Asylumdown's 275 Tank build

[asylumdown]

This thread is going to happen in semi-slow motion, mostly because the build of the tank is tied to the build of my house, which, as I'm sure you can guess, happens at the pace it happens.

I want to start off by giving the specs, and posting the pictures I have so far.

The tank will be 6ft long X 34inches wide X 26 inches high for a total display volume of approximately 275 gallons. It's being built right in to the house as a divider between two rooms, the dining room and the office, so it will be open on two sides. I don't have a fish room in this house (some battles you have to 'compromise' on in marriage I suppose), so 99% of the equipment will be under the stand, with the only remote equipment being an R/O storage container in the basement below the tank.

The goal: To minimize the amount of manual labour required to maintain the tank. Since it's getting built right in to the house, I had an awesome opportunity to automate water changes as much as humanly possible, and the wall space the tank sits in has been plumbed with a water supply, a drain to the sewer, and an emergency floor drain under the aquarium.

Here's the space the tank will occupy (viewed from the dining room):



Closer image


Water supply and drain


Power supply


Emergency floor drain


View of tank from office (looking in to dining room and kitchen)


Still working out the details of the sump with Kevin at Red Coral, but it will be designed so that one half of it can be isolated from the tank, drained, filled with fresh R/O water, mixed with salt, and then returned to the main system without ever needing to hand bail a bucket, or siphon a single drop. I'll post more pics/drawings as it progresses.

[Dez]

Looking good. I love 2 side viewable tanks.

[Coleus]

nice, i wish i can build a tank into the house like that. Maybe my next house lol. Can't wait to see how it comes together

[asylumdown]

I'm pretty excited. There's still some open questions about the tank, most notably how I'm going to light it (it's so wide!), but those will be answered when we get there. The next thing to take care of will be the sump.

The metal stand is being custom built to be a total of 40 inches in height, with 2 inch steel beams. That gives me a 'usable' footprint of 68 X 30 inches of floor space under the cabinet. I want the biggest sump possible, so assuming I need a half inch of clearance between the base of the stand front to back, and 12 inches of open space on the long ends for any equipment that can't be in the sump itself, the sump will be 56X29 inches long.

I also want the sump to hold as much water as possible, I want the sump to hold as much water as possible so if I make the sump 20 inches tall, I can keep the water at 12 inches when the sump is running without risking overflowing the sump when the tank loses power. When the aquarium is turned off, I should have roughly two inches between the top of the water and the lip of the sump tank.

Here is my crude first draft for what the sump will look like. There's going to be two compartments, and the water will flow in a U shape from the point it enters, to the point it exits the sump (green line). I'll be able to turn the gate valves in the middle of the sump isolating one half of it from the tank, with an alternate route for the water when the gate valve is closed (red line). That will allow me to pump all the water out of one half, fill it back up with fresh water, add salt, mix, then re-open the gate valves returning the new salt water to the main system.


I'm trying to decide what skimmer I can fit under that cabinet (it will likely need to be on a 2.5 inch stand) so I can work out exactly what I need in terms of space in all the compartments.

[fishytime]

Looks good man.....envious.......very envious..........heres a couple lighting options......Im sure both of which you, being the stickler for detail that you are, have probably already thought of......

a) could go with 12 bulbs of HOT5(that should fit in there just right(depending on the unit I suppose, Im running TEKs and they will fit)).....either two six foot units(TEK doesnt make a sixer) or four three foot units.........or
b) something like three 250w MHs with Lumenmax Elite reflectors and some kind of strip lighting on the sides for blue supplementation(either T5 or LED)........or
c).....go with LEDs which I admittedly know nothing about, so someone else will have to chine in here.....


Im sure you'll get it figured out........guess it's all gonna depend on what you wanna do with the tank.....and depend on your budget......if you wanna do things like LPS on the bottom of the tank then you will likely need the penetration of MH.......if your gonna do things like mushrooms and zoas at the bottom than that will open you up to more options.....

[asylumdown]

I think I'll probably go with the MH lights. The builder still needs to put in the ventilation to the outside, but the drawings call for one side of the wall above the tank (the office side) to be vented screen doors so I think I should be able to deal with the heat. When it's done, it will look like a solid floor to ceiling wall with a tank in the middle from the dining room (with two small, hopefully invisible access panels so I can clean the glass) with all the doors and stuff on the office side.

I'll check out those reflectors, I was nervous 250 watt lights wouldn't cast a wide enough footprint for such a wide tank, but with supplementary PC lighting on the sides it should be enough.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by fishytime

b) something like three 250w MHs with Lumenmax Elite reflectors and some kind of strip lighting on the sides for blue supplementation(either T5 or LED)........or

I just read a study of the lumenmax and lumenmax elite reflectors, it seems like the elite version concentrate light more and the straight lumenmax spreads it out more. I guess it's the balancing act, but I like having concentrated light. Do you think I could get away with the elite one if I supplemented 10-14K T5's on either side?

[Dez]

Originally Posted by lastlight

40 dez? Tell me that's not weekly for your system volume lol. I was hoping to only do 40s on my 400

Yep, every week like clockwork. I've been doing a bit more than 40 since adding the 5' frag tank since I figured I have more water volume now. A bucket of salt per month .

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Really like following along. I'm guessing it's a smaller builder? In my experience the bigger ones don't like to mess with the spec plans as much as you have. Lucky guy!

That high sump will drive you nuts but sounds like it's a necessary evil here. I did water changes in my 225 exactly as you intend to. Easy as pie and only took me maybe 10 min.

Our builder is Citicore, we bought a house in a 60 year old neighborhood and knocked it down, so the house is 100% custom. It gives you tons of freedom, but we're finding that infinite choices can actually start to be a bad thing. It's easy to blow budgets, and of course, I can walk in to a plumbing show room and pick the most expensive things without even looking at a price tag.

I knew the sump was tall, but on paper it didn't seem like it was THAT tall. All that matters is that the skimmer and all the equip will fit and I can put the stuff I need to access the most right up front.

The house was insulated this week, so drywall should start next week (finally!). Once the drywall is up I'll be ordering the actual aquarium, I'm thinking starphire glass on the two exposed panels.

I'm super torn on the best nutrient export system. I can't decide between the Zeovit method or biopellets. I tried biopellets on my 90 gallon and had a crazy cyano outbreak, but I know others have awesome success with them. I love the look of zeo tanks, but man, daily supplementation just doesn't sound like something I will reliably do.

What do you all think?

[fishytime]

Prodibio???.......same principal as Zeo......no rocks to tumble and a more forgiving dosing schedule