Sunshine Coast - 10ft 500G build

[beauroy]

Originally Posted by thebrinc

mihaivapler, what thickness of glass did they quote?

For 4ft tall they're probably going with 1", maybe even 1" laminated?

30" tall is really the very upper limit for doing a tank in 1/2" glass if you brace the hell out of it. With my waterline 2" below I'm only supporting 28" of water pressure plus the bottom is euro-braced in 6" wide strips so there's 1" for the silicone to attach to the sides. With the bottom 1" and 2" waterline there's only 27" of unsupported glass.

Although I'm aware that I'm on the limit with 1/2" glass the cost would double for 3/4" glass and with a proper 2" steel frame I'm confident it'll work. I'm also basing my build off two other reefers with the same dimensions and glass thickness that have had long term (5yrs +) success with their tanks.

god that thing is nice! ive got to see this in person

[thebrinc]

We've made some good progress...

Got the stand's main cladding done: (admittedly I'm not the best at carpentry, but I sure as sh$t have enough clamps now!)





I also installed a dimmable 16 foot LED strip above the top euro-bracing, locked inside the steel frame... unexpectedly it lit up the clear silicone like a light-saber! It actually gets pretty bright and was thinking I could dim them for moonlights and fire them up at full strength in the daytime to eliminate some of the harder shadows that the Kessil pendants cast.

Really a cool effect, hope the fish don't freak out.

The area to the left of the stand was going to get a hinged wooden panel but the floating corner started growing on me... now we're thinking of putting a smoked acrylic panel on that end with the electronics behind it... it's really handy to be able to see the tank specs at a glance. Maybe a old phone or tablet linked to my Apex to display temperature charts and stuff.

Now for the fun part, aquascaping! It's amazing how cold 1" of water can be in early winter:



My facial expression changed rapidly after sitting down ;p







RO-DI unit's been working overtime the last 4 days and I'm happy to report we're halfway there! This is going to take some patience.
I feel bad about all the waste water, but we've been having a rainstorm the last couple of days and there's now a creek running in front of my driveway so I guess there's enough water for the time being. I'll definitely plumb the rejected RO water into the garden by summer though.

I'm getting the sneaking suspicion I will need some more LR although the cube tank's pretty well stocked...

@ Beauroy : You bet man, you should swing by when she's full of water!

[Zoaelite]

Looking good , will be staying tuned.

[beauroy]

where about in Sechelt did you move to?

[GoFish]

This is an awesome build so far! You have some cojones testing that for leaks in the house, yikes.
If you feel bad about the waste water when making RODI you could get a permeate pump, got mine here... http://www.thewaterguy.ca/catalog/vi...te-pump-73.htm
I make about 70 gallons of RO to 30 gallons of waste. Then the waste gets used to either flush the toilet or water the plants in the summer, this time of year though I don't bother collecting the waste

Keep us updated on the detailed progress, looking good

[thebrinc]

Thanks Guys!

hmmm, cool idea Vancity! Thanks for the link.

Beauroy, we're in West Sechelt... I'll PM you our address once she's full of Water!

[beauroy]

How's the tank doing,haven't seen picks for a while

[thebrinc]

Hey Beauroy. Going really well thx! Things got a little crazy the last couple weeks with the family coming over for Christmas & all... updates to follow soon!
I've got some time off from now until newyears, you should swing by & have a look for yourself.

[lastlight]

concepts built my 400 on site and those same stretch marks appeared and i too was losing my mind. my tank held water so you should be ok!

[thebrinc]

Hey Guys

Time for a long overdue update!

I'll fast forward past the Christmas craziness with some photos.












Long story short, livestock was moved from the 100G cube to the DT and doing really great! Fun to watch my Kole tang flopping / swimming from one end to the other... takes a while.



The engineer gobies are also doing really well... they schooled for a couple days being used to their cramped 30" cube and then set off in different directions, destroying my aquascaping one mouthful at a time Seems like they've doubled in size in the last month.

QT cube is still full of new arrivals, going on 4 weeks of Cupramine now.



Regal tang had velvet and now everyone's gotta put up with the copper. Lesson learned, even with a larger QT it's not fair to combine this many new arrivals. Almost through the worst of it I hope, haven't seen any signs of it for almost a week although he's picked up a bit of HLLE from the Cupramine and stress no doubt. Feeding some Selcon and hopefully he'll pull through and have a stress free place to hang out soon enough.

Back to the build, after a minor flood, my Apex dying, and two faulty pumps (vibrate the fillings out of your head at night trying to sleep) the sump had to be moved and re-plumbed into the crawl space, directly under the tank.



I've also managed to get some more work done on the stand... putting in some shelving for the AV and books.





I gave up on trying to hoist the wooden soffit above the tank and am just using a 2x4 to temporarily suspend the Kessils above the tank. It's a temporary lighting solution anyway.

Finally got the Reef Octo Regal 300 dialed and it's skimming happily for the time being. It's a bit of a nuisance being so far away from the sump, especially in winter but I'll setup a closed circuit TV system of sorts and display it in the stand on a tablet of something so I can keep an eye on things.