12ft Tank Build Planning

[grumpy-crab]

Following

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following!

 

[gms1234]

SUMP -
Sump design pretty much done, Left is for the 3 rollers, 2nd is frag / refugium section, 3rd is for skimmer / reactors ( with plenty of room for upgrade later on) and final section is for the returns. 6ft long, close to 3ft wide.
It will over 2/3 of the stand and leave 1/3 for external equipment - doses, calcium reactor, kalk, electronics etc.

LIGHTS -
I'm very interested in the Orphek Natura Icon's at the moment, backup option is A8 pro.

Orphek have some very nice power to par ration which should be substantial. - $1500 less power used per year on the orphek's vs the a8's, $750 for the radions.
After 3 years of running Orphek's the power savings will cover the cost difference between the a8's and orphek's.

SKIMMER-
Have gotten my hands on a used JNS Shark 7 at a very good price, needs a couple of pumps but will get me started for cheap and then I can work out where to go from there once tank is set up. I've heard good things about these skimmers so should be fine for the time being or possibly long term.

WAVEMAKERS-
Currently have 9-10 wave makers mostly approx 15,000 lph upto 35,000 lph - total 170,000 lph, should be enough to get me started and will assess once the tank has water in it. Might look at some gyros with target for detritus management.

FILTER ROLLERS -
I have been using bubble magnus roll's in my custom sump with its own custom roller with good success for a couple years. My plan is to buy 3 bubble magnus rollers for this and run them. Should work fine, no app but that doesn't bother me, my current one does't have one and I replaced alot of part on my redsea 500 when I had once. The redsea customer service was great though. given I can get 4 bubble magnus for the price on 1 redsea 1200, its not a bad option. Back up plan will be redsea 1200's or the seatorch 300 rollers (roll supply may be an issue looking at their limited stock on the website).

Chiller -
9kw swimming pool chiller with titanium heat exchanger is the plan. I've got some recommendations and few people with larger reef's use them with good success. I'm not interested in running AC all year around in the house. Our climate is pretty warm and humid in Queensland Australia. I current run at TK2000 on my 6ft approx 200Gal tank and it doesn't keep up on the hottest days. Most of the time its pretty good but it certainly has a hard life.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

I want to do an TSLOT stand with a Planet 310 tank with an internal overflow. I gave the tank dimensions (96.5 x 30.5 x 25) to the AluFab rep and he came back with
AQSTAND - 96X30X36-BL-303096.5"W x 30.5"D x 36"H
Black Aquarium Stand Kit
3"x3" extrusion Based

I don't think 3x3 is going to work with an internal overflow due to the plumbing clearance ??

 

[gms1234]

I want to do an TSLOT stand with a Planet 310 tank with an internal overflow. I gave the tank dimensions (96.5 x 30.5 x 25) to the AluFab rep and he came back with
AQSTAND - 96X30X36-BL-303096.5"W x 30.5"D x 36"H
Black Aquarium Stand Kit
3"x3" extrusion Based

I don't think 3x3 is going to work with an internal overflow due to the plumbing clearance ??

Can you get the tank design technical drawings and send that off?

I'm using 8080 for all of my stand. The crate actually arrived yesterday but am yet to open.
Whole project is just moving slowly until our floors are sorted and the tank arrives. Next week I plan to set up my IBC as a temporary tank.

Sounds like yours will be an awesome build.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Can you get the tank design technical drawings and send that off?

I'm using 8080 for all of my stand. The crate actually arrived yesterday but am yet to open.
Whole project is just moving slowly until our floors are sorted and the tank arrives. Next week I plan to set up my IBC as a temporary tank.

Sounds like yours will be an awesome build.

Trying to get the design drawings, but Planet works through dealers so trying that route. I'm thinking 3"x1.5" would work easily but not sure about 3"x3".

Who did you order your 8080 from? I guess 8080 is close to 3"x3" but not quite. When AluFab quotes 3"x3" I wonder if they mean 8080?

 

[gms1234]

So, stand is build, pretty dam solid and ready to go into the house.
Wasn't too bad to build, bit of a prick lining up holes for the hex bit to go through and tighten the bolts.
Still have to add the angle brackets but will do that once its in place and ensure everything is square.
Probably another 6 weeks or so before the tank arrives. starting to order more equipment - pumps and rollers on the way. Need to order lights, skimmer pump and chiller. Still yet to move the current tank into a IBC but have now got a set up to collect NSW. As soon as rain clears up will do that.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Beast of a stand, for a beast of a tank️

 

[JonoH]

Awesome thread, glad i found this! Always nice to have more Aussie tanks on here.
I am considering a similar upgrade, so following along.

 

[gms1234]

Now trying to work out ventilation ideas. Have a bulk head above the tank. Thinking of putting 2 TT silent inline fans. 200mm with 2 intake vents to each. 477-500 CFM each (800-1000m3/hr).

House is open most of the year, would automate with home assistant to turn off when AC is on. Have a ducted AC unit with vent on other side of the room. I think the fact our house has alot of airflow as it's always open (security screen on windows and doors) it shouldn't be too much of a issue.

I'm about a month away from install I think, have made some changes to the stand, order some new stainless fittings so will need to spend an afternoon replacing them.

Have ordered some pumps for my skimmer, got a large skimmer from local shop for a good price, have ordered a couple jebco pumps and will 3d print an needle wheel for them as trial run. Eventually I'll probably upgrade the skimmer once I work out what I'm after.

 

[JonoH]

Now trying to work out ventilation ideas. Have a bulk head above the tank. Thinking of putting 2 TT silent inline fans. 200mm with 2 intake vents to each. 477-500 CFM each (800-1000m3/hr).

House is open most of the year, would automate with home assistant to turn off when AC is on. Have a ducted AC unit with vent on other side of the room. I think the fact our house has alot of airflow as it's always open (security screen on windows and doors) it shouldn't be too much of a issue.

I'm about a month away from install I think, have made some changes to the stand, order some new stainless fittings so will need to spend an afternoon replacing them.

Have ordered some pumps for my skimmer, got a large skimmer from local shop for a good price, have ordered a couple jebco pumps and will 3d print an needle wheel for them as trial run. Eventually I'll probably upgrade the skimmer once I work out what I'm after.

Where are you getting your Tank made? I have a few contacts in Aus for this and was curious who you went with.

 

[gms1234]

Where are you getting your Tank made? I have a few contacts in Aus for this and was curious who you went with.

Aquariums Brisbane. Tank not arrived yet, but they have been pretty good in the design process.

 

[JonoH]

Aquariums Brisbane. Tank not arrived yet, but they have been pretty good in the design process.

Nice, they are who i have been looking at also, they were significantly better priced than the others!
Hope it all goes well.

 

[gms1234]

Nice, they are who i have been looking at also, they were significantly better priced than the others!
Hope it all goes well.

I had quotes from Denisons, similar price but alot longer wait ~9 months. And cade (just under double price and I would have to pick up from the port).

 

[JonoH]

I had quotes from Denisons, similar price but alot longer wait ~9 months. And cade (just under double price and I would have to pick up from the port).

There's also JZ Marine (NSW), and Starfire Aquatics (Melbourne).
JZ Marine were pretty reasonable also.

 

[gms1234]

There's also JZ Marine (NSW), and Starfire Aquatics (Melbourne).
JZ Marine were pretty reasonable also.

I just looked for local options where its possible for builder to install and took some recommendations from my local shop. I was not interested in moving the tank myself. 6ft was hard enough.

 

[JonoH]

I just looked for local options where its possible for builder to install and took some recommendations from my local shop. I was not interested in moving the tank myself. 6ft was hard enough.

Your lucky then! I have no local options here in Adelaide, unless i want to build it myself...but I'm not confident enough to do more than a 6 foot tank!

 

[gms1234]

I'm working out my returns. Going to run 2 20,000 pumps. One straight to the tank and the other via a swimming pool chiller. I'm thinking sending each pump to 1" return lines on back wall of the tank. Do you guys think the total 4 returns lines would be sufficient with 2 20k pumps. I'm expecting a bunch of loss via the chiller, ai shows about 11,000 lph and 4-6000/ lph via chiller. Total 17,000 lph 3000L tank volume. About 5-6x turn over.
Does this seem sufficient or should I look at bigger return plumbing?

 

[JonoH]

Have you decided on what direction you'll go for lights yet?
I have one of the A8's i got as a trial on my frag tank, and its been great.

 

[gms1234]

Have you decided on what direction you'll go for lights yet?
I have one of the A8's i got as a trial on my frag tank, and its been great.

I'm 90% sure of ordering a bunch of Orphic natura either 9 or 11 of them. Much more energy efficient which is the bigger selling point for me