My New AGE tank build! It's big! ~1500g DT

[prickles]

Hello all,

I'm starting to build my new tank. Currently I have a custom ~300g. Unfortunately the cross braces failed after about 4 years.


I had to decide to repair or replace. My number one concern is my livestock. I was planning on upgrading in a few years when they got big enough to warrant it. Right now, they don't. Since I don't know what to do with the livestock while I ship the tank back to the manufacturer to repair, I decided to upgrade. I plan on keeping the existing tank in place until the new one cycles and then moving the fish directly over.

I ordered the tank last week and have started the demolition today. For some reason it amuses me to have to do demolition to put in a fish tank.

Before: The tank will go on this wall. The desk will move to the opposite wall



The fish room before: The wall with the sink is going away. The 300g you can see will stay where it is until cycling finished and then the desk will take up that wall.




Before anyone says it, I know the room is too small for the new tank. I was looking at the old tank and I thought that why waste space? As you can see, there's about a foot wasted on the left of the tank that I can't use for anything and about 2.5 feet on the right I can't use. Why waste them?

[prickles]

My primary goal for the new tank is to make it as maintenance free as possible. I have two little children (1 and 2) that take a lot of maintenance and I don't know whether I will have an hour to work on my tank or not.

My secondary goal is to try to keep the running costs down. In the past, I have run lots of lights and pumps all over the place. I plan on trying to do solar tubes for lighting, supplemented with LED's.

I want to use the most efficient pumps I can find to power the closed loop and the return. I'm hoping to get my wattage to less than my current setup overall. Right now I'm probably running 3k watts including my 120g which will also be included in the new setup. Just 2300 watts currently are lights.

[prickles]

day one of demolition. You can see the wall that used to house the desks is now just framing. We are in the process of saw cutting the concrete to allow for a deeper footer to hold the tank. We had to rent a bigger saw today.



the view from the fishroom. You can see the existing 300g glowing in the background. I'm really worried about keeping the dust and vibration as much away from that tank as possible. Hopefully the big banging will be done today. They plan on working 11 hours today while my wife is at work.

[gordonheimer]

What are the dimensions of the new tank? How to plan to vent out the room?

Following!

[Reefsi]

Following! Also interesting on how to vent it, in the process of a 240DT+120Sump+40 quarantine build and I am lost on how to vent mine...

[Centralreefs]

looks like a nice start. scary to hear that the braces failed on you

[prickles]

Originally Posted by gordonheimer

What are the dimensions of the new tank? How to plan to vent out the room?

Following!

I'm not entirely certain how to vent it yet. In fact that's a problem as we speak! The gasoline powered saw is creating very unpleasant fumes in the demo area.



This is with these doors open and two vent fans going


I didn't have any problems with venting my 300g. The humidity in the room stayed at 25-30% so not really an issue. I bought a humidistat controlled vent fan to go out through the roof of the fishroom, but it's pretty small, bathroom sized. I was thinking a vent pipe with a one way flow restrictor down into the fish room and then the fan to take it out. I don't know if it will be big enough

[prickles]

Originally Posted by Reefsi

Following! Also interesting on how to vent it, in the process of a 240DT+120Sump+40 quarantine build and I am lost on how to vent mine...

on my 300g + 120g + ~40 and ~40 sumps I didn't have humidity problems at all so I'm not sure how much venting I will need.

[prickles]

Originally Posted by Centralreefs

looks like a nice start. scary to hear that the braces failed on you

thanks! Yeah, I'm glad I saw it before it got worse/broke. It bulged out about 1" in the middle before I put those clamps on it. Right now, I think it's stronger than new with the clamps in place. Not quite the "rimless" look many are going for though.

[prickles]

The sawcutting is finally finished! There was a wire mesh in the concrete that made it a real pain to break. We couldn't use the jackhammer since the existing fish tank is right past the plastic.

The next step is to remove the dirt down to 18", relocate the sewer lines to move the sink to the wall on the left and move the floor drain about two feet further left. Then we can put in the rebar and pour new concrete! I'm hoping to be done with the sewer and rebar tomorrow, assuming everyone shows up at the right time.

By my estimation the water volume in the main tank and under the tank will weigh close to 15,000lbs. If you add in the weight of the steel stand and the glass, you probably are approaching 20,000. That's alot of weight to put on my floor.

[NewMariner]

What size is the new tank going to be?

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by prickles

I have two little children (1 and 2) that take a lot of maintenance.

Just like a reef tank. Water changes = diaper changes; frequent feedings, keep you up at night worrying; making a mess on the carpet ..... Expensive.

[prickles]

Originally Posted by NewMariner

What size is the new tank going to be?

The current plan is 11'2" by 4' by 4' plus external overflow. I think that's pretty much 1400g. I think a ~130x46x16" or roughly 300g under tank rock bin will accompany that, and then the sump etc.

[prickles]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Just like a reef tank. Water changes = diaper changes; frequent feedings, keep you up at night worrying; making a mess on the carpet ..... Expensive.

Thankfully I have no carpet!

My kids have baby monitors and my fish now have battery backups so I don't stay up at night worrying.

"Expensive"....can't argue there...

[NewMariner]

Originally Posted by prickles

The current plan is 11'2" by 4' by 4' plus external overflow. I think that's pretty much 1400g. I think a ~130x46x16" or roughly 300g under tank rock bin will accompany that, and then the sump etc.

LOL...and I though my tank Im waiting on was big. You could use mine as your sump. lol.

Whats the total water volume going to be? My 478g tank will have roughly about 1100 gallons of water...

[prickles]

Originally Posted by NewMariner

LOL...and I though my tank Im waiting on was big. You could use mine as your sump. lol.

Whats the total water volume going to be? My 478g tank will have roughly about 1100 gallons of water...

Hmm,

my math was off somewhere. Main tank about 1350g. tank under tank 415g, 120g tank, sump 180g, QT 40g, invert qt 120g, sump for invert qt 40g.... ao maybe a total of ~2265g

2x300 mixing tanks. Not sure if people count that.

[Newbie Aquarist]

That is alot of water. But you are right, no one counts the 2x300 unless its tied into the system which is a great one you have started.

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by prickles

The current plan is 11'2" by 4' by 4' plus external overflow. I think that's pretty much 1400g. I think a ~130x46x16" or roughly 300g under tank rock bin will accompany that, and then the sump etc.

Zoinks! Too much tank for me. Good luck with the build.

[prickles]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Zoinks! Too much tank for me. Good luck with the build.

thanks! I think i'll need it

[prickles]

So the plumbing guy didn't make it yesterday, so hopefully today so we can do that and the rebar.

A question for all of you who have done solar: What brand? I'm considering the Home depot brand or solatube. I'm thinking 4 14" tubes on my tank and probably need to order them asap depending on the brand I use.

thanks in advance for your help!

[prickles]

got the rebar and sewer line done today! We pour in the morning. I'm very excited.



On the solar tube thing, I read that the home depot variety come in two types, 95% reflective and 98% reflective. The manufacturer says the 98% reflective tubes will provide at a minimum 25% more light than the 95% reflective ones.

Sola tube claims 99.7% reflective. If the ratio is about the same, that could mean the sola tubes will provide about 20% more light than the better home depot brand ones. Do you think that's correct and do you think they are truthful when they claim the 99.7% part?

[dave.m]

Solatubes have been in the game longest for a reason. I don't trust in-house brands from non-specialty stores like HD. See jdpiii3's build thread here on RC. He also used a blue filter material over his to get a more correct colour balance on his tank.

Dave.M

[ace_92101]

Originally Posted by dave.m

Solatubes have been in the game longest for a reason. I don't trust in-house brands from non-specialty stores like HD. See jdpiii3's build thread here on RC. He also used a blue filter material over his to get a more correct colour balance on his tank.

Dave.M

There's also a reefer in AZ who uses them. I'll try and search to see if I can find him.

[drej424]

I've also heard good things about solatubes

[prickles]

Originally Posted by dave.m

Solatubes have been in the game longest for a reason. I don't trust in-house brands from non-specialty stores like HD. See jdpiii3's build thread here on RC. He also used a blue filter material over his to get a more correct colour balance on his tank.

Dave.M

I have read every thread I can find on solatubes. I LOVE the blue filter material idea for color idea and think I couldn't do solar without it.