Whiskey's 300 Gallon Glass Cages Dream Reef build
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Thank you!! I literally learned woodworking because of reef tanks. Back in 2001 you couldn't really get stands that allowed you enough room for big skimmers and sumps underneath. I had a neighbor that was a cabinet maker and he taught me how to do some woodworking on the sidewalk outside my apartment. Every stand and cabinet I try and take at least one thing to the next level. I've come a long way since the first plywood box that held up my 29 gallon!
I like the rail idea for changing lights, but for this one I'm thinking that the light rail will be on actuators and pull up and out of the way for maintenance. I've never done that before, and it won't be in place for day 1, but I think it will be super cool.
Whiskey
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On the canopy project, I really, really want to be working on doors for it to see the big parts coming together. In reality though, what I really need is a box that I can set on the tank and hold the lights. So I'm doing the immensely boring task of plaining and doing the ruff sanding on the box so that I can get ready for the inner pieces that will be the supports, and the light hanger. Then I have a very troubling piece of crown trim. I have trouble finding the part, but it's critical for making it match my kitchen, so it's a little sketchy, but I'll make it on the table saw.
Now to the exciting news!! I went over to Hydrored's house and picked up all the corals out of the 300 to bring them back ahead of the actual tank move. We decided on this because it would mean that the corals would ride in a heated car, and that I'd have more time to focus on making the coral happy ahead of getting the actual tank in place and all the work that will be involved in that. I was super nervous about moving this many amazing pieces, something like this never goes exactly as planned, but overall I think this was the right choice because the temp was perfect for the whole drive. I did end up getting a damage to the tips of things from riding around in the cooler, but that's not bad at all. Thank you for all the help Hydrored!!!! And of course all the amazing coral! I will be back with pictures later, but it's a challenge with the Stock Tank and getting any quality shots.
Now to the thing I'm struggling with right now. When I added the stock tank to my system I got a tiny bit of tip burn in my main display on the coral in the highest light spot. I have that coral also in lower light and that one was perfectly fine. I tested nutrients and found that they had dropped way down, I attribute that to adding 100 extra gallons of brand new water to a 150 gallon ish system. I fed extra to get my nutrients back, the burn has stopped, and no further corals were affected.
Then when I added all the new coral I triggered a Dino Outbreak. I have seen this once before, when I added my frag tank to the system. It stuck around for a little while, then disappeared. I suspect that all of this is simply related to the fact that I keep messing with things, but I don't love the Dino, that is for sure. I really want to keep these beautiful new corals as healthy as possible of course. The Dino is concentrated in the Stock tank, and the Frag tank. The main tank is almost completely unaffected. It seems to love the egg crate.
Here's what I'm doing to correct the issue:
-Basting the slime off regularly, with a filter sock on the tank drain, changing that filter sock regularly.
-Raised the temp from 77ish where I normally run, to 80ish. I hear Dino hates that.
-I have my nutrients back in a better range. Phosphate is 0.08 and Nitrate is about 6. I would like that Phosphate to be a little higher actually, but I'm just going to let it come around on it's own with Reef Roids.
-Finally I'm trying to keep things as stable as possible. I know that messing with everything is what caused this, hopefully I can get it back in it's rhythm again pretty quickly.
If you have any other advice I would love to hear it!
Whiskey
Now to the exciting news!! I went over to Hydrored's house and picked up all the corals out of the 300 to bring them back ahead of the actual tank move. We decided on this because it would mean that the corals would ride in a heated car, and that I'd have more time to focus on making the coral happy ahead of getting the actual tank in place and all the work that will be involved in that. I was super nervous about moving this many amazing pieces, something like this never goes exactly as planned, but overall I think this was the right choice because the temp was perfect for the whole drive. I did end up getting a damage to the tips of things from riding around in the cooler, but that's not bad at all. Thank you for all the help Hydrored!!!! And of course all the amazing coral! I will be back with pictures later, but it's a challenge with the Stock Tank and getting any quality shots.
Now to the thing I'm struggling with right now. When I added the stock tank to my system I got a tiny bit of tip burn in my main display on the coral in the highest light spot. I have that coral also in lower light and that one was perfectly fine. I tested nutrients and found that they had dropped way down, I attribute that to adding 100 extra gallons of brand new water to a 150 gallon ish system. I fed extra to get my nutrients back, the burn has stopped, and no further corals were affected.
Then when I added all the new coral I triggered a Dino Outbreak. I have seen this once before, when I added my frag tank to the system. It stuck around for a little while, then disappeared. I suspect that all of this is simply related to the fact that I keep messing with things, but I don't love the Dino, that is for sure. I really want to keep these beautiful new corals as healthy as possible of course. The Dino is concentrated in the Stock tank, and the Frag tank. The main tank is almost completely unaffected. It seems to love the egg crate.
Here's what I'm doing to correct the issue:
-Basting the slime off regularly, with a filter sock on the tank drain, changing that filter sock regularly.
-Raised the temp from 77ish where I normally run, to 80ish. I hear Dino hates that.
-I have my nutrients back in a better range. Phosphate is 0.08 and Nitrate is about 6. I would like that Phosphate to be a little higher actually, but I'm just going to let it come around on it's own with Reef Roids.
-Finally I'm trying to keep things as stable as possible. I know that messing with everything is what caused this, hopefully I can get it back in it's rhythm again pretty quickly.
If you have any other advice I would love to hear it!
Whiskey
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Maybe next time you will dose nutrients to the new system water before before connecting it to the system.
Joined
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Okay,.. let's be honest. I really should be working on my canopy, but I really love the corals, and I keep looking at them anyway, so I decided to snap some quick pics for everyone.
The Dino's are loosing ground which is great to see! The battle isn't won yet, but we are on a great path. Many of these corals are very hard to photograph because of the stock tank, overhead light, flow, etc,.. so there are some that were not seeing here, but these are some I could get pictures of.
I really love these Goni's! (Ignore the glass, I'm working hard on the new canopy lol)
![Plant Natural environment Purple Underwater Organism]()
![Flower Purple Petal Plant Pink]()
![Purple Underwater Plant Organism Coral fungus]()
![Underwater Purple Petal Marine biology Coastal and oceanic landforms]()
![Water Purple Underwater Organism Marine biology]()
![Blue Purple Violet Marine biology Coral]()
More to come. I think there is a limit on number per post.
Whiskey
The Dino's are loosing ground which is great to see! The battle isn't won yet, but we are on a great path. Many of these corals are very hard to photograph because of the stock tank, overhead light, flow, etc,.. so there are some that were not seeing here, but these are some I could get pictures of.
I really love these Goni's! (Ignore the glass, I'm working hard on the new canopy lol)
More to come. I think there is a limit on number per post.
Whiskey
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It was a simple deduction. I don’t know why people aren’t doing it. I have never added to a system so haven’t faced it. Seems quite logical you match salinity and temperature why not nutrient level. If system is high or low the nutrient level in the added system section could be increased or decreased to give you the level you want in the total system.
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That's true. I'll dose Nitrate no problem, but I don't have a good way to dose Phosphate at this moment. Hopefully stirring up the sand and feeding reef roids will do that for me lol.
Whiskey
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I’m working hard tonight to try and meet the deadline with this canopy! The weather helped me out a ton today! But my Wagner Air Sprayer didn’t. I got through about a half quart of paint before it started belching smoke and the motor failed. I’m not impressed, I didn’t even use it that much. I was in a spot so I ran to Harbor Freight and got an Airless Sprayer. I must say I’m super impressed! It lays the paint down much better, and wastes much less. It’s a pain to clean, but worth it! Hopefully it lasts.
![Wood Table Rectangle Gas Font]()
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I use an air compressor driven paint gun from Harbor Freight. Even worked to paint the new bumper and fender when my mom wrecked the Sebring. Not a perfect job as it was my first automotive attempt but much better than the black primer it came with and much cheaper than a shop.
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Those ones work a little different than the bottom paint mounted air one, and now airless that I have for interior paint. I've never used one in that style, it's more like an airbrush I would assume, probably way better for detail stuff.
Whiskey
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It's time to shift gears a little bit at this point, up until now the thread has been about getting ready for the move, but I pickup the moving truck tomorrow and drive down to get the tank on Wednesday, and the install will be Thursday, so tonight I will be making sure I have everything I need and going over my plans. I bought half a lowes plumbing section yesterday hoping that I can reduce trips to the store as I convert the sump from under the tank, to in the fish room.
Lighting:
The tank is coming with a light bar made of extruded aluminum, it's built really well, and will hang from the inside of the canopy. I use AI Hydra lights so I typically target having them at about 14 inches up for the ideal spread and reduction of hotspots. I will also have T5 lighting, and I typically try to mount them a little lower at 8-10 inches, but most importantly high enough that it doesn't interfere with the light spread of the Hydras. Currently I plan to have 6 Hydra 32's (they are about 90W each) and 4 54W T5 bulbs, with 4 39W T5 bulbs. The reason the T5's are different lengths is the tank is 7 feet, so that's one 3 foot with one 4 foot bulb, 4 strips of T5's running end to end.
I'm not sure if it will be enough PAR honestly, so I'm going to set it up and test. Light spread is my biggest goal, but I may need to add additional hydras.
As far as the tank goes, Redundancy is key. I've been in this hobby a long time, and I've lost tanks to some pretty dumb stuff, so I try and double up on gear as much as I can.
Return: Planning 2 Jeabo Pumps, return rate of about 4x tank volume per hour. It will be monitored with flow monitors and alarms in the Apex. I use a Jebo and Iwaki now, but the Iwaki won't work on the new tank design.
Flow: Planning for 2 Gyree 4000, 2 Tunze 6105's, returns, and tune from there. I will probably end up with allot more.
Skimmer: Will use a Reef Octopus 170 INT and a Reef Octopus 200 INT, both run the DC Varios pumps, one is 6" the other is 8", between the two of them they are pretty over rated so I will probably start with just one until I get my BioLoad a little higher.
Alk/CA: I use Kalk on a Mixer at 6100 ML per day, about a gallon and a half. I also have the 8" dual chamber RO CA reactor fed by a parasitotic pump.
It's going to be an exciting few days!!! Then after the tank gets put in, things will shift to building out all the underside Cabinetry and cleaning up the fish room with the equipment wall and everything. That should take a less manic, and more calculated pace.
I'm open to any suggestions on gear, moving tanks, or life in general. Especially, what do you think about that light?
Whiskey
Lighting:
The tank is coming with a light bar made of extruded aluminum, it's built really well, and will hang from the inside of the canopy. I use AI Hydra lights so I typically target having them at about 14 inches up for the ideal spread and reduction of hotspots. I will also have T5 lighting, and I typically try to mount them a little lower at 8-10 inches, but most importantly high enough that it doesn't interfere with the light spread of the Hydras. Currently I plan to have 6 Hydra 32's (they are about 90W each) and 4 54W T5 bulbs, with 4 39W T5 bulbs. The reason the T5's are different lengths is the tank is 7 feet, so that's one 3 foot with one 4 foot bulb, 4 strips of T5's running end to end.
I'm not sure if it will be enough PAR honestly, so I'm going to set it up and test. Light spread is my biggest goal, but I may need to add additional hydras.
As far as the tank goes, Redundancy is key. I've been in this hobby a long time, and I've lost tanks to some pretty dumb stuff, so I try and double up on gear as much as I can.
Return: Planning 2 Jeabo Pumps, return rate of about 4x tank volume per hour. It will be monitored with flow monitors and alarms in the Apex. I use a Jebo and Iwaki now, but the Iwaki won't work on the new tank design.
Flow: Planning for 2 Gyree 4000, 2 Tunze 6105's, returns, and tune from there. I will probably end up with allot more.
Skimmer: Will use a Reef Octopus 170 INT and a Reef Octopus 200 INT, both run the DC Varios pumps, one is 6" the other is 8", between the two of them they are pretty over rated so I will probably start with just one until I get my BioLoad a little higher.
Alk/CA: I use Kalk on a Mixer at 6100 ML per day, about a gallon and a half. I also have the 8" dual chamber RO CA reactor fed by a parasitotic pump.
It's going to be an exciting few days!!! Then after the tank gets put in, things will shift to building out all the underside Cabinetry and cleaning up the fish room with the equipment wall and everything. That should take a less manic, and more calculated pace.
I'm open to any suggestions on gear, moving tanks, or life in general. Especially, what do you think about that light?
Whiskey
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9,042 Posts
On the light all you can do is set it up and test.
Have you used gyres before? If not I think you will like them.
Have you used gyres before? If not I think you will like them.
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I have used Gyree pumps, in fact I have 1 in my Frag Tank, and one in my main tank. I really like them, and I'm excited to try out two with the new Hydros Wave Engine I picked up on black Friday. I'm just hoping that the 3/4" glass will work with the magnets they have. I know 1/2 inch will, because that's what they are on now.
Whiskey
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So,.. I have really heartbreaking news. While I was unloading the tank it became damaged and is unusable. Joe at Glass Cages has been absolutely fantastic, I recommend doing business with him to anyone. We talked about the damage, and what my options are, and when it comes down to it, this is 300 gallons of water in my house, the damage is significant and in the area of the tank that takes the most pressure.
I took a couple days to stabilize the situation, mull over my options, and decide on a path forward. I considered many different directions, this stand is super nice, it's not size adjustable, and it's expensive, so moving forward with the exact same tank size is the most reasonable and cost effective option. Plus, it's what I want anyway. I'm going to have a chat with Joe on Thursday to kick off the project and finalize plans. The cost is a kick in the gut of course, but at the end of the day I can't see upgrading to something bigger than 300 before retirement, so this will be in my house at least 20 years. That's pretty good return on investment, and it's a compelling reason to get what I want and budget in other areas.
The new tank will take time to build of course, so this build thread is going to shift gears a little bit. Of primary importance is keeping all these nice corals healthy while I'm waiting on the new system. In order to do that most effectively I've moved most of the Acros out of the stock tank, and into my main tank. It has never been so full, and managing growth is going to be a thing for sure. This tank is much better for keeping them long term though because you really can't see how they are doing in the stock tank due to it's opaque sides. I would love to shut down the stock tank entirely, and I'm super close to being able to do that, but we will see.
The next step will be putting the new sump on my current system. This will allow me to run the plumbing through the walls, connect the CA reactor, Kalk, Dosing pumps, returns, switch over to the new RE return, and get all this done and ready to connect to the new tank ahead of time. This will make the day of cutover much less stressful.
Finally to prepare for the new tank's arrival, I can do a little more detail work to the canopy, finish the light bar, mount the light bar inside the canopy, and paint and mount the doors, and basically have everything polished to drop right on the tank come cutover day.
It's a little bit of a left turn on the build here, but progress ahead we will!
Whiskey
I took a couple days to stabilize the situation, mull over my options, and decide on a path forward. I considered many different directions, this stand is super nice, it's not size adjustable, and it's expensive, so moving forward with the exact same tank size is the most reasonable and cost effective option. Plus, it's what I want anyway. I'm going to have a chat with Joe on Thursday to kick off the project and finalize plans. The cost is a kick in the gut of course, but at the end of the day I can't see upgrading to something bigger than 300 before retirement, so this will be in my house at least 20 years. That's pretty good return on investment, and it's a compelling reason to get what I want and budget in other areas.
The new tank will take time to build of course, so this build thread is going to shift gears a little bit. Of primary importance is keeping all these nice corals healthy while I'm waiting on the new system. In order to do that most effectively I've moved most of the Acros out of the stock tank, and into my main tank. It has never been so full, and managing growth is going to be a thing for sure. This tank is much better for keeping them long term though because you really can't see how they are doing in the stock tank due to it's opaque sides. I would love to shut down the stock tank entirely, and I'm super close to being able to do that, but we will see.
The next step will be putting the new sump on my current system. This will allow me to run the plumbing through the walls, connect the CA reactor, Kalk, Dosing pumps, returns, switch over to the new RE return, and get all this done and ready to connect to the new tank ahead of time. This will make the day of cutover much less stressful.
Finally to prepare for the new tank's arrival, I can do a little more detail work to the canopy, finish the light bar, mount the light bar inside the canopy, and paint and mount the doors, and basically have everything polished to drop right on the tank come cutover day.
It's a little bit of a left turn on the build here, but progress ahead we will!
Whiskey
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