Gvtv44 Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 Ok, I am in the process of planning my pseudo-dream tank... hopefully it will soon become a reality So, the plan is this: 3 tanks in a U shape... fw on either side, marine in the center. 2- 125 gallon tanks (FW- One Planted Discus and one with some huge predator (Arowana or the like) or cardinal tetras and rams (Think 100 cardinals and 6 Rams) 1- Custom tank (Reef of course) (8' Long X 24"-30" High X an unknown width) The custom tank will be bow front, and they have black trim with black silicone, with the custom being open top, and the other two being closed top. Question #1: How do I go about getting this massive tank? I know they don't make them standard... #2 How do I calculate the gallonage? I am planning on 3 pendants hung from the ceiling... will that be enough, or will I need 4? How much area do they typically cover? I would also like to have actinics... where do I put those? What wattage pendants are we talking here? How large of a sump? Will I need a kalk reactor? Ozone? I need your help! Should I run UV? Stocking will go as follows: 1 lb per gallon of LR 2" Sandbed Anemones Clams 100's of zoa types Mushrooms LPS No to very few SPS All types of softies Shrimp Hermits Snails Urchins Clowns Firefish Other fish Etc, Etc. It will be an enlarged version of my nano basically. I would want the tank to have overflows, right? And then in my sump I will have my Heaters, protein skimmer, and Purapads! Your advice is appreciated -Gvtv44 Link to comment
mattyice Posted June 29, 2007 Share Posted June 29, 2007 1. well a custom tank that size is going to cost you about $5000 if you go glass, most likely more since you want bowfront, will weigh enough to where your going to need about 6 people to get it in place, and will have to be on a floor of your house that is just poured concrete with nothing but ground below it, i would try a place like glasscages.com for a glass one, or look for someone to build acrylic (your only choice if you ever want to move it) 2. as for gallonage im not sure how to calculate a bowfront but at that size your looking at close to 500G (my uncle has the same size bowfront in his office) 3. for lighting i would go with 4 lumenarc pendants, 250W MH bulbs (giesemann megachrome coral 14.5K is my choice), 2 dual fire MH ballasts, if you do that for the lighting you wont have to worry about any added actinics 4. for the sump i recommend half of the display size, so try and shoot for about 250-300G easiest way to do this is get about 3 100G rubbermade stock tanks and have one be a fuge, one be for the skimmer and any other filter media along with heaters, and the last one for the return pump and maybe a small frag area or an area to keep a fish that has been bullied or the bully of the tank 5. at the size your talking about dosing calcium suppliments would be a huge waste of time and money, i would buy a reliable calcium reactor and get a very very good controller for the tank, dont skip anything on the controller side because if you do this is where bad things can happend very fast 6. dont put arowana in a 125G, the is way too small of a tank, i think a large school of fish would be much better and would get alot more attention 7. i think your going to need alot more then 1lb of LR per gallon, i have close to 250 lbs in my 125 and it still doesnt look like enough 8. if you want to keep clams the calcium reactor will be a must as they will suck all of the calcium from your tank faster then you would be able to dose it 9. get ready to have a VERY large energy bill as the A/C in your house will be constantly on with that large amount of heat load, i recommend you get a very very reliable and strong exhaust fan, a small through the wall air conditioner, and an ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator, like an exhaust fan but as it pulls stale air from the house it brings in fresh air to replace it) 10. this is going to be a huge amount of money going into this system, if i were you i would start it out as a FOWLR tank and slowly convert it to a reef tank, going from a nano to this is a bad way to learn about the expense of a large tank, and get ready to pay about $50-90 a month on salt alone, i pay about 25 a month on my 125 but i do very frequent water changes Link to comment
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