600 gallon Acrylic Reef

[ianmoede]

Beautiful

[pwhitby]

Hey blown,

Our Club owns a bunch of the suction cups. They do make the moving a whole lot easier.

Paul.

[MyMonkey]

I'm not actully a member yet but I will be soon. And, I can't lift heavy stuff. (Had back surgery 3 months ago) However, I can bring some tasty beverages for those who do lift heavy stuff. I can also offer moral support. LOL

[pwhitby]

Its a deal. Always like to have moral, physical and beverage support.

Paul

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by mdiddy7s
Make sure you send some pics of the process Asnatlas. I am sure all of us would be very interested. Good Luck.
Thanks,
Mike D

I have a thread started in the Large Tank forum, nothing much right now other then equ listing and questions... Once I get the tank and start on the project, I will be updating that thread alot

Shawn

[dugg]

Paul, i just found this link for rock in another thread, that you may want to look at. They have 1 ton of hawaiian base rock for $800 shipping included. It looks like some nice rock, and at 40 cents a pound, a real nice price. Just thought i would pass it along.
http://www.hirocks.com/

[pwhitby]

I have tried Hirocks before. I have to admit, I wasnt really impressed. Very dense and very dirty. I need live rock for this tank, stuff thats not so fossilized. I wnat a lot of fish, so I have to have the good rock, even tho it costs more.

Thanks for the thought though Dugg, I really appreciate it.

[n8duncan]

I hope you patent the rights on the coral miracle grow you are using....lol

You have a great looking tank and keep us all posted on the monster.

N8

[n8duncan]

I hope you patent the rights on the coral miracle grow you are using....lol

You have a great looking tank and keep us all posted on the monster.

N8

[pwhitby]

im surprised how well things grow, I do have a LOT of light over this tank. Im not sure I will have the same intensity over the next one.

Paul.

[dugg]

Paul, have you considered or looked into Solatubes for lighting. I have seen a few tanks that have tham, and they look real nice. You can get them without the UV block, and they don't transmit any heat. I would think they would pay for themselves in about 2 months of electric, considering the amount of MH light you will be needing. They also transmit the moonlight.

[dugg]

Here is a link to some photos of a beautiful large tank lighted with solatubes, and VHO actinic supliments.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/aurorabridal/Doc1.htm

[rogert]

dugg,is it just me ? I cant get the link you posted to work for the tank with solatube

[MyMonkey]

Worked for me. Great idea. Tank looks great too.

[pwhitby]

I noticed that there arent any SPS in that tank. Infact, the leathers he has would die in a day under the lights I run. Im not sure they would be bright enough for waht I want. Besides, I dont want to fit skylights on the front of my home.

You are correct tho Dugg, they certainly save a bunch of money.

Paul.

[dugg]

I am having a new roof built on my house this spring, and having 4 solatubes installed over where i plan to put my built in tank. Hopefully not for nothing lol. There is a thread in the advanced topic forum about solatubes, that is very interesting. There are several people using them on all types of tanks, that are reporting extrmely good growth on both soft and sps tanks. I was figuring a savings of around $150 to $200 a month on electricity alone. Granted there aren't as many sunny days in Oklahoma as there are here, but they can be easily supplimented for the cloudy days. Also i haven't been able to find the other thread that i originally read about the tubes, but it was about fiberoptic lighting, and had several solatube lighted tank pictures posted in it. The moonlight pictures are awesome to see. You can actually see the moon at the surface of the tank, and the clouds floating by on a cloudy day.

Also on another subject all together, i talked to Prater today, and he said to tell everyone HI.

[dugg]

rogert, the pictures come up blank at first, but they do pop up after a few seconds.
If you can't get them to work from this thread, the pictures are posted in the advanced topic forum, under a thread about solatubes, on page 10, about half way down the page. Also if you can get the search function to work, look for a thread on fiberoptic lighting. There are lots of photos in that thread showing solatube tanks.

The solatubes shimmer like MH lighting, and the rays move across the tank as the sun crosses the sky, highlighting different areas of the tank as the day passes.

[rogert]

dugg, It worked after I gave it a chance, we still only have dial up where I liveand it is a pita. I am going to look at the rest of those threads
Thnx

[dugg]

If you can catch the search function working, look up a thread, i think it's called Fiberoptic lighting for a reef tank? It has some very interesting information on both fiber optic lighting, and solatubes. That thread has some excellent pictures posted in it.

They still have dial up? lol I remember it well.

[pwhitby]

Well hopefully my tank is in the beginning stages of construction, time to move attention to the room it will go in.

Several people asked me at the meeting on sat how im going to do it. Well, my dining room is long enough to partition off about 7 feet and leave a good size remaining. I plan to put a partial wall up with the tank inset, but not behind the wall. That way I can make a surround about the tank, with cupboards below, or even book cases or something, and have doors above for access.

Here is the basic idea:



the tank pipework will run across the floor through the back wall into my garage (the pink colored area at the far rhs). In there will be the sumps, refugium, chiller, reactors etc.

Paul.

[dugg]

That is going to be beautiful Paul. If i put a tank like that in my dining room, i would be fat i no time. You would never get me out of there. Just staring and eating 24/7. You are making it real hard for me to wait on building mine lol, i can't wait to see your's finished. I am sooo jealous, and the wife is sooo nervous lol.

[pwhitby]

a long way to go before water goes in....but all in due time.

[pwhitby]

Several people have asked me where I am getting the tank from. I shopped around a great deal before deciding on where i was going with. I ended up going with ART, a local store in Oklahoma city. Gary Walker, the owner, has had a couple of tanks come into his shop that I had the chance to look at. The last one he had in was a nice 8 foot acrylic tank, the seems were very well done and the whole tank was put together really nicely. The person he uses is in Dallas and they have a long standing relationship. Both Gary and the manufacturer were really easy to deal with and answered a whole slew of questions before we decided on the final layout. Overall, I have been really happy with what i have seen and the ordering process.

Gary has a lot of expertise on large tank setups having worked on installation of some HUGE tanks across the country. if you get chance, swing by his store and look at his photo collection. When you have to dive in a tank to clean it.....then you know it qualifies as big.

Paul.

[aaparkr]

I volunteer to assist if I am off work. I take instruction well and can handle a lot of weight. Do you have a target date? I'm off Wednesday and Sunday most weeks. I could be there by 6PM any day, but I suspect you would be finished with the heavy stuff by then. I will be out of town in the middle of October too.

Tony

[pwhitby]

I just received a couple of pictures from ART, forwarded from the manufacturers.

This is the back panel, overflows have been cut into it. * feet long, 30 inches tall



this it the top panel, partially cut.....8 feet by 4 feet.


and here it is with all the openings cut.


Ill post more as and when I get them.

Paul.