Photos?

PM me your e-mail and I can send you some.

PM with my email has been sent.

The order for the tank stand is in! ETA is really soon! I was totally expecting two or so months! Although now I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement! We asked for, well I asked for, Hot Pink, Fire Engine Red, or Black as the stand colour. I honestly don't care, its a cool option and I'll take anything I can get. These sands are beautiful!

The stand is going to be 10.5ft long x 3ft wide x 3ft high (technically 34" to allow for plywood and foam) The 10.5 length corresponds with the largest length of glass we can get. The tank will have to be built onsite.

The stand will be made into two sections 10.5ft x 18" wide to allow it into the house. This is the path its going to follow. The stand dimensions also mean I might be able to stick with my luminarc reflectors!!!

In our backdoor
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0041-1.jpg

Through the kitchen
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0042-3.jpg

Down the basement stairs
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0044-1.jpg

Through the wall, yes, we'll be taking that out.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0045-1.jpg

And into place!
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0047-2.jpg

This is our current electrical panel...obviously it needs to be changed out regardless of if we were putting a tank in or not. We'll be asking our power company to move the meter outside so they can do drive-by meter readings.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0093-2.jpg

The rats nest going on above the panel
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0094.jpg

Potential Skimmer: Bubble King Super Marine 250 Internal Protein Skimmer? It doesn't seem like there is an Octopus skimmer, which is what we use on our 180g, that can do the job. I'd love a Volcano skimmer, but I'd prefer if I don't spend 50% of my budget on my skimmer alone....so where does that leave us?

Spazz is MIA. Apparently owes a bunch of people skimmers, money or both. That was what I read last anyways. You don't want a Volcano =) Also, most users had to mod to really get decent performance from the skimmer based on what I read in the dedicated Volacno thread and another thread regarding mods.

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Man I've been out of the loop for a while, I didn't even know that you got a new place in Calgary.:lol: Where did you end up, and when did you decide to upgrade?

As far as a skimmer, given the price of BK skimmers, I am seriously looking at the Hurricone line of skimmer (off-shoot of Octopus) They are premium skimmers using the Askoll pumps. I think a CAT2 - External would work well for you. They are said to well out-do the reeflo orca's, even after modding.

Take a look at the "other reef site" under Reef Specialties vendor site and you will find a big thread there on them.

Progressive Reef (a Canreef sponsor) sells them and I confirmed with Coralvue that they are a designated reseller so the warranty is good. There were some issues about who was "certified" to sell these bad boys.

People are saying good things about the vertex cones....not positive if they make one big enough for your needs.

Yeah, we moved back in November of 2007, I finally got fed up waiting for my master program (Human Anatomy) to open at the UofA. Its STILL not open by the way. So we came home, rented this tiny condo with windows that wouldn't open. I got fed up with that and I decided we were going to buy a house, and we did in October of 2008. We're in the SW side of the city in a cute little 50's home. Amusingly enough our house was the first house we saw in our hunt, and we saw A LOT of houses.

We've always wanted a big tank, and when we went house shopping one of the big features we were looking for was somewhere to place a larger tank.


Does anyone know of a page that showcases all the Octopus and Hurricone skimmers? From what I've found, none of them are even close to being big enough for our needs.

Vertex doesn't seem to make anything big enough, and I'm not really sure if we're willing (space wise) to daisy chain a couple of any skimmer together. The closet Octopus looks like the Reef Octopus FDNW-400 Protein Skimmer, but even then it doesn't look like it will make it.

We need about 1500g worth of skimming capacity. I know the tank's final volume will probably be around 1000g, however I do plan to liberally stock this monster, so I might as well be prepared now, rather then having to upgrade again later.

You mention above that you are looking at the BK Supermarine 250 but in looking at it's specs, it's only rated to 750G.

For some reason J&L shows up to 2500G at the top of their listing and then in the specs below they list what BK actually says it can do.

I just thought you should know, in case that's where you got the idea it could handle your tank.

BK Deluxe 500
Rated up to 1300G
About 5 grand:shocked:

That thing must be a monster.

another option is the I-tech skimmer, I have the 100 and think it works fantastic. Obviously you would need a 400 or a superbeast but they can make one for you.

http://www.i-techskimmers.com/forums/

Also there is a i-tech skimmer thread on RC if you need more info

I saw a picture shortly after I posted my original comments about skimmer choices...its huge, and beautiful...and really expensive. I'm just not so sure its worth all that money.

Yup that was exactly where I originally got the BK idea. I did go on further to look at all the other options, the ones that will not only break the bank, but they'll steal your soul too!

*edit*
Because I just have to know, I did put in a call to inquire about a BK skimmer, the appropriate size, price, etc. I think I owe it to myself to at least fully research it before I saw no.

Because you already have the Octo skimmer, I think you might be best served with dual skimmers combining to your recommended size so that if one goes down, you are not totally without skimming.

In that case, you have a lot more choices, like a smaller BK (still a little pricey) or maybe the CAT3 Hurricone.

Alternatively, people have been happy with their Aquamedic T5000's for a long time. Here's a link to the twin version for 1250G tanks. http://www.aquacave.com/turboflotor-...edic-1060.html

Aquacave ships to Canada happily and their customer service has been quite good for me.

*edit*
Here's a link for another company making big skimmers that I've heard okay things about. http://www.marinetechnical.com/page2.html

So the quote on that BK 500 rivals the quote on the HVAC system. Kevin was unimpressed and I think he is leaning towards building his own skimmer now.

We don't have the space for two skimmers, I don't think, but I'm more then willing the measure it out and keep looking though. I just want to make sure that I don't have to go an upgrade again a year or two after I put whatever skimmer(s) on this system.

I picked up some more rock for this tank, its cooking away now so really there isn't much to do with that.

We're preparing to blow out a wall in the basement just by the stairs to get the stand in its proper position, however we're waiting on a firm confirmation on when the stand will be ready before we do that.

Tibet is going to most likely have a custom built skimmer now that we've really looked into our options. We aren't big on daisy chaining two together, and I'm honestly not willing to pony up the cash for a Bubble King regardless of its reputation. I also looked at Octopus' new line of Hurricone Skimmers, and it doesn't look like any single one will handle the tanks needs. Well I can now cross it off my list and move it to the to-do side of things.

Next up:
- more demo (it never seems to end)
- painting the floor in the fishroom
- getting the stand in place
- getting the water change system up and running
- ordering the tank
- framing the stand and tank

Hi there, looks like quite an exciting project! I have just moved into the area and am planning a basement tank too, not as big but I would welcome your recommendation as to where to get a tank from. Good luck!

Welcome to the area!

So far its really looking like we'll be building this sucker ourselves in the basement due to accessibility issues. I've never purchased a tank from a builder, or a store, so unfortunately I don't have a lot of recommendations. I used to buy my tanks 2nd hand, and now I just buy the glass and we assemble them ourselves. You might want to try the Calgary forum and ask for a list of places who sell/build tanks.

Outstanding skimmers, the current owner of Oakville Reef Gallery uses the 3000 on his 460G+/- display. I use the 1000 on my 270, very well constructed, but do take up alot of room and require a powerful pressure-rated pump. The BK's are great also and use little electricity, a buddy of mine bought one about 6 months back and could not be more happy with it.

Hey Catherine,

If you're going to build your own skimmer, are you looking for acrylic tube? I was going to build by own but I bit the "Bullet" and ended up with a PM Bullet 3.

I have about a 4 foot 8" acrylic tube that I won't be using anymore since I'm not going to build my own skimmer. It's got a sealed base already as I got this tube from a broken 8' skimmer quite a few years back.

If you're interested PM me and I'd probably take any reasonable offer.

Keep the updates coming.

Des

Thats guys!

I'll look into that link for those skimmers, and I'll pass along your note to Kevin about the pieces of acrylic. I bet Kevin will want them.

As of Monday the ghetto shower is about 90% removed. We will need to re-run most of the copper plumbing down there. The good thing is that the recycling price on copper here is like $1.65/lb and we have a lot of it!

We made a run to the dump on Saturday to start clearing out more reno debris. We probably have 2-3 more dump runs to do over the course of the rest of the summer. Our run only cost us $20, and I got to see where Seagulls come from!

The thing with a whole basement reno, is that its really hard to just focus on the tank, as there are so many other little things we have to do at the same time. Its very time consuming.

That's hilarious!

Yeah in our last place I did the basement/tank thing as well. I can clearly remember it being a ton of work and me thinking of the tank the entire time. I kept it really simple however and the real effort began when I got to the tank side of the room.

They seriously stand on the hills around the active site and watch you. You can practically hear them all sayin' "mine, mine, mine". Then when an Earthmover comes on by they all scatter to the winds and circle above just like in Hitchcock's infamous film.

Some in-progress photos of the stand build! This stand makes me excited about my build! It feels like its finally coming together! Francis from Trigger Coatings is building this baby, and so far I'm really impressed.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...herines002.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...herines001.jpg

Yup Albertanewb(Francis) dose top notch work...you wont be disappointed....are you gonna powder coat it pink like we talked about?

The colour is going to be a surprise! I love it, it makes it extra exciting!

Did you ever figure out what you were going to do for water mixing/holding containers. I've been looking around but there doesn't seem to be many "affordable" options on these in Western Canada.

If you did find them, might you have a link that you could post on here?

that looks pretty hardcore! So what's the FINAL dimensions of this badboy/girl gonna be now? You're obviously locked into a footprint but we all know a couple extra inches of height can be MANY gallons at that size =)

That has gotta be one of the most bad @$$ stands I have ever seen!! Im assuming that its 3 separate pieces? That will be one sweet tank when its done.

I've mostly settled on some containers I've spotted in the UFA catalog. I haven't taken any steps though beyond just figuring out what I want. I'm still waiting to see the stand in place to get a much better picture of how we'll be setting up the tank room.

Final dimensions for the tank are; 10.5ft long x 3ft deep x 24" tall. I would love to go 30" tall, but I'm short and so are my arms.

Once the stand is in place we'll be able to kick off a few other projects, as well as finish off our tank order and place it.

One word

"Snorkal"

lookin good michika. this thing will be a beast once its done.
whos building the tank? (if you dont mind me asking)

We'll probably build our own tank as anything we get has to be built on site.

More work on the basement - removing the ghetto shower plumbing and temporarily capping it off
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0775.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0790-1.jpg

We put in our design for the tank yesterday and we're just waiting on a quote now!

I also have to move more crap out of my basement...I'm pretty sure I've spent more time moving reno debris out of the basement then anything else on this whole build!

we need pictures thou come on :mrgreen:.... have you picked out a skimmer yet.

Hahaha. I'll see if I can't re-draw the tank and post a photo of that.

We kind of stagnated in our search for a skimmer. I think we have to wait until we get the tank in place before we purchase a skimmer. I do know though that we definitely are not going with the bubbleking as the price rules it out.

Wow, copper to ABS drainage! I dont think Ive ever even seen that lol. I'll be following your build through to the end. Im very interested. Keep it on the rails. Slow and steady wins the race...

I cant believe I just used two lame cliches...

I didn't realize how much it looks like ABS. Its actually cast iron. That sucker is in such an awkward place, but it can't be moved apparently. Although we're going to have a friend, a plumber, over in the next little bit to see what he has to say.