Blog Comments

I like the idea. as for as the power what kind of lighting do you plan on running? you could do a canopy with a split level design that ran all the way to the ceiling. In other words the lower half of the canopy would be your lighting and the upper half could be your power supply but you need to have a separator between your lights and the power supply to reduce moisture from evaporation from getting to all the power. Now you may be able to figure out a way of doing some type of "wire tuck" going down to the bottom of the tank for the rest of the equipment such as putting the drop cord on the same area as the internal overflow if you are using one.

I use a Reef Octopis reactor big enough for your tank lol, but other than that I have no experience with anything larger than a 75 gallon.

bubble magus NAC9 for the skimmer. Vertex media reactor(the bigger one). i'd get a custom 100 gallon sump for that. BRS dosing pumps (1.1ml a minute). Apex aquacontroller with 2 power bars at least. And get new ballasts. using 250 watt phoenix bulbs or 400w bulbs if you can find a 400 with 20,000k spectrum.

Man the site has been dead the last couple days!!!! C'mon people lets get posting!! So since things have been dead over here I went over to that other site that starts with reef haven't been there in like a year and a half..... I got some opinions about Skimmers I'm looking at the sro 5000sss the sro6000sss and the hurricone cat-2 Skimmer with the upgraded bubble blaster 5000 pump. All the skimmers have the same pump the cat-2 is the shortest by 2" the 6000 is the biggest but I'm not really concerned with size height is the only limiting factor as I only have 29" under the stand. Any thoughts opinions????? Thanks. Also the cat-2 is same price as the 5000 ans the 6000 is like $40 more...

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300lbs of rock that came with tank

So here are some pictures of the tank. i have some questions. the top brace lid has four cracks in it all emanating from the corner of the cutouts. it looks like people tried to carry the tank by the top. So i assume i can just weld some strips across the cracks to re inforce the braces. thoughts? also there are 5-400W hamilton metal halide ballast. I am assuming they are mogul base?





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Is that one of the marine land deep dimension tanks?
Sorry, I don't have any experience with tanks that size.

Sounds like a cool tank size...with one that large I would definitely look at reinforcing your floor (whether you decide to put it upstairs or in the basement)...

Before I get lamblasted for suggesting you reinforce a concrete basement floor, remember just the water in a 400 gallon tank is going to weigh as much as your typical car (around 3300 lbs) and there aren't many cars that are only 3' wide by 7' long, so the load is more concentrated.

Blake

well i just sold my 125 and stand, 8' long 75 gallon 8 section divided breeding/quarantine acrylic tank, 40L, 40T, 2x29G, 3x20G, and an old iwaki 100rlt. So i guess its big tank or bust..... kinda sad to see it all go, but man does my garage look empty! The Wifey will be really happy.....hopefully happy enough to ok the purchase of a big tank lol.

I am wondering if i am getting myself in too deep on this one and i should just stick with a 125. lol

How deep are your pockets? You can do anything with enough time and money.

What about putting a 300g tank in the basement on a carpeted floor over Dricore subfloor?? The dricore website says

The DRIcore Subfloor panels can support over 4,000 lbs. per square foot, as tested by an independent lab, so heavy furniture and equipment like pool tables, weight sets and pianos are no problem.

My only concern would be settling/un leveling of the tank. Any thoughts on wood vs steel for a tank this size? Anyone done a reseal on a tank this big before? I am wondering if i am getting myself in too deep on this one and i should just stick with a 125. lol

I am not in construction but I used to be a plumber and I have seen lots of second story tub support. But then again I am sure the generation gap is going to be apparent as in the places I worked were older not new homes.

I would have to agree with midnight on a 300 being a different beast then a 125. I do know a guy who has a 350 on his second floor but he has so much support on it that it could probably withstand a earthnado (earthquake during a tornado)

I also came across this guy at the fish store while looking at tanks.....



Ya i have no confidence in a 300 on the second floor but it would be awesome!!!!

300 gallons is a very different animal than 200. I would not recommend a 300 gallon on a second floor unless it was built to hold it specifically.

Soooooo........would a 300g be out of the question??? I was out looking for a new 125 since that's what my current stand is for and I came across a 300g that needs to be resealed for really cheap money........

I don't know whether they are 2x10s or 2x8s i would assume 2x10s at least since they are spanning 12ft from the wall to the center beam. It seems like it should be able to hold the one thing I was curious about and I should probably look into is does the height of the load bearing wall under the tank matter? The garage underneath is tall i would say at least 12 ft I wonder how that impacts load transfer if at all??

I work in construction in Charlotte north Carolina and I have never seen extra support be provided for a second story tub.

remember though Blenny, anywhere they put a bathtub they add additional support to it so where the tub is placed will hold more weight than the rest of the floor.

I guess we should ask how big you are wanting to go and depending on that size it is never a bad idea to add floor support to reach your dreams, but it is a bad idea to add too big of a tank where it can not be supported.

First, do you know whether those are 2x10 or 2x8 for the floor joists? Being that the tank will be perpendicular to the joists and near the outside load bearing area, 210 should not be a problem with 2x8, if they are 2x10 I would not sweat a thing. The key is that the tank is near the load bearing wall as opposed to a floating partition wall.

Google dead load, live load, span tables. http://www.wclib.org/pdfs/SimpSpanTbls.pdf That should get you started. You will want to run the numbers if you're planning on getting a large tank - almost everyone's situation is unique and there's no good rule of thumb. However, I would say that they routinely put bathtubs on second floors - usually against the outside wall, so don't get too scared.