Will's 350 Gallon

WillH

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Nearly one and a half years ago, we were driving somewhere and my wife mentioned how much she really wanted a salt water tank. Her family had one growing up and she really missed it. We went to a local store, got sold some things and we were off the races! Fast forward to today, I maintain the whole system and I've really learned to love it.

The local fish store we went to turned out to be not really as hobby grade as we thought and oh boy do I wish I knew about this forum then, to save me thousands of dollars and time.

This was the tank and equipment they sold us to grow any coral we wanted.

Photo Mar 26, 8 44 14 PM.jpg


Photo Jun 23, 9 29 10 PM.jpg


This included an orbit marine pro led light, at least it was 72" long :).

Since then we have been through a lot of things, such as moving the tank to a tank with overflows and a sump, then moving the sump the basement area. The lessons we learned through all this have been pricey, but as a hobbyist I was learning so much as I went. After about 2 months of having this setup, I was able to find more hobby grade shops nearby and around Ohio, along with this forum to help me learn and make more educated decisions.

---

This is my setup today

210 gallon display, knowing what I know today, I would have gotten a high end glass and possibly bigger overflow drains, but this works for now.
Photo Mar 24, 9 54 51 PM.jpg


My water making and quarantine section.
Photo Nov 10, 8 26 00 AM.jpg


About 3 months ago I moved my sump from under the tank to the basement, and I love it!
Photo Mar 30, 9 20 50 PM.jpg


About 6 month ago, my wife and I had a baby...so I have been focusing on automated as much as I can...for those weeks where I do not feel like doing a water change, I can have the peace of mind that I have a AWC system in place for example. I have also increased my dosing container storage, etc - quality of life changes. I enjoy working no the tank and seeing the rewards it brings as I am sure we all do, but I like having these safety nets in place.

My current equipment:
Alk 9, Ca 450
210 gallon display, with dual drains 1" and returns 3/4"
Red Sea - Blue Bucket...I have used both blue and black
3 x radion g4 pros
40 gallon trigger sump
Super octo 10" skimmer
carbon and gfo reactors
brs dosers (calcium and alk)
Apex ATK
various apex FMM modules and sensors doing things such as refilling my ATO container when it gets low.
I am a pretty big fanboy of Apex, it is expensive, but I have loved having the ability to program everything to the extent I have. For example reducing what is running during a power outage to save battery backup usage.

----
I would love to post some pictures of my corals and fish, but I am terrible at photographing. I hope to research cameras next to get some good macro shots.



Thank you for reading and happy reefing!
Will
 
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Zonly1

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Nearly one and a half years ago, we were driving somewhere and my wife mentioned how much she really wanted a salt water tank. Her family had one growing up and she really missed it. We went to a local store, got sold some things and we were off the races! Fast forward to today, I maintain the whole system and I've really learned to love it.

The local fish store we went to turned out to be not really as hobby grade as we thought and oh boy do I wish I knew about this forum then, to save me thousands of dollars and time.

This was the tank and equipment they sold us to grow any coral we wanted.

Photo Mar 26, 8 44 14 PM.jpg


Photo Jun 23, 9 29 10 PM.jpg


This included an orbit marine pro led light, at least it was 72" long :).

Since then we have been through a lot of things, such as moving the tank to a tank with overflows and a sump, then moving the sump the basement area. The lessons we learned through all this have been pricey, but as a hobbyist I was learning so much as I went. After about 2 months of having this setup, I was able to find more hobby grade shops nearby and around Ohio, along with this forum to help me learn and make more educated decisions.

---

This is my setup today

210 gallon display, knowing what I know today, I would have gotten a high end glass and possibly bigger overflow drains, but this works for now.
Photo Mar 24, 9 54 51 PM.jpg


My water making and quarantine section.
Photo Nov 10, 8 26 00 AM.jpg


About 3 months ago I moved my sump from under the tank to the basement, and I love it!
Photo Mar 30, 9 20 50 PM.jpg


About 6 month ago, my wife and I had a baby...so I have been focusing on automated as much as I can...for those weeks where I do not feel like doing a water change, I can have the peace of mind that I have a AWC system in place for example. I have also increased my dosing container storage, etc - quality of life changes. I enjoy working no the tank and seeing the rewards it brings as I am sure we all do, but I like having these safety nets in place.

My current equipment:
Alk 9, Ca 450
210 gallon display, with dual drains 1" and returns 3/4"
Red Sea - Blue Bucket...I have used both blue and black
3 x radion g4 pros
40 gallon trigger sump
Super octo 10" skimmer
carbon and gfo reactors
brs dosers (calcium and alk)
Apex ATK
various apex FMM modules and sensors doing things such as refilling my ATO container when it gets low.
I am a pretty big fanboy of Apex, it is expensive, but I have loved having the ability to program everything to the extent I have. For example reducing what is running during a power outage to save battery backup usage.

----
I would love to post some pictures of my corals and fish, but I am terrible at photographing. I hope to research cameras next to get some good macro shots.



Thank you for reading and happy reefing!
Will
Looks great!!!
 
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WillH

WillH

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WD frag that I started from a little nub, it is finally encrusted and started to lay down a nice base on the rock after about 8 months.

927E312E-DB53-48FE-BDDC-2D930401361A.jpeg


Tort I picked up a few months ago that is starting to branch. It’s a lot more colorful than I thought they were with the blues and greens

08FFB98D-69D2-4904-A1F1-AF7E364981BD.jpeg
 
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WillH

WillH

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Over the last few weeks I have been preparing to move my 39 trigger sump over to a custom built 80 gallon sump I built. It should hold about 45 gallons of water and it will allow a lot more room and flexibility. The biggest issue I had with the trigger was the way the drains fed into the socks, annoyed the heck out of me. The design, at least in my experience really only every fully utilized the first sock.

The white piping is a spacer for where my existing manifold will go. All the apex equipment is tucked away from the tank area to help prolong life and keep things salt free.

Photo Feb 07, 12 44 23 AM.jpg
Photo Feb 07, 12 44 30 AM.jpg
 

pelphrey

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I see the 5 gallon bucket of ESV! The basement sump has to make life easier!

Maybe I missed it, what return pump are you using? Is it also feeding the manifold?
 
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WillH

WillH

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Sure does! I use 2 COR 20 pumps, one for each tank. I have since added the other return plumbing from the pic below. Yes, using 5 gallon dosing buckets get about 2 months! Also using filter pad in front of socks help out a lot too.


Photo Feb 09, 12 07 10 AM.jpg
 

pelphrey

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I don't know how I missed that orange! I also have the COR20, solid pump!
 
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WillH

WillH

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A few updates -

We decided to expand and replace our freshwater tank with saltwater, so now we have a 50 gallon tank in the living room! It has been really nice so far... We have a few corals in now and a few fish...just need to get more stock in now that we have a top that fits well.
Photo Mar 05, 7 33 11 PM.jpg
 
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WillH

WillH

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This is my new toy as well! I figured the Trident would be a while, so I am tinkering with this ReefBot from ReefKinetics - It uses standard testing kits, so I think the reagents will get expensive pretty fast, but we shall see! I am on my third calibration now - the tests I did last night came out consistent but were high.
For example: ALK is actually 8.1 - tested 10.9.
I also bent a needle when I first ran because the holders are not correctly aligned with needle.

Other than that the app appears to work well and pretty simple to setup! It will be interesting to see what comes of it. I can see it being a good addition to trident, running big 3 there and running misc tests here.
I have the following setup, which takes up all 8 spots:
RS ALK
RS CALC
RS MAG
API Nitrate

Photo Mar 20, 5 09 29 PM.jpg
Photo Mar 20, 8 12 57 PM.jpg
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 64 36.8%
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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

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