400Gal Down Under

Introduction:

This build is in Perth, Western Australia.

I am starting this tank journal knowing I have a long time before I can possibly have a wet tank, mostly so I can get you to critique the ideas and sanity check my mad ravings as I go along.

A bit of back story, my wife and I sold our old house way quicker than the agent of we expected, meaning rather than a few months with my Mother Inlaw (MiL) it will be close to 18 by the time we move in and I my dream tank. Living with your MiL is as bad as the cliches make out :wall: :nut: :konk:

My new house has been designed around the fact I wanted a large tank, I was originally promised a 10x3x2 thru the wall tank by my wife, but due to the building design and structural requirements I had to scale back to 8x3x2. Not the end of the world, less lights to have to run and I can have a smaller skimmer. :thumbsup:

Here is a layout of the front 1/2 of the ground floor of the house, with the tank marked in Blue:

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So the tank will be mostly in the Lounge surrounded by a wall of cabinets, with the glass being flush with the wall in the family dining area, with luck the build should be finished early in the new year, and having my mate build the house means I can move the tank in and have it cycling before the official handover. :pirate:

To enable the tank to be easily carried thru the house I was able to incorporate a 1500mm wide passageway the length of the house from the rear garage to the lounge.

I will have 2x 250Gal IBC's setup and plumbed thru ducting under the concrete floor to the tank and a 90mm waste pipe to allow for water disposal, the builder has advised me he will build the tank area like a shower with a brick hob and a sloping floor to the 90mm floor waste "just in case".

The intention is to have the 2 main panes of the tank in 12mm starphire and the other vertical panes in 12mm float with a 15 or 19mm base, after seeing the workmanship of my local fish store it is likely that is who will build the tank.

This is going to be a long haul project and I have no illusions that it will be cheap or quick, so from time to time as I get new gear or I have more to add I will do, I now need to :poke: someone with mad skillz with sketchup to draw up the tank/stand/cabinetry for me.

System Objectives: Centre piece to our new home, visible from Family/Dining and Lounge

System Type: Double reef, LPS dominated 1 side, SPS the other side with large show piece clam

Display System:

Strike up Date: :sleeper:

Display Tank: 8x3x2

Display Lighting:
5x 120W LEDs

Stand: Steel

Sump: 5x1.5x1.6 with 1.5x1.5.1.6


Support systems:

System Water: Natural Salt Water (Living 3 miles from the Indian Ocean helps)

Display Water circulation: 4x Vortech MP40's, 2x Closed Loop pumps.

Return Pump: TBC - 7000LPH - 9000LPH

Skimmer: BubbleKing Supermarin 250

Chiller: Haliea HC-1000A

Evaporation Top Up: RO/DI


Current Water Chemistry: :roflmao:
Nitrates:
Phosphates:
Alkalinity:
Calcium:
Salinity / Specific Gravity:
Ammonia:
Nitrite:

Intended residents:

Huge cleanup crew
2x Occy Clowns
1x Blue Tang called Tabetha
1x Sailfin Tang called Sally
1x Bristletooth Tang called Bazil
1x Flamehawk called Flynn
1x Acanthurus Nigricans called G-Rim
2x Lemon Peel Angels (mated pair) Lenny and Lucy =-> yes a recipe for disaster in LPS tank I know :konk:
1x Orchid Dottyback called Dorothy
1x Psychodelic Mandarin called Mike
1x WA Algae Blenny called Benita
2x Urchins Ernie and Bert.
Large shoal of Anthias


Corals:

Torch
Leather
Hammers
Other LPS
Acros/Poci's/Stylo's

With luck you will get to see some corals which are not allowed to be exported from Australia.

I am currently running a 5x2x2 system which is basically a growout tank and I don't do as much work on it as I probably should. Here is a vid so you can have a look.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S093rAdAxQ4[/youtube]
 
A good friend has very kindly knocked together some sketchups of my house to assist in planning for my builder and to help us pick colours.

The tank:
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The house:

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From the family room side, (the gap above the tank is for access for cleaning).
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This is the tank and stand from the lounge side.
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And finally, with the wall of cabinets around the tank and a glowy effect to make it look like lights are above the tank :thumbsup:
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Finally after 12 months, the builder has advised that we are getting our contract on the 6th Dec and the construction will start in the New Year. We have been kind of dis-heartened on the project, but now a bit of light at the end of the tunnel is peaking thru.

While talking with him I showed him the model that my friend built and the look we are going for with the tank.

View from the pool area
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Looking thru the tank from the lounge to the familyroom/alfresco
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View visitors will see when they arrive
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Hopefully the next time I get to do an update here it will be with pics of a cleared site and a concrete slab :crossfingers:
 
Welcome to the DFWMAS forums. I'm really excited to see someone from so far away keeping us updated on their tank build. It will be great to see how it progresses, and congrats on the new house.
 
@Drew wrote:
Welcome to the DFWMAS forums. I'm really excited to see someone from so far away keeping us updated on their tank build. It will be great to see how it progresses said:
Blame SPAR (cliff)

He used to work with my wife and I had been dropping in as a guest to look at his log, just wish he would update it once in a while. [smilie=crying.gif]
 
I agree that we need to get cliff to give us an update a little more often. [smilie=sadsmile.gif]
But glad we have one going for you. [smilie=lol.gif]
 
Well its the 17th December and still no contract for the new house.

Rather than go insane I thought I would introduce you to some of the fish and coral that will be going into the tank (if the builder ever pulls his thumb out of his butt).

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Check out the link to my live webcam in my sig and you can see the tank real time.
 
So some things have changed in the last few weeks.

Tank is now going to be 8x3x2.5
It will be Zeo methodology
It will have T5 supplementing the LEDs or maybe even ATI Powermodules.

I have changed my webcam and a few other bits and pieces on current tank: Webcam
 
What webcam are you using here? I am looking to do something similar to your setup so any information on this would be much appreciated.
 
OK, so after some playing around with 5x 120W LEDs I decided to go one better,a friend has loaned me a 4x 39W T5 DIY pack, which he did all the 240V work on for me. [smilie=clapping.gif]

He had 4 spare tubes floating around for it, so I now have 2x Fiji Purple + 2x Superblue tubes on top of all the LEDs.

The T5s have softened the relatively harsh light of the LEDs and made things a lot easier to photograph.

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After seeing a friends latest build log update on our local Aussie reefing site RTAW, I finally relented and installed substrate in my tank. I visited my LFS and bought 2kg of 00 Aragonite to test if it would blow around with my vortechs and found it was quite stable. So this morning I went back and bought a 25Kg bag and finished the job.

So that's 1 more thing worked out for this build.

Finance is now sorted as is planning ermissions, so the builder should clear my lot this week and hopefully foundations shortly after.

FTS
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Some Fish shots
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Corals
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