300 DD (Still not big enough??)

[treehugger024]

Hello R2R-

My name is Jeff and I'm an addict. Between keeping freshwater, saltwater, brackish, species specific and vivariums both professionally and personally, I've seen and kept or help keep just about anything and everything. I've seen the downside of up and the upside of down. Last December, after keeping aquariums for the better part of my 33 years (26 of those to be exact), I came to the hard decision that I wanted out entirely. I had given up my aquarium service company and aquaculture facility almost two years prior and the 150 gallon cube that I had downsized to was driving me crazy. It wasn't big enough to hold all the frags that I couldn't part with when I left the company and I just hated the shape. My mind had been made, this was it.

Then on the drive to Yosemite to spend New Years with the family and some of our closest friends, the wifey said something that as most of you know ALMOST NEVER gets said, "I really love having an aquarium in the house. Instead of getting out of the hobby, why don't you go bigger? Get the tank you've always wanted. Then you can start growing out your frags again." I'm pretty sure I almost drove the car right off of New Priest Grade as I turned to look at her in shock! After a month of almost obsessive research and planning , I settled on a 300DD, equipment list and the rest, well the rest is "recent" history.

So here we go with the specs:

Tank: Custom built Crystal Dynamic Aquariums 72x36x27 Starfire Front and End panels, Black back panel
Custom Cabinetry: Crystal Dynamic Aquariums
Overflow: Synergy
Sump/Refugium: 75 gallon AGA baffled out by me
Lighting: (3) 250w Radiums running on LuXcore ballasts, (4) 4' Sunblaze Supreme T5s (Giesemann Actinic+ bulbs), (4)2' Sunblaze Supreme T5s (Giesemann Actinic+ bulbs), (2) 4' ReefBrite Tech (blues), (2) Kessil a360W
Skimmer: Octopus Diablo DCS 250
Return Pump: EcoTech Vetra L1 DC Pump
Flow: (4) EcoTech MP40 QD
Controller: Apex Controller, Lab grade pH, (2) DC8
Calcium Reactor: Korallin C-1502
Media Reactors: (2) Little Fishies 150 (no media running currently)
Light Cycle: LED: 1:00-2:00, 6:30-10:30, T5s: 1:30-3:30, 6:00-9:30 MH: 3-9
Flow: (2) MP40s on end panel, (2) Back panel

Parameters: (Salifert Kits)
Alk: 8.0-9.0
CA: 410-425
Mg: 1320-1350
NO3:~2ppm
PO4: 0-0.03
Temp: 76-79 (I will let it swing as low as 75 and as high as 80)
SG: 1.025
pH: 7.96-8.2

15o Cube prior to breakdown and the moving of the 300DD beast!

 

[treehugger024]

It's amazing how quickly some friends catch on to "hey you have an hour to help me move something" when you own a large aquarium. Shout out to these guys for hanging tough and helping out. The next round of photos were taken over the next 3 days as I got everything together and aquascaped. The corals and fish were sitting in the garage in a less than ideal situation, so things had to move quick and there was very little time to waste.
Please note the first "fish" in the tank. What's the fun of having a large tank if you can't throw the kids into it, right?

I acid dipped all of the liverock from the old tank to ensure a fresh start. I had about 120 lbs of fresh airfreight rock that I had been curing for 2 months as well to mix in there to jump start things.

 

[Usctom]

Beautiful tank.

 

[treehugger024]

The aquascape itself, took about 2.5 hours start to finish. I like to lay all of the rock out and then just work from left to right. There is very little planning that goes into my aquascapes ahead of time. I prefer to see how the rock fits together. I refuse to break, glue or epoxy rock together when aquascaping. For me, if they don't fit together naturally, then they probably shouldn't be stacked together. Here are the photos right after the setup before any corals were added. A photo 2 days later when I emptied the garage of coral and then 1 month to the day of the tank up and running.

I know the quality of these photos is not the best. They were all taken with my phone so adjustments were difficult. I will have better ones as this build progresses.

 

[Usctom]

And I love the rock work.

 

[treehugger024]

Lastly, here are just a few I snapped yesterday as the lights were coming on of some of my favorite pieces. I plan on doing a shot once a week of the front and end panels with a friend who is a professional photographer over the next year or so. He really wants to do a full time lapse style setup so we'll see how that goes.

 

[kschweer]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[rebekwl]

Really nice, welcome!!

 

[treehugger024]

Just a quick cell phone picture tonight to show the progress. 2 month's since it was setup and 1 month from the previous photos above.

 

[bknapp]

Nice tank, looks great. Only thing I would've done differently with the scape is opened up the middle more, love the look of fish swimming through a trench. But still looks great.

 

[nemo1017]

Nice tank, looks great. Only thing I would've done differently with the scape is opened up the middle more, love the look of fish swimming through a trench. But still looks great.

+1

 

[treehugger024]

It's hard to tell from that photo, but there is a trench that runs through the middle of the scape the entire depth of the tank. Unfortunately, the tank just isn't big enough for it to be as open as I would have liked either! There is actually a frag rack that runs/fills the trench at the moment making it look closed up more than it actually is. I'm setting up a 90 gallon for a friend and will be moving many of those pieces out to open it up even more.

Nice tank, looks great. Only thing I would've done differently with the scape is opened up the middle more, love the look of fish swimming through a trench. But still looks great.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Wow great looking tank. Probably my dream tank to have. Any updates on how this is going?