New 300 gallon build

[reely989]

Hey guys, about to finally get my 300g up and running. It's a mega matrix 96x24x30. Starting to set it up tonight. The plan is for a mixed reef. I'm upgrading from a 75 gallon so will have some live rock and coral to get going. Have about 10 fish already that will be moved in as well.

In terms of equipment I'm going to be running reefbreeders photons for lighting. Will add some LED bars later for supplementation. Wave makers will be 2 Nero 7s and 2 Nero 5s initially. I may add more as needed. Return pump will be a jebao for now.

Bashsea pro 60 sump will have a reefmat 1200 in the initial chamber. I'll be running a BRS reactor with carbon and GFO as needed. Skimmer is a lifereef vrs30 with a mag drive pump.

For control I'm using Hydros. I'll have an 8 outlet controller, an x4 controller for sensors, and a kraken for backup battery and eliminating a lot of power bricks.

Miscellaneous equipment I'll be running is an Avast ozone reactor as well as an aqua UV 57w unit once the tank is up and running for a while.

Plumbing is via an internal overflow with 1.5" bulkheads. I'll run a herbie style drain into the reefmat. Returns will be .75. PVC will be ultraflex. Gate valve control on the herbie.

I already have automatic water changes set up from a reservoir in the garage, and my ato is a Tunze osmolator. I'm probably going to swap out my brute cans for the 100gallon stock tanks I'm using to hold saltwater for the new tank right now. I am not great at keeping up with that so the less I have to do it the better.

Coral is going to be a mix of everthing from SPS to softies. Hopefully my kenya tree doesn't totally take over.

Fish stocking is currently planned as follows

Blue Face Angelfish
Achilles Tang
Yellow Tang
Blue Hippo Tang
Moorish Idol
Copperband Butterfly
4 Benghai Cardinals
2 Clownfish
2 Firefish Gobies
Lawnmower Blenny
Leopard Wrasse
Probably a group of anthias-- type still tbd


I'll add pictures as I go and hope you guys find it interesting!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

looking forward to the pictures! sounds great!

 

[reely989]

So as an update I got the tank up and running with some of my old rock and some seachem matrix. The scheduling between shipping and getting the tank set up was pretty much a comedy of errors so I'm basically starting over other than a few pieces of rock. I had planned to have everything up and running for over a week before I got a copperband butterfly in , but unfortunately he got thrust into the tank immediately and is its sole inhabitant right now. He's doing well, but I can't get him to eat yet. Hopefully that will pick up today.

In terms of plumbing, I thought I was prepared but it was a royal pain. I had the idea of using flexible PVC to make things easier, but it made things harder if anything. At 1.5" it just isn't flexible enough to help in tight quarters imo. It bends just enough to give you hope, but really I mostly used it as straight pvc. I would have had a much easier time just buying standard length regular PVC.

I'm still new to sumps in general so it was interesting dialing in the flow and the water level.

Still on my list to do are to set up my lead acid battery back up for the kraken and to calibrate my reefdose 4 for when I start dosing. I will also probably go ahead and put the ozone reactor into service this week. Between work, kids, and family engagements it's hard to get all of this done.

 

[Sepehr94]

i have a baby 70 gallons

 

[reely989]

So as an update, everything is up and running. I've added about 32oz of Fritz Turbostart and had a few pounds of live rock from my 75 gallon tank that I added. Copperband and clownfish are doing well. I'm trying to build up a cleanup crew, but I'm not having much luck having a lot of inverts surviving the Alabama heat for shipping. Don't think it's the vendors' fault at all. I'll probably give it a few weeks before trying to add more.

I'm still new to sumps and I just assume something catastrophic every time the water level is off or something. This morning the water level got low and my return was blowing air, but I think my ATO just didn't trigger for some reason. I've had that issue for a while with my Tunze. I might look at replacing the ATO here before long.

Here are some pictures:

 

[crazyfishmom]

Awesome tank! Following along!

 

[reely989]

Tank is going well! I've added a few more fish, have some coral coming soon. My biggest issue right now is particulates in the water. I'm not sure if I don't have my flow dialed in well or if this is just stuff from my sand that will eventually get filtered out, but it's driving me crazy. I've started getting some diatoms too, but my clean up crew i doing pretty good with that. I'll attach pics soon. Really glad I went for a tank this size. IT's amazing seeing how much more room for swimming there is... even if my clownfish just hang out in a corner all day ha!

 

[EliMelly]

Impressive fish list

 

[reely989]

Impressive fish list

Long way to go! I added the Blue Hippo on friday. Never had one before-- very very interesting fish. Such a funny personality. Mine must have been treated pretty well because he was only skittish for a few hours now he roams around like a king.

 

[EliMelly]

Long way to go! I added the Blue Hippo on friday. Never had one before-- very very interesting fish. Such a funny personality. Mine must have been treated pretty well because he was only skittish for a few hours now he roams around like a king.

That’s awesome I just lost most of my fish but my hippo used to pick up the hermits bring them to the surface and throw them around. It was hilarious

 

[reely989]

I thought I'd post an update with some helpful little tips I've learned along the way dealing with a tank this size so far--

2 part dosing becomes extremely tedious at these volumes. I'm still dialing in my daily dosing amounts, but even with sodium hydroxide dosing according to Randy's recipe I'm at over 200 ml a day. I was using 5L dosing containers, but my laziness just didn't like that even though that's only once every 3 weeks or so filling it up. What I found were these things on Amazon-- 5 gal. This makes it so much easier to just mix up a ton and forget about it for a while. I have 5 gallon versions for my alkalinity and my calcium and 2.5 gallon versions for my Balling C and Magnesium supplements. I also use a 1 gallon BRS slim jug for my home made NOPOX.

Return lines--- I really wish I had sprung for 1" return lines instead of the standard 3/4. To remedy this I'm about to convert my existing return lines into extra emergency drains and run 1" PVC over the back of the aquarium with a couple of elbows. I'm having microbubble issues and I'm hoping this helps with that as well as making it a little easier to increase my turnover rate a bit.

Using other sources for Reefmat rollers is a no brainer. Precision Converting makes great quality rolls and will direct you to someone to obtain some small converters you need. But it's fractions of the cost of name brand rolls and I can tell no difference in quality.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

In terms of stocking, I have a leopard wrasse coming. I've started adding more coral and it's doing ok. Coralline algae is starting to spread really good. I had some on my live rock and I also added some from the bottle that BRS sells. Copepod population looks good. I can see them scurrying on the glass most of the time trying to clean my algae for me. Zero fish deaths as of yet. A couple of coral frags that haven't really made it, but overall it's been a pretty smooth startup so far. My biggest irritation has been microbubbles and I'm hoping that it's a plumbing issue and will be fixed when I transition to my new returns.

 

[reely989]

I plumbed my 1" returns and it has made a big difference in water clarity. My reefmat is using much more fleece now. I still have the microbubble issue but at least now I've pretty much got it narrowed down to a sump issue. I'm going to experiment with some foam in the return chamber and see if I can't get it really dialed in.

 

[thomas_neil]

I plumbed my 1" returns and it has made a big difference in water clarity. My reefmat is using much more fleece now. I still have the microbubble issue but at least now I've pretty much got it narrowed down to a sump issue. I'm going to experiment with some foam in the return chamber and see if I can't get it really dialed in.

Keep the updates coming! I'm working on my 300 build and plan to have it wet in a couple months, finishing up the stand and built-in bar over the next couple weekends then will start the plumbing!

We have pretty similar equipment; do you like the pro sump? I also went with the Bashsea pro-60.