Great idea and it is great that you are trying out new things! Can't wait to see how this goes. Good luck!

What I decided to do for the drop off part was have a 1000 GPH pump circulate water in each of the chambers by T-ing off into each section. Also dumping the crabs and snails into there.

How will they crawl out once they're in there? The holes are up pretty high...

There will be some live rock rubble in there.

Aquascaping will be similar to pic below but more caves on the top portion. Plan on adding lots of sponges and sps on the top.

The sump and refugium will have most of the rock.

http://glassbox-design.com/wp-conten...-reef-wall.jpg

I really like the concept and the pictures look great...Just a thought, Have you considered making those lower chambers into a DSB system???

Sorry not familiar with the term "DSB".

Deep Sand Bed...


http://www.wetwebmedia.com/deepsandbeds.htm

Oh ok.

Yes there will be sand in there but circulation was more of a concern to me. Even with sand in there if the circulation isn't good it will be a nitrate factory.

Installing bulkheads this week. Plumbing on the weekend.

Really cool concept. Looks like it's coming along nicely :biggrin:

that looks like a great idea but is that on your main floor? was just wondering how much weight can the floor hold that being its 300 gallons plus the weight of all materials would easily be around 1400kg with the sump and all to, forgive my math if i'm wrong :lol:

Floor has been reinforced. ;)

lol gotcha nice idea man really looking forward to the aquascaping

Getting in on this interesting concept a bit late, but couldn't the same thing be accomplished using a pvc framework or something similar? Why glass? PVC would be lighter, less prone to breakage, probably less $$$s too. Easier to disassemble if it comes to that...

Acrylic was NOT cheaper actually. :) I had estimates from shops in Alberta, Minnesota, Ontario, and even Las Vegas (ATM aka TANKED).

Even shops in the States who are usually much cheaper than glass had a brain fart when I showed them the design. Initially I had planned to do this in an L- shaped acrylic tank but after weighing the pros and cons of it and considering the fact that acrylic is much easier to scratch etc, I decided on glass. Price was very close to the same.

I wanted to actually do a bullnose end on the tank but the fact that it would be a 2 ft radius curve meant it would look like a huge magnifying glass and distort everything. If I went bigger than a 2 ft radius curve we wouldn't get it into the house.

So we went with glass with beveled edges.

i think he means pvc piping for a frame ;) acrylic is def not cheaper than glass just stronger and lighter glass is easier to get and cheaper by the sheet:) love this build btw awesome job mate:)

What he meant was you could take PVC pipes and build a shelf structure. Not acrylic

When you're already tipping the scales at 1000 lbs, what's a few more? :p

Acrylic would be more expensive.

Ya, thanks reefw & marko, that's what I meant. Just build a box with pvc or any number of other material than glass. Great concept, just seems like a waste of glass & overly complex to me when a similar result, shelf or whatever could be accomplished by other means. Glass usually good when you need to see stuff, but if it's hidden, makes no sense. Maybe just me, I dunno. Kudos on the fine glass work though, looks great.

Nobody said anything about acrylic. PVC pipes, like the stuff you're gonna use to plumb your tank..... You can use it to make a shelf structure

wow never considered a pvc box. you could use a ton of cross-tees to achieve a grid to top and front of your cage. perfect for zip-tying to. nice thinking!

luckilly you're good to go anyways. it's scape time...

Let's see the scape step by step if u could I wanna see how u do it so I can try and learn more about aqua scaping mines a stack method right meow

I'm using mostly indo rock on the drop off portion with caves in it. The top portion will be flat portions of rock on top of round pieces to make large see through caves since the tank is viewable from both sides.

Some Tonga with GSP on it to frame the sides of the rock work.

wat is gsp lol im dont know all the short forms yet :p

Where's Mark when you need him?

GSP = green star polyps

GSP is lovely escpecially under lunar. I love mine probably on of my favorites!

Sick build. Cant wait to see how it turns out.

PS: Gripenfelter, you were from Calgary right? I recognized the name. Zeus was a sick dog!

I'm from Winnipeg but I'm a moderator on a few car forums in Calgary.

Thanks dude. Dec 7 was the 1 yr anniversary of his murder.

Sorry to hear man. Good luck with the new tank though!!

Got delayed a little bit. Been working on a deck so the new pup can go do his business in the dog run. Pup comes in 3 weeks. Anyways, plumbing for closed loop system is done. Water test completed. No leaks. So the next step is adding sand and rock then finish hooking up the sump.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/73cece21.jpg

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/bb76530f.jpg

just got a bit od a concern as far as your closed loop goes..... you donthaveany shut off valves incase of pump problems that cansee... you unhook that thing and drainyour tank... unless i just dont see it.

I think I see a check valve in each line. But I wouldn't trust a check valve either. But at least it would take a long time to drain the tank out with a leaky check valve.

I have ball valves on each outlet plus one on the drain. Those aren't check valves. They are quick disconnects. I'll snap a pic tonight.

I went a different way for the sump. Instead of one big tank I decided to go with 3 smaller ones. It allows me to isolate a certain chamber if there is an issue or if I want to change something later.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/c06fe86b.jpg

Got my RO system up and running. Filling sump as we speak.

QUESTION:

A local aquarium builder told me it would be better to fill in the section under the drop off completely with sand, worms, and crabs and make a deep sand bed as opposed to filling it with some rocks and running a pump in there to circulate water.

Opinions?

In other words fill in this section with deep sand (imagine a piece of glass across the top):

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/22f29adb.jpg

Adjusted overflow and hung two lights so far.

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/445bd7a2.jpg

http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l...h/29f9b1b5.jpg

Gonna start aquascaping soon.

3 feet to stare into on-end that's going to be RAD. The end view is hands down my fav and with that ehight it's really going to have an amazing presence.

How many SOL in total? Looks to be 3 but won't that be on the low side for coverage?

I have 4 eshine systems 3 watt CREE LED units. 2 are still on my current 120 gallon.

Gonna transition coral and rock over very slowly to avoid any die off.

read through this build last night, very nice! That is an awesome idea for a room divider! The only thing I don't like about this build at this point is the fact that there's no fish in the tank yet.

Hahaha. Soon. Just want it to cycle properly and build up a good amount of bacteria. Already have crabs in there.