250G Dual Display Predator Waterfall Tank

[iFunnny]

Hi everyone!

Chronicling my new build that is a little different from the rest of my tanks (300G NPS reef and a 25g nano)

This is how my living room/home office looks now

I'll start with a brief intro about how and why I got this build going and the equipment list.

This is the 3rd proper tank im setting up since May, i have a build thread that is lacking in updates as I've been rather busy! One is a 7foot NPS dominated reef (Watch a breakdown here! Some fellow hobbyists and I started a little aquarium channel from Singapore) and the other a Coldwater Nano for an Interruptus angel and some higher end pieces of LPS.

I have since added a Harlequin/Orange Spotted Filefish after food training for a month. A dream fish of mine. Sadly the Interruptus has decided the blotchy cannot live and killed it overnight after almost 2 months of being together. This is a 29g and dont worry, the interruptus has a bigger tank to go into eventually!

But I digress.​

I returned to the hobby earlier in the year wanting to keep a Japanese Dragon Eel but kept getting sidetracked. Mostly because I would pretty much have to dedicate a tank to itself mostly out of possible aggression and predation behavior. However, it was also annoying to have a large tank just for one eel. Talking to my custom tankmaker friend (HS), we toyed with the idea of a display refugium.

As we talked about it, the refugium size sorta... grew. Im a firm believer in overfiltration mechanically (Heavy in, heavy out) as I like to feed my fish often as well as corals (i dose about 500ml/a day of live phyto for my NPS). Arriving at two displays plumbed to the same sump, we went ahead with construction.

The current plan is to keep one Japanese Dragon Eel or a pair that was collected together in the TD with softies and NPS corals that would not mind the Eel grazing them all that much. Im researching into extending that to a giant clam (like a gigas) and some BTAs. I have a temporary light for some of the corals. The Radions will be hung from the ceiling tomorrow with some help.

In the BD/Refugium, I am getting 2-3 Rhinopias scorpion fishes, frogfishes and a catalufa Soldier fish. For nutrient export, I will be growing out Xenia, Kenyan Trees, Clove Polyps and GSP to cover the back wall and the rockscape. Some nice Macroalgae if I can get my hands on them as well.

I set to work on the rockscape myself on the TD, there are a series of connected PVC pipes covered with rock to make it look more natural. I did not want a lengthy piece of PVC so instead I created modular islands with PVC pipe entrances and exits for the Eel to navigate through, but leaving ample covered space intbeween the joint areas of the modular scapes so it would not feel revealed. Ill get pics next time.. realized i dont have any on hand.

Honestly for the BD, i got abit lazy and went with some good old rock stacking after forming a foundational base with polymer and glue. The thought of stacking it too high and watching it crash and break the glass is not the anxiety I need in my life. Instead, I adapted some old magnetic fragracks and glass cleaners and to provide some floating scape/verticality to fill up the empty space up top. The overflow pipes here will be covered... somehow. I'll figure it out.

And here is the equipment list - 250g setup and dimensions are as follows (from sideview):

Top Display (TD) LxWxH: 120cm x 80 cm x 40 cm (48in x 30in x 15in)
Rough Total water volume: 100 Gallons

Bottom Display (BD/"Refugium") LxWxH: 60cm x 80cm x 80cm (24in x 30in x 30 in)
Rough Total water volume: 100 Gallons

Sump: Rough water volume 50 Gallons

Equipment:

Wavemakers: 2 x Maxspect Gyre 350xf with controller on custom wave loops (TD), 1 x MP10QD (BD)
Mechanical Filtration: Redsea Reefmat 1200, Deltec Skimmer

1500IX
Biofiltration: 3x Marinepure bioblocks, 15-20kg (30-60 lbs) of biohome
Return Pump: 9.0 Sicce
Chiller: 500a Hailea
Lighting: 2x Radion G6 XR15 Blues (TD), 1x Radion G6 XR30 Pro (BD)

***To be added***
Redsea Dosing Pump
Co2 Scrubber
Po4 Reactor




Follow along! Im really excited for this build! I'll be posting video updates on youtube as well at https://www.youtube.com/@tanktalksSG with my friends! Till later! Have a great festive season!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

looks and sounds awesome

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank looks great!! can't wait to see how the process unfolds

 

[iFunnny]

Lights are in!

The workers had to cut a hole in the false ceiling and rest/secure an aluminum bar on the wood beams above and bolt the threaded rods down.

I only had a mounting bracket for the XR30, so they made a mounting bracket with some scrap metal and secured it really well! The threaded rod had a piece of black pvc slipped over it to hide the wires going up into the wall.

And here are some glamor shots of the tank all set up! I've added a few banggai cardinals, cucs and a cleaner shrimp and all is looking well (apart from one banggai that got snagged into the very strong wavemaker sadly, have since turned the flow way down)

Filling up the tanks with corals for now! My catalufa and Rhinopias are feeding and at the store, once i do another round of testing I will bring the fishes into the bottom display. My LFS is still on the hunt for my dragon(s) so i await patiently.

I have a pair of Linespot triggerfish coming in that im considering adding to the bottom display of this reef with the rhinopias, or perhaps they just go into the 7ft tank. lemme know what you think I should do!

Thanks for reading! stay safe!

 

[nuxx]

Love it!

Already remember people talking about building tanks like there and never doing it.

Looking forward to it

 

[iFunnny]

Ahoy! The Scorpions are in!

Here's a FTS of the bottom display (BD)! Not much going on in the top display (TD) apart from a trio of banggai cardinals, a red serpent star and some other softies.

Can you spot them all? ​

Currently list of fish in the BD:

1 x Pristigenys serrula - Catalufa Soldier Fish

2 x Rhinopias Fondosa - Weedy Scorpionfish

2 x Rhinopias Eschmeyeri - Eschmeyer's scorpionfish or Paddle-flap scorpionfish

(the purple one on the left in this photo! other guy on the right is fondosa)

With these guys and pretty intensive cleaning crew of bumblebee snails, conchs, trochus snails and butterscotch nassarius (im really digging these guys!)

Im looking for fish to add that will inhabit the water column. Probably a volitan lion or some other lion or 2. Frogfish are also a desire but the ones coming in to where I am are all rather small and I'm worried they'd simply be a snack. All the Rhinopias are eating, live glass shrimp and converted mollies as well as dead ones. Catalufa needs to be tong-fed a chunk of market prawn.

Honestly, the snails move more than the fish do. But they ebb and flow with the waves and its so mesmerizing to watch. I have 2 vortechs going, a MP 40 towards the top middle of the tank and a MP10 on the lower right corner just to flush out some debris. I have them on lagoon low energy tide with varying max speeds and also set to go on med-high gyre mode every few hours to make sure the slough off the softies can be blown away and to mix it up for detritus removal.

Im really happy how its coming along so far, and theres a whole another display up top to stock while I wait for my japanese dragon moray! Im thinking of running some quick schooling fish with it, or some bigger meaner fish (risky, I know. If you have any suggestions, shout it out!