DBrinson's 280G Odyssey

[DBrinson]

So I picked myself up after 6 years of sobbing over the loss of my last tank, that Poseidon himself felt so threatened by, he sent Hurricane Ivan to destroy my house, releasing the inhabitants of my ocean into his. I do not even have any photos or video of the tank, so complete was his wrath.

A proud mortal is not easily deterred ...

I have not yet recieved the "main tank" from the manufacturer, it is being built by Precision Custom Aquariums in Canton, GA and about three weeks from final delivery.

Here is the location of the tank, you can see the "glow" from the nearby front window, that will soon be glowing outward:

Here are a few pics of the support system, which will be totally enveloped underneath the nearby stairwell:

See the wooden brace in the leftmost pic above? Here's the RO/DI system behind it, in the bathroom on the other side of the wall:

The main display tank will be lit by an IceCap 72" Reef Illuminations 3 x 250W Metal Halide fixture, here is the diagram of the "top" of the tank, with the metal halide bulbs and reflectors shown "in position":

Thanks to Woody of Precision Custom Aquariums who painstakingly worked with me on the design of the top holes and overflow.

Here's the "front to back" diagram I drew up a few days ago for Frankie:

Here's a closeup of this Dolphin pump, I live right next door to Dolphin HQ so I had the opportunity to meet with Tom and let him dissect a few impellers for me. He knows his stuff! one day I am going to go take some photos and post a writeup on these pumps, he does not cut corners, they are the best, most reliable pumps you can get for a saltwater aquarium!

Comment away!

 

[GrendelPrime]

nice lay out, cant wait to see this beast in action

 

[fishhound]

Lots of thought into this one it seems. Can't wait to see it running. Sorry about your loss. Must have been devastating.

 

[jpsika08]

Great start, the DT will be 280 gallons?

I would recommend instead of the IceCap Fixture that you go with a Retro fitting, is a little bit more complex as you will need to buy all separate components but it will give you chance to easily upgrade, also, in case the fixture fails you will have a complete blackout as in retro you will have your light partially out, just my .02 cents.

Good luck

 

[BigAl07]

GREAT looking build!! I can't wait to see it come together

 

[DBrinson]

Great start, the DT will be 280 gallons?

I would recommend instead of the IceCap Fixture that you go with a Retro fitting, is a little bit more complex as you will need to buy all separate components but it will give you chance to easily upgrade, also, in case the fixture fails you will have a complete blackout as in retro you will have your light partially out, just my .02 cents.

Good luck

DT will be 280 gallons, the top grid shown above is 1 square = 1 square inch, the entire tank will be 30" tall. (total system gallonage = 580 gallons)

I hear ya on the retro, I built my last MH/VHO system right into a hood myself, ballast and all.

This fixture is not fundamentally different from a retro though, other than it looks better hanging from the roof over an open tank. The MH ballasts are all external, the only real difference is having a rigid frame thus making necessary the careful placement of the holes atop the display tank. I am using pendant MH lighting for the seagrass bed, with pendants to spare, in a "multiple ballast" malfunction I could place those extra pendants above the DT to offset the loss of the entire fixture (though the only ballasts "inside" the Reef Illuminations fixture are the supplementary t5's)

The appearance of the hanging light is important, I was going to have to shell out for a Giesemann fixture, but talked my better half down to an Icecap

 

[jpsika08]

That's lots of gallons! great project.

Have you already chosen the rest of the equipment? (Skimmer, Reactor, ATO, etc).

Take care

 

[DBrinson]

That's lots of gallons! great project.

Have you already chosen the rest of the equipment? (Skimmer, Reactor, ATO, etc).

Take care

I have a Reef Dynamics INS450 skimmer and Calcium Reactor model 250 waiting for me at my friend's LFS, giving him a chance to show it off a bit. Will be using a Spectrapure Liter Meter for my automatic water changing. The auto topoff will be a line from the RO directly to the sump with a float switch cutoff at about 9" of height.

I actually today cancelled my month-old order for the Reef Illuminations light and went with a Giesemann (Moonlight Infiniti 3x250W HQI + 4x80W T5) 72" fixture instead, the positions of the 3 HQI bulbs are not far from the dimensions for the Reef Illuminations, and the lights on it are "pivotable" so I should be able to hit my three holes.

I've gotten a lot of feedback about IceCap lately, and none of it good. For the last couple of months very few merchants have heard anything back from them.

 

[jpsika08]

Congrats on the Giesemann fixture! Those are incredible lights, hope to see some pics of it

 

[DBrinson]

Congrats on the Giesemann fixture! Those are incredible lights, hope to see some pics of it

Here's a shot just out of the box:

Here's a shot of the "back side" plumbing:

That flow from the seagrass tank to the sump is the bottleneck, it will only have two feet of head pressure to drive a gravity-fed flow from one tank to the other, hence the carefully planned plumbing. I will ultimately adjust the drain from the main tank to maximize the flow from my display tank through my seagrass bed without risking overflow at this junction. (Excess flow will flow directly into the sump)

Note: I will have two Ebo-Jager heaters inside the overflow to the glass aquarium "beneath" the two bulkheads in that picture. It was the best place to put them, as that tank is the only glass part of my system, and the water flow over them will be maximized. (The temperature probe will rest in the outside overflow of the display tank.)

 

[PIMPALA]

awesome!!

cant wait to see this one come together.

 

[DBrinson]

Scariest part of the entire job!

Drilling a 2.5" hole through a half inch of acrylic, on the side of a premium Tenecor tank to boot.

Fortunately, I have been cultivating a "coolant system" for the last seven years, just for this purpose. My wife helped, in fact, she started out with just a frag.

(Kid pumped that spray bottle like a pro!!!)

Guess what he's bringing to show and tell this week ...

 

[Xenomorph25]

Incredible set up! I can't wait to see the DT up and running! When does it ship to you?

 

[jpsika08]

Great updates! with that size of plumbing from one tank to the other you'll never have a lack of flow or a clogged pipe, also, that cooling system seems really expensive and the most loved tool in the house

+1 with Xenomporh25, when are you receiving the DT?

 

[DBrinson]

Sorry, wasn't ignoring you guys, just trying to get feedback from the manufacturer.

The DT will arrive either November 30, or December 7. Planning for a Tuesday delivery so I'll have help placing it when it arrives. The last arrival before the DT will be the Sea Swirls, I preordered two of the new 1.5" models from Aquarium Currents and they are due to ship the third week of November.

I don't use powerheads any more, swore them off two systems/ten years ago. Three Sea Swirls and 23x turnover plenty for me, and impossible for my tank's inhabitants to hone in on a current source.

 

[shark32]

Looking good! Can't wait to see more pics!!

 

[vdf8ball]

Cool beans!! Looking forward to watching this come into being

 

[yungreefer2410]

Yeah this tank looks like it's going to be very nice, I've never heard of the sea swirls I'll have to do a google search on them.

 

[PIMPALA]

so whats the GPH on that bad boy pump?

 

[DBrinson]

Yeah this tank looks like it's going to be very nice, I've never heard of the sea swirls I'll have to do a google search on them.

I did a "product review" on the Sea Swirls, I encourage anyone else who has used them to post their own as well.

Premium Aquatics (a Reef Sanctuary sponsor) carries them, including their newest model.

A note about the Sea Swirls, the new 1.5" model has a tiny footprint, it can literally be installed via a 3" hole drilled into the top of acrylic. Here is an "actual size" PDF document showing the footprint. All of the other Sea Swirl models will soon be built with the same tiny footprint in mind. It's the first real design change in Sea Swirls for a decade.

so whats the GPH on that bad boy pump?

The Dolphin 4750 and the Iwaki, side by side with 6' head pressure "highlighted":

The Iwaki 40 RT feeds the chiller, emptying into the main display in between the other two returns. The chiller water oscillates 180°, the other two Swirls will oscillate 90° from either end of the tank. Eventually I'll put up a water flow diagram, when I get ready to aquascape I'll be eagerly digging for advice on the forum as to where my rockwork should go.

Total GPH ~ 5580 + 720 or about 6300 GPH from the sump to the DT

Turnover for the main tank is 6300/280 or 22.5x

Turnover in the seagrass bed will be adjustable between 3150-6300 GPH or 17.5x to 35x turnover

(I'll aim for that upper limit if my drains can support it)