Discussion of LARGE tanks: It's happening! 196 gallon custom glass tank....

[anewbie]

Are you using their sump? If so be sure to test which way you want the door to swing to get easy access to the socks. The sales druid told me about once a month for cleaning but i'm finding on the heavily planted aquarium it needs to be cleaned once a week. I'm actually replacing the sump with a glass cage full of sponges to see if that makes my life easier.

 

[jo1414]

Dream Tank!! Size and all nano fish. I swear I would put like 200 galaxy rasbora and 100 pygmy cory in one!!!

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/10/2024 at 4:19 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Really cool pattern. It might also look cool as a 4 piece panel.  Add another cross bar to the bottom section and then you have the line in the middle with "color" with the mesh pattern on the 2 or 4 "panels" of the door.

Whatever you decide, it's going to be pretty special.  Great work.  I can imagine CA calling you up to want to use the work in their promo stuff when you have it completed.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 2/11/2024 at 4:09 PM, anewbie said:

Are you using their sump? If so be sure to test which way you want the door to swing to get easy access to the socks.

Yes, and it will be a learning curve for me since I've never used one. We're not going to get too stupid with the plants but will have them. What do you find is clogging the socks so much? 

Should be fully accessible, Intrepid Partner is making the doors removable. 

[anewbie]

On 2/14/2024 at 2:48 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Yes, and it will be a learning curve for me since I've never used one. We're not going to get too stupid with the plants but will have them. What do you find is clogging the socks so much? 

Should be fully accessible, Intrepid Partner is making the doors removable. 

In my case an algae film formed on the surface of the 600 (attached is old picture). I cleared it up using power heads - which have since been removed for a couple of months. It hasn't re-appeared but i'm thinking there is some algae in the water - the 550 on the other side of the room - i only have to clean once every 4 or so weeks - it is hard to clean since the particles are very small (fish waste). 

The date on that picture was Nov 30th - i have a thread somewhere here - this forum search option is painful - anyway i think it was totally clear by end of Dec or so - but i suspect invisible particles are still in the water. Anyway in a couple of weeks i'm going to replace that sump with a sponges in a 40B - it will be a very painful project but it will do two things:

I *hope* be easier to clean and lower the sump so it is easier to get in there - their sock tubs are extra high so gravity and flow the water into the media - this sort of gives a wet/dry effect on the bio media (very efficient) but increases the height of the sock tub (you want to make sure your stand is tall enough for you to easily get into the sock tub). In my case the aquarium is 24 inches high and if i had made the stand any higher i'd need a stool to feed the fishes - something i didn't want - anyway i find getting into the tub a royal pain on the three tanks that are 24 inches - the ones that were 18 inches high i made the stand taller so it is less of an issue.

 

Edited February 14 by anewbie

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@anewbie Boy you have some monster tanks. One would hope you'd not have to clean them very often so I'll have to keep an eye on your sponge project. 

The stand is tall so I'll have plenty of space to get in there and clean. If I remember correctly the doors are 36" the stand is somewhere around 39". Yes I know, tall- making it fun to do maintenance but we considered all possible heights/issues/etc and this is what will work best for us. I guess the only way to really find out is build a stand and put a tank on it. Haha! 

Weird about the algae issue you were having. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Glass arrived this week. He says pictures don't do it justice (pink/purple doesn't translate to the pic I guess). 

Edited February 15 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[GoofyGarra]

On 2/15/2024 at 6:36 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Glass arrived this week. He says pictures don't do it justice (pink/purple doesn't translate to the pic I guess). 

is this for the stand?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 2/15/2024 at 3:37 PM, GoofyGarra said:

this for the stand

Yes. It's going in the top portion of the doors

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Intrepid Partner has finished mounting the hinges/doors and placed brackets for the glass (not pictured). As you can see by the first pic, the doors will be removable: 

The height on this stand makes where the sump will be highly accessible and as you can see all doors front and back (6 total), will allow me to get to it from anywhere. The 2 sets of doors you see to the left open facing each other, this is where the sump will go, and will be the end up against the wall. The other set of doors will be for a small QT, and other storage of fish supplies.:

There are door gaps around the doors as planned for airflow:

Edited February 17 by xXInkedPhoenixX
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[Odd Duck]

Are you putting lights inside the stand?  That glass will be nothing short of spectacular with soft even lighting behind it.  A strip of white LEDS that you can put on a timer.  They wouldn’t have to be very bright but I’m not sure how that would work with your door gaps.

Going to be an awesome stand and the perforated metal is cool!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Odd Duck yes, you guessed it. Actually at this time we're looking at just using what will be my unused aquarium light bars. I have 2 ACO lights that are on my 20 gallons- they may be reused for this, if so they are nice and bright when I want them to be so they will also help me work inside the cabinet when necessary.

Edited February 17 by xXInkedPhoenixX
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[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Here's a treat. A preview as to how the glass will look when installed on the doors: 

Once he gets the magnetic latches attached the stand metal will be ready for powdercoating. 

Edited February 17 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

That’s absolutely gorgeous!  Can’t wait to see the finished product then watch the tank develop!

[lefty o]

so the glass there, and the flame arrester stuff in the next slot down? gonna look freaking incredible.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Intrepid Partner finished the stand and it has been sent off to get powder coated a semi-gloss black. To be continued...!!!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

As reported Intrepid Partner had the base of the metal aquarium stand powder coated. We went with semi-gloss black as it will transition nicely with the black framed aquarium. He picked it up on Monday: 

Now it is home and he's been putting glass and metal onto the stand: 

I think it looks really amazing. We're going to go on the hunt for marine grade wood for the base and top, also finishing wood for the bottom half of the doors and I imagine will have some sanding and staining to do in the coming days!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

It looks epic!

[DaveO]

That is looking awesome, and very artistic. You have great taste. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

There have been some delays in progress on the stand due to a trip and then illness caused by trip. This past week the Intrepid Partner and I treated the Birch finishing wood for it (stained on both sides and half polyurethane'd already, pending that side to dry for the other coats).

He also had the marine grade plywood for the top and bottom of the stand and while it's got its waterproof properties that didn't stop us from giving it coats of polyurethane on both sides too. Once that's attached to the stand we'll be calculating a way to get the tank finally out of the crate and onto the stand. 

@anewbie saw that you changed your sump, looking forward to knowing what you like about that set up. 

Edited March 28 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[anewbie]

On 3/28/2024 at 9:45 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

There have been some delays in progress on the stand due to a trip and then illness caused by trip. This past week the Intrepid Partner and I treated the Birch finishing wood for it (stained on both sides and half polyurethane'd already, pending that side to dry for the other coats).

He also had the marine grade plywood for the top and bottom of the stand and while it's got its waterproof properties that didn't stop us from giving it coats of polyurethane on both sides too. Once that's attached to the stand we'll be calculating a way to get the tank finally out of the crate and onto the stand. 

@anewbie saw that you changed your sump, looking forward to knowing what you like about that set up. 

Too early to make an over all comment but two things i noticed right off the bat:

a) THe tank is 10000x quieter. The theory is that since the return are below water level sound isn't resonating up to the overflow box. You can tweak the water going into the overflow box to make it quieter with the sand pipe; and put weight on the lid to help seal it (again quieter) but having the actual returns below water level made a huge difference. Remember this is a 600 so we have more water flowing.

b) I was being forced to clean the bloody socks once a week on this aquarium and the holder for the socks are not bolted in - so before you install the sump you might want to replace teh plastic pegs with one that screw in (ca should be able to send you some) as the clip in ones are not very sturdy and it is a pia to re-insert them with my small head room.

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one potential negative is the water might be slightly less clear - i'm unsure if this is the case - it is hard to tell without direct comparison. Also for some reason ca ultra clear class causes a *lot* of reflections when taking photographs - you don't see reflection with the eye but the camera makes them look like mirror.

-

It will be a while before i can comment on the pia of cleaning the sponges - the issue is that they are large so i'm not sure how much of  a hassle cleaning them will be yet; but my guess is it will take 4 to 8 months before the front one begin to clog.

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 3/28/2024 at 11:37 AM, anewbie said:

) THe tank is 10000x quieter. The theory is that since the return are below water level sound isn't resonating up to the overflow box. You can tweak the water going into the overflow box to make it quieter with the sand pipe; and put weight on the lid to help seal it (again quieter) but having the actual returns below water level made a huge difference. Remember this is a 600 so we have more water flowing.

So even if I use the sump provided (I will have to for a while at least) if I can get it so that the return is below the water it will be less noisy? I'm not too worried about noise since I'm used to quite a bit of "white" noise in my house, however Intrepid Partner is a little more sensitive to it. Neither of us have ever used a sump (only a pump under his house). I understand the principals but this will be a learning experience for the both of us (more me he says lol). I've even yet to watch the video CA sent because by the time we get ready to set this up I'll have forgotten it all anyway! I have though watched several videos on youtube about how they work. It doesn't seem that difficult. 

 

On 3/28/2024 at 11:37 AM, anewbie said:

) I was being forced to clean the bloody socks once a week on this aquarium and the holder for the socks are not bolted in - so before you install the sump you might want to replace teh plastic pegs with one that screw in (ca should be able to send you some) as the clip in ones are not very sturdy and it is a pia to re-insert them with my small head room.

I'm already doing weekly maintenance but yeah this would be a pain when you're told that bigger tanks are easier to maintain and often do maintenance less often. Now of course you have a HEAVY load with that huge tank. Though this tank isn't small it's tiny in comparison to 600 gallons at a 1/3 of the size. At this point decently large schools of middle dwellers (Rasboras, Tetras) and some bottom dwellers (cory, otos, only a couple small species of pleco) and my SAE is all I plan to do at this point. I wouln't say it will be HEAVILY planted, we don't want a jungle but decently planted. Soo I'm wishing hard for once a month maintenance. 

This stand is so tall I don't thing I'm worried about maintenance space, the only think I'm waiting to really see (hear) is how noisy it is and if Intrepid Partner will be able to handle it. 

Edited March 29 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[anewbie]

On 3/29/2024 at 11:22 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

So even if I use the sump provided (I will have to for a while at least) if I can get it so that the return is below the water it will be less noisy? I'm not too worried about noise since I'm used to quite a bit of "white" noise in my house, however Intrepid Partner is a little more sensitive to it. Neither of us have ever used a sump (only a pump under his house). I understand the principals but this will be a learning experience for the both of us (more me he says lol). I've even yet to watch the video CA sent because by the time we get ready to set this up I'll have forgotten it all anyway! I have though watched several videos on youtube about how they work. It doesn't seem that difficult. 

 

I'm already doing weekly maintenance but yeah this would be a pain when you're told that bigger tanks are easier to maintain and often do maintenance less often. Now of course you have a HEAVY load with that huge tank. Though this tank isn't small it's tiny in comparison to 600 gallons at a 1/3 of the size. At this point decently large schools of middle dwellers (Rasboras, Tetras) and some bottom dwellers (cory, otos, only a couple small species of pleco) and my SAE is all I plan to do at this point. I wouln't say it will be HEAVILY planted, we don't want a jungle but decently planted. Soo I'm wishing hard for once a month maintenance. 

This stand is so tall I don't thing I'm worried about maintenance space, the only think I'm waiting to really see (hear) is how noisy it is and if Intrepid Partner will be able to handle it. 

The noise is relative; i was able to get the 180s pretty quiet using the CA sump; but for some reason the 600 would never settle down; so the switch really helped. The trick is to play with sand pipe height (i find just above the flow in from teh tank) and to have it just trickle down the one with the valve (taller one) with most of the water going down the lower one (one without the valve) can remove most of the noise. You don't want the sand pipes too tall because that will raise the water level in the aquarium so there is some fine tuning there.

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It is specific to this 600; the 550 is not as painful and i have to clean the sock once every 3 or 4 weeks. There is something specific about this 600 which is causing a higher load - i think maybe some algae is growing in the water which is clogging the sock but not 100% sure. The problem is the socks were a pain to remove and re-install and the overall work load was too high overall (i have 5 aquariums with sump and doing a sock a week is fine but having to do 4 or 5 socks a week was too much); i'll put it this way - i haven't decided yet if i'm going to change the sump on the 550 (which is really a 470 - 8x4); because i only have to clean the sock once a month but i might - will think about it for a bit and evaluate the 600 a couple of months before deciding; i was just noting the unexpected side effect of noise reduction which was a significant issue with the 600 since it is next to my desk; of course having it next to my desk result in bullcrap like this; i mean really what do they want me to do jump in there with them ?

[anewbie]

One critical thing i forgot to mention is on the overflow boxes; small fishes can get sucked into your sump; certainly things as large as an otto can make their way down there. The problem isn't the side grid but the top grid is coarse enough to allow adult rasbora and otto into the sump if they get up there.

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 3/30/2024 at 9:17 AM, anewbie said:

overflow boxes; small fishes can get sucked into your sump;

Yea that was my concern too with larger tanks typically used for larger fish. Intrepid Partner DID discuss this with the builder and told them it was for small fish- they insisted this tank is set up for them. Since I've yet to be able to go through the whole setup this of course cannot be verified. I'm prepared to jimmy rig, but clearly Intrepid Partner is handy with this sort of thing too.