500 gallon reef system with basement fish room

[Rcs_12]

Looks interesting so far! I saw a cool rock scape on a very large tank in The Netherlands (a bit larger than yours).

That is a really cool tank. The floating rocks looked really cool with the stingrays under it

 

[blaxsun]

That is a really cool tank. The floating rocks looked really cool with the stingrays under it

It did! Stingrays would be cool to have...

 

[lubeck]

looking good. Can’t wait to see water in that bad boy.

 

[Rcs_12]

looking good. Can’t wait to see water in that bad boy.

Thanks! I can't wait either. I had to push my sand delivery back one week. The tank should be filled no later than 10/30

 

[monkiboy]

thanks for sharing in this build thread! this will be a great one!

 

[Rcs_12]

Update time! After running my rodi filter for 3 days straight and burning through 5 DI canisters I was finally able to get the tank filled with water. Turns out my well water has really high levels of CO2. I've been doing some research on degassing my water between the RO membrane and the DI cartridge. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Rcs_12]

I was able to finish the scape before I filled with water. Here are a few crappy pictures of it. I can never get good pictures of these things. You can't get a feel for the depth and they look funny. Plus the glare is always terrible. Any tips for better pictures?

 

[Rcs_12]

400 gallons of salt water coming right up.

 

[Raul-7]

Glad to see this coming together; wish you well.

 

[fotuskyt]

Super excited to see how this comes together, good luck!

 

[Rcs_12]

Thanks guys. I have 400 pounds of live sand from Tampa Bay Saltwster being delivered on Monday. I'm really excited to see how this sand looks along with any hitchhikers it brings. In addition to the sand I also have 80 pounds of live rock going in the sump. I'm hoping these two things along with some fritz turbo start will help me significantly shorten my cycle time and i can add a fish or two some time in the next two weeks

 

[Raul-7]

Thanks guys. I have 400 pounds of live sand from Tampa Bay Saltwster being delivered on Monday. I'm really excited to see how this sand looks along with any hitchhikers it brings. In addition to the sand I also have 80 pounds of live rock going in the sump. I'm hoping these two things along with some fritz turbo start will help me significantly shorten my cycle time and i can add a fish or two some time in the next two weeks

How are you liking the HydroTubes; they're fully reversible which is very cool.

 

[Rcs_12]

How are you like the HydroTubes; they're fully reversible which is very cool.

I love the hydrotubes. They are completely silent even at 100%. they move a ton of water too. I haven't spent much time messing with the programming. I'm going to try and figure that out today. The panta loguc software program to set them up is a little bit confusing to figure out. I'll post some pictures of the software later. I'll also try to get some videos of the pumps running

 

[Raul-7]

I love the hydrotubes. They are completely silent even at 100%. they move a ton of water too. I haven't spent much time messing with the programming. I'm going to try and figure that out today. The panta loguc software program to set them up is a little bit confusing to figure out. I'll post some pictures of the software later. I'll also try to get some videos of the pumps running

I assume they cannot be controlled via Apex? I wish Abyzz would make something similar with all due respect to Panta Rhei.

 

[Rcs_12]

I assume they cannot be controlled via Apex? I wish Abyzz would make something similar with all due respect to Panta Rhei.

As far as I know there is no integration with Apex.

 

[Rcs_12]

Most of my 400 pounds of live sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater went in the tank today. I'm currently waiting for it to settle out a bit so I can see if there are any spots that need more sand.

 

[Rcs_12]

I added 80 pounds of live rock to the sump today. 40 pounds of larger 6 inch boulders and 40 pounds of the smaller golf ball sized rubble rock. I also fired up my protein skimmer for the first time. It's over flowing the collection cup while it breaks in.

 

[Rcs_12]

I'm not sure if the video will work or not but here's a video of the skimmer in action. It still needs to break in and be tuned

 

[Heezie]

Awesome so far! Following

 

[Rcs_12]

The first batch of fish have made it in to the tank. I started with

2 Royal gramma
Lawnmower blenny
Magnificent foxface
Marginalis butterfly

Now it's time to start thinking about the next batch of fish. I can't decide between a small group of fire fish or some Clowns. Any other suggestions would be great

I also added a bunch of copepods from dinkins aquatic garden. I'm also dosing their phyto daily. I'm waiting for a little more algea growth to start then I'll start working on increasing the size of my CuC.