stalefish
Well-known member
Hi – you all don’t know me (although I chatted very briefly with a few of you at the last couple of PSAS meetings), but I almost feel like I know so many of you from reading all of your posts on RF. My name’s Don, I live in Sammamish, WA, and against the sound advice of many (all non-aquarium types), I’ve into reefkeeping.
I’m still fairly new at this - I’ve been running a 100ish gallon tank for about 2 years now and after what is a ridiculously short period of time with my first tank that was supposed to last forever, I’m upgrading – this hobby is definitely a disease.
So now it’s my turn to have Jason at Clear Fabrications build me my dream tank! The dimensions are going to be 96x30x30 with a wood stand (also to be obtained through CF). I was toying with going wider, but after reading Joe’s Wet Dream (lots of fun explaining to the wife exactly what I was reading on the Internet late at night!) I measured the width of my door and found that it’s about 32” – so I’m pretty much at maximum width.
I started off trying to cut some corners to keep the cost down – things like shoe-horning in as much of my current equipment as possible, but as my discussions (yes, plural) with Jason progressed, I realized that if I was going to do something this big, I needed to do it right, otherwise I was probably just causing myself extra cost, regret and maybe grief in the long run.
Jason’s reputation for quality is what attracted me to him in the first place, but it’s his willingness to spend a lot of time with me in designing the whole system – not just a tank that’s really impressed me the most so far. He’s been nothing but patient with me and I’ve driven out to his place quite a few times now and spent many hours designing this tank – he’s probably starting to prefer clients that are a little farther away from him than 20 minutes at this point!
I’m sorry that this post is long on text and short on pictures, but I just wrote my first check for this a few days ago and we’re just now entering the ordering phase.
My existing tank is a 60x18x24 flat-back hex (hence the 100ish gallons) and although I love the look of that tank, I was thinking for a bigger tank, I’d go with a more traditional rectangular size.
The new one is going to go downstairs in my finished basement on a concrete slab – so no worries about weight. The room is partially underground and stays pretty cool down there even in the summer. My current tank has added a little bit of heat, but actually makes the room more comfortable as it used to be a little on the cold side.
My old tank lighting consisted of two 24” Solaris LED’s– and although I dearly love those lights, going LED on a tank this size is just too expensive.
Jason’s designed the top of the tank so I’ll have two huge access hatches with a largish center brace. I’m going to put four 250 watt metal halides across the top (they won’t be over the acrylic) and then sit one of my LED’s on the acrylic center piece to get some center light.
The reason for the 250’s is heat and power and mostly heat – I really don’t want to have to run a chiller if I can help it. Jason and I discussed and he counseled that if I’m good about coral placement, I can get away with 250’s in a 30” deep tank and that there is a big differnence in heat and power consumption between the 250’s and 400’s. I’ve got no experience with MH’s, though. I’m thinking that lights are fairly easy (maybe not cheap, but easy) to swap out later on – it’s not like changing the plumbing.
The canopy will top out about 6” below the ceiling (it’s going beneath a heating duct) so no opportunities (temptations?) to go with a lift system. Jason’s designing the canopy to have not just doors, but also to be able to remove the front 1/3 for tank access. The lights will be on a track so I can push them to the back for more access room. We’re going to put a gasket around the edge of the canopy so that any water spill on top of the tank mostly stays on top where it can evaporate or be mopped up and not dribble down the outside of the tank.
Flow will be achieved by two closed loop systems out of the bottom of the tank and two Wavy Seas on top for the return. Skimmer is a BK Supermarin 250.
I’ve got some live rock ordered through Clear Fabrications and the current arrival time frame is roughly middle-end of March.
Since we all love pics so much, here’s a couple of mediocre/bad pics of my current system and a close up of my Picasso pair and their rose BTA. I got the clowns as juveniles and although it took them over a year, but they finally moved into the anenomes.
On my current tank, I was originally going with a Deep Sand bed and ended up with a deep-ish sandbed. It kind of settled over time and the current in the tank created a bare spot. I covered that with small rubble, but the sand keeps shifting (with some help from my pistol shrimp) so it’s deep in some areas, shallow and others and a bit in between.
For my new tank I’m planning a shallow sand bed – to me a tank needs sand in the bottom, so no BB for me. Jason’s planning the stand lip will be a bit higher than the sand so I can run my cleaning magnet all the way down without getting it into the sand and therefore hopefully minimize scratching opportunities.
My current fish are a foxface rabbitfish, a purple tang (these two are almost like buddies, they hang out in the same part of the tank all the time), the two picasso’s, a melanarus wrasse, some bar gobies, a couple of anthias, and some chromis’. Oh, and I was fishing a bar goby out of the overflow and found my yellow watchman goby. He disappeared a month or so ago on me and I looked in the overflow several times for him (and on the floor behind the tank) but couldn’t find him. But when I went after the bar goby, I noticed he was watchman was in there as well. He’s now a white watchman goby, so hopefully he’ll be ok. The tank is very peaceful and I’d like to keep it that way, but it’ll be a challenge since I’ve got so many more fish options with a much bigger system.
Almost all the corals are LPS. My rabbitfish finds xenias to be very tasty and has also developed a little fondness for zoo’s. My new tank I’m planning to go SPS up higher in the water column and LPS lower.
Well that’s all I’ve got at the moment. I started this upgrade process with equal parts excitement and terror, but thanks to all the planning and discussions with Jason, I got it down to only about 25% terror. Then I decided, hey, I’m not a plumber – I can do it, but it takes forever and it’s kind of mediocre. So now CF is going to do all the plumbing and install and I can focus on more fun things like aquscaping. That’s reduced the terror to below 10%. So the biggest problem now is just w-a-i-t-i-n-g. A character building opportunity.
I’ll post more updates and pictures as we move along in the process.
-Don
I’m still fairly new at this - I’ve been running a 100ish gallon tank for about 2 years now and after what is a ridiculously short period of time with my first tank that was supposed to last forever, I’m upgrading – this hobby is definitely a disease.
So now it’s my turn to have Jason at Clear Fabrications build me my dream tank! The dimensions are going to be 96x30x30 with a wood stand (also to be obtained through CF). I was toying with going wider, but after reading Joe’s Wet Dream (lots of fun explaining to the wife exactly what I was reading on the Internet late at night!) I measured the width of my door and found that it’s about 32” – so I’m pretty much at maximum width.
I started off trying to cut some corners to keep the cost down – things like shoe-horning in as much of my current equipment as possible, but as my discussions (yes, plural) with Jason progressed, I realized that if I was going to do something this big, I needed to do it right, otherwise I was probably just causing myself extra cost, regret and maybe grief in the long run.
Jason’s reputation for quality is what attracted me to him in the first place, but it’s his willingness to spend a lot of time with me in designing the whole system – not just a tank that’s really impressed me the most so far. He’s been nothing but patient with me and I’ve driven out to his place quite a few times now and spent many hours designing this tank – he’s probably starting to prefer clients that are a little farther away from him than 20 minutes at this point!
I’m sorry that this post is long on text and short on pictures, but I just wrote my first check for this a few days ago and we’re just now entering the ordering phase.
My existing tank is a 60x18x24 flat-back hex (hence the 100ish gallons) and although I love the look of that tank, I was thinking for a bigger tank, I’d go with a more traditional rectangular size.
The new one is going to go downstairs in my finished basement on a concrete slab – so no worries about weight. The room is partially underground and stays pretty cool down there even in the summer. My current tank has added a little bit of heat, but actually makes the room more comfortable as it used to be a little on the cold side.
My old tank lighting consisted of two 24” Solaris LED’s– and although I dearly love those lights, going LED on a tank this size is just too expensive.
Jason’s designed the top of the tank so I’ll have two huge access hatches with a largish center brace. I’m going to put four 250 watt metal halides across the top (they won’t be over the acrylic) and then sit one of my LED’s on the acrylic center piece to get some center light.
The reason for the 250’s is heat and power and mostly heat – I really don’t want to have to run a chiller if I can help it. Jason and I discussed and he counseled that if I’m good about coral placement, I can get away with 250’s in a 30” deep tank and that there is a big differnence in heat and power consumption between the 250’s and 400’s. I’ve got no experience with MH’s, though. I’m thinking that lights are fairly easy (maybe not cheap, but easy) to swap out later on – it’s not like changing the plumbing.
The canopy will top out about 6” below the ceiling (it’s going beneath a heating duct) so no opportunities (temptations?) to go with a lift system. Jason’s designing the canopy to have not just doors, but also to be able to remove the front 1/3 for tank access. The lights will be on a track so I can push them to the back for more access room. We’re going to put a gasket around the edge of the canopy so that any water spill on top of the tank mostly stays on top where it can evaporate or be mopped up and not dribble down the outside of the tank.
Flow will be achieved by two closed loop systems out of the bottom of the tank and two Wavy Seas on top for the return. Skimmer is a BK Supermarin 250.
I’ve got some live rock ordered through Clear Fabrications and the current arrival time frame is roughly middle-end of March.
Since we all love pics so much, here’s a couple of mediocre/bad pics of my current system and a close up of my Picasso pair and their rose BTA. I got the clowns as juveniles and although it took them over a year, but they finally moved into the anenomes.
On my current tank, I was originally going with a Deep Sand bed and ended up with a deep-ish sandbed. It kind of settled over time and the current in the tank created a bare spot. I covered that with small rubble, but the sand keeps shifting (with some help from my pistol shrimp) so it’s deep in some areas, shallow and others and a bit in between.
For my new tank I’m planning a shallow sand bed – to me a tank needs sand in the bottom, so no BB for me. Jason’s planning the stand lip will be a bit higher than the sand so I can run my cleaning magnet all the way down without getting it into the sand and therefore hopefully minimize scratching opportunities.
My current fish are a foxface rabbitfish, a purple tang (these two are almost like buddies, they hang out in the same part of the tank all the time), the two picasso’s, a melanarus wrasse, some bar gobies, a couple of anthias, and some chromis’. Oh, and I was fishing a bar goby out of the overflow and found my yellow watchman goby. He disappeared a month or so ago on me and I looked in the overflow several times for him (and on the floor behind the tank) but couldn’t find him. But when I went after the bar goby, I noticed he was watchman was in there as well. He’s now a white watchman goby, so hopefully he’ll be ok. The tank is very peaceful and I’d like to keep it that way, but it’ll be a challenge since I’ve got so many more fish options with a much bigger system.
Almost all the corals are LPS. My rabbitfish finds xenias to be very tasty and has also developed a little fondness for zoo’s. My new tank I’m planning to go SPS up higher in the water column and LPS lower.
Well that’s all I’ve got at the moment. I started this upgrade process with equal parts excitement and terror, but thanks to all the planning and discussions with Jason, I got it down to only about 25% terror. Then I decided, hey, I’m not a plumber – I can do it, but it takes forever and it’s kind of mediocre. So now CF is going to do all the plumbing and install and I can focus on more fun things like aquscaping. That’s reduced the terror to below 10%. So the biggest problem now is just w-a-i-t-i-n-g. A character building opportunity.
I’ll post more updates and pictures as we move along in the process.
-Don
look forward to the progression of this thread.
