks up the flow going across the tank in the back. A corner overflow wouldn't do so nearly as much and would probably make aquascaping easier too. I've heard the same thing from other large tank owners with center overflows.

[clkwrk]

Can't wait to see this come together Joe !

[Lunchbucket]

JB NY - can't believe you have a thread started!! that means we are one day closer to your new tank. your old tank got so many of us into SPS or reefs i can't wait to see what the new tank (whatever size it will be) will bring

keep us updated and post lots of pics!
Lunchbucket

[cali_reef]

Originally posted by JB NY
I spoke with Andrew a week or so ago.

I was thinking about maybe using a wave box. Why would that change having the overflow on one side?

The water only will be draining 1/2 of the time while the box is on, cutting down the amount of flow back to the sump, alternatively, you'll need to have the water level much higher than usual so the box at the end of the tank is still under the water.

[Konadog]

Joe, my tank is almost exactly like yours 72x30x24 three sided starfire and Eurobracing, but with the overflow in the middle. The overflow box is very small and doesn't take up much room, but at the same time, doesn't give you much room to work with inside. You really don't notice it much if you put reefceramics or rock on the back.

I love the size of the tank and can't wait to see how it turns out.

He is a link to my build if your interested,
My new tank is in (the garage)

Pierce, a new tank?? How does Cindy put up with it!

[kelhuffman]

Joe, my miracles 72x36x25 starphire tank was just set up this week with the overflow on one side. its an external though but relatively small. the overflow grate is only 11 inches long. I turned on the circulation last night (Running iwaki 50) with sump room below tank and about 10 feet away. big concern was too much flow for my overflow grate size but its worked out perfectly. the biggest gamble I'm taking is running all circulation from that same external box using tunzes. nothing on the other side for aesthetic reasons. We'll see if it works out. Pics taken of my construction so far but not posted yet. Definitely still a work in progress.