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Tank Log: Tank & Stand |
The tank and stand are finally here! Actually the tank has been here about a week, but has been waiting for a stand to put it on.
The tank came in mostly as specified with one significant deviation. When I made the choice to go with acrylic, an important consideration was that tank cleaning be made as easy as possible to minimize the chance of scratching the tank. This meant that it was important to me to be able to minimize the width of the top bracing around the perimeter of the tank. Unfortunately (or perhaps it is fortunately), the tank mfr. (Tricon) has stopped making the narrow top bracing that I thought I was going to get. They did this because of some failures on the thin bracing version. So part of me was disappointed in the loss of service access, but that is probably better than a possible failure in the future.
I requested two Seaswirl openings in the back corners of the tank and they look like they will work great. I did not think about requesting anymore openings because stock tanks always have some access slots. This one was built to my spec and I didn't spec any more openings, so I did not get any. I wanted access on either side of the center overflow to allow power cord access for 4 Maxijet 1200 power heads on my wavemaker. I was able to easily resolve this by cutting round 2 1/2" openings using a wood hole saw on my drill. I had Tap Plastics cut me two acrylic 6" x 3 1/2" x 1/2" this pieces. I then drilled two 7/8" holes in each one to place my power heads in. I also glued some small acrylic cubes to serve as stops to prevent the power heads from changing direction on me. I glued them into the back of the tank using their Weldon 16 acrylic cement. The power heads are positioned in 2 feet from either end of the tank.
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Here's the tank waiting for a stand to put it on. I peeked inside to ensure that nothing major was wrong, but left it mostly wrapped up to provide protection while it's setting on the ground. |
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Here is the top brace. I was expecting to get a 2"-3" brace, but I got the standard 6" brace instead. Disappointing, but probably for the better, at least that is what I keep telling myself. |
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While the tank was on it's back, I drilled two 2 1/2" holes for power head cords to go through. I also made up two acrylic power head holders as shown and glued them to the back. |
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The stand finally came in today (5/13/01). One feature that I am really glad I specified is the large end doors which will allow me easy access to place a large sump or for maintenance. This shows one end with the door removed. |
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After drilling a few extra holes on the back of the stand for access and drilling the overflow hole in the top of the base, we finally got the thing set in place. |
Now comes the fun part, filling it with about 250 gallons of RO/DI water. My system puts out about 25 gallons a day, so it will take me about 10 days to get the tank filled (as well as service my other tanks.)
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The substrate will include of 80lbs of CaribSea Aragonite which has a medium size grain. |
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The other new substrate I am adding includes 120lbs of
Nature's Ocean Aragonite. This substrate has a very nice particle
size range from moderately small to very small.
The remainder of the substrate will be comprised of the larger particle sand which will be moved from my 70 gallon tank. |
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Here is the tank partially filled with water and sand. Basic sump tank (50 gal) is setup in the base. |
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Here I am, skimming the crud off the top of the water. The tank is mostly filled and the sand has been added unwashed. There is a small amount of floating matter in the water which I am skimming off with a fine mesh net. The water is very milky and will take a couple of days to clear. |
I also used this time to wire up the hood. The hood will contain four 400W 10K metal halide bulbs powered by two dual PFO ballasts. It will be supplemented with four 110W 4' actinic VHO bulbs driven by an icecap 660 ballast. Cooling will consist of four 12V muffin fans.
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This picture shows the basic setup. I have positioned the MH parallel to the hood due to the width of the tank. I have offset the 4' VHO as shown. I chose to go with dimpled aluminum reflectors rather than fancier spider reflectors because I have heard of hotspots created by those reflectors killing coral. |
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Here is a close up of one end showing the fans which are mounted on an aluminum mount. |
