Maroun.c 400 G build thread

[BayCorals]

That is awesome!!!!

 

[maroun.c]

That is awesome!!!!

Thanks.

 

[maroun.c]

Now for the more interesting stuff where I'll need some suggestions:
this is the system plan with most of the plumbing and position of most important components.

The fishroom is in an attick around 6 feet higher from the sump 7.5 feet including height of the tanks in the fishroom. Overall I’m satisfied with the layout. But would appreciate opinions on the following:
-Circulation pump: is it necessary to go with a high pressure external pump? Most of those would consume around 400W and need to be external as well as provide most probably more flow than I really need? I have recently got an Aquabee 5000 which has a max head of 15.6 feet 4.7 meters, consuming 75 W and can be used submerged or outside the water. Other options would be the Ocean runner 6500 or Eheim 1262 or the Aquabee 7000...
-Chiller position on the return line from the Fishroom system:
Do you think the chiller on the return line would cause sump and tank to cool too much before the fishroom setup cools enough for the chiller to stop?
How would you position heaters to avoid them receiving the cold water from the chiller before the tank chills and turning on? Or the chiller getting most of the heated water from the heaters and turning on before the tank is heated enough and then having the chiller and heaters again working against each other?
Best solution I see so far is to add a couple of temp probes in the tank and have them control the heaters and chillers, via a couple of controllers. Which then causes the problem of having all the heaters being shut down in case the probe or controller fault…
Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[cdness]

Love the setup and surely cannot wait until I am able to set up a tank of this size. Looks fantastic!

Regarding the heater/chiller, you may want to consider putting them both in the same section. That way you will know they won't fight each other. Also I know with my ACIII From Neptune I can have 2 temp probes with a PX1000 add-on module. This would allow you to know the temps in each place of the system and control the heater and cooler that way. If you use their internal thermostats I think they will fight and not get the efficiency out fo them.

Also I have the OR6500 for my closed loop pump and LOVE it. It is the only pump I have had that just runs without issue. I even left it for over a year and a half without cleaning it and it still ran fine. I don't know what it would do with the additional head though.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks cdness,
can you please elaborate on putting them in the same direction? if it means one after the other then the later one will be affected by the one in front right?
Don't have a controller as I'm still waiting for the 220V version of APEX to be out so I'm trying to avoid the separate controller option in the mean time.
As for OR I have acouple of them 2500 and 3500. Had few issues with the 2500 airlocking when power goes off for a while but after a clean up it worked fine. I'm sure the 6500 would handle 7-8 just fine as the 2500 pushes water up a stand and tank easily over 5 feet.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Maroun - This is an amazing build. i love getting to see pics from the beginning. How long has this project taken so far??

 

[maroun.c]

Maroun - This is an amazing build. i love getting to see pics from the beginning. How long has this project taken so far??

Thanks,
Project was in mind when I bought our appartment which was still underconstruction, early 2009. since then I could only plan and did buy a few things for the tank however the actual build started a couple of months ago with the stand and tank....

 

[maroun.c]

Sump plans,
How much would you have the separation betweenthe baffles? would 1" be OK?

 

[maroun.c]

Final Sump plans which should solve the Chiller issues...

 

[maroun.c]

And some early Scaping attempts.
Needed something that would accentuate the tank deapth and have a 3D effect. Scap had to go higher from Rght to left so that viewing the tank from the RT side one would see an ascending structure with many of the corals still visible.
Not sure if I should still make it a bit higher than this or not. Any suggetsions are welcome.
Front View:

Rt Side view:

Lt side viewed from above

Rt side viewed from above

Top view from backside.

LT Island:
This one definitly will be a bit higher and will get a bit more creative in a couple of bridges

Middle island.
The obliquity and ascending from front to back bridge on this one should show the deaoth of the tank better.

Viewed from the RT side.

And a couple of islands on the RT side:

 

[Aquaph8]

Nice job Maroun. You have a very beautiful tank. What is the black stuff on top of the plywood on the stand?

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Nice project man. Can't wait to see what it'll look like!! You really got this planned out. Following

 

[maroun.c]

Nice job Maroun. You have a very beautiful tank. What is the black stuff on top of the plywood on the stand?

That would be the outer layer of the plywood, it's a dark brown actually.

 

[maroun.c]

Nice project man. Can't wait to see what it'll look like!! You really got this planned out. Following

Thanks. Been planning each step since a couple of years now and the worst part is that upon execution I still make changes...

 

[Reef UP]

Great build

 

[maroun.c]

DIY Glass sump assembled and water tested.
This is the biggest tank I have made so far myself and so far it looks good with no leaks or bowing.
Sump holds around 120G (440L) of water
60x26x18" (150x65x45cm)
Sump will handle around 40G (150 L) of water backflowing when return pumps are shut down which should accomodate the volume drained from tank and fishroom.
skimmers partition is 16x26x10" (40x65x25cm) then a 18G (65 L) Return partition and a couple 16G 60L partitions 12x26x12" (30x65x30cm) partitions which will act as Fuges and might be converted into inline frag tanks when the Fishroom in functional.

 

[1986com]

wow looking great ........

 

[maroun.c]

Got to go see the Wall unit being constructed a couple of days ago. This is the main cause of delay of the whole build as it's design with wood resting on the glass it has to be installed so that the stand and tank location is finalized. Didn't risk relying on measurments as the slightest wall imperfection will cause an uneven wood glass cocntact which will ruin the look. Moving the stand with the tank on it would be a difficult task especially with risk of damaging the flooring...
saw it with the wife and then with the architect friend and reefer who designed it and both came up with last minute changes on it which will cause a couple of weeks delays for sure. :cry:
Still overall I'm impressed by the design and craftmanship.

The two closets right next tot he tank from each side will be left empty and will have wide open side on the tank for easy access.

Side view as will be seen from second seating area, Looks It'll be more visible than I expected.

Tank opening will be changed to a one pannel for more access.

And Side cabinets

From Tanks Side

And Side access:

Big thanks to Youssef and Eddy.

 

[gar732]

WOW, that's impressive! I can't wait to see this all come together.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks.