360 gallon logistical nightmare and no spare time!

[nsamouroux]

Wow. Nothing quite like walking through the door and into the living room and being suddenly confronted by a tank this size that went from a cloudy mess to crystal clear while I was at work... All of my corals are already open and have polyps extended more than I've ever seen before in my decomissioned 100 gallon tank, I believe this RBTA is approaching 20" diameter, it's spread out and covering a HUGE area and everything is looking healthier than ever.

This new system has really been a struggle... I've been planning and accumulating equipment for this thing for the last year and a half, and have almost had to abandon the entire project a number of times. Some things have happened to me lately in my life that I needed a distraction from, so I put every bit of effort that I could spare into this tank, and things just sort of flew together. I've got a feeling that progress will be MUCH slower from this point onwards as I slowly gather corals and livestock, it just looks so empty right now aside from the fish and this monstrous RBTA :lol:

The photos don't really do it justice, my camera... sucks... I'm going to have to do some minor re-working of the rocks to further isolate the anemones from eachother because I seriously underestimated how big this RBTA could get when it wasn't in that cramped 100 gallon tank. The front panel is somewhat cloudy from the silt that had settled on it, but I'll be taking my new DIY magnet cleaners to it shortly I just couldn't wait and had to take some pics, so here they be!

FTS with flash

Right side island - "volcano"

Left side island, with an almost hollow base structure and wide, gradually sloped top

Anemone Isolation Islands(tm)

Length-shot from left side along front

Length-shot from left along rear

Top-down length-shot

Angled FTS (no flash)

Angled FTS (flash)

Yeah... Now I'm going to have to go get a DSLR camera or something... Probably get more corals first though

 

[tat2z_21]

Damn that thing is a monster. Glad to see that things are starting to clear up for you.

 

[Sea]

Does it hurt the fish or coral to be in cloudy water for so long?

 

[OCDreefer]

Looking good!

Does it hurt the fish or coral to be in cloudy water for so long?

not really in my experience but I started washing my sand these day.... but I'm guessing the logistics of cleaning that much sand is a nightmare right nsamouroux?

 

[nsamouroux]

I was told by a number of people that the silt would not harm the fish, and they all look fine with no signs of stress. I'm sure the tangs at least would have stress spots showing if it was a problem, but they're all just as piggish as ever. I actually did rinse the sand before putting it in, but didn't want to wash out all of the silt because it's great for buffering and filtration due to the small particle size. The reason it took so long to settle is because I left the sump return running the whole time and that kept it stirred up. Once that pump was turned off it cleared overnight and I felt sort of stupid :badgrin:. It also helps that moving all of my 2+ year old established live rock into the tank along with the fish sped up the bacterial coating process in the sand, now I can stir it up a bit and it settles much quicker, even with the sump return running. I haven't yet turned on the main circulation powerheads because I need to aim them pretty carefully, the tank isn't yet ready for the full 17,000 gph

 

[Chichas01]

Looking great! Those tangs gotta love that space.

 

[fatboyt123]

The tank is looking great.GOD i cant wait to get my big tank

 

[nsamouroux]

Lesson learned: 50x turnover in a tank this size doesn't really work with a fine-grain sand bed :lol:. I just can't set up these Koralia Magnum 8 powerheads so that they aren't moving sand all over the place, and I think a sand bed with acrylic showing through the bottom looks goofy as hell. I can set up and angle two of my Koralia 8s and not have any sand movement, but no matter what I can't turn on the third and fourth K8 pumps without things going crazy. I might have to sell two of these things and get four or six of the smaller Koralia 4 pumps to get the same turnover without blowing things around everywhere.

 

[Saltyfish]

This was the entire reason I was looking at other options like closed loop.

When you get them so the water is clear you get dead spots. If you dont have dead spots you have bare bottom tank.

Is a closed loop out of the question for you?

You could have one input (suction side) and then one output (discharge side) into a rectanglearound the bottom of your tank buried in the sand every 2 to 3 feet put a Tee pointing up towards your rock work. Might use a high volume pressue pump

Then on each end of the tank put a K8 pushing the water across the mid to top of the tank.

Hope this gives you some ideas

 

[nsamouroux]

I had originally planned on doing a closed loop with bulkheads drilled into the bottom of the tank, but I didn't want the noise of a pump in the room (wanted to make the display totally silent). I'm going to experiment a bit more today with the powerheads (two at a time at first) once everything is clear enough from last night's tinkering. I might just have to replace two of the four k8s with a bunch of k4s or something spaced along the back wall pointing forwards along the 3' depth while the two other k8s sit near the top where they can't do any damage :lol:

 

[1fishkeeper]

I might have to come see it now that its got rock in it and cleared up. I remember when i was there it looked like a milkshake.

 

[nsamouroux]

Yeah, it's all cleared up now I've got the powerheads aligned so that there's minimal sand movement, and most of it occurs behind the rocks. Thankfully I didn't have to get rid of two of the pumps, I really like these things!

 

[nsamouroux]

Woohoo! I've got all four of the Koralia Monstrosity 8 pumps running and the sand isn't getting blown around everywhere I had to point the two rear powerheads directly at the rock islands to break up the water flow while the other two are running 5" below the water surface parallel to eachother length-wise across the tank (one running at the back of the tank just in front of the overflow box, one running at the midpoint). The sand at the open front half of the tank has constant flow going across it to keep garbage from settling there but not strong enough to dig holes in it The back of the tank has a few tall sand dunes piled up, but no bare spots after 3 days. The two powerheads aimed at the rockwork keeps the hollow cave areas underneath them clear and open down to the eggcrate supports so that the sand doesn't fill it in.

Problems solved! 55x turnover in the display (determined by actual water volume) and the fine-grain sand is staying put. Now it's time to load up on corals and fish :lol:

 

[nsamouroux]

Just a quick update for those interested: I've still got all four of the big powerheads running and everything is settled. The water is clear, the sand is stable, the inhabitants are happy, and it's time to start adding more critters / corals and finishing the refugium setup. All the corals from my 100g are looking good, and some of the frags that I thought were dead from moving back in April are actually starting to bounce back and grow visibly.

 

[TotalVapor]

What has happened to this build? Do you have updates?

 

[nsamouroux]

Crap, you mean I was supposed to keep this current? Oops! :badgrin:

Tank is doing well, the sand has settled for the most part and is full of feather dusters and other strange critters although the Koralia 8 powerheads still move it around pretty good. My 20"+ RBTA liked the new lighting / space so much that it split and I now have two 14" or so nems sharing an inverted bowl-shape rock that the false perc clowns also live in.

All of the fish and other critters are still in there and doing quite well (I've had this blue linkia starfish for almost 3 years now in a couple different setups), and I have since added a juvenile emperor angelfish purchased from Barrier Reef about 4-5 months ago. It's doing quite well and eats like a pig and hasn't messed with any corals / featherdusters / other fish in my presence anyways.

 

[TotalVapor]

Would like to see updated pictures if you can find the time.

Thanks

 

[iroll253]

Plus 1! A first person view was already amazing with just water in it lol

 

[nsamouroux]

Fine, here's a few shots I just took with my cell phone.

And for those of you who have a LOT of time on your hands or voyeuristic tendencies, here's a link to my picasa album for the 360 gallon project. Every photo I've ever taken of the tank, build process, and things that are or have been living in it is in that album so it's a bit much to sort through :badgrin:

360 Gallon Nightmare Picasa Link

 

[iroll253]

Lookin good!