16 foot 350 gallon reef build

[Elder1945]

https://youtu.be/Adzh9NdrKoI

What I see looking at my tank.

[Elder1945]

Bored so..... https://youtu.be/1yOYcURbgP8

[jason604]

Beautiful tank!!! I love how the center part comes out.. Very unique. The massive skimmer in the middle is kind of an eyesore tho. Mybe U can put some sort of thin plastic sheet to cover that part to make a "fake wall" look that can be easily removed for maintainance

[Elder1945]

Originally Posted by jason604

Beautiful tank!!! I love how the center part comes out.. Very unique. The massive skimmer in the middle is kind of an eyesore tho. Mybe U can put some sort of thin plastic sheet to cover that part to make a "fake wall" look that can be easily removed for maintainance

yes I designed a cover that seamlessly goes over everything... Everyone that saw it on loved it but I tossed it.. I love my reef but I also love the tinkering and equipment that goes with it. I have a lot of fun in this hobby just with the equipment and messing with it. I made a decision not to hide what runs the tank for 2 main reason 1. The explanation above 2. I have a view of what is going on just by walking past my tank.

[Skimmer Juice]

I would agree I love the look of the skimmer showing everything looks perfect . Believe Im going to attempt to build a tank for myself out of acrylic after seeing your build . Mind you much smaller lol . Also subbed to your youtube

[Elder1945]

Sorry for the lack of updates and pic's... I was battling a ick/brook/velvet outbreak in my tank.. I lost.... I wish I had better news on what was going on but this is just how the hobby goes some times.

I qt everything that goes in my tank but must have missed a step or I go lazy on something.

I think it was a Engineering Goby that brought this on as this is the only thing I have added in weeks. Funny how a $10 fish can cost me $1500 in 2 weeks .

So I have decided to pull the rest of my fish and hospitalize the ones that I can.

I will try to keep updates going but this will be a huge time sink..

On a side note all the coral and inverts are doing amazing .

[gregzz4]

Well that blows ...
Are you planning on a fallow period for the DT now ?

[Elder1945]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Well that blows ...
Are you planning on a fallow period for the DT now ?

Yes 6-8 weeks I think 8 would be best... The good thing is now I get to fully restock from scratch.. This I have not done in 4-5 years so I can't wait..

[Myka]

Sorry to hear about the losses. Your fallow period is over now, have you been restocking? How's the rest of the tank doing?

[Elder1945]

OK I am back .. I went on a extended holiday and now am back to the forums.

I am in the process of rebuilding my QT tanks. I am switching over to the Nuvo Fusions two 10 gallon and one 20 gallon.





Also would like to share some of the sump setup and what runs this tank. Here is a top down view of the sump.

Here is the shot of the apex and what runs everything. I just got the DOS system and still have to add it in the mix working on that in the next few week.


Also re did my QT setup still working on it but its a start.
Old QT setup

New QT Setup

The pic's are a week old now so will update as I go.
I have my list of fish that I want to start stocking up on. This might change over the next few weeks but it is a start.

10x blue/green chromis I have purchased 25 witch now have 24 as one decided to jump to freedom.

4x yellow tangs this was originally going to be 20. The idea was to have just a yellow tang tank but this has changed. I will end up buying 8 or so to QT and pick out the best 4.

2x purple dottyback due to the price of this fish I might pick up 8 and pick the best 2.

2x diamond or something gobys with accompanying shrimp. I will also pick up a few and pick the best ones for the DT.

1x Blond Naso Tang... I would like one in the 4" range. I will be picking up 2 for sure and again picking the best one for the DT.

4x Clown fish still looking for what I would like to have as now there are hundreds of choices.

This will be my base to build on. I will end up adding a quite a bit more fish but this will get me started and I want to get into the full swing of my new QT/buying habit.

As you can see I have a new idea/plan on how I am going to buy and QT fish. When I walk into a fish store and look at fish to buy I do not usually have the time or they do not have the time for me to fully examine the fish or to see them eat properly. This has always aggravated me and I have decided to just buy over and above what I want to put in my DT and chose from there. This will allow me to better understand and evaluate the fish I purchase. I do not feel like standing in a fish store for 3 hrs a day over 2 weeks to make a fish purchase.

There is a draw back in the initial investment of the fish but this in my mind is outweighed in me having the best possible chance of success with my main display tank.

In the full picture I will be selling the fish I do not wish to keep at a reduced price to help offset the cost. The one thing I can offer to my friends and other people I know if the hobby is fish that have gone threw a full QT cycle. I think in the end this would be beneficial to me and my friends in the hobby.

I also wanted to post to thank Reefsupplies.ca for all of the support and the amazing customer support. Without them this build would have taken months longer and I would have ended up with the wrong skimmer.

There are a lot of places to order from in Canada but I must admit that Reefsupplies made my life easy on this build. They spent the time to go over all the equipment choices I made and discussed each one in depth. This in my opinion and experience in the hobby hard to find. They did not try to sell me the most expensive thing off there shelf but rather what would work best for my tank. This is why 90% of the equipment including my new QT system came from them.

Ok just wanted to say something as customer service in general is going by the way side. Tank is doing well will post some updated pic's later. I am toying with the idea of re wiring the whole setup to make it cleaner. This would be a interesting endeavor considering there are 100000 wires .

The Blue/Green Chromis are doing well in the QT I ended up giving 2 to my friend already as he just started in the saltwater hobby with a 29 gallon bio cube. The 22 I have left are doing great and seem to not have issues as of yet but still in the Copper faze of the QT.

In other news I have changed how I do water changes and would like some impute. I used to do large 30% changes once a mouth but now do 25 gallons every 3 weeks. This was more of a way to streamline the time and effort made on the tank. I have the DOS system that will hopefully be setup this weekend and in my mind will help with the lower amount and volume of water changes. I wouldn't mind some input on this as I do not know many people with large reef aquariums. Let me know what you guys do on your 300+ gallon reefs for water changes as this will help me better understand the ramifications of moving to this new schedule. Why 25 gallons just because that is what fits in the brute trash can lol.

I will be posting some more pic's later on the tank and will show the new lid's I have made. No more acrylic lid's warping all over the place. I changed them out with lexan so the top of my tank now looks a lot cleaner.

Sorry for the mix match post as I just rebuilt my main computer and was away for a while. Thank you Myka for reminding me to update this post I will be more and more on the forums as I can restock my tank now!