A 750g SPS system is born

[dgasmd]

Well, a few months ago, I moved to FL and realized my desire to "upgrade" my previous 360g (96"x36"x24") tank to a 750g (120"x48"x30"). I wanted to do things very different than my previous tank and had planned for this for a long time. So much, that when I got equipment for my other tank I actually oversized it big time to accomodate the new tank eventually. Here is a link to the post I put in another forum about moving the tank in the house. I was extremely concerned about this given this beast was 1800 Lb, give or take some change.

The stand was built by one of the guys at the store that got the tank for me. To say this thing is solid is a huge understatement. I could park 3 tanks like this one on it easily. It has 2 layers of 1" styrofoam on top.

 

[dgasmd]

Before the tank was done, I actually built a light rack. I wanted to put 5 MH of 400 watts over it and wanted to go with the lumenarc3 reflectors. These reflectors are huge and I thought I would ahve a hard time fitting them together. Turns out that you can actually put 6 of them just fine, so I ordered the last one and put it up. The entire unit is constructed of Unitstraut, which are beans used to hold electric pipes and such in buildings. They are supposed to withstand corrosion, but time will tell. They are actually much lighter than they seem too. I put 2 larger ones vertically to hang the rack from and will do so with chains and hooks, so I can lower and raise the lights to acclimate the corals to new bulbs. I plan on using Radium 20000K bulbs alone without any VHO. I find VHO very inefficient and in a tank this large they will provide no usable light for the electricity used. Besides, there is so much ambient sunlight that come to the tank during the course of the day that I don't really need a dusk/dawn effect of any kind. That extra light will actually help with the spectrum and a little of intensity too. We'll see how it works out long term.

Before the tank was delivered, I also did a couple of smaller projects. One was to install all my ballasts into a compact and clean unit. I decided to put the Ozone generator there too. Then, I realized that I had enough room for the outlet boxes. I had an electrician come and install an extra breaker box with four 20A breakers in 110v and one single 25A breaker in 220v for the chiller. I am connecting all these outlets to that breaker box. The other smaller project was to organized my RO/DI unit in one place.

After the tank was set in place and the plumbing done (more below), I placed some crates over the close loop spray bar and put 600 LB of freshly collected/shipped Tonga branch rock. This stuff doesn't go a long way, so it was a challenge to place it so it would cover all the crates. At the end, it looked nice I thought. This tank will be viewable from both long ends, so it creates a ton of space to place corals and creates the illusion of 2 different tanks depending on what side you are standing. Also, I am building this tank with the vision of what it will look like in 2 years when the corals are all grown in and you cannot see the rock structure under it.

For someone with short arms like me, 30" of hight can be tricky to work with.

 

[dgasmd]

The plumbing was extremely tedious, but not really hard. I already had the concept in mind. I wanted close loops so I couldn't see the plumbing when it was all said and done. There are two sequence 5800 gph pumps with 2 actuated ball valves. Each pump supplies water to a discharge on each side, but one side goes to the 4 outlets at the end and the other side goes to the first 4 outlets. The other pump does the same, but cover the other 2 sets of outlets.

The sump was a 150g rubbermaid tub. I was going to use a 300g rubbermaid tub, but they are so huge and shallow, that it would not allow me to park my car in the garage if I put it there.

 

[dgasmd]

The end for now

Most of the plumbing for the close loops was extremely tedious because I decided to go with as much hard VC as possible and do it all in 2" PVC to cut down on the friction. The retuns are the only pipes that are 1". I personally like hard PVC better, looks cleaner, and long term it seals better. I used a lot of flex PVC before and after a while it hardens in the way it is layed, so it is harder to move.

The return is powered by a Blueline 100 (Iwaki 100 equivalent) pump and it drives 2 penductors. These things move some major water. I still have enough pressure to put 4 eductors instead, but it would look too cluttered. They were later removed because although they moved tons of water they were in my return line cutting the retuns from the sump significantly.

I then installed the skimmer, an aerofoamer 848 with an iwaki 100.

In that pictures below, you can see the custom GEO kalk reactor and the GEO custom Ca reactor next to the 55g top off water container at the right. Can't say enough good things about the GEO products. The skimmer above is actually going to be replaced by a Custom air stone skimmer with a wet neck in a few weeks. Also, in a week or so, I will be adding a pair of custom reactors. One for Phosban/rowaphos and the other for carbon.

Finaly, here are some pictures of the tank now. It has cured the rock in about 3 weeks. Once I get enough corals in my 60g cube, I will transfer them to the big tank. I am planning to do this tank from 100% frags, so it will be a while before it looks like much of anything. Also, the cabinetry work that will cover the top and bottom of the tank will be built ove the next few months.

 

[spooda420]

HOLY fish Batman, that is SUPER impressive! Love the tank More pics as you update! BTW whos the hottie behind the tank in the "filling the tank pic"?

VERY COOL INDEED

 

[Maxx]

Looking Good Alberto!!!

But DUDE!!! Someone CUT HOLES IN YOUR STAND!!!!!

And why are you showin Mojo yer butt???? I know, I know...Don't ask, Don't Tell......sorry, forget I said anything...

Nick

 

[dgasmd]

Spooda420:

Wife LOL.........

Maxx:

That shot was for mojoreef. A coupe of years ago at MACNA he to the story on how he was standing on a ladder over the tank putting a frag or something like that and he felt inside it. He went in head first and could barely get himself out while his wife was in the living room lookiing through the glass shaking her head. I told him back them about wanting a tank 36" tall and he laughed. He said he had to see the shot of me trying to put a frag in. Well, I went with 30" tall instead, but I owed him the shot LOL..............
The holes are for the intake of the spray bar close loop under the rock structure.

 

[Mauisreef]

Looking Good!

That is Sweet!
I can't wait to see it grow.
Thanks for sharing your tank with us.

Maui

 

[NaH2O]

Alberto!!!! Glad to see this thread Congrats on getting to this point! Woohoo!!

Did you get the MBVs wired alright?

Also, where did you get your power strips, and are they all metal? Brand names and model numbers would be great!

 

[MtnDewMan]

Very cool Alberto.... that is a NICE tank Keep the updates coming.

 

[dgasmd]

A bit of progress today

Well, today is thanksgiving and I am doing a little bit of tank work. I had my brother in law here, so I had to take advantage of the extra pair of hands. I had him help me with the light rack and we finally hung it up. It has been done for weeks and sitting in the floor. Today it got some action. Here are a couple of pictures. A lesson learned here in that this is a prime example of "as much as possible is not necessarily better". As you might remember, I figured out a while back I could use 6 MH reflectors instead of 5. Well, as you can see in this picture, 5 would have been more than plenty as the last 2 are not going to cover much. I will think about it over the weekend and may remove one altogether. Saving 400 watts of electrical use and the heat and bulbs that come with it is an attractive proposition. I plan to use no VHO by the way as I find it very inefficient and it does not do much in a tank this deep. The ambient sunlight I get daily will do much more for the corals than VHO ever will.

This is how I can lower them and raise them to acclimate to new lighting.

 

[Mauisreef]

Sweet!

Maui

 

[mojoreef]

WOW just awesome brother just awesome, Love the lighting system to, real smart of the rail system. Are those Giesman??
Keep the pics coming this is going to be a sweet tank.


MIke

 

[dgasmd]

Love the lighting system to, real smart of the rail system. Are those Giesman??
Keep the pics coming this is going to be a sweet tank.

Mike:

The rails are Unistraut. I cut them and bolted them to fit the purpose. They are used in construction to hold or suspend cales and major wiring from ceilings and such. The reflectors are the Lumenarc 3 reflectors that used to be manufactured by Diamond Lighting. They are the ones that tested far superior to anything else in Sanjay's reflector tests.

I hope to do some serious wiring tomorrow, so I'll post more pictures of that when I complete it.

Alberto

 

[jks1]

Lookin great! That is going to be one bright tank. Kudos on starting from frags, I did the same. Keep the updates coming!

 

[Scooterman]

Wow, awesome is an understatement, but well deserving.

 

[AcroBug]

By the way the mystery store where he had the tank and stand built was???

OCEANS BELOW....561-842-2221

 

[dgasmd]

By the way the mystery store where he had the tank and stand built was???

OCEANS BELOW....561-842-2221

I guess there is always someone with a bone to pick. Who in the heck ever said the store was a mystery?

By the way, they did not build the tank. They buy their tanks from a tank builder in Miami called Exotic Aquariums. Bob, the owner and builder is the guy that actually built the tank and delivered it to my house. I designed the tank specs down tot he last inch though. I just bought it through Oceans Below. To my understanding, and I may be wrong, Oceans Below as a store or their owner and employees, have never built a tank. The owner of Oceans Below, Rob, was the one that built the stand. It was his design and he built it himself and he did an awesome job too.

And then people ask me why is it that I never wanted to put up a thread about my tank build :badgrin:

 

[WaterDogs]

Hi dgasmd,

Thanks for clearing things up! We enjoy your thread very much and some people will make things difficult but that is less than 1% so please don't be too sensitive and blow the thread off.

Sincerely,
Dwaine

 

[kevinpo]

Hi Alberto,
Nice tank! Thanks for sharing all the pictures. It really helps to see how it goes together. I'm not sure that stand is sturdy enough though
IMO you could remove at least one of the light fixtures and still have enough light. It's looking good! I think putting it together is half the fun.

Regards,
Kevin