The house is fully insulated and should be getting drywalled at this very moment. Took these pics on Friday:

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...down/boxed.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...own/Boxed2.jpg

Just in case any of the drywallers were confused as to whether or not they should stand on the vertical surfaces of of the sump/stand's protective box, we left them a handy sign.

$100 says you catch one of those idiots standing on it with a smoke dangling out his mouth when you swing by for a surprise look in the near future :D

Not a whole lot has changed, but the house is 80% drywalled now. Can't believe how much of a difference it makes, actually being able to look at closed walls, finally feels like a house. Mudding and taping starts next week, then it's time to order the actual tank!

perhaps these photos of an empty space where a tank will eventually be are a little gratuitous, but I'm excited as hell this is happening, so I don't care! ;)

The fan's been incorporated in to the ceiling:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...fandrywall.jpg

From the office looking toward Kitchen/Dining room:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...own/Office.jpg

From the dining room looking in toward the office:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...own/Dining.jpg

And just cuz it finally looks like a room, the kitchen and dining room (nothing to do with the tank, I'm just excited)
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...wn/Kitchen.jpg

Not at all nobody will understand that as well as us! Been through two house builds and a few tanks builds. I envy you that feeling is really tough to beat. Sweet anticipation! Things are looking great btw.

Heh, thanks. As soon as the drywall boards went up, it suddenly started looking like an actual house. I'm in Ontario for the next week, and while I'm here they're putting on the cedar boards and soffit on the outside and prepping the house for stucco. It will be a totally different structure when I get home!

They also apparently poured the concrete in the backyard yesterday, which is pretty thrilling as there is going to be a pretty large water feature in it as well - I haven't worked it out yet but it might actually hold more water than the aquarium.

Ah heck, I'll post a pic of that too:

So far they've only framed the exterior walls that will hold up half the backyard, there's going to be a second inner tier of walls that will form a 3 level terrace stepping down from the upper level to the lower level. about half of the long side will be sealed, so at the top there will be an stone bowl that water pours from, down the face of one of the walls in to a shallow pool, then down a second wall in to the lower tier, which will be 2 feet deep and 5 feet wide. The plan is to fill the bottom tier with water lilies, and the middle tier with marginal plants. However, I'm half heartedly trying to figure out if there's a way I can make it a salt water fountain and fill it with animals you'd find in a BC tide pool hehe.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/Backyard.jpg

where are you building, Adam.....obviously an old neighborhood, with an alley in the back...

It's in St. Andrews Heights. I have lived in Calgary my whole life and I had never heard of the place until we saw the listing for the house we bought.

It's just off University Drive next to the Foothills. Nice old neighbourhood that seems to be about 10% under construction with new homes at any given moment.

I've spent the past 2 days (literally) researching lighting options. I had pretty much discounted LEDs as an option a few months ago as I hadn't done a whole ton of research and I didn't trust the technology to spend the kind of cash I would need for a high end fixture. However, I stopped in at Red Coral on the weekend and saw the Reef Tech unit there and was inspired to do some more digging. I'm thinking that I might have been too quick to pass them over as an option.

After some serious digging, I've come to the conclusion that LEDs might be right for me, but I'm majorly on the fence regarding brand.

The three options I am most interested in are:

Vertex Illumina 260 (6 ft fixture)
- I like the modability of this fixture, but I'm having a hard time finding people who've owned the fixture for many months who are posting reliable pictures. I've also been looking in to the bulbs they use, and while I haven't been able to find the specific 'white' bulb they use on the Cree website, I've found others that are comparable (I think anyway), and they don't seem to have the red peak in the right nanometre range (a peak closer to 550nm, whereas photosynthesis does best at about 675). I don't know how big of a deal this is, but I know that that peak is really critical to chlorophyll, so I'm still not 100% sold on this. I like that it can be updated as technology advances, but I scream at the idea of paying extra for something as tacky as 'lightning effects'. Also, It's a 34 inch wide tank, and if I'm spending 5 grand on a fixture I'm not at all interested in needing to supplement it to get extra spread, it should be a one stop shop. Some people say it's 120 degree spread will cover up to 36 inches, but I've not been totally blown away by anecdotal PAR readings. I do think the sunrise/sunset and moon cycles feature has value in terms of fish behaviour though, and this is a very appealing draw.

Orphek PR-156W - They claim to have developed their own diodes specifically for corals, and I've seen some killer tanks on RC using just these lights. They don't mess around with the gimmicky lighting modes, but the ability to fade on and off would be better. They're less expensive for what I'd need, but I'm confused about their colours - their white is a 16K diode with a pretty weak spike in the 550nm range compared to the spike in the blue range. This doesn't seem any different than the Cree LEDs on the vertex from a spectrum point of view, but I'm by no means an expert on lights. They're definitely on the short list. Also, if I orient them perpendicular to the long side of the tank, they will give me more than enough coverage with 4 fixtures.

ReefTech Prometheus - Hot little fixture, though not sure if it has the spread to cover a 34" wide tank, and again, the idea of needing supplemental lighting of any kind after spending 4000 gives me gas. It's possible that they could be oriented perpendicular like the Orpheks and go with 4 units instead of three, but they're not really that long of a fixture to begin with. The whites on this unit are 7000-8300K, which should have a spike much closer to 675nm, and should therefore be more photosynthetically useful to corals.

I would love some input. I'm also thinking I'll wait to make a decision until the last possible moment (sometime in December), and hope that something more specifically practical has come out by then that addresses all the issues currently facing LEDs.

New house pics.

You've been too quiet =)

hehe, you're right. I've been checking Canreef pretty much every day without logging in. I'm presently tankless so I've not had a whole lot to contribute, but it is definitely time for an update.

Not a whole ton has happened regarding the tank since my last post because the house was being stucco'd and they were getting ready to lay floor tile (we needed more instant leveller than any one supplier carried - we have A LOT of tile). The builder wisely wanted to wait until the stucco was applied before they go further with the interior, as houses tend to settle when you apply that much weight to their exterior. However, they've now completed the floor tile on the main and basement levels, and are almost done applying it to the two vertical feature walls. As such, I've met with the finishing carpenter twice this in the past week regarding the final look of the tank area, and I'm happy to report I will now be getting full access to both sides of the cabinet (above and below) with a series of touch latch doors that will be integrated in to the final look of the tank wall. I'll be getting in touch with Kevin in the next week regarding the final dimensions of the tank so we can order it. They're going to build the cabinetry on the front (dining room) side first, then we'll slide the tank in from the office side and they'll finish the cabinetry around it. I've asked the carpenter to build the back side of the cabinetry in such a way that if necessary I'll one day be able to remove the tank without doing an entire renovation.

Everything looks the same except for the floor right now, but I guess I can share some photos:

Looking from the dining room to the tank. The floor turned out better than I had dreamed. It looks like a cross between polished concrete and tarnished gun metal. Unfortunately, it photographs terribly and the floor (which has now been covered with protective cardboard) was filthy when I took this pic.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...mdown/tank.jpg

This is the dining room, you can kind of get a sense of how the floor will look when it's clean.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...Diningroom.jpg

and also, they finished the concrete work in the backyard, the water fall/feature is now obvious (it's the tallest tier and the two sections of wall below it). Just waiting for them to back fill the raised section and lay the irrigation system
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...rdconcrete.jpg

Yeah that's a nice lookin tile.

And holy cow that's a ton of concrete work for a water feature. My guess is the budget for that makes your tank build seem somewhat minor :lol: Nice stuff!

Well, the walls were necessary regardless of if there was a water feature or not, The property has a weird elevation change where the SE corner is the lowest point and the NW corner is the highest, so we've got a half walk-out basement. Because the highest point on our property is also one of the lowest points on the neighbours property we ended up needing a series of concrete walls if we wanted any level space in our backyard. The terraces were necessary due to building codes about wall height, and thus through happy accident I got a perfect place to put a water feature :)

But yes, the backyard has more concrete in it than the rest of our house. That was painful.

I also meant to mention that I think I'm leaning towards the new Ecotech Radion LED's for lighting. I would need 6 units I think to cover my tank, which is not a small investment, so I've been following Mr. Saltwater Tank's experiment with them before I commit to anything.

In regards to your LED questions...I got to see two of those fixtures in use above tanks at MACNA and I was surprised that the Orphek had the nicest color. Even more surprising was that a Coralife fixture that is shortly to be released had nice color too. I noticed that you didn't consider the AI or the new Maxspect...both very nice and controllable. Lastly, I was surprised when I saw the Coralvue Phobos...it was pretty nice and incorporated some additional colors to broaden their spectrum. Maybe research these as well so you can make the best ending decision. I personally am doing DIY.

I did a bunch of reading on the AI, there's a huge thread on RC regarding them (and LEDs in general) right now that sort of turned me off of them. It seems people either love them, and have mind blowing success with them, or they claim they have killed their tank. Also, I don't like the colours, just cool white and blue... it hypothetically is all the corals *should* need for growth, but I think they're missing something.

If the Orphek's were even a little controllable, I'd be more interested. I'm not looking for some cheesy storm effects or anything, but I would like the ability to simulate the sun rising and setting every day, and I want a proper moon cycle. I know Orphek's have a moon cycle that you can program manually on each fixture, but they're missing the integration and controllability in general I think.

I did look at the Maxspect, and Im going to continue to mull that over while Mark Callaghan (sp?) continues to test the Radions. I want something close to full spectrum, and as an out of the box solution the Radions just seem like they've got what I wanted, but it's still a couple of months out before I need to make a choice.

This light is made by the Chinese...so who knows about the quality...but they've stepped up their game a little.
http://reefbuilders.com/2011/09/20/p...ue/#more-48493
Saw this light...looked okay but wasn't over a tank with livestock (as many weren't, like the Radions).

I also liked the Radions when I saw them, but wish they had put it over a live tank to see what the overall look ended up being like.

Driveway was poured this week :)

I'm considering going mostly bare bottom in this tank, and I would like some opinions:

1. I have no interest in dealing with a deep sand bed for several reasons, so sand on the bottom would be purely aesthetic and too shallow to offer much in the way of nutrient reduction (like in my last tank).

2. I was looking at pics of my old 90 gallon and I realize that as my tank aged, I started to develop more and more problems with nuisance algae and cyano, even though I was getting more and more sophisticated in my nutrient removal techniques and technology. There are plenty of reasons this could be the case I'm sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a big contributing factor was the progressive build up of crap in the sand under/behind rocks where I couldn't get a vacuum

3. I'm not really in love with the look of bare-bottom tanks, but I figure you can cover them over with LPS and coral over time.

4. I REALLY love wrasses though. So I was considering building several little 'sand boxes' that would hold a couple of inches of sand each, but in locations that I could easily access for thorough vacuuming.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

I've considered bare-bottom for my new tank as well but like you want my wrasses to be happy. The sandbox idea sounds good but when I think of the sand-storm my leopard stirs up EVERY night when he goes to sleep I'm seeing those areas depleted of sand pretty fast. You'd be very slowly adding sand to top the areas up while your wrasses gave you a shallow sand-bed over time I think.

Yah I hadn't thought of that. Maybe I'll just do 1 or half an inch in most places then build up couple 'dune' areas where the wrasses can sleep

Also.. hardwood is 90% installed and the kitchen and closet inserts are being manufactured on site as we speak! Wheeeeee!

The finishing carpenter was there prepping the enclosure today. Site meeting with the builder, the finisher and Kevin on Friday to get exact final measures to place the glass order.

Dining room view:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1694.jpg
We had to replace the original top sheet of plywood on top of the stand with a much thicker 3 inch piece of wood in order to have something to drill the door frames in to. Also, the MDF columns on either side needed to be wide enough to cover the steel legs of the stand in order for there to be enough clearance to attach the door hinges. In order to keep this view symmetrical, it means that about 3 inches of the right side and 5 inches of the left side of the tank will actually be covered up.

Office side view:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1695.jpg
When I stopped by tonight, the finisher had also installed an MDF panel on the office side where the purple line is. It matched the front of the tank, but would have meant the tank couldn't have been installed without reducing it's length by 5 or 6 inches. I had him remove it (obviously), and we're redesigning the office side of the aquarium so that you'll be able to see 100% of the width of the tank. Depending on how the finished enclosure looks, I might also do cut-outs on the front side so less glass is hidden.

Love seeing this coming together! What were the biggest hurdles in explaining what you wanted to accomplish to the builder? I am in the process of building a house around a tank and would love to know before I run into the same issues.

Wow that is a thick piece of plywood! Certainly nothing I've ever seen at home depot etc.. you don't even need support in the middle with that thing lol.

Keep crackin' the whip I like what I'm seeing!

So far it's been communicating the requirements of the actual tank, which aren't really flexible. For example, the tank has been designed from the start to have 4 vortech pumps (either 4 MP40s or 2 MP40s and 2 MP60s) as the main source of circulation, and I had a really hard time explaining why I needed the joist spaces open on the left and right sides of the tank. I think carpenters are used to being able to make on the fly adjustments when real world conditions don't match drawings exactly, cheating certain measurements here and there, but in the case of an aquarium half an inch can be the difference between being able to use the pumps you want, or the protein skimmer you bought, or having easy access to a critical area.

I've approached it from the perspective of letting them know what my 'givens' are: things that absolutely must be adhered to from a functional perspective, like size of access points, clearances, etc. The outward design I don't care so much about and left that up to the guy who designed the house, so I just said as long as the givens are respected and built around, the finished product from a cabinetry point of view can be whatever it needs to be.

I've been doing it from the start, like after I explained it, the plumber and electrician knew why I needed the ability to bring water from the basement up to the tank cabinet, but I was the only one who ever really understood how critical that part of the design was to the tank functioning at all. So I just had them install the allowances I would need later on to make it all work the way I want. For code reasons they weren't able to run the electrical cords that will connect the pump and auto-top off system to the controller under the tank, so I had them install two empty conduits that run through the floor that are wide enough for me to thread cords and tubing through myself when it's time to set it all up.

I think they actually made it on site, it's more than one sheet glued together. It's actually got a slight curvature to it, so they're building wooden braces on either side of the steel centre brace and installing some monster screws to pull the whole thing flat.

Also, Doug mentioned to me last night that MDF is a dangerous choice for building material in a tank enclosure. We had talked about that on site months ago and I was pretty sure we had that issue addressed, but to be on the safe side I checked with the carpenter today. They're actually not using MDF, it's an MDF like product called Medex which is more water resistant than MDF (and formaldehyde free, which is a definite plus around a tank!). All the Medex cracks/seams/joints are going to be caulked and sealed and then we're going to apply 2 layers of a 2 part exterior grade flexible epoxy coating. It's used in commercial and industrial applications and is also used as a liner material in swimming pools. The company doing the painting deals with marine aquariums all the time so I think it will be OK. It's more expensive than using something a little more water resistant like birch or paintable plywood, but the painted texture of MDF/Medex is a better match to everything else that's going on in the house.

Tank enclosure is coming along nicely! Had a meeting with everyone today for final measurements so we can place the glass order. Gained an inch in height, the tanks going to be 27 inches from top to bottom now. I'm probably going to put a 2 inch layer of sand in, so it will be 25 inches from the top of the water.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1701.jpg

Rock-on man love it!

You sure you don't want to have them do a solid sheet of plywood and then carve those lines with a crappy utility knife?

hehe, if it wound up looking anything like my first design studio shop project... I'm pretty sure I'd be headed for divorce.

Crappy dim picture of the backside. There's more viewable area on this side, as we didn't need to put two wide columns on either side for aesthetic purposes. The frame on this side is one solid piece that's been screwed in, so we'll be able to remove it when the tank is ready for install.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/backside.jpg

Did a quick sketch of the tank. It's not even remotely to scale, but here's how the drains/overflows, returns are going to work.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/planview.jpg
Two overflow boxes on either side of the tank, each with two holes. The left side is directly above the return pump in the cabinet, so the holes will be a drain and the return. The right side will just be a drain and an emergency drain.

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/sideview.jpg
The return will come up above the overflow box and run over the centre of the tank. Since my canopy is completely enclosed and I'm likely going with modular LED lighting, the centre return line shouldn't (I hope) interfere with the lighting. This design also reduces the number of holes I need in my tank and thus the size of the overflow boxes, and it gives me the ability to distribute flow towards the centre of the tank, or to specific dead spots that the vortech's might create.

I will also need 2 return drains and an emergency drain to become completely blocked before I have a flood.

Not sure if I should go with 4 MP40's or 2 MP40's and 2 MP60's though, anyone have any thoughts?

I can't believe I missed this build until now, absolutely stunning so far, I'm stoked to see it filled with water!

Have you finalized on internal overflows yet? My biggest relief on my new tank was finally getting rid of my little bastard of an internal overflow. They are bulky, take up space and are a nightmare when it comes to maintenance (leaky bulk heads, fish overflowing in, ect...).

Another major problem you run into with side internals is that they block valuable aquascape and swimming room.

In the amendment below the red areas are places you wont see when you look at the tank, yellow is area of high flow and blue is your flow pattern.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5697/configh.jpg

By having your internals placed as such your loosing a whack load of valuable real-estate, another problem with placing them there is the final placement of your MP40W's. When you confine the MP40W's to a small water foot print (with the overflow box and the rear/front tank wall on either side) it restricts the amount of water that can be drawn into the pump decreasing there efficiency.

If your set on internals you could do this:
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2266/config2r.jpg

Or if you really want to shake it up and go external you could coast to coast it like this:
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/5784/config3q.jpg

I will post on the radions after I eat supper, quick overview though: GET THEM! :razz:.

I'm pretty sure your proposed overflow boxes would be blocking a visible pane. Maybe I'm not reading his drawings right but this thing is viewable on two sides is it not?

Gah, sorry I thought it was like this with one single viewing pane.
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3115/config4.jpg

If that's not the case ignore all my crazy ranting please haha :razz:.

Derp.

Any idea how you want to position the radions as of now?

I had thought long and hard about those overflows. It sucks monster balls to need to have them internal, but it was part of the trade off process that got me the longest tank possible. The tank is flanked on either side by 2X6 studs, which support walls one either side, like in this pic:

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...fandrywall.jpg.

I had them use 2X6 boards instead of 2X4 boards to give me extra depth in the stud cavities, but then as the house construction process went on, we ended up needing to put more and more stuff in to those walls. It's kind of hard to tell cuz they've already started painting, but here's the stud spaces:

North side:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1775.jpg
One of the two stud spaces is blocked off so a bank of switches for the opposite wall could be installed (I fought this, but there was no where else to put them). Those switches will eventually be completely sealed in from the tank space. I had them position the switches so there will still be enough space above them for an MP40/60 motor

South side:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1776.jpg
From left to right there's a partial stud space that had to be sealed as it's part of the cold air return system from upstairs, drain and water lines (that get way busier under the tank) for the aquarium and R/O unit, and a drain line for a bathroom that's on the floor above the tank.

At best, having external overflows would have made the stud spaces too crowded to work in them, at worst, I would have had to reduce the length of the tank significantly to get them in.

I would say the biggest 'theme' of this tank so far has been compromise. I'm asking it to be viewable on both sides, while being as large as physically possible in the space, and to do things that would normally require a whole fish room (automated water changes and such), but with only the space of the cabinet to work with. It will be interesting to see if it all works out as planned...

As for the lights, I think I'm going to put them in 2 rows of 3, but probably not evenly spaced. I'm thinking I'm going to do three 'islands' for the aquascaping, so I'll focus the pairs of lights on to those islands. We still haven't worked out what the lights are going to hang from, I'm thinking some sort of frame that hangs from the ceiling that I can raise and lower as one unit, but I would also like to be able to adjust the position of individual light fixtures on that frame.

Le Sigh....

The stairs got delivered on Wednesday. Turns out they measured from the outside of one of the support walls, not from the inside, so the landing and both runs of stairs coming off it are the wrong size. This throws off completion date by at least a month.

And last night, the cabinet installers must have punctured one of the in-floor heating lines as there was glycol leaking from the ceiling in the basement. Not sure what that's going to do to completion date, but I assume that a whole bunch of floor tile and several walls will need to be pulled out, so I can't imagine that it will be helpful.

On the bright side, the tank should be finished and installed at least a month before we move in now, so I'll be able to cycle it before we move in...

Well, the news about the tank is good! :) I know how you feel...house delays suck. Do you figure you will "setup" the tank and just visit daily to check on how the cycle is going or will you do things off-site and move them into the tank once you move in?

The tank enclosure should be fully sealed and painted by about Dec. 15, so assuming the tank is ready around that time, I'll have everything installed then plumb it. If the builder has no problems with it, I'll fill it up with salt water and the dry rock around christmas and toss in bag of cocktail shrimp. I probably won't even need to check on it that often (though I do go to the site pretty regularly), and if all goes according to plan it will be ready to receive un-cured live rock by the time I move in

The plan is to order the live rock directly from the source in the Pacific. If I'm lucky, having it skip any intermediate holding tanks should *hopefully* cut down on the chance of aiptasia. I'm also going to be adding it to a pre-cycled dry-rock tank, so there should already be a decent biological machinery in place to process the curing cycle and hopefully reduce further die off.

good news! The builder found the leak on the first try and it didn't require pulling up any floor tile. The walls in the room below will still need to be replaced, but thankfully they had only been primed and the carpet hadn't been installed yet.

Painters are working on the enclosure and the doors for the cabinet are finished.

Mock up pre-paint. The hardware hasn't been installed yet so I just placed the doors in the frames for the pic. The framing panel that will be screwed in after the tank is in is inside on the left:
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1907.jpg

Inside the tank space is now fully plasticized. The stuff feels almost like rubber. They coated everything, drywall, studs, anything that could be exposed to moisture or humidity.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1923.jpg
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1924.jpg

Back of the doors. This just happened on friday so the coating is still curing. The door on the top left has louvres cut in to it so when the ceiling fan is running, it will draw air from the furthest/lowest point in the cabinet, hopefully keeping moisture in the sump and tank space to a minimum.
http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_1933.jpg

If I'm lucky, the tank will be in before Christmas and we can get everything plumbed. Then to cycle! Finally starting to think about scaping options...