Hydrored's 300 Glass Cages Build

[Hydrored]

Nice build. I had a question did you ever get your overflow dialed in.

I have glasscages a tad smaller than you it's 72x30x30, so ~280 gallons. I have two reef savvy ghost over flows on it. Originally I plumbed it with drain lines and an emergency in each overflow box. The only issue was the flow in the tank made the two overflow boxes have a different amount of water at different times which lead to sucking. I had gate values on all the drain lines but still couldn't dial it in with the amount of flow in the main tank. So it was modified to basically run a herbi flow on each one. So just a suggestion if you have or are having the same issue.

I'm running three mp 60s, two on one side by my SPS rock work and one on the other side. I have two returns that are split into two with random flow generators on each one.

Great build though.

So it isn’t perfect but it’s much quieter. I have messed with it for hours, I will say once I pull the “U’s” out and put different length pipes in its silent with a herbie setup.

When the flow really gets high with the surges from reef crest it sends more water in the overflow causing the secondary to make noise again, like you I’m also running the random flow generators.

Kind of frustrating but I’m not going to mess with the tank for a bit and let everything settle in after the chaos of a tank transfer.

Do you have a build thread?

 

[Hydrored]

Who's making your custom lids. I might put a plug in for Top Lids. Had them do mine, turned out excellent.

Looks like it will be top lids for me as well, I didn’t want anything super crazy fancy, function over fashion and as least intrusive as possible. Working on getting the exact dimensions right with them

 

[RDtrack]

So it isn’t perfect but it’s much quieter. I have messed with it for hours, I will say once I pull the “U’s” out and put different length pipes in its silent with a herbie setup.

When the flow really gets high with the surges from reef crest it sends more water in the overflow causing the secondary to make noise again, like you I’m also running the random flow generators.

Kind of frustrating but I’m not going to mess with the tank for a bit and let everything settle in after the chaos of a tank transfer.

Do you have a build thread?

Ya the transfer items are more important than the noise. I've had my fair share of setbacks. My tank is finally settling in.

 

[Hydrored]

Hit the tank with UV last night and the bloom really cleared up. Tested nitrates and phosphates this morning, .04 and 4.2, seems like the tank is really soaking nitrates fast still.

The wife and I made the screen tops today, and I took PAR measurements of the whole tank after installing them. I actually like the tops so much I may not even bother spending the cash for custom ones.

Bad news I did lose a frag at some point, it wasn’t that healthy when I got it to start so who knows. I also still hate the overflow, I’m still of the opinion it can’t handle 30k+ flow, once the pumps surge the whole things sounds ridiculous. It’s quiet if flow is just steady.

Thanks to Peppe for the baseline on setting up the lights, here is the settings I’m running-

Lights are all 8” off the tank

GNC Blueray Pro-
1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down, 10 hours of full light (12 hours total) The Bluray’s have a ramping feature that you just add the length

Red/Actinic channel 90%
Blue channel 100%
White channel 50%

Kessil A360X’s-
1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down, 9 total hours.
3 hours- 30 color, 45 intensity, 45 violet
4 hours 50 color, 55 intensity, 55 violet

 

[ScottB]

I get really uptight about nutrients, but that is a good report. No. Really uptight.

So before your original post about moving to GNC I had never heard about them. Where did you come across these?

 

[TX_Punisher]

So, are you happy with the glass cages tank after all? Comments on build quality? Silicon work?

Nice choice of components.

 

[Hydrored]

I get really uptight about nutrients, but that is a good report. No. Really uptight.

So before your original post about moving to GNC I had never heard about them. Where did you come across these?

Woke up this morning to .40 Nitrates and flashing zero’s on phosphates. Tank is still slamming through it, insane.

Back when I wanted to switch from the G5 Radions I was researching lights that had no fans and came across the GNC’s. They were not shipping to the US at the time so I bought Stratons instead. Had the opportunity to try them out so figured why not. That and there are plenty examples of GNC’s growing out tanks stuffed with SPS for the last 3 years between V1 and 2

 

[Hydrored]

So, are you happy with the glass cages tank after all? Comments on build quality? Silicon work?

Nice choice of components.

I honestly couldn’t be happier with the tank, I asked for show quality and got just that, really not one complaint. With the armored seams and the hidden water line you can’t see any silicone so I guess it’s perfect. My only comment is I would not do a synergy reef overflow again, I would go with modular marine out of Austin.

 

[Hydrored]

After feeding a truck load of food tested 4 nitrates and .04 phosphates without dosing, color is coming back better now.

 

[ScottB]

After feeding a truck load of food tested 4 nitrates and .04 phosphates without dosing, color is coming back better now.

Beautiful nutrient figures. Keep dumping in the fish food. Keep testing for a bit. We are all taking notes .

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Woke up this morning to .40 Nitrates and flashing zero’s on phosphates. Tank is still slamming through it, insane.

Back when I wanted to switch from the G5 Radions I was researching lights that had no fans and came across the GNC’s. They were not shipping to the US at the time so I bought Stratons instead. Had the opportunity to try them out so figured why not. That and there are plenty examples of GNC’s growing out tanks stuffed with SPS for the last 3 years between V1 and 2

What do you think compared to stratons?

 

[Hydrored]

Beautiful nutrient figures. Keep dumping in the fish food. Keep testing for a bit. We are all taking notes .

There has to be some sort of scientific reason why one can transfer all off the same coral, use all of the existing and another 100 gallons of new water(dosed to match old water) all of the existing rock, and some how the tank drinks nitrates and phosphates.

I will give a warning to anyone doing a tank transfer like this, you better be prepared to test 3 times a day minimum. I’m not going to BS anyone, I was scared of my tank crashing the past 4 days, could literally watch coral lighten up before my eyes, some is still ticked off

 

[Hydrored]

What do you think compared to stratons?

So far very comparable, I think it does a 20k look better than Stratons but less coverage. Some will complain about the channels being limited but I actually like that feature, a lot like Kessil

time will tell over the next few months, so far they are staying and I’m happy. One thing I can’t figure out is they turn off at 9 pm even though it’s set to 8 pm lol. Probably something I’m doing wrong, because they come on when they are supposed to

 

[ScottB]

There has to be some sort of scientific reason why one can transfer all off the same coral, use all of the existing and another 100 gallons of new water(dosed to match old water) all of the existing rock, and some how the tank drinks nitrates and phosphates.

I will give a warning to anyone doing a tank transfer like this, you better be prepared to test 3 times a day minimum. I’m not going to BS anyone, I was scared of my tank crashing the past 4 days, could literally watch coral lighten up before my eyes, some is still ticked off

I am beginning to piece this together better nowadays. I should have done so before. Several times before.

With a new (transfer) tank you have acres of new, sterile space. With enough nutrient, the bacterial film types can take hold, but they need a ton of nutrient to take over this void and hold it until the film algae can take over. There are plenty of soldiers (bacteria), but without fuel, food and ammunition they get laid to waste. The scavengers (dinos) then fill that void. To me, that is a huge setback.

Yes, there is some GHA risk with heavy feedings and I say bring it on. Add more herbivores which is my answer to many things.

Err on the side of over feeding for now.

 

[t5Nitro]

There has to be some sort of scientific reason why one can transfer all off the same coral, use all of the existing and another 100 gallons of new water(dosed to match old water) all of the existing rock, and some how the tank drinks nitrates and phosphates.

I will give a warning to anyone doing a tank transfer like this, you better be prepared to test 3 times a day minimum. I’m not going to BS anyone, I was scared of my tank crashing the past 4 days, could literally watch coral lighten up before my eyes, some is still ticked off

I certainly appreciate the documentation of your tank transfer as ill be doing the same thing in about 6 months. Maybe ill just prophylactically schedule nitrate and phosphate dosing to augment a heavy feeding schedule and test often.

 

[Hydrored]

I am beginning to piece this together better nowadays. I should have done so before. Several times before.

With a new (transfer) tank you have acres of new, sterile space. With enough nutrient, the bacterial film types can take hold, but they need a ton of nutrient to take over this void and hold it until the film algae can take over. There are plenty of soldiers (bacteria), but without fuel, food and ammunition they get laid to waste. The scavengers (dinos) then fill that void. To me, that is a huge setback.

Yes, there is some GHA risk with heavy feedings and I say bring it on. Add more herbivores which is my answer to many things.

Err on the side of over feeding for now.

I said the same to the wife tonight, bring on the green hair algae, F Dino’s, I tested multiple times and had flashing zeros for phosphates and .04 or zero for nitrates- this was all while dosing to keep readings

With this new tank there is so much flow and no dead spots that food does not sit and rot. This setup is light years better than my 210 with stacked rock.

I will give credit to Pohl’s extra special, do not use that stuff unless you are very low on nutrients.

I burned through a whole bottle of Nitrate adder and still had to Amazon overnight another bottle. Phosphates were much easier to get under control with LRS, pellet food, and neophos. My fish are so fat they barely want to eat anymore.

Another thing I did not know is benepets lowers phosphates, I have been feeding it for a long time and am a believer in it, I was feeding it to the tank with the intention of adding phosphates, but it also contains a bacteria additive. Lesson learned

When my tank got delayed by a month it really forced me to move a lot faster than I wanted.

 

[Hydrored]

I certainly appreciate the documentation of your tank transfer as ill be doing the same thing in about 6 months. Maybe ill just prophylactically schedule nitrate and phosphate dosing to augment a heavy feeding schedule and test often.

I got lucky I had everything on hand, I have done tank transfers in the past but not of this size and with 99% SPS coral. More stressful than I wanted for sure.

 

[sdreef]

I said the same to the wife tonight, bring on the green hair algae, F Dino’s, I tested multiple times and had flashing zeros for phosphates and .04 or zero for nitrates- this was all while dosing to keep readings

With this new tank there is so much flow and no dead spots that food does not sit and rot. This setup is light years better than my 210 with stacked rock.

I will give credit to Pohl’s extra special, do not use that stuff unless you are very low on nutrients.

I burned through a whole bottle of Nitrate adder and still had to Amazon overnight another bottle. Phosphates were much easier to get under control with LRS, pellet food, and neophos. My fish are so fat they barely want to eat anymore.

Another thing I did not know is benepets lowers phosphates, I have been feeding it for a long time and am a believer in it, I was feeding it to the tank with the intention of adding phosphates, but it also contains a bacteria additive. Lesson learned

When my tank got delayed by a month it really forced me to move a lot faster than I wanted.

I wasn't familiar with the benepets. I'm intrigued, going to have to learn more about that.

As others have said, great documentation. Are you running the full filtration set up at this stage?

 

[ScottB]

There has to be some sort of scientific reason why one can transfer all off the same coral, use all of the existing and another 100 gallons of new water(dosed to match old water) all of the existing rock, and some how the tank drinks nitrates and phosphates.

I will give a warning to anyone doing a tank transfer like this, you better be prepared to test 3 times a day minimum. I’m not going to BS anyone, I was scared of my tank crashing the past 4 days, could literally watch coral lighten up before my eyes, some is still ticked off

The nitrate consumption I suppose is fueling the bacteria film growth. All the glass, the cleaned equipment and even the sump needs to be coated. It is a lot of surface area.

Unless your new aquascape rock was soaked in phosphate dosed water, that is where the phosphate is going, binding to the aragonite. Once it is saturated in equal proportion to your desired water residual, it will stabilize and start to climb.

I don't recall having to force feed nitrate for that long, but I did go through 2 liters of DIY phosphates before things stayed level.

 

[Hydrored]

I wasn't familiar with the benepets. I'm intrigued, going to have to learn more about that.

As others have said, great documentation. Are you running the full filtration set up at this stage?

Yes, skimmer is set to low with filter socks back in along with a bag of carbon.