My New 300DD!!!

[ChadRaay86]

Anytime glad I was able to help. I would not say I am talented just try a lot of different things!!! I would say I did learn a lot from a presentation I saw at macna. Something I wish everyone could see!!!

But once again glad I could help and that's what this club is about helping each other out when we can!!

Can't wait till this thing is up and running and will take you up on the offer to host a meeting!!

I can't wait for MACNA this year in South Florida, thats a trip I can definitely take! Aquascaping is all about just throwing different stuff together, but it does seem like some of us have a nack for it... The water is starting to clear up a bit now (tried the pipe method and it still clouded like crazy) and I've been switching up the socks every 8-12 hours to clean out the sand muck. I swear I rinsed the sand with RO about 5 times, but maybe I needed to do something differently. Oh well, hopefully this morning I can see through my tank and go ahead and start the cycle with what left over from my cocktail shrimp platter

Hopefully its clear enough tomorrow that I can get a shot of all the rock work.

 

[BobbyV]

Don't know if you have your skimmer on-line but if you don't. Guarantee you will see immediate improvement once you do. Mico bubbles really do a great job exporting dust residue from setteling rock or sand out of the water.

I also read you were thinking about bio pellets, from past experiences maybe try a more natural approach before jumping into pellets. Very easy to cause huge cyano problems in a new tank and starving corals.

Also I would suggest running a good amount of GFO from the start so you never give nuasiance algae a chance to get a foot hold in a newly established system.

I have just added a 2nd dedicated BRS deluxe GFO reactor with 2 cups per reactor of the BRS high capacity GFO. (4 cups total good for 575g water volume)

Wow this fancy stuff is very potent, no algae is growing on my glass! I over did the GFO because I am battling hair algae and I am not running a macro algea refugium. I only have a total of 300g. If this higher capacity GFO lasts 3 - 4 months then it is worth every penny!

I wish I ran this much from the beginning so I wouldn't have given this hair algae a chance. The $60 I spent in two big things of Kent Tech M to raise my MG to 1800 was a waste of money! Just bought a sea hare, hopefully he will get to munching!

 

[ChadRaay86]

Don't know if you have your skimmer on-line but if you don't. Guarantee you will see immediate improvement once you do. Mico bubbles really do a great job exporting dust residue from setteling rock or sand out of the water.

I also read you were thinking about bio pellets, from past experiences maybe try a more natural approach before jumping into pellets. Very easy to cause huge cyano problems in a new tank and starving corals.

Also I would suggest running a good amount of GFO from the start so you never give nuasiance algae a chance to get a foot hold in a newly established system.

I have just added a 2nd dedicated BRS deluxe GFO reactor with 2 cups per reactor of the BRS high capacity GFO. (4 cups total good for 575g water volume)

Wow this fancy stuff is very potent, no algae is growing on my glass! I over did the GFO because I am battling hair algae and I am not running a macro algea refugium. I only have a total of 300g. If this higher capacity GFO lasts 3 - 4 months then it is worth every penny!

I wish I ran this much from the beginning so I wouldn't have given this hair algae a chance. The $60 I spent in two big things of Kent Tech M to raise my MG to 1800 was a waste of money! Just bought a sea hare, hopefully he will get to munching!

I'm still debating what exactly I want to run on a regular basis. It'll probably end up being GFO, Carbon and Biopellets using the BRS dual reactor for the GFO and Carbon and my biopellets outletting into my protein skimmer's intake.

As far as biopellets are concerned, I'm not going to go overboard like I've seen and heard a lot of people do. I don't want a nutrient free tank, just a low nutrient tank . I'm going to start off slow with the pellets and eventually run 1/4 to 1/2 of the recommened amount on a regular basis.

I'm still a little iffy on GFO and Carbon. I haven't delved into either all that much in terms of their benefits for long/short term usage. I imagine I'll end up running GFO 24/7 and running carbon every once in a while when I need to clear the water up. Then again, carbon isn't too pricey so I might just do a change every two weeks.

I'm more concerned with "overdoing" things at this point as opposed to not doing enough. Although I'm fairly new to the hobby, I know that consistency and avoiding abrupt changes in water/tank chemistry is the best way to be successfull in the hobby. Hopefully as my tank cycles, I'll have time to finish up a plan for my GFO/Carbon and biopellets

 

[ChadRaay86]

Okay, the tank seems to be clearing up nicely. After an email to Jeff at Lifereef I have my skimmer pulling some real nice junk left over form putting the sand in the tank. I fixed a problem with a couple of the bulkheads that were a bit leaky :headwalls: and just threw in six cocktail shrimp (without the sauce :lolspin into my filter socks in order to get this thing going! I'm going to grab a few more pieces of rock tomorrow to complete my aquascaping (400 pounds isn't enough?) and hopefully hook up my Tunze Osmolator so I don't have to do this ATO thing by hand anymore.

After that I guess I'll just enjoy taking a temporary break :bounce1:, which in reality is really just my time to tinker with everything before I have actual life in the tank.

I'm also looking into my refugium setup. I've got about 30 pounds of rock rubble in it right now and am wondering what type of algae everyone would recommend and when I should put it in the tank (post cycle?). I've heard that having many different types can be a good thing, problem is I don't know which ones or where to get them...

Anywho, I'll get pictures up tomorrow regardless. The aquascape looks great with the sand in there, I can't wait to have those LEDs hooked up as well, by then it'll start to look like a real reef tank :fish1:

 

[ChadRaay86]

Not sure how this happened so quickly, but my tank just cycled in less than a week I confirmed it this afternoon with a test at FAOIS that registered 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite and 1 Nitrate. This was after an ammonia spike the day before.

I initially added six smaller shrimp to my system only to have no readable ammonia spike. I decided to go nuts and threw about 18 shrimp in there and got my spike I pulled the socks out today (which held most of the shrimp) after my ammonia spiked and I guess I got super lucky with the cycle.

I used about 350 pounds of cooked LR (1 1/2 months) from a variety of established systems with about 40 pounds of live sand from a very well established system. I also dosed Microbacteria7 and have run A very small amount of bio pellets over the last 36 hours. Temp was in between 78-79 and salinity steady at 1.024.

I'll work on an update with pics tomorrow and might even add my pair of ocellaris as long as my levels hold steady.

More to come...

P.S. gotta figure out how to hang my lights ASAP! I'll have time for fancy later, I want to get these suckers up!!! If anybody has a solid plan, let me know. I thought I'd have months to plan this thing lol

 

[ChadRaay86]

Okay, so its been a while so I'll just let the pictures do the talking. I finally got everything up and running

Aquascape round 1

Lights Hung (finally)

Close up of the scape, its a lot brighter than it looks lol

 

[ChadRaay86]

Mr Sailfin aka Manti Te'o (he thinks his reflection in the glass is his girlfriend)

Monti, that has surprisingly started to grow already

these things grow like weeds, I love them lol

Bigt's Hammers

big colony of clove polyps

 

[ChadRaay86]

More of the inner workings with water in them

Thanks to cichlidman for the manifold idea, currently running ROWA-phos and Biopellets. I'll run carbon soon as well.

Thats it for now. I'll update as I get more in there My Naso Unicornis is in QT at FAOIS awaiting his new home

 

[rogergolf66]

R the lights the d120?

 

[ChadRaay86]

Yep, 90 optics maybe 7-8 inches off the too of the tank. 30 on the whites 50 on the blues in most of the pics

 

[bmullikin1]

Nice aquascape, beware of the paly's that you said grow like weeds,as they do and will take over pretty quick, make sure you can isolate them.

 

[ChadRaay86]

I'm planning on making the middle island a zoa/paly paradise I think these green ones look awesome. I can shoot mysis at it and it'll eat it all lol. Hopefully others like them as much as me, I'll frag the heck out them

On a related note, I'm getting ready to go zoa crazy after seeing Nate's tank! That and shelving acros lol

 

[infamous_6969]

This build looks awesome... A few questions and things to think about..

I see you had the new circuit installed.. It does not appear as though those are GFI outlets.. While a GFI breaker is nice, the downfall is that if it trips then you lose the entire circuit and not just one outlet. I would think about swapping the outlets for GFI If you can.

Is your RO/DI hooked up to the cold water input or hot water output from your water heater? Everything I have read states to make sure you are on the cold water intake because hot water will deteriorate your membrane faster.

 

[ChadRaay86]

This build looks awesome... A few questions and things to think about..

I see you had the new circuit installed.. It does not appear as though those are GFI outlets.. While a GFI breaker is nice, the downfall is that if it trips then you lose the entire circuit and not just one outlet. I would think about swapping the outlets for GFI If you can.

Is your RO/DI hooked up to the cold water input or hot water output from your water heater? Everything I have read states to make sure you are on the cold water intake because hot water will deteriorate your membrane faster.

The outlets are each on their own 20 amp circuit with a gfci in the garage for one and the downstairs bathroom for the other. I've tripped the one hooked up to the skimmer and lights when I unhooked my skimmer for some reason??? I could run separate gfci's for each outlet socket and that might prevent tripping something. If it is apparent that there's a need for another circuit, I can easily put one through the garage

Yep, it's in the cold water input. Every once in a while the hot water backs up into the valve. I run hot water in the house for a minute and it runs back through indefinitely, or at least until I shut off the rodi. The pressure is at 50 psi, so it really works out well. I tried a few different hookups, but this was the one that offered the most pressure and convenience.

Thanks for the input, I was kind of iffy on my gfci situation. I'd rather be safe than sorry

 

[brad87us]

Yep, 90 optics maybe 7-8 inches off the too of the tank. 30 on the whites 50 on the blues in most of the pics

How long is your tank? I'm looking at doing 3 d120s over my 72" 125 gallon.

 

[ChadRaay86]

It's 72 inches and yes three will work with your tank. 120 optics hung lengthwise across the tank.

 

[anbosu]

I'm planning on making the middle island a zoa/paly paradise I think these green ones look awesome. I can shoot mysis at it and it'll eat it all lol. Hopefully others like them as much as me, I'll frag the heck out them

On a related note, I'm getting ready to go zoa crazy after seeing Nate's tank! That and shelving acros lol

I have a bunch of those green ones myself. If you ever want to frag them just put a frag plug near them on the rock and they should grow right onto it. They grow and spread faster than any zoa/paly I've ever had.

 

[ChadRaay86]

I have a bunch of those green ones myself. If you ever want to frag them just put a frag plug near them on the rock and they should grow right onto it. They grow and spread faster than any zoa/paly I've ever had.

Haha, crap lol. They have gotten huge in the couple of weeks I've had them. I should be able to wedge a few plugs next to where they are now. If they don't stop growing soon ill be afraid they'll eat one of my fish

 

[Pastey]

Nice build! I picked up a 200DD last weekend and have started putting together my plumbing to get it piped. It's a big undertaking at first.

 

[ChadRaay86]

Nice build! I picked up a 200DD last weekend and have started putting together my plumbing to get it piped. It's a big undertaking at first.

Haha, yeah in retrospect it was a lot more than I ever bargained for lol. At least now my carpentry, electrician, plumbing, painting, glass cutting and chemistry skills are refreshed