SaltCritters 500+gal display build

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 05:50 PM

This is my first time posting on this forum. So i'll get you all up to date with my setup. Its still a HUGE work in progress and any suggestions/comments are welcome. Especially if you have any on lighting a 72"x48"x30""Tall tank.

Here we go from the begining.

Some Specs.
Fish room:
The fish room is about 10'x8' with another 9'x6' coming soon.

Tank:
72" long by 48"wide by 30" tall acrylic with external overflows. Haven't decided on a builder yet. Any suggestions?

Lighting:
Any suggestions??

Skimmer:
I have an Euro reef RC-1000

Sump:
I had some old pond liner laying around so i built a sump that is about 77"long by 36" wide by 24" tall. Should be big enough to hold everything. I made it so huge because i wanted to try and keep everything in it or over it so all leaks would go back into the system and not on the floor.

Refugium:
I'm going to use my old 75gal as my ref.

Circulation:
Tunze wave box and streams. Any suggestions on what ones and how many??

Here is my Old 75gallon tank that i had at my parents house.
Had a dart for return going into a Oceans motions 8way. I had two 150watt MH's over it for lighting.

All the returns. Had over 3000gph flowing through that tank

Had it right next to the bed so i could stare at it all night long.

A tight fit for everything.

The pvc mess!

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 05:58 PM

I bought my own place so i could get an even bigger system!
The victim! I mean my house

Ripped out the carpet. Luckly my house is a slab so i won't have any issues there. Also removed all the outlets because they were below the water level of my sump and i didn't want to take the chance of water splashing in them and it turns out half the house is on the same breaker. I'm going to have my friend (hes an electrition) run 4 lines to the fish room and build some water proof boxes to house all the outlets.

Removed the wall separating the closet from the room to give me a little more room.

Started Building the Sump.

Painted the room and installed rubber baseboard and chalked around the whole edge to try and seal the room so if there is a flood it sorta stays in that room. Finished the sump also.

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:03 PM

Got my skimmer in place

Got my RO/DI unit all set up

Turns out my well water had high CO2 and was using up all my DI resin after about 60 gallons or so. So i designed a degasser. It works really well! Iv made around 300gallons and haven't had to change my resin!!

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:07 PM

I also have a 10gal tank that i connected into the system. It is located in my bedroom closet and is viewable from the living room.

Tearing out the wall.

Holds me so it should hold the tank!

Re drywalling

All painted and plumbed into the fish room.

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:10 PM

The inwall 10gal finished view from the living room.

The most recent picture of the tank.

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:15 PM

I got two 64 gallon Toter Cart cans for RO water storage.

Got my Water changing station setup. The bottom can is for salt mixxing and the top one is to measure how much water i take out.

Looks confusing doesn't it! I can Do just about anything. I can mix saltwater, pump water to and from the sump, storage tanks, and mixing tanks. I can also send the water to a hose that i can put in a bucket of down the drain. It works great!

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:18 PM

Got one of my darts installed and room for one more.

Got one of my frag tanks in.

It has a 150watt Mh over it on a light mover to save some $ on electricity and i seams like the corals grow faster under it.

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:24 PM

Got the Phosban and Carbon reactors installed.

Also got my UV steralizer installed.

The 500+ gallon display is going to go where the TV in the corner between my bedroom and the living room.

More shelfs for more tanks

And a fragging table below.

Got tired after building so i took a nap to test it out.

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:31 PM

Got the T5's over the new frag tank and the top shelf is plumed and ready for another one

My freshwater tank (20"x20"x24") with my cat MO checking out the 100+yr old barn wood.

Got my 75gal from my parents house and converted it into my fuge.

I made a "septic System" for the bottom of my fuge. The return water will run up through the sand.

I put about 450lbs of sand in it and some rubble rock. Also some mangroves and cheto.

***lReef lKeeper*** · 03-30-2008, 06:36 PM

looking great. my next system will be valve automated too !!

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:42 PM

Now that i got you all up to date here is what im working on now.
Im going to expand the "Fish Room" into my bedroom. Here is a drawing.

Got some of the wall tore apart.

Thats all for now.

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 06:52 PM

I plan on putting six 9'x2'x6" frag tanks in the new Fish room addition.

***lReef lKeeper*** · 03-30-2008, 07:04 PM

that is a lot of frags !! let me know when you get some sweet SPS frags to sell or trade.

**SaltCritters** · 03-30-2008, 07:20 PM

Sofar i don't have any SPS. Well i take that back i have one that iv had for about a year and it hasn't grown at all

Right now i have mainly Zoos and Rics in there. I have about 400 frags total. About 250 of those are Ric's.

**Mr. Tang** · 03-30-2008, 08:30 PM

check out salt rookie frag thread out. He has some real nice sps's

**PhotoJohn** · 03-31-2008, 01:34 AM

wow, now that is an amazing system

**Phurst** · 03-31-2008, 09:13 AM

WOW! Now That's a system!

Looks like you have enough PVC to open your own plumbing shop

I"ll be following this thread closely. Looking great so far.

**SaltCritters** · 03-31-2008, 12:48 PM

Thanks. I usually end up cleaning out the local hardware store when i go on a PVC run

**nay,kid** · 04-01-2008, 07:53 PM

Incredible!! its always nice to see someone so obsessed.How far are you from louisville? Theres a guy here that does great acrylic work (Aquatica) . I'll be tagging along on this thread for sure!

**SaltCritters** · 04-02-2008, 11:06 AM

About 2.5-3 hours. Whats the guys email? Im looking for 6 9'x2'x6" tanks or 12 4.5'x2'x6" tanks. Iv tried geeting a quote from glasscages but they don't seam to know what a 9' or a 4.5' tank is lol. They keep sending me prices for 8' and 4'.

**RocketSeason** · 04-02-2008, 04:52 PM

Very cool indeed! Lots of DIY solutions here and it looks great.

**nay,kid** · 04-02-2008, 07:40 PM

his name is todd, e-mail is sales@aquaticareef.com, phone# 502-261-0720.
Our local club just went to inland aquatics a few weeks ago, very cool place I saw that your near there.since your close to us you should keep an eye on our club we have frag swaps and some cool events from time to time. also you can sell us some of your frags.
Louisville Marine Aquarium Society

**SaltCritters** · 04-02-2008, 07:52 PM

I'v seen that inland aquatics place but never been in there. I went one day but they were closed

Haven't gotten back to check it out. Thanks for the info

**nay,kid** · 04-02-2008, 08:10 PM

you should for sure go back they are huge and their very nice.

**SaltCritters** · 04-03-2008, 05:18 PM

Got some work done today!

Got the Opening all framed up and cut out. Lucklie i didn't hurt the frag tank directly on the other side as it was butted up against the drywall. Almost cut my return and drain pipes for the inwall tank in half though. Forgot about them. oops....

Droopy decided she wanted to help

Turns out my Peppermint Shrimp like Drywall

Those crazy shrimp will eat anything that falls in that tank. They attack my hand every time i put it in there.
Guess i better go clean up the mess before the kids track it all over the house.