My 360 Gallon Diary!

[dt90gt]

I finally got the tank, what a beast! I now have the 360 gallon acrylic tank, metal stand, sumps, pumps, skimmer, 5 buckets of live sand, 150lbs of more dead sand to add, 150lbs dead rock, and probably gonna add a hundred pounds of LR from other tanks. You can see the tank in the pictures with the stand. All the plumbing was done, just need to reconnect everything. There are 3 minor scratches I will sand out, then use some acrylic polish to buff out the entire front glass. That is the job for this weekend, then I need to shim the floor to make sure the stand is level before setting the tank on top, and of course clean everything up. The tank will be on the wall you see in the pictures, it is a 10' wall, so there will be about 1' foot on each side of the tank. It is a perfect spot, in the foyer, and it is the first thing you will see walking in the door.

The plan for the tank is obviously a large DSB, lots of LR, but most likely a FOWLR to start, adding whatever corals do not get attacked by the fish! I am going to light it with either 2x250w Mogul SE or HQI DE. I want HQI, but not if it costs twice as much, still looking for lighting, might go new or used. I wanted to go full reef, but I think it might get a lil costly for the electric bill to have a full blown reef this size, plus it would require more equipment, i.e. calc reactor, co2 tank, etc. So for now it will just be fish and some corals. I really want to do all the big angels/tangs/butterflys and some small sharks. Pretty much all the cool things I've always said "oh, but he grows too big!"

So here are the pics, I'll try to keep this updated as things get going and I get the tank setup and cycling.

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal1.jpg

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal2.jpg

[DaChrisDude]

frikin awesome.

Good luck and keep the pics coming...

[SolRo]

Good luck!

[Live Water Aquariums]

Looks like a fun project. I like the pile of pvc behind the tank. Looks like it was a maze of plumbing. Keep us updated!

[lucubrator]

Looks like a fun project. Dimensions are 8'x?x? Will you be skinning the stand?

[dt90gt]

haha, yup, cut all the pipes and made a pile, but simple to reconnect, everything can pretty much only go 1 way.

The tank is 8'x2.5'x2.5' and I am not sure about what to do for stand/canopy. Some kind of wood stand to wrap around the metal, then a canopy to match, but not sure what I want to do with lighting yet, so I'll figure it out after the lights.

[swissfish]

you might want to get your stand powder coated before setting it up.

I want a big tank tooooooo!

[BigAir]

Talk to Kent @AtoZ Metal Finishing for the powder coating. They are in Mira Mar, I use them for anodize and chemfilm.

[boalgf]

Awesome tank! I've always wanted a tank big enough for rays and a shark. I look forward to seeing this thing when it's up and running, good luck.

[dt90gt]

Not gonna powder coat the stand. I will eventually get a stand made to wrap around the metal stand, up the wall to block the piping, and then some sort of canopy. For now I have the tank all cleaned, the stand cleaned, and I need to fill it with water to mark the scratches which need to be sanded out. Then I'll drain the tank, sand the scratches, and polish the 3 viewable sides. After that is done I will start figuring out which pipes need new fittings and getting everything glued in place. Should be a labor intensive weekend!

[dt90gt]

Ya, that is a styrofoam piece to go between the metal and acrylic bottom.

Here are 2 pics of the tank clean, one from the side shows some of the returns and inlets to the sump and closed loops.

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal3.jpg

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal4.jpg

[rudy]

Nice tank! big!!
You in Fallbrook? If so hit me up if you need any help.
Rudy

[jacksandgo]

Very nice tank and good cleanup job.

[dt90gt]

haha, cleanup was a breeze! I love how dead algae just falls off! I used a simple water spray bottle and sponge to wipe it all down, then a powerhead to pump out the water after I was done. I just wish sanding the scratches and polishing the acrylic was this easy!

no clue who made the tank, I am like the 3rd or 4th owner!

The tank is actually at my place in Temecula. We run our biz out of Temecula, so I spend most of my time at that location now. Looking at buying a small warehouse for the biz in Tmec as well, so that and these tanks take up most of my time now. Girlfriend not so happy about that =)

[jacksandgo]

So...are you gonna be tempted to use your knowledge from TREperformance.com to supercharge your filtration or water flow pumps? Sorta like Tim Allen used to modify stuff on Home Improvement? :)

[dt90gt]

hahah I'm having the website supercharged first!! Should be finished soon,finally got the layout setup, just gotta add products and info pages.

I'll like to keep things simple, no reason to go crazy and spend the big $$$ when something simple will do. Now, for the site, gotta spend the bucks, cuz simple aint cuttin it no mo'!

[dt90gt]

OK, halfway done with the 2000 grit sanding. Should finish the sanding and get like half of the polish done today, but I think I will run out of the polish and cleaner before I finish the whole tank. Here is a pic from the side which shows the sanded area, and a small part on the upper left where I polished it to see if the scratches were gone:

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal5.jpg

[dt90gt]

1 week later, I have finished all of the cleanup. Started at 1500 grit to remove some scratches, then 2000 grit over the entire tank to remove all the surface scratches. Next step was Meguiar’s Clear Plastic Cleaner #17 followed by Meguiar’s Clear Plastic Polish #10, and now the tank looks great. The tank is now in it’s permanent location, about 1 foot of wall on either side of the tank, and about 6 inches from the wall. We did the pvc piping this weekend, all sealed with plain old pvc blue glue. You can see there should be 2 overflows, 1 upper right and 1 upper left. We are not using the upper right overflow since we wanted to keep everything simple and only use 1 pump for the entire system. The upper left overflow 2” pipe flows into the sump containing the ASM G5 skimmer and pumps. You can see in the second picture where the overflow dumps and where the pipe leading to the main sump is drilled. This pipe goes along the back and into the main sump. The pump then pulls from this sump and eventually out to the 5 outlets in the tank, three at the top and two about a foot from the surface on each side. I estimate that this pump should do about 30gpm which is about 5 tank volumes per hour. Let me know what you guys think of the plumbing. This is my first big tank, first sump system, first big skimmer, first external pump, and first time ever having any plumbing on a tank! We have tested the pump by filling the sump with fresh water and it was totally emptied in about 2 minutes! No leaks or anything, so gonna start adding water tomorrow. So let me know what you guys think!

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal6.jpg

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal7.jpg

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal8.jpg

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal9.jpg

[Daniel]

looking good!

i have the same blue rubbermaid container for my top-off resevoir. i find that if you fill it up with a significant amount of water it starts to "bow" ... make sure that bulkhead is attached securely so that if the plastic does bend a little you won't have any leaks.

btw: great job at cleaning that acrylic! hurry and fill that sucker up

[dt90gt]

Almost done!! I need to buy a few more bags of sand, but the base rock is in the tank, and it is almost full of water, takes about 5 days strait for the RO unit to push out 400 gallons! Hopefully get the lights on Monday, and it should be full and I can turn on the pump and lights and start the cycle. I will take some of the rocks and sand out of other tanks to get some life in the tank.

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal10.jpg

[DaChrisDude]

Exciting. :)

I hate having everything ready to go but still having to wait for something... (in your case the RO)

[dt90gt]

Finally, tank is full of water, rocks are in, pump is running, now the slow cycle will start =) Still have a few bags of sand to add, but the majority of setup is done. I added a second drain, and I have a T on it with a closed ball valve so I can add another sump/refugium when I am ready. Here is a pic of the tank running, with just 1 light for now, and you can see the skimmer running as well

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360gal11.jpg

[dhuynh]

Hope that MH is not just sitting on the acrylic. You're gonna melt your tank or catch it on fire. Looking good.

[dt90gt]

Yup, sitting right on the acrylic. But only the edges of the light are sitting on the acrylic since there is a large hole in the center where the light is sitting. It is only on for a few hours a day right now, and it is gonna get hung from the ceiling tomorrow.

[dt90gt]

Well everything is going great, moved some corals into the tank, along with some RBTAs. Also added my True Perc pair, Yellow Tang, and Neon goby. Hopefully this week I will be adding a bunch of corals and fish. Tested the main water params, and everything is good, plus all of the corals and fish look good. I still need to add another rubbermaid sump, which shouldn't be too big of a deal since everything is setup for it. Here is a quick pic

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/300gal-2007-02-13.jpg

[dt90gt]

Just a little update. I bought a bunch of corals, and moved some from my 90 to the 360. Also added a bunch of fish as well. I am thinking it may have been too many too soon. Water params are fine, only about 10ppm nitrates, but there is a bit of a problem with ich. I got a Hawaiian cleaner, so hopefully he can help out. Anyway, here is an updated pic with my crappy camera:

http://www.treperformance.com/Nick/360March07.jpg

[aznshyguycv]

all i can say is... wow.

mayn how much did you spend? Its hella amazing though.

Cant wait until the white rocks coralline up... itll look so so amazing that well... wow. :P

[Nick_Kun]

Very clean...now put some colorful sticks around those two islands...:)