Ash's 400 Gallon Reef

[Acrononomus]

Fun build thread! I’m about to order another tank from Miricles i think! 6’x36’30’‘, so it was a pleasure to read this! I think it’s possible the ick was introduced from the live rock you got from that other reefer. I also think that may be why it stayed around when u went fallow, didn’t you have some in your sump? I look forward to seeing your progress. Lovely build, get that ALK up some more and I think things will take off for u

 

[Ashish Patel]

Tanks still going on trying to get mature. Takes way way tooo long

1 year growth for my Orange shoulder. I may need to find him a bigger home

 

[Ashish Patel]

Ive done about 5 batchs of frozen blends and feel this one is the best.
I do spend time removing skin from lake smelts and the middle parts of the cod/tilapia. I notice these parts end up in the pumps so try to add only food they will consume

 

[lubeck]

Nice I find when I put it in the blender it just disintegrates when going in the tank so I end up hand cutting My fish seem picky on the size they take. Even my clown goby likes bigger chunks.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Got my White Oak...boards are for the face frame and one drawer and plywood is for 9 doors and few removable panels. I am most concerned with the canopy.. it may not work as planned but hopefully it looks professional

 

[Acrononomus]

Can’t wait to see it come together!

 

[Ashish Patel]

I have a pallet, 2 65g drums, old plumbing parts, backup return pump & a dream. What am i tryna make?

 

[Ashish Patel]

Finally rigged up so rodi tubing and fed all my containers plus a spare for making water for things like kalk cotainer and water change. Held it of for awhile bc i wanted it to be done right

 

[Ashish Patel]

QT has been good and avoided aiptasia Bubble algae. Astra star. But never in my life had fan worm explosion

 

[lubeck]

Crazy

 

[squidarcher]

QT has been good and avoided aiptasia Bubble algae. Astra star. But never in my life had fan worm explosion

Now THAT is something I've ever seen before

 

[Ashish Patel]

For 14 months i had this return without clamps. Im not sure how i let it go this long but happy the pvc didnt snap.

Also starting to like these big 200 micro socks over my sponge trays, which are harder to clean than socks

 

[Ashish Patel]

Fun build thread! I’m about to order another tank from Miricles i think! 6’x36’30’‘, so it was a pleasure to read this! I think it’s possible the ick was introduced from the live rock you got from that other reefer. I also think that may be why it stayed around when u went fallow, didn’t you have some in your sump? I look forward to seeing your progress. Lovely build, get that ALK up some more and I think things will take off for u

After doing Hypo for 15 weeks at 1.008 and seeing all the spots fall of all fish but the Hippo - i feel hippos and Ich have a symbiotic relationship, lol. My powder never scratched or had ich spots, my achilles has not scratched or had any spots in 10 months. They have just build an immunity to ich since I make sure they are well fed (4 drop of pellets every 90mins until 6PM), then Frozen from 6PM to 12PM (4 feeds).

 

[Ashish Patel]

Why do i make my life harder then it needs to be lol. This water mixing station on wheels is much harder then i anticipated. However if it goes to plan i will be able to drain all but 1 gallon from both barrels and easily clean out the mixing vats after each use. Also being on wheels makes it easy to get out the way or move it about between tanks in the basement. Not the most fancy but def will be functional. I am going Green on this one, using a backup return pump, pallet i had, scraps of wood and left or plumbing.

i see all these cool mixing stations but i dont know why i just cant justify the $1000 + id need to get 2x 200 gallon containers. I do 25% waterchanges every 3 months so not something i want in my way.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Another sabotage

 

[Ashish Patel]

Mixing vat done. Now i can just roll and fill the sump and easily drain mostly all the saltwater.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I plan on adding a union to a 10' long and just removing out the way after each WC.

25 years in the hobby water changes have been difficult to do so i used to skip alot. Holding buckets and or waiting forever for a small pump to pump water into the tank, leaving behind a good 5 gallons in the vat and having to drain it into a smaller bucket. Spilling alot of water, Having to take 5 gallons buckets to the sink or toilet to drain. ALL THESE THINGS ARE FINALLY SOLVED. Next up finish a drain from QT to sink and run a water line from 400g to fill QT. I really want the QT to have close to the same exact chemistry as the big tank so transition for corals will be just lighting

when im crunch for time i think i can do 110g waterchange in 15 mins. Maybe 5-10 to siphon 110 gallon and my pump moves 4000 gph so will empty in 5mins or less

 

[Ashish Patel]

I cant believe i have all this natural dry rock. Most of these pieces where the first in line to go in the 400g but ended up using the ugly pieces.

 

[Ashish Patel]

This ones 55LB tonga ive been hoarding but months of trying to make it work i ended up not using it. Curious what someone would offer for this one of a kind piece

 

[Ashish Patel]

So i have some haitian, marsall island, tonga, and fiji rock. Trying to pick out ideal size so i can a make a rock structure that is low (for new corals). This way i wont need to add a frag rack which if i use tend to rush light acclimation. Also need to create some new hiding place for my fast growing tangs. Poor hippo is too big for any cave now.