The why, oh why, 38 stair, 290 gal build revised

[reefwithareefer]

Getting to be late by the time this picture was taken. Started at 8:00 am by picking up material lift, then emptying tank of criiters etc. Started swapping tanks at 12ish and finished by 2 ish...Spent the rest of the time setting up the rock..Gawd my arms needed to be 3 inches longer...






i think it was about 9ish when the pic was taken..

[reefwithareefer]

I kept about 75% of the water from the bowfront setup and had another 150 gals mixed up downstairs to fill the DT, sump and refugium.

The water is pretty murky all said and done, but the critters were all fine. corals started coming out about 20 mins after placing them in the tank.

[reefwithareefer]

Now that I think about it, I did the move on the family day long weekend..Not a bad way to spend some time with the family..Right?

This is how the tank looked the next morning....









No loss of critters...









just in case you are wondering...No, that is not how I am leaving the aquascaping. We just threw everything in there for the nite, so the critters did not get stressed out.


Bought the Hawaian black substrate online from Drs fosters and whoever. Good timing as it was on sale for 12 bucks a bag, regular 20.00, so i bought 8 bags, had it shipped for free to Pic It Up in Sumas Wa and then brought it across the border 5 days later. Substrate is bagged by Caribsea and comes live...It is quite nice. Has black, with white and red specks.

[reefwithareefer]

A week passed by, before I had the time or energy to revamp some of the sump room. The wires to the apex etc were a mess.

I have an apex with 2 EB8s and a EB4. They power the Bubble king mini 180 (which is now too small for a 400 gal system, so it is for sale), three schlobster dosers from J&L, three metal halides, 4 t5s and some moonlights, the two return pumps, Tunze ATO, 2 x 300w heaters, 1/2 HP chiller,Waste water pump and a new salt water pump, a few power bars and some misc stuff.

I have the Fluval, carbon reactor, GFO reactor and 40 watt UV running off the return pump, so there are not individual pumps for each of them. The return pumps are a Pan world 250PS and a 150PS.

At this time I am dosing Calcium, magnesium and Sodium carbonate. I buy bulk schlobster from J&L and mix it up , following Randy Holmes 2 part mix. Being new to the hobby, I am not sure if this is better than buying ready made 2 part or not. I am happy how my critters are doing so, no reason to change it up yet.

I was using regulat IO salt but started using the IO reef salt when I swapped tanks. Figured it was easier to keep up parameters with a reef salt. Time will tell.





This is the refugium. I have the DT tank drain into here, the water is mechanically filtered thru a 100 micron fabric, 200 micron carbon filter, a lime filter, and some other 2/3 stage filters, then to the refugium, which is full of pods. It is then siphoned into the sump, thru 2, 1 1/2" outlets, where the skimmer and reactors are. The water goes thru another set of mechanical filters and finally back up to the DT.

I have the Apex AFS drop pellets just above the return pump inlet, where they are sucked up and pushed into the the DT, twice a day. There are 6 return nozzles/loc lines that have shut off valves on them to control the waterflow from each one. The food gets dispersed thru them all, so all the critters get a fair chance at the pellets. I feed my own mixture of frozen blood worms, mysis, clams, oysters, and plankton once a day in the morning time.
I have just about completed my top secret auto frozen fish food feeder. I have a super mini freezer that keeps a 2 weeks supply of frozen food in it and then spits out a cube once a day into a small container, where it can un thaw and be pushed out a lil at a time by the powerheads...It is about 12' x 1.5 inches x 3 inches...




This is the before pic of the sump room, not a lot different, just a little less mess of wires and pipes etc

[daplatapus]

Holy cow dude, what a ton of work!!! But it looks great, congrats on the upgrade. My one suggestion is look into a Ca reactor and contemplate ditching the Ca and Alk dosing. With a tank that big and the inevitable growth of corals, you're going to tire of dosing pretty quick.

[reefwithareefer]

Originally Posted by daplatapus

Holy cow dude, what a ton of work!!! But it looks great, congrats on the upgrade. My one suggestion is look into a Ca reactor and contemplate ditching the Ca and Alk dosing. With a tank that big and the inevitable growth of corals, you're going to tire of dosing pretty quick.

Thanks. It has been and will always be a ton of work.
Funny you say that. I had just sold my CA reactor a few months before upgrading. so far dosing has not been a real issue with the apex controlling everything...it certainly was less work when not having to mix up stuff and cheaper.

[reefwithareefer]

After the aquascaping is mainly done for now...