Lucas' 405G Simple Reef

[LucasRe]

G'day everyone, I've made this thread to document the progress of my 405g reef tank. This is actually an upgrade to my 110G reef, so all my current fish and coral will eventual find their new homes in the 405g.

Here's the tank in it's current state: ​

The goal of this tank is to keep things simple and to not get caught up on the latest and greatest. I'll add a current equipment section below and do my best to keep it updated as things change.

Current Equipment:

Tank: Unknown
Sump: Homemade
Stand: Homemade
Salt: Natural Sea Water
Wave Makers: Maxspect Gyre XF280
Return Pump: Jebao 8000LPH
Heater: 3x Ehim 300W
Temperature Controller: Inkbird
ATO: Autoaqua Smart ATO Duo
Dosing Pump: Jebao 3.4 WiFi Doser
Skimmer: JNS CO-5

TODO List:​

- Fill the tank
- Cable manage all the electrical stuff
- Add new sand
- Add old rock
- QT all fish (3 done - 9 to go)
- Purchase new lighting
- Install cabinetry


Anyway that's all folks, thanks for checking out my build thread

 

[Dom]

Love it! I'll be following along. You have a lot of work ahead of you. Good luck!

How have you constructed the stand?

 

[LucasRe]

Love it! I'll be following along. You have a lot of work ahead of you. Good luck!

How have you constructed the stand?

Lots of work indeed! The stand is double 2x4s at each brace point (8 brace points total) with an extra 2x4 at each corner. Pretty sure there's 8 braces across the top and bottom also.

 

[LucasRe]

Just to knock an item off the list, I've managed the cables for all the basic equipment.

 

[Dom]

Lots of work indeed! The stand is double 2x4s at each brace point (8 brace points total) with an extra 2x4 at each corner. Pretty sure there's 8 braces across the top and bottom also.

You're looking at over 3240 lbs (1470kg?). And that's just the tank filled with water.

 

[Dom]

Just to knock an item off the list, I've managed the cables for all the basic equipment.

Aren't you worried about your equipment being in such close proximity to your sump? I like this idea, but it was a lot of work to keep after the salt and humidity that collects over time.

I did the same thing on one of my systems, but on a smaller scale.

I ended up building a wood enclosure with the back of the enclosure facing the sump and relocating all of my equipment on the opposite side to shield it.

The stand looks super capable of managing the weight.

 

[LucasRe]

You're looking at over 3240 lbs (1470kg?). And that's just the tank filled with water.

Yep The stand held this full for quite a while as a fresh water tank so I'm not worried about the weight. My description of it probably isn't the best either - it is very solid.

 

[LucasRe]

Aren't you worried about your equipment being in such close proximity to your sump? I like this idea, but it was a lot of work to keep after the salt and humidity that collects over time.

I did the same thing on one of my systems, but on a smaller scale.

I ended up building a wood enclosure with the back of the enclosure facing the sump and relocating all of my equipment on the opposite side to shield it.

The stand looks super capable of managing the weight.

At this stage I'm not too worried about it, the sump is relatively small (just big enough to hold the essentials) and there's about a 2ft gap between the wall of the sump and the equipment. I'll keep an eye on it and if needed I'll add a barrier between the two.

 

[LucasRe]

Sand is in the tank! Water delivery scheduled for Tuesday. First lot of fish finished ttm tonight, but they're going for another transfer to stall until the tank is full.

Most of the aquascape will go in on Tuesday also, with some rock pieces about a fortnight behind. It's all coming together now

 

[Dom]

Sand is in the tank! Water delivery scheduled for Tuesday. First lot of fish finished ttm tonight, but they're going for another transfer to stall until the tank is full.

Most of the aquascape will go in on Tuesday also, with some rock pieces about a fortnight behind. It's all coming together now

Your cat must be thinking that you're building it a new litter box.

 

[am3gross]

VERY NICE!!

 

[LucasRe]

Big changes happening! Sand is in! (Half of the) Rock is in! First few fish are in!

First the sand

Then half the rock (the other half is still in QT but will eventually fill out the middle section). At this stage I'm not overly thrilled with the aquascape, but it will do for now until the rest of the rock is finished.

And then finally some fish! First up is my pair of clowns and my blue tang

so tiny

That's all for today folks - I'll continue to update this thread as the tang progresses.

 

[revhtree]

The aquascape is looking nice! Keep it up!

 

[LucasRe]

Some stuff has happened so it's update time!

First up is a cabinet (kinda, just a sheet of plywood but it keeps the cats out and doesn't look absolutely awful)

All of my fish have now finished QT also, we had 4 loses unfortunately (3x anthias and a bristletooth tang) The good news is that there's now a few fish in the tank!

1 x cleaner wrasse
1 x fairy wrasse
1 x blue tang
1 x scopas tang
3 x blue chromis
2 x clownfish

Since my last update I also purchased;

1 x purple tang
1 x foxface rabbitfish
1 x long nose hawk fish

These guys have also been quarantined and are now in their new home.

I've been slack and haven't finished sorting out the rock - there's still about half to go in. Maybe next weekend? I did, however, get some lights above the tank. Excuse the ugliness, there will eventually be a hood covering it. At the moment this really isn't enough lights for the tank - I have one more on the way and will eventually work up to 8 of the 165w viparspectras in a portrait orientation.

Here's a few more pics!