220 Gallon In the wall

[Tpi_Demons]

OK, here we go!

[Tpi_Demons]

I have started on a pretty massive project. I am going to setup a 220 gallon reef tank. It will be installed into a wall so that it looks like a picture frame. The massive part is that I am building a whole new room on my house to put this all in. I will be using a 75 gallon tank for a sump and I am not sure how to design it. I will post pics as I go. Wish me luck!

[Tpi_Demons]

Here is some of the progress. The floor will be solid where the stand will be built.

[mitchellmoto]

WOW big project. I look forward to watching the progress.
Later
Mitch

[Tpi_Demons]

Here are a few more pics. As you can see the stand is built and I have the walls and roof on the new room. The new DT is 9 feet long and the opening in the wall is 10'. I am hoping that will be enough room for my plumbing to pass through. I am in need of some help on the overflow and sump still. Any advise or help would be greatly appreciated.

[mitchellmoto]

Any new progress?

[mitchellmoto]

We are all excited to see more progression pictures! anything new!

[Tpi_Demons]

Hey guys, sorry that its been so long. Been really busy the past few months. Here are some new pics of the progress on the new tank install.

[mitchellmoto]

Holly crap where ya been. Looks like you have made some progress. Whats next?

[Tpi_Demons]

Well today I got the room painted and some issues with the filter fixed. The tank has been running for about five or six months now and I have some nice live rock doing its thing in the sump. Hopefully I can get the hardwood floors installed tomorrow. I am at a loss on the lighting for the display tank. At the moment there are two eight foot T5HO fixtures with a total of 8 54watt bulbs on it. I am leaning away from the metal halides for safety reasons. Lots of heat and an acrilic tank and the fact that it is all in an enclosed room with very little ventilation. I would like to go with LED but they are a bit out of my price range for the ones that I want. I am in need of some base rock if anyone has any for sale. Looking for some pieces around 8 to 10 inches and bigger if they are somewhat flat. I will get you guys some shots of the filter room in a few days, but at the moment its a disaster. I am using it for storage.

[jarvasio]

Nice build. Wish I could add a room on to my house.

[mitchellmoto]

Explain the lighting. You have two 8ft fixtures with eight bulbs now?? Or you have two 4ft with 4bulbs each??

I think your basis of safety really are not justified if you plan to get the same amount of lighting. I was going to recommend 2 48in 8 bulb fixtures or 2 48in 10 bulb fixtures. That is either 16 54w bulbs (865w total) or 20 54w bulbs(1080w total). 4 250w Mh fixtures will get you the same spread but probably better penetration. Either way you are between 800 and 110w and it doesn't matter the source it is all will equal heat. T5 will have more surface area and can dissipate it better but that doesn't make it any safer. You also have to consider the replacement cost of 16 to 20 t5 bulbs compared to 4 MH bulbs and most fixtures do not include bulbs so that will have to factor in to the purchase price aswell. Your electricity cost will be the same as wattage is wattage and it doesn't matter whats using it.

I personally would lean towards the MH. Less equipment less space and I'm certain I could purchase 4 DIY MH kits for less than 16 to 20 t5 kits. Now I like t5 and you should get which ever you prefer because either is going to grow your coral just fine. Look at Novembers Tank of the month to see how nice t5s can be but the added cost comes in because of the length of your tank. 9 ft is long, what are the other dimensions because if it is deeper than 24in I would certainly go more towards the MH over the t5.

A good ventalation fan and some cooling fans for the lighting would go a long way.

The last thing I'll thow in there is your text said something about an acrylic top. I'm sorry to say this should go. Either T5 or Mh will be greatly impacted by this and you will lose some of your penetrability. It will be next to impossible to keep that clean all the time and even clean it will still reflect/absorb some of the light. It also is better for gas exchange to have this removed. If you are worried about jumping fish you can purchase aluminum screen kits and bird netting that will allow most of the light through but prevent your fish from jumping. This is not very expensive to buy either.

Really do some research but that is my opinion since you asked
Keep the questions coming and I'm hoping other will jump in and give some advice aswell.

And if all else fail go LED. That tank would look sic with LED pendants....

[Tpi_Demons]

Well the whole tank is acrilic and the top is built into the rest of the tank. the dimensions are 9 foot long 18 inches front to back and 32 inches top to bottom. I just did the math for that quick in my head and I think its more like 280 gallons. lol I have a base of 6 inches of crushed coral so that makes the water 24 inches deep with the open space on the top figured in. And to clarify the lighting. I have 2 eight foot fixtures with 4 bulbs each. I purchased them because they are electronic ballast and if I end up not keeping them on the tank they will make killer garage lights. lol At the moment I have a 36inch T5HO with 4 bulbs on my sump and I am very satisfied with it. But at the same time the water is never more than 16 inches deep in the sump. I also have a 24" led that has 24 3watt lights in it. Actually 18 of them are 3 watt and the 6 460's are 1 watt each. But that gives a total of 60 watts of LED Beautifulness. I currently have that on the sump under my 90 reef tank.

[Tpi_Demons]

Thank you Jarvasio. Its a work in progress. Main reason I added the room was for the expanding family. But its still a good excuse for a killer tank.

[mitchellmoto]

Well if you want to utilize what you have you could always do like 3 250w HQI MH down the center of the two 8ft t5s. Or if you think the LED you have is powerfull enough then purchase 2 or 3 more of the led units you already have and put them down the center. With some high powered lighting sandwiched between the t5s you would have a nice spread with areas of high and lower lighting to give you lots of differnt levels to provide the best type of lighting for any given coral.
That would give you lots of versitility and you could use the t5s to change the overall color of the lighting to suit what ever you like.

If you design it with some flexability then you could always add as you need. Purchase two more of the LEDs with the though of buying another down the road. Or whatever.

It is looking nice cant wait to see more progress.

[Tpi_Demons]

I think that I am going to go with the setup that you illustrated. Using the 3 LED's instead of MH's. I found a source of 10000k 10 watt LED's that are in their own heatsink inclosures. They are about $90 each but they produce an insane amount of light, and can penetrate up to eighteen feet of water. I just checked water parameters and my ammonia was way up. Any ideas on why that would happen on a tank that has been up for so long. I have not added anything new to the tank in months except a powerhead. I am hoping that i just stirred up some garbage in the bottom of the tank.

[mitchellmoto]

Sorry I missed your ammonia question. Is there anything in the tank?
If you want to go DIY I know http://www.hero-ledstore.com/ sells LEDS from 1w up to 200w.
a ten watt with heat sink and driver runs around $40. I can't say much about them except I know of them. I have yet to purchase anything from them but I've considered it several times. Probably at least the same quality as what I thinking is a $90 Chinese made LED light. It would be half the price

[reefaluva]

Sounds like its going to be awesome.