plan of attack

[dirk_brijs]

ok I am 3 months away from my new built
DT will be a 118x39x20 400gallon tank
entire system will be 500+ gallon system
anyway looking at my work schedule and me trying to go the slow way I am setting the following time schedule

So I will set up the system with water, sand and rocks and let it sit in the tank for 2 months without lights no living animals in there; (or should I add the CUC crew of snails, crabs and urchins then?) There wont be too much of a cycle as I will be using ocean water and rocks taken out of the ocean. But I hope 2 months should be ok no? Tank doesnt need lights during cycling right?
Then I would setup half my light system (5 AI blue modules) and add my fish this for about 4 months. Do fish need a full WATT per gallon lighting system?
to after that time to add another 5 AI modules to make the lighting complete and start adding corals. So first corals will only be added aftera 6 month period.
Would this be a good approach or too slow or give the systemeven more time?
Please advise

[dirk_brijs]

no advise at all??

[imolaragazzo]

You say there will be no living animals in there, however I believe if you are taking rocks out of the ocean there will be all sorts of critters and whatnot in there which may die off without light for two months. Not saying necessarily that there will be anything photosynthetic on the rocks you get. What's the reasoning for not having lights for two months? Cost? If it were me I would have the lights running but I know that a lot of people don't. The watts/gallon rule doesn't really apply since you're going with led lighting. IMO you will be fine with the time table of adding that livestock.

[walkthedog]

First off, looks like you will have a nice tank when your finished. I would not go 2 months with no light. I would light the tanks up at least a few hours. If you are using NSW and rock from the ocean then your cycle should be short. Light the tank up 3-4 hours a day. Run the skimmer from the start. Test and see if you get a cycle. If you are taking the rock from the ocean make sure it stays wet. If it starts to dry you will get die-off and a cycle.
Hold off on the CUC. Make sure your tank cycles. If you get a cycle; then your CUC will more than likely die. You can't really use the Watts / Gallon rule. What kind of lights do you plan on using to light up a 400 gallon tank? What do you plan on keeping in the tank? I would read the the sticky treads at the beginning of this forum. It will answer most of your questions for you. Good luck with the tank!

[dirk_brijs]

First off, looks like you will have a nice tank when your finished. I would not go 2 months with no light. I would light the tanks up at least a few hours. If you are using NSW and rock from the ocean then your cycle should be short. Light the tank up 3-4 hours a day. Run the skimmer from the start. Test and see if you get a cycle. If you are taking the rock from the ocean make sure it stays wet. If it starts to dry you will get die-off and a cycle.
Hold off on the CUC. Make sure your tank cycles. If you get a cycle; then your CUC will more than likely die. You can't really use the Watts / Gallon rule. What kind of lights do you plan on using to light up a 400 gallon tank? What do you plan on keeping in the tank? I would read the the sticky treads at the beginning of this forum. It will answer most of your questions for you. Good luck with the tank!

The final idea would be to get to 10 AI blue modules with controller.
The tank would be a mixed reef tank with most softies in it. I am actually betting on a short cycle yes, thats why I thought the CUC early? The reason of the late switch on of lighting is that it will most likely take a while before the lighting reaches here I live in Thailand. Wanted to order 5 at first for the few first months without corals and after 5 more to spread the cost of it?
So the question would 5 do for just the intitial cycle and fish only period or do fish also need alot of light?

[dirk_brijs]

so guys does a LRFO tank need the full lnighting system?

[dirk_brijs]

anyone??

[Rocdoc]

you certainly don't need a full lighting system for fish only. You could even get away with a couple of cheap fluorescent lights to start with if you are having difficulty getting the AI lights. If you go that way, however, you may end up with a nuisance algae bloom when you upgrade your lighting. Shouldn't be that hard to take care of, though.

10 banks of AI lighting, huh? That's a big investment. Should work great. I'm assuming your tank is 20" in water depth, correct? (Not a really tall, narrow tank) You should be able to get away with backing down the power on those Crees with a shallow tank like that. That would significantly extend your diode life.

I agree with the other posts about the 1W per gallon rule not really applying to LED lights. I do have some concerns about your AI lighting. First, assuming your tank is relatively shallow, you may have some "spotlighting" due to the reflectors used on the AI units. Many of the other manufacturers of LED lighting are getting away from reflectors in their setups. Second, although the quantity of light should be more than sufficient, I wonder about the ability of the Sol to light the tank from front to back without areas of deep shadow since the tank is so much wider than in is deep. I'm not sure I'm explaining that well enough. Sorry.

So you have a big box of water and plans for a gazillion dollars worth of lighting. What else are you planning on putting in this system?

[dirk_brijs]

you certainly don't need a full lighting system for fish only. You could even get away with a couple of cheap fluorescent lights to start with if you are having difficulty getting the AI lights. If you go that way, however, you may end up with a nuisance algae bloom when you upgrade your lighting. Shouldn't be that hard to take care of, though.

10 banks of AI lighting, huh? That's a big investment. Should work great. I'm assuming your tank is 20" in water depth, correct? (Not a really tall, narrow tank) You should be able to get away with backing down the power on those Crees with a shallow tank like that. That would significantly extend your diode life.

I agree with the other posts about the 1W per gallon rule not really applying to LED lights. I do have some concerns about your AI lighting. First, assuming your tank is relatively shallow, you may have some "spotlighting" due to the reflectors used on the AI units. Many of the other manufacturers of LED lighting are getting away from reflectors in their setups. Second, although the quantity of light should be more than sufficient, I wonder about the ability of the Sol to light the tank from front to back without areas of deep shadow since the tank is so much wider than in is deep. I'm not sure I'm explaining that well enough. Sorry.

So you have a big box of water and plans for a gazillion dollars worth of lighting. What else are you planning on putting in this system?

the tank will be 118" L x 39.4" W x 19.8 H
to give a bit of an idea on how lights will be fixed see attachment
so you guys think I should get a bit deeper in the tank built?

[Rocdoc]

the tank will be 118" L x 39.4" W x 19.8 H
to give a bit of an idea on how lights will be fixed see attachment
so you guys think I should get a bit deeper in the tank built?

You could go a little deeper (like 24"), but that setup looks great. The advantage of going a little deeper would be that you would have a larger gradient of light from top to bottom and would be likely to find a "sweet spot" for each of your corals where they grew well without bleaching. Any deeper than 24" makes it hard to work in.

The light setup is different than I was envisioning and should work fine.

Are you planning on something of a peninsula with rock in the center and open space on the three viewable sides?

Looks really good!

[dirk_brijs]

You could go a little deeper (like 24"), but that setup looks great. The advantage of going a little deeper would be that you would have a larger gradient of light from top to bottom and would be likely to find a "sweet spot" for each of your corals where they grew well without bleaching. Any deeper than 24" makes it hard to work in.

The light setup is different than I was envisioning and should work fine.

Are you planning on something of a peninsula with rock in the center and open space on the three viewable sides?

Looks really good!

Idea would be to built a crescent bay like structure in the middle with 2 separate Islands on the outside creating 2 canyons on each side of the crescent
something like this style?

[Rocdoc]

Idea would be to built a crescent bay like structure in the middle with 2 separate Islands on the outside creating 2 canyons on each side of the crescent
something like this style?

Like a frowny face? Poor fish! They'll always be sad and not have any idea why!:spin1:

How are you planning on moving water through there?

[dirk_brijs]

Like a frowny face? Poor fish! They'll always be sad and not have any idea why!:spin1:

How are you planning on moving water through there?

little design of my waterflow system
the top PVC is the return line driven by a reeflo Barracuda with a SCWD built in (maybe a Oceans Motion device not sure yet)
the bottom PVC lines are 2 separate closed loop systems with 3 outlets each driven by Iwaki pumps (not realy set in stone yet)
Then there will be also 2 Tunze waveboxes be installed inside the overflow box not sure if you see that on the drawings.
I also have 3 Tunze 6055 pumps available but I am hoping not to have to use them i case I find death spots.

[geaux xman]

a lot of novice questions, is this your first tank? how about trying out a 120gal first?

are you made of gold??? the setup in question will probably run you $30K+ easy...

[dirk_brijs]

I amm currently running a 160DT tank formed in a 220gallon system so I guess I ave some experience but still like toask for advise.
I have learned through it to take as much advise as you can get learn from it and pick out the best way for yourself it worked on my other system.
So thanks for your concern.
Living in Thailand helps though paying the bills

[Rocdoc]

Sounds like you'll be moving plenty of water. Why go through the trouble of a closed loop if you're using waveboxes and/or Oceansmotion system? Seems like a maintenance headache that you could avoid with your Tunzes.

What are your plans for sump/fuge, skimming, reactors, etc.?

[dirk_brijs]

As for the length of the tank and the width I want to create as much random current as possible. The closed loop will not be fitted with a wave device so they will provide only one current upwards. The return will come from the upper part of the tank thus creating a rotating effect of currents in the tank I was hoping.
As for fuge and sump there will be 2 separate sumps one of 50Gl and one of 20Gl which will be used to house pumps and skimmers. The fuge will be a separate tank of 60gl.
I am also planning on attaching 2 drums of water of 80gl each to increase the water volume the tank.
Also a large turf scrubber will be attached to the system.
Anyway more to come if I start my built thread here on RC.