New Member to the Large Reef Tank

[UH_OH_5_OH]

Well I could never have predicted this but this past weekend I was the recipient of the IMAC Grand Prize at the Raffle when I won the 300 Gallon Reef System.

It's truly a breathtaking tank....and nearly bigger than my first apartment I might add.

So now comes the multitude of questions concerning initiating such a system.

I was told the full tank wt is somewhere around 2500 lbs. I'm fairly certain this MUST be on a concrete slab and not over a crawlspace or basement (duh!) so this will require I relocate to a new place first ! WoW......house hunting to facilitate my new reef tank....what a rush !


So what sorts of concerns should I have for a system this size?

Besides the obviously GIGANTIC water use.....how should I upgrade my RO/DI ? I have a system compatible with a 135 right now and it's 26 gpd I believe...! Should I just keep this and replace the cartridge more often or get another larger unit to piggy back it to ?

It almost seems criminal...but my significant other wants nothing to do with SPS in this tank....(I know I know)....so would I really need to invest in a Kalk Reactor anyway or just add a ton of liquid supplements ?



As you all can see.....I have been thrust into a realm of tank sizes that I have zero experience with so any and all of your advice is welcome.

And yes...once I get my laptop back from being serviced (most likely Friday) I will post pics of the system !

Thanks in advance for your advice !!!

 

[mcliffy2]

Was that the marineland 72x36x27 right as you entered IMAC? If so, that is a pretty sweet setup...I just went from a 125 to a 238 (360 total system) and it is a big change. What are your plans for lighting, flow, skimmer, sump, etc? As for your RO/DI, I added 2 piggybacks and this helped tremendously with the output.

Where in IL are you located? If near downtown Chicago, I could try to lend a hand...

 

[UH_OH_5_OH]

YES that's the one...but I thought it was an Oceanic tank ?!? Either way....it's still a pretty sweet set up.

The lighting that came with it are two 48" 6 bulb T-5 set ups and three MH Pendants....I guess I'll have to see how the lighting coverage works out to see if I add more to it later.

....as for flow....I don't imagine the two large returns are going to be sufficient for such a wide deep tank so I imagine some Koralias are in order....and I already have some Dan Nguyen MJ 1200 Mods that kick ALOT of flow so they should help alot in this system....


....the system came with a skimmer/sump set up already...though the exact type and model I don't recall at the moment but I will find out and post it here....


.....I live in the Champaign area but will be relocating HOPEFULLY very soon due to a job change.....I HOPE I HOPE I HOPE !!! Wont find out for a couple more weeks !

 

[RokleM]

Looking forward to the pictures, as I'm looking for a new tank myself. I've heard a few comment about how amazing the tank looked. Congrats!

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12675460#post12675460 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by UH_OH_5_OH
YES that's the one...but I thought it was an Oceanic tank ?!? Either way....it's still a pretty sweet set up.

The lighting that came with it are two 48" 6 bulb T-5 set ups and three MH Pendants....I guess I'll have to see how the lighting coverage works out to see if I add more to it later.

....as for flow....I don't imagine the two large returns are going to be sufficient for such a wide deep tank so I imagine some Koralias are in order....and I already have some Dan Nguyen MJ 1200 Mods that kick ALOT of flow so they should help alot in this system....


....the system came with a skimmer/sump set up already...though the exact type and model I don't recall at the moment but I will find out and post it here....


.....I live in the Champaign area but will be relocating HOPEFULLY very soon due to a job change.....I HOPE I HOPE I HOPE !!! Wont find out for a couple more weeks !

Wow, that is a beautiful tank, especially for free. That lighting setup should be more than enough, just make sure you have electrical wired so you can put all those lights on one circuit (youll have 1800w, dont want much more than that on a single circuit).

For flow, IMO, you really have 2 options with such a large tank - Tunze or Vortech (ok and maybe closed loop). You are going to want upwards of 10,000 gph of flow from your powerheads so you are looking at at least 8-10 koralias or maxijet mods, which won't look so nice in such a nice tank. Best bang for your buck would be a couple tunze 6201s. slickest setup IMO would be 4 vortechs.

For the skimmer, I'm assuming its the Marineland sump/skimmer that was on display? If so I would plan on selling those off. The tank is amazing, that filtration system, errr, not so much If you can have a fish room I'd look into a Rubbermaid stock tank as your sump for an inexpensive route, or you could use a 75g tank under the stand. If you want to get the optimal setup, contact Doug Lehman, he is local and will build you a custom acrylic sump for a reasonable price (click my little red house for my build thread, and pics of my sump built by him are in there, page # somewhere in the teens).

The skimmer is what you really can't skimp on. I think the Reef Octopus pro 300 is probably the minimum you want on this tank. The Reeflo 250 or ATI Bubblemaster 300 are slightly more expensive but slightly better options, that are in the middle of the price range you'll be looking at (upper end being ATB L, Bubble King, H&S, Deltec).

Good luck with the job situation, will this opportunity be bringing you to Chicago?

 

[PoukieBear]

Re: New Member to the Large Reef Tank

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12675187#post12675187 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by UH_OH_5_OH

It almost seems criminal...but my significant other wants nothing to do with SPS in this tank....(I know I know)....so would I really need to invest in a Kalk Reactor anyway or just add a ton of liquid supplements ?

I DON'T WANT TWIGS AND BRANCHES IN MY NEW TANK !!! eerrrr....OUR new tank. Ya, that's what I meant.

UH_OH, we were thinking it was an oceanic, but after looking at it again, mcliffy2 is correct, it's a Marineland setup.

The guy that was telling us about the sump was confident that it would be sufficient for a tank that size. It has two biowheels on it, and a bunch of media trays.... And the skimmer that came with it seems awfully small....

We've all heard about the nightmares that can come along with biowheels, so I'm a little iffy on keeping those....

What *I* want for this tank, is lots of open swimming room, almost how they had it set up at the conference. LPS and softies, and *MAYBE* a moti cap or two to keep the man happy.

No big fish. I think the biggest fish I want is an anthea, or an entire school of them. I have a feeling I'm giong to lose that battle to UH_OH anyway, and we'll end up getting a bunch of them.

 

[mcliffy2]

biowheels???? yikes...rip those out. If you are doing FO maybe, but you will be using live rock, and those biowheels become nitrate factories. The fact you were told to use biowheels means you should take everything the guy told you with a grain of salt. For starters how big is the sump? You'll want a 75g at minimum preferably 100-125 or more. If I remember the biggest sump there looked like 30 maybe 40 gallons or so, and the skimmers they had were puny, nothing they had on display would handle anything more than a 75g tank IMO.

If you are doing softies and LPS, then my above reccomendations on flow and skimmer can be toned down a bit. BUT, I'm guessing you'll get the SPS bug eventually and you can do a mix of all with a tank as big as yours....better to buy once and buy it right (trust me from someone who has learned the hard way trying to skimp).

just check out this tank, you'll catch the sps-bug.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1362596

 

[PoukieBear]

Ya, the guy that was telling us about how great the biowheels were, was going on about how some guy he knew had the same set up and he used the tank to house his KOI during the winter months and the filtration was perfect for it.

Ummm, buddy, we're not putting koi in my tank ! ...our tank...my bad...



I've been doing some minor calculations this morning. Just to set it up with the bare minimum amount of rock and sand, will cost over $2500 ! !

And about three buckets of salt to start with.

I think I need to stop doing math before I give up on this thing entirely.

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12676901#post12676901 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PoukieBear
Ya, the guy that was telling us about how great the biowheels were, was going on about how some guy he knew had the same set up and he used the tank to house his KOI during the winter months and the filtration was perfect for it.

Ummm, buddy, we're not putting koi in my tank ! ...our tank...my bad...



I've been doing some minor calculations this morning. Just to set it up with the bare minimum amount of rock and sand, will cost over $2500 ! !

And about three buckets of salt to start with.

I think I need to stop doing math before I give up on this thing entirely.

Setting up a 300 gal tank is expensive no doubt. I estimate that the tank and stand is about 25% of the total cost to get up and running. On the bright side, you got MORE than enough lighting. depending on the metal halides you got, I might recommend selling those T5 units, doing reeflux 12k bulbs and using the cash towards a sump, pumps, skimmer...can't you post pics of all the equipment you won? that will help with taking inventory and figuring out what is useful in a reef tank and what isn't (and can be sold to pay for what is).

 

[PoukieBear]

I'll have UH_OH take pictures of it all. It's sitting in his garage right now.

However, he won't be able to upload pics until Friday, at the earliest. His computer is on the frits.

I've tried to find pictures of the sump online, but I couldn't find any...

 

[BlueCorn]

Re: Re: New Member to the Large Reef Tank

Re: Re: New Member to the Large Reef Tank

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12676365#post12676365 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PoukieBear
I DON'T WANT TWIGS AND BRANCHES IN MY NEW TANK !!! eerrrr....OUR new tank. Ya,

So are you going to set it up at your place or at your dad's?

 

[mcliffy2]

oh yea, and rock and sand should not cost you $2500. You'll want 300-400 lbs of LR (I'd say only 200 in the display, the rest in the sump), you should be fine starting with 300 lbs and going from there. If you watch the CMAS forum there are often people selling LR for $3-4/lb (right now there is a guy Carlos selling 200 lbs at $4/lb) so that is $1200 for rock and you could go bare bottom, so no cost on sand, or a shallow sandbed with 200 lbs (I have 160 lbs in my 238g) will run you about $250, so thats only $1450 rock and sand...

 

[mcliffy2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12677110#post12677110 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
oh yea, and rock and sand should not cost you $2500. You'll want 300-400 lbs of LR (I'd say only 200 in the display, the rest in the sump), you should be fine starting with 300 lbs and going from there. If you watch the CMAS forum there are often people selling LR for $3-4/lb (right now there is a guy Carlos selling 200 lbs at $4/lb) so that is $1200 for rock and you could go bare bottom, so no cost on sand, or a shallow sandbed with 200 lbs (I have 160 lbs in my 238g) will run you about $250, so thats only $1450 rock and sand...

and another less expensive option for rock, which I actually would advise as long as you can be patient while waiting for the tank to cycle, is using dry rocks such as marco rocks or eco rox:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Eco-RoX-(-Fiji-Rock-)/c7/index.html

these will run you about $3/lb, and you actually need less - I'd say 250 lbs to start, because a lot of the weight in LR is water, so these rocks will "weigh" more once you get them wet. All you do is seed with a piece of LR or a few cups of live sand from another reefers tank. It will take a little longer for these rocks to become "live" (probably 2-3 months), but the benefit is no unwanted hitchhikers - you wont be trying to capture that gorilla crab or mantis that is eating your fish, or trying to ward of aiptasia or majanos, or have that 6 ft. bristleworm to extract (not exaggerating, check it out - http://oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm)

 

[PoukieBear]

I was thiking about the guy that I saw last year at MACNA, that had DIY rocks.

They looked amazing, and he had some HUGE pieces, ones that would easily fill up a 300g. I'm definatly going to look into those this year in Atlanta.

 

[drauka99]

Poukie - the bio wheel compartments can be removed from the sump. I removed them when we were packing it up. The sump is arround 55 gallons I woudl think. And the other one was arounf 20 gallons (I would just use that one as a fuge for now) Lights - my thoughs - keep the 2-48" t5 kits and set them up as suplamental light, go with 10-14k- DE 250 watt Metal halides for the main lighting. Skimmer - there are plenty of options but none of them cheap, I like ASM skimmers but you woudl be all the way up in thier lineup to use one of thiers. Plus - are you guys going to use the stand they supplied? if so then your going to almost have to go with a bubbleking or one of the shorter skimmers.

 

[drauka99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12677203#post12677203 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by PoukieBear
I was thiking about the guy that I saw last year at MACNA, that had DIY rocks.

They looked amazing, and he had some HUGE pieces, ones that would easily fill up a 300g. I'm definatly going to look into those this year in Atlanta.

Marco Rocks

 

[PoukieBear]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12677297#post12677297 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drauka99
Poukie - the bio wheel compartments can be removed from the sump. I removed them when we were packing it up. The sump is arround 55 gallons I woudl think. And the other one was arounf 20 gallons (I would just use that one as a fuge for now) Lights - my thoughs - keep the 2-48" t5 kits and set them up as suplamental light, go with 10-14k- DE 250 watt Metal halides for the main lighting. Skimmer - there are plenty of options but none of them cheap, I like ASM skimmers but you woudl be all the way up in thier lineup to use one of thiers. Plus - are you guys going to use the stand they supplied? if so then your going to almost have to go with a bubbleking or one of the shorter skimmers.

I'm not sure if we get a choice for out metal hilides. If we do, then I was thinking more along the lines of 20k, 250 watts, and replace the T5 units with actinics and moonlights.

OH YA! I forgot about that second sump! It'll be great for a small fuge. Good thinking Dave.

Yes, we are going to use the stand that came with it. I have no idea what sort of skimmer came with it, but like I said before, it looks kind of small...I'll have to do some research. I like my Schuran skimmer that I have on my 90 right now. I wonder if they make a big enough model for a 300? More reserach !

Marco Rocks, yup, that's the one ! Thanks !

 

[drauka99]

if the T5s were 6 bulbs (i thought 5) the way I was thinking was to have them at the front of the tank with them overlaping in the middle and the MH across the back - the back 3 or 4 bulbs of the t5s being acentics and the other 2 or 3 being 10k or whatever. with how deep(front to back) the tank is, I don't know how good the coverage of the 25os will be so I was thinking you might need some good light at the front of the tank. Just thoughts, I know you two will make it a great tank.

 

[Deceptive]

The old Sharkys Reef ''If they still go by the same pricing'' Sold live rock cured at $3 per pound . I think they are in Crystal Lake Illinois about 15 minutes west of gurnee ''Correct me if im wrong''

 

[mcliffy2]

Deceptive - Unfortunately, sharkys has closed.

Poukie - marco rocks are the way to go. IMO they are better than live rock, because of the hitchhiker issue I mentioned.

I would look into using ATI Blue plus bulbs instead of actinic bulbs as a supplement, they will give you PAR to grow corals under, with the blue actinic look you want. From an efficiency standpoint, the big question is what kind of reflectors they gave you. If they are smaller DE pendants or fixtures, it really isnt enough to cover the 36" width, by themself. I'm wondering actually how 2 6-bulbs T5s + 3 MHs is going to fit? The ideal lighting IMO would be either 3x400w Lumenarc (large size) reflectors with Reeflux 12k bulbs, or a 10x80w Tek T5 retro. I'm guessing you could break even by selling the lighting you have and buying these units. Might not be necessary tho, just depends on what exactly the lighting you have is, and how it will fit.

Also, on the stand, I do remember now that the stand seemed very short (maybe 30"?), so that will be limiting if you intend to run everything under the tank. Do you have room for an external skimmer, or better yet, a fish room behind the tank? Another thought would be making this an open top tank since the stand is so short...invincible569's tank is a very good example of this type of look: