MMcDonald 285 gallon Plywood Build Thread

Naw, I see no real reason that you would need all edges to ave overflows.

To be honest, my 20" or so of overflow area on my 60" tank works very well. it's silent as well, and dead reliable too. IMHO, people get too elaborate on an overflow.

 

Well this is the beauty of asking questions.... I'll catch up on reading during the week and redo it. This is how I learn... exploring possibilities....

M

 

Absolutely... that is how most do it. A closed loop for tank circulation, overflow to sump for filtering. Two different things. But a closed loop to a sump is no longer closed, it's open. Providing proper tank circulation via open loop design is a really bad way of doing buisness. Way too much flow through the sump, too little flow to tank, way too much power use from head loss, way to much heat added to system.

 

Hi, I've been skimming over your thread and your tank size is good. I have a 210g and it's 72Lx24Dx29H and yeah I have my moments with corals that get knocked over by a snail. I keep my grabber very handy for those situations.

I was wavering big time between a 180g and a 210g and I went with the 210 because it added more water for stabilizing the parameters. It also gives extra room for fish to swim. I had 183 lbs of live rock from my 120g. I use 1" of caribsea oolite on the bottom of the tank and have a 6" DSB in the refugium. DSB's are good but I like to utilize all the space that I can. After all I don't want to take more swimming room away from the fish and having all this sand on the bottom of the tank does not look good cosmetically.

The refugium is hidden and it's the best place for a DSB. If something goes wrong down the road it's going to be easier to address. Take a look at my tank and see all the caves I made for the fish and the lagoon in the center gives the tank some character. Of course corals grow and take away from the caves look but the fish know they are there. The pics start at the beginning up until now and you can see how the corals have grown.

 

Question... if the net water volume of the system is around 300-350 gallons, what would be a good skimmer?

Candidates that I've found:
1) SWC Xtreme Cone Protein Skimmer 250 S2 $719.99

2) Reef Octopus SUPER SRO 5000EXT External Protein Skimmer $649.95

3) ASM G-4X Protein Skimmer $419.95

4) Reef Octopus TDNW 300 Recirculating Protein Skimmer 12" dia. 3 Pumps $759.95

5) Tunze DOC 9015 Protein Skimmer $496.11

For those of you with big tanks, what do you use???

Thanks
Mark

 

I would say the 1) SWC is a great choice, but so is the 2) SRO 5000.

The g4x is not as good as a skimmer as the first 2 you mentioned. Skimmer 3 sounds like complete overkill, and the tunze, well I don't think that is as good as the SWC or the SRO skimmers.


Cones are the new "it" toy. They are priced higher and a really good traditional skimmer can be had for less $$, like the SRO.

If I were to replace my skimmer, I would go with a SRO of some sort.

To be honest, my tank with about 250g has a skimmer rated for a 200g tank. It has no problem skimming more than well enough. In fact, It takes a full week to get a collection cup full enough, but I guess I have a pretty light bioload fish wise for a tank the size I have.

 

Final Stand Frame Design ??

Followed Horkn's advice and went with 2x6's.
Followed Telgar's advice and went with notched cross beams and eliminated center legs.

Thoughts??

Mark

 

Looks solid.

 

Does look solid...

Not sure if youve considered sump removal. Or sump installation....

Ive removed my sump a couple of times since I put my tank on my new stand. And Im very glad that I had it designed without a center brace for this fact. Also arm movement under the stand is much easier.

Something very important to consider

 

I'm getting a Java out of memory error, looks like you need to restart the IIS services on the server or possibly reboot the whole server.

Edit: nevermind, working fine now, looks solid to me although Tatted4ever does make a good point.