The Idea
About 5 month ago I was sitting around and had this great idea, what if I built a large plywood tank I could have the sharks I always wanted. Following plans on
www.garf.org and making a few modifications because I want a lookdown tank, I decided to make it 8’Lx5’Wx4’H. 4’ high allows you to lean on the top rail and look into the tank.
Construction
Not having any construction skills I started buying 2x4’s 2x6’s and 3/4” plywood. It took me 2 week of working a minute here and there to get the frame built. I bought 1500 pounds of
live rock and needed a place to put it, so I took 2 days and finished the tank. Lined the frame with ¾ plywood and ¾ foam sheets. After some research I decided to use a 40ml pond liner made by Goodyear.
Filling
After getting the pond liner install reality set in on how long it was going to take to make enough
RO water to fill the 800-gallon tank 8 to 10 days, I had 5 days. I started the
RO/DI going and waited for Saturday when I was getting the rock. We ended up taking about 400 gallons from the rock system. Figuring the 400 old water and the new water would be just like a large water change. We added the 1500 pounds of
live rock and the water and we were still low about 6 inch’s of water. I started freaking out I had about 400 lbs of
LR out of water and it was going to be that way for awhile. Luckily I had asked a friend of mine (Scott from Chowhound in Grand Rapids) over helping load all the rock into the tank. He asked if I ever tested the house water for
Phosphates? I ask no why would I? You’re on city water and you may get lucky and it might be at 0. So I tested for
Phosphates and he was right it tested at 0. First thing I thought yeah I’m going to save the rock. Then I thought what have I been using the
RO/DI unit for? I could use a decorticator and I should be all set. I started a 4 am Saturday and went to bed a 3:30 am Sunday morning.
The next week or so
I got the
skimmer, lights, pumps, controller, and ozone setup.
Skimmer AquaC EV-2000 capable of skimming a 2000 gallon system.
Lights 2 400w pfo electonic
ballasts with XM 1500k bulbs with luminarc III reflectors
Pumps Two 6100 tunze's with multi controller in stream rocks
2 mag 18’s and a Quiet one 6000 on a reefkeeper 2 controller.
Controller Reefkeeper 2 turns light on and off monitors temp and sets up the pumps as wave makers.
Ozone 200 mg Red Sea ozone controller (oh my after a week of running ozone the water is so clear you can even see it)
Adding the 800-gallon tank to the rest of the system
The wall of the tank is (from the outside in) ¾ plywood, ¾ foam, and a 40ml liner. The obvious was plumb with bulkheads. I figured that there were to many layers that might shift and cause the bulkhead to leak. So I tried to make a standard overflow box with 2 Rubbermaid trash cans. The can on the outside worked but the one in the tank moved all over the place. So I just removed it. I have 2 ¾
PVC U tubes (Siphon hole below the water) over the edge of the tank going into a trash can with 2 1” bulkheads in the bottom draining into the 150 gallon Rubbermaid common
sump.
Plans for the future
I will be adding the new Calcium Reactor tonight a Deltec PF1001 rated for 2000 gallons. This thing is a monster 4 foot tall. I will be putting a fake brick paneling on the outside of the tank and I need to do something with the top rail.
Stocking Fish
Pair of blonde naso tang's (male 10" female 8")
Red Sea Sailfin tang 7"
Purple tang 7”
2 Large yellow tang's
Orange shoulder tang 5"
2 Hippo tang's 7" 4"
Vlamingi Tang
3 orange perc's
Gold Strip Maroon Clown
orange skunk clown
11" chain link eel
30" snow flake eel
5" powder brown tang
lawn mower blenny's large
1 green cromis
Inverts
Darsea clam
4 blue linkia star's large and healthy
Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
Green Carpet Anemone
Green Long Tentacle Anemone
Coral
Name it its in there.
Mushrooms
Candy cane and trumpets
Frog Spawns
Brains
Leathers
Elegance
Favia
Blasto’s
Green and Brown Star polyps
Zoos and Palys
A number of SPS
Pictures 
V-series Productions 
