thetedinator's 325g Semi-Cube.....

[thetedinator]

All,

With a lot of help from Dave Botwin (o2manyfish), Con Magallon (cmagallon), Scott Fellman (algaeguy) and Carlos Basilecki (Pucci on RC), I've started my new reef tank project. As things progress, I'll post and update.

The tank is acrylic with a powder coated steel frame on the top. This allows the tank to be completely open. It measures 48" wide X 60" deep X 26" tall. It has a black back panel. The overflow is offset right center and has 3 X 2" holes for plumbing.

Some pictures of the tank when we picked it up.

 

[thetedinator]

Here's a drawing of the stand. The stand is steel. The legs will be skinned and painted to match the tile you see in the picture above.

 

[thetedinator]

The tank is in my (converted) office. Most of the equipment and a ~240 gallon sump/refugium will be outside.

Outside equipment: Deltec FR509 Fluidized Reactor, Deltec PF600S Calcium Reactor, Deltec AP702 Protein Skimmer and a Sequence Baracuda pump for return.

In the fish room: 4 Lumenarc 3 reflectors over the tank and 6 Tunze Streams in the tank (2x6200 and 4x6100). Still not finalized on the lighting. I'm leaning towards 4x400w 10K Ushio with IC ballasts. Streams will be controlled with the 2 of the new 7095 multicontrollers. Down the line, I may add a wavebox.

Eventually, I will plumb my current 90g system into this system.

 

[flip_3_6_0]

Wow, the depth is gonna make this one cool tank, the aquascaping possibilities are endless. The stand sure is unique, it should add a nice touch. Im definitely jealous.

 

[edgerat]

can you take some pics of the tank unwrapped?? Dave had mentioned this idea to me before and I am anxious to see what it looks like in practice...
Isaac

 

[Maxx]

This looks very sweet! I'm guessing that with O2manyfish and Pucci as friends, SPS is in your future.
The stand looks very interesting. Are you concerned about all the weight being carried by those 4 legs of the stand at all?? I'm just curious since that is such non tradtional design. It looks great though!

Nick

 

[Scooterman]

This looks like another nice project going on. I look forward to the progress!

 

[thetedinator]

Stand update

While trying to bring the stand concept into existence, we hit a couple of snags. The first snag is the CAD program told Con that the three legs in front needed to be repositioned. The second is that I forgot to account for the doorway that the stand has to fit thru to get into the fish room.

Here's a new 3D capture of the stand and tank. The legs have been repositioned to support the weight.

 

[thetedinator]

Wow, the depth is gonna make this one cool tank, the aquascaping possibilities are endless. The stand sure is unique, it should add a nice touch. Im definitely jealous.

Thanks!

can you take some pics of the tank unwrapped?? Dave had mentioned this idea to me before and I am anxious to see what it looks like in practice...
Isaac

I'll unwrap some of the plastic and take a closeup for you. Completely open top (no euro bracing, etc.) is awesome.

This looks very sweet! I'm guessing that with O2manyfish and Pucci as friends, SPS is in your future.
The stand looks very interesting. Are you concerned about all the weight being carried by those 4 legs of the stand at all?? I'm just curious since that is such non tradtional design. It looks great though!

Nick

Thanks. And yes, my 90g is SPS and the 325 will be SPS dominated. See my previous post about the reconfiguration of the stand.

This looks like another nice project going on. I look forward to the progress!

Thanks Scooterman. I''ll update as we progress.

cya,

Ted

 

[thetedinator]

Powder coated frame

Here's a shot of the powder coated frame. I included a bulkhead for reference.

 

[thetedinator]

Live Rock that Rocks!

Here are pictures of some LR I got yesterday. I have 100+ pounds of base rock, 120+ pounds of Walt Smith Show Kaelini and 170+ pounds of Walt Smith Show Tonga Branch. Arriving this week is another approximately 180 pounds of Walt Smith Show Fiji rock. A big thanks to Chris and Andy at ReeferMadness who hooked me up with this absolutely amazing Walt Smith rock.

This picture I call "Christmas in January". Open the box and see what we got!!!

Show Kaelini

Show Tonga Branch

Close up

Finally, here is picture of a piece of base rock that I picked up from Andy. It is about 3 feet in diameter!!

A big thanks to Dave Botwin who is curing the Kaelini and Tonga Branch in his system for me!


cya,

Ted

 

[edgerat]

so does the frame wrap around the entire tank or just around the top lip of the aquarium???

 

[thetedinator]

so does the frame wrap around the entire tank or just around the top lip of the aquarium???

Just around the top.

 

[mojoreef]

RIGHT ON TED!!! I was wondering howlong it would be before we started seeing the steel frames back on tanks again, good plan. I have a funny feeling this is going to be one stunning tank. Good score on the show rock, IMHO the rock makes the tank and you did good. keep the pictures coming


MIke

 

[thetedinator]

Thanks Mike. The rock is way better than it photographs!

 

[ridetheducati]

wow, this is going to be a great thread.

 

[o2manyfish]

The live rock is incredible... Really spectacular shapes and surfaces, with an abundance of diversity.

Dave B

 

[Elmo18]

I've seen Show Tonga Branch around here as well. It is very very nice rock. Very porous, lots of holes, and awesome shapes. Definitely different than your average single tube 'branch' rocks.

- Elmo

 

[thetedinator]

You haven't missed a lot....

My apologies for not keeping this thread current. Having said that, here are some pics to catch everyone up......

Some more rock...

And the stand has arrived so here are pictures of the stand and the tank.

With any luck, plumbing starts in about 2 weeks.

cya,

Ted

 

[thetedinator]

One more picture

This hides the back legs.