new tank!! 250G DD

[e46er]

Ive always thought the deep tanks looked so cool so tonight I picked up a new 250 G deep demension tank 60"W 36"D 27"T and a 75 gal for the sump. the house I live in is going up for sale and the 120 is roughly 10 years oldso perfect time for an upgrade! Im setting up the new tank in my shop.

the tank backs on to the bathroom so Ill be able to store my 55gal drum in there for WC and just run hoses thru the wall and Im going to have a couple 15A GFCI circuits and I will have 2 mag 9s one in the sump and one in the WC drum and havent decided if Ill tie them into the apex or Ill just have manual switches to control the outlets they are plugged into so water changes will be as simple as flip switch wait, turn off switch flip another switch wait and turn off switch.

I will be building the stand and will have a seperate electrical section accessible from the side doors.

I will be buying another evergrow IT2012 since Im happy with the 1 I have but it wont do the 3 feet front to back spread. I dont think it will have a problem covering the 5 foot width since its only 6" each side.
Its got the durso standpipes but I will be running a herbie and the returns will come over the back.

pics of the tank tomorrow and hopefully I can build the stand, sump and plumb it over the next few days and have water in it by mid next week!

[e46er]

I think I will make my sump baffles 15" tall which is 56 gal total volume leaving me 19 gal of room for overflow volume which I think is plenty.

every inch of height in the DT tank is 9 1/4 gal so if DT height drops an inch and the overflow drains down to the fully submerged drain like 6-8" down it leaves me some room for play but maximizes my total water volume.
does anyone see any issues with my calculations?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Baffles that tall will mean your skimmer will not be working at optimum since most skimmers do best in 8" to 10" of water. You could build a stand for the skimmer but that just seems an unnecessary complication.

[e46er]

I've Always had a stand for my skimmer. I just cut 6 pieces of PVC and a sheet of eggcrate
I think it's pointless to have a large sump to only fill it with 8" of water. That's only like 30 gal.

[WarDog]

All that sounds fine, and the math is good. Looking forward to pics.

[spit.fire]

need more rockwork done?:mrgreen:

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I've Always had a stand for my skimmer. I just cut 6 pieces of PVC and a sheet of eggcrate
I think it's pointless to have a large sump to only fill it with 8" of water. That's only like 30 gal.

I'm the opposite. I like having extra unused volume in my sump to catch water from the display in case of power outage. But then again, my return is drilled several inches down and so quite a large volume drains from the display. Knowing I have excess capacity in the sump helps me sleep better. Also, my sump is a 90g wide, so it's only 18" tall, which means with a 9" baffle, I have 45g volume filled and 45g to spare.

[e46er]

need more rockwork done?:mrgreen:

Yes

[e46er]

I'm the opposite. I like having extra unused volume in my sump to catch water from the display in case of power outage. But then again, my return is drilled several inches down and so quite a large volume drains from the display. Knowing I have excess capacity in the sump helps me sleep better. Also, my sump is a 90g wide, so it's only 18" tall, which means with a 9" baffle, I have 45g volume filled and 45g to spare.

I feel it's unnecessary to have that much extra room. My current 120 drains like 6 gal when the return is shut off.
I figure this tank will drain 10-12 gal so having 20 for spare is fine for me.
Cheers

[e46er]

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z76/E46Maniac/IMG_1028.jpg (http://s194.photobucket.com/user/E46Maniac/media/IMG_1028.jpg.html)
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z76/E46Maniac/IMG_1025.jpg (http://s194.photobucket.com/user/E46Maniac/media/IMG_1025.jpg.html)
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z76/E46Maniac/IMG_1030.jpg (http://s194.photobucket.com/user/E46Maniac/media/IMG_1030.jpg.html)
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z76/E46Maniac/IMG_1037.jpg (http://s194.photobucket.com/user/E46Maniac/media/IMG_1037.jpg.html)
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z76/E46Maniac/IMG_1038.jpg (http://s194.photobucket.com/user/E46Maniac/media/IMG_1038.jpg.html)
heres some pics. the stand will have doors on in front on the sump with 2x4 bracing between the doors and the right side will have doors to access the controller and electronics which will be partitioned off from the sump, which will have bracing as well.

[Slykat]

Congrats . Set up is looking great.
Are you planning on adding a 2 X 4 to the inside of the stands legs, for greater support of the aquarium weight?

[maron6977]

Very cool . Love dimensions of the tank

[e46er]

Congrats . Set up is looking great.
Are you planning on adding a 2 X 4 to the inside of the stands legs, for greater support of the aquarium weight?

yes every corner will have an L and the front will have 2 more bearing points. one in the middle where the doors close and one where the back of the side electronic compartment will be. that was all the 2x4 I had at the shop, I just placed the tank there to see about the height. I built the stand tall(45"), since Im always standing in the shop I didn't want to be looking down into it but wasn't sure if it was too high so i threw the tank on to see. I like it, its much too high for a house with 8' ceilings 9+ it could be ok but my ceilings are 25' and I have ladders everywhere so any maintenance shouldn't be an issue.

I pulled the tank off after that picture and left for the night. yesterday I finished the wood end of the stand except the the electronics part from the side ( Im going to plumb the overflow first since it will be much easier) and painted the top of stand black so if sand gets blown around you wont see wood and the back of the tank black.
i ordered some silicone, sand and an another heater from JL the other day but I haven't got an email saying it shipped yet so Im going to call them when they open and if it hasn't shipped Ill go pick it up so I can build the sump and plumb it today. I picked up glass baffles friday evening.

[e46er]

got the supports in, got a couple new circuits ran from the panel just went with 2- 15A circuits since my max draw in my current tank is only 4.5A another 300 W heater and another set of LEDs my max draw will be in the 8-9A range so no need for 20A circuits , and got all the plumbing done except I need a couple 1"MIP x slip for the gate valve. just need to frame in the electrical part now that the plumbings done but I was tired so I went home for the night.

what Im thinking for an easy water change is pull the front skirt off the left overflow drill a 1.5" hole say 5 1/2" down from the overflow teeth (approx 50 gal) this will allow water to flow into the overflow even after the water level has dropped down below the overflow teeth then put the skirt back on so fish cant get into it and use the 1 bulkhead without a standpipe piped down to a valve and a hose to the drain use the 2nd hole in the left overflow as a 2nd emergency drain and the right overflow is setup as a herbie drain.
I will have a mag 9 in my mixing bucket on a switch which will pump water back into the system for a WC.
should have more pics up tomorrow

[e46er]

ah not much new has happened, the canopy is framed, water is in new sand is in i went with hawaiian black. Ive wanted black for a couple years and last time i ordered sand I ordered indo pacific black which to my disappointment was white with a bit of black. I need to bump up the calcium 60 ppm but no big deal, the house had an open house yesterday and another one today so i opted to not start moving stuff over and have my living room smell like the ocean. Im hoping to start today after the open house is done at 4. I only scheduled a 1/2 day of work tomorrow so I should be able to get it all transferred tonight/tomorrow morning.

only dilemna is my 2nd light isnt shipping until hopefully late next week so the tank wont be evenly lit for the SPS so maybe ill have to pull up my old 2x250 MH as well but currently Ive only got 2 rock structures so maybe i can arrage them so the current light covers them and the 2nd light can cover 1 or 2 new structures. my cabinet maker buddy is going to swing up today to get measurements to make me some doors.
probably 4 across both the stand and canopy front and 2 on the side of the canopy and stand.

I'm kinda wishing I kept it a little farther off the one side wall its only 3 inches which isn't enough to get my hand back there for power head magnets. another few inches out would have been much more practical, but i think it looks odd when its 6" or more off the side wall until you get say 2 feet off then it looks ok again.
either way the bathroom door is too close to be able to move it much farther and I still wouldnt be able to get a ladder in the side to work so all work will need to be done from the front or single side. Ive accepted this is going to be a pain in the ass.

[e46er]

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiWgJb316jMAhWKvYMKHdCQDAoQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reefcentral.com%2Fforums%2Fsh owthread.php%3Ft%3D2508229&psig=AFQjCNEmSZqTjL0NX4Iipb0iXt2sfY1scA&ust=1461635833981724


had a cabinet maker buddy come over this is basically what look im going for.
the canopy will have piano style doors on it and it will be 5' long and flip over on top of itself say with the canopy side door.

the stand will have 2 doors on the front and wont have handles just push style releases. the side doors on the stand will be the same.

what do you guys think of the different color front and side???? I like it but not sure if it would get old or not

[e46er]

rocks and corals are in, fish are currently still in my 120 hopefully tomorrow I can get them over as well.
the one light I have is hung center for now but my 2nd fixture should be here in a week or 2. 2 additional RW15s are in route as well.
I just need to mount my dosing pumps and fill the ATO reservoir up, the apex is up and running. i need to clean up the wiring its a disaster. i snapped a couple phone pics but im too embarrased to post them with the current wiring situation.