16 foot 350 gallon reef build
 

Hi everyone,

So here we go....

This tank has had 5 weeks of planing put into it at the moment. I am working on equipment list but I plan on stealing a lot off my 200 and selling the tank. I will have to order more MaxSpec 420r's and a new skimmer. I think overall though I have everything needed to make the big jump into saltwater.

Current Tank. 8 foot long 31" wide and 15" tall
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DSC_0264.jpg

New tank. 16 feet long 31"-40.5" wide and 14" tall.
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...ank%202015.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...327_123803.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...327_131230.jpg

Picked up all stand stuff yesterday and the acrylic comes in this week!

Interesting design!

Yeah looks like a nice project, I have the same lights and Im surprised at how high they seem to be in your picture. Do you mind sharing your settings and distance of lights from the surface ?

That looks like a massive frag tank! Is there a reason you went with such a shallow design? Dont get me wrong. That tank has a massive footprint. Quite impressive.

I like shallow tanks and how they look. This also has the benefit of having a large foot print reef tank without having to have a fish store attached to my house. Don't get me wrong I would not mind having a 1,300 gallon tank but I am not retired and on the younger side of the hobby. I am 28 :P, when I know I wont be moving and I have more time I might just go big (gallon wise).

This also helps in overall maintenance of the tank and my tangs will have 16' of room to swim!

I just use the presets now I haven't had time to mess around much with them. This is a added benefit of a shallow tank they only have to penetrate a water column of 14". The tank is 32" wide so 31" 1/2" acrylic and it covers nicely.

I think they are 16" off the surface of the water just looks higher from angle of photo. I will take a measurement tomorrow. Going crazy trying to finish basement and do a large build at the same time :P. I think next time ill do one at a time...

I am starting to go heavy on SPS now so with this build I will be using theses 2 lights and 4 more I believe. I might try 4 in total but i think 6 would be better.

I will have to see how it goes and how things respond. Overall tho the lights are awesome.

Well Sad day and a good day...

I got my tank all transferred over to a 150 gallon stock tank. And the tank is now in the back of my truck headed to who knows where.
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...331_175049.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...331_175037.jpg

What's with the weird acrylic piece on the old tank?

?? do you mean on the Stock Tank?? That was my FAIL at a lid :P had acrylic laying around and just made something quick to cover it...

The stock tank now has a apex on it so I am not going to run a lid.

If you are talking about the display tank I don't follow?? is there something strange about it?

Equipment list as of now.

1x Super Reef Octopus 5000SSS Internal Protein Skimmer
2x Two Little Fishies Media Reactor – Phosban 150
1x Danner Supreme Aqua-Mag 24 Water Pump – 2400 GPH
5x Ebo Jager 250W Heater (17 inch) - Eheim
1x Spectrapure CSPDI 90GPD 4 stage w/ TDS meter
2x Cobalt Aquatics MJ-1200 Multi-Purpose Powerhead/Pump (295 GPH)
2x Jebao RW-20 Wavemaker w/ Wireless Capabilities (5283GPH)
2x Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor Extension Kit
2x Marinepure High Performance Biofilter Media - 8"x8"x4" Block
1x Neptune Direct Connect 8 Module (DC8)
1x Neptune Automatic Feeding System
4x Maxspec Razor 420r 16k 160w

This is what I have on order for this build will start receiving the goods tomorrow threw April 9th-10th.

Acrylic is in my shop just going over final sizing and spacing and all that good stuff.

Still to order is,
UV sterilizer, 1x Neptune Automatic Feeding System so I can run 2 and who knows a bunch or random stuff I am not thinking of just yet.

I have my Apex from my 200 and other odds and ends that I will be using.

Thank you to Reefsupplies.ca and Colin at Reef Boutique.

Haha yeah must be what you're calling a stock tank. That leads me to - what's a stock tank? :p

It's a horse trough 150 gallon, lol all I could get to move my tank in.

No, not that one, the glass tank with the lid with all the holes in it. I'm just wondering the purpose of all the holes? I'm snoopy like that. ;)

Just looks like bracing to me.

The tank is all 1/2" Acrylic and has euro bracing. A little overkill but I used it for my lid's for the tank a lot easier to do this with..
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DSC_0078.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...d/DSC_0079.jpg

Look at what I got today!! Thank you ReefSupplies.ca for the fast shipping and great service.
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...402_094914.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...402_095509.jpg

Still waiting on my mag drive 24, lights and other stuff .. Also ordering a Apex gold now my Apex lite just wont cut it in this build.

giggity

Yeah, that looks nice. Did you build it yourself? It looks professionally done.

Why are you using the MarinePure stuff? Isn't this a reef tank?

I've been ready abit about marine pure on other forums , it seems to be gaining popularity.

Marine Pure
Here is some propaganda:

Ceramic Bio-Filter Media with Vast Surface Area & Open-Flow Porosity. For ammonia & nitrite removal in fresh & marine aquariums. One MarinePure Sphere has the same surface area as 1,350 plastic bio-balls. Use in wet/dry filters, sumps or canister filters.

http://www.cermedia.com/marinepure-products.php

I know what it does. It's not a good idea in a reef tank. If you have live rock, that stuff is a moot point. It doesn't "remove" ammonia and nitrite, it hosts nitrifying bacteria that will convert ammonia and nitrite into nitrate. It's nothing special as far as reefs are concerned. For tanks without rock, it's a good option. It is essentially the same thing as bioballs, but fancier. :)

http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...408_155144.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...408_155147.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...408_174102.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...408_182133.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...408_192848.jpg
Ok stand is almost done so tank is up next...

http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...408_201540.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...408_201543.jpg

I am going for a less is more look in the tank and I would like not to have to fill it with live rock to the rim to support a large fish population. I will run 4 blocks and just have them in there for more surface area. No proof they work but gives me peace of mind.

As for the tank I build them and I am making the 16' tank as well.

I mad jealous of your shop!

Sorry for the bad pic's :P but I got more stuff....
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...410_204528.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...410_204631.jpg
So total of 5 lights 2 from my old setup and 3 new ones....

Ok, So working on the lights and how I will end up hanging them.. I only thought I would have 4 razors but ended up with 5 (Thanks Colin :)).. So drywall is on its way in this week and tank starts this week I hope.

For an overall look I am going for super clean so I will be using Mustang "C1101 TOP FIXING WITH CABLE GRIP" for mounting to my ceiling

http://www.mustang-systems.ca/images...Components.pdf

As for the ballasts for the lights I am playing with the idea of mounting them into the ceiling... We will see though..

So next step is finish skeleton of stand, paint it white or black.. The whole stand is getting finished in maple or oak but I might as well paint it, cant hurt...

Start the tank, The funny thing is that this is the easiest part of this build for me at least.

I am still waiting on a few peaces of equipment but have most of what I think I need for this tank.


On a side not I just went through all my Aquarium stuff from my old 210 and man I had a lot of random stuff :)

The who, what and why...

So i have not really explained the who,what and why of this tank. So here it goes.

This tank was an idea I had for a while now about 11 months or so.. I wanted to start off in large reef keeping but did not really have the experience of keeping a larger then normal reef tank.

This is where the 210 8 foot long tank came in. I have never sustained a reef that big before. After doing that for 10 months I had a better idea on what was expected in keeping a large reef tank.

So here we are I am about to finish the leg part of the stand will have pics soon. Also decided to paint it white..

So that is kinda a small back story.....

The who..

So doing the initial budget for this tank was scary and fun at the same time.
I did not want to skimp on anything so I just budgeted for what I deemed the best. I planed on stealing a lot from my 210 but this ended up not working out . At this point to be honest I have thrown out the budget and just going with the flow :P..

As for my basement reno this is going well and is on budget go figure..

With the purchasing of everything that is needed for this build I am trying to stay local or at least stay in Canada when ordering everything. This has worked out great thanks to reefsupplies.ca and Reef Boutique. There is still a lot to get but I have a good start.

This in the end has cost me more since I deal in USD a lot and could have bought it all in the states considering I am there at least once a month. In the end tho I am a strong believer in supporting local business. So it will cost me more but I will have stores to go to and buy stuff at that are local. This is worth a lot more to me then saving a bit of money up front.

As for the why...

I honestly do not know why... The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is one day I was looking at my 7-8" Naso in my 8 foot reef and he just did not look that happy. I always wanted to see my tangs act more natural and swim. So why not 16 feet sound good right ..

In the end this build will only take another 4-6 weeks so that is the good part but will take almost 6 months to get it where I like it. This is always the way with me. The funny thing is my 210 was at that point right when i ripped it down.

My end goal in this hobby is to have a 4000+ gallon reef but this is a ways off as I think I will have to be retired to maintain it. Also ill be moving quite a bit form now to then. So when I am in my 50s and in the house I want to stay in and if I am still in this hobby that build would be fun.

I have always wanted a black tip reef shark but there is just no good way in keeping them(In my opinion). I do not want to pull one from the ocean and to be honest I think I would need a 40,000 gallon tank to make me feel alright about keeping one.

So the last week I have accomplished a lot more then I thought would get done. This is where I stand now Acrylic is in glue is in and the stand is done. So next is the tank build. This will take a week or so with dry times.

All the 1/2" Acrylic 12 sheets :P
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_150838.jpg

http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_150742.jpg

Stand Pics :D
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_140211.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_140222.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_150324.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_150330.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_150335.jpg
And a pic of my new computer at work :P
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...424_150750.jpg

I can smell that acrylic solvent from here. *barf*

More pics of stand.... Still needs a few more coats of paint...
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...427_165222.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...427_165226.jpghttp://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...427_165234.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...429_124016.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...429_124033.jpg

Ok, Here is the tank build going full steam..

The stuff needed to make the tank..
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...430_152016.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...429_124058.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...429_150256.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...429_150304.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...429_154737.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...430_152020.jpg
And some of the sides going on...
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...501_142548.jpg
Glue joint done..
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...501_143039.jpg

nice work man!

Looking awesome. Can't wait to see this built!

Wow...nice build!

Large update.... ITS IN!!

The last week was crazy with the basement and the tank all getting done. In the end though it was all worth it.. I still have a long list of stuff that needs to be done but the hard part is done.

Here are some pics... More to come just need to get them all uploaded.

Polishing.
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...511_172521.jpg
Tank trim in.
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...512_205058.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...512_205108.jpg
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...512_205112.jpg
You can tell by the shop and how much junk is around how busy we are there to.

Some of the smaller stuff I was making more to come on this..
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...513_165208.jpg

Background in...
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...513_204753.jpg

The standard wife shot in tank... :P
http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/...514_195001.jpg

So awesome....

Looks awesome!! I think you built the stand strong enough to hold 8 of those tanks! :D

Hi
 

Cool

truly epic , best dimensions ever