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Riley's 1000 gallon fish room build (1 Viewer)

Riley

I contributed!
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Nov 2, 2007
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Location
Burnsville
I guess it's time to feed the wolves....

I'm far enough along with my build that I thought I'd start a build thread to document the process. I've been at it for a year already, but with the mandatory overtime I've put in, and with my wife only being home on weekends with her career, I'm maybe 50 hours into it with my available time. Overtime has been over for a few months now, so most of the work has been done then. I'm far enough that the posts will eventually catch up with my progress and we'll be in real time. This build is the complete opposite of the club norm. No coral, no hippo tang and clownfish, no traditional tank. Maybe one person out there will think it's cool besides me, and I hope that by the end of the build, it will be deemed “meeting worthy” by you guys.

System Outline: The system is 1000 gallons and consists of two 500 gallon round poly tanks connected to a central filtration system. The filtration is in an adjacent room and has two loops, a closed loop with the protein skimmer and bio-reactor, and an open loop with the bead filter and UV sterilizer. Coupled in between the two in a sulfur denitrator that will be put online at a later date, but is included in the flow diagram. Details of each part of the filtration will follow in later posts.


It is a dedicated fish room to house my sharks and have the ability to add more, such as another species. The reason for the two large tanks is one, I have room for it. Two, it will allow me to keep multiple breeding groups of the same species without issues. I am looking to have coral catsharks and epaulettes in one tank, and possibly epaulettes and gray bamboos in the other. Initially only one tank will be setup, and the other will be ready to fill when the need arises. I know sharks is a subject mixed feelings here, so let's just keep it about the build.
 
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:eek: My son would deem any shark system as meeting worthy; especially if there was a pair of Port Jackson Horn Sharks.

I am interested in reading (and seeing) more of this build as you progress.
Keep us posted.
 
Why have one shark tank when you can have two!!

Very nice.

Marty has shark envy. I am sure he has thought about it...
 
That is awesome! What is the diameter of the tubs? Looks like you have it very well planned out, what is your ideas for skimmer, lighting, and filtration?

Not sure if you have kept sharks before, but you should hit up Steve77 he is an awesome guy and huge into epps. Also make sure you have a monster skimmer since sharks lay turds bigger than dogs! haha
 
That is awesome! What is the diameter of the tubs? Looks like you have it very well planned out, what is your ideas for skimmer, lighting, and filtration?

Not sure if you have kept sharks before, but you should hit up Steve77 he is an awesome guy and huge into epps. Also make sure you have a monster skimmer since sharks lay turds bigger than dogs! haha

Thanks! Tubs measure 84" across the bottom and are 3/16" thick. Filtration is commercial quality, and the body of the skimmer holds 24 gallons. I am looking at led floodlights for over the tanks.

I have been keeping coral catsharks for four years. It will be nice to be able to get into some other species now as well.
 
Rewind to last year. What's the first thing you do when you buy a newly renovated house? You gut a bedroom in your newly finished basement of course. The first thing I did was remove the carpet and epoxy the floor. Then I attached plastic wall panels and baseboard trim in the “splash zone,” and added outdoor outlet covers. I ran a bead of silicone around the perimeter of the room to help contain any minor spills to the room from ruining the adjacent carpet outside. If the basement hadn't been nicely finished, I would have enclosed the entire wall and ceiling in plastic panels to seal the room completely off from the house. I didn't have the blessing to do anything major.





 
This is going to be an amazing build. I Wanted to do the same thing. I love sharks. Any chance you would put a few rays in with them? If you have a meeting I would love to check out the setup.
 
Thanks! Tubs measure 84" across the bottom and are 3/16" thick. Filtration is commercial quality, and the body of the skimmer holds 24 gallons. I am looking at led floodlights for over the tanks.

I have been keeping coral catsharks for four years. It will be nice to be able to get into some other species now as well.

We love equipment over here what you all using or getting?
 
LOL Riley you weren't kidding. Looks good so far. I wonder what your neighbors were thinking when you rolled those tubs into the house.
 
I wonder what the neighbors were thinking too, especially with some of the large boxes that that ups delivered to the door step around the same time. The sump came on a semi though I only paid a low ground rate. The neighbors must have been wondering....

Here is a photo inside the closet that will be the equipment room. I wanted to make sure it would arrange the way it did in my head. The house sump is in the corner of the closet, so I had to arrange things to not cover that.
 
Nice! This will be an awesome build
 
I know you are all excited about the equipment. Well, that's what time it is now, and it will be broken up into a few different posts. You're all probably most interested about the protein skimmer, so I'll start there.

Protein Skimmer: For a skimmer I went with an Aquarium Engineering 12 x 48 model built by Bill Wann (20,000 gallon reef tank). With an Alita 40 it uses forced air to draw more than a venturi would and uses an energy efficient Reeflo Orca Gold needle wheel pump. I went with this skimmer as a more efficient alternative to RK2, which are energy hogs and don't produce near the foam. The protein skimmer will be fed by a Reeflo Snapper Gold pump.



Here's a the collection cup with a soda can for reference:


I think a 2 liter is better:
 
Yea lets see the filtration system and specs on the equipment :)

Stopped by Riley's place tonight to check out his skimmer and wow... His whole equipment room is lined with pictures of Justin Bieber. I mean just everywhere.

Beautiful setup Riley, well plannend and well implemented. Between Jonty and yourself you all make me look like the DIY floozy that I am. You guys seriously raise the bar for the rest of us all.
 
Dude Riley your a Beleiber? My 8 year old would think you rule! p.s. I think my skimmer would fit in that collection cup! Very cool!
 
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Not sure bout your taste in music... at least your an RC guy. Oh and nice skimmer btw!
 

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