245 Gallon Michigan Reef Tank

[DopeCantWin]

Couple ideas. On the left side move those 3 rocks in slightly, so you have enough room to clean the glass and fish can swim around it. Same on the right side if you can. Then take out the 3 rocks on the right group's left side. Use 2 to create another arch at the top of the right side. Use one to lengthen the group on the left coming out closer into the front and slightly to the right.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

I have a 180g, and started off with a TON of rock similar to you. Over time I have pulled out nearly half of it. It's not a good idea to stack so many rocks on top of each other, as there will be no flow and a big build up of detritus. Also make sure to keep the rocks off the back wall, again it will build up detritus. My aquascaping skills suck, and I'm not happy with it even now. On my next build, I will be ordering all man made structures and just keep a section in my sump for some LR. I am not one to give aquascaping ideas, but just make sure there is an area between each rock for some flow. The first pic u posted with the rocks on the carpet, looks way to tightly packed. U may want to look into some epoxy to hold the structure together so in the future it doesn't ever fall. My biggest regret on my tank is not taking my time and doing the aquascaping the right way. Try doing some more research on different aquascapes to help inspire u.

Good luck




Sent from my iPhone

 

[rldcpa]

I did make sure there is room behind all the rock (2-3") for cleaning and flow. I hated to waste that space for something you can not really see, but as you say it will be better for flow and the fish can go all the way around the tank. None of the rock is close to the glass.

Also, I know its hard to see right now, but there are lots of openings through the rock and in fact the lower part of the return is set to run right through one of the caves, so flow from the back to the front should be good.

Thanks for all of your ideas and comments and will I tweak the aquascaping a bit more prior to adding the sand and salt as the tank slowly fills with RO/DI water.

Here are some other photos showing the space around the rock on the sides and back.

 

[Cove Beach]

Another thing to keep in mind is at some time in the future you will need to capture somebody in your tank. I learned that wide overhangs are cool to look at and watch fish swim through but make it nearly impossible to reach under to catch a wary fish.

 

[rldcpa]

If they hide in a cave area how do you get them out? Tank aprart the rock? Or scare them out? Should be fun...

Catching a small fish will be a pain...I think I could catch a clam.

 

[rldcpa]

Today, I completed the aquascaping and added the substrate, heaters and salt. The tank is nearly full but will have to wait until tomorrow to have enough water to start the sump. I put the heaters in the display tank just to warm up the water and then added the Tunze powerheads to move the water and to disolve the salt.

I used the ATC refractor (temperature corrected) today and it worked well. The Tunze 6105's look like they will be enough flow for this tank. The Razor 160 lights look good too, but I am still short one (missing in the middle of tank) as its on backorder.

Here is a full tank shot. I am using an Iphone for photos and can't really get good color photos with it yet.

 

[rldcpa]

UPDATE - This past week I have been fine tuning the setup.

1. Salinity - The tank is filled and the salinity is now stable at 102.5
2. Overflow Noise - I designed the overflow to make no noise, but I found that I had 2 issues. The first issue was that if your 2nd drain (the one that has very low flow) is cut too low, then the water coming over the overflow crashes on the water below. So I bought some new 1.5" PVC and cut a new pipe that is only about 1" from the top. This made the drain silent and the now I do not even need the Durso (2nd issue), its just an open drain. The key is to have only a dribble of water drain down the 2nd drain. No overflow noise at all now.
3. The Tunzes are now conrolled with the Apex so I can do custom flows.
4. Temperature - 2 300 watt heaters is not enough for close to 300 gallons. So I ordered a 800 watt titanium heating tube with no thermostat that will be controlled by the Apex. I will use 1 of the 300 watt as a supplemental heater. The other 300 watt I will use to heat my saltwater storage container as this water drops to around 62 degrees if not heated.
5. Avast ATO - This is pretty cool as it uses a vacuum tube to tell the Apex when there is no water in the tube. It also has a backup float to shut off the water if for some reason the vaccum tube fails. This device works great and will make mainttenance a bit easier. I needed an accurate ATO as my return sump section is the area where the evaporation shows up in my tank. So if this section goes dry, my return pump would burn out. So its important that this section always have at least 6" of water in it. The ATO will make sure that is the case.
6. Testing - Tomorrow is Saturday and will start testing the water. This will be the day I do it each week and will log the results.
7. Shrimp - I threw in 2 uncooked shrimp about a week ago to get the bacteria and cycle going.
8. SRO 5000 - Ran it for a few minutes and it works great. Controls work well and seems like it will be easy to fine tune.
5. Micro bubbles - I notice some micro bubbles in the return area of the sump but I fixed that easily by raising the level of the return area just about equal to the glass sides. No more crashing water = no microbubbles.

When my cycle is complete I will add 2 clowns, a goby and one other small fish to lightly stock the tank. I will get a small clean up crew of 4-8 snails also.

Everyone here wants me to get fish now...but I will wait and do it right. No reason to rush things now.

 

[garcastle2]

Tagging along. Close to posting my own thread with the main tank almost exactly the same size. :^)

Cheers,
G.

 

[fpv930]

Looks like a great build you have going! I was looking for information on GLA. I will def be following.

 

[rldcpa]

My new 800 Watt Titaniam heater took care of my heating issues and now have steady 24-7 temperatures.

My 3rd Maxspect 160 Razor that was on backorder will be here tomorrow.

Tested water again today and water is perfect so I think I will order a few fish to get the tank started - 2 Ocellaris Clownfish and a few Blue Reef Chromis (Chromis cyaneus).

It is interesting that I had no phosphate issue from the 200 pounds of Reef Saver rock and I did not clean or rinse 85% of it. I did clean some of it with vinegar just to see what came off the rock, but when nothing did, I decided to put it right in the tank without rinsing.

 

[rldcpa]

I received my 3rd Maxspect Razor 160 watt 16k LED and now my tank has balanced light.

I have a few fish and 1 soft coral coming tomorrow morning. Here are some full tank shots of a lifeless tank.

 

[BigCity]

Lookin good, can't wait to get my new tank and start my conversion from my current 120g.

 

[rldcpa]

My first fish order was delivered today at 11:30am from Live Aquaria (1 hour later than expected, most likely due to the overnight service being a bit busy during the holidays). They packed everything really nice including a heat pack and darkened bags so the fish are protected from bright lights.

Everything came healthy and quickly started acclimation. I received 2 clowns, 3 blue green chromis, a pepermint shrimp. 2 snails (not much of a CUC but I don't have much waste yet) and a Grape Coral - Aquacultured, USA (Euphyllia cristata). The LPS coral was suppose to be 1-2" but was a bit less than an inch. I was a bit disappointed at first but after an hour or two, it opened and looked good, even though a bit small.

Overall I am very pleased with the service and quality from Live Aquaria.

The fish are already eating well and swimming all around. I only occasionally see the shrimp and snails as they are hidden most of the time in the rock cave areas.

Everything so far has gone well with this build.

I still have to decide if I am going to go with a calcium reactor or just go with dosing 2 part + magnesium. The cost differencial is a couple hundred dollars so the initial cost will not be my main determining factor; however future dosing costs will effect my decision and so will the effort needed to use both systems.

I will get some photos of the fish and tank tomorrow and post them.

I am using small pellet food from BRS right now, but I need to get some good frozen foods soon.

 

[BigCity]

would you mind giving me some details on your stand dimensions as well as the size of your sump? I am going to be going with a setup almost identical for a 300g here in a few months, I am also going to be using the SRO5000 skimmer as well. Is your skimmer and internal or external version? I'm trying to figure out how much room I need under the stand for an internal skimmer going into my 180g sump that is goingn to be 2x2x6?

 

[rldcpa]

Stand is 36" high and 30 inches deep and 72 inches long. Sump is 18" high and 24 inches deep and 60 inches long. Skimmer is internal and fits easily and allows room for a 7" sock and still room to spare for other reactors.

Be sure to get a 36" high stand or taller or you will have difficulty servicing your sump and may also have limits on what size skimmer you get. 30" stands don't allow much room to work with.

If your tank is 2' deep then you will have to go with a 18" sump which will limit your sump somewhat. I went with the deep tank for 2 reasons - it allowed a deeper sump (24") and also allowed for a deeper tank which gives you more options for aquascaping and the extra depth is nice.

 

[BigCity]

Cool yours appears to be almost identical my tank is 30" deep as well, I thought about making the stand 36" deep for added room. The only difference is that my sump would be 24" high, so maybe I'll make up for it by going 40-42" tall. I was just worried about getting the skimmer in and out of hte sump once the sump was installed. My stand will be 8' long so I'll have 2' on one end or 1' on each end depending on how I set it up I guess. Could you show some detailed picks of how your sump is setup and configurd and where the skimmer is installed with how deep the water is in the section?

 

[rldcpa]

Sump is 60"Lx24"Dx18"H - From left to right:

ATO section 12" - glass should be about 1 inch less than top of sump

Skimmer Section 22" - glass on right is 10"

Bubble Trap - add 2 more glass pieces 1.5" apart - these are also 10" and the middle glass piece is 1.5" off bottom

Pump Section - 10" - Glass on right is 12"

Refugium Section 12"

Other Notes:

The pump section must have a ATO to this section or pumps will run dry. I use Avast ATO which uses a vaccuum tube to tell the Apex controller when to turn on the ATO. I also has a back up float incase it fails. The great thing about this sump is that even if the ATO fills the sump, it can't overflow as the water will be able to overflow back to the ATO, so no risk of flooding your house.

 

[Aquatron]

Nice and clean! Now the fun starts

 

[rldcpa]

Here are some photos (not great ones unfortunately) of the new fish.

 

[rldcpa]

My water was clear but not crystal clear so I ordered a Reef Octopus reactor that I will run carbon with. I should have it in a few days.

Fish are doing well and will give it a week or two more before getting a few more.