“Big Kahuna” Aqueon 210 Gallon reef with 60 gallon breeder sump

[crazyfishmom]

I’ve been in the hobby for about 6 months or so but fell in love with it very very hard. I started with a 115 gallon Aquadream system that came fully plumbed so this has been my first foray into having to actually do anything beyond putting a kit together and it has been a ton of fun. The tank is up and running so this will be a retrospective look into what I’ve done with it thus far.

Equipment list:

-Aqueon reef ready 210 gallon and stand (modified the stand by opening a side door and reinforcing with 2x4 to ease my anxiety prior to filling)
-Aqueon 60 gallon breeder that I converted to a three compartment sump
-RedSea Reefmat 1200 (modified connections to have the two drains connected to the roller mat)
-Red Sea return pumps
-2x 4K icecap gyre pumps
-4x Nero 5 (along the back of the tank)
-4x Hydra32 (want to add T5 upgrade but need to wait a bit)
-Aquamaxx skimmer
-Apex controller and trident (will get the DOS eventually)
-icecap algae scrubber (not connected yet)
-coralife turbotwist UV (not connected yet)
-CO2 scrubber (not connected yet)

Biggest mod was getting a whole house generator prior to getting this tank since I lost a lot of Coral during a power outage 3 months ago. I also think the outage stressed out my fish and led to an ich outbreak so also lost a lot of fish. Currently quarantining my remaining fish in hypo (dusky wrasse, two clowns, fox face, six line wrasse, royal gramma, purple dottyback, firefish, 4 chromis) and have started transferring coral and getting new pieces into this tank. Started with 140lb of live rock from different sources to try to get going with lots of biodiversity. Added another 80 lb or so of dry rock. Cycled almost instantaneously due to all the live rock and behaving super stably. Currently wet for 1 month.

 

[CasperOe]

Impressive! Looks like you're off to a very good start indeed! Keep it up- and happy reefing!

 

[crazyfishmom]

 

[crazyfishmom]

Still going through the uglies but the gonis are doing great and I found this gorgeous acanthophyllia that I just had to have. Hard to capture the “shimmer”.

Also purchased the hybrid lighting fixture to add T5s so I’ll do another update when I get those installed. Super excited to see how the corals respond!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Love your coral!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Love your coral!

Thank you! I’m addicted

 

[crazyfishmom]

The gonis are happy this morning!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Getting ready to reaquascape a bit. I am in love with acros and don’t have enough space up top to add some lovely frags I’ve purchased recently so I’ve decided to add height to the front of my rock structures.

Here is a picture of where I think I can add some real estate.

I would add height and then place the torches on rock shelving on the side of the structures. I also have space on the right hand side to add another rock tower.

Any thoughts?

 

[crazyfishmom]

My clowns are trying to host my fox Coral. Very hard to capture a picture though.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Discovered that 2 frogspawns, two hammers and one torch have split new heads! Feeling like a proud momma!

 

[REEFRIED!]

Nice tank!!! You are off to a great start!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Feeling like a million bucks right now. I have caught three of the gorilla crab hitchhikers that came with my love rock!!!!!!!!! The last one had been moving my Acantho into a cave every night. I am so happy I could burst!

 

[Semper.Reefing]

Very nice! I just picked up the same Aqueon 210 yesterday! Excited because I convinced my wife to let me put it in our office so I can plumb it to the garage

 

[crazyfishmom]

Very nice! I just picked up the same Aqueon 210 yesterday! Excited because I convinced my wife to let me put it in our office so I can plumb it to the garage

Oooh exciting!!!!!! I wish I could put the sump in the garage. I dislike how tight the stand is underneath. Best of luck with the tank!

 

[Semper.Reefing]

Oooh exciting!!!!!! I wish I could put the sump in the garage. I dislike how tight the stand is underneath. Best of luck with the tank!

Thanks you too! I will be following your build. Can I see how you did you plumbing?

 

[crazyfishmom]

Thanks you too! I will be following your build. Can I see how you did you plumbing?

My plumbing is very messy. I used flex tubing and rigged a Reef Mat 1200.

I also just added a UV. Cable management is going to kill me.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Three new wrasses! Pintail fairy wrasse, Scott’s fairy wrasse and clown fairy wrasse. Super active, graceful swimmers. Absolutely love them! Forgive my glass. The coralline is getting out of hand. I need to clean the glass every other day or the white spots are very noticeable.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Three new wrasses! Pintail fairy wrasse, Scott’s fairy wrasse and clown fairy wrasse. Super active, graceful swimmers. Absolutely love them! Forgive my glass. The coralline is getting out of hand. I need to clean the glass every other day or the white spots are very noticeable.

Love the new wrasses!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

beautiful tank, fish and corals

 

[crazyfishmom]

Love the new wrasses!

Thank you!