Gablami’s 260 gallon Rimless SPS Build

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Gablami

Gablami

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Nice scape. I really like the lifted design. It will look amazing with fish swimming through and sticks growing out the top. Are you worried about the height of the scape not leaving much vertical space for your corals to grow??

Either way, can't wait to see this tank fill up with fish and corals.
I wouldn't say that I'm worried per se. I understand that it's a trade off. There's only a couple spots where the corals would not have more than 6 inches of growth. The vast majority of the scape the across would have ~12" to grow.

If it gets to that point where it becomes a "problem", I'll take it. I've never had success like that yet.
 

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I wouldn't say that I'm worried per se. I understand that it's a trade off. There's only a couple spots where the corals would not have more than 6 inches of growth. The vast majority of the scape the across would have ~12" to grow.

If it gets to that point where it becomes a "problem", I'll take it. I've never had success like that yet.

Give it time and I am sure you will have success like that! Just wouldn't put any stags on those areas with less that 6"/
 
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Worked on plumbing yesterday and this morning. Got my temporary sump and return going. Will be rolling with this until I get the sump delivered.

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Had a small leak from the modular marine overflow when it was running. Probably would have eventually stopped on it’s own with salt creep, but did some research and realized I installed the gaskets incorrectly. Moved them around and it immediately solved the problem. For anyone running into the same problem, here is the correct way:

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I placed an order for a custom lid, but in the meanwhile, had to figure out a decent looking temporary lid to keep my fish in for the months of wait.

Bought the 7x3’ netting from BRS for about $10 and some command hooks for another $10. I’m sure I’m not the first one to think of this, but I haven’t seen it posted yet on the forums.
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I placed an order for a custom lid, but in the meanwhile, had to figure out a decent looking temporary lid to keep my fish in for the months of wait.

Bought the 7x3’ netting from BRS for about $10 and some command hooks for another $10. I’m sure I’m not the first one to think of this, but I haven’t seen it posted yet on the forums.
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That’s a great idea for a temp screen top! Your tank is looking mighty fine, well done!
 
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Oh boy. Can’t wait to see this guy all grown in. Already looking like a masterpiece.
Thank you! Me too! But I’m gonna take it slow with this build. My Orpheks are on super low (2%) and I’m gonna let it sit with fish only for a couple months before I start adding coral.
 

cmaxwell39

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Went in yesterday!

7 lyretails and a sailfin.



Nice. They look a little overwhelmed in their new home, but I am sure they will get used to the extra space real quick. Love the pics of the aquascape too. Slow and steady wins the race.

Keep the updates coming. How long until your permenant sump gets delivered?
 

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Thank you! Me too! But I’m gonna take it slow with this build. My Orpheks are on super low (2%) and I’m gonna let it sit with fish only for a couple months before I start adding coral.

Sounds like you will have plenty of time to get a mag and let it settle before the sticks.
 

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Holy mackerel! And I thought the tank was gorgeous before it had any water or rocks! It's simply sublime mate!! Love the scape too!!
 
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Nice. They look a little overwhelmed in their new home, but I am sure they will get used to the extra space real quick. Love the pics of the aquascape too. Slow and steady wins the race.

Keep the updates coming. How long until your permenant sump gets delivered?

I honestly have no idea. He said “shipped out next week” but I’m very skeptical. My temporary sump is good enough to last for awhileand I’ve got plenty to keep busy with, so I’m not in a rush (though I won’t tell the sump builder that!).

Sounds like you will have plenty of time to get a mag and let it settle before the sticks.

I wish I could get my mag soon, but it would need my lights to be cranked up and I wanna keep em dim for awhile to let my tank settle in. But if the right mag were to become available, maybe I could speed up that timeline :).

This is definitely one of my favorite aquascapes. Excellent job!

Thank you! I had a lot of time to imagine it in my head. It’s really nice to have this much real estate to work with.

Holy mackerel! And I thought the tank was gorgeous before it had any water or rocks! It's simply sublime mate!! Love the scape too!!

Thanks Wrangy! Appreciate you following along. It always look nice when it’s new and clean right? Hopefully I can keep it clean and fill her up with fish and corals.

Next job is to move the fish from the old tank to the new one. Will try to catch them on Wednesday and move them over. All except the tangs. The tangs will all go in at the same time once my yellow tangs finish TTM in a week and a half.
 
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Lots of small updates:

1. Got the temporary fuge up and running. Man the H380 is a powerful lamp. Placed a 5g in the sump just to hold the “chaeto sandwich”,with the full siphon running into there. It overflows into the rest of the sump. Placed a bunch of cycled siporax in there too.

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2. Caught a bunch of fish and moved them over. Still have a few to go. The tangs are harder to catch. Will probably have to breakdown some rock to get them.

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3. Finally worked up the initiative to drill a hole in my floor for the 1” drain tubing, and got down in the crawl space and connected it to the 1” drain line I had setup months ago. Next time I go into the crawl space will be to setup the ATO reservoir. I’ll spray some insulating foam from the bottom to help close the gap.

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4. Lastly, I had purchased a slightly used red dragon speedy 3 85W return pump from a Reefer in Hong Kong. Normally I wouldn’t do something like that, but he was selling for cheap! Figured I would get an adapter and it would work, right?

It arrived and it worked, meaning it pumped water. I cleaned it in citric acid. When I finally set it up, I realized that it would pump up to 26W power but wouldn’t go above that. It could barely fight the head pressure to get water into the tank.

I wondered whether I bought the wrong adapter.
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I switched it out to another adapter and it still didn’t work. I was about to post to the forums to ask for help, when I remembered that a year ago I bought just the control box from a reefer who’s pump had died. It was for a 85W red dragon, figuring it might be worth having it for spare parts.

I wondered whether I could switch the control boxes and have it work.

New Euro box:
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Old US replacement box:
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Surprisingly they looked pretty different. I had to open up my 100W pump to try to get some clues how to wire it up.

speedy 3 100W pump:
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A closeup:
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so white goes into TP3, black goes into TP4, and brown into TP5. Just in case anyone has to do this.

And after plugit worked like normal with an American plug! Anyways sorry to bore everyone with this, but this left me feeling victorious.

And finally a work-in-progress photo of my electronics board.
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 71 37.8%
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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

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