Cali Kid Corals

Gimmito's 450 gal L-shaped tank

Evening all,

I'm in the midst of setting up a 450 L-shape tank (6' x 4' x 32"). It's made of 1" acrylic in the front and right side & 3/4" on left side and back. It has a 2" tubular steel around the perimeter that is powder coated. Gen of KritterTanks built it and did a great job !

Here are some of the equipment I'm thinking of using:

Lights-400 watt coralvue dimmable ballast w/lumenbright reflectors.

Protein Skimmer-Reeflo Prokit or H&S 250 in sump model (to save some space).

Calcium Reactor-Deltec PF601S (keeping mostly sps w/some lps).

Denitrator-H&S 150SR (I do like fish and would like to keep some shoals of anthias, but would like to keep nutrients down).

Return Pumps- 2 Reeflow Dart Golds (I'm thinking of using a Oceans Motions or manifold).

Contoller-Reefkeeper Elite or New Aquacontroller.

Water Movement-An array of Vortech Pumps and Tunze Streams.

Sump-100 gal Eco system sump (I don't know if I'm going to actually use miracle mud)

Refugium-I would like to employ a gravity fed fuge on the upper left part of the tank.

That's all for now...I would appreciate your inputs !!

Jim

p.s. tank shots can be seen a www.krittertanks.com (the last 2 shots are my tank).
 
:) I would love to hear some of the experience reefer's opinions. For stand, I know they last a long time but this is very close to the water. I have to clean the salt creep on top of my plastic brace every couple weeks or so.
 
Awesome set up!
I could not find the pics though.
I like using two return pumps also (in case one fails).
I use a smaller one and a larger one. My small one is on a battery back up in case of power failure.
You might not need that much return pump flow if you put the vortechs and tunzes in all the right places.
 
I believe it's this one..
3707234205_c33e16c0e9_b.jpg
 
Thanks for the kind words fellas. I still have to figure out the posting of the pic's....I have some updated shots on my iphone.

Phong,

I know I'm going to have to wipe down the salt creep on a weekly basis...just part of having that "piece of the ocean."

Jar,

I do like the 2 pump in case one fails method also. I'm just kinda figuring with about of 12' headloss going from the basement to 1st floor...I'm going to lose a bit of flow.

Jim
 
Let's see if this works:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35287044@N04/sets/72157613616968574/show/

Phong,

You gotta show me how to post pic's !!
 
Wow, that's some tank, I remember Gen mentioning a process of using steel during his talk, but wow, looks like you get the best of both worlds, large tank, minimal bracing (from an access stand point). I would be curious to how this would hold up over time, although unfortunately this is a thing that only time can tell... that is unless you could use those chambers the car companies use to stress something for "many years" in a relatively short period of time.
 
very cool tank :)

The corrosion issue will be highly dependent on the material used. Not all steel (even stainless varieties) are created equal in the corrosion department. You could ask gen what type he used (not that it will change anything now). Ideally, you'd want to use something like 316SS
 
I saw that tank, it's quite a beast, the overflows are VERY interesting.

AFA powdercoated steel it is used in some commercial aquarium applications and all of the ones I've seen have shown little to no corrosion.
 
gimmito said:
Let's see if this works:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35287044@N04/sets/72157613616968574/show/

Phong,

You gotta show me how to post pic's !!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35287044@N04/sets/72157613616968574/
That is the folder.. Click on the picture that you want to see.. click full size... right click and select properties.. Copy the url..

To post pic.. type this without any space -- > [img ] url [/img ]
 
Jar,
I wanted to keep all the "mechanical stuff" in the basement, so I could keep the wife happy. Believe me, I'm sure we've all been there when trying to convince our significant other that we want a bigger tank.

Mike,
I wanted a open top for axcess and saw how Daniel Knopp did his tank w/steel rods in coral magazine. Unfortunately that brings it's own set of problems. Gen came up with the idea of using 2" milled tubular steel and powder coating it.

Tony,

I did ask Gen and I'll let you know when I find out.

If you guys are ever in millbrae, feel free to give me a holler to check out the tank.

Jim cell 650-784-6900
 
Tuberider,
I initially wanted to do a coast to coast overflow ala Anthony Calfo style, but that would have prevented me from placing some vortechs on the rear/upper part of the tank. Gen & I came up w/the idea of placing full length 2 tier overflow boxes on either side of the tank. You won't be to them when it's full of l/r and corals. I want to have as least amount of equipment in the tank.

Phong,

Thanks for the tips...I'll try and down load some pic's from my ipone tonight.

Jim
 
gimmito said:
If you guys are ever in millbrae, feel free to give me a holler to check out the tank.

Jim cell 650-784-6900

Shoot I just came back from Millbrae, prolly was taking care of your neighbors tank, who knows. One of them is the Commander of your Police force, a real good guy :)
 
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