Tanglovers 520 Gallon Display Build

[tanglovers]

Well as a few of you know we have decided to upgrade. I am going to try to be good about a build thread this time.

Tomorrow marks the 'official' start of this project. The existing 220 gallon tank is coming down and the 520 gallon build will start. This tank will be inwall like the 220 was with a fishroom directly behind. The fish room was built and fully sealed off from the house with its own exhaust fan. So far 3 winters, around 1200g of saltwater running and no condensation anywhere in the house!!!

The new display tank will be a 520 Gallon Aquarium Obsessed glass tank that we picked up from a fellow hobbyist. Dimensions are 96" x 42" x 30" (L x W x H) with a center rear, external overflow box.

Tank will be an SPS reef tank with a fairly high fish bioload. Also hooked into the system will be a 6' 100g and a 6' 150g that are utilized for fish conditioning and also to house a few species I am working on breeding.

System Statisitics So Far:

Electrical: Five Dedicated 20 amp circuits, all GFCI protected.

Display Tank: 520g 96" x 42" x 30" AO Glass Tank, Starfire Front

Stand: 37" tall 2" Square Steel Construction with rear catwalk / platform, coated in white Herculiner Bed Liner

Sumps: Two 36" x 30" x 18" glass tanks plumbed together with four 2" bulkheads. This way I can still remove them if ever needed when the tank is in place. If a single large sump was gone with it could not be removed in one piece after the tank was in place.

Lighting: Three 400w Halides, 20k Radiums SE, in Luminarc LA III Reflectors. Four 48" Reef Brite LED Blue Strips.

Protein Skimmers: Bubble King Delux 300 Internal and Bubble King Supermarin 250. Total water volume will be between 800 and 900 gallons so I wanted strong skimming potential.

Water Flow: Two Reeflow Dart Closed Loops with Oceans Motions 4 Ways for background / general flow. Vortech MP40s (maybe 60s) will be added as needed.

Return Pumps: Three ATB Flow Star 1500s, one to feed the back 100g and 150g and two to the 520g. Returns in the 520 will be through 1" Sea-Swirls. Multiple pumps are run for redundancy, each on a different circuit.

UV / Ozone: I am planning on having two 40w Rainbow UVs plumbed into each return pump. This way if nedded, all return water will flow through the UVs. Planning on not running them all, all the time. Each set of two UVs has a Rainbow Mechanical fiter unit before it to remove any sediment or particles from the water so the UVs will be the most effective possible. I also have a 100mg Red Sea Ozone unit I was running on the current 220 but not planning on utilizing this on the new build.

Calcium / Alkalinity Control: Geo 818 Calcium Reactor, with Cole Parmer Dosing Pump and Reef Fanatic Solenoid and pH Controller. I also have a 6" Diameter GEO Kalk reactor I am considering using.

Water Changes: Litermeter Automatic Water Change Setup, changing 15 gallons daily.

Controller / Monitor: Apex setup to mostly monitor, will also be monitoring our 60g NPS and 520g Freshwater Stingray Tanks

Rock: I have around 400 lbs of Haitian Dry Rock here, will be seeded with some live rock.

Sand: 2" or so, Caribsea Special Sea Floor Grade Sand

I have been accumulating all the equipment the last few months and now that I have it all, the project can officially start I will get pics up tomorrow if I get a chance.

[PSU REEFER]

Sounds like your well on your way to a great project. I've got a 500g from AO that I purchased from a fellow reefer also. It's built like a tank. Mine's 92'' long and I'm running 4-400's in lumanarcs which gives the whole tank plenty of coverage.

[cdeboard]

Wow... amazing dimensions. Cant wait to see some pics. *subscribed*

[jmaneyapanda]

What is the purpose of the 40 watt UVs?

[auem]

going to be a brilliant built i guess...best of luck..
one sugg. is better go for ozonizer than uv....

[tanglovers]

The purpose of the UVs.....well I currently have a very slight ich issue in the tank that I have never been able to clear up. All fish have been treated and QT'ed prior to the arrival but somehow it still got introduced somewhere. It does not cause any issues with the current fish but I bet there is 1-2 days a month I notice a couple spots here or there.

I was thinking by plumbing in a fair number of UVs it could help clear this issue up. I have all my current fish in a seperate system to hold them and as long as they tolerate this well I am hoping to re-treat them all and introduce slowly after the tank is cycled. If this is the case once more I am hoping for an ich 'free' tank but my honest opinion is it is in every system.

I like doing things right from the get go. My thought is hooking all these UVs up is if I never need them that is fine, if I do then they are there and the contact time and flow rates match to kill parasites that pass through them (that is why there are two 40w in series on each pump - to get extra contact time to kill more then just parasites and bacteria).

Got the existing 220 removed this morning already. Time to clear up all the equipment and get some pics this afternoon!

[sps aquaria]

looks good cant wait

[nuccadoc]

Sounds like you have planned well. Good Luck! Any particular reason why you chose 20K bulbs over 14K's? Also would like to see pics of the stingray tank.


Scott

[Dejavu]

This should be a good one! I'll be there Saturday to move that beast in .

[jmaneyapanda]

Originally Posted by tanglovers

The purpose of the UVs.....well I currently have a very slight ich issue in the tank that I have never been able to clear up. All fish have been treated and QT'ed prior to the arrival but somehow it still got introduced somewhere. It does not cause any issues with the current fish but I bet there is 1-2 days a month I notice a couple spots here or there.

I was thinking by plumbing in a fair number of UVs it could help clear this issue up. I have all my current fish in a seperate system to hold them and as long as they tolerate this well I am hoping to re-treat them all and introduce slowly after the tank is cycled. If this is the case once more I am hoping for an ich 'free' tank but my honest opinion is it is in every system.

I like doing things right from the get go. My thought is hooking all these UVs up is if I never need them that is fine, if I do then they are there and the contact time and flow rates match to kill parasites that pass through them (that is why there are two 40w in series on each pump - to get extra contact time to kill more then just parasites and bacteria).

Got the existing 220 removed this morning already. Time to clear up all the equipment and get some pics this afternoon!

OK, what flow rate is the pump pushing through? The dwell time to kill ich will need to be pretty enormous, which would be a trickle of a return, IMO. Ich needs 336,000 uWs/cm2 to kill it. That means, roughly 240 GPH for an Aqua 40 W UV, by my calculations. Is that what youre aiming for?

[tanglovers]

Originally Posted by jmaneyapanda

OK, what flow rate is the pump pushing through? The dwell time to kill ich will need to be pretty enormous, which would be a trickle of a return, IMO. Ich needs 336,000 uWs/cm2 to kill it. That means, roughly 240 GPH for an Aqua 40 W UV, by my calculations. Is that what youre aiming for?

I will have to check it again, my pumps will be moving around 800-900 gph after head loss so not a ton but not that low either. I am hoping to not need the UV sterilizers for parasite treatment but I figured worst case they would be plumbed inline and not running.

[jmaneyapanda]

I have to say, then, but the UVs will not be effective at all against ick, so save your money. Simpler things like algaes and some bacterias will be susceptible, likely, but for ick, you need a lot of exposure. Properly sizing UV sterilizers is an too often overlooked step.

[viggen]

I would think it would be more effecient for the UV's to be plumbed in series so your 40w unit turns into a 80w unit but even then it's small.

If you are just going to do two 4-w units I wouldnt get them, way to small.

If you want to do it right do two 120w or similar sized

[mpoletti]

Very nice. I'll be keeping an eye on this one

[tanglovers]

As for the UVs, it will actually be a total of six 40w UVs plumbed into the system. Two in series on each return pump (there are three returns for redundancy).

I promise a few construction (well more like demo) pics tonight. Getting the first coat of herculiner on the stand.

[battplus]

Nice! Tagging along to see this build!

[Dejavu]

Ok this thread needs pics.... you want to bring my camrea over .

[tanglovers]

Here is a small update with a couple pics.

I got all the dry rock scrubbed of sponge and other dead organic matter. I also got the first coat of herculiner on the stand. Did not get the wall opened up and reframed but this is a minor task. When I built this wall / fish room three years ago I put a 9' header over the tank planning on an upgrade.

Here is the tank - back wards. Not fully cleaned yet, it is in great shape.



Here is the old tank location - will be opened up 2' wider.



Here is the current fish holding system. Everyone is doing great, all 5 tangs, 10 angels, 9 wrasses and a few other goodies. The exact stock list is not set in stone yet but should be very nice. I also will be keeping it a little more secret depending on what I end up getting and finding The fish listed though (as general as it is) will be staying.



Here is a quick pic of the rock laying out after scrubbing:

[Bax]

This will be a very nice build!

[s.reef]

MMMM...Clarion angel.

[tanglovers]

Yeah kind of hard to hide the clarion in about any pic I take He is so personable and an awesome fish. Luckily ours is not very aggressive at all. He will be one of the last additions to the tank. There will be quite a few less aggressive fish getting added.

2nd Coat of herculiner is on, now time to start cutting on the wall!

[battplus]

What other tangs are in there?

[tanglovers]

Nothing too crazy for tangs, 4 zebrasomas and a blonde naso....I will do a full stock list as fish are added to the tank after it is set up.

Aquascaping dryrun is just about done (playing with it outside of the tank), this is my wife's department. She always does a great job, I do not have the patience for it.

Got the wall ripped apart and almost all framed in. I will be finishing this here in the next hour or two. Tomorrow, drywall will be put up and the first layer of mud put on. The last main coat of herculiner will also be put on the stand.

Coming together nicely. Saturday is the big tank move in date.

[dknuckles]

Nice seeing you over here.
Sounds like a great project, I will have to follow this thread.

[tanglovers]

Well wall is all modified. Opened it up and also made a short wall infront the stand. Tomorrow is drywall hanging and first coat of mud. I am trying to locate some more paperless drywall (DensArmor) locally. When I built my fishroom a little over 3 years ago, Lowe's carried it but I found out today they no longer do. If I can not locate the DensArmor I will use greenboard.

Here is a quick pic. I will get one of the stand tomorrow, seems like whenever I get around to getting pics it is dark outside...