200g reef set-up...

[Blaze]

Hi, I'm new to this forum & to reef tanks & I'd love some crash-course advice. My husband has been planning to 'purchase' a 500 gallon reef tank. By purchase I mean, pay for the design, construction, maintenance, etc. Doesn't this make him an armchair aquarist?! After a visit from a convincing family member, he has agree to step the tank down to 200 gallons.

Ok, who's complaining, right? The problem is that we're in commercial aquarium territory at this point and yours truly will end up learning the hard way. I'll admit it's self preservation that's fueling my desire for a smaller system. The other reason is because I'm the technical one who is very into planning and I 'done know nothin'.

What I'm looking for is recommendations for any books that will give me hard technical info on equipment specs, loads, tank requirements, efficient design. And any advice along these lines. I'm especially interested in equipment configuration ideas and equipment room design. Thanks!

 

[ronj]

your skipping out on all the fun if you let someone else do it all for you...there are plenty of pics on this forum and lots of helpful folks..you can find all you need right here...just ask away........by the way, welcome to the forum

 

[mavgi]

here it's a good book to start with

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merc...PROD&Product_Code=BK-CMAS&Category_Code=Books

 

[Mauisreef]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers Blaze.
Just use the search here to find most of what ya need.
Stuff you dont find answers to post away and everyone will try to help get ya pointed in the right direction.

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!!! I agree, the site is more than helpful and useful when it comes to learning these things. Just ask away and you'll be surprised at the feedback you will get (some with related links that can help even more) As a whole picture it looks like a very complicated hobby, but as you start to dig into it and learn how things work and get familiarized with the different equipment and the "do's" and "don'ts" it will become a breeze so just ask away!

 

[burning2nd]

welcome welcome, this is "THe book" you have bin looking for, its free, it talks back 2 you. what could be better?


nice tank, Ive bin wishing for a long time for a 200+ tank, one day when the planets and sun are lined up right, ( and my pockets fat) ill step it up

 

[shallowreef]

Go FOWLR!!!!!! Fish Only Rules!!!!

 

[LakeEd]

Blaze,

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

I know, you need to focus on the beginning... and right now that is the equipment, but the REAL joy and challenge of owning a beautiful tank, is the care of what goes in it!

That is where "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" (the book recommended by Mavgi) is almost a must in this hobby!

As for your question about the hardware... unfortunately, I know of no one book that really does good technical explanations of various setups. Hopefully Nikki (NaH20) will join in this thread for you... because I know she has a wealth of links, that may help with some of this!

Good luck, don't be afraid of asking questions... and once again Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

 

[Fishead77]

new tank

Let's see where to start? equipment, what type of - lighting, skimmer, overflow for the sump, sump, heater, chiller, sump pump, pumps for flow. I'm sure that I have left some items out but these are some of the items you will need when starting a new system. Have fun, good luck!

 

[Blaze]

Thank you all for your replies. I don't have the book you mentioned, so I'll be sure to pick it up. After I do some reading, I'll be back to tap into the wealth of expertise that lies within this forum!
Blaze

 

[Slickdonkey]

Definately get the book mentioned above. Another one I liked when researching my tank was The Reef Aquarium vol. 3 by Delbeek and Sprung. It is pricey but has a lot of specific information on techniques and equipment that you won't find in other books. Some is more detail than you need to know, but I recommend it nevertheless. I think I spent about a month reading books before I did anything.

 

[ronj]

i have never read a book for this... i found everything i needed on the internet and printed it a long time ago....i still have all of it... it is a thick stack of good basics and more

 

[liveforphysics]

Hmm... Arizona you say? I belive you are well suited to do a 500gal tank, perticularly if you are willing to go through a bit of extra trouble upon setup to save money and time down the road. Do to your very consistant natural sun light available, I would definately go with natural sun light. Something called solatubes, or similar clones.

http://www.solatube.com/res_products.php

Its similar to a skylight, only increadibly more effective do to the fresnel compound bubble lens, and the tube that has only a few percent loss over long distances. Over something like a 500gal, you would be looking at needing around 6 of the 21" diameter units. This would give you all the light your reef would ever need, along with being timed with the seasonal and lunar changes. The last 500gal reef I worked on used 12 400watt MH bulbs to light it, this means with a 10hr photo period and $0.15 per KW/hr, you are looking at spending $216/month simply on the electric bill for lights. 6 solartubes would pay for themselves in around a year, and then you would never need to spend $700-$1000/year on bulb replacement.

You also get perfect and natural lunar cycles and other slick bennifits that you only get with natural lighting.

I would recomend going as big as your space permits, the larger the system, the easier things become to maintain, and the more stable the enviroment becomes.

My recomendations for sucess (perticularly when starting out):

As large of tank as the budget/space permits.
Use your wonderful natural resource of Arizona sun to provide light.
Do not skimp on the water flow, its much easier to plumb things before the tank is setup, than to try to change things once its inhabited.
Natural lighting shouldn't give you any temp problems that MH would give you, but planning ahead by burying a 20ft deep loop of titanium tubeing into the ground and filling with concrete wouldn't be a bad idea as an energy and cost effective alternative to a chiller.
Leave pleanty of room under and/or near your tank to be used as a sump/fuge/frag tank etc.


Best wishes, and good luck!

 

[Slickdonkey]

Hahaa! Dude, what are you smoking? I want some!

I guess I am more of a traditionalist, but if you want to dig 20 foot trenches in dry Arizona soil, be my guest. More power to you!

 

[burning2nd]

doesnt sound all to far off, i mean with something that big, money to run the tanks gonna be high. why not use what you have. but chilling? id be more worried about heating. WIth out a doubt your gonna have A/c in the house, whats the temp set to?

My house is set at 72.5 or 73 depends on out side temp, i think your gonna have to worrie about heating it

 

[liveforphysics]

Donkey- I was thinking more along the lines of having a guy with a hole digging machine make a neat little 10" diameter 20ft deep hole. Should run around $200 or so. Even Arizona requires things like septic systems, wells, checking ground percolation, etc...

On ebay, there is a lot for 50ft of 0.375" 3AL Ti tubeing for $400, there is a 100ft lot $500 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ssPageName=MERC_VI_RSCC_Pr4_PcN_BIN_Stores_IT , which might give you the chance to use what you need, and recover much of the cost by selling the remainder. Reguardless, its magnatudes cheaper than any effectively sized chiller unit would cost to run, even if the chiller itself was free.

If you have attic space overhead, this would be an exellent chance to get to incorporate a pair of 50gal surge tanks. This would give you more realistic water movement than is otherwise possible with closed loop type nonsence, while further reduceing running costs. In other words, tank becomes better enviroment, while takeing another big slash out of the monthly costs.

If you implimented these systems, you could have one of the best privately owned reef tanks in the states, while paying a smaller monthly upkeep cost than many sub 150gal systems owned by members of this forum.

You might also get to see natural stone coral spawns, which I belive is something that has only EVER been seen in tanks useing natural daylight, and surge tank type flow.

 

[Slickdonkey]

Well maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but natural lighting, geothermal cooling, and attic surge tanks is probably not the best way to get started in the reef hobby... not knocking your ideas, just my opinion.

 

[liveforphysics]

Burning2ndhand - I do not doubt that he uses AC in the house, however, you must remember that even though he wont have to deal with the thermal issues of having the light produceing source over the tank (example, rows of 350deg MH bulbs broiling the surface of the tank), the light energy being absorbed into the surfaces of the rocks etc that the light hits will still be a huge amount of heat energy. IMO, I do not think that heating would ever be an issue.

I don't doubt that his AC system could maintain things, however, he wouldn't be saving energy costs that way. This (the house/tank/light unit) is essentially a closed system, and useing the AC to transfer that additional heat energy outside wouldn't be useing any less energy (however, it should be noted that it would be only 1/2 the cost of the silly way people set chillers up inside an airconditioned home, meaning that the all the energy the chiller takes from the tank, the AC system has to once again transfer to outside, effectively doubleing the energy required...).

I would personally set the system up, and have the coil available on a heat controled switch to a little pump to circulate the tank water through anytime it exceeds X temperature. If it doesn't overheat, awsome. If it does, no problem, a small pump activates and keeps a steady stream of 60deg water returning to the sump at the cost of aproximately 20watts of power or so to run the pump.

 

[Scooterman]

Talk about your weird science, Let Luke do it, he can do anything at a fraction of the original cost!

 

[liveforphysics]

Just for some of you who haven't had the chance to see natural sunlight in action, this is a members sunroom tank, and this shot was taken as the sun was in a position where half of the tank was shaded.
The lights above the tanks are 10k 400watt MH bulbs with lumenarc reflectors.

IMO, natural sunlight looks SO much better and brighter than MH that its difficult to even compair. Also, keep in mind this sunroom tinted glass is actaully dropping the outside PAR reading of 1900 down to 700 before it gets the chance to enter the tank. With the solartubes unique outside lens, you would be captureing insanely powerful light from sunrise to sunset, and without tinted glass to be reduceing the intensity. It gives me shivers to think how beautiful it would be to watch the sunset on your tanks lighting, all the shadows and ripples that would appear, then wavelegnths would shift, then slowly fade out. The visual in my head is nearly enough to make me want to pack up and move to an area like Arizona just to get the chance to tap that sun as a natural resource.