Whiskey's 300 Gallon Glass Cages Dream Reef. It only took 22 years!

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Wiskey

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I just finished reading Hydrored's thread yesterday. Quite a journey he's had. If he has a new build thread I couldn't find it.
Yeah! He had a great thread! That's how I found out about this setup in fact, I was reading his thread looking for ideas for the tank I was planning and got to the end where he mentioned that it was for sale.

Whiskey
 
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I have an update!!!! That was a super crazy weekend, and every part of me hurts, but the entire system was broken down Friday Night and put into a 300 Gallon stock tank on the living room floor, then Saturday the tank was put in place, and everything was moved back. Dave from Aqua ventures and their access to things like stock tanks, and large mixing containers, and especially all their help getting the tank lifted and on the stand was invaluable. If you live in OKC I highly recommend checking them out for large moves.

During the process I think something might have gotten kicked up from the sand or something because I have lost a couple of fish, and almost every Monti had RTN'ed completely while in holding. It must have been something unexpected that affected things, because the stock tank had plenty of flow from a couple Tunze 6105's and a Gyree 4000. Temperature and Salinity were maintained properly and that bin held all the live rock that has been in the system all along.

I don't have many pictures because I still have allot of work to do, but I have a couple I could share here.
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Stock tank filling and getting ready to take down the old tank:
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Here's most of the stuff in the stock tank, the additional flow was added after the tank was completely down.
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Still lots to do!!! The cabinetry of course, but more than that I still need to take down the 100 gallon stock tank I have in the Sump Room and find space in this tank for all that coral. The big torch I have reserved a perfect spot for, but now I'm not totally sure it will fit. We will see.

Whiskey
 

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I would probably invest in a larger one - possibly one of the dual 40 watts - as you'll want to run a higher volume through it (upwards of 1,000Gph). I have a 57-watt on my 200-gallon system that runs @650-750Gph.
@blaxsun - How do you know the gph you have going through the uv? I am currently desiging the plumbing for my new Miracles custom peninsula 280g. I will have a manifold on the return line which will feed the UV. I will have a value on it but not sure how to estimate or know the gph that is going through it. Thanks!
 

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@blaxsun - How do you know the gph you have going through the uv? I am currently desiging the plumbing for my new Miracles custom peninsula 280g. I will have a manifold on the return line which will feed the UV. I will have a value on it but not sure how to estimate or know the gph that is going through it. Thanks!
A rough guesstimate based on % pump speed and head height (I have a dedicated pump for the UV). This was compared against the calculation for how long it took to fill a 5-gallon pail (approximate Gph).

I could also hook up a flow meter to get an exact reading but I'm just too lazy.
 
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@blaxsun - How do you know the gph you have going through the uv? I am currently desiging the plumbing for my new Miracles custom peninsula 280g. I will have a manifold on the return line which will feed the UV. I will have a value on it but not sure how to estimate or know the gph that is going through it. Thanks!
Blaxsun had some great suggestions and I wanted to add to them. Something I often do is point the output into a bucket and figure out how long it takes to push out a gallon of water in and calculate. Like let's say it fills a gallon jug in 22 seconds. We divide 60 by that and get 2.73, then multiply that by 60 and end up with about 164 GPH.

These days I'd probably put one of the neptune flow monitors on it though. I have those on my returns to make sure my pumps are performing like they should.

Whiskey
 
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More work has been done! The tank is settling in pretty well and I'm doing my best not to touch anything. Whatever it was that killed the Montipora and Anacropora seems to have stayed in that 300 gallon stock tank, because things seem to be recovering now and corals in the frag tank on the same system were not affected once everything went back in.

I've taken down the 100 gallon stock tank in the Tank room finally, which means I can get to my Frag tank again to maintain it, that's a huge relief.

I 3d printed little holders for all my power bricks, and made a back panel to mount things under the stand to clean that up a little bit. It's not done yet because 3d printers aren't the fastest, but we are looking better every day.
Of course my little pup has to be in every photo
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I started making better progress on the lower cabinets this weekend too. I decided to add a little narrow bartop to the top of the lowers so I'll need to cut them down a little bit to accommodate, but it's super nice to see doors ready for primer:
1681150628167.png

Also! My powder blue is in the main tank!
Whiskey
 
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Looking good man!! I’m having trouble with fish after my move but the corals are doing great! Go figure lol..
If it's not one thing, it's another,.. right? I think at the end of the day these systems just don't like change very much. I seem to have the most luck with the tank when I get things to more or less acceptable numbers then don't touch anything but water changes. I really need to get to a point where I stop messing with all those fancy sliders on my lights.

Thank you!!!!
Whiskey
 

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If it's not one thing, it's another,.. right? I think at the end of the day these systems just don't like change very much. I seem to have the most luck with the tank when I get things to more or less acceptable numbers then don't touch anything but water changes. I really need to get to a point where I stop messing with all those fancy sliders on my lights.

Thank you!!!!
Whiskey
Yeah no doubt! I just run the ab+ on my radions and the metal halides I can’t play with! Corals are loving the new halide lights! Man I missed them myself…
 
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Yeah no doubt! I just run the ab+ on my radions and the metal halides I can’t play with! Corals are loving the new halide lights! Man I missed them myself…
Oh man, you went with Halide? I've been toying with that idea myself, I had 4 of the Hydra's or I might have gone with the other way. If I put 3 x 250W XM10K over this thing like I used to have on the 180 it wouldn't even be that much extra power because the 2 LED fixtures are about 200W.

Whiskey
 

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Oh man, you went with Halide? I've been toying with that idea myself, I had 4 of the Hydra's or I might have gone with the other way. If I put 3 x 250W XM10K over this thing like I used to have on the 180 it wouldn't even be that much extra power because the 2 LED fixtures are about 200W.

Whiskey
I did! All my local buddies have piles of them in their garages and gave me some for free! Bought a couple phoenix 14k bulbs and was back in business! After buying my new set up I didn’t have another 6k to light it properly with radions! After a couple weeks of watching the corals under metal halides I’m glad I didn’t go the radion route! These things rock and basically use the same power but a much better spread! Only downfall is the heat of course.. it’s not bad where I need a chiller or anything so I’m loving what I got! Xr30 is 230 watts so what 20 watts less than a halide? Spread can’t be matched on them..

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That looks fantastic! I need reefing friends with garages full of the gear I want to use!!! I have been keeping an eye on the facebook group because every now and again someone sells them at garage sale prices. I haven't seen one recently though. I figure that with a 300 and 3 x 250W I wouldn't have any real issue with overheating, it would probably keep my heater off a little bit more too.

Whiskey
 
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Sorry for being slow on updates here,.. building cabinetry takes for freaking EVER! I haven't played golf in so long, but! I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, AND! If I'm busy with the cabinets, at least I'm not messing with the tank lol.

The Monties that struggled in the tub seem to have what's left coming back now which is really good, and most things seem to be happy and settling in nicely. I do need to buy a bunch of lenses for my Hydra 32's though, when I was swapping the older 4 off I found that some of the lens parts were blackened and melted.

Here's where the cabinets are today!
1681749412666.png


Now, I have 80 hours of painting ahead of me...
Whiskey
 

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Sorry for being slow on updates here,.. building cabinetry takes for freaking EVER! I haven't played golf in so long, but! I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, AND! If I'm busy with the cabinets, at least I'm not messing with the tank lol.

The Monties that struggled in the tub seem to have what's left coming back now which is really good, and most things seem to be happy and settling in nicely. I do need to buy a bunch of lenses for my Hydra 32's though, when I was swapping the older 4 off I found that some of the lens parts were blackened and melted.

Here's where the cabinets are today!
1681749412666.png


Now, I have 80 hours of painting ahead of me...
Whiskey
Looks awesome man! Great job on the cabinets.. my favorite handles also! I use those on everything haha!
 
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Looks awesome man! Great job on the cabinets.. my favorite handles also! I use those on everything haha!
Thank you!! And I know on the handles!!! No exaggeration, I have literally bought 50 of the standard size ones off Amazon. Only 2 of the super long ones, these drawers are larger than normal and needed something a little bigger. They are what the builder chose for my kitchen and I love them so I put them on everything I make.
 
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Reefing threads: Do you wear gear from reef brands?

  • I wear reef gear everywhere.

    Votes: 31 16.1%
  • I wear reef gear primarily at fish events and my LFS.

    Votes: 11 5.7%
  • I wear reef gear primarily for water changes and tank maintenance.

    Votes: 1 0.5%
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  • I don’t wear gear from reef brands.

    Votes: 113 58.5%
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