450 Gallon Miracle Ray/Shark Reef Build Thread

[pandaparties]

Tank will be coming in next week!!! Should be put in place next Wednesday, wish me luck. Little intimidated getting this large of a setup plumbed and wired myself

 

[pandaparties]

Tank is in and she's gorgeous!! Love the eurobracing on the top and was pleasantly surprised to see the bottom eurobraced as well which I hadn't seen before.

 

[pandaparties]

Adding plumbing next week and starting aquascaping today!

 

[jpas]

Wow, that is a beautiful tank!

 

[pandaparties]

Panels are all magnetic, shot of the sump underneath

 

[pandaparties]

Aquascaping done for now! Happy with how it came out. Hard to see but some good little tree platformers I built with the arch (both of which were really challenging for my novice skills)

Sand and plumbing goes in tomorrow. Tank all leveled. Hoping to get wet this weekend!!?!?

 

[Ashish Patel]

Great job, love the tank, canopy, scape! top notch all the way!!!

 

[Ashish Patel]

You think your canopy would work for a 42" width?

 

[pandaparties]

You think your canopy would work for a 42" width?

Yup for sure that's only five more inches which I don't think would be a problem. I'd use 4/5 inch timber screws for the wall connections and maybe do some diagonal bracing on the end pieces and wood glue the butt joints. I think it'd be plenty strong.

 

[Ashish Patel]

yeah i will have to see, the issue is I have a closed loop above the tank so not sure how I can do it. I have some wacky ideas in my head like have it half supported on wall and supported on two areas in the front. Your picture helps!

 

[pandaparties]

Wow plumbing and getting the tank filled took waaay longer than expected. First pass at plumbing had a small leak. Took it off to fix it and put rectorseal on the threads and left overnight. Came back in the morning and every bulkhead had cracked. Had to scrap everything and start again. Second pass I switched to slip bulkheads and drain lines were good but a couple of PVC joints I had cemented were leaking which had never happened to me. I took it apart and sealed all the connections with SCS1200 silicone which fixed it.

Also didn't install check lines on my drains which was an oopsie. Turned off my pumps and the drains started siphoning and came about a quarter inch from overloading my sump until I could undo the ratnest of cords and plug the pump back in

 

[pandaparties]

Also wow took 4 days of nonstop RODI running to fill it and had to change the resin too. And I bought what I thought was like 6 months of salt which turned out to be barely enough. Never would have thought I would spend 200$ on a single fill of salt and over 200lbs

 

[pandaparties]

Also cycled rocks beforehand so tank was ready to go and I added my first ray. He's super happy

 

[pandaparties]

 

[pandaparties]

 

[James_O]

Following! This is so cool! That stingray is wicked cute.

 

[pandaparties]

Following! This is so cool! That stingray is wicked cute.

Thanks! We're super excited over here. Been a lot of work but it's finally coming together. I've seen plenty of stingray but it's something else seeing them so close up in your home like that!!! Really beautiful creatures and this one has been so active

 

[James_O]

Thanks! We're super excited over here. Been a lot of work but it's finally coming together. I've seen plenty of stingray but it's something else seeing them so close up in your home like that!!! Really beautiful creatures and this one has been so active

Do you get to hand feed it?

 

[pandaparties]

Also got a big ol naso tang, thing is massive!

 

[pandaparties]

Do you get to hand feed it?

Yup hand fed it earlier today, sucked some shrimies right off my hand!! We'll see if I can still do that if we end up getting a small shark to accompany it