New Project: 400 gallon!!!!

[knobhill]

I'm going to pick up a 418 gallon glass tank with steel stand tonight! Dimensions are 84"h x 24"d x 48"t. Not exactly ideal for my rays but it will fit nicely in my house and....only set me back $300.
Livestock will be a silver arowana, 2 niger cats, 3 motoro stingrays, and possibly a mbu puffer.


However, I've got some work to do here....

Tank is raw: no holes drilled, no overflow box, no lids!

Need to figure out filtration, heating, lighting, plumbing, and some decor

I have a 175g so i'm not new to all this, however drilling into glass scares the out of me.

Looking for setup suggestions. Let's get creative. And I promise to post pics along the way and even take the overdone "person in the tank" pic.

 

[jimmygoogots]

sounds like good times, have fun with that!

 

[TheCanuck]

I personally would pay someone to come drill it for me, cause drilling glass scares the **** out of me too! Or i would just make a pvc overflow like i did for my tank .

How about some pics of your 175?

That should be the sump

 

[kingyella]

nice score, i was scared to drill my 210 so i let a lfs do it, took my money within a few minutes of drilling out the holes with a drill press.

 

[dragonsong]

Nice deal!!

You totally should get a massive piece of driftwood as the centerpiece, maybe some nicely picked out river rocks....dunno if your stingrays would uproot any plants you tried to put in it or not.

 

[epond83]

Seems like a lit of people drill them selves, http://reefercentral.com/drilling.html

You can also get a kit with a templete http://reefercentral.com/Videos.html

A sump is a good way to go, extra system voulume, lots of room for bio media and mech.

 

[mattd390]

I know the size is nowhere near that tank but I drilled my 50 gallon breeder tank this weekend. It was easy. I bought a tank from glass holes and it had a template and everything. They have larger overflows that would work with your tank too (I think my 700 gph wouldnt quite keep up lol). Hope this helps.

 

[knobhill]

After a locating a liftgate truck, we got the tank from a trippy guy in ventura. He didnt know much about fish tanks and had estimated the size of tank. Sadly, it is 20" deep and not 24" deep. Still for $300, it was a great deal. It also has two holes drilled in the bottom plate! They are a 1" and 3/4" hole so I will use those for returns and have two drain holes drilled. I was thinking about going with two, 2" holes for drains.
ANY IDEAS FOR AN OVERFLOW BOX IN THE TANK?
I'm not sure of the pump yet but I am happy with the reefflo dart I have on my 175g so may get a bigger reeflo.
Here are some pics of the tank and stand:


I have to paint the stand with some spray paint. Also, I have a spare 60g tank I could use as a sump. Do you think that would be large enough for a sump?

More tomorrow

 

[Ryan_310]

Pretty excited about your build. Def subscribing and hoping to learn as you go

 

[Redearsunfish]

what a great tank!!