My first reef tank... is 300 gallons!

[whosurcaddie]

Yeah man with so much north and south real estate some vertical arches would look amazing there.

[reef_aholic]

Great work on sticking it out! I like how you got a tank that is kinda what you want, but you have made it what you want! Ie, moving overflows, bracing, and all that stuff. I think there is so much more in the tank when you make it what you want, and literally put blood sweat and tears into it. I am with them as well, I first had a pile, then moved to more of a random stack, you will figure out what you like, it is your tank!

[FortuneFavours]

Originally Posted by danil

It's an interesting build! I couldn't wait to see how you will be reaching the tank bottom .

At the moment, I can just about reach the bottom by lying horizontally across the top of the tank. It will be much more a problem when the hood is on, when I think the only way of actually reaching the bottom (by hand) will be to climb in!

Originally Posted by danil

I would keep (your old one) or install new thin long overflow on left side. It helps to skim the surface of the tank and to some extend will protect fish from sucking in.

Someone else on another of my threads suggested a 'floating' overflow box (at the top of the drains). It's a good idea and I will try and implement it, if I can!

Originally Posted by whosurcaddie

Its your tank and I'm not insulting you in any way but your scape looks like a pile of rocks. I'll take some heat for this statement if it saves you from future regret.I'm saying this because I'm 100% positive you will look back and hate yourself for setting it up this way.

No 'heat' from me, in fact it's all cool as I appreciate the feedback! I don't think this is going to be my final 'design' by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm also not a great fan of bridges/arches as I think they'd look too artificial in a relatively 'small' area of reef.

I'm actually kind of happy with the way things are at the moment, although I might add an overhang at a later date, if it doesn't block out too much light.

The sand is in now - all 240lbs of it. I needed that much to cover the horizontal runs of the drains and yes, I'm aware that this is (almost) a 'deep' sand bed:

[FortuneFavours]

Originally Posted by reef_aholic

Great work on sticking it out! I like how you got a tank that is kinda what you want, but you have made it what you want! Ie, moving overflows, bracing, and all that stuff. I think there is so much more in the tank when you make it what you want, and literally put blood sweat and tears into it. I am with them as well, I first had a pile, then moved to more of a random stack, you will figure out what you like, it is your tank!

I couldn't agree more about being more connected to something when your blood, sweat and tears go into it! It's already been a hard slog, and it doesn't even have any water in it yet...

Thank you (and everyone else) for your continued feedback, support and, most of all, encouragement.

[FortuneFavours]

Hi all

Apologies for not having updated this thread for so long, I've just been super busy with so many things - including a new baby girl (she's 6 weeks old)!

I've made good progress with the tank, although there are still bits left to do.

You may recall that this is what I started with:





This is as far as I have got at the moment:




I still need to box in the section behind the tank (near the wall) where I have all the water butts set-up for auto top off and auto water change. Also need to re-stain the cabinet/wrap once more and then apply some creamed beeswax.


Have a lovely cyano problem at the moment which I'm really enjoying









Here's a pre-cyano pic:

[SaltyDoug]

I'm sure the maintenance must be killer trying to reach the bottom however I love how deep your tank is.

I would love to get my hands on a tank like that and load it up with a bunch of anthias

[FortuneFavours]

Originally Posted by SaltyDoug

I'm sure the maintenance must be killer trying to reach the bottom however I love how deep your tank is.

I would love to get my hands on a tank like that and load it up with a bunch of anthias

It definitely has its challenges! Day to day maintenance isn't a big deal as I don't really vacuum the sand bed at the moment. I do have an extra long vac, but the suction created by the siphon isn't strong enough to lift the cyano all the way up and out of the tank. I might have to improvise something with a small pump...
(I just corrected a typo as it read "small pimp". Whilst a small pimp on the end of a stick might be effective, there might be some legal issues to contend with.)

I have a pair of extra long tongs too, which are awesome. I can't physically reach the bottom anymore, so the tongs are vital. I also have a long pipe I use for target feeding and I occasionally stick a toilet brush to the end of it to clean the cyano off the rocks. Lol

Despite all the additional grief, I have to admit that I love the height of the tank - I find it very aesthetically pleasing and the fish love the swimming space.

I have five lyretail anthias but they have so much space that they all go off and do their own thing instead of swimming together!