Dream A Little Dream... Tank!!!

[hurrifan]

Ok - here is your opportunity to share your thoughts on your dream set up and have a fun little diversion from the monotony of "How many fish is too many." If you are like me you imagine the ultimate tank and what it will be like. I am in the early planning stages of a 400 to 600 gallon reef set up (total volume of about 600 to 800). It is about 2 to 3 years from reality. I only have a few requirements, anything else is fair game. Also, for the purpose of the dream do not let money be an object.

Requirements:

Acrylic in wall design
180 gallon tank as sump
180 gallon tank as refugium
400 W MH Lighting
6" DSB
LR (Obviously)
Easy access to the equipment, but must be aesthetically pleasing.

Questions:

With 400w MH what should my maximum depth be for SPS and clams?
For viewing purposes, what is a good depth?
PH and Wavemakers or Motorized ball valves?
So many other things I cannot even list. Just add any suggestions or ideas you would like in your system.

And those of your that have large systems, what would you do differently if you were able to?

 

[erasmu]

If you still have flexibility in the house construction/modification, you would probably do well to have a large walk-in closet that access the rear side of the tank. The sump and refugium might be contained in the closet. It would allow easy access to the tank, but be hidden from view. You could have a large amount of storage area for supplies. Good luck.

 

[Jeff Hood]

Well, I just built my dream tank and it pretty much matches your description. 512 actual tank volume. 84 x40 x40 With two 100 gallon sumps and another 150 gallon refugium. Plan on controlling microbubbles if you will only have one sump with a skimmer running a lot of flow. That is why I run two sumps. One for high flow and turbulance and the other for calm flow to settle out micro bubbles.

Here is what I would do different.

I would and will in the future in my case, make my refugium hidden from my display reef. The lights at night are a little too bright and iluminate the main display too much IMO. I am working on a plan to shield the lights from the main tank to allow enough darkness but still allow me to view the fuge. I love that thing.

I like deep tanks both front to back and height. I made my tank both 40 inches tall and deep. If you have the room I would go even deeper front to back. With the water in the tank the optics compress your view and make the tank look thiner and this seems to be exagerated by the thickness of the Plexy and amount of water. I wish I would have gone 48 inches deep and 40 inches tall. I don't think I could have aquascaped anything deeper than 40 inches unless there was a deep sand bed in there also. I don't use one in the main display. The height is a pain in aquascaping and placing corals but if you do it right, you wont be down in the thing much at all. Get a good set of tongs, arm gloves if you are worried. My solution is a good scuba mask and have fun. Good fresh water shower before the dive is a good Idea. I can reach the bottom if only submerged to my shoulder. I have to lay on top of the tank to do this. Quite fun to put the mask on and look at the fish from that vantage point. Nothing looks better than a tall, deep tank IMO. I hate 12 foot long 2 foot tall tanks. How many public aquariums have displays like that? Most are tall. They just look better. Its worth the extra maintance to me. To each their own. As far as lighting, I think I will be fine with the 400s I have. We will see. Seems very bright at the bottom to me. If I have to I will upgrade to 1000 watt bulbs but I doubt I will need to go that far.

I would not put your deep sand bed in your main tank if you are going to have a large refugium. I would also go with a refugium with more bottom surface area and less depth than a standard aquarium. This gives you more sandbed space. I think of mine as a tide pool. I love going out to look at it and feed the star and other critters. I have a few soft corals out there too to look at. I use a rubbermaid stock tank. Works great.

For your closed loops, I use motorized ball valves and I love them so far! Jury is still out on their durablility when switched as much as these are on reefs like mine. I hate powerheads and did not want any unsightly cords, or pipes to be seen in the reef. I only have four visable returns at the top of the tank and that is all I could stand.

Jeff

 

[Mouse]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> For viewing purposes, what is a good depth?
<hr></blockquote>

A better view is created with more front to back depth, not neccessarily up and down depth. I would be more concerned about maintenance and access when considering that peramiter.

 

[Mouse]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> PH and Wavemakers or Motorized ball valves?
<hr></blockquote>

Or you could use what i dream about, Two main circulation pumps, each split into two Sea Swirls, and each of the pumps controlled by a variable wave maker. When i say variable wave maker i mean one that actually controls the velocity of the flow, not just on and off. Heres the pictures of the set up im combining (in my dreams).

Two - Deltec HLP 8070 Pump (Fresh & Salt water Aquariums)

Suction/Input: 40mm
Pressure/Outlet: 32mm
Power Consumption: 83-130 Watts
Ltrs/(Galls) per hr: 7000 (1556)*
Head (in meters): 6.50
Article No: 69004

Both of those will connect to two of these.

And controlling all this, the mega brain!!!

An IKS Aquastar, this will also automatically controll everything else in the aquarium.

I was considering using one huge pump but the plumbing looked a bit complicated, and i wouldn't have as much controll and variation over the circulation. The computer will simmulate rough tide and smoother pereods, Day/night tidal movements as well as allowing feed stops.

This is for a 200 G tank, and should give me a total of 3000 GPH top whack water circulation. Allong with the 500GPH sump return. The sea swirls also ensure a chaotic water movement, which should eliminate dead spots without having to hide PH's allover the place, and whatevers left i can get with a hose on the end of a PH in my weekly/monthly storm sessions. This is the BAD MAN of circulation set ups. But i admit your tank will be much larger and i cant gauruntee that these sea swirls will work in a much larger depth, allthough the heads are directable. And there are 1" models available but i heard there noisy, so im doubling up on the smaller ones, which should mean a better overall system IMO.