I'm liking the 10' long tank tank. If your go 36" front to back and 24"-27" deep you might be able to get a way with four 250 HQI and couple t-5. But you would have to run the lights about 12"- 16" off the water for a good spread (Helps with cooling).

Lots of good ideas there good planing.

It is my advice that you cannot sacrifice maintenance. If any aspect of keeping the tank is difficult to do, it won't get done.

Well on a tank this size easy maintenance is a must! Monthly water changes of say 200G is not going to get done by buckets :mrgreen:

I do know this tank will be built on site, and the final dimensions will need to work with what the house has to offer, e.g. windows & doors to get the glass in. Other then that so far I don't know. Kevin wants to build the tank himself again, but we haven't really discussed it yet.

I know that I don't like powerheads in the tank, so I want to try and avoiding putting them in for any other reason beyond emergency purposes. I still want to go with Oceans Motions 4 or 8 ways, how though, I haven't worked it out.

The lighting will be on sliding racks, which will pull out in banks, e.g. 2MHs & T5s in a bank. I want to be able to push the lighting out of the way for adding in livestock, or doing maintenance, but still have enough lighting from elsewhere to be able to see. I want to almost make each set of lighting banks its own system where you can shut them off to move it.

The room is pretty big, about 13.5ft wide at the smallest part, and probably 15.5ft wide at the largest spot. Its probably 25ft long, maybe 30. The ceiling is 7ft I think, although we have this one bulkhead that is somewhat in the way, but we think it can be moved/made smaller. We never actually measured the room, and that is probably something we should do. I definitely don't want to take away from the space we have if we can, as I think it will really enclose it in and have more negative drawbacks then positive ones.

I have a notebook that I've been recording ideas in since we got our house and started planning how we want to do everything. I flip through it once and awhile and remember all the little things I want to do.

This is probably going to be my last tank build for a long while, so I want to make sure I get everything done right the first time.

I like option two for the simple fact that you can view the tank while doing other activities, entertaining, tv watching etc. Option one seems to me like that room would be soley for the tank? You would only be in that room to view that tank and wouldn't really have the room for other activities?

So Kevins controller is sort of like this ?
http://www.appdig.com/adicon_new/ocelot.htm

Sounds like you are planning this very well and it will be a great build!

The only thing that I would think isn't such a good idea is building the tank yourself...600G + is kind of a lot of water :surprise:

We have decided to go with option 2, and in-wall tank will have more long-term benefits for us, and its the better choice overall. I haven't done any planning yet, but I'll get to it soon enough.

Its definitely time to go back to the feeding stick, little pieces of PVC are a pain, and the fish make a huge mess with them. The less aggressive fish, like the bristletooth or the scopas, aren't getting their fare share.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0439.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0470.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0512-2.jpg

I also wanted to show a bit of the awesomeness that came back with my clams from Tony's.

Look at the growth that came back on this one
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0529-1.jpg

These guys all grew a lot and got placed together on a rock. They need to be separated because they are soon going to start growing into each other
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0531.jpg

This guy came back with TONS of extra eyes
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0539.jpg

Tank sizes.

I know you have possibly made a decision on your sizing but any glass that is over 126" raises the cost exponentially.

Just to think about.
Kevin

I honestly have no idea. Kevin won't look at the page, he is too busy playing Fabel 2?

Well something is off in my tank. I'm going to try a water change to see if it helps things. 7 of my clams aren't looking so hot. They have retracted mantles, and I think a couple might already be on their way out. This is very frustrating. One more crash or semi-crash type event will probably make me want to give up the hobby.

I'm fed up with my tank right now, and I'm trying to be patient and waiting for things to come back in their own time, but its hard. Its harder when there are more downs then ups.

Catherine, sorry for all the crap your getting with the tank... Well Im going say something and don't take to heart. why not slow down a bit. really thou if seems that your rushing to get this tank up and running really fast here, stocking the tnak with clams and tangs and this..... know your passion for the live stock. May be it time to just sit back and do a life check here.... I'm just giving you my opinion that is all.. Just seems you are running in to major negetivity here since the crashes... time to take a look on why..

I hope you get it all sorted out since you have a passion for clams and SPS

Hopefully nothing too major. I can offer tank space if, heaven forbid, you need it.

I think my salt went bad. I think something settled to the bottom of the salt itself. I usually shake buckets up before we use them, and I think maybe this one escaped the salt shake/mix.

I opened a new mixed bucket, did a WC, and have left the MHs on a little longer then usual right now; they were on for 8.5 hours today. Clams seem better.

you think that you got one of those high ALK bucket that wiped out alot of peoples tanks

Hahaha high Alk, would probably show up as normal alk. levels in my tank. I swear its the clams that bring my dKH levels down so low all the time.

The offender was a bucket of IO salt that we've had for a long while, we somehow managed to have three buckets going at once, and have finally gotten to this one. I bet we've had this salt since probably the summer.

Summer doesn't seem like that long ago for salt to go bad, but as you said when packed it may have settled different. Like you I like to mix my bucket of salt to make sure everything is well spread.

Aw geez, sorry to hear. Hopefully they'll look better in a day or so. Sometimes they just seem to sulk if there's something a little off... hope it's just an off day in this case..

I would step back from the 500g+ tank idea for awhile, and get your 180 to where it is more stress free. of course you cannot control bad salt mixes, but maybe try to improve some little things.
for instance why not use an algae clip instead of the PVC pipe thing?
Also if you had a few less clams, maybe wouldn't have a big of a problem with dKH? (realizing this is like asking the sun not to shine, but JMO)

Too much ambition in this hobby can be a bad thing.

I usually don't keep salt around longer then 3 months, so for us having a bucket that long is quite old. It definitely wasn't mixed because the texture was different right at the very bottom apprently, but it never triggered any flags at the time. Most of the clams seemed better last night after the WC. There were two who hadn't quite come around yet, but hopefully today they will have improved.

Algae clip still causes the same problem. The more aggressive feeders take all the food. A longer PVC pipe like I was using before allows me to spread the food over more space allowing all the fish, aggressive, or not, to get in and eat. Its all about surface area in this case, the more you have, the easyier it is.

Anyone know what kind of table saw blade you would need for acrylic cutting?

Just asked the same question....the more teeth the better...we got a really good one at Canadian Tire, I think it was 80 teeth...but they are costly! $90.00...but works sooooo very well!

actually the more teeth the better Ridgid has a good blade to lifetime warrenty on them. if you can get a finishing blade that is what you want. fine teeth is the key...

how much acrylic are you going to be cutting.

the best blade is one designed for acrylic in a no melt design. it is a tripple chip tooth design with a zero rake and a no melt design specificly designed for the acrylic industry. it is so good you can glue directly from the table saw, but it is about 160 to 170.00. I bought one as I was cutting a tone of acrylic, but if you only have a little to do you can get what Sarah got and just use a 400 grit sand paper or a fine file to clean up the edges, but be carfule not to round them over.

Steve

I think it will just be a little bit.

So if I take what you just wrote right to the hardware store will someone who is reasonably versed in such things be able to point me to the right product?

tell them you want lots of teeth and a tripple chip design.

Steve

Thanks Steve! It worked!

http://www.amazon.com/Freud-LU94M010...ion/B00004T7AL

Aka, Triple chip melamine blade, or negative kerf blade. Store I work in retails them for $114

Thanks everyone for the blade recommendations. They helped a lot, and made shopping very simple.

All the clams are happy again. The water change and extending the MH lighting period again seemed to have solved it. I'm returning the MHs back to 7 hours a day.

Kevin has been very good about watching over the tank. I've been really sick for all of December, and unable to do much of anything. I only worked 3.5 days this month for my regular day job. I wished I could have take advantage of boxing day sales, but I'm still mostly house-bound.

I still think that some predator survived the crash. Before we moved I had at least two fish that just vanished without explanation. I think some predator survived because Kevin told me that we have a missing fish. I thought I checked over all the rocks when we re-started after the crash. I guess I missed something.

Until I'm better I'll just keep planning the big tank and living vicariously through everyone else. I think the internet has been the sole thing to accredit for me retaining my sanity through this illness.

Lets start with some proof that growth does occur in my tank!

Yesterday:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0563.jpg

December 12:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0387.jpg

Yesterday:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0566.jpg

From Nov. 30th
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0222.jpg

Some top down action
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0572.jpg

And where all my x-mas money went, twice over; custom short boots. The pink ones came in too big, so I re-ordered in green. I'm dying to skate on them on Saturday. My beautiful Roll-Line driver plates are being put on them right now. Think of them like the Bubble King or maybe Volcano skimmer equivalents. I also got myself a Crackberry Storm. So voila, my half of the explanation as to why there were no reefy goodies under the proverbial tree.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0560.jpg

hey catherine are those the new frags that you ahve there the Pink Styropora and green pocilapora LOL

:lol: Yes, they are exceptionally slow growers, taking 4-8 weeks to show up at your door upon ordering!

Alright I need to finally make a firm and lasting decision on salt. I used Red Sea Coral Pro very happily until about Dec. 2007. Then I couldn't find anymore after we moved back to Calgary, so I hopped around from Ocean Pure Pro, to Instant Ocean, to Reef Crystals.

I found OPP didn't do anything for my tank overall, I had to fight extra much with Ca and dKH levels when I used it. IO and RC always leaves a lot of crap at the bottom of my mixing barrels. Red Sea Pro left a lot of crap too, but I Ca and Mg. weren't such an uphill battle.

So I'm debating Reefer's Best as my next trial product. I go through about a bucket every couple of months. I do not use any of the bacterial systems, but I hear good things about the potassium regardless of if I'm running a low-nutrient system. I admit I do hesitate at the price.

So I'm not really sure what to do right now, do I switch to trying RB salt, or do I stick with something else? My biggest ongoing issues is, and seems to always have been, low dKH. While I think I might have a solution to the low dKH in the form of a new Ca reactor, I think it would be prudent to maybe find a salt mix that would help solve the issue as well.

i have always used IO and just beef the CAL with calcium additive for my water change Catherine and i have never had a problem since 2002.

Every tank I've had has had low dKH since I started adding clams into my systems. I am almost positive it is clam related based on all the data I've collected on my parameters.

I think my last dKH reading was 5, or 6. When I hit the sweet spot, which is 8, things just take off with growth.

My Ca. levels are fine (usually about 400-440), its just the dKH gets sucked up so quickly in my system that my reactor couldn't previously meed the dKH demand. I'm hoping that the new Ca. reactor will help balance everything properly.

I've never found supplementing my WC water to have any better benefit vs. non-supplemented water. What happens if you don't mix in the additional Ca and you do a WC?

pm me your number i will talk to you about what I do ok. im off today lol

I am unfortunately still at work...

Whats your mg at?

I'm using RBS currently, I switched from IO which I was supplementing with zeomag (in my reactor) and of course my ca reactor. Thing is my potassium levels were low. At the time everyone was all hoo haa about potassium. My tank doesn't look any different (granted, I'm using zeo so technically it does look different but who knows if thats zeo or potassium :razz:). Anyway, supplementing with all the various stuff was becoming a pain so I switched. All my levels are happy now. I found IO to be low in Mg and K but alk and ca were fine (Sr was also low but...whatever). Anyway, I've tried IO, Kent, Seachem and now RBS. So far RBS has been the best bang for my buck however when I run out and am not near J&L to get it likely I'll be back to IO as I hate paying shipping for salt.

Mag. is 1320 upon last measurement, which was two weeks ago. It rarely moves around, I think the lowest its been since we moved was 1280 and the highest was 1360.

Thankfully RBS is locally available, so I can avoid the shipping costs. I've actually never bought salt and had it shipped. I've always been very lucky that way.

Best test results i've ever got to date is with h2ocean. Mind you I don't use it. too expensive. I like ocean pure pro, never had a problem....oceanic salt isn't to bad.

Actually h2ocean is my first choice for the UltraLith test. But no one cares it in Edmonton (I was told you can buy it at Golds). Coralife is my second and ME (aquacraft) is what I was using. I switched to Coralife bcause I needed to raise my potassium.