New 600g Setup

[Jon M]

So I obtained the new tank I was mentioning in previous threads! Super stoked! As expected, nothing went as planned...

The day started with me renting a 20ft Uhaul. While leaving the Uhaul business I immediately noticed the truck making a very loud knocking sound and acting funny. I called the Uhaul company within 30 seconds of leaving and told the lady that just rented me the truck that the truck didn't sound right at all and seemed like something was wrong with it. She assured me it was just an old truck and not to worry it'll get us where we're going and back...

We made it to Lakeland (about 90 minutes from my home in Port Saint John). Couldn't do music or anything because everything was drown out by the insanely loud knocking of the engine. We were two people short of the help that we expected, and a forklift less than what we also expected! Had to disassemble the stand since it is 4' x 8' x 45" and there was no way it was fitting threw any standard door. Managed to get the tank moved with a bunch of moving blankets, floor pad sections, myself, my gf Shelby, the guy I bought the tank from, and a new couple I befriended that were just passing threw to pickup some lids!

On the way back this truck started having issues accelerating and as expected, the engine literally blew up about 70 minutes from home on I-4 and 417 highway. So I had to wait two hours for a tow truck, and finally got the tank to the house, in a Uhaul, being towed. Some of the help we were supposed to have at the house wasn't able to stay later since we originally were going to be there hours earlier... Miraculously we managed to get the tank in the house and on the 45" stand with myself, Shelby, two friends, and Shelby's step dad who is in his 70s and definitely shouldn't have been helping!!

It was quite the frustrating adventure, but we have our 600 and are ready to setup!!

So as for the setup!! I know tank calculators call 8ft x 4ft x 30" 600 gallons but I'd say it's probably more like 560g since it's 3/4" acrylic. I'm going to just call it 600 for ease though. The stand sits higher than normal so it's a prefect eye level. It's an island style and is the finishing piece for our little fish room. It sits right in the center with the 240, 55, 30, and 55 around it. It has a center chamber that is not an overflow, rather a completely sealed chamber to top and bottom pane, adding even more structure to the tank.

The chamber is drills out in the bottom with 3/8" tubing split for two 8" bubbler disc, one on each side of tank. Then further up it has two drill/bulkhead with screens, one on each side, for water intake. Then at the top of the chamber it has 4 bulkheads, one on each side, and loc line for water return. Inside the chamber it's all plumbed down to a HUGE canister filter with a built in uv sterilizer. The canister has a modified hole drilled in the very bottom with a bulkhead and ball valve and a barb end for easy water changing. You can leave everything running and just attach your tube and hit the valve as long as you don't go below the water drains in the bottom of the chamber you're good! The canister is a Sicce green reset 100 canister with a aicce hf16 4200gph pump running it.

The guy that sold it to me is going to come help me plumb and get it running in a few weeks. I'm sure I can do this myself, but since he built it, I'd like to set it up with him the first time because I'm sure he knows all the best ways to get this angle or that angle, or clamp this, etc.

For heating I believe I'm going to run 4 500w inline heaters on the 4 water returns. I believe they're 3/4" each, not positive. The guy that built it knows of one he couldn't think of name but it's one of the vendors he uses at his shop. and he's gonna get me the exact model so I can get those.

For lighting I'm thinking about having two of these installed in the vault ceiling. What do yall think of that? LIGHTS I've never done any lighting like this so any input from people with experience would be appreciated. I wanted a clean sleek look, and didn't wanna just rest lights on the top of the tank. I saw the king of DIY do lights like this, and he just pulled the light from the floor until he got the circle radius he needs for the tank and hung it that high above tank. Do I need to consider water depth? I just want some nice clear light, nothing fancy. So if I put one above each door I'd have to cover 4x4. Seems pretty simple to me? And I can tinker with different light bulb watts for brightness right? Any advice on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Anyhow, can't wait to get it all setup and start moving fish around. Here's some pics and a quick video of our adventure.

 

[sokolis]

Crazy story!
Awesome tank

 

[yellowfinfmb]

I don't think you will need that many heaters I have 1-800 watt heater in my 670 gallon tank and I live in palm coast . acrylic tanks are not like glass tanks that take the cold in

 

[Backfromthedead]

What a day! What a tank! Well done.

 

[celebrist]

Quite the adventure, and tank!
What Did u haul do about the truck issue and your inconvenience

 

[Trouser Cough]

For lighting I'm thinking about having two of these installed in the vault ceiling. What do yall think of that? LIGHTS I've never done any lighting like this so any input from people with experience would be appreciated. I wanted a clean sleek look, and didn't wanna just rest lights on the top of the tank. I saw the king of DIY do lights like this, and he just pulled the light from the floor until he got the circle radius he needs for the tank and hung it that high above tank. Do I need to consider water depth? I just want some nice clear light, nothing fancy. So if I put one above each door I'd have to cover 4x4.

I know a little bit about lighting and would be glad to help but I don't have much that I could tell you about those pendant mount fixtures at your link. Those are just shrouds that hold the light source and the actual source will be far more important moving forward. A couple things that come to mind but that may not be particularly important:

- As far as tank depth and getting light to the bottom of the tank the answer is yes... that's going to take a fair bit of light and likely more than the 60W bulb rating that those pendent fixtures would be suited to.

- Are you wanting to grow plants? If so, that's really going to require some light.

- Too much light in a big tank is a big problem

- What kind of fish do you intend to keep in that tank? I have a tank w/ similar dimensions (10' x 4' x @ 31") and I heat it w/ a single 300W heater. If you keep your house warm enough you def won't need anything near 2kW to heat that tank normally. If the power goes out and you have an ice storm at the same time, etc. it's going to take a lot to keep that water warm but addressing heat loss will be at least as important as heat gain in emergencies. (foam insulation is a good start).

- I know you don't want the traditional linear LED fixtures that everyone uses but if you change your mind I can ID some of the fixtures I've got and mount them over my similar tank and shoot you a few pics so you can see roughly what they'd do in your tank.

Holler if you'd like any input I can offer and congrats on the new tank. A lot of aquarium people never get a tank as cool as the one you just nailed.

 

[Trouser Cough]

And a question...

Did you whip that center box thing out of the middle of the tank when you put it on its stand at your place and did you paint the back of it and install some kind of overflow on the back plane already? It looks like there are crenelations toward the mid point of the tank now at the upper edge so I'm guessing that's some kind of overflow, no?

 

[Jon M]

sokolis Thanks so much man! I'm really excited to get it up and running, and honestly just to chat with everyone on here about it as the process moves along. I feel like I'm moving on up with the big dawgs now!

Y yellowfinfmb - Okay, so you're also in FL. I keep my house at 74. What kind of heater are you using though? In tank is not an option for me because this is an island and I don't want to see anything inside. Do you think if I did 1 inline on ONE of FOUR returns it would disproportionately heat the water?... Btw, your tank looks amazing! I'm so glad to see it, and I'll tell you exactly why. I was recently racking my brain over plumbing an additional canister to my 240 for additional filtration and a uv ster. I was talking to ppl on here in another thread about it. I never realized it but a light bulb literally just turned on in my head that I could bulkhead and use the drilled holes in my top pane, that are between the cut out openings and use them for loc line, a water intake, hell anything... And what you have going on there, is literally the exactly light bulb moment picture I had in my head, and it looks as clean and perfect as I was picturing!!! When I think about it further now, technically that means I could use more of my overflow box holes for drainage (because currently I'm using one for the return) and then with more drainage I could use those for return and really crank the heck out of my pump for better turn over right? Oh man... Ya I literally thought the top panel holes were like something that was required when they cut and created the pane, lol.

Backfromthedead - Thanks man! I think I did very well keeping my cool with all things considered! Least we have an interesting story about when we got the tank, lol. How many people's tank showed up in a truck being towed?

celebrist - Thanks! So honestly, I've spoken with uhaul customer service multiple times recently and explained everything that happened. I expressed the incident is 100% their employees fault, and they don't deny that. They said they put a resolve whatever ticket in and it goes to a manager, they'll review everything and email me results within 2-3 days. They said if I don't hear from them to call back. Frankly, I think they need to completely refund me. The whole situation is simply unacceptable IMO. Plus if they refund my money it'll supplement the money I just blew on lighting just now.

Trouser Cough - Hey. So here's the video that originally gave me this idea. diy light His tank IMO looks well lit and I don't think he's using anything close to a 60w bulb. I am not growing any plants at all. That's a hard no. However I am going to dabble with some co2 and live plants in one of the 55g tanks Shelby is moving her Angelfish to. So how does one gauge "too much light?"

The fish I'm keeping in the tank that I 100% know atm are my current 240 stock. Which is a CK, Oscar, FL Gar, Fire Eel, Severum, P.Bass, and when they're big enough 4 Geo Sveni. I will def be adding more, but I can't tell you that now because I'm not 100% sure what! But those are the ones I know since I already have them in the 240. Currently, that crew is very peaceful and all get along and coexist well and that's how I like it and the general theme I want. Large fish community, eye catching unique looks (like CK etc), colorful.

So as far as the heating goes I have a question. So everyone is saying the 4x 500w is way overkill. Cool, would simply 1 of them on one of the 3/4 returns disproportionately heat the water, or is that even a thing?.... Hopefully my thought is translating properly with my words. The reason I wanted to use the in lines is because they're simple to plumb in to the soft plumbing, and I was trying to not reroute the existing plumbing to another device and then back to the original flow because I figure anytime you do that it reduces ur efficiency as far as flow and plumbing functionality. Another reason I'm looking at inline and stuff for below is because in tank heaters is 100% not an option. This is an island tank and I don't want to see any of that stuff in there.

So I jumped the gun and bought those pendant lights. I really, REALLY, don't want anything sitting on top of the tank. Plus it's something I have to move when I move the lids to feed or to mump in to scrub, and I like the clean minimalistic look of minimal to no devices.

Thanks so much for the kudos on the tank. It's really truly been the dream end all tank in my head for a while, and I didn't think I'd be able to have it for 4-6 years down the road, and I certainly didn't think I'd be buying it outright and assumed I'd have to finance it. I know the stand needs some work but that's something I can work on. I plan on doing it black, then doing simple black panels with magnets to cover the openings. Maybe I'll commission someone that's good with carpentry to do something a little fancier.

Okay, so the center piece. It's honestly an extremely unique design and I was quite confused at first too! I took two pictures to show you what I'm going to explain so you can see what's going on. This is not an overflow. It is 100% sealed to the bottom panel, and the top panel. There technically is no back to the tank since it's an island setup so I'm not sure exactly what you mean by painting. The black chamber in the center is that black material that the overflow's are made of, but it's just not an overflow. So I took a side pick so you can see the openings inside the tank. The top openings I put loc line in that's just not in atm, and those are the water returns. 4 3/4" I believe. Then down below those two screen things are the water intakes, and the very bottom piece with the airline is 3/8" line split for a big bubbler disc on each side of the tank. I got under and took a picture for u so you can see the inside. See? They're all elbows and barb and you simply plumb the canister to them all. The canister is a beastly trash can looking monster with a built in uv ster and all. I mentioned the model above and it has a separate external pump that pumps for it. I think one of the coolest features is he cut a hole in the bottom of the canister and put a bulkhead and ball valve with a barb in it. So when you want to drain for wc you plug in your hose, hang it outside, turn off nothing, hit the valve. Long as you don't drain below the water intakes in the chamber which are way lower than 50% you're fine.

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[Trouser Cough]

Oh man. That "too much light" question is a big one and in the aquarium context it's a little bit of a voodoo science. In a normal office environment you would typically have roughly 30 foot-candles of light at roughly 30" above grade and it's easy to calculate what most fixtures put out. It's also easy to find a light meter that reads fc (not candela like the photo guys use). When it comes to a tank though it's just not quite that straightforward and anybody that depends on light in the tank for plants, etc. has experimented to find the right amount of light... usually by either adding more fixtures or suspending the light higher above the tank to reduce the light level.

A couple of thoughts. The DIY guys lights don't put much light in that tank. You can increase the amount of light by putting a larger LED lamp in that shroud but there's going to be some fiddling around to get it right. You'll see what I mean as you get further into it as lighting is easily predictable science until you get to tanks and then it becomes part art. If you've already got the pendants though just go for it and if you have a question you think I can help w/ along the way just shout it out.

I'll point out one thing that you're probably not going to like. Consider that roll-around stool that is tucked in under the smaller tank in the background of one of your pics and imagine this...

The seating height of that stool is about 24" off the deck, roughly.

The top of your stand is about 45" above deck, and

The top of your tank is about 75" above deck.

That means that as you sit on your couch or a chair in your living room you're going to be looking up at the tank. If you have those fixtures mounted say 18" above the tank's top then every time you look at the tank your eye is going to catch the glare off of those pendants and the bigger the lamp you put in them the more glare you're going to get. Not trying to harsh your buzz here but it is an important consideration when you're setting up lighting.

On the topic of heaters I'd say you may not need one. 74*f is pretty warm. The old school floating thermometers have a green zone that starts at 72*f and goes to 83*f. You're in that zone already and just tossing an example out there the Peacock Bass you have will survive down to about 65*f. That means (to me) that your biggest deal will be power outages in cold weather and if this were mine I'd probably handle heating as follows:

- One in-line heater at roughly 300--500W, max.

- I'd probably insulate the inside of the stand w/ 2" thick foam board from Home Depot or someplace like that and I'd put a space heater down under the tank. Because your tank is acrylic you might want to put at least a thin sheet of soft styrofoam between the tank and the stand as acrylic won't handle irregularities in that wood very well (at all). So the trick would be to make sure the insulation inside your stand had an R-value far higher than the insulating value of the styrofoam layer between tank and stand... then I'd put a portable electric heater inside that styrofoam insulated stand and use that and a little honda portable generator for when the power went out, because it will. Those little honda generators are small enough to fit in a backpack and oddly quiet. A portable electric heater consumes 1500W at full throttle so you'd want a generator that handled roughly 2kW (2000W) minimum.

As far as only having one heater on the tank instead of balancing the tank w/ multiple heaters my experience has been that it's not a big deal at all. Try to choose in inlet on one side of the tank and an outlet on the other so you get as good a mix as possible and know that if you're turning that water a few times and hour, it's mixed and the temp is pretty stable everywhere. It ,au vary by a couple degrees from one end to the other but if your house is already 74*f that won't matter at all.

And this is what I was referring to earlier about the back of the tank looking like it's now black and has an overflow toward the top / center /rear of the tank. Maybe that's black visqueen and reflection(?)

 

[Jon M]

I dunno why the pictures I posted showed fine and now aren't viewable... Here they are again. I'm still getting used to how the forums work again. For the life of me I can't get multi quote down and I just end up doing what I do currently so I can respond, to threads and stop trying to figure stuff out!