Terry's 120g money pit

[JoJo]

Terry, you seen this thread?
(First Reef Tank Ever) **** 600gal Display **** 1300gal System

[tbittner]

Oh yeah, I've read that one a few times.

I'm planning on a 120x30x30 for the tank in the garage, with it framed into the living room like Greg has his. The BIG tank downstairs will be open in the room except for port holes into the theater room.

[JoJo]

what does the equal out to? The BIG tank downstairs will be open in the room except for port holes into the theater room what do you mean?

[tbittner]

When you talk down the steps to my finished basement, you walk into a BIG room. You walk around the corner into another BIG room, which is where the BIG tank will go. You walk through a door into another BIG room, which is our theater room. We have a projector mounted to the ceiling and it projects a 12 foot by 8 foot picture. I'm going to make 1 foot diameter holes in the wall, maybe two or three, and they will provide a view into the backside of the tank. I'll put curtains over them, just like the port holes on a cruise ship.

The tank I'm thinking of for the basement is an "L" shape with EACH side of the L being 120x30x30, which equals out to about 1,000 gallons.

I'm planning on having both tanks plumbed into my 330g sump/fuge to make maintenance easier. Notice I didn't say "easy".

I figure I'll use my automatic water change and change out about 20 gallons each and every day.

Ok, futher calculations equates 20g each and every day to almost 10% per week.

[framerguy]

Geez, I thought you were kidding about the theater! How cool is that?!

[tbittner]

Yeah Greg, it makes watching sports, in particular, almost like being IN the game.

[framerguy]

Our son just bought a 60" rear projection HD for the living room and I watched the Chargers/Colts game one it from about 6' away...Yeah Baby!!

[JoJo]

ummm.....are we to close in age for you to adopt me? i promise i'll be a good boy, i promise. unless my time out area would be the theater room, the i'll be a lil troublesome.

Tell me more about that auto water changer. I'm really interested in that!

[tbittner]

Gotta love HD!!!

[tbittner]

JoJo, I'll take some pictures of what I have working so far. I bought the pieces and parts to build my own controller from automatedaquariums.com. I'm a software engineer by trade so I'm wiring it up the way I need it to be and I'm developing the program to 100% satisfy my requirements. It's a bit more time consuming AND a bit more expensive BUT I get exactly what works for me.

If you look way back on page one and look at the sump I put together, and if you look at the 35g, notice the bulkhead at the bottom of it. I'll hook a pump to that and connect the output to a pipe that either runs outside or to a drain pipe to our septic system. In my program, I'll turn that pump on for like one minute per hour. After the minute, I'll turn on another pump in my new saltwater barrel and fill the system back up. Each and every hour it'll pump out a little less then a gallon. I figure that should keep the trace elements at a constant level within the entire system.

[tbittner]

Sorry, forgot about taking pictures. I was working on the controller program all evening.

Here is what the "Chart Activity" for the topoff pump looks like.


From midnight until 11:20:34 am, the pump never ran. Then it ran for 158 seconds. Etc...

[tbittner]

You know, it's kind of scary to look at pictures of the tanks with a TON of valuable corals and fish in it, and think about a disaster happening. I wonder if the THOUSANDS of dollars (if not tens of thousands) of livestock would be replaced by the insurance company.

[Frankie]

I would hate to pay the premium for such a policy. You need to contact your insurance company and make sure the tank is covered. I doubt it is.

[Craig Manoukian]

Sweet Greg!

[JoJo]

Terry what makes you worry about that all of a sudden? Is the cost of the programmer that much?