Gill the 3rd
Well-Known Member
Hey All. Here is my build thread for my 300 gallon display built into my home office. Its a long one since its already done - here we go. Its been running for almost 5 months now.
In 2019 I remodeled our home office in oak paneling and included (2) freshwater 135 gallon tanks built into the and a saltwater 180 gallon reef that divides the office and our front entry way. You can see these pictures below (excuse the messy glass, I knew I was about to dismantle everything).
Im 2022 I ended up renovating our entire house and the oak wood paneling no longer matched our flooring and decor so I decided to redo it in walnut paneling. The fish tanks were going to stay in place. At this same time we are renovating our basement and I was having someone build me a 8ft long x 4ft wide x 2ft tall acrylic tank for some freshwater fish in my basement. While he is not new to building acrylic tanks, he was getting his tank business started so he gave me a great price. The guy building said he was able to get his hand on some 10 ft acrylic if I wanted to make the tank larger. I thought a 10 ft tank would be awesome to have, but it didnt work in our basement layout. It was my wifes brilliant idea to put it in the office and make one large saltwater tank along the wall. i would transfer everything from the 180 gallon. She didnt have to twist my arm, so off we go.
The final tank dimensions are 10ft x 2 ft x2 ft and will be built into shelving similar to the freshwater tanks. Below is what my plan was. The sump would be located in my basement below. Overflows and return piping would be on either end of the tank.
Here's the initial construction of the stand built out of 2x4s. There will be cabinet carcasses inserted into the openings for drawers, doors and shelves. Had to redo some electrical to get outlets on either side of the tank.
Here I got the walnut cabinet carcasses in. Normally I would faceframe the cabinets first, but the way the tank stand is constructed and the fact that the tank was to be built in made that more difficult. Had to add them on after the fact. You can see the opening in the cabinet one side of the tank where the external overflow will go. There is an opening on the other side (window side) where my return nozzles are located.
Here is my tank after I mostly finished the cabinetry (still need to adjust some drawer faces) and add the canopy door for the lights. I transferred all my rock and livestock over from the 180 gallon. I used all new live sand. I ended up buying another 50 lbs of rock from someone on marketplace, but I still needed a lot more. You will see I have more rock in future pictures. Light is being provided by 5 vipar spectra's. I ended up adding some freshwater kessils as well which you will see in future pics. I did that on my 180 gallon and really like the look. Flow is provided by two MP40s on one end of the tank and two sicce xstream SDC wireless pumps on the other end. I also have a bunch sicce powerheads throughout the length of the tank and have since added 2 maxspect XF350 gyres. Flow was a my biggest hurdle for this tank but I think I have it nailed down now.
Heres a shot of my external overflow. Im using Kasa power strips on either side of the tank and in my basement sump. I had an apex on my 180 gallon but I didnt like it and ended up selling it.
Here's my returns on the other side.
Here is a more updated picture of the tank with the freshwater kessils. I will get a better picture of it in a future post. You can also see the additional rock I added.
Now about my super complicated sump lol! I used a 75 gallon petco tank sale aqueon tank as my sump. My one issue with the 180 was how I set up the sump with all the baffles, I hated it. It made servicing everything difficult so I decided no baffles. I always like those rubbermaid tub sumps where everything is just thrown in there. The 75 gallon tank just worked better dimensionally with my space. The main sump just holds my Reef Mat 1200 and Red Sea Skimmer (from my 180). Its probably undersized but with the reef may and refugium I have no nutrient issues. The refugium is just a separate 20 long above the main sump where some return water is diverted. It just overflows back into the sump. Return pump is a Iwaki 70RLT.
At the time I was only dosing kalkwasser (in the 33 gallon brute) 24/7 on a versa pump. I just monitored my PH with a Milwaukee PH probe. I am now dosing 2 part in addition to the kalk (will show pics in a future post). I have an inkbird controller with two 300 watt BRS titanium heaters. Ive had them since 2019 and they are still working flawlessly (knock on wood). I have a 77 gallon RODI container and cheap peristaltic pump that I hooked up to my Tunze ATO. It worked good but I think my optical sensor is finally giving out. Its coming on 5 years old and I never cleaned it once (oops). I'm going to end up elevating the RODI barrel and using gravity and a float valve in my sump as an ATO. My other 77 gallon is my saltwater mixing barrel.
So while my corals and equipment were all doing great, I ran into an issue with my fish. When I transferred my fish over from my 180 gallon, I decided now would be a good time to add some additional fish since I hadn't bought some in a while. I purchased some additional fish from a newer LFS that told me they qt'd with copper and prazi. I was qt'ing fish myself after suffering from an ich outbreak in the 180 gallon several years ago, but was getting tired of running an additional tank in my basement so I broke it down. I thought this is perfect so I purchased a few fish. Well turns out the fish store just ran enough copper to suppress any parasites and I got hit with a velvet outbreak. It wiped out 75% of my livestock over 2 days. All the new fish died and I was able to save a few of my current fish. I lost many fish that I had for years. My fault, I should have known better. Anyway did the whole copper power hospital tank/fallow period for the 2nd time in my reefing career.
During the fallow period I made a couple dumb mistakes that I'm successfully working my way out of now. I had a cyano outbreak and thought I would try chemiclean. It worked great, except I didn't realize my nutrients were bottomed out. This caused a small dino outbreak which I am currently dealing with. Its not bad, but just trying to stay on top of it.
The tank is mixed reef with LPS, several mushrooms, softies, anemone and sps. The current fish list is:
Lunar Wrasse
Green Bird Wrasse
Lemon Peel Angel
Coral Beauty
One Spot Foxface
Blue Hippo Tang
Lawnmower Blenny
Flame Hawkfish
Blue Spot Puffer
Black Trigger (melichthys indicus)
Paired Clarkii clownfish that host the anenome
Porcupine Puffer (no longer in the tank, moved on to my brothers tank)
Marine Betta
In a grow out tank I have a porcupine, royal gramma and a bicolor blenny that will eventually move into this tank, but they are too small at the moment.
I have more fish coming in and am in the process of setting up a shallow reef/lagoon tank (see my other tank thread) to use as a growout tank for the 300 gallon.
Will update with more current pictures when I get home.
In 2019 I remodeled our home office in oak paneling and included (2) freshwater 135 gallon tanks built into the and a saltwater 180 gallon reef that divides the office and our front entry way. You can see these pictures below (excuse the messy glass, I knew I was about to dismantle everything).
Im 2022 I ended up renovating our entire house and the oak wood paneling no longer matched our flooring and decor so I decided to redo it in walnut paneling. The fish tanks were going to stay in place. At this same time we are renovating our basement and I was having someone build me a 8ft long x 4ft wide x 2ft tall acrylic tank for some freshwater fish in my basement. While he is not new to building acrylic tanks, he was getting his tank business started so he gave me a great price. The guy building said he was able to get his hand on some 10 ft acrylic if I wanted to make the tank larger. I thought a 10 ft tank would be awesome to have, but it didnt work in our basement layout. It was my wifes brilliant idea to put it in the office and make one large saltwater tank along the wall. i would transfer everything from the 180 gallon. She didnt have to twist my arm, so off we go.
The final tank dimensions are 10ft x 2 ft x2 ft and will be built into shelving similar to the freshwater tanks. Below is what my plan was. The sump would be located in my basement below. Overflows and return piping would be on either end of the tank.
Here's the initial construction of the stand built out of 2x4s. There will be cabinet carcasses inserted into the openings for drawers, doors and shelves. Had to redo some electrical to get outlets on either side of the tank.
Here I got the walnut cabinet carcasses in. Normally I would faceframe the cabinets first, but the way the tank stand is constructed and the fact that the tank was to be built in made that more difficult. Had to add them on after the fact. You can see the opening in the cabinet one side of the tank where the external overflow will go. There is an opening on the other side (window side) where my return nozzles are located.
Here is my tank after I mostly finished the cabinetry (still need to adjust some drawer faces) and add the canopy door for the lights. I transferred all my rock and livestock over from the 180 gallon. I used all new live sand. I ended up buying another 50 lbs of rock from someone on marketplace, but I still needed a lot more. You will see I have more rock in future pictures. Light is being provided by 5 vipar spectra's. I ended up adding some freshwater kessils as well which you will see in future pics. I did that on my 180 gallon and really like the look. Flow is provided by two MP40s on one end of the tank and two sicce xstream SDC wireless pumps on the other end. I also have a bunch sicce powerheads throughout the length of the tank and have since added 2 maxspect XF350 gyres. Flow was a my biggest hurdle for this tank but I think I have it nailed down now.
Heres a shot of my external overflow. Im using Kasa power strips on either side of the tank and in my basement sump. I had an apex on my 180 gallon but I didnt like it and ended up selling it.
Here's my returns on the other side.
Here is a more updated picture of the tank with the freshwater kessils. I will get a better picture of it in a future post. You can also see the additional rock I added.
Now about my super complicated sump lol! I used a 75 gallon petco tank sale aqueon tank as my sump. My one issue with the 180 was how I set up the sump with all the baffles, I hated it. It made servicing everything difficult so I decided no baffles. I always like those rubbermaid tub sumps where everything is just thrown in there. The 75 gallon tank just worked better dimensionally with my space. The main sump just holds my Reef Mat 1200 and Red Sea Skimmer (from my 180). Its probably undersized but with the reef may and refugium I have no nutrient issues. The refugium is just a separate 20 long above the main sump where some return water is diverted. It just overflows back into the sump. Return pump is a Iwaki 70RLT.
At the time I was only dosing kalkwasser (in the 33 gallon brute) 24/7 on a versa pump. I just monitored my PH with a Milwaukee PH probe. I am now dosing 2 part in addition to the kalk (will show pics in a future post). I have an inkbird controller with two 300 watt BRS titanium heaters. Ive had them since 2019 and they are still working flawlessly (knock on wood). I have a 77 gallon RODI container and cheap peristaltic pump that I hooked up to my Tunze ATO. It worked good but I think my optical sensor is finally giving out. Its coming on 5 years old and I never cleaned it once (oops). I'm going to end up elevating the RODI barrel and using gravity and a float valve in my sump as an ATO. My other 77 gallon is my saltwater mixing barrel.
So while my corals and equipment were all doing great, I ran into an issue with my fish. When I transferred my fish over from my 180 gallon, I decided now would be a good time to add some additional fish since I hadn't bought some in a while. I purchased some additional fish from a newer LFS that told me they qt'd with copper and prazi. I was qt'ing fish myself after suffering from an ich outbreak in the 180 gallon several years ago, but was getting tired of running an additional tank in my basement so I broke it down. I thought this is perfect so I purchased a few fish. Well turns out the fish store just ran enough copper to suppress any parasites and I got hit with a velvet outbreak. It wiped out 75% of my livestock over 2 days. All the new fish died and I was able to save a few of my current fish. I lost many fish that I had for years. My fault, I should have known better. Anyway did the whole copper power hospital tank/fallow period for the 2nd time in my reefing career.
During the fallow period I made a couple dumb mistakes that I'm successfully working my way out of now. I had a cyano outbreak and thought I would try chemiclean. It worked great, except I didn't realize my nutrients were bottomed out. This caused a small dino outbreak which I am currently dealing with. Its not bad, but just trying to stay on top of it.
The tank is mixed reef with LPS, several mushrooms, softies, anemone and sps. The current fish list is:
Lunar Wrasse
Green Bird Wrasse
Lemon Peel Angel
Coral Beauty
One Spot Foxface
Blue Hippo Tang
Lawnmower Blenny
Flame Hawkfish
Blue Spot Puffer
Black Trigger (melichthys indicus)
Paired Clarkii clownfish that host the anenome
Porcupine Puffer (no longer in the tank, moved on to my brothers tank)
Marine Betta
In a grow out tank I have a porcupine, royal gramma and a bicolor blenny that will eventually move into this tank, but they are too small at the moment.
I have more fish coming in and am in the process of setting up a shallow reef/lagoon tank (see my other tank thread) to use as a growout tank for the 300 gallon.
Will update with more current pictures when I get home.
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