New house basement build

[aztecdreams]

I would agree with sticking with the MH especially since you like the purdy sticks. I went to LED because of heat issues and went back to MH

 

[scchase]

Here is a rough sketch of the rockwork plans, orientation, and access platform.

 

[scchase]

The fish room will at least have 2 large water changing vats plumbed for easy water changes, utility sink, possibly a dishwasher or washign machine, frag flat that I havent included yet, and water testing bench.

 

[FishTV]

Sound awesome, tagging along!

 

[sethsolomon]

frag flat that I haven't included yet

Come get the one I have sitting on the side of my house Free! you know you want a 4ft x 8ft frag table

 

[jda123]

When I had the big dog, I had a plank made out of acrylic to get out over that thing. I might suggest that plan on having to get out over the middle and have some way to move your lights. I used AquaMedic pendants and they were just over the islands of rock, so I had room to move in between them.

 

[scchase]

Yep all the lights will be mounted on track so they can be moved as needed. Planning on using a combination of a plank if I need to get middle and well sometimes a snorkel may just be the ticket as well.
Here is my current lighting thoughts though obciously not to scale

 

[jda123]

Is that tank 96x96xwhat? If less than 30, I might suggest that you employ some 150W HQI to fill some lighting voids. Some people think that they are substandard, but the are every bit as good as 250W mogul based halides. The 24+ month bulb life is quite good too.

I am sure that you know this having big tanks already, but heating them is no joke. Even on my 450G system, I use almost 1800W of heaters. What are you going to end up with? 5000 watts? I don't even want to think about it. Heat from Halides is not such a bad thing on basement tanks during about 11.5 months of the year.

 

[scchase]

36" deep and yep you are right on heating I actually found it was cheaper to heat my house in Loveland than the tanks and will probably run a similar situation this time. I used a sole 500 watt heater on the 600 or so gallons I had set up in Loveland for reference which kept it above 77 year round with a top temp in the summer of around 82 on a super warm day. In general I prefer some drift in temp it seems to make corals less prone to temperature problems when something out of the ordinary occurs IME. I plan on insulating all non viewing areas of the tank as well to help in this regard with insultating foam panels. With that lighting schedule the halides would only be on 6 hours per day and perhaps even 4 with the LEDs making the bulk of viewing time. Would probably go with 10k lamps as well for the halides to get the better pinks and yellows which should come out well under the LEDs as well. I also run my lighting on an offset timing with lights coming on in the late afternoon and turning off later at night which helps to balance heating and cooling problems as well.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Tagging along!

 

[sethsolomon]

Scott if you're thinking of using the kessils for blue accent, check these out http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-10x-100W-...Domain_0&var=510349202747&hash=item4ad81c634c

 

[scchase]

And now for the planned stock list. I want multiple pairs of fish to encourage spawning behavior as much as possible as part of some experiments with creating a better ecosystem. Also decided that in the 500g refugium at least a portion will be dedicated to a small mangrove forest in addition to the seas grass section and will contain no or very few small fish.
Planned stock list:
Goldflake angel x2
Regal Angel x2
Flame Angel x 3
Emperor Angel x2
Blueline Angel x2
Black Tang
Achilles Tang
Yellow Tang x5
Pacific Blue Tang
bunch of damsels
undetermined wrasses

 

[jda123]

How about some of the sexually dimorphic Genicanthus? You know that I love 'em. They will try and spawn in my 240 and 120... not very well, though.

Have you considered 150W HQI instead of the kessils? Just curious. Some people think that 150W is not that much, but they are no joke. My apologies if you have used them before. I don't think that you would need as many as you would Kessils so the wattage might be the same. Anyway, I was just curious since lighting is the main reason that I don't have the 1200G here and set up - so wanting to learn and appreciate your thoughts.

If you want to do mangroves big-time, plan your top off to act like rain to shower the mangroves with RO/DI... and fill the tank at the same time.

 

[SkyShark]

If you want to do mangroves big-time, plan your top off to act like rain to shower the mangroves with RO/DI... and fill the tank at the same time.

That is a really cool idea. I could see a few ways to implement that without too much trouble.

 

[halmus]

I like the idea of the RO/DI shower as well. I also had a lot of success with mangroves by making an acrylic enclosure that would sit over the mangrove tank. (think an upside down aquarium). That contained all the moisture and seemed to keep the mangroves happy. I never had encrusted salt problems on the leaves. They were maintenance free.

But, I still like the RO/DI shower idea.

 

[scchase]

I like the idea of the shower as well. Think I might make a 4 foot or so tall plexiglass enclosure for the setup to do it with which beyond not only helping the mangroves would reduce humidity and heat loss as well.
As to the Genicanthus I will probably do a trio of either Watanabeis or Bellus Angels. Knew I was forgetting a group in there.

 

[halmus]

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I have similar plans for a large refugium on a system I've been building in my head for a year now. I had the idea of creating a large cave system at one end of the system shielded from the light to create a "benthic (cryptic) zone" that I could observe. The idea would be that filter feeders / sponges would thrive there. I have no idea if it is all that beneficial. I suppose it's debatable for those that are interested in what I call reef-politics. Our rock-work already provides a little bit of that anyway. I just love the diversity.

 

[scchase]

Got lucky and found an established Achilles tang today so one fish down many more to go.

 

[scchase]

Here is my old tank in its future home just need to get a stand built and reseal it before it goes up

Now for the sump for the new tank and what will be a holding tank for a few months till everything else is ready to go once I get it full I will trim up the liner and clean the edges

And finally the spot for the new monster will be placed once I get it built

 

[High Plains Reefer]

when do you want me to to stop by to get some measurements for the frame?