Simon's 450

[ca1ore]

Sump (built a while back) ...

 

[Gweeds1980]

I have it test filled in the garage - mostly to make sure the overflow works as anticipated. The change over is Saturday Oct 28th. Got my Rubbermaid tubs all ready. Just have to wash a bunch of sand and pick up some suction cup moving handles.

Oh yeah, and obsess over my floor reinforcements. 1,500 lbs. heavier than the 265.

Yep... I got a glass 320g, so not far off the same weight... it's a lot! Thankfully it's on a poured concrete floor :)

 

[ca1ore]

Sump system is quite complex. One siphon drains into a 120XH refugium, which in turn drains into the main sump. Also have a 60 gallon frag tank and 20 gallon RDSB that are fed from my manifold pump and drain back to the main sump.

Once the new tank is in, going to redo the water change and quarantine stations.

 

[revhtree]

Awesome sauce!

 

[ca1ore]

..... and the piece-de-resistance, my 'mad scientist' sump room.

 

[ca1ore]

..... sump system was oversized on purpose to allow me to grow the size of the display without running into any capacity or bio-load problems. Also, not replacing the sump at the same time you replace the display reduces the chances of even a small cycle.

 

[Breadman03]

Simon, did you take those pics in my basement?

 

[ca1ore]

That's very funny! Reefing 'madness' converges ...... it's like hoarders for reefers! BTW, 'grand' prize goes to the person that can spot and identify the oldest piece of gear. There are at least three things that I have had for 15 years (it may even be 20, but the memory fades).

 

[Breadman03]

1. The wall keeping the joists above the sump.
2. The halide keeping the sticks growing.
3. The skimmer.

 

[ca1ore]

#2 yes, #3 no, #1 yes ..... but that's cheating LOL It's actually the calcium reactor (19 years) and then the green pH meter (15).

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

So... many... wires... ;Dead

;)

Love all the MTC equipment. Can't wait to see the new tank up and running.

 

[ca1ore]

Yeah, Leo and Jeff make really top quality stuff - certainly the best I have owned.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

This is gonna be awesome!

 

[ca1ore]

Holy crap, thats awesome haha. Got more photos? I wanna see how they grew together with so much shading!

I will say that the primary reason that I prefer frags (other than them being cheaper) is that when happy, a tank can grow up pretty fast. These pictures are day 1 (October 2103), and then after approximately one year and two years. Tank probably looked its best around the three year mark. Have had to do some pretty significant cutting back since then, thus the 'need' for a bigger tank.

 

[ca1ore]

I have changed/augmented the lighting quite a bit over the four year life of the tank, in part to combat the shading that occurs with larger colonies. About two years ago I started adding Kessil spots (360 and 160), and now have 7 of them. About six months ago, I replaced the Gen1 ReefBreeders lights with Gen4 Radions.

This is the same picture as the one posted last week, about six months ago (give or take)

 

[VJV]

Hey ca1ore, awesome build! Is your canopy on a motorized lift? I am looking for ideas because I want to add one to my system. All the best!

 

[ca1ore]

No, just hung on chains. I did a lift years ago, but so rarely used it that it wasn't worth the effort. Easy enough to raise manually when necessary.

 

[A_game43]

Great build, ;)

 

[ca1ore]

Always end up being a bit paranoid about structural integrity ...... particularly since this tank weighs 4,000 lb plus, will sit above my home office and papa will be human jam if the joists don't hold. Tank sits over a foundation wall (imaging tank as a seesaw over said wall). One end is reinforced with two 4x4 posts (sistered 2x4 actually)that sit under the spots where one end of the tank will be, but I cannot do the same for the other end. Thus .....

 

[GK3]

Always end up being a bit paranoid about structural integrity ...... particularly since this tank weighs 4,000 lb plus, will sit above my home office and papa will be human jam if the joists don't hold. Tank sits over a foundation wall (imaging tank as a seesaw over said wall). One end is reinforced with two 4x4 posts (sistered 2x4 actually)that sit under the spots where one end of the tank will be, but I cannot do the same for the other end. Thus .....

Why don’t you just fill the office in with concrete? That should hold it.[emoji23]