300 Gallon Reef-O-Matic: 5+ years!

TheHarold · Oct 31, 2018

Quick video walkthrough, still awful coloration using my phone's camera.

TheHarold · Nov 3, 2018

I was initially worried about water changes on a tank this size- but 40 gallons is an absolute breeze. I could do bigger waterchanges with a larger bucket, but 15% every two weeks should be pretty good.

TheHarold · Nov 4, 2018

This is the "little" 70g

TheHarold · Nov 6, 2018

Hmm, still clouds up from sand particulates. My reefer 350's sand is great nice all the tiny particles are already out.... Go skimmer go!

TheHarold · Nov 14, 2018

0 tds!

I used to use resin till output was 7tds or so. But given that this is the “family” tank, my dad pays for resin. So I can swap resin canisters when I read 1 LOL. Also, I am using prepackaged DI in canisters for $14 rather than the BRS stuff for $12. Makes life so much easier. No DI pellets everywhere....

Crazy how small that 40g trash can looks! I’m tempted to get a 100g trash can. Since cost of salt isn’t on me, bigger water changes would just improve the water quality more . Or perhaps stress sticks.

@bubbaque if you didn’t have to pay for salt, would you do larger ~30% water changes? Fritz RPM, so alk matches. The amount of time is the same since I would just use larger diameter tubing/bigger pump.

bubbaque · Nov 14, 2018

TheHarold said:
0 tds!

I used to use resin till output was 7tds or so. But given that this is the “family” tank, my dad pays for resin. So I can swap resin canisters when I read 1 LOL. Also, I am using prepackaged DI in canisters for $14 rather than the BRS stuff for $12. Makes life so much easier. No DI pellets everywhere....

Crazy how small that 40g trash can looks! I’m tempted to get a 100g trash can. Since cost of salt isn’t on me, bigger water changes would just improve the water quality more . Or perhaps stress sticks.

@bubbaque if you didn’t have to pay for salt, would you do larger ~30% water changes? Fritz RPM, so alk matches. The amount of time is the same since I would just use larger diameter tubing/bigger pump.

Nice build! I really like the stand.

I am a fan of water changes and I wish I could do larger than my 10% at a time. If money wasn’t an issue or space trying to mix up so much water at a time I’d probably try the 30% and see how things react.

Thanks for the tag, I’ll be following along!

TheHarold · Nov 14, 2018

bubbaque said:
Nice build! I really like the stand.

I am a fan of water changes and I wish I could do larger than my 10% at a time. If money wasn’t an issue or space trying to mix up so much water at a time I’d probably try the 30% and see how things react.

Thanks for the tag, I’ll be following along!

I will see if I can get a 100 gallon container- that should take bout 24 hours to fill. So far the sticks here are encrusting well with nice PE, but all a bit dark in coloration. Might be due to the Radions being set too low, I haven't really tested the water beyond Alk yet.

TheHarold · Nov 24, 2018

Everything is going great! I added 6 Radion diffusers to the lighting, since I was reading some hotspots with a borrowed par meter.

I’ve been feeding 4-5 cubes a day, and then filling up the algae clip daily. The tangs are fat & I still have 5/5 of them!! Phosphates midway between 0.00 and 0.03 on salifert low range test, right where I want them.

The refugium failed- all chaeto melted

Here is sailfin, liutenant, and powder blue munching on breakfast. The Tomini and blue tang are more shy, and usually eat once these guys move away. @4FordFamily I briefly used a mirror when I saw the powder blue picking on the sailfin, but after a week that went away. Thrilled with this so far- I think they are all past the “risky” period!

Bnagle · Nov 25, 2018

What are your par readings with the t5+radions? / what are you running radions at?

TheHarold · Nov 26, 2018

Bnagle said:
What are your par readings with the t5+radions? / what are you running radions at?

Hello sir! I am running radions at 50% on the AB+ program. I see 350 par at the middle of the tank, where the acros are, and then around 200 on the sand bed. In the future I may change this, increasing the power and/or add more actinics.

I was seeing some spotlighting, differences in par horizontally, so installed the radion diffusers. That evened it out quite a bit.

TheHarold · Dec 1, 2018

Big haul from Top Shelf Aquatics

Bunch of polyps

2 ricordia frags, Aequituberculata, bicolor hammer, two fully encrusted megachrome montipora (might steal one for my smaller tank ), sunfire grafted cap, pink Millipora, unknown green acro

Waly Disney, PC rainbow, Tyree pink lemonade.

Not pictured (whoops): Blue chunker acro, yellow twist.

TheHarold · Dec 6, 2018

Here’s a quick 1 minute update. Did left side rockscape and some other changes to coral placement.

Scurvy · Dec 6, 2018

Nice! Love the stuff I've gotten from Cultivated Reef. That anemone is a beauty!

MikeAndrews · Dec 6, 2018

Great tank! I have a 190 that is full and was considering upsizing to a 350. What brand tank do you have?

Ray668 · Dec 7, 2018

Nice looking tank good job

CoralWealth · Jan 10, 2019

I love the stand and canopy, looks great. How is everything going now?

TheHarold · Jan 10, 2019

codydemmel4 said:
I love the stand and canopy, looks great. How is everything going now?

Hello sir! Everything is going really well here. The acropora from @Battlecorals are all coloring up really well, and I am continuing to add fish slowly. There has been some ich when I introduce fish, but I am following @Paul B 's advice and just feeding really nutritious food. The spots are all gone currently, so im pretty happy with that.

I added a maricultured colony that was FULL of Acro crabs. The local fish store was unpacking them and I was able to pick out 7-8 crabs from the bags.

Here is the colony

And its hitchhiker:

I also added some more fish:

CoralWealth · Jan 10, 2019

TheHarold said:
Hello sir! Everything is going really well here. The acropora from @Battlecorals are all coloring up really well, and I am continuing to add fish slowly. There has been some ich when I introduce fish, but I am following @Paul B 's advice and just feeding really nutritious food. The spots are all gone currently, so im pretty happy with that.

I added a maricultured colony that was FULL of Acro crabs. The local fish store was unpacking them and I was able to pick out 7-8 crabs from the bags.

Here is the colony

And its hitchhiker:

I also added some more fish:

awesome! glad to hear everything is going great, I am jealous of the acro crabs. I had one awhile ago but it died, not sure if maybe one of my wrasse got it or what.