R2R Reef of the Month: Steve's 410-gallon SPS Reef - May 2018

[Coralfascination]

Such a beautiful tank; also great advice, don't go cheap./

 

[Michael A Kurolvech]

And I thought my tank was pretty. LOL. Awesome tank.

 

[Flexin]

Discuss this article? Oh yes please! I LOVE your tank and setup. So beautiful!

Question, everything is so well laid out, how do you manage water changes? Is it in-line?

 

[SteveM10]

Discuss this article? Oh yes please! I LOVE your tank and setup. So beautiful!

Question, everything is so well laid out, how do you manage water changes? Is it in-line?

Thank you.

One of the drain lines has a tee that goes to a floor drain. When I do a water change I open that valve and water from the tank goes down the drain. I turn on the pump from my saltwater resivor that pumps new saltwater directly into the sump.

 

[RtomKinMad]

Thank you.

One of the drain lines has a tee that goes to a floor drain. When I do a water change I open that valve and water from the tank goes down the drain. I turn on the pump from my saltwater resivor that pumps new saltwater directly into the sump.

Wow, that’s really cool. Amazing planning on this build. Are you an engineer?! You should be if not!

 

[fabutahoun]

Congratulations and well deserved. Amazing Growth and colors.

 

[CindyKz]

This is so inspiring! I love the way you have the tank built into the wall with the side open. We are refinishing a basement with space planned for a 180 reef and 75 FOWLR, and I've been thinking a lot about how to ask the contractor to do things. I would love to have a look like yours, it's not just a tank on a stand but part of your home.

Congratulations on an amazing reef!

 

[RtomKinMad]

This is so inspiring! I love the way you have the tank built into the wall with the side open. We are refinishing a basement with space planned for a 180 reef and 75 FOWLR, and I've been thinking a lot about how to ask the contractor to do things. I would love to have a look like yours, it's not just a tank on a stand but part of your home.

Congratulations on an amazing reef!

Hi Cindy, that’s sounds like a nice plan. Last year we upgraded our 75 reef to 300 reef and plumbed through the floor to sump in the basement so tank is upstairs then we had our 120FO tank crack end to end(thank goodness my husband was home and saved everyone but lost a day of work) and set up a 180gal fish only with plumbing to the basement also. Got a plumber to the house same day and LFS ordered us a tank delivered 2 days later and my husband built it in one day and added back our fish. Thank goodness we had a 60 quarantine and 90 gal empty we used to house the fish for the four days. Anyway now we wish we had done a 180reef and 300 FO as our FO fish are really big and reef safe fish are smaller. What kind of fish are you planning for the 75 fowler? We have a porcupine puffer, three triggers, 3 large angels, harlequin tusk, foxface, Sohal and scopa tangs and they are a little cramped but not too bad and the big ones are all rescues from smaller tanks. And all get along well. By the way we had no house damage from tank burst because was on a tile floor but had a 100gals H2O leak out. The company replaced tank and stand at our cost and we claimed no other damage so was done in 2 weeks. Just wish we would have done the 180 bigger for FO. Wasn’t sure if our floor would safely hold more weight not able to reinforce the floor on that wall. But did reinforce on the 300gal tank. We have friends here in WI with build in wall units in basement looks so amazing and classy. Our home couldn’t accommodate that though but good luck to you. Just go as big as you can to start so you don’t wish later that you had. Here’s a picture of our two tanks. Best regards Kindel

 

[CindyKz]

Hi Cindy, that’s sounds like a nice plan. Last year we upgraded our 75 reef to 300 reef and plumbed through the floor to sump in the basement so tank is upstairs then we had our 120FO tank crack end to end(thank goodness my husband was home and saved everyone but lost a day of work) and set up a 180gal fish only with plumbing to the basement also. Got a plumber to the house same day and LFS ordered us a tank delivered 2 days later and my husband built it in one day and added back our fish. Thank goodness we had a 60 quarantine and 90 gal empty we used to house the fish for the four days. Anyway now we wish we had done a 180reef and 300 FO as our FO fish are really big and reef safe fish are smaller. What kind of fish are you planning for the 75 fowler? We have a porcupine puffer, three triggers, 3 large angels, harlequin tusk, foxface, Sohal and scopa tangs and they are a little cramped but not too bad and the big ones are all rescues from smaller tanks. And all get along well. By the way we had no house damage from tank burst because was on a tile floor but had a 100gals H2O leak out. The company replaced tank and stand at our cost and we claimed no other damage so was done in 2 weeks. Just wish we would have done the 180 bigger for FO. Wasn’t sure if our floor would safely hold more weight not able to reinforce the floor on that wall. But did reinforce on the 300gal tank. We have friends here in WI with build in wall units in basement looks so amazing and classy. Our home couldn’t accommodate that though but good luck to you. Just go as big as you can to start so you don’t wish later that you had. Here’s a picture of our two tanks. Best regards Kindel

Hi Kindel -

Tank crack what a nightmare! I haven't quite figured out yet how to configure things so the water runs "downhill" into the fish/laundry room instead of into the living space if something happens. We do plan to have all vinyl (supposedly waterproof) tile, no carpet. It sounds like you handled it really well.

My "dream fish" for the FOWLR are a lemonpeel and an eibli angel. Individually either should be fine in 75 gallons, together we'll see LOL. Otherwise maybe a butterfly, wrasses...I'm not really a "big fish" person. Even in the 180 I will probably not have anything larger than a powder blue tang or one of the larger wrasses. I do love my coral though LOL. Also, I'll need to use my current 75 gal for the FOWLR. Right now it's my mixed reef. I attached a photo, for some reason it won't embed.

Thank you for your detailed reply and advice! Looking forward to following along.

Cindy

View attachment 20180530_192309.jpg

 

[RtomKinMad]

Hi Kindel -

Tank crack what a nightmare! I haven't quite figured out yet how to configure things so the water runs "downhill" into the fish/laundry room instead of into the living space if something happens. We do plan to have all vinyl (supposedly waterproof) tile, no carpet. It sounds like you handled it really well.

My "dream fish" for the FOWLR are a lemonpeel and an eibli angel. Individually either should be fine in 75 gallons, together we'll see LOL. Otherwise maybe a butterfly, wrasses...I'm not really a "big fish" person. Even in the 180 I will probably not have anything larger than a powder blue tang or one of the larger wrasses. I do love my coral though LOL. Also, I'll need to use my current 75 gal for the FOWLR. Right now it's my mixed reef. I attached a photo, for some reason it won't embed.

Thank you for your detailed reply and advice! Looking forward to following along.

Cindy

View attachment 20180530_192309.jpg

Hi Cindy, your picture uploaded. What a pretty tank! Lov all the zoas. Sounds like a really nice plan for the 75 and 180! I lov the angels. The lemon peel is so pretty. The powder blue is perfect for the 180 reef! Hope you will do a build threat too! The built in tanks are so pretty! It’s funny how just one tank isn’t enough! I definitely am addicted to the fish and my husband loves the coral. I’m glad we both like it. Well good luck to you and thanks for sharing. Tank crack was awful we were so lucky my husband was fast and smart and able to safe our 10yr old Sohal. Best regards, Kindel

 

[SaracensRugby]

Amazing tank. Something to aspire to. What mistakes did you make along the way that you learned from that led you to growing such amazing colonies?

 

[Buddy1234]

Beautiful tank!

 

[SteveM10]

Amazing tank. Something to aspire to. What mistakes did you make along the way that you learned from that led you to growing such amazing colonies?

Biggist mistake I made was using to fine of a sand originally. I had to replace it due to it getting blown all over the tank. It also took me quite some time to get the lights dialed in. Once I did things really took off.

 

[Tanmoy Guha]

Hi @SteveM10 can i get your radion schedule please. i am using old radion . (.ETG file). Thanks and Regards

 

[SteveM10]

Hi @SteveM10 can i get your radion schedule please. i am using old radion . (.ETG file). Thanks and Regards

I would love to share it but I can not seem to be able to get it to load here once I export it.

 

[Tanmoy Guha]

sir @SteveM10 my mail id [email protected].

 

[SteveM10]

sir @SteveM10 my mail id [email protected].

Sent, let me know if it worked.

 

[SteveM10]

sir @SteveM10 my mail id [email protected].

Sent, let me know if it worked.

 

[Tanmoy Guha]

Thank you so much for sharing your schedule @SteveM10 .give you feed back after running schedule. thank you once again

 

[Tanmoy Guha]

Sent, let me know if it worked.

i imported the schedule. looking grt. shall i run it default 100% brightness?
my tank is 48×24×24 inch. light is on 12 inch high from water level. pls suggest