New 350 Gal Tank Plans

[JeffCo]

We just bought our new house and my wife has given me the go ahead to upgrade my 75g to a 350g - 96"Lx36"Wx24"T . I am going to be ordering it within the next month, I have it narrowed down to 2 different well know tank makers. It will be with starfire glass on 3 sides, eurobracing. I plan on using a sequence hammerhead for the closed loop to return through an oceanmotions 8 way. Here are the plans I have so far, let me know what you think:


http://www.maast.org/albums/JeffCo/300_gallon_Tank_Design.sized.jpg

I will also have it plumbed about 40 feet away to my enclosed tank room, (large enclosed section in my workshop) to house all the equipment. I plan on using a 150 rubbermaid tub as my sump, my current 75 gallon as my refug, and a 29 long as a prop tank. I want about 2000 gph to go through my sump. Any suggestions on which pump to use, will a seq hammerhead do the trick or do I need something stronger.

I am also having a custom made 66" dual becket skimmer made by matt, prob will use a panworld 250ps for that. This tank will primarily be sps with a few clams. I plan on using 6 250de in ROIII pendants (with a mix of 10k & 20k AB), plus vho actinics.

Any suggestions are welcome. I will keep this thread updated as I get closer.

[Gator]

It looks like you have put alot of time and thought into your design. I cant wait to see this project unfold. Looks awsome

[::pete::]

Yes please keep us posted ... I too am going bigger after the move and plan on using an 8 way.

[captexas]

Wow, very impressive project. Saying you are upgrading is the understatement of the year! I'm not familiar with that model pump, but you will need some strength to move that much water over that distance. Keep us updated and I'm sure you will have no problem finding volunteers here if you need a hand with it. :-)

[wkopplin]

I love my 8 way. It is really good. Been running for a while with no problems. Use Flex pvc to plumb it, it will make you life SO much easier.

[Dozer]

Agree with wkopplin about the flexible tubing. Lowe's sells some under the name "spa flex" that's awesome to work with.

[dan]

is it going to be mounted in the wall? that would an awsome tank to do that with. if not it still going to look awsome.

[RobertG]

You did great, getting the wife to go for it! Sounds AWESOME, I would really like to see it when your done! Sure is alot of tank 36 " front to back WOW!

[JeffCo]

Well convincing the Wife wasn't that hard, I kept telling her I wanted a bigger tank, so she said "buy a bigger house and you can have a bigger tank". So, I bought a bigger house, but she never said how big of a tank I could get, hehe.

Thanks for all the kind words. I have been planning this tank for sometime now, and it's finally getting close. I still have alot of work to do. I will need to reinforce the pier and beam foundation of the house. I also will probably add a vent fan above the tank hooked up to a dehumidstat to deal with the humidity.

The return pump will be a straight level run 2" pipe and will be buried under ground, (this should also help with cooling the tank), but I am still not sure which pump to use for this. I will probably use a mix of flex pvc and sch 40 plumbing for the closed loop.

I will probably make a lighting rack out of the 1" square metal tubing then this rack will sit on top of my open top canopy. I also want to build some type of sliding rack so I can raise my entire canopy very easily for tank maintence. Maybe put the canopy on rails or something, (anybody have any ideas on this?). I have also seen people use a bike mounting pully system to lift it up, I might use this and just attach it to the lighting rack to elevate it a couple feet for easy tank access.

[JeffCo]

Here are my plans for the lighting rack. I am still not sure about the disbribution & orientation of the pendants. I would really like a nice flow of light throughout the tank without the light/dark spots. Any suggestions are welcome.

http://www.maast.org/albums/JeffCo/300_gallon_lighting_rack.sized.jpg

The blue tubes are 46" 110w VHO actnics.

The tank will not be inwall, I like to look from the end of the tank, especially with the 36" width, it should look really cool.

[wkopplin]

I use a Dolphin Aquasea 5200 for my return pump and really like it. It is loud, but since it will be in a separate room, who cares? It pushes 4850 gph hour or something like that. Great pump.

[scuba_steveo]

why not use 14k bulbs?

[JeffCo]

Well, I have used both the 10k & 20k bulbs. I really like the color I get from the 20k bulbs, but I did notice better growth with the 10k bulbs. So I think I will get the best mix if I use a combination of the two.

[360Reef]

Jeff,
I evaluated both the sequence and dophin pumps when setting up my 150 built in. I went with an ampmaster 3000, but I have heard good things about sequence pumps also. If you do decide to go sequence, I would stay away from the cheaper "Reefflo" series as they have cheaper casings that tend to rust faster, I would go with the 750 or 1000 series, they are really not much more. The best place I found the sequence pumps at was www.azponds.com, make sure you get the saltwater seals ($35 extra). As fas as mounting your lights, I used the bike pulley system and am some what happy with it. It is great to be able to get your lights out of the way, but it does not move up and down as easily as I would like. If you are ever in Austin, give me a call, I would be glad to show you my setup.

-Greg

[JeffCo]

Thanks for the feeback greg,
I would definately like to take a trip up there to check out your setup. I was thinking about using the bike hoists to raise my lighting rack off the canopy, I wouldn't need to use it very often, just when I really need to "get in" the tank.

About the reeflo - I have been doing some reading up on those as well and I have heard the same thing about the cheaper casings. Now, I am not sure what pump to use. I am looking at the 1000 series, but not sure which one to get, but I sent them an email to get some feedback. I might have to use one of these for my closed loop as well.