Welcome All to HighEndOfTheLow's new build.

So new year, new house, new job, new tank, new thread!

Brief history: Uk based Reefer Couple, 12 years and 6 years experience respectively. Been largely quiet on forums for the past few years due to moving into rental accommodation, finally after ~3 years of renting we moved into our first place (September 17). Also landed a new job the beginning of November 17 finally gave us the opportunity to get a serious tank.

The previous serious tank was a 4 x 2 x 2 mixed reef / SPS Heavy.


(sorry its a grainy photo but its the only real one i have left )

Anyhow on with the new!

Tank:- Red Sea 750 XXL Deluxe (Delivery date 26th January 2018) (with net cover)
Light:- 4 x Hydra 26 HD's (to begin with) (ordered)
Flow:- 2 x Maxspect XF250 Gyres (ordered)
Return:- 1 x Maxspect Turbine Duo 9K (ordered)
Skimmer: Skimz SM163 (ordered)

This tank in honesty is going to be a lot of experimentation, a lot of new technologies compared to what we're used to and is the largest tank by a fair bit that we've owned; But I have a good LFS and friend who's played with pretty much all equipment from the cheap to the expensive not to mention a big SPS head this was his favourite combination of equipment.

The tank will end being SPS heavy with the odd softy/lps.

Stocking wise we'll merge our current tanks down into this one so currently:-

2 x Common Clowns (had them 10 years)
1 x Magnificent Foxface (had 4 months to control a small outbreak of caulerpa .sp)
1 x Possum Wrasse (had them ~5 years)
1 x Redbacked fairy wrasse (had ~3 years)
1 x Chalk Goby (had ~ 1 year)
2 x Spotted Mandarin (had the male ~4 years, had the female ~1.5 years)

Then the proposed plan is to throw in some fairy wrasse, anthias and a few tangs i'm in no real rush to stock it and let it evolve over time, we're more interested getting some fuzzy sticks back in.

Hopefully you'll enjoy.

HighEndOfTheLow.

 

Your old tank looked amazing! With the new system I am sure you this one will, too. Great equipment! Can't wait to see how this system comes along!

 

Super excited to see another build with these big boy tanks! What do you have in mind for a nutrient management system for this tank?

 

Awesome, looking forward to that build

 

Hi All,

Thanks for the warm welcome,

Actually you bring up an interesting point,

Firstly, Where are are all the 750's at?? there seems to be very few especially UK wise? We know they're new ish to the market but kinda expected to find a few more;

In regards to nutrient export We've done a bit of everything over the years (always ULNS based) and really want to try and "go back to basics" and build a strong foundation for the tank; strong flow, strong light, good filtration and trace element supplimentation.

We do plan on running chaetomorpha (maybe extend this to other algae for variety) to try and bolster pods for the pair of mandarin's (they eat frozen and we have access to pods but it'll helps right) .

Every one of our "successful" tanks has had some from of algae bed so this tank will be no exception, they just seem to produce a more balanced ecosystem (presumably at a plantonic level / low level microscopic level) in our experience and their nutrient export is more of a secondary but welcome side affect, plus the XXL's have a super nice sump set up which lends itself to an algae bed (or a frag section...) very well.

We ran a very successful Zeovit tank in the past and generally have to buy some form of trace elements if not the full zeo treatment/other brand but want to try and take a more laid back approach we also want to try and semi automate the system (Apex fund growing slowly), so we're hoping the skimmer + good rock + algae + water changes will be sufficient.

In fact one of the things we've generally struggled with in the past is actually keeping up with trace element uptake and water changes not being able to keep up; we'll probably go to a Calcium reactor (looking at you expensive PacificSun calcium reactor <3 ) once uptake surpasses my GHL Gen 1 4 way doser.

We're generally flexible at this early stage, some things will work some things may have to be changed, that's half the fun right??

 

Well this seems to be the longest wait ever, still waiting for the equipment to be posted which is kinda annoying we were expecting it to be here so at least we could have a bit of a play but apparently there's a hold up on one of the items,

Last week we moved the the 195ltr tank (Nothing special, merely a holding tank, it didn't take overwell being ripped down and moved when we moved house) and started to paint the wall behind in preparation.

1 week today and it should be delivered then the real fun begins

Still dreading the actual physical move :s But at the same time excited to finally have it in.

 

Right another few boring but important steps today..

1) Confirmation that our not so distant LFS has all my hardware finally and is ether going to post it out or deliver it in person on Friday (tank day!).

2) We drained the old mandarin tank in order to prep the final bit of wall; the mandarins are now in our mixed reef and thankfully none of the fish batted an eyelid.
We'll continue to pay special attention to them but we figured this could be a bit of a testing ground as the 195 ltr tank has to be drained soon ish (as we move over) and we can catch them easily enough, whereas once they're in a 750.... not so easy. They readily take all frozen (with a particular like for various enriched brine shrimp, lobster eggs, mysis shrimp) and generally feed from a coral feeder/baster which helps.

We plan to paint the final stretch of wall tomorrow as its predicted to rain all day! but its a lot easier to visualise the tank now the stretch is free and were really happy with the viewing angles all round really.

 

As the mandarins went into the mixed reef last night, we began to worry about them a bit. The male and female went to opposite ends of the tank last night and didn't reunite. This was particularly worrying for Liz as they are her babies and they have only ever been in a species only tank, it feels a big step looking after them in a mixed community setting, and to say the least regretted the decision instantly.

Fortunately the female went looking for the male this morning (the female is very forward compared to the male) and have been together since.



Fingers crossed they settle in to the community setting a bit more before the arrival of the new tank and grow to be a bit more confident.

 

I wouldn't worry. I have mine in a fairly aggressive mixed species tank and he is completely ignored by the other fish. He doesn't even mind when the Tangs pick algae off the rock right next to him. I have to find a female now.....

 

We had psychedelics in the 4x2x2, which was mixed species, but the spotted's were always Liz's babies. Liz kept her original male in a 30 litre cube for 2 years before an upgrade. Its not the other fish she is worried about- more the feeding.

Females are difficult to get hold of it would seem- took 4 years to find one for this little guy- Liz seems to think they come in a lot smaller and therefore cannot be as confident of sexing than with males. To be honest she thinks the female is a lot more hardy than the male, which considering it was wild caught and brought directly from the LFS rather than the male that was rescued in a tank breakdown (again presumed wild caught as Tank Bred is near impossible in the UK)- She has adapted to captive life so much easier than the male ever has.

 

Gothya. My tank is a bug factory so I don't worry about feeding him.

 

Fingers crossed the new tank will be- we plan to dose phyto regularly (something we haven't really done before) and should have a decent algae bed in the sump. Also plans to get a pod subscription are on the cards so all should be well. Both eat frozen so target feeding is also an option to us as well. Liz is very much against the whole "the reef will provide" for mandarins and unless they are rather portly she doesn't rest- she will certainly have all the bases covered!

 

Last sort of prep work is being completed.
Build a small platform to rest the tank on, it's about 3.5mm thick but should prevent the feet /tank from scratching the floor and help distribute the weight a small amount more.

It also has an extra 4 inches gap on the two wall edges.

Not really much more to add; starting to give quite a idea of size in the room too.

 

And now the waiting game,

Tank is due between 08:00 - 18:00 today.

 

It's here! ^^

 

Now you just need a small army to help move it!

 

We have 4 foolish friends who have kindly offered their tomorrow morning to help get her in

 

LOL! yup, not friends for long after that! I am now in the camp of paying movers to move it to the stand, and put insurance on it.. Friends don't make friends hurt their backs and crush their fingers

 

I tried looking for glass suction movers and pneumatic lifters however glass suction movers don't support the weight and couldn't find a suitable pneumatic lifters

Have to settle for 3 of these to help move it from the drive through the hall and then pray when we come to lifting it....

Each are rated at 300kg just over 2ft long by 1 ft wide.

 

So it has begun