Eric's 300Gal Build!

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E_Aquatics

E_Aquatics

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Quick update: 05/20/2016

When the tank was first setup the middle section of my sump served as a refugium but after getting the sps bug my DT began to look like a frag tank with all the frag racks I had on the glass. I decided to empty out the refugium and convert that section into a frag tank. It worked well for a few months but I eventually got tired of having to get on my knees to check the frags, move them around, etc. So long story short, I began to plan a frag tank which is what you have seen in the pictures above this post, its plumb to my main system so no extra maintenance and it adds 40 gallons to the whole systems which is now over 400 gallons.

Now that the middle section of the sump is empty (no eggcrate) I can turn it back into a refugium. For now I will just be growing chaeto, it has worked great in the past for me. Back when the tank was first setup I was using two fluorescent bulbs and that grew the cheato just fine but this time around I wanted to try something different. I purchased a Mars Hydro, a full spectrum grow light (140w). Visually it has a real pink look.







Not my picture but its the same light! (Photo belongs to @d2mini)


and my tumbling cheato ball!


Short video of the chaeto in action. I bought a sandwich size ziplock bag of cheato and in just a week it has triple in size.
 
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The light I have over my refugium is making my Chaeto ball grow at a very fast rate, which is great. Here is a short video showing the growth over the past couple of days.

 

Clarksski

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Hi there Eric
Are you still liking your mars hydro lite? How did you mount it over your fuge? How far off the water?
Thanks
 

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Great tank!

Question on your coast to coast overflow: looks like you have a straight-edge weir, no teeth? Do you have any trouble with fish, etc taking a ride over the weir?
 
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Hi there Eric
Are you still liking your mars hydro lite? How did you mount it over your fuge? How far off the water?
Thanks

I absolutely love it! Keep in mind the light has not even been over the fuge for a whole month. Take a look at the video I posted about 9 days ago. It shows the growth of the Chaeto under this light in a weeks time. Now, look at this picture taken this morning, just 9 days after I posted that video. The Chaeto ball has grown to the point that it no longer tumbles due to its size. My fuge section is roughly 30"x25"x13" high and it's completely filled with Chaeto.



As for your other question, the light it's hanging approximately 12" off the surface. I might raise it a few more inches for better coverage (not that I need it) and also to give me more room to take the Chaeto out without having to take out the light.



As for how the light is mounted, I simply used the hanging hardware it came with. One of the top cross braces on my stand passes right through the center of my fuge so I just installed a "eye bolt" and clipped the light on it with the included hardware. Here's a picture:

 
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Great tank!

Question on your coast to coast overflow: looks like you have a straight-edge weir, no teeth? Do you have any trouble with fish, etc taking a ride over the weir?

Yes, you're correct. My overflow is made out of glass so no teeth. when the tank was first setup I did have a few small fish that got too close to the top of the overflow and got sucked in. My drains are 1.5" so I cut a piece of eggcrate to fit inside the elbow to prevent any fish from getting sucked in and going down to the sump. So far I have been to catch every fish.
 

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Yes, you're correct. My overflow is made out of glass so no teeth. when the tank was first setup I did have a few small fish that got too close to the top of the overflow and got sucked in. My drains are 1.5" so I cut a piece of eggcrate to fit inside the elbow to prevent any fish from getting sucked in and going down to the sump. So far I have been to catch every fish.
Thanks for the response. I love the idea of a C2C without teeth, but I have a problem with being able to access a full width external reservoir and am looking for ways to prevent anything from escaping the tank via the overflow. Teeth will work, but I've read enough cautious statements about the negative impact on skim effectiveness that I am hesistating, and wondered what your experience was.
 
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Thanks for the response. I love the idea of a C2C without teeth, but I have a problem with being able to access a full width external reservoir and am looking for ways to prevent anything from escaping the tank via the overflow. Teeth will work, but I've read enough cautious statements about the negative impact on skim effectiveness that I am hesistating, and wondered what your experience was.

My overflow box is internal so I can easily access it to catch any fish that might end up getting trapped. I've had tanks with center, corner and c2c overflows and quiet frankly I have not noticed any major impact on the tank based on overflow type other that the usual (noise and GPH). With this tank being 8ft long I needed to have the plumbing for the overflow on one side of the tank so that I could reach the Gate Valve to fine tune the full siphon of the "bean animal" style overflow. I also wanted this type of overflow to keep noise down. A c2c was my only option and they way I designed it, it didn't take up much room inside the tank. I do get great surface skimming and there is never any debris accumulated on any spot on the surface, I do have a lot of surface agitation so that could also be why there is absolutely no debris. For my setup it works great and I have no regrets in doing it this way.
 
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Not much to update on other than all corals are growing :) Can't wait to have basketball size colonies :) :)

The past two weeks have been very busy and just today I got some free time to swap out the circulation pump on my Calcium reactor. I bought this reactor used about two years ago. The pump it came with was still running so I kept it as is but I figured it was time to upgrade it before it quit on me. Better be safe than sorry. The original pump is a Ehiem 1048 and I replaced it with a Sicce 1.5

Old pump


New pump


Several months ago I modified the plumbing on the reactor to add a ball valve so that I can easily drain the water in the reactor when the time comes to add more media. This will allow me to refill the reactor without having to remove it from underneath the stand.

The only major update and most important is that my Daughter was just born on June 5th, 2016 which is the reason why I've been so busy for the last two weeks. This little princess will be taking up a lot of my free time but it is well worth it.
 

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Congrats Eric and what a beautiful addition to your family. There is something special about being the dad of a daughter.
 
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Congrats Eric and what a beautiful addition to your family. There is something special about being the dad of a daughter.

Thank you David, it sure is an amazing feeling
 
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Few new pictures from the past couple of days!

Grow out colony of Sunny D's
Corals 06-26-2016-5.jpg

WWC Blueberry Acro
Corals 06-03-2016-3.jpg

Fruitloops!
Corals 05-31-2016-24.jpg

and this last picture is of a medium size colony Im growing out in my frag tank, hoping it reaches its full potential soon! Its somewhat similar to RR Wolverine
Corals 06-08-2016-5.jpg
 
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I guess you could say this is a FTS lol

Tank 05-21-2016-2.jpg

here you can see my main tank and frag tank
Tank 05-21-2016.jpg
 
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and a couple of growth comparison shots!

Tyree Pink Lemonade
13590366_653040898187292_2427648917891089467_n.jpg

WWC Dragon Slayer
IMG_0079.JPG
 
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