Cause the addiction never stops. My new 400+ gallon tank

[widarecu]

First of all thank you guys for such a cool forum, the best place ever to find information and inspiration.

I’ve been following for quite some time but just decided to actively post now that I’m starting the journey to upgrade my tank yet again.

Real short so I don’t bore anyone here, I started probably 20 years ago with a 30 gallon tank, then upgraded to a 60 gallon, then to a 100 gallon and then I outsmarted my dad and convinced him a peninsula tank in the middle of the living area was a great idea, I oversized the idea and ended up with a monster 500 gallon tank (“the pool” my friends used to call it, my mom hated it lol).

Later on I moved permanently to Australia and about 5 years ago the addiction restarted, first a Cade tank 120 gallons and then a RedSea XXL 750 which I currently have, and now fully renovating our new house so the perfect opportunity to upgrade and do it all over again

More to come ...

 

[dwest]

You’re an addict. Love it

 

[widarecu]

After my not very successful tanks back home, I was on a mission to do it right this time, after all I was now living in Australia so access to the right gear and livestock was no longer a problem.

I setup my Cade following Fauna Marin’s balling method, 2 years in I was happy with the end result:

But it went downhill from there, lessons learned:
* Bare bottom next time
* Don’t go too high with aquascaping
* keep your nitrates on check (not only the phosphates)
* Clean the Gyre pumps WAY more often
* Automate the hell out of it and simplify maintenance while traveling for work
* Get smaller SPS colonies as they grow too fast

More to come ...

 

[widarecu]

You’re an addict. Love it

It's sooooo bad, to the point I find myself smuggling new toys for the tank everytime my wife is not home, or watching videos and reading posts endlessly discovering the next thing I'll improve .... it's a sickness!!! lol

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Awesome! Following!

 

[widarecu]

After the Cade 120 I moved to the RedSea Reefer XXL 750, loved the finishes and how functional it is. I basically assembled, filled with new water and moved all my rock, corals and fish to the new tank, only lost one of my tangs as it got scared and got trapped by the anémona

Corals immediately got happy as parameters got reduced straight away, moved to Aqua Forest as it was just easier to source in Australia but I started to have the same high nitrate and phosphate problems after 1 year, had to keep a constant source of Phosphate Minus and NitraPhos Minus but my corals weren’t very happy (ICP test showed Barium levels crazy, 280 compared to 10 in natural seawater, which could have been one reason).

Then I ran into Triton method, decided to give it a shot and so far so good, parameters are getting better while the refugium keeps growing bigger and bigger, running into some other problems but overall looking good:

And as of now I’m using this tank as my testing ground for new methods and gear I’ll use in the new build, some lessons so far:
* Think twice about plumbing, oversize it if possible so you can get the right water movement
* Get a tank cover or something to protect from the jumpers ... too many suicidal chromis and Anthias so far
* Take your time picking the new fish instead of buying out of impulse
* Get a bigger sump
* Pick the simplest and most reliable method to support water quality .... so far Triton is running ahead
* Run the old tank in parallel to the new one and avoid any rush
* Get new rock and take your time aqua scaping until 100% happy
* Trade your old big colonies for new frags, pretty hard to accommodate oversized Colonies to the new aqua scape
* Cable management is a pain!!!

More to come ...

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

Well I definitely want to follow along.

 

[widarecu]

And that brings us to today. Bought a new house last June which needs renovations and after major negotiations with my wife managed to get approval to build an in-wall tank.

Discussion started with the plan to get the RSR 750 mounted in the wall but soon with the help of the architect it became “not feasible” so have to upgrade and get a new one

Initial concept that got me excited:

There was supposed to be a fish room behind but we settled with a peninsula-type design separating the living area from the tv-room, basically visible from both of the long sides.

Basic render looks like this from the living area:

And from the TV-room:

Not perfect but gives you an idea. Now as build approvals take forever in Australia I think by June 2020 the new tank should be up and running ... it’ll be a loooooong journey, which is not bad as provides plenty of time to plan properly and get all the new gear with time

 

[widarecu]

Awesome! Following!

Thanks Daniel

 

[widarecu]

Well I definitely want to follow along.

Thanks!!!! I’ll keep it interesting I promise

 

[widarecu]

Some details on the actual build:

• In terms of the actual tank dimensions, I’m practically settled on: 240 cms long (8 ft) x 80 cms wide (31-32 inches) x 80 cms tall (31- 32 inches).
  I know I’m risking it with the height but as it is in-wall and all the joins will be hidden, that will take about 3 inches from the view ... I’m still considering 27-28 inches tall instead but not 100% convinced yet
• I’m going with 2 x 16 inch shadow overflows from Synergy Reef, I like the finishes and the idea of not having an oversized overflow box inside the display tank. I’ll setup one on each of the tank sides which are hidden by the walls, I think it will look clean

• Sump I’m going with custom acrylic build, found this local guy who makes cool stuff so we are starting from his design but will make it a Triton method sump instead: Hmahli Sump

Thoughts? I’ll describe the gear I’m planning with the next post.

 

[widarecu]

And talking about gear, this is what I have planned so far:

• Skimmer: Royal Exclusive Bubble King Supermarin 200 (comes from my current tank)
• Heating/Cooling: Not decided whether I want to get a chiller or just heater. Currently I have a Teco TK500 which is too small even for my current tank
• Return: Still under discussion here
• Refugium Light: Aqua Ilumination Prime Fuge HD (from my current tank). I’ll have a sizable refugium so still wondering if I’ll need a second light
• Dosing: I have an old Kamoer 7-channel but considering to upgrade to . I don’t like the Neptune DOS much as it is quite noisy (Wife made me move my DOS based auto water changes outside the house because of how loud it was)
• Display Tank Lighting: 4 Orphek Atlantic V4 Gen2. I currently have 2 that I got to replace my old Radion X30 Pro Gen 3, if they behave nicely for the next 6 months I’ll get the remaining two
• Display Tank Water Circulation: 2 Gyre XF350 and 3 Neptune WAV (all from my current tank), complemented by the strong return flow (4000gph)
• Neptune Apex Controller including FMK, DOS, WAV, AFS, LDK and ATK modules (all from my current tank)

 

[widarecu]

I think I just bought these two all the way from Germany ... fingers crossed it works out and I didn’t lose my money lol

 

[widarecu]

Some of the sump designs, hard to visualize but let’s see the end result in a couple of weeks

 

[widarecu]

Some more progress ...

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Looks great! I'm excited for you

 

[widarecu]

Looks great! I'm excited for you

Thanks!!!! So am I, can’t wait to see the final result

 

[ca1ore]

Check out the various threads on overflows. There are much better alternatives than the synergy.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Sweet build. Just throwing this out there.. I just purchased an entire sheet of black acrylic to make overflows on my tank and a friends tank. I could make you a toothless "ghost" overflow. Simple weir design, completely silent and EASY to keep clean. I will never scrub an overflow tooth again.

 

[widarecu]

Check out the various threads on overflows. There are much better alternatives than the synergy.

I already have the Synergy ones anything in specific I should be worried about?