Finally a build thread for my 295 gallon. Pic intense.

[Laser]

You may want to consider installing a bathroom type exhaust fan in the ceiling and have it on timer when the MH's come on. I have found this to help quite a bit in a closed fishroom. It does not look like you will have the option of window AC unit. Are you going to run a chiller in the room? I have moved mine out of the fishroom as it was counteractive in that when it cooled the water the exhaust heated the room and the cycle continued on forever. Since plumbing the chiller out of the room it cycles quite often and has saved on energy. HTH

 

[Laser]

aquascaping looks fantastic by the way. I am starting to get inspired to redo my rockwork looking at all the new threads... :shock:

 

[kpc01]

I love your sump...did you have this custom built? I am wanting something almost identical to it for my next build. I like the way you have everything planned out for its use...

 

[elinder]

looking very good.

 

[extinguishfire]

@masharp1126 wrote:

Well it has been awhile since I posted but I have been busy working my 3 or 4 or 5 jobs. Always busy working. Here is a little update.

Well Mark, I was really wanting to keep my temp, lighting costs and electricity down so I decided to try using just two 250watt metal halides with T5 supplementation. And to get what I need out of two 250 watt halide bulbs I chose to use the lumenarc(square) reflector and the xm 10k bulbs for thier high par. Hopefully with the two of them it will be plenty of light for my tank. I can always add an additional metal halide if needed.
For the T5's I went with four 3 foot T5 double lamp fixtures from Sunlight Supply. Each fixture with a Giesemann PowerChrome Actinic+ 39watt and a Giesemann PowerChrome Pure Actinic 39watt. For a total of 312 watts of light from the T5's.
I built a light rack out of aluminum myself. Some of it was built while working at the fire station.

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Now what I did not take into consideration was the height of the metal halide bulb inside the reflector. I built the rack so that the T5's were about 5 inches fromt he metal halide. But with the added height of the bulb in the reflector my halide bulb ends up being 18 inches off the top of the water. So I need to rebuild my light rack and I plano on just mounting the T5's right under the reflectors with no distance between them.
To hang I used some rope, pullies, carabiners and hooks. When I rebuild the rack and get my heights figured I will tie a couple of butterfly knots in the end to hang on the hook. One at the operating level and then the second at the point where the rack is at highest possible for working inside the tank.

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As you can see in the last two pics, one of the T5 arms is just sitting on the light rack. I had trouble with some of rivets holding so I am planning on replacing all with nuts and bolts when I do the rebuild.

 

[extinguishfire]

@hegi wrote:

Ben, during the building of the house, I knew that I was going to be taking out some of the wall so I had them install a header at the plate line so that any studs in the middle of the wall could be taken out. Basically the header is a 2 x 12 the length of the wall from the start of the bullnose to the other end of the wall. It supports all the things that the studs do in a normal wall set up. If that makes any sense.

 

[extinguishfire]

@crash519 wrote:

@Reefer madness wrote:

I painted the walls of the room with several coats of latex paint. Also the humidity really hasn't been an issue yet. There is no water on the walls at all. The pond liner on the walls is just a splash barrier. To get the heat and the humid air out I did install a vent fan. It is a Nutone Qt300. It moves 300 cfm at a noise level of 4.5 sones and is rated for a large room of 280 sq. ft. It really can't be heard at all over the return pump.

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I do plan on running a chiller and really don't have an option of running one outside of the room. I had thought about maybe mounting it on a shelf near the ceiling. Then building a cabinet around it with one side with vent holes. Above the chiller inside the cabinet I would put a high cfm vent fan to vent the heat. Still thinking about it all. I wish my tank was on an exterior wall and I would put it outside with a cover over it to protect it from the weater. Haven't had to worry about it yet. I would like to keep my tank at 78 and don't think that will happen without a chiller. I have a 1/3 hp JBJ artica chiller.

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ReeferMadness what did you do with your chiller?

 

[extinguishfire]

@kpc01 wrote:

It is custom built by Triggersys.

 

[extinguishfire]

I got sick of lugging water from Exotic Aquatics so I finally installed my RO/DI unit. It is from AquaFx and is a 75 gpd unit. I mounted it next to the sink. I need to finish setting up the auto top off. It is just being ran manually now and a couple of times I have already forget to turn it off. Luckily for my sump is super big for extra capacity and I have a drain on sump if it overfills to keep it from overflowing.

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[v320]

Just noticed this thread...

Very nice work... the rock work looks great
Can't wait to see it stocked with coral!!!

 

[peterlin]

Wow..totally awesome!

 

[Nicki]

Looks good Chris. I am waiting to see pictures of your fish.

 

[TCU Reefer]

How do you get to the side of the tank where that sink is? It looks as though it fully blocks access to that side.

 

[extinguishfire]

@TCU Reefer wrote:

Well the only reason I need to get access over there is to mess with my vortech pump, clean the glass with the magnet scraper or hide from my family. Anything to be done inside the tank I can get to from the back or front. I plan to have a 55 gallon water vat over there for mixing saltwater for water changes. It will be on a stand about the height of the tank stand and be plumbed to just dump fresh saltwater right into my sump during water changes. I really don't have any other reason to get back there that I can think of.

 

[MBZ]

I've been enjoying reading your build log. Nice work so far. That R/O unit will pay for itself... no more trips to the LFS for water.

Mark

 

[extinguishfire]

Haven't really did much with my tank unfortunately. I have needed to get alot of things done on it but things keep coming up.

I have been very curious as to how my tank is affecting my home due to humidity. I went to Lowes and got a digital thermometer/hydrometer. The day I measured the living room side of the tank humidity was at 56 %. Inside the room on the backside of tank that contains the closed in fish closet was at 58 %. Door to rest of house is always closed and it was also like 5 degrees cooler than the front side of tank. Well I left the hydrometer in each of the areas for at least 12 hours to adjust fully. Well the surprise came when I put it in the fish closet. It was actually less humid by whole lot than the other two areas. 46% was the reading at 76 degrees. I was very happy. I guess the fan I put in there that is rate or a 280 sq ft room is helping a bunch. I am guessing the numbers are in a good range cause I think I read some scales somewhere on the net that 60% and more is where you get a little issues up to 80% where you have moisture on windows and walls.

Here are a few pics I took tonight.
Starting with this dendrophyllia I have had for a few years. It has been just 4 heads. Well something happen and one of the heads starting receding. It was like it was peeling off. Well surprise surprise I have now have six new heads starting and the there is still a big part of the old polyp still there. I got this from Plano Pets.

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Another dendro I got from Exotic Aquatics.

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Here are some pics of my scolys. Including a couple of my Aussie scolys.

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My spawning coco worm.

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Unknown coral out of aussie. I got it about a year ago. It might be a form of prism coral out of the favia family.

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More prism corals.

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Another favia frag.

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ORA Duncan. Started with like 3 heads now prob. 25 or more.

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Another big colony. One of two colonies close to the same size and color.

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Here is a couple of acans. The green one is for sure a acan bowerbanki but the orange one I am not sure of what type of acan it is. I got it from Fish Gallery where it was sold very cheap since it had some dead areas on it. Now it looks nice.

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