"Mega Tank" Mixed Reef with Natural Tonga Branch Rock Aquascape - Dream Build 250 DT with 325 Total System Volume

[Benpastw]

Next project was hanging the lights. Decided on going with 4 Kessil A700's for lighting. I didn't want the look of wires hanging from the ceiling so I bought the Kessil mounting arms as well as "extended" mounting arms to get the lights out into the middle of the tank. This is necessary because of the overflow on the back of the tank as well as the width of the tank makes using the stock arms less than ideal.

The new problem became how to mount the arms since we couldn't do it the regular way as there is 3 in star fire bracing around the rim of the tank. Thinking outside the box I went and bought some oak boards each longer than the length of the tank to make a "shelf" with a lip coming off the front of it so that I could mount the arm mounts to that and drilled 1.25in holes for each of the adjustable arms to go through so that it was all still functional.

Board that attaches to the wall is 3/4 x 7 3/4 x7 feet
Board that serves as horizontal piece is 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 7 feet
Board that serves as horizontal piece for mounting arms to attach is 3/4 x 5.5 x 7 feet

I used rust resistant L brackets and stainless screws to anchor everything together. It was important to me to over engineer this as much as possible as the 4 lights are heavy, extend out far from the wall and would be exerting a lot of torque on the shelf. Now that its completed I am confident that the wall will come down before that "shelf" fails.

(Of course I couldn't have done any of this without my lil helper making sure the measurements were correct and wagging her tail in approval of the design).

 

[Benpastw]

The next day I mocked up where the lights would be sitting to make sure that the holes i would drill would be in the right spots for the arm vertical pieces to go through. Once I had it all set I marked out the places, and drilled them with a 1.25 in "hole dozer" bit.

 

[Benpastw]

Then finally it was time to hang it on the wall and re-install the lights.

 

[Benpastw]

While I was working on the Shelf and Lighting aspects, my brother was working on plumbing the tank. we used Sch80 bulkheads for the tank and connected everything with Union fittings to ensure that there wouldn't be any leaks. Our goal the entire build has been to over engineer everything as much as possible to hopefully prevent and future "incidents".

We used 1.25in sch80 bulkheads for the closed loop which is run by a Vectra L2, with adjustable Lock line returns so that we can easily change the direction of the flow.

The 4 main returns have 3/4 in Sch80 (currently with vinyl tubing leading to them however the project for tomorrow will be replacing that with hard plumbing. We are also currently using 2 Vectra S2 pumps for the returns however we've concluded that they don't produce the flow that is adequate for the size of the tank, this is likely due to decreased head pressure from the length and resistance of the pipes and we are going to replace them with 2 Vectra L2 pumps tomorrow when we replace the vinyl tubing with hard plumbing.

 

[Benpastw]

Then we added water, brewed up 300 gallons of RO and had been storing it in every container i could find around the house. What a relief to finally have it in the tank with no leaks!

Ended up adding salt once it was over halfway full, finally started to feel like were almost at the finish line!

 

[Benpastw]

Got the lights on a cycle, and added the rock we had been curing in a brute can and NUVO IM40 tank. Its not scaped the way it will be when its done but we needed to get it in the tank to hopefully hasten the cycling process, and we needed the space in the Brute can and the NUVO for even more branch rock that still needs to cure.

We soaked the new rock in citric acid bath, then in RO water prior to moving them into the new curing tanks, were hopeful that if theres any die off left to occur we can limit how much of that happens in the main tank and will ideally avoid any massive nutrient swings or blooms...I estimate that we will move the new rock into the tank in 3-4 weeks. Going to treat everything with "Dr. Tims The One and Only" which I have used in the past when starting tanks and have had good results.

 

[Benpastw]

Sand was added which clouded the water, however after a few hours of running the tank it cleared up. This is not the final rock scape but it'll do the trick for now. (Cant wait to add pictures of the pieces that are currently being cured... they're AMAZING)

As all of this rock (in the tank) had been curing for almost 2 months already, some had algae growing on it so we also added about 40 snails and 40 hermit crabs into the tank as an initial clean up crew...anticipate that a diatom bloom is also imminent

 

[JonezNReef]

Well thought out and put together setup. Looks good and will be following along

 

[ryanrick]

Looks fun! I'll be following!

 

[matt310n]

As John Hammond once said. I’ve spared no expense!!!!

 

[Benpastw]

Additional Tonga finds: Pre-Aquascape

 

[Benpastw]

Finished transitioning the Vinyl return lines to hard plumbing. Also had the 2 Vectra L2 Pumps arrive today so we were able to hard plumb those in as well. The additional flow was unbelievable. Even at 30% power it is putting out more than double the flow the S2's were putting out.

 

[Benpastw]

Also got the Nyos Protein Skimmer set up and running

 

[Benpastw]

Finally, we decided to just go ahead and aquascape it!!!! (Also added the 16oz of Doctor Tims the One and Only, two jars of ECO Pods, and pink/purple coralline algae spores).

Water is still cloudy from the agitation of the fresh sand. Will post clearer pictures sometime soon, this layout is subject to change in the future but it should give a good idea of the look were going for.

 

[lubeck]

Looking great. Just need to let it marinate for a year or so. That will be fun stocking.

 

[chcgregg]

Any updates?

 

[Benpastw]

Tank Update, hoping to be more active on this forum with more frequent updates! (Life gets in the way and been meaning to share some progress pics for months now) Tank is super stable, and getting great growth out of everything! Never had a tank grow corals as well as this has. Fish are doing well, all eat like pigs which is probably contributory.

Some Updates to equipment I am running:
-Ended up taking the protein skimmer off the tank, it was producing a ton of skim mate and i think ideally I would still run it but its been off for about 5 months and i haven't noticed any adverse effects, doing slightly more frequent water changes but tbh i think if anything the added nutrients have been great for my system
-Still running a Pax Bellum for cheato on opposite cycle of my light to help keep pH stable.
-Added a Kamoer dosing pump and Calcium reactor setup to the tank (been running for about 3-4 weeks now and corals look even fluffier now than before, was intimidated initially regarding complexity but once up and running it actually turned out to be really simple

Frag System: (Last two pics)
-The 2 equipment spaces in the sump have been outfitted to grow out frags of coral with some various fish (yellow tang, sail fin tang, six-line wrasse and clownfish) for maintenance. biggest problem I am having now is running out of room down there for frags when the display really needs some trimming lol
-Running 2 a160's and one a80 over the sump and have a couple MP-10's and Nero 3 powerbeads for flow

-Goals for sump:
Left side will be mostly zoas, shrooms and chalice etc, with the far left of that bay for my nems (Chicagos, Colorados and Nexus Burst)-they seem to love it down there
-Made a custom nem basket holder out of piece of acrylic which turned out great!

-Right side will be filled with the various types of micromussa Ive collected i.e.). Members Only, HG micro, Rainbow road, and essentially every other strain I've been able to find (My brother knows all the names but those are the few most notable ones that come to mind quickly)

Will probably thin out some leathers in the next few weeks to make room for the euphyllia to spread out more and so I can add more torches to the display.

Ill be posting some better pictures soon, these are just what happened to be on my phone and are around 2 months old right now so definitely more updates to come!

 

[Cthulukelele]

Tank Update, hoping to be more active on this forum with more frequent updates! (Life gets in the way and been meaning to share some progress pics for months now) Tank is super stable, and getting great growth out of everything! Never had a tank grow corals as well as this has. Fish are doing well, all eat like pigs which is probably contributory.

Some Updates to equipment I am running:
-Ended up taking the protein skimmer off the tank, it was producing a ton of skim mate and i think ideally I would still run it but its been off for about 5 months and i haven't noticed any adverse effects, doing slightly more frequent water changes but tbh i think if anything the added nutrients have been great for my system
-Still running a Pax Bellum for cheato on opposite cycle of my light to help keep pH stable.
-Added a Kamoer dosing pump and Calcium reactor setup to the tank (been running for about 3-4 weeks now and corals look even fluffier now than before, was intimidated initially regarding complexity but once up and running it actually turned out to be really simple

Frag System: (Last two pics)
-The 2 equipment spaces in the sump have been outfitted to grow out frags of coral with some various fish (yellow tang, sail fin tang, six-line wrasse and clownfish) for maintenance. biggest problem I am having now is running out of room down there for frags when the display really needs some trimming lol
-Running 2 a160's and one a80 over the sump and have a couple MP-10's and Nero 3 powerbeads for flow

-Goals for sump:
Left side will be mostly zoas, shrooms and chalice etc, with the far left of that bay for my nems (Chicagos, Colorados and Nexus Burst)-they seem to love it down there
-Made a custom nem basket holder out of piece of acrylic which turned out great!

-Right side will be filled with the various types of micromussa Ive collected i.e.). Members Only, HG micro, Rainbow road, and essentially every other strain I've been able to find (My brother knows all the names but those are the few most notable ones that come to mind quickly)

Will probably thin out some leathers in the next few weeks to make room for the euphyllia to spread out more and so I can add more torches to the display.

Ill be posting some better pictures soon, these are just what happened to be on my phone and are around 2 months old right now so definitely more updates to come!

What a gorgeous, impressive, and expensive update! Lol

 

[Benpastw]

Update: more recent pictures

Also re-did the aquascape on the left and middle part of the tank, very happy with how it turned out, let me spread out the euphylia a lot. Ended up cutting apart a lot of the larger colonies i had to spread them out (the colonies were starting to grow over and shade each other and the lower parts of themselves) added a few more torches (have more on the way). Plan will be to redo the right side of the tank sometime during the next month when i can find time and prioritize that space for a large torch garden. Looking forward to posting more updates as they come!

Also had a chance to clean and organize the sump i am running which I have outfitted to growout frags, other coral colonies and mushroom garden which seem to love it down there!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Wow, your tank is doing really well!!