Okay.. I have almost made the decision to pull the trigger on this upgrade. I will be replacing my 140 with a 300G Marineland Deep Dimension tank. It will be 36Wx72Lx27T.
This is in the very beginning planning stages right now and will come out from the wall to be viewable on 3 sides, one end and front/back.
Tank: Deep Dimension 300G filled with Marshall Island LR. The tank will be either BB or shallow sandbed 2" (I like my conchs and wrasses) with acrylic rock lifts to keep the LR off the sand and provide stability. LR will likely be drilled and rodded to absolute stability. LR will be arranged in a tall island down the center of the tank, with pass throughs, arches and caves etc.
Stand: Steel Frame (Square Tube) with custom wood sheathing to match my frag tank. The top of the stand will be full wood with the cushion board the tank will sit on. The plan on the stand is to have the sump underneath (not enough room in my utility room for one that big). All panels/doors will be removable, including on the end facing the front door/entry hall. The stand itself will be 8ft with the extra space eaten up by a 2" black lip around the top (ledge) that the tank will sit down into. The tank will set into the stand to a depth of about 2-3" to hide the bottom lip. The extra room at tank level will be storage access for equipment against the wall via door. This storage area will provide access to the vortecs, power switches etc up the level of the top of the tank. From there, the woodwork will continue up the side of the wall, this will provide tracks for the canopy to attach to to raise it up to ceiling height or just below for access to the tank itself. Bottom of the stand will be built with an epoxy lined pan with 2" lip for water spillage control.
Canopy: The canopy will sit on the tank itself and be raised/lowered on tracks either via manual cable/crank or a motor driven mechanism. The canopy will contain the lighting including the ballasts and plenty of fans for air movement.
Lighting: Lighting will be composed of 2 250W reflectors (Same ones Marc has - Lumenarcs) along with a 400W in the center. I will also use 8 39W T-5's for the actinic supplementation. Ballasts will consist of IceCap MH ballasts, 2 Reeflux 12K 250W's, 1 Radium 400W 20K and 4 ATI Blue Plus with 4 ATI Actinics powered by 2 IceCap 660's.
Water flow/Pumps: Flow will be handled by my two existing Vortecs or possibly a 3rd one (likely). Water circulation will be run via a Reef-Flo barracuda or hammerhead.
Filtration: I will utilize my existing skimmer a BK 250 internal. I will plumb inline via T's/manifold, for the carbon and PO4 media. These will be located in the current utility room, along with the chiller. My current refuge will remain online as is. DSB function will be contained in the sump.
Sump: Standard 3 chamber function. Approx dimensions 30Wx74LX20T. Chamber 1 will be return section, approx 6" with pump connected to it. Chamber 2 will contain the DSB and will be at least 48" long. Chamber 3 will be the skimmer section. Water will enter the DSB section, which will include a bubble tower for the returns, flow over the DSB and into the skimmer chamber, then pass through an over,under,over,under trap into the return section. Lighting over the sump will be done with T-5's, most likely built into the bottom of the tank. The DSB will contain the usual suspects, conchs, cukes, nassarius snails etc.
Plumbing: Starting with the overflows. The overflow will drain down into an bubble tower that will be in the DSB section. Water will flow over the DSB and into the skimming chamber where it will then go into the return section to the return pump. The return pump will be plumbed out of the stand and into split first into the frag tank, then through the wall into the utility room. It will then be split again to feed the refuge and again to the chiller. The return from the fuge will flow down and be combined with the return from the chiller, pass back through the wall, be combined with the return from the frag tank and plumbed back into the stand and into the bubble chamber.
A manifold will be sectioned off in the utility room to feed the fuge, chiller and media reactors.
Flow will be adjusted with ball valves at key points, along with shut-offs at key points so areas/functions can be isolated as needed.
The install plan:
The tank will be setup and temporarily plumbed to run isolated. The tank will be cycled and stabalized before the 140 is taken down or the frag tank plumbed into it.
Water quality and parms will be matched as exactly as possible before transferring. When D day comes, both the 140 and frag tank will be taken off line, the new plumbing done after shifting the frag tank down the wall slightly. While the plumbing is being done, the corals and livestock from the 140 will be transferred into the new tank. Corals affixed to LR will broken off (LR that is) or saws-alled and reattached via plugging. No LR, other than that with corals attached and possibly some tonga shelf, will be re-used.
A week or two after that is done and the current 140 fish have a chance to settle in, I will relocate the Sohal and zebra eel from the 92 in my office. Other than that, the 92 will remain up, though I may add a few other fish for color and movement to keep the maroon clowns company. I may end up pulling the LR out of that tank though and doing fresh water dips on it to eliminate that mantis I know is in there somewhere.
Thats the equipment and plan as of right now. As things progress and things firm up as far as design I will post back. This will likely get to be a long thread, but the goal is to provide as much documentation as possible in the order that things happen. I plan on doing this right as this will likely be the last tank I put into this house. The goal is to have the tank setup and running (isolated) by Xmas with cut over in January 09. That is subject to change based on the time it takes to put the components together.
I will also be open to volunteers for most of the activities, moving the tank of course, plumbing, livestock transfer and the like. If you're willing to lend a hand at various stages, PM me. Pizza, beer and women (just kidding Lindsey) will be made available.
If you are interested in the 140 in January, let me know It will come with tank, chiller, lighting, LR a ton of sand, custom stand and all the excess plumbing (PVC) you can carry along with return pump.
This is in the very beginning planning stages right now and will come out from the wall to be viewable on 3 sides, one end and front/back.
Tank: Deep Dimension 300G filled with Marshall Island LR. The tank will be either BB or shallow sandbed 2" (I like my conchs and wrasses) with acrylic rock lifts to keep the LR off the sand and provide stability. LR will likely be drilled and rodded to absolute stability. LR will be arranged in a tall island down the center of the tank, with pass throughs, arches and caves etc.
Stand: Steel Frame (Square Tube) with custom wood sheathing to match my frag tank. The top of the stand will be full wood with the cushion board the tank will sit on. The plan on the stand is to have the sump underneath (not enough room in my utility room for one that big). All panels/doors will be removable, including on the end facing the front door/entry hall. The stand itself will be 8ft with the extra space eaten up by a 2" black lip around the top (ledge) that the tank will sit down into. The tank will set into the stand to a depth of about 2-3" to hide the bottom lip. The extra room at tank level will be storage access for equipment against the wall via door. This storage area will provide access to the vortecs, power switches etc up the level of the top of the tank. From there, the woodwork will continue up the side of the wall, this will provide tracks for the canopy to attach to to raise it up to ceiling height or just below for access to the tank itself. Bottom of the stand will be built with an epoxy lined pan with 2" lip for water spillage control.
Canopy: The canopy will sit on the tank itself and be raised/lowered on tracks either via manual cable/crank or a motor driven mechanism. The canopy will contain the lighting including the ballasts and plenty of fans for air movement.
Lighting: Lighting will be composed of 2 250W reflectors (Same ones Marc has - Lumenarcs) along with a 400W in the center. I will also use 8 39W T-5's for the actinic supplementation. Ballasts will consist of IceCap MH ballasts, 2 Reeflux 12K 250W's, 1 Radium 400W 20K and 4 ATI Blue Plus with 4 ATI Actinics powered by 2 IceCap 660's.
Water flow/Pumps: Flow will be handled by my two existing Vortecs or possibly a 3rd one (likely). Water circulation will be run via a Reef-Flo barracuda or hammerhead.
Filtration: I will utilize my existing skimmer a BK 250 internal. I will plumb inline via T's/manifold, for the carbon and PO4 media. These will be located in the current utility room, along with the chiller. My current refuge will remain online as is. DSB function will be contained in the sump.
Sump: Standard 3 chamber function. Approx dimensions 30Wx74LX20T. Chamber 1 will be return section, approx 6" with pump connected to it. Chamber 2 will contain the DSB and will be at least 48" long. Chamber 3 will be the skimmer section. Water will enter the DSB section, which will include a bubble tower for the returns, flow over the DSB and into the skimmer chamber, then pass through an over,under,over,under trap into the return section. Lighting over the sump will be done with T-5's, most likely built into the bottom of the tank. The DSB will contain the usual suspects, conchs, cukes, nassarius snails etc.
Plumbing: Starting with the overflows. The overflow will drain down into an bubble tower that will be in the DSB section. Water will flow over the DSB and into the skimming chamber where it will then go into the return section to the return pump. The return pump will be plumbed out of the stand and into split first into the frag tank, then through the wall into the utility room. It will then be split again to feed the refuge and again to the chiller. The return from the fuge will flow down and be combined with the return from the chiller, pass back through the wall, be combined with the return from the frag tank and plumbed back into the stand and into the bubble chamber.
A manifold will be sectioned off in the utility room to feed the fuge, chiller and media reactors.
Flow will be adjusted with ball valves at key points, along with shut-offs at key points so areas/functions can be isolated as needed.
The install plan:
The tank will be setup and temporarily plumbed to run isolated. The tank will be cycled and stabalized before the 140 is taken down or the frag tank plumbed into it.
Water quality and parms will be matched as exactly as possible before transferring. When D day comes, both the 140 and frag tank will be taken off line, the new plumbing done after shifting the frag tank down the wall slightly. While the plumbing is being done, the corals and livestock from the 140 will be transferred into the new tank. Corals affixed to LR will broken off (LR that is) or saws-alled and reattached via plugging. No LR, other than that with corals attached and possibly some tonga shelf, will be re-used.
A week or two after that is done and the current 140 fish have a chance to settle in, I will relocate the Sohal and zebra eel from the 92 in my office. Other than that, the 92 will remain up, though I may add a few other fish for color and movement to keep the maroon clowns company. I may end up pulling the LR out of that tank though and doing fresh water dips on it to eliminate that mantis I know is in there somewhere.
Thats the equipment and plan as of right now. As things progress and things firm up as far as design I will post back. This will likely get to be a long thread, but the goal is to provide as much documentation as possible in the order that things happen. I plan on doing this right as this will likely be the last tank I put into this house. The goal is to have the tank setup and running (isolated) by Xmas with cut over in January 09. That is subject to change based on the time it takes to put the components together.
I will also be open to volunteers for most of the activities, moving the tank of course, plumbing, livestock transfer and the like. If you're willing to lend a hand at various stages, PM me. Pizza, beer and women (just kidding Lindsey) will be made available.
If you are interested in the 140 in January, let me know It will come with tank, chiller, lighting, LR a ton of sand, custom stand and all the excess plumbing (PVC) you can carry along with return pump.