new mareenland 300DD up and running

[KevinK]

hi all, finally I’m back in the reefing (after a 10 month brake)

the old 350 gal tank was build in to the house, that we finally soled, and the new owner wanted to keep it.

we agreed that I could take a bunch of live rock for a new tank.


well, that new tank has taken a long time, I had a large sump / frag tank made where I had all the live rock in (this sump / frag tank measured 83 long 35 wide and 15 inches deep, and was menthe for the potential new fish room, when te new tank would go in.

after long waiting (to much to do at the new house) I finally had the chance to take out the wall that was dividing the living room and dining area (I had a new tank, a mareenland 300 DD already in a closed trailer waiting for months to get its spot.

so now the new tank divides the living room from the dining area, so I have 2x 6 feet of long panels + the 3 feet side panel to se everything from.

I put the new tank on a large stand (from the living room side, the bottom of the tank is about 44 inches from the floor, and at the dining room, its about 26 inches of the floor (the dining room is 2 steps up)

beside the tank on the right hand side, I have a 55 gal tank, exact the same hight on the top as the main tank. In this 55 gal. tank I have my heater and skimmer.

reason for this to be beside and not underneath is because now, I use a 2500 gal/h tunze pump as a circulating pump., so in stead of using 140 watts of power to move about 2500 gal, I now use about 13 watts of power.

the tunze pump I have connected to a 1 -1 /2 inch pipe that gust makes a 90 degree corner when it is going over the edge of the tank, so hardly any lift needed.

so far it is working great, no worry that when there is a power failure, the sump could run over, about 120 dollar a year saving on power (13 watt vs 140 watt) and I even going to connect it to a solar panel.

I considered the sequence sun pro pump to do all this, as this is a pump almost the same as some use on 110 V, but these are on 12 V, and only draw about 4.5 A, and deliver 3000 gal/h

make’s you wonder why we all still use the 110V once, that use 140 to 180 watt, when the 12V models use only about 48 watts to do the same job.

any how,

after putting some plastic crating on the bottom for protection, I stacked the live rock, and as you can se, I wanted as less rock touching the bottom, so I have lots of flow underneath my rock, and I can get in there to suck up debris.

I put a fine crushed coral on the bottom (about 1 to max 3 mm large) and only about 1/2 inch thick, plan is to suck each month 1/4 off, rinse it and put it back.

this douse not blow around (what the fine stuff did in my old tank)

I ended up with having only 9 rocks hitting the bottom, all other once are stacked with large gaps on top.

than I filled the tank with 50% water from the frag tank / sump and 50% fresh


for my main circulation, I now use 6 tunze pumps, 4x 6105 and 2x 6085,

the 6085 are in the middle on the right side panel, about 4 inches below the water, blowing straight out.

the 6105’s I have placed on that same side panel, but now 2 left and 2 right (with rock in the middle) and from top to bottom, I have one 4 inches from the bottom, and one in the middle.

I have all 4 on the controller, first the left side (2 pumps at about 60% for 30 seconds, and than the right side for 30 seconds. this creates a very nice current pattern.

having all 6 pumps on one panel, makes cleaning and reaching much better.


the lights hang on a rail, that I can lift and lower with a winch (so I don't always have to ask my wife to hold the lights.) Before installing them I removed the drywall above the tank, and put a new vapour baryer in, gust to make shore, I will not get in trouble, in the future.


the finishing of everything still needs to be dun, but as i have so much to do, we are going to wait with that, for now we are going to put curtains around it all.

problem with my old tank was always the mess with doing water changes, now i have 2 taps in line, and a direct drain to outdoor. I have 2x 32 gallon drums underneath the tank, and a 90 gal fresh water reservoir, so now the plan is to fill one of the 32 gal. drums with a fresh batch of water, let it run for 2 days, than tap 32 gal out of the tank into drum number 2, filling drum number 2 to the exact same level as the one with the fresh mix, and then pump the fresh mix in, and drain the drum with old tank water, this way I’m always shore that I add the same amount, as that I’m draining out.

best of all, with all the taps, there should not be any more spilling, ore running with water.

so there is only one thing to do, and that is filling it with fish and coral, there is only one yellow tang in there



only draw back with this entire set ups is that I’m not going to use the new frag / sump table I had made (for sale)

[Bblinks]

Welcome back. Tagging along to see another 300DD build.

[Borderjumper]

Nice to see you again Kevin! Nice tank, I can't wait to see it full of fish and corals. I'm sure it will be as beautiful as your last one was.

[apexifd]

What do I need to do get on these 300dd band wagon??

[KevinK]

Originally Posted by apexifd

What do I need to do get on these 300dd band wagon??

in my case it was luck, other than that, some space and a solide floor

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Beautiful setup. Even more important, extremely well-thought-out setup. I used to have an above-tank sump/refugium, but having one at the same level is even better if properly engineered. And the electricity savings is significant, so good for you. I've always been a supporter of smaller return pumps (mine uses 45-50w I believe) and I use a big HK Magnum8 for flow (that one pump does the whole 165g display) and its hidden in the corner where nobody can really see it.

Would love to get a 300DD one day. Beautiful dimensions man. Unfortunately, no room in our small ground floor suite for that size tank. Boohooboohoo. So I won't be jumping on this bandwagon any time soon.

Anthony

[KevinK]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Beautiful setup. Even more important, extremely well-thought-out setup. I used to have an above-tank sump/refugium, but having one at the same level is even better if properly engineered. And the electricity savings is significant, so good for you. I've always been a supporter of smaller return pumps (mine uses 45-50w I believe) and I use a big HK Magnum8 for flow (that one pump does the whole 165g display) and its hidden in the corner where nobody can really see it.

Would love to get a 300DD one day. Beautiful dimensions man. Unfortunately, no room in our small ground floor suite for that size tank. Boohooboohoo. So I won't be jumping on this bandwagon any time soon.

Anthony

having the sump at the same level as the D tank was always my plan, it is gust because of lack of space on the side at this time, as I even wanted to have the tank’s drilled, and have the tunze as it is now, connected to the 1-1/2 pipe, but than not over the edge of the tank, but straight from one side, passed the glass to the D tank.

all, because I want to se in the future how far I can bring it, to put the tank on solar (by using some e-bay panels.

the tunze pumps as we all know, don't use much, lets say, all 7 would use in total 80 watts, for over 17.000 gallons of water movement in total, I’m on a solar forum to se what is needed to run the 80 watts 24/7 on solar (I gust want to know if this would be fun to do as a DIY project, if the $ don't run up to much

than there is only the light and the heating, where the heating probably will never run on solar, duo to the draw, but even the LED, over time could run on solar.


it is gust amazing, as mentioned, the sequence sunpro pump’s run 3000 g/h on solar, at only 45 watt, put a 110 V to 12 V inverter with it, and you have the same as a sequence DART ore so, but for, way, way, way les power

thy might have not so much power to lift 15 feet, but most of the time, thy only have to lift 3 or 4 feet, and at $ 0.10 a kwh, a sunpro vs dart will save you $110 a year on your bill.

for me now, the way I have it, it ias working gust fine, but I would wonder wht there are not more that are exploring les powerful options

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by KevinK

all, because I want to se in the future how far I can bring it, to put the tank on solar (by using some e-bay panels.

than there is only the light and the heating, where the heating probably will never run on solar, duo to the draw, but even the LED, over time could run on solar.

for me now, the way I have it, it ias working gust fine, but I would wonder wht there are not more that are exploring les powerful options

I have a flat roof so I've also been thinking of trying to run my main display off solar power. I have an electronic's guru friend who built my LED system for me (and is building version two when he eventually has time from working crazy hours). He is going to teach me how to build 64w DIY solar panels for under $150 each. If I go solar-crazy (being OCD its very likely), I will set up solar panels on the roof for my tank(s) and panels on my pergola to power my greenhouse and deck lights eventually.

Good luck with your solar project.

In the past year, with the changes in pumps, skimmer, powerhead and LED lights, my tank consumes almost exactly a quarter of the electricity it used to. Compared to my 210g reef, consumption is about a fifth of what it used to be.

Great to see someone do this kind of build. BTW, what's your LED lighting specs?

Anthony

[bignose]

Nice tank, can you post a picture of your light rack with out the leds on so we can get a better look.

[KevinK]

Originally Posted by bignose

Nice tank, can you post a picture of your light rack with out the leds on so we can get a better look.

here are some pic’s from during the build of the led unit.

the aluminum frame is made out of the aluminum strips thy use to finished melamine countertops, it is a T shape profile, about 2.5 x 2.5 inches.

in the main frame I have 4 sets of 2 slabs of heat sink.

what I did is have the slabs of heat sink, only with white CREE LED’s = 12 per tile I think, so that’s 100

than next to each set of tile, I have on either side a strip of BLUE CREE = 6 on each side, that’s 48 blue.

now in between each combination mentioned above, there is one more single stip, with 3 bleu and 3 white

closing everything in are 2 stips the length of the entire build, and that hold 2 blue, one white, two blue again, one white and so on.

so in total, there is more white than bleu, and thee for I have one additional strip of 12 only blue, in the middle, and I’m working on 2 more, with only bleu.

in total I think there are about 250 CREE LED’s when I’m dun.


I have it all controlled whit a arduino, divided in 2 zones. and I had someone build me the CAT 4101 chip drivers, and there are 4 dimmable meanwell drivers.

i have one strip going on, gust bang 100% around 8:30 AM, and than at 11 am, I have 25% of all led go on from 0 to 100% in a hour, when thy are on at 100% at noon, the main 75% of the led’s go on over a hour to 100%, than everything is on at 100% for 7.5 hours, so that at 8:30 pm, the main 75% of led’s go off again over the time of a hour, and after that the last 25%, so at 10:30 pm it is dark again