300 Gallon questions

[KingAlee]

I was fortunate enough to get a 300Gallin acrylic tank from an old boss of mine who was moving for $300! That being said the footprint is 7ft x 3ft x 2ft, I have no clue how he had his plumbing ran!

My questions are:

How would I run this overflow box? He had one pipe (obvious this is the main pipe) and one small one that was capped? I have two holes drilled in each overflow ( one is 1” and the other looks 3/4”) with three holes in the back of the tank (two small one large in the middle). How would yall run this for optimal flow and filtration?

How big of pvc should I use? For the return from sump and the outflow to the sump?

There is a tiny bit of sand between the most plywood and the tank in the middle. Idk how it got there but it’s there, how much of worry should this cause me?

Does anyone have any inspiration for a 300? Rocks, coral, etc.

What kind of sump should I run? Size difference, etc.

Lighting options, I don’t want to absolutely kill my bank account. What is good lighting that would run this tank with it being 7ft by 3ft?

Pictures are attached below, anything helps, thanks!!

 

[disaster999]

From my guess, the 2 small hole at the back is the return from the sump, the bigger hole in the center is the intake for the close loop system and water is fed through the outlet on the bottom corner of the tank. The larger pipe inside the overflow is the main drain, and im GUESSING the smaller capped pipe used to be the return, but your boss might have a change of mind and capped that off for a different return option. You could reuse those 2 smaller hole inside the overflow as the emergency drains. Really depends on how you want to re-plumb this tank.

As for lighting, I would look into the A8 radion clones as they are 1/4 of the price.

 

[KingAlee]

Ok I’ll def be hooking up a closed loop system to it, maybe 2 of them as the tank has a TON of holes drilled in it! Thank you

 

[forestsofkelp]

I agree with disaster 999

For a 300 I’d do a softie tank. Easy to light, easy to care for, looks impressive, cheap to keep (in terms of supplement).

There are many beautiful soft corals out there, esp once they get large. They are often easy to get frags of too, if you have reef friends.

IMO any tank looks beautiful as long as it has large, healthy corals and is clean

You should be able to keep some fun fish in there too.

My biggest concern with that tank would be leaks. I’d plumb it up and leak test it for like a week before I went any further.

I’d clean the sand off the stand but it shouldn’t be an issue.

Regarding aquascape I always look at old tanks of the month on google. If you like the softie tank idea check out MikeC’s softie tank on YouTube.
Congrats it’s going to be awesome.