=======UPDATED PICTURE INDEX=======
- Post #046, 07/11/09 Fish are in the tank!
- Post #055, 07/12/09 New 4-legged inhabitant!
- Post #087, 08/04/09 Lots of updated pics!
- Post #109, 08/09/09 This orino is GLOWING!
- Post #129, 08/29/09 Two more amazing ORINOS!
- Post #144, 09/07/09 MONSTER feeding video!
- Post #152, 09/22/09 DSLR camera, new fish, NEW PICS!
- Post #210, 01/02/10 Happy New Years! Massive update w/ feeding vid
==============================
Hey folks! This will be the thread dedicated to my 405g setup. I will update this thread regularly and this post will contain an index of the post numbers containing new pics. Now bear with me, this is gonna be loooong
THE MADNESS BEGINS:
As some of you may know, I picked up this tank a few weeks ago. Ever since then, this tank has consumed my life. It was all I thought about this whole time. My girlfriend even said she forgot what I looked like since I would be out in the garage as soon as I got home from work and wouldn’t see me until the next morning!
This tank is replacing my current 210g 7x2x2 as the fish are quickly outgrowing its home and my pack of cichla are soon going to need more room. 405 gallons is a guppy breeding tank compared to what some folks have here, but it’s MONSTER enough for now. I’m sure I’ll be upgrading again in a few years Here’s one last farewell shot of the 210g (tank will be in a new home now):
I picked this tank up from a fellow member after taking a long three hour drive. The tank and stand were all moved at once in my trusty little truck. We placed the tank on some 2x4s since it has bulkheads on the bottom. The stand then went on top and was strapped down like there was no tomorrow. The drive home was nerve wracking but went smoothly overall. Below are some pics during the move and how it all looked in the back of my truck:
THE SETUP:
According to the previous owner, this tank was owned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and was built accordingly. The tank itself is 6x3x3 and is built with ¾” acrylic all the way around. What I really like about this tank is that the top is completely open, unlike most acrylic tanks that have tiny openings. To compensate, the tank has a massive double layer ¾” acrylic lip all the way around. The tank has a built-in external overflow and was plumbed for bottom returns as I’ll discuss further below.
The stand is 32” is tall and is made out of 2”x3” square steel tubing. It’s topped off with a sheet of 3/4” plywood.
Because the tank is so wide and so tall, there’s no way it would have fit into the house. I don’t have a sliding glass door either, just a regular patio door. And because I’m only renting right now, I am NOT going to do any modifications to get this to fit in the house. So, this will have to go in the garage for now. It’s not permanent, so no worries! Here’s some pics of the tank as soon as I got it home, and after I cleaned up a little and painted the background black. I used Rustoleum spray paint for the background. Also in these pics you can see the “false” bottom system to be used with the bottom returns.
PLUMBING:
One of my pet peeves with tanks is overly-complicated plumbing. I like to keep this simple and easy to disassemble if need-be. And I hate buying a used tank and trying to make sense of the previous owner’s PVC spaghetti work! Since this tank had the plumbing removed, I had a clean canvas to start with.
Overflow
The tank has a huge external overflow box that sits on the left side of the tank. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about having this visible, but it’s growing on me. It makes for very easy maintenance as this is a big tank to have to get behind. The overflow box is plumbed with a heavy duty 2” bulkhead. I ran 2” PVC all the way down to where it goes into the sump, which then goes to 1 ½”. After painting the side/back of the box and all the visible plumbing black, it doesn’t look all that bad! After the first trial-run, I noticed that the overflow box opening made the water level too low for my liking. So, I took a small sheet of ABS and siliconed it in place to raise the water level about another 1 ½”, worked great!
Returns
The tank was plumbed with two 1 ½” bulkheads on the bottom for returns. After doing lots of thinking, I decided not to use the bottom returns since it would require a lot of extra plumbing to make it 100% safe against siphoning. So, I removed the acrylic pieces that create the false bottom and plugged up one of the returns. The other hole is setup up with a 1 ½” dual-union ball valve for lighting fast water changes. In one of the pics you can see the strainer inside the tank so nothing big can do down while I’m draining the tank. I simply took a 1 ½” PVC coupler and siliconed a sink strainer on top of it, painted it black and called it a day!
For my returns, I installed two 1” bulkheads on the back of the tank, one at the top, and one at the mid-level. Each return has a 1” Flo Control clear dual-union check valve to stop the siphoning when the power is turned off. Each return also has a ball valve underneath the stand to regulate the flow if need-be.
And that’s it! Just a basic plumbing setup and nothing too fancy. Everything is set up with union joints so that it can easily be disassembled and taken apart.
FILTRATION:
Sump
This is where things got a little interesting! The setup came with a 90g 3x2x2 acrylic tank with various bulkheads and holes throughout. It was basically an empty tank. I decided to build only one chamber for the inlet as I wanted to run a filter sock.
I built the divider out of an ABS sheet and acrylic strips as support. On the top is a sheet of eggcrate with a filter sock, this is where the water comes in. I didn’t build any other dividers as I wanted to run my media mostly submerged. If I could do this differently, I would run two separate inlets into the sump as one filter sock is not big enough; some of the water gurgles out above the sock. Oh well, I can change that easily down the road.
The seller threw in a huge bag of ceramic bio rings. I think it’s about 60lbs worth of rings. I put them in small laundry bags I got at Walmart and tossed them in. I also threw in the pot scrubbers that I had from my previous tank to have some established filter media.
Pump
The setup came a Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC pump which puts out 1325gph at 145w. The pump was brand new and had not been used, so I gave it a shot even though I knew it wouldn’t be enough flow for the tank. I was right! I was in the process of looking for a new pump when I realized I had a brand new pond pump sitting in my garage. I bought it several years ago and never used it. It’s an older model Wave/Super Falls pump that does about 3400gph if I remember correctly and is rated at 1.7 amps, or about 196w. Energy consumption is not bad considering how outdated this pump is. It will only cost me about $15 a month to run. This thing flows like MAD! Check out the mini-waterfall pics
Canister
And as if that weren’t enough, I’m also running an FX5 on this bad boy. All three baskets of the FX5 are filled with more ceramic bio rings. I don’t think I will ever fit enough fish in this tank to exceed that bio capacity of all this filtration!! Now that’s MONSTER.
HEATING & MISC:
Heating
The tank is currently running some spare heaters as it’s in my garage and the weather has been fairly warm here in northern California. When it cools down a little, I plan on running a Ranco ETCI-1R temperature controller like this one: http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html
For the actual heating, I will be using titanium heating elements. I will be running 1500w total; 1000w and 500w titanium heating rods like these: http://www.aquadirect.com/store/product.php?productid=21405&cat=1035&page=1
Lighting
Lighting consists of a 48” dual T5HO Current fixture with PowerGlo 18,000k bulbs.
Substrate
I’m really happy with the way this turned out. I mixed about 150lbs of play sand with Black Beauty gravel, Flourite Black, and Flourite Black Sand I had left over from my planted tank. The end result is awesome. Not too dark like with black substrate and not too “bright” like with plain sand.
Décor
The tank has 5 huge pieces of driftwood along with some random plastic plants. 4 pieces of wood are Malaysian and the other one was lifted from my backyard garden!!
FULL TANK SHOTS!!!!!!!!!!!
And finally, what you have all been waiting for, some full tank shots! Sorry, this is all you get for now as I still have lots to do. I need to find some lids, move the fish over, and put on the light! There will be a bunch of random fish in here but this is mainly a home for my peacock bass, silver arowana, and clown loaches. As the pbass get bigger, the other cichlids will start to leave. My plan is to have a tank filled with cichla orinocensis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TO-DO LIST
Finish the stand: I don’t really like looking at bare steel and seeing all the plumbing so I will be finishing up the stand with some plywood and doors.
Also, I’d like to get a small canopy to clean up the top side. Updates to come!!
Hope you guys enjoy the thread/pics. Feel free to ask any questions
- Post #046, 07/11/09 Fish are in the tank!
- Post #055, 07/12/09 New 4-legged inhabitant!
- Post #087, 08/04/09 Lots of updated pics!
- Post #109, 08/09/09 This orino is GLOWING!
- Post #129, 08/29/09 Two more amazing ORINOS!
- Post #144, 09/07/09 MONSTER feeding video!
- Post #152, 09/22/09 DSLR camera, new fish, NEW PICS!
- Post #210, 01/02/10 Happy New Years! Massive update w/ feeding vid
==============================
Hey folks! This will be the thread dedicated to my 405g setup. I will update this thread regularly and this post will contain an index of the post numbers containing new pics. Now bear with me, this is gonna be loooong
THE MADNESS BEGINS:
As some of you may know, I picked up this tank a few weeks ago. Ever since then, this tank has consumed my life. It was all I thought about this whole time. My girlfriend even said she forgot what I looked like since I would be out in the garage as soon as I got home from work and wouldn’t see me until the next morning!
This tank is replacing my current 210g 7x2x2 as the fish are quickly outgrowing its home and my pack of cichla are soon going to need more room. 405 gallons is a guppy breeding tank compared to what some folks have here, but it’s MONSTER enough for now. I’m sure I’ll be upgrading again in a few years
Here’s one last farewell shot of the 210g (tank will be in a new home now):
I picked this tank up from a fellow member after taking a long three hour drive. The tank and stand were all moved at once in my trusty little truck. We placed the tank on some 2x4s since it has bulkheads on the bottom. The stand then went on top and was strapped down like there was no tomorrow. The drive home was nerve wracking but went smoothly overall. Below are some pics during the move and how it all looked in the back of my truck:
THE SETUP:
According to the previous owner, this tank was owned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and was built accordingly. The tank itself is 6x3x3 and is built with ¾” acrylic all the way around. What I really like about this tank is that the top is completely open, unlike most acrylic tanks that have tiny openings. To compensate, the tank has a massive double layer ¾” acrylic lip all the way around. The tank has a built-in external overflow and was plumbed for bottom returns as I’ll discuss further below.
The stand is 32” is tall and is made out of 2”x3” square steel tubing. It’s topped off with a sheet of 3/4” plywood.
Because the tank is so wide and so tall, there’s no way it would have fit into the house. I don’t have a sliding glass door either, just a regular patio door. And because I’m only renting right now, I am NOT going to do any modifications to get this to fit in the house. So, this will have to go in the garage for now. It’s not permanent, so no worries! Here’s some pics of the tank as soon as I got it home, and after I cleaned up a little and painted the background black. I used Rustoleum spray paint for the background. Also in these pics you can see the “false” bottom system to be used with the bottom returns.
PLUMBING:
One of my pet peeves with tanks is overly-complicated plumbing. I like to keep this simple and easy to disassemble if need-be. And I hate buying a used tank and trying to make sense of the previous owner’s PVC spaghetti work! Since this tank had the plumbing removed, I had a clean canvas to start with.
Overflow
The tank has a huge external overflow box that sits on the left side of the tank. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about having this visible, but it’s growing on me. It makes for very easy maintenance as this is a big tank to have to get behind. The overflow box is plumbed with a heavy duty 2” bulkhead. I ran 2” PVC all the way down to where it goes into the sump, which then goes to 1 ½”. After painting the side/back of the box and all the visible plumbing black, it doesn’t look all that bad! After the first trial-run, I noticed that the overflow box opening made the water level too low for my liking. So, I took a small sheet of ABS and siliconed it in place to raise the water level about another 1 ½”, worked great!
Returns
The tank was plumbed with two 1 ½” bulkheads on the bottom for returns. After doing lots of thinking, I decided not to use the bottom returns since it would require a lot of extra plumbing to make it 100% safe against siphoning. So, I removed the acrylic pieces that create the false bottom and plugged up one of the returns. The other hole is setup up with a 1 ½” dual-union ball valve for lighting fast water changes. In one of the pics you can see the strainer inside the tank so nothing big can do down while I’m draining the tank. I simply took a 1 ½” PVC coupler and siliconed a sink strainer on top of it, painted it black and called it a day!
For my returns, I installed two 1” bulkheads on the back of the tank, one at the top, and one at the mid-level. Each return has a 1” Flo Control clear dual-union check valve to stop the siphoning when the power is turned off. Each return also has a ball valve underneath the stand to regulate the flow if need-be.
And that’s it! Just a basic plumbing setup and nothing too fancy. Everything is set up with union joints so that it can easily be disassembled and taken apart.
FILTRATION:
Sump
This is where things got a little interesting! The setup came with a 90g 3x2x2 acrylic tank with various bulkheads and holes throughout. It was basically an empty tank. I decided to build only one chamber for the inlet as I wanted to run a filter sock.
I built the divider out of an ABS sheet and acrylic strips as support. On the top is a sheet of eggcrate with a filter sock, this is where the water comes in. I didn’t build any other dividers as I wanted to run my media mostly submerged. If I could do this differently, I would run two separate inlets into the sump as one filter sock is not big enough; some of the water gurgles out above the sock. Oh well, I can change that easily down the road.
The seller threw in a huge bag of ceramic bio rings. I think it’s about 60lbs worth of rings. I put them in small laundry bags I got at Walmart and tossed them in. I also threw in the pot scrubbers that I had from my previous tank to have some established filter media.
Pump
The setup came a Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC pump which puts out 1325gph at 145w. The pump was brand new and had not been used, so I gave it a shot even though I knew it wouldn’t be enough flow for the tank. I was right! I was in the process of looking for a new pump when I realized I had a brand new pond pump sitting in my garage. I bought it several years ago and never used it. It’s an older model Wave/Super Falls pump that does about 3400gph if I remember correctly and is rated at 1.7 amps, or about 196w. Energy consumption is not bad considering how outdated this pump is. It will only cost me about $15 a month to run. This thing flows like MAD! Check out the mini-waterfall pics
Canister
And as if that weren’t enough, I’m also running an FX5 on this bad boy. All three baskets of the FX5 are filled with more ceramic bio rings. I don’t think I will ever fit enough fish in this tank to exceed that bio capacity of all this filtration!! Now that’s MONSTER.
HEATING & MISC:
Heating
The tank is currently running some spare heaters as it’s in my garage and the weather has been fairly warm here in northern California. When it cools down a little, I plan on running a Ranco ETCI-1R temperature controller like this one: http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html
For the actual heating, I will be using titanium heating elements. I will be running 1500w total; 1000w and 500w titanium heating rods like these: http://www.aquadirect.com/store/product.php?productid=21405&cat=1035&page=1
Lighting
Lighting consists of a 48” dual T5HO Current fixture with PowerGlo 18,000k bulbs.
Substrate
I’m really happy with the way this turned out. I mixed about 150lbs of play sand with Black Beauty gravel, Flourite Black, and Flourite Black Sand I had left over from my planted tank. The end result is awesome. Not too dark like with black substrate and not too “bright” like with plain sand.
Décor
The tank has 5 huge pieces of driftwood along with some random plastic plants. 4 pieces of wood are Malaysian and the other one was lifted from my backyard garden!!
FULL TANK SHOTS!!!!!!!!!!!
And finally, what you have all been waiting for, some full tank shots! Sorry, this is all you get for now as I still have lots to do. I need to find some lids, move the fish over, and put on the light! There will be a bunch of random fish in here but this is mainly a home for my peacock bass, silver arowana, and clown loaches. As the pbass get bigger, the other cichlids will start to leave. My plan is to have a tank filled with cichla orinocensis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TO-DO LIST
Finish the stand: I don’t really like looking at bare steel and seeing all the plumbing so I will be finishing up the stand with some plywood and doors.
Also, I’d like to get a small canopy to clean up the top side. Updates to come!!
Hope you guys enjoy the thread/pics. Feel free to ask any questions
