Ash's 400 Gallon Reef

[Ashish Patel]

Any ideas how im suppose to frame this slide out? Im thinking no hinges

 

[Ashish Patel]

This is my vision. 3" thick marble butcher block that is flush mount with inset cabinets. Along with some wood strips along the bottom kind of like a vent.

This is something ive not seen before but hope i can achieve it. Challenge will be matching the canopy, doing the marble 45 degree cuts. If the top doesnt work out i am fine with doing plaster

 

[Ashish Patel]

I upgraded my return pump so getting very good flow but vibrations are so loud. Surpised bc i got the same pump but the 6000gph version. I am gonna have to cutt up the pvc and add soft tubing. Now is the time to remove the 1" seaswirl and just have plumbing go strait into the tank with a 1.5" pvc with high flow but no velocity.

12 feet head is alot and 4-5 bends and reducing from 2" outlet to 1.5" to 1" i was barely at 400gph. If i could go back id run 2" strait up into the tank and wouldve been closure to the 1000gph+ i had anticpated. The new pump i think i can get to 1200gph once i remove the 1" pump and all while using 160watts

Will have to cut this pipe and cement. Issue is i wont be able to wait 24hours curing time. Probably give it 1 hour. I spoke to an tank installer and they dont wait 24 hrs bc its not possible for repairs

 

[Ashish Patel]

Shout out to Periha pumps



New one below is amazing bc it can be set to 8 different speeds (80watts to 160watts)
And 3302gph to 6604gph) cost me $190.
Vibration are an issue bc of my plumbing but the pump is pretty silent.

This one is now my spare but will use it for mixing saltwater. 100watts moves 4200gph. I tested it in a bucket last year and i tell you these pumps are build like a tank and can move boad load of water at half the energy of other high pressure pumps. My vectra l1 is nice but uses double the electricty

 

[Ashish Patel]

BEST part is these pumps are Amphibious. Haha cracks me up reading this

 

[Ashish Patel]

Here’s mine,

They grow fast.

Here is a new pic..i thing its done changing

 

[ilikefish69]

Here is a new pic..i thing its done changing

So beautiful. My favorite fish

 

[Miami Reef]

Here is a new pic..i thing its done changing

Fantastic!

 

[Ashish Patel]

Going to LA for 5 days tomorow so getting tanks ready.

I did 9 water tests on all 3 systems and figured id document here:

400 gallon
Alk: 6.6dkh
NA: 10-15ppm
PO: 200 ppb+ or off the charts maybe 0.80+ppm

110 gallon
Alk: 7.3dkh
NA: 0 ppm. (Dosed 3 caps of flourish nitrogen)
PO: .09 ppm

40 gallon Coral QT
Alk: 8.0dkh
NA: 2.5 ppm
PO: 0.025 ppm

 

[Ashish Patel]

Added these 2 eductors.. way better than those random flow generators. They look ugly but i dont have much obstruction behind my rockwork and they are easy to clean

 

[Ashish Patel]

Never take your family to the pet shop, they wanted me to buy a clown trigger, Butterfly fish, and every other non-reef safe fish there. I was trying to show them these anthias but of course anthias don't look good. Anyways I wanted to make them happy by adding something to the tank that day so bought a $90 Shrimp, which my son called a lobster. I had 2 blue green chromis and a sixline in my QT and finally added them to my 400 gallon. I got 3 yellow tail damsels and added them to my QT. These fish have been in copper for 3 weeks already so just leaving them here for a few months just incase.

Aquarium care center is my LFS and will have to say they had an amazing sale for Blackfriday!

 

[Ashish Patel]

This corals i swear died and came back. First pic from 6 weeks ago. it survived being covered in algae and low light.. miracle. I have a few more doing the same

 

[Ashish Patel]

Here are a few more that where my bullet proof corals that are coming back.
If these corals can't survive in my system then no one can! I have seen a big improvement since I stopped feeding garlic and notice the poop no longer has white sprinkles on it. I believe my tank is very close to being mature enough to grow Acroporas, I have 4 different kinds of sponges growing in my sump, bunch of fan worms, and other small critters. Best part - NO Aiptasia, Astrea star, and bubble algae, dont think i even have bristle worms.
Honestly I would be ok with bristle worms since they dont tend to grow large in a barebottom system as they would in a tank with sand.

 

[ilikefish69]

I think it’s awesome you test for no3, po4, and kh and that’s it. Tanks are gorgeous

 

[Ashish Patel]

I think it’s awesome you test for no3, po4, and kh and that’s it. Tanks are gorgeous

Thanks, I have MG/CA Test kits but probably will only test every 2-3 months. Only time I see CA being an issue is when it drops below 300 but if Alk is being maintained with 2 part or Kalk, it should always be in range. I have test kits for Iron and iodine from Redsea, I probably tested once or twice and it felt like I was running a lab so never tested again, I thought the tests where good since I just wanted to make sure I was not at zero or dangerously high. I have the test kits so may test a fresh batch of fritz salt and then my tanks, I figure if I get close range to what fritz says there mixes at, may give me confident I am at a friendly range. I find dosing Lugols iodine and Iron weekly are a must and pretty much remove any waterchanges. PPL that swear by frequent waterchange are just seeing there tanks improve with the boost in Iron and Iodine, which get depleted pretty quickly in our tanks, SR is the 3rd trace element but I think thats more like MG and can be dose every 1-3 months.

I wish someone made a test strips as they do for pools, I can test 6 different elements in my pool in few seconds and just gives me range! Humans invented Phone and internet I am sure they could figure out this lol

 

[Ashish Patel]

I just go back from LA, awesome trip. I went to Vivid aquarium and LAX aquariums. Vivid has nice stuff but didnt have enough time before my flight to make the trip so went to LAX aquarium - Got 5 SPS (no names)

 

[Ashish Patel]

Below are the frags from the store and how I transported them.

 

[lubeck]

Below are the frags from the store and how I transported them.

Where did you get the jar?

 

[Ashish Patel]

Where did you get the jar?

I bought it years ago when I went to WWC Orlando. They said its the best way to bring corals on the plane and they where right, good purchase! I've use it anytime I buy corals now bc it does a great job at holding temperature and keeping corals secure.

 

[Ashish Patel]

My old temporary system (3+years old) is pretty much bullet proof. So anytime a coral is near death i put it on this rack and seemlingly within days i can visbly see the corals going back to growth mode