Bruttall's 96x24x31 300gallon glass cage

Mathew0 · Jul 1, 2023

Very nice. My upgrade tank is very similar, but not as big. That large center glass on those old Oceanics is kind of annoying. You do seem to be a bit dim on the edges. Might want to move the outer 2 lights out a bit more. Or you could always throw those 2 smaller Spectra’s back on. Like Ryan from BRS says, “the power of 10 suns”.

Bruttall · Jul 8, 2023

Thought I'd post a picture of my High-Tech monitoring equipment for my tank...ok it's me, I am the monitoring equipment. Keeping things Simple, or so I hope!

Bruttall · Aug 6, 2023

Bruttall · Aug 28, 2023

QT Tank, 6 foot 125g Marineland I had laying around. Was a gift from a friend about 7 years ago. Almost surprised it holds water but I had to set up a QT. I managed to pick up a fax Face with velvet, before I knew what was going on, half my fish had died, heartbreaking to live thru, but I feel a little better with this QT. No More throwing fish right into the DT when they come home. 125g tank, 48" Stingray Lights, Finnex Heaters 500w x2, Eshopps 3 chamber sump, Eshopps S300 Gen 4 skimmer, Jerepet wavemakers and a Jeboa return pump. Super Low Budget Build.

Gumbies R Us · Aug 28, 2023

Bruttall said:
QT Tank, 6 foot 125g Marineland I had laying around. Was a gift from a friend about 7 years ago. Almost surprised it holds water but I had to set up a QT. I managed to pick up a fax Face with velvet, before I knew what was going on, half my fish had died, heartbreaking to live thru, but I feel a little better with this QT. No More throwing fish right into the DT when they come home. 125g tank, 48" Stingray Lights, Finnex Heaters 500w x2, Eshopps 3 chamber sump, Eshopps S300 Gen 4 skimmer, Jerepet wavemakers and a Jeboa return pump. Super Low Budget Build.

Very nice looking QT tank!

Bruttall · Aug 28, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Very nice looking QT tank!

Thanks. If not for that 9 inch Blonde Naso I got, I would have kept with the 75g I was using, but LFS wants room for new inventory, so he has to come home this week. Was a bummer, the week I made the deal for him I had velvet break out in my tank. Took forever to catch the 6line wrasse, so my fallow Period only started a few weeks ago. About Halloween I can put fish back into the DT.

Bruttall · Sep 6, 2023

I added a 4rth Reefi Labs UNO 2.0 light. I liked the performance of them so much and the growth is WOW worthy, so More is Better, right? Power of 10 suns and all that. Included the Light Profile. As you can see, the tank is just waking up, lights just starting to cycle up.

Bruttall · Sep 6, 2023

OMG! Figured out how to embed videos, finally.

Bruttall · Sep 9, 2023

So both my BTA decided to move after I added the 4th light to lower areas. I backed the wattage down on the lights, I guess I should have turned them down farther when I added that 4th.

aphinney · Sep 16, 2023

Looking good man.

Bruttall · Oct 31, 2023

Bruttall · Oct 31, 2023

Light profile I have been using for the last month. Just at 100 par on the sand line directly under the lights, everything seems to be really happy as you can see in the post above, that picture is from today.

Bruttall · Nov 12, 2023

Bruttall · Nov 25, 2023

After fighting with Nitrates a bit, I decided part of my issue is not enough water volume in my system. a sump that holds about 20g water on a 300g DT just seems futile, so I grabbed an old 125g All-Glass Aquarium that I used as a QT tank a bit ago and started cutting baffles and attached them in place with some silicone. Decided I wanted a 4 chamber sump, Inlet /holding chamber, Fuge, Skim and Pump chambers. Since the aquarium was drilled on both ends for overflows 1inch and 3/4inch, I decided to use those for the inlets on the right side of the sump, plumbing runs underneath it, for a nice clean looking installation. The left side 3/4" pipe will be used for a Skim overflow, collection bucket outside of sump, and the 1" is left un-used for now.

This will add over 50g water volume to my system. Also gives me a High Flow area for my Chaeta and Calpurnia. This is what was missing from the Eshopps AF-300 sump I have. The "fuge chamber" does not have nearly enough water flow to keep macro algae happy. So the algae wasn't growing well and was not removing Nitrates as needed.

Bruttall · Nov 26, 2023

Finished up installation and plumbing etc yesterday. As an added bonus, it quieted down the drains on my tank. Sump volume increased from 18 gallons to 68 gallons. I think I'll work on organizing the wires and cords this week, but today I am resting, 55 years old and moving all that equipment by myself is almost WORK! I'm due for a day of rest!

Yes that is a De-Nitrate Reactor. I plan to phase it out of the system in a few weeks once the macro algae gets to doing what it is supposed to do!

Also upgraded from the Aquamaxx ConeS Q3 to the Q5 skimmer.

I eliminated Sock or Polyfil filtration on my system. I think I can keep my water crystal clear without that type filter using a Coral Snow recipe I read about here on the forums. I tried it and it seems to work very effectively.

Here is a Link to the post; https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/extreme-water-clarity-and-cyano-eradication-made-easy.916381/

Bruttall · Dec 3, 2023

New reservoir for RO/DI and mixing tub. I keep 50g RO/DI on hand now, can make nearly a 20% water change with that amount. Got some clear polycarbonate plastic sheets for lids for the sump, they are commonly used for Green House panels and at less than $8 for a 2' x 4' panel extremely cheap. Amazon is just full of DIY surprises if a guy looks long enough.

Getting waterflow across the chaeto fixed the nitrate issues I was having. The chaeto is growing and looking really healthy, not turning white and falling apart due to lack of water movement. Hung one of my Vipar lights on the end of the sump and tuned it to put 100par on the rock. I can add eggcrate now to make a Frag Holding area there for when my coral starts to out grow my display. Still not sure what I will do about that ugly wiring and cords. But I plan to hide them somehow.