500 Gallon Fish to Reef Aquarium Makover

[kblack3]

In order to highlight what we offer as a business we wanted to document a recent tank makeover we did for a client of ours. The following posts will depict the different steps we took to turn this 500 gallon fish only into a 500 gallon reef tank. If you have any questions along the journey let me know and i will be quick to respond.

[kblack3]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/150835MVC-050S.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/150835MVC-047S.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/15083513_lrg.jpg

[doug64]

These are pictures of the tank before the make over, And of the beginning stages of the tear down They liked their fish only tank ,But really wanted something better, and decided to upgrade to a reef tank

[kblack3]

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/500-gallon-tank-19.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/P7090665-1.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/P7090661-1.jpg

[doug64]

We had to completely removed the tank because the old frame work (metal,wood}was rusting out. We made a new metal stand and had it powder coated, Plumbing starts! This tank has 4 3,000 gph pumps closed loop 2 sumps and a 3,000 gph return pump

[kblack3]

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/9_lrg.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/5_lrg.jpg

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[kblack3]

We really wanted to focus on flow rate and lighting on this tank. Flowrate is at 15,000 gph and the lighting system has 12- 400watt mh( 20kand 14k Hamilton) and 8- 96watt pc (03 and 71k Hamilton). The closed loops and return pumps are by Aqua-flo and Waterways Skimmer is Aqua Euro , Calcium reactor: Aqua Euro Chiller: 2-1hp Oceanic , UV- 80 watt Aqua Ultraviolet , Ozone-JED engineering controllers are Milwaukee. That is the equipment list . Reef structure was combo of different types of live rock, dead base rock, arragocrete foamed in with black foam by Innovative Ponds. The service rep in the tank is Todd or reef artist. More to come next week!!!

[kblack3]

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/P7090657.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/14_lrg.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/P1050688.jpg

[doug64]

This is a look at the tank starting to get outside finish work done, also the 2 equipment closets ,4 heavy duty 24hr timers we also had 2 sub panels installed in one closet Uv,Ozone and the 2 chillers in the other, both closets were heavily ventilated.
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[kblack3]

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e1.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e10.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e11.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e2.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e4.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e5.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e9.jpg

i know people were interested in the close loop and such so when i went there this week i took some more pictures so you could see how intricate the plumbing of this system was. i also took pics of the chillers, pumps, skimmers, and everything else under the tank that makes it run so smooth

[kblack3]

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e12.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e13.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e14.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e3.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e6.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e7.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/e8.jpg

this is the lighting system and wench system that raises and lowers it. there are 12 400 watt mh and 8 96 watt actinic pc's. the wench makes it easy for me to get in and out of the tank when putting new specimens in

[kblack3]

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/P2250752.jpg
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http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/P2260762.jpg
(ignore how amazingly skinny i am in this last picture... i've put on some decent weight since then)

I had to actually get into the aquarium to place the specimens due to the sheer size of the tank. the depth made it difficult to appropriately place the animals without damaging them. Tongs were out of the question, so the only option was to go snorkeling in the tank lol.

[kblack3]

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[kblack3]

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/big12.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/big13.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/big16.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/big22.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/big5.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/big29.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/elegance2.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/elegance3.jpg http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt244/kblack3/big23.jpg

[kblack3]

These are the pictures of the tank after most of the corals have been added. as you can see many of them have grown in quite nicely. the bazooka joe as well as the cyphastrea's and many of the favites are growing amazingly. We have had very little loss in this tank which is great do to the massive amount of specimens we have added. i personally like the aussie scully garden lol. let me know if you have any other questions. thanks for checking it out i will be adding pics from time to time to exhibit the growth as well as new specimens (stay tuned for the 300 gallon bar build we are starting next!)

[reeferoo]

stunning transformation
love the aquascape
scuba picture is hilarious! :-)

great colors in there!

[sdime0]

looks awesome kyle. One of these days.lol. You have diff. put on weight from that picture. Your not on roids are you, just playing.
You guys do great work.

By the way this is the tall guy that always comes in with the needy blonde that gets you to frag everything in your seahorse tank.

Take care.