Help with island tank design!

[fishermann]

Scooty if you look back on his original post I beleive he said the tank was 30" deep.
Dragoneggs If it was me I would go with your original plans and put one cross brace in the center and go with the 2-400's shining down through the openings. JMO Reed may have a different plan.

 

[Scooterman]

AHH, Ok!
You could do a 60" L x 30"W x 25"D and get more floor room for rocks etc, yo will have lots to work with, also you could use 4 Tunze streams for circulation, but if you do 30", through experience eventually you will want to keep anything you want, if this is the case spend the money up front & be done with it.

 

[Scooterman]

Scooty if you look back on his original post I beleive he said the tank was 30" deep.
Dragoneggs If it was me I would go with your original plans and put one cross brace in the center and go with the 2-400's shining down through the openings. JMO Reed may have a different plan.

I looked at his first post on this thread, missed the last part where he changed it., sorry!

I have already built my solid wood stand intended for a 60 x 24 x 24 (150gal) island acrylic tank. I will attempt to post some pics soon. I am now thinking (girlfriend's input) that the tank should be taller, at 30in for better viewing.

 

[dragoneggs]

AHH, Ok!
You could do a 60" L x 30"W x 25"D and get more floor room for rocks etc,

Nope! I am committed to the 60in by 24in length and width because my tank stand is built. Lots of sweat on that already! I hope the 24in width is wide enough for aquascaping and viewing on both sides!:?:

 

[reedman]

Personally I think 400W are overkill on all but really deep tanks or tanks where water clarity is less than optimal....Also when you want to keep SPS at the very bottom of the tank (like Mojo does). I keep SPS & clams at the bottom of my tank (24" tall) and have no issues at all with 250W bulbs.

you're at 30" so maybe 400 is better, but I still would think 250s would work fine with a good reflector. If you went with anything other than the luminarcs I would definitely say 400W for clams at the bottom.

You could certainly try 2 lumionarcs with 400W bulbs and if you don't like the coverage just add another later. My concern with 400W is heat. You introduce a lot of heat with those and your bulb chose goes down a little (as compared to 250W).

I've never run 400W, nor have I had a 30" deep tank. I have seen 30" deep tanks with 400W and they look great (most have chillers too). I've also seen 30" deep tanks with 250W (half of Mike's, Mojo, tank is 250W...unless he changed again). It's up to you and what your long term vision for the tank is.

If you plan to have high light clams and SPS at the bottom (and you have a plan to deal with the heat), then go for the 2 x 400W with the luminarcs. You'll certainly have plenty of light (with the exception of maybe in the transition area between the fixtures...hard to say without actually trying it).

 

[Scooterman]

Yes my new tank is 24" wide, even though I saw lots of nice 30" wide tanks, man does it make a difference, lots of real Depth but hey, nothing wrong with what your doing. PFO makes a nice ballast to go with the LIII's, you can do two now & if you want more sps later add the third one, just build your hood tall enough & wide enough. The LIII's is like 24 1/2" long with the end socket by 19" by 8 1/2" high, I may be off on that first measurement.

 

[dragoneggs]

Okay so it sounds like I am settling on 2 400W MH with Luminarc III reflectors. I will augment with some actinics.

It sounds like ballast should/could go below floor. This is what I am thinking of doing with my CL and return pumps. I am planning to locate the pumps near the entrance to my crawl space for maintenance. I will have a 25ft horizontal plumbing run to do that. Can I assume the ballasts don't need any maintenance and therefore I can mount them directly under my tank footprint?

 

[fishermann]

Yeah Scooter I haven't read this thread, I was going by his earlier post on the other thread.

 

[dragoneggs]

Okay I'm torn Do I have to be concerned about the two MHs being directly on top of my LR mounds? Also if I go with 2 250s or 400s and then want to reposition them and add a third my center cross brace (if I go that way with tank design) will now be in the way.

I think I need to go out and have a margarita or two to celebrate my design and cinco de mayo!!! Jeez... another decision on one drink or two:badgrin:

Please keep the comments coming... I will be back later!!!

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[Scooterman]

LOL, I think we got you thinking & that is the important thing, these things cost a ton so upfront design is very important. Now on the decision to go with either 250, or 400's & the two or three, that is a different story. I think you can get good growth with three 250's using the LIII's, the only issue may be the bottom 4 or 5 inches, you can keep some sps but you have to read up on the ones you can get away with less light demands. Like reed said any other reflector I'd say go 400's. Most reefers keep a verity of corals so you can get away with less Mh's & still keep a large amount of hard corals.

 

[fishermann]

The main reason I see for using 2 lites is to keep as much uv off of yourcenter euro brace. I have spoken to Luke at Pacific Garden on occasion and am quite sure the normal size reflectors well give you plenty of coverage, but if in doubt call and talk to Luke or Dan, either well be more then willing to answer your questions. I don't think heat well be much differant for 2 400's verses 3-250's. I run 3 400's on my 230 72"x30"x24" deep and I do not have a chiller on the tank and run a temp of 78 at night and 79to80 during the day and I have a window mounted 10,000 btu unit in trhe living room window. My canopy is open on top with a channel bar that runs across from one end to the other and slides fore and aft with the pendents mounted on a aluminum channel bar. Look in my gallery. I am thinking of going to luminarcs but would probably switch to 250 if running that reflector because my actual water depth is only 22". I haven't made up my mind if I need to change all that since things seem to be good the way they are with the PFO pendents at 400 w.

 

[reedman]

You know, there's another question for you. Are you going to put sand in the bottom? How deep. If you are putting in a deep sand bed, all of a sudden your tank depth goes from 30 to 24-26". That certainly changes your parameters a bit. Just another thought to chew on.

 

[moortim]

Just a quick thought, to avoid more setup headaches when you start building all this, and if you are putting the ballasts in your crawlspace, pay attention to how long the cables are that come with your lighting. You will have a ways to go with them.

Tim

 

[dragoneggs]

Okay... a major design change!!! As you know, I have built my stand for a 60 x 24 tank footprint. After lots of looking at other tanks, talking with reefers, and listening to opinions, I have decided to change the dimensions of the tank!

Thinking hard about the aquascaping has made me realize that a 24in wide tank is not wide enough for an island tank design with true four sided viewing. I also realized that my 60in long design was going to make it seriously difficult to get furniture in/out of my living room (not that I will ever be able to afford another piece after this project anyways:lol: ).

So now I think I have settled on a 54 x 36 x 30 tank! Anybody need a beautiful solid mahagony stand? I still have to build the doors but now that I am not going to use it myself I have lost a little desire... I got to get busy on the new stand, right?

 

[NaH2O]

Woo! I think you're going to love those dimensions. I didn't think about the 24" width. That is the width of my 120 gallon, which I view from one side along with the front. I think the 36" width will be much more enjoyable.

Look at it this way....you were able to practice stand building with the first one. Now, you're all set to do the final stand

 

[Scooterman]

I love your stand, if I was closer I'd offer up some cash for it, most certainly. Didn't I tell you wider would be better? Yes I agree that looks to be nice for a center tank.

 

[Kshack]

I am in the process of designing a tank close to yours. It will be 68X36X25. I wanted to go 28 high (I have a 30 tall now), but the cost of going that extra 3 inches would cost $1,500. It will be Starfire and viewable from front, back and one side. My original thought was to go with closed loop, but when you consider all the plumbing, connections, etc., I decided to go with two Vortec pumps. You will see them from the outside, but worth looking into. Return pump...you might want to look at Sequence pumps. I have a Iwalkie 100 and it is loud. The Sequence (or Dolphin Ampmaster 3000) run at half speed, so they are quieter, less heat, and cost less to run. With either you will need to run 1.5 inch return line. The flow loss with 3/4 inch would be very high with that much run.
Lights..not to confuse the issue, but I went another direction. New lights from PFO are due out in June or July. DIODE. Less heat, (no chiller) no more replacing bulbs, less energy (about 60% savings). They will come out with 400 watt equivalent later (Sept ?). Here is a link: http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=295
Just a heads up...you can just watch the development as long as you have not bought your lights yet.
Stick a good skimmer on the setup. The Deltec and H&S are good and quiet. There is a new H&S dealer down here in Portland.
I am in the process of designing the stand. If you have anything on paper as far as design I could use a copy

 

[jetaero]

Very nice! You'll have a blast with that width of tank, and plenty of room within it!

-Josh-

 

[dragoneggs]

Hi Kshack,

Yes the tank cost shot up due to 30in height meaning thicker walls but I didn't want to be kicking myself later. I will keep you posted on my stand design and share what I can. I do the design in a 3D modeling package and don't really generate 2D or cutting plans. The software I use is not really geared for that but with a little investigation it might be doable.

 

[dragoneggs]

Hey Scooter,

From my initial design, I have increased tank volume from 150g to 180g and now 250g. I had better get building it before it changes again. Obviously the $500 I put into the original stand didn't stop me from changing!

Jason from Clear Fabrications is building this beauty! It's been a joy to work with him so far.