Bruttall's 96x24x31 300gallon glass cage

[Bruttall]

Framing for new wall mostly complete, new drains in the tank, and changed the stand pipes slightly, got rid of the last little bit of gurgle from the drains. Lights are in place. Debating on trying to disguise the overflows or let algae and nature take it's course with them...

 

[Bruttall]

hmmmm

 

[Bruttall]

Just waiting for water parameters to stabilize to begin transferring everything from my 75g.

 

[Bruttall]

Lots of room behind the tank now like I wanted. So happy I decided to do all this.

 

[Troylee]

Way cool man! Wish I had a fish room! I’m working off a 18” cabinet on a huge tank

 

[Eric R.]

Looking good! Sorry about your truck.

 

[hbubley]

Wow, loving this build thread! The tank is absolutely beautiful, love the look of it in the wall. Aquascape is great! Following

 

[Bruttall]

Way cool man! Wish I had a fish room! I’m working off a 18” cabinet on a huge tank

Making more room behind the DT has really made things better imo. Wish I'd done that when I first installed it 7 or 8 yrs ago.

 

[Troylee]

Making more room behind the DT has really made things better imo. Wish I'd done that when I first installed it 7 or 8 yrs ago.

Yeah no doubt about that! My problem is mine is a peninsula sooooooo… lol it’s either under it or nothing… garage is my storage now..

 

[Bruttall]

Migration complete. Vid won't upload

 

[Bruttall]

Pretty much all the coral I want placed, pretty much... I left a few spots open for when I see something I just got to have and of course have a couple spots I could always throw in a few more Zoa frags I even managed to find a Clam I liked. Got a bit of a bare spot in the sand in front of the right hand stand pipe, saving that for an Acanthophyllia Meat or a Trachy or something along those lines I think. I also have an Island for one more Bubbletip Anenome. I kind of want a Black Widow, but the prices are a little crazy right now so shopping around some.

 

[Coinzmans Reef]

Following your build. Before I add any base rock I paint it with Two little fishes red cement. I add extra milk to the mix and dab the rock everywhere with a paint brush. After the cement dries I spray with hose and than rinse with RO water, Instant live rock. (well at lest it looks that way)

I know what you mean about the shelf rock, if you glue some smaller broken pieces to them they don't look so flat.

 

[Bruttall]

So, Tuesday I wake up to find water on my floor, Eshopps ES300 3 chamber sump cracked after 6 or 7 years of use and countless times being moved, cleaned etc.


So I tore it all down, and pulled all my media to rinse out in the process.


like any good reef keeper would do and replaced it with another Eshopps, AF 300 Gen 4 Fuge Sump this time. I upgraded a little. Grow Light was on when I took this, but the sump is a pretty orange color.

 

[Bruttall]

Hit up a local weld shop in Council Bluffs IA (M&R Welding) for an Aluminum rack for the ViparSpectra lights I am running, getting the lights to 18 inches above water line. a pair of 165w's flanking a 300w. The lights zip tied to the 2x4 come on at 5am till 5:30am on blue allowing me to inspect the tank before I head off to work, left over stingrays from the tank's previous life as freshwater. Toying with the idea of having them fabricate me brackets for the end of the tank, but the wood frame works for now.

 

[Bruttall]

Thought I would add some pics of how I do water changes. I plan to re-route the fill pipe from reservoir possibly today if I get some 3/4 inch pvc 90's from the hardware store. But as is I just flip to Ball valves and the water change happens. Also just upgraded my RO/DI, ty BRS for such a nice unit, really liking the TDS meter included in the package. I upgraded from a 50gpd AquaticLife ROBuddy system. Having a float valve is also really nice, I just turn on the tap when I go to bed, check TDS verify it is at 0, let it run over night. 60g tub is full and ready to mix salt in the morning. In fact by 3am, I was pretty excited about getting this set up and running so I didn't sleep well last night.

Brute is my RO Reservoir for my ATO.

Before ya say it, I make RO/DI in the tub only as needed to do water changes. I never store the water there; at most it sits in the air for 8 hours before I add salt and heat it up to go into the main system. Salt Reservoir upgrade coming soon.

 

[Bruttall]

Also in planning, Cord Management. Not sure what I will do to make this less messy looking, but I got in my head I need to make it look cleaner. Added a Maxspect Gyre xf350 on the return line end of the tank and moved my Vortech MP40's to the back wall of the tank, on either end working in Paired mode, Reef Crest. Makes for some amazing movement in my torches and nems.

 

[Bruttall]

That was pretty simple, just had to rummage around see what I had on hand for materials. Hid all those ugly power supply's and cords nicely. Also got my Reservoir Fill Line plumbed and routed under the tank behind the sump out of the way.

 

[Bruttall]

Changed up my RODI Storage for the ATO.

 

[Bruttall]

Water Change Day. Loving that BRS 5 stage 100gpd RO/DI unit I got with the back pressure auto shut off valve, running float valves on ATO Reservoir and the tub I mix salt water in has made my maintenance a lot easier. Turn it all on, go to bed, next morning everything is full and ready to go.

 

[Nick Steele]

Gorgeous build! Love the behind the scenes you’re giving you have some well thought out things. Gives me ideas for my dream tank later in life for sure!