Chaloupa's 10 foot build
 

I have a 150g 5 foot tank right now that is a nice looking SPS and LPS reef. In that tank I have an Achilles Tang (and other tangs). After seeing Marie's "Doofus" and reading quite a bit on them, I knew that an upgrade to a longer tank would make for better "tang ownership". So after a plea sent out that I wanted a longer tank, I got a PM regarding one for sale, THANK YOU Christy!!

We picked up the tank in Victoria where it was being used as a FW tank with a closed loop and undergravel system. The plan, or should I say the agreed upon plan with my husband was that we would run it fresh at our store, and invest in another tank for our SW pets at a later date :cry:. Boohoo for me. Well, needless to say after filling it, cycling it for FW with a truckload of Hagen "Cycle" and getting ready to add fish.....I WIN! My husband decided that maybe we should set it up salt water...I mean WHAT A FREAKIN WASTE OF A 10 FOOT LONG TANK:lol:..........so he emptied it! Removed the 6 buckets of JUST WASHED gravel and cleaned it out.

Now on to the project...we did have to have this tank put on a pedestal as the stand that it came with was really short...had we planned it better we would have just replaced the stand and made a new TALL one to accommodate sumps and skimmers...but we didn't and will now just have to deal with it. Also, the closed loop was run very oddly with 4 drains spaced evenly in the centre of the tank and a return in "back" corners. 2 drains are returned by a pump for each return. We couldn't do a box or anything around the drains either as they would REALLY stick out. If I were to do it over again, yep I would have just done a new stand, figured out a way to have the drains done, but I figured I wouldn't push it once my husband saw the light! hee hee.....

So here's the start. We have put it in front of a "treated" set of windows that don't get a blast of sunlight...but we wanted it to be seen from the outside and inside. (Luckily we have a TINY staff member that actually fits between the window and the tank:surprise:) Our plan is to run 2 Deltec MCE600 skimmers, possibly a calcium reactor that will be plumbed outside the tank, a pellet reactor and .... well that's most likely it ...... We will be putting all the cords along the back into a black hose so they are all hidden and just follow along the black tank trim. We will have a Wavebox from our home tank, a Vortech MP40 and a few other wave makers in the tank.

Our goal is to have a visually pleasing LPS and SPS, easy to maintain AWESOME Tang home! We don't have our lighting figured out yet, as it's 10 freaking feet long with 3 cross braces...but......We would like to incorporate our existing lighting into it....which is a 4 foot Hamilton with 2x400w and supplemental T12...our thoughts were to place that over the centre of the tank, then to have a 3 foot 6 bulb T5 fixture on each end...then it will still be centred looking and have enough light without having to purchase a whack more lighting. I would like a bit of input if possible.

I know, when you look at what could have been achieved and what I am making work you may shake your head........but my husband does NOT share the reefing addiction quite like I do! He changes water...and plumbs the odd tank....that's it.......

Here's a pic...the stand pedestal is not finished yet...it will match the upper half to a certain extent.....and it will look good, it will I say!

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d/worktank.jpg

To date we have;

filled with sand, added 1 LARGE bag of live sand, added 300ish gallons of aged salt water from our other tanks, added a small amount of live rock that is all cured, put in some Hagen Cycle (never done it with a SW tank before...what's the harm??) and put in a prawn to rot.

So 2 weeks in and all levels test normal. HUH? No really, we had an ammonia spike and such at first so I left the tank alone figuring I would check it out in a couple weeks to see if we hit the nitrite part of the cycle...and it appears our cycle is over? We had a nice diatom bloom which is also ... over..... Soooooo have added some Chromis to the tank...which are doing fabulously, and must think they are back in the ocean! Not sure what to make of the quick cycle other than I won't be adding anything else until it looks like it truly is stable...and maybe by then I will have my lighting figured out.

When it is up and running well, my own rock with corals aplenty attached will come down to this tank and slowly my 150g will be emptied.

Fish list/wish list;

ALREADY HAVE
5 Chromis
Spawning pair of Spotted Mandarins
Trio of Picasso Clownfish
Golden Dwarf Moray Eel
Achilles Tang
Chevron Tang
Hybrid Tang
Mimic Tang

WISH LIST
Orange Shoulder Tang
4-5 small yellow tangs
School of Anthias
A few gobies....

Probably that's it.....I will be on the lookout for some nice brain corals for the sand bed, and of course Zoa's as that is my biggest SW addiction....but otherwise it will be fairly stocked with what I already own...we do plan on keeping it lighter on LR so there is a ton of swimming room...we'll see though!

lucky you wow this is going to be a great build im excited for you and will be watching in anticipation.

thank you! There are several things I know I will regret later that I didn't do...but I wanted simple and quiet.....and working with what I had available!

if you are worried about skimmer and sump make the skimmer external cut a hole in bottom of stand w/overflow tub made out of a wash basin may work for you and give you a bit more height for skimmer. just a thought. i wish my stand was higher as well and may be cutting out the bottom to add a deeper sump slowly getting tired of daily adding fresh water

Sarah right on ,however you dont need the shrimp in there since you put in the hagen cycle..

Doofus and I are jealous

Congrats, 10 feet WOOOOHOOO!!!! Very exciting :biggrin:

Very nice Sarah! I know you had been looking for a larger tank for some time. Very happy for you. With your skills I know this tank will be terrific just like all your others. :biggrin:

Woohoo!! *jumpy claps*

This is so awesome!! It looks great so far, you just need a couple of low chairs so people can pull up to the tank to have a good look. Can't wait to see it full of fishy goodness!! :cool:

*subscribed*

:mrgreen:

OHHH Sarah, that tank is just freekin gorgeous! I really like the stand. I think you should have put it in your Living Room tho ;) Excellent way to showcase out hobby up there. As for your lighting, if it were me I think I would go with 4 x 250w pendants. Cant wait for this build to take shape :mrgreen:

I'm joining the :mrgreen: jealous club on this. Awesome that you found a 10' tank in such good condition.

On another note, I don't think (based on my own experience with MCE600s) that 2 Deltec HOBs will be able to handle a tank that size, especially with your planned high bioload. The Deltecs have a rep for being the BEST hobs, but in part this is due to the poor performance of most other HOB skimmers.

For long-term ease of care, I would look at a proper in-sump skimmer setup. You could even do multiple sumps & skimmers if height (but not length) is an issue. One down pipe dividing into two sumps with 2 separate short skimmers and two return pumps combining into one return line back into the tank.

How many gallons is this monster tank anyways. My school of tangs would soooooo love this but my place is far too small for a tank this size:cry:

Anthony

I would go with something like a huge beckett to power clean that baby Sarah..

OH Ya I told you and LAURIE before ,
SIZE MATTER's:lol:

oh ya CAN YOU SAY LIGHT RAIL 3 400's or 3 250's Im looking for some 400's i have some 250's to swap ya .

Thanks everyone! I hope I can do it proud!

In regards to sumps and skimmers.....there is no room in the stand which was a dilema I had to live with. We are thinking that an external skimmer may work if we can put it along side the tank. Otherwise we may just be stuck with a trio of Deltec HOB or something along those lines......but the stand is soooo short internally and divided up so that it's very load bearing that we were out of luck with sump ideas and such. Yep, we should have just built a new stand, but I was basically just getting it going with the "salt go ahead". And, we had no time to build a stand as moving this thing is HORRIFIC!

It's 300 gallons in total....

The cycle was soooo easy, that I just was a bit ... confused? I know how well Cycle works for FW tanks..and figured that I'd try it out! I'm just so used to the long boring cycle!!!

Regarding lighting....I totally NEED your input. I will post a pic of the centre bracing locations so you get a better idea of where all of this sits. I was trying to stay away from a bunch of halides due to heat and the hydro to run them (landlord already complains even though it's US paying the bill! LOL)

"full of Fishy goodness":becky::twised:...............:tape2:.... ...................suppose I shouldnt defile Sarahs tank thread so early in its life

Congrats on the big tank Sarah......very envious.....I too cant wait to see it full of "fishy" goodness:mrgreen:

You should post some pics of the inside of the stand if you can?.....a couple thousand brains should be able to come up with some way get a skimmer in there.....BKs are fairly squat:wink:......

how bout two 5' ATI T5s?:lol:

I have to admit that I doubt the Deltecs are going to do what you want them to either. Measure the inside of the stand so we know what height we are dealing with for a skimmer.
When you say the stand is divided up...can you tell us what sized sump you could fit...or maybe several small ones plumbed together?

If you can fit even a small sump in the stand plumbed to a pump which in turn is plumbed into a large Beckett skimmer standing alongside the tank. Might look kinda cool for everyone to see a large skimmer at work.

I agree, a big 3 or 4 foot skimmer next to te tank would be cool. Plus you could light it up with LED's like Dave did for that WOW factor. If your going to have a bunch of tangs you will have ALOT of poo, gonna need a big skimmer.

wow i think i need a 10 foot tank too looks great

I will take some measurements in the next day or so...I think I actually get a day off tomorrow so will NOT be going anywhere near the store! But will grab some pics, and I'm totally LOVING the idea of a BIG external skimmer.....suggestions on ease of use and not too pricey? I was looking for one but can't find much from our "normal" reef shops......let me know!

Wow must be neat to see the chromis schooling in there. 10' .. that's some tank. :)

Alright Mr. "I've pretty much tried EVERY protein skimmer" which would you recommend as an external and where the heck do I find it? Oh, and also, can you buy one, and hate it...then sell it to me for a really good price 4 weeks later????:lol:

I think they get lost...they seem to school, then one or two will get left behind and will be on opposite ends of the tank...hmm maybe have to add more than 6 little Chromis!

Congrats on the 10 footer gotta love a big tank, as for skimmers, Vertex is comming out with an external model of the cone that should be nice, I have installed a few of the internal models and they perform flawless and dead silent. Precision Marine will also custom build to your specs (that is what I am runing on the 750) a little pricey but very well made and mine performs extreemly well (I am pulling a gallon of liquid stench a day) and as stated it looks dead sexy all lit up.

Soooooo, I bought an external skimmer today! It was listed here...and a friend sent me a PM to let me know..and what do you know, I bought it. It's a Becket MR2 that I will get the pieces for to mod so it skims even better! Pretty excited! Husband...well not so much but he'll love it in the end!

Oooh, AND had a little box of goodies delivered today........and in it was...my teeny tiny little Orange Shoulder Tang! Thanks soooo very very much to Jeff at J&L for sending this little guy! Can't wait til he goes in!

Ooh! We'll need pics of that :mrgreen:

WOW one picture of the tank nothing else at least have some pictures of your tanks that you have going OMG and you call your self a 10 footer reefing lady, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm:mrgreen:

ROFLMAO!

Ok, "Mr Skimmer"....check the previous TOTM threads...you'll find my 150g in there...otherwise I have a 34g RSM and a 65g hex. The other tanks have come down......I work almost every day (usually 7 days a week right now) The hex is basically....just there...I don't pay much attention to it, it just chugs along. Will grab a pic today of the RSM to keep YOU happy!

This is the hex early last year...I just don't take pics of it much......and it has changed but here's a quick "fix" for ya!

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ank/Hex005.jpg

:whoo: smart ass

Here's the little fella....faster than a speeding bullet to photograph...but, he is just slightly larger than the damsel!

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d/DSCN0871.jpg

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d/DSCN0869.jpg

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh look at the big baby:biggrin:

'k...so is it just me or is anyone else enjoying the fact that in this case it's the lady blowing the dough on the reefing addiction and it's the guy who's not amused ?:biggrin:

ya Really, I wish my wife brought home a 10 footer I would have fun with that. Hey Sarah wanna get married.:smile:

this FTOTM.....

http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showt...ighlight=ftotm

Same situation I'm in, rather annoying actually, however I've gotten creative about how I get my reefing supplies :mrgreen:

The orange shoulder tang is a cutie, I'm sure he'll be very happy in there.

+1 I hear ya on that front. I schedule all my frag arrivals for Fridays, my day off. Then I can hide the evidence in the recycle bin. He never notices anything new in the tank (even fish :razz:)

My husband notices everything new in the tank....luckily he never makes any comments on prices lol