1,000 Gallon Coral Prop System |Tips and Help Needed!
 

Hello!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hopefully you enjoy this build, although, it may be slower than either of us want due to time restrictions, purchasing, and cycling.

That said, I'm building out four (with more down the road) fiber glass troughs/tanks to hold additional corals. I currently have a 96".48".12" system, but have outgrown it, hence, I'll be shutting it down to add the following:

4x 40".90".16" troughs (roughly 230G each)
1/2 horsepower return pump
Skimmer Undecided
Calcium Reactor
Substrate - Debating Crushed Coral or Sand
4x ATI 48"

I plan on having all four tanks on the same system/sump, so I plan on Daisy-chaining them, per se.

I plan on using the return pump to act as the only flow, versus having power heads. . And I plan on using light movers to save on lighting needs/cut down on heat.

Below is what three of the units will look like side-by-side.

You can kind of tell, but there are holes drilled on each side. I plan on using two holes, per tank, to create a sort of water bridge between all tanks. I plan on having the return water come up on the bottom of all of the tanks, and the overflows on the side of the tank. Does that make sense?

I think these tanks are going to be a pain in the butt to plumb, but I want to keep things as simple as possible.

I'm thinking I may putt these tanks on racks, that way I can have the light mover hanging in there. Or I plan on putting them on bricks, and suspending the lights from the super tall ceiling. But I'm afraid the mover may sway too much if suspended.

More images to come!

So, I had mentioned connecting the tanks all together. I plan on doing it on these two points on each tank:

http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/...sclobvlwc.jpeg

I imagine this should work since the water should equalize itself out. Anyone think it's a bad idea?

Thank you!

If you don't mind me asking. Where did you get your tubs from?

From a fiberglass manufacturer. I have another from Pentair Aquatics.

how many external pumps are you going to run on this system? Also interested in how you are going to set up the system with the sump. cause you are going to tie the systems together correct?

Would each have an overflow? Or just bulk heads? If theres no over flow, anything suspended in the water is just going to float around and never make it to the sump.

What are you using to cover the other holes? You can run a tank with no overflow it just doesn't surface skim as well.


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The surface skimming is what I was getting at.

Make sure your overflow pipes are over sized. If your return pump is too powerful your overflow pipes can't keep up. Learned this the hard way when I set up my 1300G prop system. I use 2 custom Reeflo Hammerheads and still have to throttle down the flow.

Hi, sorry for the delay! I've been out of town and had less than crappy internet. That said, I plan on just having one pump. The pump is huge, I believe .5 hp. I think that should be more than enough to plumb the systems. It came from an LFS that had dozens of tanks plumbed throughout the store.

I'm honestly not super sure on how to plumb it yet. Just when I get an idea of how, I get discouraged because I find a fault in it. I pretty much plan on connecting the tanks using 2" pipe as shown above with the pink lines. What I plan on doing is having all the drains on the bottom- you can see the holes in the bottom of the tank. I plan on having them drain into a Rubbermaid tub. I think I will have each one drain into the sump versus tying them all to one, and then to the sump.

As far as the returns/flow. I plan on having the Rubbermaid with a hole that connects to the return pump. And then each tank will have a pipe that t's off into each hole on the side. I think I will have either 4 or 8 returns per tub.

That is as far as I have gotten. I plan on working on it more this weekend but this is more of a project/pain in the *** so I kind of self sabotage it.

Thank you for your message. Sorry for the delay! I plan on having a few overflows per tank, on the holes in the bottom. I plan on having the pipes at the same hight to it can pull gunk from the surface. Thanks!

Sorry for this delay too! I went out of town for a while and am back now! I plan on using 2.5" bulkheads as each hole is 2". I will simply put a cover on the holes I don't need. I plan on getting the surface skimming by having a few pipes in the middle around 14" in hight so the water just gets sucked into it. It may be loud but I have these in my shop way off in a corner.

Thanks for this! Answered above in your other post.

Great info! Thank you very much. Do you have a thread I can follow? I'm sure I can learn a ton if you have it already going. Thanks!

I cannot believe it has been a month since I started this! Life got in the way, I took a trip, etc.

I have not done much, but I am starting to place these tanks on bricks. I plan on just having an 8'x4' piece of plywood to sit on top of the bricks. The tanks are fiberglass and strong as hell, so I am not worried about any bowing or them not being perfectly level. You would be surprised how much abuse this troughs can take.

Well, here is an image of where I am at so far. As you can, almost no progress as that only took about an hour. I hope to have more next week. Thanks for following!

http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/...ps663b94ip.jpg

By the way, here is a picture of the first through I had. I quickly outgrew it, and my wife hated it in the offices (which I agree with since it looks like crap), so I got kicked out and am in the shop with the new tanks. But this is what I am doing, but with more. PS. It'll be just as ghetto but away from the public. :)

http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/...psby7z6egc.jpg

Sounds like a cool idea. I plan on dabbling in a propagation system in the future. Can't wait to see how you get things going. And for the "ghettoness" of the system it isn't a public thing and if it works and doesn't break the bank then I think you will have something good going. Can't wait to see more pictures and see more of what you have planned! Im subscribed and following along lol

Question on the troughs, is that something the manufacturer carries in stock or you had to custom order it? Thank you

Hello all that follow! Bad news, I am not working on this project any longer. As you may have seen, I had these in a small portion of my shop. I have had to abandon this idea to make room for more important inventory. I may do a smaller system, a glass 96x48x12 system, but we shall see.

Thanks to those that followed !

Thank you so much for the support! I wish I had the space to see this through! I was super excited, and had mad more progress than documented, but had to free up the space. Dollar per square foot, it did not make sense to have these tanks there! Although, I sold several, my main business takes priority over my hobby. I still have my displays and want to add a smaller, less ghetto system. My wife may not mind if I add a glass frag tank to the breakroom as long as it looks nice!

Thanks again!

Hello! These are something that was manufactured by the fiber glass company. I wish I knew who it was! I did have others, the blue one you saw, from Pentair Aquatics. If I do this again, I will simply buy them from Pentair since they are so inexpensive, free shipping, and more.

Pentair Aquatics makes some similar

http://pentairaes.com/fiberglass-troughs.html

Any recent pics and/or updates?