400 gallon project
 

This is the story of my 400 gallon tank, which is still under construction as of now. That's about 6 months construction time at this point.

Here's how things looked when I started, back in June, 2006.

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The easy part was destroying the brand newly carpeted room. Once that is done, it provides real commitment to the project!

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With Lino on top of the concrete floor, I started with the stand and walls. Before I started, I positioned the 2 sumps, RO water container and mixer into their rough positions, then built around them.

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The stand is built with fairly standard 2x4 construction, except that the studs are only 8" apart and doubled up everywhere there is a larger gap. The top of the stand is 2x6's on edge bolted to the frame.
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Here's a fun shot of what $2000+ worth of plumbing gets you! (there are three Dart pumps there...) It all looks very small, until you realize that you are looking at the 6' x 4' stand area.

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Tank arrival!
 

I rented a van, drove down to Portland, Oregon to pick up the tank from Envision Acrylics. That was about 5.5 hour drive. It was actually cheaper to rent a van, and stay in a hotel than it would have been to crate the tank and have it shipped...(and I was more careful than any shipper that I've worked with)

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The tank itself is 1" thick acrylic throughout. It is 6 feet x 4 feet x 26" high. That puts it just under 400 gallans. Empty, it weighs about 500 lbs.
We were able to move it easily thanks to some support from a local hot tub company that loaned me their super-dolly.

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In the end, we just dead-lifted it onto the stand. Perfect fit!
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Electrical issues
 

Along the way, I became experienced in electrical work. I brought 4 x 15amp circuits directly from the main breaker and run throughout the area behind/under the tank.

Two of the circuits are dedicated to lighting. The other two are fairly distributed along the walls for accessory pumps, computers, solenoids...

In all, I wired up over 30 duplex receptacles and one light with switch. All four circuits are GFI protected.

When I was all done, I had an electrician come in and verify that I was safe. The electrician did the final connection to the breaker box.


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Plumbing - closed Loops
 

Done with being an electrician...I became a plumber! I now consider myself to be quite accomplished at PVC plumbing. Many thanks to the guys at Corix Water Products. I became quite a regular there!

Here's a shot of the two closed loops. (Left and Right) Each consists of a Dart pump connected to an OM-4 way. The outlets from the 4-way deliver water back to the tank in such a way that the water will be "rolled" from the bottom/back across the bottom...up the front glass, then across the top toward the overflows.

I'm very happy with the OM-4 ways. They are completely silent, very well built and Paul is very helpful on the phone. Even though the two loops are almost identical, I experienced some water hammer in the right loop. A quick mod provided by Paul cleared it up easily.

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Plumbing - Return system
 

I've put considerable effort into designing the overflow system to be quiet.

Suffice to say that water falls through two back overflows. Each overflow has 2 x 1.5" outlets. In each overflow box, one of the outlets is choked back by a gate valve. This turns that outlet into a silent siphon. The other outlet has a durso standpipe, but this outlet is only collecting water that just couldn't go down the primary silent siphon outlet.

Emergency situation water testing confirms that even if one outlet is completely blocked, the other outlet(s) can handle the entire flow.

That's a G6 skimmer sitting in it's approximate final position.

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lovin' it! looking forward to see how the whole project pans out, keep up the nice work and keep us informed! :)

Details, details
 

With the tank in place, I've started working on the overhead walls and doors. This was a lot more complex than I thought at first. I wanted to maintain the clean look of an "in-wall" system, but also wanted front access.

I've decided to build the walls and doors out of plywood. At this point, the doors/walls have been tested, but are not yet installed as I need to finish them up before I hang them. I also need to devise some sort of prop to hold the doors up so that they don't crash down on my head.

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Wowo this looks good!taggin along.

Water testing
 

There's tap water in tank. I've been testing the function of my closed loops and chasing leaks. So far, so good. It seems that I will have to make some modification to my gate valves on the overflows....but that's minor.

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Looks great so far. Can't wait to see the final product.:lol:

EXTREMLY well done ! can't wait to see more....

Wow, very nicely done. So when you inviting all the local reefers over to ooh and ahh ? :P

fricken EH! I love this tank already!

Very nice journal
 

Very very well done. I am truly impressed by your foresight and your layout and planning. Love your journal as well with the room layout, then the containers in, then the walls, electrial etc etc.

You mentioned you need some modification to your gate valves on your overflow. Can you elaborate?

Where did you get the 90 degree metal brackets for your front and side ramps?

I see an air duct in ceiling - does this goes into your house's furnace air return? If so, any consideration to venting the air directly out of the house? In my setup, I am looking to install a dehumistat on my fan to vent moist air directly out of the house when the relative humidity gets too high.

great job.

Just an idea to keep the doors from crashing on your head....... How bout those hydraulic "struts" that vehicles use to hold the rear glass or tailgates up? (can ya tell I'm a mechanic?)

W O W !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice Set up..... Can't wait to see it full of life.... Lookin great so far.

Looking good man I am awaiting the open house to view the final product

i'm hooked, definitely along for the ride on this one. very well thought out. looks unreal already. love the tons of pictures too. good job man

The photo I posted shows 3/4" gate valves. It turned out that these couldn't carry enough of the flow. I needed the 1.5" outlet to be restricted...but not that much. I've since replaced these with 1.5", which I can dial back as much as required. I tried to save some money, and it cost me more in the long run. Anyone looking for some 3/4" gate valves?

The 90 degree brackets. That project is in my garage. Still top secret that one. The brackets were fabricated by a local metal shop. Cheap and simple.

I should have mentioned the ceiling duct. That vents directly to the outside. I may run it on a humidistat and/or thermostat...or I just might run it all the time. We'll see.

I'm figuring summer BBQ at my place. Until then, there won't be too much to see.

I checked those out. My largest door only weighs 17lbs and even the smallest automobile strut that I could find was too powerful. There's some math there that I can't get my head around to try to find the appropriate strut and locate it in the correct position on the door.

Very nice tank and neat setup!

May I ask you a question? I just saw you are using two white plastic buckets for your skimmer and as a sump. What are they actually? And how big are they?

Thanks!

The skimmer is a G6. It may be cheap, but I wouldn't call it a plastic bucket!

There are two sumps. Both are PE plastic. I purchased these from a tank manufacturer and they were shipped from Florida. The larger one is 120 gallons (48Lx24Wx24H)...the smaller is 60 gallons (36Lx20Wx20H). The same shipment also brought the 50 gallon mixer and the 100 gallon RO cylindrical tanks.

I would have been nice to do the sumps out of acrylic, but there was just too much money to be saved doing them in PE since I had to purchase/ship the cylindrical tanks no matter what.

<borat>wowwowweee</borat>

Wow, sweet looking rig.

RO evaporative replacement
 

Here's a shot of the RO/DI system. It is plumbed directly into the water supply. RO/DI water is collected in the upper 100 gallon tank. RO/DI is float valve controlled to keep this tank full at all times.

The blue line running down into the sink is temporary. That line will eventually be plumbed directly into the drain. Theres also an emergency overflow pipe coming into the sink on the right. That overflow pipe comes from the top of the 100 gallon holding tank and is there in case the float valve fails to stop the RO system.

You can just see the blue 1/4" line that leaves the RO tank on the bottom-left. That runs over to the main sump and delivers water for evaporative control (gravity fed, float & solenoid controlled). This line will also feed a Kalk reactor.

Beneath the 100 gallon FW tank is the the SW mixer tank. This tank rolls on casters and can be pulled out from underneath when I need to mix SW. The mixer has a Mag 1200 pump that will be used to mix, then deliver the SW.

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What about the thing used on screen doors? you slide the little do-hickey in place and it stays....

It would seem that I neglected to explain my water change system. As it is difficult to show in photographs (and all the Herbie valves create visual confusion), here is a schematic that explains it.

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The Bar is open!
 

This part of the plan started months ago when I purchased two old fir floor joists from a reclaimed lumber business. I had a local cabinet maker cut/joint them to wrap around the aquarium.

Many, many coats of urethane later...the bar finally got installed today. Once they were cleaned up, each piece is about 12" W x 2.5" thick.

As you can see, I immediately served myself a drink!

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wow, fantastic progress. ive been fallowing this now since the beginning and am a little envious. maybe someday i will have a place to do something like what you are doing. what are you going to put in the corner to the left of the tank there. have you thought of what you may put in the tank once it is ready for livestalk (aqua scaping, corals, fish).
cant wait to see the final, but i guess it will be a little while yet.

cheers

A bar around the tank, brilliant (and so everything else).

Looks killer Brad. I love the bar. Have you figured out your Lighting yet?

J

That spot to the left is where all the rum goes. I'm thinking of some hanging glass shelves and some wine glass racks. Beneath that, there will be a small fridge/freezer that will hold fish food, mix and ice cubes. (you know, important stuff like that)

I don't have a list of livestock yet, but it's coming. I'm certain that I will use Florida aquacultured live rock, and there will be some transfers from my existing tank.

I was really, really tempted by LED...but the cost for 2 - 6 foot fixtures was just too much. I considered 6 x 250W luminarcs with some added T5. In the end I found a great deal on 3 - 4' AquaMedic fixtures. Each has 3 - 250MH and 2 54W T5s. I figure these will be easy to sell in a few years when I finally realize that I should have gone with LED in the first place.

I picked up an awesome overhead track system last week. Once I complete water testing, working on that is the next step.

Oh yes...It will be an SPS dominated tank.

I really like the bar idea ... even just as a shelf to plant yer elbows when staring in .. that's awesome.

stealing ideas
 

Unfortunately I'm going to have to steal that bar idea ..... thanks :mrgreen:

The bar around the big tank is an awesome idea... I had hoped to incorporate it into my big tank plans here... unfortunately I hit a couple roadblocks on my tank and it never got finished. Now we have gone and sold this house and the new house has no room for a big tank. Oh well!

Cant wait to see what the bar looks like with the tank in operation, Im sure it will be killer :)

Kinda hate to be the one to ask.....but........I know everyone else is wondering this as well... Any idea what kinda money will be spent in total? Or even NOT including livestock???


Don't hafta answer if ya don't want. Just curious for future interests. TIA