1200 Gallon Tank Build; Design, Planning and Building

[jpgross]

Hello. My name is John Paul Gross and I am new to reef central but not to operating aquariums. I graduated with a B.S. in Biology in 2008 and have always been interested in keeping fish tanks. My parents had freshwater tanks when I was a kid. I kept my first freshwater tank freshman year in college and have had a tank ever since. My first salt water tank was junior year and lived until I graduated. My first really experimental tank was a 55 gallon with 2-30 gallon sumps that I set up in 2008, my first year of medical school. It's only filtration was about 120 lbs of live rock and a 4-6" deep sand bed in the main tank and one of the sumps (that also had some mangroves). Halfway through my 2nd year of medical school I realized that I didn't want to be a doctor at all. The tank went over 9 months without a water change or feeding, just freshwater top-off, and when I sadly had to break it down in the summer of 2010 and give all my awesome live rock and coral for store credit in Omaha that I would never claim, the water still had perfect levels (even the nitrate didn't register on the test) and every organism was healthy. I drove the tank and sump back to Washington state and finally got them set-up again last July 2012.

I have the same basic set-up as in Omaha, but with a much better designed ecosystem. My main 6" deep sand bed alone has over 25 identified species for agitation and more than 10 of them (including Nassarius, Nerita and Cerithium snails) have already starting breeding. I actually had to give my two Tridacna clams back to the store because my nitrate levels had gotten so low that in my experience I didn't believe I could sustain them. On the other hand, all of my soft corals, LPS and SPS including a couple Acropora couldn't be happier and one of the Acros has grown over a half inch in the last 2-3 months. I will add some photos and better descriptions later.

Sorry for all the history. The point of this story is that my family has been impressed with the success of the tank and we have decided to scale the system up to a 4' Wide by 7' Long by 3.5' Deep ~ 1000 gallon main tank with an adjacent 4' Wide by 3' Long by 2.5' Deep ~200 gallon mangrove sump. Both will also have biologically-fluidized 6-8" deep sugar-sized Aragonite sand. There is also a closet behind where the main tank will be that will be converted for all the hardware and plumbing. My current 72-gallon bow-front will be placed in the closet and will function as a refugium for the main tank.

I want this forum to be used to encompass the whole process and I really do need some help. I will post current photos and design documents. Within the next week I will be ordering most of my components online and I will post that list as well. This thread will flesh out and continue with multiple discussions, but currently the main issue I am encountering is finding out the best heating system to order. I haven't been able to talk to anyone operating a system this size and I don't want to grossly overshoot on the heaters. I think it will require somewhere between 1200-4000 W, but I am not sure if because of cost and efficiency it might be better to use a group of 400 or 500 W heaters or 2-4 1000 W heaters instead. I would really appreciate if anyone with a system this size could lend some advice.

[dave.m]

Is the environment where your tank is going to be located all that variable that you really need that much heating power? I suggest you consider how much the environment is going to keep your tank heated first and then add heaters to make up the difference, if any.

Dave.M

[o2manyfish]

Look into Titanium Immersion Heaters By Process Technology. 220v will be more efficient to run in the long run.

Dave.M is correct that depending on the house and the equipment you may not need that much heating power. But with the volume of water the larger scale heaters will have a faster effect on heating the water because they have much larger heating elements with a greater surface area.

I used multiple 800w heaters and found that their lifespan was less than 2 years. And when they went out they just quit working. So when you needed the heating power on a cold night you didn't have it and the system suffered.

I found my 5000w 220v Titanium L shaped immersion heater on ebay for less than 200. I built a relay to activate it for less than 30 dollars in parts (including a weather proof box) and my Apex controls the relay.

Dave B

[sfsuphysics]

+2 on the heating might be over estimated. It might take longer to initially get it up to a proper temperature, but as long as the back of the tank is not sitting in an uninsulated garage you'll probably be good to go.

I have roughly 350 gallons of water in a room with zero insulation, air gaps galore to the outside, and the room is 25' x 15' when I close it up for the night, come morning the temperature of the room is not quite that of the tank but it is fairly warm. I imagine if I sealed up the air gaps, and insulated the walls and floor that my heating costs for the tank would drop substantially (and the room would be as warm as the tanks). So if you set up your tank as an "in wall" with a fishroom that's insulated off the back, you probably don't need to worry too much about heating.

If you're going to go forward with this, you can always undersize your heaters and see how that works while you're cycling the tank, if you need more you can add more.

[dave.m]

I guess additionally, if you want to go for bullet-proof heating, you should consider two heat controllers, each on separate electrical circuits, and each with up to three smaller heaters attached that would meet about half your heating requirements. That will insure you against either too much or too little heating due to any of the vagaries that plague us all from time to time in regards to heating.

Dave.M

[jpgross]

Thanks for the help. I actually already have one-110V and one-220V wired to the closet so I can work with either option. The only issue with temperature is that to keep my lights and electronics chilled I am installing a modular A/C unit in the closet to keep it cold and dry. I am planning on dumping all the extra heat and humidity to my mangrove sump which will be completely enclosed in an acrylic box. I really like the idea of the 220V Titanium, but I also like having more than one heater just so if one fails the other can keep it alive for a day or two, if not actually heat the entire system. Would there be a more modular option with maybe two smaller Titaniums that could still be wired to the 220V?

[jpgross]

So I am still working on pictures of the current location and the planned changes, but I am at least going to post the equipment that I have decided on up to this point to see what everyone thinks.

I am ordering from marinedepot.com if anyone wants to see the details on the equipment.

So for lighting:

The tank is going to have 1/3 covered by power compacts that I already own for mostly soft corals; the central 1/3 will be mostly LED and the northern 1/3 will be combo LED with a couple metal halides for the SPS.

So I am buying...
2X Hamilton Cayman Sun Reflector 250 Watt DE HQI 14K System
2X AquaticLife Expert Series 46 Inch 234 Watt Cree LED Light Fixture (3 Watt x 72)

The lighting layout will be included with the other diagrams later.

Main pumps...
2X Dolphin Amp Master Diamond External Marine Pump - 6250 GPH (Type-2)

Skimmer...
1X ASM G-6 Protein Skimmer w/ 2xSedra 15000 Pumps

Controller...
1X Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Elite (Net) Controller

All these components are for the main tank. I have most of the additional pumps and lighting for the rest of the system.

[jpgross]

BTW, I will also be buying multiple 1.5 and 2"-bulkheads for the plumbing. I have drilled and built several tanks and so I am planning on building my own steel stands and drilled tanks. I have been working through the engineering, but unless anyone is specifically interested in seeing the math, I will probably just post my results with the diagrams that I am still putting together.

[sfsuphysics]

Power compacts eh? That might be one area where I'd ditch existing equipment. If you compare a 55w PC vs a 54w hoT5 bulb with a good reflector it's literally no contest in how much light you'll get in your tank.

I was going to comment on the ASM skimmer for a tank that large, although I didn't realize that it was in fact rated for that high. I do seem to recall ASM over-rating their skimmers though, however with a tank pushing 1000g you almost always have to go to the far end of the spectrum for a skimmer.

[jpgross]

I considered getting rid of the PC's as well, but I am only going to run one fixture over the area of the tank that will mostly be built-in overflow anyway. I am also building a custom aluminum heat-sink and reflector so I can get the most out of my LEDs and metal halides. I actually had contact with one of my friends who runs an aquarium store and he said that the only concern he had with LEDs is that his coral growth plateaued after about 6 months and he thought it was because they do not deliver any heat with their spectrum like a metal halide. That is the only reason I didn't go all LED for the fixtures.

Yeah I had that concern with the skimmer as well, but with my current system I actually had to remove my small skimmer because I couldn't maintain high enough nutrient levels to get good coralline algae growth. The complete denitrification from the sand bed really makes it hard to maintain high enough nitrates and since I would like to keep some non-photosynthetic specimens I am hoping that it will be a little under-skimmed. If it becomes a problem where I see the nitrates submarine again I might even only run the skimmer periodically instead of all the time.

[jpgross]

I am adding current photos of my setup and where my new build will eventually be. I also have a couple initial drawings to give an idea of the setup.

[jpgross]

Any input would be welcomed.