Take some chemistry courses, hydro dynamic engineering or whatever they call it at your school, and some basic engineering classes. Knowing how to not under-engineer and over-build a tank stand is harder than it sounds. a 150 gallon tank only needs to be supported by 5-ply plywood with a cleat and a top sheet to keep the walls square. no need to for anything else. it's why you can stand on a cabinet with marble counters and the cabinets won't flex. as long as they are built correctly.
770 Gallon Monster Setup
- Thread starter aldiaz33
- Start date
Take some chemistry courses, hydro dynamic engineering or whatever they call it at your school, and some basic engineering classes. Knowing how to not under-engineer and over-build a tank stand is harder than it sounds. a 150 gallon tank only needs to be supported by 5-ply plywood with a cleat and a top sheet to keep the walls square. no need to for anything else. it's why you can stand on a cabinet with marble counters and the cabinets won't flex. as long as they are built correctly.
This would probably make a good tread starter, not a middle of another interesting thread post. As much as I'd like to answer and see others answer, I'm not gonna do so here. Start a new thread and if I see it in the main "new post" area I would love to answer, it should probably be posted in "The Lounge", since it's not technically in regards to the fish but your education about the fish.
good luck with getting your answers.....
Thanks. I got the gravel from here: http://www.broadmoorlumber.com/landscape_04decorocks.htm
I'm starting to see why so many people prefer sand or bare bottom tanks though...this gravel being 3/8" to 1/2" creates tons of little spaces for poop to settle into.
Thanks.
!!!! So ?!?!!??? What's the verdict on average costs? I believe you've been running the heaters about two weeks now, attempting to gather "run & maintain" information. Originally it looked like it costs $12 to heat the tank to what temp you wanted, but the normal run costs were not foreseeable yet. Well, two weeks should be some little bit of preliminary information. What'cha got??? we need a hit.... I've just read ~30 pages of this post and need to know how the story ends..
This is an awesome tank and you deserve great kuddos on investing so much into your hobby.. Your present fish look pretty awesome in there and really show why they are so popular...if only every one could see them in a beauty like you've got.. wow. Of course, a little more personality or strangeness that you'd get with the tropical options would be welcome, but you're tank really shows off the GF really well.. It looks great.
I personally like your patience in setting it all up and the way you organize your priorities. First, you got a rocking tank... awesome job on finding "a deal". Then, you went first class on filtration, you seem like you want to second guess your investment on the plumbing, but imo without a great filtration system, you're starting on the wrong foot. The filtration and biological balance of the tank is such a foundational ingredient to anything else you might want to try later on... Lighting, background, aesthetics, and stocking are all things that can be done later on without much disruption. If you don't get your filtration right from the beginning, you'll be disturbing everything else and possibly having massive clean-ups later on. So, good on ya for that.
One reason I want to leave SD is because of all the laws that Ca has.... I'm from the south and much prefer a little less gov in my day to day... thank you. I agree, there are some nice parts of being around all the city's options.. but I just don't know if it's worth it.
I give MFK the credit for teaching people how to take care of their tanks(and their inhabitants) like you have. OH, and I love how on MFK.... we all want to be building a tank so badly that when you update your thread a.) you HAVE to include pics or it doesn't count and b.) any pics will do, they don't have to have fish or anything in it... just pics of heater boxes...and we're happy
Anyhow, great tank... good luck
sub'd
Thanks for the kind words. It's only been 5 days since I got the temp up to 78, but in those 5 days I'm averaging about 10KWHRs per day which is costing me roughly $3.40 per day (or $102/month). It's been unseasonably warm though, so I'm pretty sure it would cost up to $150 month in a colder December or January.
In regards to my filtration, I've always gone big in that area; my old larger setups had a sump and 2 canisters each (see pix below). I've also never been one to overstock a tank, so I think that's why I never have water quality issues. But I hear you...filtration is crucial.
I want to maintain 78F for a few more days to see if the cost stays consistent, but I also want to make sure that I can heat to 85F in the event of an ich outbreak. I will be testing that out soon. Like my Ma always says, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."
PS- I love SD. If my family, friends, job weren't up here in the Bay, I would be living down there.
Filtration on my old 270G: 35G sump and 2 XP3s
Filtration on my old 240G: 35G sump and 2 XP4s (the other XP4 was on the other side of the stand)
More and more I'm starting to think this way. I hate the idea of such a large monthly expense (somehow more so than the upfront costs of the setup), but I think after all the work and $ I've put into it and since it looks like it might not cost as much as I initially predicted, I might as well just go for it and keep what I want.
Hey Aaron- I hear you; I'll probably buy a Ranco sometime this week. Right now it looks like one of the heaters is typically almost always on. It's weird in that it's usually not the same one (they seem to take turns coming on which is strange because you would think that the one with the lowest setting would be on a lot more than the others). I wanted to hold off on buying the Ranco until I got a good idea of how much energy it was going to take to maintain tropical temps, but since it looks like it won't be "that" bad, I'll make the investment in the controller. I will definitely be playing with the settings and how many watts I have running to see if I can find the efficient frontier.
Sometimes I wish I had an extra foot of front to back depth, but that would also mean I would need even more wattage to heat this thing, so maybe it's a good thing I only have 3 feet. Some of those peacocks are beautiful, but they seem to get pretty huge and I definitely don't have any intentions on upgrading. I don't think I would want any fish that grows to over 16". I would actually like to keep my old stock and maybe add a green terror. Here's a pic of my old 270...I really liked having the Oscar in there as the "big boss" and all the other schooling fish...it made for a nice effect. Since my new tank has twice as much height, maybe I would get a school of Pink Tail Chalceus for the upper level. I know a lot of people would want to see an arowana, but I'm not sure I want to go that route (too big). I am definitely getting excited about all the options I have in regards to stock.
My old 270G:
My old Red Hooks. I think I would want to get Black Bar SDs since they get even bigger than red hooks and I like the look of the black bar.
My old Oscar (say what you want about how common they are, this guy was a boss with tons of personality).
My old Bala Sharks in a 5 gallon bucket right before I sold them. I think the biggest was 10 or 11".
Since your tank is in it's own little room, would it be possible to have a pool or spa heater on the other side of the wall. I don't know how much the large propane tanks would cost you or how fast you would run through them but it might be worth looking into.
I've considered this, but it would be pretty costly (I think my return on investment would be something like 5 or 6 years).
Update: I've got pretty serious condensation forming on my skylights and on the windows. I kinda figured this would happen since the room is so small...it's gotten really humid now that I'm heating the water. If I open the windows a little it definitely helps reduce the condensation, but then I'm letting cold air into the room, which means my heaters have to run more to maintain temps. But I don't want mold growing, so I think I have no choice but to open the windows. That or run a dehumidifier, but I hear those things use a lot of electricity. Not sure what would use more juice...leaving the windows open and having the heaters cycle on more often, or leaving them shut and running a dehumidifier.
I tried sealing off a lot of the gaps on the top to reduce evaporation...not sure how much that will help, but we will see.
I ordered a Ranco Controller from Jehmco today, so I should have my heaters hooked up to the controller by the end of the week. I've decided I'm going for it...the goldfish have gotta go!
I've considered this, but it would be pretty costly (I think my return on investment would be something like 5 or 6 years).
Update: I've got pretty serious condensation forming on my skylights and on the windows. I kinda figured this would happen since the room is so small...it's gotten really humid now that I'm heating the water. If I open the windows a little it definitely helps reduce the condensation, but then I'm letting cold air into the room, which means my heaters have to run more to maintain temps. But I don't want mold growing, so I think I have no choice but to open the windows. That or run a dehumidifier, but I hear those things use a lot of electricity. Not sure what would use more juice...leaving the windows open and having the heaters cycle on more often, or leaving them shut and running a dehumidifier.
I tried sealing off a lot of the gaps on the top to reduce evaporation...not sure how much that will help, but we will see.
I ordered a Ranco Controller from Jehmco today, so I should have my heaters hooked up to the controller by the end of the week. I've decided I'm going for it...the goldfish have gotta go!
Here is a low tech way to get rid of your humidity problem. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
My cousin used to use something like this in his room to catch the humidity.
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A dehumidifier shouldn't use that much electricity. I always have one set up in my basements to keep them from getting musty. The new ones are programable to only kick on at certain humidity levels and will shut off once they lower it a certain amount. An exhaust fan might be another option but I don't know if one would use any less electricity than a dehumidifier.
