Hi guys, well I start this thread to share with you my build. I have 3 years keeping marine aquariums, I previously had an 82 gallon mixed reef tank, and a 27 gallon nano to keep seahorses. I decided to get something bigger and then I moved my project to a tank that I bought to a friend. In the last 18 months I was passionate for keeping SPS and LPS corals, however as many of you already know is hard to keep a big tank full of hard corals, it requires a lot of time to keep everything under control. For that reason I changed the scope of my tank and I went back to keep soft corals and some SPS, especially Montiporas.
I did changes in my aquascape in order to make it look more natural and so far I'm happy with my decision and results.
Here is a summary of the tank
Tank Summary
The tank is made with 12mm thick tempered glass.
Tank Size: 82"L x 24"W x 34"H (290gal)
Sump: 8mm Glass sumps - this system used 2 sumps that provides around 60 gallons more of water volume.
Lighting Custom made LED fixture using Royal Blue, 15K white, Extreme blue and 405nm leds. Final output is around 200watts.
Filtration:
Heater/Chiller: Costa Rica is a tropical country in Central America, so I normally not require to heat the water too much, and in the place where I live the temperture is kind of cold related to other parts of the country so my tank temperature remains stable between 24 to 26 Celcius. I use a small automatic heater of 150watts. Is more that enought to keep the water warm in cold days.
Water changes: I make 15% water changes every 3-4 weeks using Instant Ocean salt. All the water that I use goes over a RO/DI unit before to get into the tank.
When I changed my tank from SPS dominated to Soft coral Dominated I couldn´t resist to keep some Frags from my old SPS colonies, so many of them may look small to the eye for now, but my hope is that they will grow again with help of the calcium reactor. Having more space gave me the chance to add more fishes so here´s the list of livestock.
Fishes:
5 tangs (yellow, blue, naso, tomini, sailfin veliferum)
2 dragonets (blue mandarin, spotted mandarin)
1 triggerfish (niger)
7 damsels (6 chromis, 1 blue)
5 cardinals (pijama)
2 fairy wrasses (female red head and male labbocks)
2 clownfishes (ocellaris and picasso)
3 gobies (rainfordi and 2 firefish)
Corals and Other Inverts
So far I think that's a good summary of my tank now. I will upload pictures soon.
I did changes in my aquascape in order to make it look more natural and so far I'm happy with my decision and results.
Here is a summary of the tank
Tank Summary
The tank is made with 12mm thick tempered glass.
Tank Size: 82"L x 24"W x 34"H (290gal)
Sump: 8mm Glass sumps - this system used 2 sumps that provides around 60 gallons more of water volume.
Lighting Custom made LED fixture using Royal Blue, 15K white, Extreme blue and 405nm leds. Final output is around 200watts.
Filtration:
- Reef Octopus Diablo XS 350 Protein Skimmer
- Refugium with live rock and chaetomorpha algae
- Lots of live rock in the main display
- Swallow natural sand bed in the main display, around 2 inches deep.
- Activated Carbon - dose for 150 gallons aprox
- GFO resin
- Seachen Purigen resin
- Ecotech Vortech MP40Wes
- Hydor Koralia 2 and 4
- Dual DIY 74"L penductor tubes to return water from the sump using a lifeguard aquatics quiet one 6000 pump (1653gph)
Heater/Chiller: Costa Rica is a tropical country in Central America, so I normally not require to heat the water too much, and in the place where I live the temperture is kind of cold related to other parts of the country so my tank temperature remains stable between 24 to 26 Celcius. I use a small automatic heater of 150watts. Is more that enought to keep the water warm in cold days.
Water changes: I make 15% water changes every 3-4 weeks using Instant Ocean salt. All the water that I use goes over a RO/DI unit before to get into the tank.
When I changed my tank from SPS dominated to Soft coral Dominated I couldn´t resist to keep some Frags from my old SPS colonies, so many of them may look small to the eye for now, but my hope is that they will grow again with help of the calcium reactor. Having more space gave me the chance to add more fishes so here´s the list of livestock.
Fishes:
5 tangs (yellow, blue, naso, tomini, sailfin veliferum)
2 dragonets (blue mandarin, spotted mandarin)
1 triggerfish (niger)
7 damsels (6 chromis, 1 blue)
5 cardinals (pijama)
2 fairy wrasses (female red head and male labbocks)
2 clownfishes (ocellaris and picasso)
3 gobies (rainfordi and 2 firefish)
Corals and Other Inverts
- Lots of xenias
- Many zoanthids
- Palythoas
- Colt
- Finger leather
- Sarcophyton
- Starpolyps
- Yellow polyps
- Gorgonians
- Mushrooms
- Ricordeas
- Capricornis, Montipora
- Digitata, Montipora
- Confusa, Montipora
- Sunset Montipora
- Hystrix Seriatipora
- Purple Nana Acropora
- Green Stylophora
- Yellow Pocillopora
- Frogspawn
- Green Carpet anemone
- Purple Maxi Mini Carpet
- Turbo Snails
- Peppermint shrimps
- Halloween crabs
- Red legs crabs
So far I think that's a good summary of my tank now. I will upload pictures soon.
