Vegasfish 240 gallon build

Here in the Las Vegas valley it is over 100 deg. and the pumps are only warm you can put your hand on them and leave it there all day without a problem. I believe you would have cold issues if I'm right. If you insulated it and had it in a mostly shaded area like mine summers will not be a problem. The winters should be okay for you too.

With that said I have only test 24 hours on the new system so I will updae you as it goes. If you want to look at the container I picked it up at K-Mart it is marketed as a pool supply box.

 

Ninty and Chuckdee,

Thanks for the kind replies. I have a busy week of work ahead so I don't know when I will get to the aquascape. I am ordering in fiji pink reef sand which will delay the water going in a bit. I like to lay the rock in then sand then ro water. I have waited a few month to get to this point so no reason to rush now.:

 

Aquascape is done!

Well I tried hard not to make the same old rock wall that is too common. I put a lagoon on each side and a stack in the middle. The pictures don't do it justice. There are a lot of caves and tunnels. I made a lot of room for corals at different heights.

Over all look.



Left side



Middle



Right side.

 

Looking great!

Is that your Closed loop intake on the left side, to the top?

 

No it is drilled through the back wall on the left side beside the closed loop line you see in the left side pic.

I can get a pic of the return for the closed loop if you want to see it.

 

Is the intake near the surface or near the bottom?

 

It is about 4 inches below the water line. I placed it so that i could clean the screen easily and so that it did not pick up debris.


Also the two lines you see on top of the tank are the return lines from the sump.

 

Here's why I asked.

My closed loop intake is halfway down the back of my tank. I power my closed loop with a Reeflo Dart pulling approximately 3000 gph through the CL.

While I was filling my tank, I had the water line about 5 inches above the strainer for the closed loop and turned on the Dart for water flow. So much water was being pulled into the intake that it created a water funnel (tornado, kind of like when you drain a bathtub) and it started pulling air into the CL until I raised the water level a bit higher.

I recommend doing a freshwater test before you fill with saltwater and / or add sand. Just a recommendation, you don't want to start sucking air into your pump.

 

Great minds must thinks a like. I thought the same thing so I did a freshwater test already for 3 days with no problems.

 

Excellent! I really like the rockwork, will be cool to see some corals in there soon