My 375 Gallon Tank Construction

[JeffCo]

Well, this has been a long time coming. I have been working on this project for about 5 months, (with an additional 3 months planning before even getting started).

My wife said I couldn't get a bigger tank unless we got a bigger house, so you guessed it, I had to get a bigger house.

Tank info:

dim: 96lx36wx25h
manufacturer: Glass Cages
designer: me :D
misc info: Used low iron glass for the front pane and two sides.
5" eurobracing - wanted to have a completely open top so it
wouldn't block my halides
16 holes drilled (8 on the eurobracing for closed loop and sump return, 6 on the back for closed loop, and two for the overflow drains)
Tank focus: will be SPS Clam tank only plus some fish (of course)

On to the pics:

Tank arrival:

all boxed up:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/DSC00003.jpg

Unboxed and sitting in my garage, (I had to kid test if first) ^_^ :

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Misc061.jpg

Top shot of eurobracing:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/DSC00035.jpg

more to come

[JeffCo]

I had to cut a hole in the wall, (big hole), so I could use the room behind it for my fishroom. Sorry, didn't take a before pic. Since the house is on pier and beam I knew I had to support the floor, sooo I decided to cut a big whole in the floor, (the wife really like this :roll ). I put some concrete footings on the ground then used cement blocks on top of that to come up to floor level. Then used 4x4's to support the tank. This way there is no weight on the floor, it goes directly to the ground.

Here's a pic of the stand in progress:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Misc147.jpg


more to come.

[JeffCo]

After having my entire family over to move this big tank onto the stand. Took about 9 guys and we used different sizes of pvc to roll the tank on.

Finally on the stand!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Copy2ofMisc199.jpg

I put a 3/4 piece of plywood over the stand and then a piece of the pink insulation foam you can find at home depot.

[scuba_steveo]

That tank is AWESOME!!!!!

[scuba_steveo]

I especially like the three feet from front to back. That rocks!

[JeffCo]

If you have ever seen a glasscages tank you know that they put the bottom eurobracing around the bottom edge of the tank. You can see that in the pics above.

I knew that I wanted this tank barebottom, (no flaming please), as I do in my current 75 gallon tank. (yes I'm upgrading from 75 to 375) :lol But the glass edges would be a problem and I didn't want the bottom glass showing.

So, I went and got some pieces of acrylic cut that were the same thickness as the bottom bracing and inserted them in.

shot of the bottom middle of the tank:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375046.jpg

Then went back to the plastic supplier and had them cut me a big piece of 1/4" black HDPE that I siliconed to the bottom of the tank.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375078.jpg

In this pic you can also see how clear the low iron glass is looking through the end.

I was really happy with the way it turned out. On the bottom you can see some of the construction dust that I cleaned out later.

[Richard]

In this pic you can also see how clear the low iron glass is looking through the end.


What glass? I don't see anything. Very Nice!

[JeffCo]

Now, on to one of the most dreaded parts of the project, plumbing.

I really wanted alot of flow when I designed the tank, so I decided to go with a pretty elaborate closed loop system. Which caused about 25 or 30 trips to Home depot. 5-10 orders from savko plumbing supply and a major cramp in my legs and back, as well as coming to work with plumbing goo all over my hands for about a month.

Here are some of the plumbing supplies:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Andy05059.jpg

anyways, I spoke with Paul at oceansmotions and he helped me tweak my plan a little as I wanted to incorporate one of his 4 way HD oceanmotions. I also order a sequence 1000 series 5800 to run my close loop. Here are some pics.

Here is the seq5800 & oceanmotions unit.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375053.jpg

The pvc and valve you see coming out to the left in the above pic is my water change system. When ever I want to drain the water out, I just turn this valve and it dumps the water outside my house, (which eventually I will make a gravel pit or something for it to dump into.)

More to come.

[JeffCo]

I also wanted to put in a floor drain in case anything very bad happend.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375055.jpg

The other pipe sticking up is for when I am siphoning the bottom of the tank, I will just stick the end of the hose into this pipe and the water will drain outside.

Here is some of the plumbing looking from the back of the tank.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375072.jpg


and finally, the closed loop is done!

Full tank shot from the back:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375063.jpg

There are two 2" drains that go into the CL pump. Then Each 1.5" pvc coming out of the OM are split into two 1" pvc outlets.

Each inlet and outlet has a valve and a union to easily change the plumbing. And I can close all the valves and drain all the water in the plumbing outside.

I also wanted to have a catwalk on the back of the tank so I can stand on there and really get in the tank.

More to come.

[JeffCo]

Here are some other misc plumbing shots:

Right side:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375073.jpg

Left Side:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375060.jpg

Top

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375075.jpg

More to come.

[don-n-sa]

Awesome tank Jeff, all of your hard work and planning will pay off.
:pics

Can you believe that you got your tank before me?!!!. Just confirms how impatient I am.

Here is a current picture of my 240g from glasscages. Sorry to hijack but I just want to show how crazy I am. I applaud your patience and carefull planning, your tank will be a sight to see....I know that I can't wait.

[akm]

Thats going to be an awesome tank. It already is awesome. It looks like you're ready for anything with that plumbing.

[JeffCo]

Tank looks great Don!

Yea, mine is taking a little longer. I have been doing it all myself in between work and school.

[JeffCo]

Now on to the electrical stage:

In my current setup I'm always searching for a plug here and there tracing it back to the outlet. I even have surge protectors plugged into surge protectors.

So in my new setup I wanted to have more outlets than I know what to do with. So I put in two new 20 amp breakers to run the tank.

So, I ended up with about 30 extra outlet boxes all around the tank, above the tank and other places in my fish room. So that's a total of 60 outlets. I also wanted to easily be able to turn them off when I needed to. So I invested in two of the DJ light controllers.
You can see how I mounted these in a few of the above pics. I ran some romex wire from the outlet boxes and added a 3 prong plug at the end of them to connect to the back of the DJ boxes. This was another back breaker:

Here's the back pic:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375059.jpg

and some of the outlet boxes:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375068.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/Construction375067.jpg

I also have a large row of these that are on the header board above the tank. These will be for my halides and VHO's.

More to come.

[demodiki]

Wow...what can you say about the dedication to see this thing though! Someone is going to have to host a meeting when it's all done!

[GaryP]

Wow! I have only one thing to say.

I WANT ONE!

[Ram_Puppy]

Jeff,

This is looking very awesome, I second your hosting a meeting when it's set up!

i have a question, On your closed loop w/ the oceans motions, which model drum did you get? Do you plan on using the Oceans Motions Revolutions?

[NaCl_H2O]

Very nice job :) Gotta see it when its done :D

and I thought I was pressing my luck with the number of bulkheads through the walls of my tanks ... brave man!

[JeffCo]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! Believe me, this project has taken alot of patience for me. To have this beauty sitting in my living room for so long without water.


i have a question, On your closed loop w/ the oceans motions, which model drum did you get? Do you plan on using the Oceans Motions Revolutions?

I believe it was the model 2, which goes 1,2 2,3 3,4 etc.
It comes out of two outlets at once. I don't think I'm going to use the revolutions. After speaking with paul he seemed to think I did not need it with the amount of flow I have coming out. I finally finished all the internal plumbing last week.

I have actually done alot more than when I took those pictures.
I just need to take more pics now. I have plumbed in the overflow and skimmer. Setup the rail system for my hanging light rack. But, you'll just have to wait until I take some more pics.

I finally filled it with RODI water about a month ago. It took about a week to fill it up. I bought all of netrunner's live rock and also have had some base rock (with live rock mixed in) curing in a 55 gallon drum in my garage for about 3 months.

I would like to host a meeting to have everyone over, but, it will be awhile as I still have alot of work to do on it.

Hopefully more pics will come by next week.

[JeffCo]

OK, it's about time that I updated this thread. The tank is basically done, I have a few more things to do, but that will all come in time.

Here is one thing that slowed down my progress. I took the online MACO acrylic building class so that I could start constructing my own equipment. Here is the first product of the class, the kalkwasser reactor.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00029.jpg


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00015.jpg


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00016.jpg


I am using a tunze osmolater to supply the fresh RODI water. It was fun taking the class and I recommend it to anyone. Prior to this class I had no experience working with acrylic.

My future plans include: 2 large media reactors to hold rowaphos and carbon, and a new bigger calcium reactor. All in due time. :D

More to come.....

[Dozer]

Just found this thread. Looks like it's been a while since an update. Got any new pics/info?

Everything so far looks really really good. I like how you planned everything out and how neat it all looks. Hope to be able to put something like that together someday.

[Dozer]

Wow, now that is scary! Look at the timing on our posts, lol.

Thanks for the update!

[Thunderkat]

Where did you learn how to do all that?

Website or book on how to set all that up?

It looks very nice!

[JeffCo]

Wow, now that is scary! Look at the timing on our posts, lol.

Yea, that is a little scary.



Where did you learn how to do all that?

Here is the link. http://aquaristcourses.org/

They are not offering the acrylic course now, but it may come back around again.

[JeffCo]

Here is another plumbing shot.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00026.jpg

In this pic I have added the returns. I also included ball valves & unions for two more seaswirls.

and another.


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00004.jpg

and one of the bottom.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00009.jpg

more to come...

[bigdscobra]

quick ?? what are those pieces of PVC above the ball vaulves are they quick disconect type things??? If they are :angry wish i put some of those in my system when pluming... May have too...

[JeffCo]

Now on to the lighting!

I am proud of this area as it took alot of planning and everything came out great.

I really wanted a way to move my lights completely out of the way so I could really "get into" the tank. After reading and doing some research I found some 8ft rails on line that are used for barn doors and such. Bing, ^_^ the idea hit me to have my lights on a sliding rail system. The rails had to be long because I wanted the lights to clear the 3 ft front to back width of the tank and give me a few feet to really work in the tank and stand on the catwalk. Here are a few pics:

Here it is fully pushed over the tank.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00008.jpg

Here it is pulled out a little, you can see the rails in this pic.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00007.jpg

The ducting you see coming out of the right side leads to an external exhaust fan. Because my other concern when reading about big tanks was the humidity they cause with all the evaporating water. So, I built this exhaust system that turns on the external fan and sucks the hot air and humidity outside the house.

more to come...

[JeffCo]

what are those pieces of PVC above the ball vaulves are they quick disconect type things???

They are unions, they work wonders when you have to redo the plumbing. They have them at HD and Lowes.

[JeffCo]

Here is the lighting I decided on for my tank:

2 PFO HQI 400 watt ballasts
2 Lumenarc III reflectors (These things are awesome)
2 Aquaconnect 14k 400 watts

2 Icecap 250w electronic ballasts
2 ROIII pendants
2 14k 250w hamilton bulbs

1 Icecap 660 ballast
4 46.5" 110w URI Actnics


The Lumenarcs do a great job of spreading the light on the two ends of the tank and the pendants light the area over the center overflow.


Here is a pic of the inside looking up while the light box it pulled out:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00001.jpg

I mounted the ballasts above the light rack and added a bunch of electrical outlets, (you can never have enough). I can control all the electrical outlets with the switches seen in the previous post.

Here's a pic of the ballasts:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00024.jpg

I also have 3 4" fans that blow across the canopy to divert the hot air towards the exhaust system.

more to come....

[Thunderkat]

Wow, thanks for the link to the courses, I know what I am going to do once I finish my Cytology school!

[z28pwr]

WOW, looking good.

[JeffCo]

Here are a few pics of the "operation center"

The sump is a 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank.


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00022.jpg

Also pictured are:

Delta star chiller
12600 BTU window unit
63" Dual becket skimmer
Multiple switch controlled electrical outlets
RODI water resovoir for topoff

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00020.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00012.jpg

also have phosban reactor now filled with carbon.
and bubble trap
more to come....

[JeffCo]

a few more shots of the sump room.

This is the PH controller for the calcium reactor, temp controller for the chiller, and temp controller for the heaters.


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00031.jpg


Calcium Reactor and Kalkwasser Reactor

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00019.jpg


RODI unit

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00006.jpg

more to come...

[LoneStar]

WOW awesome setup!

[eric]

Don't you want to....oh you did. What about....oh, you've got two of those. I would have made a....oh, got that too.

Hey, one of those outlets looks a little crooked.

That is incredible! Did you say how long ago you started this project?

[Tim Marvin]

OK, so lets see the front of the tank....

[don-n-sa]

yes...we want front pics Jeff!!

[JeffCo]

Big unveiling coming soon....

I have been working on this for about 6 months.

[JeffCo]

OK, I have waited long enough:

Here's a full tank shot, a little cloudy because I was just messing with the tank:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00048.jpg

Here's the left side:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00051.jpg


Center:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00050.jpg


and right side:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00049.jpg

Some of these pics were taken with the halides off.

[JeffCo]

Here's a shot with the VHO and Center halides on Only:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00067.jpg

And, I want to thank Dan for the excellent overflow box he made me. :D

Here's a shot with the VHO's on only:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00130.jpg

[JeffCo]

Here's a few looking from the left side of the tank:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00141.jpg


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00056.jpg

[JeffCo]

and a few closeups:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00084.jpg

Here's a Dussemeri Tank I got from Wolf Reef:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00075.jpg

[::pete::]

Nice job!!!

You like that kalk reactor?

[JeffCo]

Here's one looking from the right side of the tank:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00059.jpg


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24/JeffCo/complete/DSC00069.jpg

That's all for now.

Now I just need to fill it up with some more corals! :D

[don-n-sa]

awesome Jeff...just awesome

[JeffCo]

Nice job!!!

You like that kalk reactor?

Yea, it's doing a great job so far. There are a couple of changes that I would do if I were to make another one.

[JeffCo]

awesome Jeff...just awesome

Thank's don. :D

[::pete::]

I have been slowly building it "my own way" :D

[captexas]

LOL, yeah, I though that Kalk reactor looked familiar, all the way down to the pump hanging off the side of the base! lol :)

For some reason I just caught onto this thread today, really a well planned setup and it looks great now that it is up and running. I think you and Pete could go into the tank setup business! :)

[JeffCo]

Yea, I was a little dissapointed when I finally got the pump plumbed in and the dang thing was hanging off the side? OH well....

Thanks for the compliments, but it sure was a long haul getting this all "done". Of course, it's never completely done, theres always something else you can fix or make better.

[LoneStar]

where can i find plans and materials to build my own kaulk reactor jeff? (for the poor but determined man) <_<

[JeffCo]

Lonestar,
You can look at the one I completed and see pretty much the workings of it. I'm not really an expert at it, this was my first attempt at making something. But, I can try and help if you have questions. It just takes time, patience, and the right tools.