My Dream Tank - 650 Gallons!

Aquacultured SPS
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Like the Lays potato chips commercial
“ ONCE YOU START, YOU CANT STOP “
 
Wow, first I’d say you got a nice wife and second, dang that’s 150g water change weekly. Either way, good for you!
 
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Feet4Fish said:
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Awesome! Clearly you do not live in California -- one good earthquake would make a mess of that. :)
 
Deltec
I have a noobie question for you on the return coming down from the top of the tank: Since the drain is also skimming from the top of the tank, are you getting enough water mixture to properly filter? Would the filtration be more efficient if you ran the return with the same loop but underneath the rocks on the bottom? Sorry if this is a dumb question.
 
Try'nNotToKillStuff said:
I have a noobie question for you on the return coming down from the top of the tank: Since the drain is also skimming from the top of the tank, are you getting enough water mixture to properly filter? Would the filtration be more efficient if you ran the return with the same loop but underneath the rocks on the bottom? Sorry if this is a dumb question.
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My drain leads to filter socks then thru rocks to skimmer chamber and reactors before return pump. Plenty of mixture
 
Tidal Gardens
Try'nNotToKillStuff said:
I have a noobie question for you on the return coming down from the top of the tank: Since the drain is also skimming from the top of the tank, are you getting enough water mixture to properly filter? Would the filtration be more efficient if you ran the return with the same loop but underneath the rocks on the bottom? Sorry if this is a dumb question.
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All the return nozzles point down and will have approximately 6000 gph divided among them. At the same time there are two gyres in the mid column and there will be a closed loop on the bottom. Moving the bottom water and mixing it with the upper water was a major focus of mine. With almost 4ft of depth and plans to have some sizeable fish I wanted to ensure dissolved oxygen didn’t drop in the bottom of the tank.
 
Feet4Fish said:
I am on cloud nine. Yesterday my wife surprised me and told me that she found and bought a 650 gallon acrylic tank. The guy who owned the tank has been in the hobby for over 30 years and has accumulated a tremendous amount of equipment. In the sale not only did I get the tank but I got to 90 gallon aquariums, a 55 gallon aquarium, and 3 30 gallon aquariums. I also got two large UV sterilizer's, a ET SS protein skimmer and multiple large pumps including an iwaki 100 R LT and a dolphin pump. I got all this for pennies on the dollar. It just shows the opportunities that you can come a crossed if you watch. This guy has some life circumstances that was forcing him out of the hobby and he was just wanting unload it as quick as possible.

I'm going to take this build very slow and I'll document every portion of it. I got a lot of the stuff back to my house yesterday and I'll go up on November 13 to get the tank and some other equipment. I plan on reaching out for input on certain selections such as synod and skimmers and maybe a few other ideas. Is by far the biggest system I've never tackled but I am absolutely excited and ecstatic about it. I'll post a few pictures below then I think sensational these are pictures sent by the seller but I'll keep this build thread going.
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just want to let you know that your wife deserves to be taken out to an amazing dinner with dancing and all.

my wife would surprise me with selling all of my stuff :)
 
The return loop idea is from an article written by Anthony Calfo some years ago. The use of powerheads as a primary water mover has a couple challenges with his tank. First it is 1" acrylic and that eliminates 95% of all powerheads. Second, it is a peninsula and i wanted to avoid powerheads on any of the viewable panes. I will be putting RFG nozzles on each the the return outlets as well as the bottom closed loop outlets. I have plumbed in the flexibility that if I find that there is not enough flow on the far end, i can improve that without modifying anything.
 
MSB123 said:
Gl! Will be doing a 300+ build soon, and I hope it doesn't take me 3 years! It most likely will though.
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I hope it doesn't take you three years either! :D For me it really came down to time. It took my taking days off work to actually make real progress!
 
Todays the day!!! hope all goes smoothly.

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Update.... I got all the plumbing done under the house and made the connections from the tank's overflow to the under-house plumbing! That was a giant time consumer as I only had about 2-3 feet of vertical space under the house. So it was very slow going under there. Also got the sump, skimmer and return pump down in the basement. I have plumbed the 2" emergency drain to the sump and partially plumbed the return line in the basement. Still have to plumb the two 1 1/2" drain lines to the sump.
 
ReefBot Lab, Automated Water Tester
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Took advantage of Champion's 20% off cyber Monday and picked up the 8-30 Bio Reactor.
Also picked up four 12x12" 150 watt dimmable LED grow lights for my DIY ATS.

Attached are a couple pics up my super tiny basement. Not much room to work, but still much more to my liking than having the life support for this tank under the stand!

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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
See comments…

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