[npaden]

I just wanted give an update on the progress on my tank upgrade. The tank (a custom made 415 gallon from Mitch at Inter-American, dimensions 122"X28"X28", regular 3/4" glass) has been shipped and is in Salt Lake City, Utah as of yesterday per the tracking on Consolidated Freightways. Of course I'm leaving for vacation next week so the tank will sit in the freight warehouse until I get back and will bring it home on July 9th. Still taking volunteers who are into heavy lifting!
I have nearly everything else except the rock and the sand which I'm going to get uncured rock and cure it in the tank. I just got my custom made protein skimmer and calcium reactor from Andy at Myreef and have my sea swirls, ampmasters, etc. all sitting and waiting on the tank to arrive. I ended up buying a steel frame stand from Mitch so I don't have to worry about building my own and that was a sigh of relief. I also ended up buying a custom 135 gallon sump from Mitch as well.
Oh well, I took a couple of pics of the skimmer, reactor and waste collector and thought I would post them. I put a diet coke can in the pic to give you a size perspective, also the stand in the background is a 24" tall stand. They are actually taller than the stand, but the pic was taken at an angle so they don't look taller. The skimmer is 8" OD riser tube and collection cup and the reactor is 6" OD and 24" tall. The skimmer is just over 26" tall and was designed short and fat to fit in my stand but still give me more contact area than a 36" tall 6" OD riser skimmer would. It has dual beckett injectors and I plan on driving it with 2 Mag 12 pumps. I'm going to use the single chamber reactor I have now as a second chamber for the reactor that I bought from Andy.
Andy was a great guy to deal with and has excellent prices.
Here are the pics:


Hopefully I will get the tank up and running mid July and will keep everyone updated and will post pics of the tank when it comes in.
FWIW, Nathan

[Ninong]

Hi Nathan ~

How much is the total weight of this tank in the crate?

Ninong

[Ltspd]

Good luck with the tank. I also just got a calc reactor from Myreef. 6" dia x 18 in high, nice work.

[mastaJ]

Thats gonna be a super cool tank...What are your plans for it (reef or FOWLR)?

[Reefland]

Better get a lot of help moving that thing ! A basic 180 took 2 people to carry it and 4 to maneuver. I wouldn't want to guess at the weight with it crated.

Best of luck,
Scott

[AFH]

npaden, does the myreef cal reactor have a bubble counter, I don't see it in you picture. I spoke to mitch yesterday he said your tank was very impressive.

[npaden]

The bill of lading on my crate is only 1,300lbs. I had thought that my tank alone would weigh that much so I'm pretty happy about that. I figure that the Steel framed stand has to weight 100 lbs and the 135 gallon sump around 200, give 50 at least to the weight of the wood for the crate, and that gets the tank down under 1,000lbs. Light as a feather!
I should have 8 guys ready to go on the tank upon arrival and I've got a few ideas to help with the overall hoisting of the tank so I think we will be okay.
I'm very anxious to see the tank. Hopefully my expectations are not set to high.
I'll post pics as soon as it comes in.
Later, Nathan
p.s. the myreef reactor has several items that don't show in that picture (they are inside the chamber) I am adding my current reactor to that as a second chamber so Andy just gave me the parts that I didn't already have.
Also I was impressed with the workmanship as well. These are very solidly built and although not every edge is perfectly clean, these are not manufactured units and for hand worked acrylic looks pretty good. Also the prices are much better than manufacturer units and Andy can make exactly what you need for your setup. I would recommend anyone looking for a skimmer or reactor setup to drop him an email at myreef@aol.com - he generally responds to emails VERY promptly.
FWIW, Nathan

[npaden]

I just posted on a thread that I had going at reefs.org where a guy was asking if this skimmer was large enough to handle a 415 gallon tank and thought I would share that information with everyone:

I just double checked my volume calculations to help me make sure that the skimmer should work adequately.

The volume of the contact chamber of the skimmer with the 8" and 6" riser chambers calculates out at 2,336 cubic inches. I don't have the skimmer here at the office, but I'm sure the first riser is 6" and I believe the second riser is 10" and that's how I calculated the contact area.

I calculated the contact area of a Bullet 3 skimmer and even though it is 6" taller than my skimmer it uses 6" and 4.5" diameter riser tubes. I don't have the specs on the Bullet 3 but it looks like the first riser is around 6" and the second riser is around 16" or so. That calculates out to a contact area of only 1,696 cubic inches! So even though my skimmer is shorter than the Bullet 3 it has about 38% more contact area along with the fact that it has 2 injectors rather than just one.

I also double checked this skimmer against the HSA model skimmers. I was shocked to find out that the skimmer actually has more contact area than the 45" tall HSA 1000! I calculated this based on what appears to be about a 10" first riser and a 12" second riser. Based on those calculations the contact area would be 1,824 cubic inches. The HSA loses contact area because the injector actually passes through the riser tube taking up valuable contact area and making cleaning a much more difficult process. If I'm missing the mark on the height of the riser tubes and I add 2" to the first riser and 3" to the second riser that would give the HSA 1000 2,226 cubic inches of contact area (that is also assuming the injector passing through the riser tubes is 1" in diameter - it may be larger).

So if the HSA 1000 with 2,226 cubic inches of contact area at the maximum and one injector can be rated for a 1,000 gallon tank, hopefully my skimmer with 2,336 cubic inches of contact area and 2 injectors will be able to handle my puny little 415 gallon reef tank.

Oh well, I've been wanting to do those calculations for myself for a while and your question about whether this short little skimmer could handle my tank got me in the mood to do the calculations!

I also have a 58 gallon refugium as part of the 135 gallon sump that I will use for nutrient export of macroalgae as well. I'm trying to do this tank right and not trying to skimp on any area, I just wanted a skimmer than would fit under the stand and Andy was able to make me one that hopefully will be able to handle the tank.

FWIW, Nathan

[thezookeeper]

Very nice Nathan! You are going to have a great setup! Wow. I can't imagine a tank that big. How lucky you are! Have fun with it and don't get a hernia lifting!


Joanne