Red_Ant's Artist Inspired 300 Gallon - 600G+ total volume

[Red_ant]

Well time for me to get off the sidelines and do my first build thread. Little background on me. Jumped into reefing 1 year ago with 135 gallon cube tank (first aquarium ever). I did about a year of constant research before making the dive. Lots of ups and down. Had everything going for about 4 months with 160 watt razor and corals (mostly LPS) were growing. Got tired of green rocks so bought 20 turbo snails. Needless to say all the green was gone in 1 week and then all the corals in 2 weeks (lesson learned) when all the nutrients got back in the water column. Switched to MH (which I love), added more corals and started dosing prodibio and now everything is under control 6 months later.

Well 3 weeks ago I found and got a monster deal on a Miracles 300 gallon tank with all equipment as well as the extra equipment, frags tanks, pumps, etc. When I say monster deal just think of the best deal possible and it was better than that! Needless to say I got it so here goes:

Goals
1. Low maintenance (automate as much as possible to keep maintence to once a month or better)
2. Keep cost down (if you have the money it doesn't mean spend it)(keep both ongoing and one time expenses down from equipment to electricity to stuff like GFO)
3. *Most Important*Make inside the tank a piece of art and something that hasn't been done before (stay tuned on this one, I want to use my artistic stills to create a story)

Tanks
300 gallon eurobraced Miracles Starphire tank main display future mixed reef(96x30x24)
75 gallon frag tank
100 gallon sump
100 gallon cryptic tank
25/50 gallon dsb tank

Stand/Canopy:
Steel stand
Custom wood stand and canopy (needs to be re-painted to match room)

Lighting:
3- 250 watt MH
2- 8 ft T5 Antics

Filtration
TBD - plan to KISS

More to come

 

[vlangel]

Wow, you better stock up on buckets of salt!!!!!

 

[Red_ant]

Current tank and setup

Here is the current 135 tank and the current basement sump/fish room.

 

[Red_ant]

New tank

New tank, stand and canopy.

 

[90greefman]

Tagging along.

 

[Small triggers]

Very fun!

 

[general0]

That's a really nice tank you scored, I really like the dimensions of it. Looking forward to seeing this build!

 

[Red_ant]

Actually made progress this week as well. Added floor bracing in the basement under the tank, moved the tank upstairs to replace the bookcase and gave 240lbs of rock I got with the setup an acid bath. Next I will clean the tank and start a phosphate removal treatment(lanthanum chloride) on all the new rock. I will end up giving my current rock an acid bath and phosphate treatment once my new rock cycles and I move the current fish and coral to new tanks.

Can I do the phosphate treatment and cycle the new rock with a shrimp at the same time?

 

[TriggerThis]

Idk why you would bother with messing with your current rock or doing a phosphate treatment on the regular rock. Just put all the new in the 300 and add in as much as you want of your current rock to help it go faster and your off.

Great ambition btw. I would brace the floor double what you have now. That's over a ton of weight.

 

[Red_ant]

Thanks all. Good to see you 90G. Definitely up for pointers from all. I love the dimensions of this tank. At first my dream tank was going to be the same size but 30" high and 24" wide. But, it looks like this size will be best as 30" high would be a pain to clean. I wish I would have taken I picture of my fish room with all the stuff I got in the package before I cleaned the room and sold some of the stuff. But, here are a couple of pictures when I picked stuff up.

 

[Red_ant]

Idk why you would bother with messing with your current rock or doing a phosphate treatment on the regular rock. Just put all the new in the 300 and add in as much as you want of your current rock to help it go faster and your off.

Great ambition btw. I would brace the floor double what you have now. That's over a ton of weight.

My current rock is leaching phosphates like crazy so want to get the phosphate out before transferring them to the new tank. I'm actually going to test the new rock to see if it is leaching prior to treatment. If it is not then I won't treat it. But, half of it was 2 year dead live rock (still had dead crabs in it) and the other half was new dry rock known to leach so thought I would be proactive.

I actually had this house custom built last year. The tank now happens to be over the basement mechanical room (no equipment under it though which is great) so it's the only place in the basement unfinished. I contacted the builder this week to see if the floor could handle 5000lbs (I was being super conservative in case I put another display tank under the stand). He reached out to the engineer and the engineer drew up a plan of two walls underneath to brace directly under the tank that could support more than 5000lbs. They knocked it out this morning.

 

[90greefman]

Read you had artistic skills already but here is a good read just in case.
Tips and Tricks on Creating Amazing Aquascapes - Reef Central Online Community

 

[Red_ant]

That is a great thread. I love thirds and the golden ratio.

 

[nivram]

If it were me, I'd just treat your rocks with lanthanum chloride first. Then cycle the system with shrimp or pure ammonia.

 

[TriggerThis]

My current rock is leaching phosphates like crazy so want to get the phosphate out before transferring them to the new tank. I'm actually going to test the new rock to see if it is leaching prior to treatment. If it is not then I won't treat it. But, half of it was 2 year dead live rock (still had dead crabs in it) and the other half was new dry rock known to leach so thought I would be proactive.

I actually had this house custom built last year. The tank now happens to be over the basement mechanical room (no equipment under it though which is great) so it's the only place in the basement unfinished. I contacted the builder this week to see if the floor could handle 5000lbs (I was being super conservative in case I put another display tank under the stand). He reached out to the engineer and the engineer drew up a plan of two walls underneath to brace directly under the tank that could support more than 5000lbs. They knocked it out this morning.

Ahhh now the blanks are filled in. Sounds like it's going to be super enforced now! Lol it's gonna need it.
(Side note: I'm dreaming of what my house would be if I could build it from the ground up)

And for the rock I think it leaching phosphates would be my worst nightmare. Deff go ahead and treat it to be sure.

 

[Red_ant]

It's definitely fun building from the ground up. This is the second house I had built. First house was with a bulk builder where you choose from their plans and go to a design center for 3 hours to pick out floor, etc and then you are done. My current house was fully custom. I had to design the plans, get an architect, builder and pick out everything from floors to door knobs to hinges. Was definitely fun because I designed it exactly how I wanted it but was definitely time consuming and overwhelming. I tell myself I will never do it again (ok maybe one more time, hahaha).

Sounds like I should treat for phosphates and then cycle. Any other opinions as to whether I can do both at the same time?

 

[Steveowhits]

I'm eager to see this tank come together. Red_ant has a beautiful home and this will make it that much better! Good luck and call me when you need me my friend.

 

[Red_ant]

Thanks SteveO. Thanks for helping getting this beast in the house. I'm glad you have iMessage(free text between iPhones) or I would probably need to chip in on your cell phone bill as much as I text you with questions. Hahaha.

Small progress today. New rocks are now in saltwater. I'm going to let them soak with no light for a week and see if phosphates go up and then start a daily treatment. I'm so tempted to start the cycle today. I would save 2-3 weeks if I do the phosphate and cycle at the same time. Ordering buckets of salt today too.

 

[Red_ant]

Been out of town this past week (thank goodness since Charlotte got all the snow). Had 6 boxes of 200 gallon IO waiting for me. Today I had to mix more 2-part since it ran out while I was out of town (of course) and did some tank maintence on my current tank. Also did the plumbing for the 2x 105 gallon saltwater mixing station. It will eventually also be daily auto water change. The wood frame in front of the tanks is part of the new floor reinforcement designed by the engineer.

 

[Red_ant]

Did the phosphate test on the dry rock. 0.31, ouch! Time for phosphate treatment. Gonna try to cycle at the same time. May actually do some aquascaping today as well.