Pictures of Ninong's tank in progress.

[zhenya]

Ninong,
I didn't realize how large they were. Although, if the intake could be rigged through a bulkhead as well,that could solve the flow through the overflow problem,I think. I agree on a wave2k thing-too many problems already and they're not cheap to just play around with
FWIW, I would definately keep the seaswirls, I hate the locklines becouse they're plain ugly.
I'm sure you deside what is best for you and it's going to look GREAT!

[mrok12]

I have Four 6060 ready for my 180. I am trying one out in my 120 right now and cn only say it is a great pump. 1600GPH at 13 watts.. You cannot beat it. VEry wide flow that is equal in force as well. It is not over powering though because of the large point of dispersal for the water.

[mrok12]

I have Four 6060 ready for my 180. I am trying one out in my 120 right now and cn only say it is a great pump. 1600GPH at 13 watts.. You cannot beat it. VEry wide flow that is equal in force as well. It is not over powering though because of the large point of dispersal for the water.

It actually puts my closed loop to shame. That is a mag 18 that is mounted in the canopy. I am ordering a custom acrylic tank for my 180 to act as a canopy mounted surge tank and using 3 TUNZE 6060. The fourth is a spare for now. I am using a mag36 for the return but will likely upgrade to an ampmaster soon. My tank is also a work in progress right now.

[mrok12]

We are doing 2-20 amp circuits for the lights and 2 15 amp circiuits for the pumps and CA reactor. It is just to be safe. I am running 3-400 watt 20K and 2 6500 Iwasakis also 400 watts. I am trying to incorporate a moon phase light as well. Just have to figure that out. A simple dimmer switch may work.

[mrok12]

Here is my tank

[mrok12]

This is the inside of the canopy and the frame work that the surge tank will sit on.

[Ninong]

Exellent Tank!!!!!

Can't wait to see it filled...

I have the a-b Aquaspace light 2x250, I hope you will like your as much as I Do..

THANKS!

I'm anxious to see it filled, too, but I have to wait for the live rock and live sand. The guy who is ordering it for me said it could take a week or two.

[Ninong]

I have Four 6060 ready for my 180. I am trying one out in my 120 right now and cn only say it is a great pump. 1600GPH at 13 watts.. You cannot beat it. VEry wide flow that is equal in force as well. It is not over powering though because of the large point of dispersal for the water.

Thanks, Mike! I think I'll get one of those.

What about the hanging brackets that suspend them on the tank, how much room do they need? I don't suppose there is any way to mount them at an angle, is there? What if I wanted it to blow diagonally from the corner in front of the overflow compartment aimed at the front glass?

[Ninong]

We are doing 2-20 amp circuits for the lights and 2 15 amp circiuits for the pumps and CA reactor. It is just to be safe. I am running 3-400 watt 20K and 2 6500 Iwasakis also 400 watts. I am trying to incorporate a moon phase light as well. Just have to figure that out. A simple dimmer switch may work.

My room has a 20-amp circuit that is already running the TV, computer, ceiling fan, lamps, etc., so I was afraid it didn't have enough capacity left over for the tank. I got an electrician out here and had him punch a hole through the wall from the front porch inside one of the outside porch electrical outlets into the tank stand cabinet in my room and install a box. It just so happened that there was an outdoor outlet on the other side of the wall. So now I have three electrical outlets inside the cabinet, two that are tied to the room's existing 20-amp circuit and one that is tied to the outdoor porch 20-amp circuit. We almost never use the porch outlets for anything and that circuit is a GFCI breaker since it is outdoors. Also had the electrician make the other outlets GFCI while he was here.

P.S. -- Nice job with your stand and canopy! We don't have the proper tools for me to try anything like that.

[mrok12]

Thanks, Mike! I think I'll get one of those.

What about the hanging brackets that suspend them on the tank, how much room do they need? I don't suppose there is any way to mount them at an angle, is there? What if I wanted it to blow diagonally from the corner in front of the overflow compartment aimed at the front glass?

The pump is on a peg type of assembly for lack of a more technical desription. It can swivel about 45 degree left and right to angle it.

[Ninong]

It can swivel about 45 degree left and right to angle it.

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know.

[mrok12]

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know.

Not a problem.. I got two pumps from Marine Depot and TWo from Champion lighting. I am putting 1 on hte end oposite the surge tank and two inb the middle pointing to the sides. I figure that all the water inlets will cross one way or the other this way and create a tidepool LOL

[Ninong]

The first pic is of the left side of the tank. Notice that you can no longer see the white standpipe in the corner overflow compartment now that I have inserted a piece of black acrylic.



That's what the rock support structure looks like. It's dirty because my hands were very dirty with that putty stuff. And the putty stuff looks like red clay. All of the lower structures will be covered by the sand bed and the tall part will be hidden by rocks, I hope.




Right side of the tank. That upright "U" section without the ugly looking mud sticking out of the joints was put together with Weld-On #16 after I ran out of the epoxy putty crap. That piece is 12" tall and is purposefully positioned so that it can be easily lifted out of the sand bed if I decide that it serves no useful purpose there. It is there in the expectation that it might be useful in supporting the "roof" of a cave in that location. And besides, I had some acrylic rod pieces left over. Still have a few 4.5" long rod pieces left that I could use to connect rocks together if necessary. That would involve drilling holes in both pieces of rock and using the acrylic rod piece as connecting rod. (P.S. -- It took me awhile to figure out exactly what I was looking at in this picture. But the glass edges that you see in the upper right hand corner and the lower left hand corner are actually the edges of the 10" wide Starphire glass cross brace. I had the camera just above the glass cross brace when I took this shot. It also shows you how clear Starphire glass actually is when it's not reflecting the color of the black mirrored back of the tank as it is in some of the other pictures.)





The third picture is of the full tank. I guess I should have closed the window blinds because they are reflected in the black mirrored back of the tank.

[zhenya]

The first pic is of the left side of the tank. Notice that you can no longer see the white standpipe in the corner overflow compartment now that I have inserted a piece of black acrylic.

That's what the rock support structure looks like. It's dirty because my hands were very dirty with that putty stuff. And the putty stuff looks like red clay. All of the lower structures will be covered by the sand bed and the tall part will be hidden by rocks, I hope.

The second picture is of the full tank. I guess I should have closed the window blinds because they are reflected in the black mirrored back of the tank.

I don't know Ninong,the structure for the LR looks awesome to me.
Yea,I know you had some hard time with it,but it turn out great,IMO.
All you have left is sand and rock to be delivered and then...water goes in
:eek3:

[Ninong]

I ordered one of those Tunze Stream 6060 models last night. Will probably close off the Lockline outlet and put the Stream in that area of the tank. That way both of the Sea-Swirls will have decent flow. The LG 4MDQX-SC return pump just can't deal with three 3/4" outlets.

Put the sand into the tank today. ALL of it! :eek3:

I already had 200 lbs of Southdown but I stopped by the LFS and picked up two 30-lb bags of Carib-Sea Aragamax sugar sized sand just in case. Looks like I overdid it.

I should have spread it out and stepped back to take a look before dumping the Carib-Sea stuff in there. Right now I have an even 8" deep sand bed across the entire tank bottom!

And I was planning on ordering a full box of Fiji live sand to put on top of this!

I'll start making saltwater tomorrow but right now I'm thinking that I need to remove some of the dry sand before I add any saltwater to the tank, especially if I still plan on getting some Fiji live sand. I don't know how much the present 8" depth will compress once the water is in the tank? An inch? I'll probably remove a 5-gal bucket full of dry sand and keep it as a reserve. Even if I change my mind about the full box of Fiji live sand, I still have too much in the tank right now. Much too much! :eek3:

[organicreefer]

ninong-go with four inches at the most..thats more than enough for a dsb..save youreslf the room for corals and fish!unless you plan on WAY overstocking-i really dont see what good any more than 4 inches is gonna do you..i have just 2-3 inches in my tank now -and i have 0 nitrates and an extremly live sand bed -i even have pretty large feather dusters growing all over it...just trying to help -i know youre going by dr rons reccomendation..but remember-his tanks crashed ;;

[Ninong]

I was originally planning on a sand bed depth of 5.5" but I made my base rock support structures 5.75" tall, so it looks like I will go with a minimum of 6" deep. Right now there is too much sand in the tank. I'll take some out while it's still dry and save it for later. Maybe I'll be able to figure out a place for a refugium.

[mrok12]

I was originally planning on a sand bed depth of 5.5" but I made my base rock support structures 5.75" tall, so it looks like I will go with a minimum of 6" deep. Right now there is too much sand in the tank. I'll take some out while it's still dry and save it for later. Maybe I'll be able to figure out a place for a refugium.

I have a 6 inch DSB in my tank now and am going with 4.5 inches in the new reef. I think that 6 inches was a bit much in my old tank.

[Ninong]

I have a 6 inch DSB in my tank now and am going with 4.5 inches in the new reef. I think that 6 inches was a bit much in my old tank.

One nice thing about this tank is that it's 27.5" tall, so a 6.5" deep sand bed in this tank still leaves as much room as a 3" deep sand bed in a standard 24" tall tank. The main reason I put up the 5" tall black acrylic shield around the bottom of the tank was so that I could have a 5.5" to 6.5" deep sand bed without it looking too obvious, if you understand what I mean.

My rock support structures ended up being 5.75" tall, so I'm going to have to make the sand bed a little deeper than that, at least where the rock is placed. Right now I'm thinking 6.5" deep sloping to 5.5" deep at the front near the glass.

I'm also leaning towards skipping the box of Fiji live sand since I have way too much dead sand already and since the rock that I'm planning on getting comes from Tonga not Fiji. Don't laugh, there's a reason for that statement. ;; The plane from Fiji arrives in L.A. on Sundays and the plane from Tonga arrives on Thursdays and I need everything shipped at the same time to get the best shipping via air freight. Another consideration is that I may have lost a lot of the live sand infauna during the initial cycle stage by putting it in the tank at the same time as the live rock. Believe it or not I'm going to attempt to cure the rock in the tank inside my room because I don't feel like going through the hassle of setting up something in the garage. I hate the thought of trying to disconnect my Lifereef skimmer and then trying to rig it up on some curing vat in the garage that I don't even have.

[mrok12]

The flight information makes perfect sense to me. I also wonder if the Fiji live sand is actually that live. I know that rock start the die off process really quick. I wonder if teh same is true for that sand. Are you usinf Tonga Ava, Tonga branch, or tonga shelf for your tank?

I ordered 150 pounds of the Ava and branch when I set my tnk up. Was the best thing I copuld have done to promote diversity, I cured it all in the tank!