Rocketman's 370g 5'x5' Square Build

What a tank my friend. It might be ready before the house it appears!
The old tank is still running, no?

 

Sort of... I'm honestly not paying the attention to them that I should

 

WhatUPdates?

 

Updates:

- I've decided I'm going to add four AI Hydra-52s to my five existing AI Sol Blues. This will give me a total of 9 units over the tank.

- I've been working on a lighting fixture design that should be pretty cool. The key part is a slide that I'll mount to the ceiling that the lights will then connect to. It will allow me to slide the entire lighting fixture to either side of the tank for access. I ordered some of the stuff on sale at Bluezoo Aquatics.

- I also ordered a replacement Vortech Mp40. One of mine is dead, one is working. I'll be running two on the tank along with a couple of Sicce Voyagers out of my existing tanks. That should give me a total of about 17000 gph of water flow inside the tank - just under 50x tank volume.

- I'm going non-traditional on the pump(s). Power usage is a major concern for me so instead of having one large external pump, I'm going to run two Diablo DC submersible pumps in parallel. This will give me the flow I need at only 170 watts. It will save me about $30 per month in power cost.

- I'm getting my existing tanks back into shape

- It looks like the tank move will probably be in mid-Feb.

 

Good call on the submersible pumps. I had that same debate with myself when I hooked up my tank. I liked the idea of one external pump o handle everything, but the power draw was huge.....I ended up going with 2 mag drive internal pumps instead, and it has worked out great...and way less power utilization...In fact when I went from my 120 to 250 tang I cut my overall power utilization for the tank by more than 50% (Switched to LEDs, Vortecs replaced my old Koralias, new return pumps, etc.).

 

I can't wait to see the new light fixture design. Sounds cool. 8)

 

More stuff trickling in. Here are the rails I'll be mounting my light fixture to.

 

Wow! This is going to be awesome!

 

A couple more pics:

First, I've decided to go with two Reef Octopus Diablo DC pumps for my return. The two of them together in parallel will get me the flow I want, will save me $30 per month in power and only cost about $100 more than a properly sized external pump. I just got them today:



Here is a pic of the aquarium location with a plywood mock-up of the tank.

 

Looking great, can't wait to see more updates.