Erik's 300 gallon tank

[EriksReptiles]

Hey, Many of you already know me but have yet to see my tank. I have gone through a couple different phases in my 300 gallon and it is now officially a reef tank. Here is my build..

Here are my tanks before I moved to Washington. I had a 75 reef, 180 reef, and a 150 fish only.

75 reef:

180 reef:

Well during my move I ended up losing all my corals due to my heat packs not activating and working.. It was a major bummer but all my rock was ok and my fish were shipped up at a later date from a fish shop back home.

So after a few months of living in Washington I decided to upgrade my 150 fish only to a 300 gallon fish only. Here is a picture of me with my new 300 gallon tank when we moved it in:

Here it is with the lid flipped up:

The infamous "merman" shot:

The stand:
The right side contained the main sump to house the skimmer, the center housed the dart return pump along with the dart for the closed loop, the right houses my refugium.

I mounted lights on the inside to make it easier to see everything:

I also mounted 3 6outlet power strips for amble outlets.

More to come!

Thanks Erik

 

[EriksReptiles]

Here is how I had envisioned my rock work. However in the end I only kept the tower on the left side:

Jump ahead quite a few months for the tank to settle and all.

Here is what I had:

I had:
- Golden Puffer
- Pair of Naso Tangs
- Powder Blue Tang
- 2 Lemon angels
- 2 Potters angels
- Pair of Whitley’s box fish
- Pair of crosshatch triggers
- etc.. There were a lot of fish. Everyone got along great. Until I decided to transform the tank into a reef because my 180 wasn’t filling my reef need. So that basically ment that all my fish had to go.. Finding homes for all the fish was not very easy.

Here are a couple pictures of the fish that I did have:

As I sold some of the fish, I put my big fish from my 180 gallon tank into the 300 till I could find them good homes.

In the mean time this is what my 180 gallon tank had turned into:

Once all my larger fish were sold I started placing my extra coral into my 300 gallon tank. At this point I only had 3 250watt MH and 4 110watt VHO over the tank. So I had to keep everything high up in the tank.

Move to come!

Thanks Erik

 

[EriksReptiles]

It was time to upgrade my equipment on the tank for coral.

Luckily I already had bought a 1/2 HP Pacific coast imports chiller not long after I bought the tank because I didn’t want it to overheat.

I originally had a mesh modded ASM G4, which worked amazingly. However I wanted something better. I decided to go with one of the new Vertex 250 cones. Amazing skimmer. My main reasons for going with the Vertex were that it could be fully disassembled to cleaning, the red dragon pump, and the ozone port.

I then upgraded my lights. I originally had 3 250watt MH and 4 110watt VHO's. I upgraded to 4 400watt Lumenbright Finished pendants and 4 39 watt T5's. I love the new lights, however I had to have a new canopy made to allow them to fit. I have a new canopy being made now that is ~3 feet tall to allow me to raise/lower the lights to find the sweet spot for them.

I am still in the process of gathering the rest of the equipment. This is what else I am adding:
- 4 (new generation) Tunze 6205's along with the multi-controller.
- 200MG ozone unit
- Reef Keeper Elite controller
- Geo 618 calcium reactor
- Geo Kalk reactor
- Maybe a few other things here and there, but these are the last of the "main" pieces.

So this kind of leads me up to the present. I sold all my tangs (i had over 22 at one time) except for my favorites. Currently my fish lists for the 300 gallon includes:
- Achilles Tang
- Purple Tang
- Pair of Clown fish (true perc with a grade A Picasso)
- 3 red Hawk fish
- 1 longnose hawk fish
- 1 diamond sand sifter
- 1 mystery wrasse
I will be adding:
- 1 Black or Gem tang
- 4-6 Anthias (still undecided on a species)
- 2 golden headed sleeper gobies

I mainly want to keep a lighter fish load so I can load my tank up with SPS and not worry about the water levels to much or worry about big fish breaking everything.

Here are a few pictures of how everything looks. I will try to get some full tank shots tomorrow when my lights turn back on.

Skimmer when I first plugged it in:

Lighting:
Christmas came early!

A few home depot parts and I was ready to become an electrician:

I will update with more pictures along with the lights on the tank and corals soon!

Thanks Erik

 

[EriksReptiles]

As soon as I get everything needed for the 300 gallon tank, I am going to have a 700-800 gallon built. I just want to get everything finalized on this tank first.

Thanks Erik

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Very cool dude, thanks for keeping us up to date. Will have to swing by again soon.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Very nice, can't wait to see more!

 

[Darthv247]

Youve got some sweet tanks man ! There sure are a lot of reefers up there in washington

 

[EriksReptiles]

Thanks everyone!

Here is an updated picture of the tank I took the other day. I am still waiting on my new canopy but I wanted to put my lights on, so I created a "mock" canopy for my lighting..

Also here are some new inhabitants that I picked up. There is already a Grade A & Perc pair in the tank. So these two snowflakes are in a 75 gallon with the new ultra rose anemone until they really establish. Then they will be placed into the 300 gallon with there anemone once they are ready. I will be placing them on the other side of the tank in relation to the clowns/anemone that are currently in the 300.

Thanks Erik

 

[lizardarm]

Cool deal man! Love the clowns.

 

[remowillams]

Looks great Erik, The new canopy that we are building is going to be Giant!

Bobby

 

[tike]

Very nice tanks! Man you've got the bug bad! I wish I had the time,space,money for builds like yours.

 

[EriksReptiles]

Thanks everyone!

tike666: Ya. Given more time and space, I would have alot more tanks! I am still currently in an apartment until I can find a nice house to buy. I should be getting a house soon which will allow me to work on my bigger tank project!

Thanks Erik