340G reef tank build

py84 · Feb 14, 2020

Hi everyone,

I'm new in this hobby (2 years now, maybe not as new in fact...) and I had a 100G reef tank in my previous home which was an appartment.

I just moved in a house, and, as you can imagine, I decided to upgrade my reef tank and start something better and new. Why am I saying "better" ? Because my 100G reef tank was infested by aiptasia... As a beginer, I thougth this cute lil' glass anemone behind that large LR was my friend... But you already know the story, it wasn't!! So now, I will not introduce anything without a 3 months quarantine to try to prevent this kind of pests! I choose to start this new reef tank with dry rocks (aquaroche) and seed them with bacteria in bottle (seachem stability).

I spent the last 6 months building my new set up. The aquarium is located in my living room and the sump is in the garage, 25 meters away. I started cycling the tank 2 months ago and the ammonia spike is done but not the nitrite spike. I'm still waiting.

Stuff:
Custom glass aquarium 250cm x 90cm x 60cm
Return pump: Aquamedic 9.1
Circulation pumps: 4 Turbelle Stream 3 + controller Tunze 7096
Profilux 4 + redox/ph/temp/conductivity/level probes + KH Director + Powerbar + powercut + inverter EATON 650
Aquamedic t-controller twin + Aquavie ice 2000 + 3 x 500w heater
UV filter 36W aquamedic
Protein skimmer Tunze 9460
3 Coralcare
Deltec Twin-Tech Calcium Reactor 1500

Here are some pics of the build:

The quarantine tank (I fragged all my corals and started the quarantine 3 months ago) :

Jimbo662 · Feb 14, 2020

That's an amazing set up!

Scubafrog · Feb 14, 2020

BZOFIQ · Feb 14, 2020

Great start.

py84 · Feb 28, 2020

Hi,

The tank is still cycling.

1st Feb: 0 Nitrite.
4 Feb: Nitrite were off the chart (> 2ppm). I didn't know how much Nitrite were in the water cause the test goes to 2ppm only. So, I waited for several weeks. Then, I read on the forum that I could dilute tank water with RODI water to find out the concentration. Nitrite were about 8+ppm.
22 Feb: I managed to make big WC which was not easy due to the tank's volume. Indeed, I read that >5ppm can stall the cycle...
Nitrite are about 2 or 3ppm since and the are not going down, nothing moves.

I'm losing patience... I hope nothing is stalled...

py84 · Mar 10, 2020

Hello!

Tank is finally cycled! NH4: 0, NO2: 0 and NO3: < 1ppm

So, I transfered my corals and fishs from my QT to my DT.

I want to finish my mixing station before buying new animals. I hope this will be done before end of March.

badluckman · Mar 10, 2020

Beautiful!

vetteguy53081 · Mar 10, 2020

Very nice work and build !!

Hallowhead · Mar 10, 2020

Amazing !!

One question - you ran your return line and overfills underground outside ? What climate do you live in? Are they heat traced ?

JumboShrimp · Mar 10, 2020

Dang, that’s cool!

lill · Mar 10, 2020

Nice build

Slicktop · Mar 10, 2020

Very Nice..

py84 · Mar 10, 2020

Hallowhead said:
One question - you ran your return line and overfills underground outside ? What climate do you live in? Are they heat traced ?

Pipes are not heat traced. I live in France and the climate is tempered. During winter, temperature never goes under -5° Celsius. Pipes are buried deep enough to never freeze. I have installed 1200W of heater and it is enough to get the water between 24 and 25°C.
However, I should have insulated the pipes because I need a lot of electricity to maintain the temperature of the tank. Plus, the sump is in the garage which is not heated. Maybe I will change this point and/or add solar power in the future.

Ming_ · Mar 19, 2020

Nice setup you have!
Check with you how's the performance of the Tunze 9460 so far? Not much review of this skimmer in the forum.

py84 · Mar 20, 2020

Hello,

There is not a lot of living stock for the moment (2 damsel, 1 clown fish, few zoanthus frags, 1 caulastrea and 1 lobophyllia), so it is difficult to rate the protein skimmer. The only thing I can say is that the overflow control system is really cool and the maintenance is easy.

Currently, my real problem is that my corals are bleaching.

I don't know why... At the begining I thought it was cause by light (too strong or too weak). I tried to modify this setup, but nothing changes. So, I have let the default configuration of the coralcare.

I double checked my salinity with 2 differents refractometers + the salinity probe of the profilux + 1 Floating hydrometers. It was a little bit low (32ppt) but now I corrected it and it's about 35ppt.

The lobophyllia and the caulastrea are still expelling zooxanthellae. Zoanthus's polyps extension is limited.

I suspect my water to be too clean (the skimmer is very powerfull and the tank is not fully stock)

My measurements are:
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
PO4: 0

I stopped the skimmer and tried to add more fish food in order to get some NO3 in a few days..

What's your advice ?

Thanks a lot!