Upgrade status just improved! Need ALL your input!

[motorslave]

Well, our tax return is better than thought! So I get $2000 for the 150 upgrade plus bonus in April.
I love SPS and clams and a system for this has been my goal from the beginning. Lately I have been very attracted to Zoo's and Ricordia and such and also the asthetics of a shallow sand bed (ducks and hides from Spanky!)
Since this will be the last tank untill I can build a house around a much bigger one, I want this to be as efficient and well designed as possible. I have been rolling alot of ideas around in my head (alot of room for stuff to roll around up there!) and here is what I have so far;

150g, 1/2 in acrylic 60x24x24 with built in center overflow
DIY sump with MR-2 powered by Gen-X pcs55 (1200gph) and a Gen-X pcs40 as a return (825gph)
440 watts VHO for actinic or actinic 50/50 combo and 2 250 watt MH 10k
A sequence barracuda 4500gph pushing a CLS with 4 outlets and the spray bar set up (Ive seen spray bars used with sand, Im paranoid about stuff building up behind and under the rock)
Chiller
UV sterilizer
I will use alot of base rock from HiRocks and some LR to seed it, dont want nasty hich hikers
and a water treatment set up in the garage.
I have a 30 amp circuit in the living room designated for the tank ( B-day present from my Wife, she even installed it!)
I will also get a controller to controll all my lights so they are seasonal with moon cycles.
I will also add a calcium ractor eventualy depending on needs.
I have a 10g top off set up already

This is the heart of where Im at at the moment. Now since this is "The" system for me for some time to come, I want it right. That is why I want all the input possible from all of you here at TRT.
So, let er rip!!!!

[motorslave]

The spray bar will serve as a rock rack also.

Robert

[tims]

Sounds like a nice set up robert!
what is hirocks?
when are you planning to start all of this? i do not see anything you missed, do you think the 10 gallon top off will be enough? are you goig ot go full DSB or just sand in the front of the tank?

[motorslave]

Hirocks is a .com with base rock mined in Hawaii. The top off will hopefully be ok since the chiller and sump with a lid should reduce evap. That is a good point Ill see what I can do for room in the stand. If I go sand it will be in front of the rock for looks not a DSB.

Robert
I will get the dough in about 10 days and will start at the very moment it hits the bank! Tank and new RO/DI first, but most will be ordered within first few days will wait on rock and such.

Robert

[Geoff]

looks like a good outline. even with a 30a line you may still need more power. MH's, chillers and a sequence can draw some power. expecially when the chiller turns on. you should research the startup amps on all of these just in case.

look at yardboy's tank. this is how i wish i had my tank built. i may redo it this summer to look more like this. it will be able to handle everything you have listed. the larger Sequence pump may be to much for the strainers, but if the wiers were widened a touch then it prolly could handle the Sequence.

G~

[motorslave]

Dont quite follow you Geoff on the strainers. The Sequence is for the CLS, do you mean I need over sized intake strainers? I was planning on two 1 1/2 intakes.

Robert

[Cosine]

Take a look at yardboy's tank and it will make sense in fact

it's a coast to coast overflow. by widening the weirs on the overflows the sequence pump should work.
Geoff will explain better I'm sure if any other questions!

[Geoff]

i would not try and limit evaporation. let the tank evaporate as much as possible. using kalkwater as top off is a good way to keep your levels reasonable. the greater the evaporation the less the chiller will run. the lower the power bill will be.

are you worried about humidity?

G~

[motorslave]

Yes I/my Wife, we are a little concerned about humidity. Right now I evap about 1 1/2g a day in the 55. In the summer its around 110 and above outside and cold in the winter so the house is closed up alot of the time. Im not worried about having some evap I justy dont want to rot the walls!

Robert

[Geoff]

the more airtight you make the stand and cover the sump, the bigger the chiller you will need to get. (ssshhh this is what i am trying to get at in the discussion of the week. ) you are already at a disadvantage using an acrylic tank as apposed to a glass tank. you might want to go up a size in chiller if you want to keep evaporation to a minimum. you may also run into pH problems if you keep the tank tightly sealed.

G~

[motorslave]

Hmm, okay. What if I just covered the first chamber of the sump where the drains enter? This would limit some but not all evap and help keep splash and salt creep to a minimum in the stand. I will also have fans in the hood and the stand to keep air moving. I could just buy a de-humidifier for the house!
Also I looked at Yardboys tank and understand what you mean. The tank Im buying is already made and has a center overflow tower so widening the wiers isnt possible. I was just going to drill for the CLS intakes.

Robert

[motorslave]

On Yardboys tank, the two mags running the CLSs are external, how would this affect the temp added to the water and how noisy are they? I have two externals right now running my CLSs and I would like to reduce the # of pumps or at least the noise. I dont have to have one monster pump. I do want lots of flow unless I go with a softer tank. I would like to reduce noise in the living room. I want my cake and to eat it too!

Robert

[yardboy]

Hey Dudes!

How'd you get the web page address, it's a little too "work in progress" for me to have posted it yet?!

Moto, Ocea just modified their center overflow model tank by adding the side weirs for the cls overflows. They work great and function quite well as frag collectors too! If I accidently bump into a coral while cleaning or rearranging I just throw the frag in there until I can get to mount it. The flow into the suction of the cls pump isn't that great at any individual slot so the frags aren't sucked into the pump. The cls weirs can be easily added to either side of the center overflow and wouldn't restrict flow into the overflow at all. The weirs are simply two L-shaped pieces that are each as long as the distance between the side of the tank to the side of the overflow. Guess I should have taken more pictures.
Good luck with your project. I love my tank. Only wish is that I'd aquascaped my rock a little better, since the cls weirs are as wide as the overflow but only 4" tall or so, I put the rock up to them, leaving a substantial space under them in the back of the tank as you can see from the last picture. If I rearranged again, I'd put the rock farther back under the overflows.
Another thing is forget about the SCWD's. They suck big time. One broke in about a month and the other by the sixth month of the tank. I'm saving my pennies for a single pump and Ocean Motions sequencer for the cls. Probably be cheaper on electricity anyway. Also avoid the 90 ells on the cls (though that's easier said than done)
I do not have a chiller, using a cheap $10 fan in the sump and an open top, temp. flucuates between 80-82 winter and summer. I do have a 250W heater in the sump as we rarely turn the heater on in the winter, and there's a nice couch in front of the tank Genie and I curl up on, the light and heat are so pleasant on cold winter nights!

[yardboy]

Don't know about how much heat the Mag's put into the tank, I have a Velocity T3 which they claim puts quite a bit also, but I'm about to buy a T4 for my skimmer, as the Iwaki 55 is just too much noise for my ears. It's in the living room and I'll sometimes turn off the skimmer so I can hear the romantic parts of movies. The T3 return pump is noiseless. A single cls pump would probably be quieter than the Mags (though compared to the Iwaki, they are practically noiseless themselves. (Well, one of them has a harmonic vibration with the tank stand that can be a bit irritating)

[motorslave]

So I could add the "coast to coast " type set up with a little moification? Is the advantage substantial enough to do this way over just drilling for two intakes?

Robert