Saturday, July 19, 2008

Dr. Sean's 375 Gallon Reef

I recently started a very exciting new project for Dr. Sean in the Tahoe Keys subdivision of South Lake Tahoe. Dr. Sean lost his home a few years back from an electrical fire, but is rebuilding a "Tahoe One-of-a-Kind" Balinese style showcase. Sean's home is being built by Greenwood Homes of Incline Village, NV.The project is being supervised by Claude Clifton, known as Greenwoods "go to guy". Claude thrives on taking on new projects and solving difficult tasks. Installing this aquarium which is going to weigh over six thousand pounds when filled, in my opinion, is going to be challenging and I am thrilled to have Claude and his easy going manner ready to supervise the delivery. Claude's supervisor, Pat Walker is the line of communication for this project making sure that everything is going smoothly.

The aquarium will be a 3/4" Starphire peninsula tank built by Acrylic & Glass Exhibits out of Houston & Dallas, Texas. With a low iron content, Starphire glass offers a truly clear view with increased brightness, clarity, and light transmittance. AGE owner Tom Hudson has gone through numerous phone calls and emails to get this project built to exact specifications.The aquarium is being built in the wall with one side in the entryway and the other behind a palapa style bar.The dimensions will be 60"x30"x48"with three 400 watt metal halide, supplemented with VHO actinic bulbs.

The designer/engineer behind this project is Chris Wirth of Blue Planet Waterworks.Chris has some great plans for this show tank with every possible bell and whistle that is available to today's hobbyist. The most unique device that is going to be used on this aquarium is the GHL Profilux II Elite controller. This controller is specially designed for high end aquatic systems, and has many more monitoring and control points than competing controllers. It also gives the ability to dial into the system from any internet access point to check on the system, receive alarms, view historic trends, or make adjustments.This controller has standard features of lighting timers, temperature control, water topoff, salinity monitoring, CO2 dosing, LAN access, pH, ORP, Cloudy day simulation, and a plethora of programming possibilities. It also controls various wave pumps, New LED light fixtures, 1-10V dimmable fluorescent lighting, dimmable metal halide, and the optional Moon / Flash stick for moon phase changes and simulated storms.With the 48" height of Sean's aquarium, a high flow turnover rate will be extremely critical. Blue Planet Waterworks has designed the aquarium to exact specifications to accomplish the task with a large overflow box, two inch bulkheads and a four-way closed loop Oceans Motions return. Underneath the staircase in Sean's home will be the filtration room. Although it will be a tight working environment, it will certainly suffice to contain all the necessary equipment to produce a beautiful showpiece. The following equipment will be in this room; Heavy Duty ¾” x 2’ x 4’ Acrylic Sump, with refugium, T5 growth lights, de-aeration baffles, and level sensor mounts, Adjustable FRP baseplates for reservoirs, skimmer, and sump, Reeflo Marlin Return Pump, 58W Aqua Ultraviolet UV Sterilizer with wiper system, Reeflo Orca 250 Protein Skimmer,Phosphate Media Reactor, Carbon Media Reactor, Calcium Reactor, 75GPD RO/DI System, with TDS meter, test port, and pressure gauge, Automatic DI Topoff System with poly reservoir and anti TDS creep system, Plastic Rack Mount System for all filtration and reactors, 250 watt Heaters, x 3 with controller.

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