Rhoads238's 280 gallon reef with fish room

rowdyreefing

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Yes! I'm very happy with how my plumbing setup came out. Its extremely quiet and it easily allows for 10x flow through the sump which is recommended for the triton method.

I don't have any experience with combining the lines since thats not the direction that i went with it. If i had to guess, I wouldn't recommend doing the two syphon lines. Thats where most of your water flow is going to go through so I think it would be beneficial to keep them separate. Two that set the water level can probably be combined since there's only a trickle of water going through them.

In terms of helpful tips I would say it would be a good idea to dry fit everything. I did a full dry fit of my piping and then just left it that way for a week or two so I could look at it and really think about if it was exactly what I wanted, then I did the final setup. It was the first time I did pvc plumbing so having extra fittings on hand because I ended up wasting a bunch.
your patience must be much better than mine. I really appreciate the response!
 
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Rhoads238

Rhoads238

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Great Build!

Thank you!

your patience must be much better than mine. I really appreciate the response!

I've definitely gotten better, this is my second tank so I knew that there were some mistakes I didn't want to make again. The plumbing was a difficult project for me and it took about a month in total.
 
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Rhoads238

Rhoads238

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Hey everyone!

Just a small update that I'm really excited about. i just placed an order for a battlebox from battlecorals! I should be getting it tomorrow. I'll post what I got when my package arrives!
 
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Rhoads238

Rhoads238

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Hey everyone!

I just received my Battlebox from and I have to say I'm blown away with what I received. I thought the way it was packaged was really nice. They came in the typical styrofoam box, but the corals were double bagged and then put into a larger bag. They way it all fit into the box seemed very secure and all of the corals arrived without damage

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I really like the bags that they come in, every coral is marked with its name, how much light and flow it requires, how long its been in captivity, how hardy it is and how fast it grows.

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There were so many corals my qt nearly overflowed!

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After temp acclamation I did my typical bayer dip followed by a quadruple rinse.

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Unfortunately, I only managed to remember which a few of the names were. Heres the complete list of what I received in no particular order.

Cemetary party
Mariachi Static
Mr. Neutron
Miyagi Tort
Bonfire
Serious Circus
Raindrops on Roses
Sunblaze Spath
Blueberry Natusa
Wonder Woman Table
BC Double Rainbow

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Big thank you to Adam from BattleCorals for sending such awesome frags! I will definitely be ordering again.
 
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Rhoads238

Rhoads238

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Hey everyone!

Yesterday I got another battlebox. I love these things. If you haven't tried it yet you should check them out. The pictures below really don't do them justice.

Heres what I received in my order.

Miss scarlett
Joker 2.0
Banzi Humilis
Awerewolf
Goldfire
Kermit Granny
Fleshdunce
Marty Mcfly
Honeycomb
Greg C Efflo

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I do a 76 day quarantine on all coral and inverts so these will be added to the display at the end of February. Its a long time to wait but hopefully it will keep ich out of my display. My zoas have grown like crazy since they were added with the exception being the vivid rainbows. They seem to be melting for some reason. I' cant figure out whats going on with them. If anyone has any idea of how to stop this from happening, please let me know.

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Yesterday I also did some maintenance on the tank. I did a water change and cleaned the sump out. I had a lot of hair algae going in my refugium and I spent some time cleaning that out. I think this was a much needed move. I've noticed the corals in my display are looking pale so I tested my nitrates and they're reading at zero. I believe this is the cause of the pale coloration so I removed the hair algae so it wont strip the nitrate from my water.

That covers everything for now. Thanks for viewing my build!
 

Skynyrd Fish

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Looking awesome.. I would just add the battle corals. I have never ordered from him, but I would hands down trust his corals and water to go right in the tank. The reason I say this is he may have some bacteria in his water that you may not have, and I would not be able to wait. LOL.
 
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Rhoads238

Rhoads238

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Looking awesome.. I would just add the battle corals. I have never ordered from him, but I would hands down trust his corals and water to go right in the tank. The reason I say this is he may have some bacteria in his water that you may not have, and I would not be able to wait. LOL.

You should definitely give them a try. I've been super happy with both of my orders and all of the corals are doing great so far.
 
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Rhoads238

Rhoads238

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It's time for my two year update!

Yesterday makes two years that the tank has been running with water. It's been a bumpy road to be honest but I think its really starting to turn around. I had pretty severe outbreak of dinos that took a very long time to get under control. I had tried black outs, bacterial dosing, raising nutrients, changing the lighting and patience but nothing worked long term. After over a year of dealing with it I purchased a microscope and identified them as being ostreopsis. Once I had determined this UV would work, I bought the tank one for Christmas and they were gone in about a week.
I was thrilled to have them be gone after such a long battle. Once they were gone a new nuisance showed itself. I had a pretty nasty outbreak of hair algae, bryopsis and bubble algae that went on for a few months. I think the dinos were using up all of the possible nutrients and stalling the rest of the ugly phase. I continued to try to be patient with the tank and not try to do too many things to upset the tank's balance.

I wasn't making any progress, so I decided to lower the intensity and photoperiod of my display lights and turned up my refugium lights to 100%. After a few weeks of this the algae really started to clear up with manual removal and die off. I have to say the tank is looking a lot better and I think it's time to start stocking it with coral again. The rock and back glass are almost completely covered in coralline and I only have a little bit of hair algae and cyano at this point. So I'm feeling really positive about the direction things are headed.

I think the thing that kept me going the past 18 months that the tank has struggled was that Bulk Reef had a lot of issues with their BRS WWC hybrid tank. I kept telling myself that if the pros could have struggles then its ok that I had them too. I think part of the situation was caused by using dry rock and dry sand. My last tank used live rock and live sand with a DSB. I didn't have most of the issues I had with this one and when I did, they sorted themselves out faster. I think this is an advantage of live rock and live sand but I still wouldn't do live rock again. I don't think its worth risking it because of the potential pests. Currently I have no aiptasia or other nuisance critters in my display. I credit this to luck, dry rock and the quarantine process I use for livestock.

Since things are going well again, I will probably start posting some more regular updates on the tank. This weekend I will try to upload some photos of my fish which have been doing great all this time.

Thanks for taking a look at my build!
 

Digitalfirex

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It's time for my two year update!

Yesterday makes two years that the tank has been running with water. It's been a bumpy road to be honest but I think its really starting to turn around. I had pretty severe outbreak of dinos that took a very long time to get under control. I had tried black outs, bacterial dosing, raising nutrients, changing the lighting and patience but nothing worked long term. After over a year of dealing with it I purchased a microscope and identified them as being ostreopsis. Once I had determined this UV would work, I bought the tank one for Christmas and they were gone in about a week.
I was thrilled to have them be gone after such a long battle. Once they were gone a new nuisance showed itself. I had a pretty nasty outbreak of hair algae, bryopsis and bubble algae that went on for a few months. I think the dinos were using up all of the possible nutrients and stalling the rest of the ugly phase. I continued to try to be patient with the tank and not try to do too many things to upset the tank's balance.

I wasn't making any progress, so I decided to lower the intensity and photoperiod of my display lights and turned up my refugium lights to 100%. After a few weeks of this the algae really started to clear up with manual removal and die off. I have to say the tank is looking a lot better and I think it's time to start stocking it with coral again. The rock and back glass are almost completely covered in coralline and I only have a little bit of hair algae and cyano at this point. So I'm feeling really positive about the direction things are headed.

I think the thing that kept me going the past 18 months that the tank has struggled was that Bulk Reef had a lot of issues with their BRS WWC hybrid tank. I kept telling myself that if the pros could have struggles then its ok that I had them too. I think part of the situation was caused by using dry rock and dry sand. My last tank used live rock and live sand with a DSB. I didn't have most of the issues I had with this one and when I did, they sorted themselves out faster. I think this is an advantage of live rock and live sand but I still wouldn't do live rock again. I don't think its worth risking it because of the potential pests. Currently I have no aiptasia or other nuisance critters in my display. I credit this to luck, dry rock and the quarantine process I use for livestock.

Since things are going well again, I will probably start posting some more regular updates on the tank. This weekend I will try to upload some photos of my fish which have been doing great all this time.

Thanks for taking a look at my build!
Do you mind if I ask where power heads are placed?
 

Seansea

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Glad to hear you fought thru it all. Hows the livestock? Did it fight thru it all as well?
 
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Rhoads238

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Glad to hear you fought thru it all. Hows the livestock? Did it fight thru it all as well?

Unfortunately the yo-yoing of nutrients and changing things to fight everything going on with the tank was really hard on my hard corals and I lost a lot of pieces. Only my zoa garden has done well. Once the tank started to go through all of its issues I stopped buying corals things are turning around and I've started buying some coral again and its currently in QT.
 
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Rhoads238

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Hey everyone!

Since my last update I've wanted to share some photos of the tank and my collection of fish. Things have continued to improve and I'm hoping that the tank is finally stabilizing. Below is not the best FTS but it will do for now.

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I love how clear the UV makes the water.
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Current fish list
Flamehawk
Copperband Butterfly
Bimaculatus anthias x6
Carpenter's wrasse
Solerensis wrasse
Orangeback Wrasse
Angulatus Wrasse
Pintail Wrasse
Exquisite Wrasse
Tomini tang
Sailfin Tang
Royal Gramma

My carpenter wrasse has been in the display for over a year but this is the best photo I've gotten of him flashing. He's a beautiful fish and one of my favorites.

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Bimaculatus Anthias have been in the tank for a year now and have done really well. These fish were a big part of the reason why I wanted a larger tank. I'm really happy to have them and love the activity they add to the tank.

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Below shots show the growth of my sailfin tang, Sally, in the past year since I got her. She's really grown quite a bit!

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Below is Scoot, my flame hawk. When I bought him, I had gotten a pair of them but he killed is wife in quarantine.

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My absolute favorite fish and the one I'm the most proud of is my Copperband Butterfly. I've had him for about 18 months now and he eats like a pig. I think the reason I was successful was because I bought one that was already eating and I quarantined him. I think this was important because he was not an aggressive eater initially. It took him some time to recognize food and to learn how to eat out of the water column. If i didn't do this I don't think he would have been able keep up with the other fish. Once I added him to the display I would feed with wavemakers off because he would struggle to chase the food down. Now he has no problem doing that and I no longer turn the pumps off because I think the Anthias prefer to chase their food down although they aren't very picky at all.
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Below are the only coral currently in the tank. They've grown a lot since they were purchased. I can't wait to get more coral in the tank.
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Next up are the corals i have in Qt at the moment. They will be going in the tank in another month or so.

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Filtration in the tank has been working really well. My cheato was grown from a golf ball sized piece from algae barn. It now completely fills my refugium which i think is about 30 gallons. I flip it once a week, I think this helps keep it going strong.

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Skimmer is also a beast and still producing thick and nasty skimmate as it should be
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That sums up everything going on with the tank now. If i can get some good shots of my other fish I will post them soon.
 
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