Mike's 300 Double-D

[K-ROK]

Good to know you've picked up some pointers or useful info from the thread. We were fortunate that our insurance covered the cost of the floors, etc. and that our LFS replaced the failed tank.We learned many things from our problems, and hopefully by posting the story, others can become "appropriately paranoid" and avoid some trouble. Your new tank looks good - we know how excited you are! A 6x3 tank is an awesome project - we'll be following along and just let us know if we can help. Where in Ohio are you? We have good friends in Mentor...

Yep this is a great thread for anyone thinking of getting a large tank. Very glad your insurance covered most of your damages. What a relief that must have been. I can't wait to get my tank going....I'm gathering supplies and tools to make the stand now. I live in Ashtabula county which is around a half an hour drive from Mentor. Looking forward to more pics of your tank!

 

[prop-frags]

Canopy looks great! I stand by anything Benjamin Moore. Best brand paint hands down, my whole house is covered in it. What color is that btw?

Thanks Brett! The paint color on our stand and canopy is not standard. It was color matched to a piece of furniture that we have. They did a great job matching the existing color on the canopy with the epoxy as the original paint was a latex with no sheen.

Yep this is a great thread for anyone thinking of getting a large tank. Very glad your insurance covered most of your damages. What a relief that must have been. I can't wait to get my tank going....I'm gathering supplies and tools to make the stand now. I live in Ashtabula county which is around a half an hour drive from Mentor. Looking forward to more pics of your tank!

Yes, it was good that our insurance footed the bill for repairs to our house (minus our detuctible) as we had a considerable amount of damage. Unfortunately, they get their money back in the long run as our premium increased significantly and we're on their radar for 3 years, lol.

We'll try to post a few pics up in the next couple of days.

 

[klondike4001]

Jonathan, the acans are back in the prop tank. The "guard clowns" experiment was a partial success. While they did a great job at keeping the angel and file fish away, their non-stop sand sweeping was irritating. So we're back to the drawing board. Any suggestions ?

I am currently dealing with my acans being buried by my Midas Blenny so I know what you meant with the sweeping. No ideas in your case though, nothing in my tank wants to eat my acans *knocks on wood*.

 

[rick s]

. . . And your lawn looks equally amazing as well! You guys are universally talented!

 

[Ricardo Coelho]

Hello Mike and Terry,

Your history about the tank is amazing... long jorney to be here with this soo beatiful tank!

congratulations.

 

[prop-frags]

...nothing in my tank wants to eat my acans *knocks on wood*.

You are are a lucky man!

. . . And your lawn looks equally amazing as well! You guys are universally talented!

Hahah Thanks Rick. We really can't take too much credit as we just water it. Virginia Green does an awesome job.

Hello Mike and Terry,

Your history about the tank is amazing... long jorney to be here with this soo beatiful tank!

congratulations.

Thank Ricardo for that awesome compliment and for taking the time to post in our thread!

 

[prop-frags]

Thought we'd share a few fish pics Terry took tonight.

 

[prop-frags]

 

[rpjaws74]

nice fish...

 

[syedjilani]

Nice pics.... :thumbsup:

 

[aandfsoccr04]

Tremendous update!!! Captured all of my favorite fish in your tank :eek2::eek2:

The lineatus, rhomboid, borbonious, and bipartitus. Great pictures Terry. Your fish are so beautiful :beer:

 

[jawsee]

What can i say,super pic's from some off my favorite fish:wave:

 

[klondike4001]

Drool.....:eek2:

 

[ganjero]

Mike,

Amazing tank and build thread, I'm planning on upgrading to a 300DD and I wanted to ask you (I'm not sure if it was posted and I missed it) what kind of sand did you end up using? and How many people was need it to move this beast?

Thanks

 

[prop-frags]

nice fish...

Nice pics.... :thumbsup:

Drool.....:eek2:

Thanks guys! We appreciate the compliments.

Tremendous update!!! Captured all of my favorite fish in your tank :eek2::eek2:

The lineatus, rhomboid, borbonious, and bipartitus. Great pictures Terry. Your fish are so beautiful :beer:

Thank you! We will be adding our Earlei soon. I am a little nervous. Hopefully the acclimation box will do it's job and he will have a peaceful introduction into the DT.

What can i say,super pic's from some off my favorite fish:wave:

Thank you so much Luc! You and your tank are such an inspiration to us!

Mike,

Amazing tank and build thread, I'm planning on upgrading to a 300DD and I wanted to ask you (I'm not sure if it was posted and I missed it) what kind of sand did you end up using? and How many people was need it to move this beast?

Thanks

You are going to love the dimensions of the 300. We are using Tropic Eden Reef Flakes and love it. We do have a mix of TE Reef Flakes and Miniflakes in the middle section of our tank where our leopard wrasses like to sleep. It is the cleanest sand by far that we have ever used.

As for moving the tank, the stock version weighs in at close to 500 lbs. Ours is a bit heavier with the bottom euro brace. We had 4 guys helping when we moved ours to be safe.

-Terry

 

[prop-frags]

Our M. kuiteri decided to pose for us:









It is rare to catch our male M. bipartitus and one of his ladies in the same frame:



Our Aiptasia Assassin:


Our male Eightlne:




One of our male Lyretail Anthias:



M&T

 

[prop-frags]

One of our A. tenuis was showing some signs of stressing, and so we pulled it out today for a close inspection. What we saw was concerning; there was some flesh missing, as if eaten. We suspected flatworms, since that what the eaten areas looked like, but then we saw several unusual animals on the coral - these were not phased by Revive dip.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/6983942150/" title="nt 2364 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7084/6983942150_981e32e9c7_b.jpg" width="1024" height="673" alt="nt 2364"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/6983941872/" title="nt 2365 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7178/6983941872_222c415662_b.jpg" width="1024" height="685" alt="nt 2365"></a>

Has anyone seen these before?

 

[klondike4001]

Try Lugols?

 

[prop-frags]

We have gotten several PMs about our light rack. The rack was a custom design, and we got the parts from EZTube. Our original design drawings included in the thread early on were not technically accurate, since they didn't account for the connectors that join the aluminum tubes together. We have been thinking about a re-do of the light rack to enable some other reflectors or possibly some LED lights, so Mike sat down and revised the light rack design drawings. Thought we would share where we are with those:

Bottom:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/7003219604/" title="Light Rack - bottom by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7126/7003219604_e0a3f75f06_b.jpg" width="832" height="424" alt="Light Rack - bottom"></a>

Top:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/7149310899/" title="Light Rack - top by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5336/7149310899_1076a3384d_b.jpg" width="832" height="424" alt="Light Rack - top"></a>

Side view:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/7149310953/" title="Light Rack - side by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7054/7149310953_aec25275b3_o.jpg" width="400" height="148" alt="Light Rack - side"></a>

We'll keep you posted on how this progresses...

 

[dahenley]

What reflectors are you looking at? Just curious as to why the change.
But I understand on the led's and supplements. I'm looking at adding some of those as well