Achilles, Acro, and a Decade of Dreaming

[Frosty Latte]

I've been dreaming about putting together a tank worthy of ROTM for over a decade. This is going to be my documented history at a crack at that dream.

Goal: ROTM
Background: Multiple reef tanks since 2010, freshwater since I was 5, design engineer, computer builder, athlete, gamer, Ai dabbler, crypto enthusiast, and a bunch of other things that don't matter anymore. Point is, I'm going to put my skills to the test to build something that I have had in my mind for many, many years.
How: 5-15 tangs in a 300 gallon mixed reef tank, focused on Acropora.
Timeline: 1-3 years
Budget: DIY/FBM centric, with some splurges on gear I've always wanted.
Thesis: I believe that tangs can be housed together if they are given enough food, shelter, and flow. This can be handled by understanding the best nutrient export methods, maximizing flow locations, and giving them the space they need to thrive. I plan on using technology as much as possible in order to monitor these parameters, and maybe even create some new toys to help me along the way.


More on this thread build:
I'll try to give a brief history of how I got to where I am today so you can fast forward to my current tank condition and situation.

I hope you enjoy going with me to where no reefer has gone before. I'll do my best to be transparent so that others can learn from my triumphs, mistakes, and efforts to move the needle just a little bit further into this beautiful hobby.

I hope you find this valuable, insightful, and interesting as I did learning from those who came before me.

Thank you for your precious time. Please enjoy.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Frosty Latte]

So going to do a large update here to catch everyone up who is following along.

Participated in WWCs blizzard coral sale and bought 10 frags while on a dinner date in Miami with my wife. The automation I set up kept everything alive and stable while we were gone for 5 days!

Following weekend I went to the Lansing frag swap, and I popped off.... I don't exactly know how many frags I bought, but it was easily enough to fill 5 coolers full. Needless to say I ran out of room in my tank. Ohh well

Following the swap during the week I visited all the LFS I could (Detroit Reef Club, Pet Connection, Moby *****, Cherry Corals), and bought a few small things at each (more fish, coral, and other random stuff).

Since my last update I created a manifold, added a calcium reactor, glued all my frags down, swapped my XR15s for 4 x XR30s, hanging kit, and added a few fish, added a few reactors (probably carbon/GFO going in those), bought a reefbot 1.0, added light under the sump, bought all kinds of food for the fish, I added a plastic lid to the entire tank, leak checked the UV 80 Watt and UV 40 Watt, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.

Water:
Amonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1
Phosphate: 0.25
Calcium:440
Alkalinity: 9.1
Magnesium: 1215
Salinity: 32.5



Fish:
Some kind of blue tang (Blueberry)
Bristle Tooth Tomini Tang (Comet)
5x Threadfin Anthias (The gang)
Orchid Dotty back (Grape)
Orange Spotted Shrimp Goby (Pablo)
Midas Blenny (Bubbles)
Diamond Goby (Mr. Garrison)

Inverts:
Astrea Snail
5x Nassarius Snail (normal)
2x Nassaius Snail (small)
Caribbean Cucumber
Bumblebee Snail
Pom Pom Crab (haven't seen in a while...)
Tiger Cowrie (AKA Diesel)
6x Tuxido hermits
Cerith Snail
3x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (cartman, kyle, stan)
Fire Shrimp (kenny)
Pistol Shrimp (chef)
emerald crab
bristle star (stow away from a coral)

I tested my lights with my Seneye par meter, and they are more than enough for now thankfully.
I took a lot of photos on my phone, but this was a longer update so not many new pics on my computer yet. I'll spam some photos after this post for fun

Thanks for tagging along on this journey with me.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Photos Dump from previous post

 

[Frosty Latte]

A few more photos:

 

[Frosty Latte]

So yesterday I glued all the frags down.

I count 66 right now.
2x Bounce Mushrooms
2x Torch corals
4x frogspawn
2x hammer
3x Clams
1x Ganipora
1x ricordia
6x devils hand
4x birdsnest
4x montipora
1x candycane
1x metamusa
Some others I’m not so sure on, and the rest acropora

 

[Frosty Latte]

Never had a gonapora before, and it wasn’t looking so hot. Turns out you’re supposed to feed them. My bad. Ran out to get some reed roids, and now it’s looking a lot better.

Basement has been getting work done to it too. So soon it’ll be a great environment down there when the ceiling gets finished.

Need to bleach some filter socks. Idk what happened but now I’ve got 3 dirty pairs and none are clean.

Broke apart the rock that had the devils hand on it. They don’t look so hot, but the rock had aptasia on it so had to be done. Even saved a random ricordia that was hitched on it.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Today I added a few more pipes to the skimmer which I’m mostly going to use to oxygenate the water, and to run ozone at night. I fed the Goniopora and my scrapper came in. I also added some longer cables so that all my controllers can be in one box on the left side.

Most of the ceiling got framed out, with just a few minor tweaks before it’s done.

Everything from the frag swap is still alive, and last night bought another Goniopora from detroitreefclub.com (a bright green one) that I’m excited to add.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Just added a sailfin tang at lunch. Very happy as it was very docile for a tang. Currently blue and comet don’t care about the new tang, but it is floating around with its fins full out. Looks beautiful

 

[Jim Gomoll]

Never had a gonapora before, and it wasn’t looking so hot. Turns out you’re supposed to feed them. My bad. Ran out to get some reed roids, and now it’s looking a lot better.

Basement has been getting work done to it too. So soon it’ll be a great environment down there when the ceiling gets finished.

Need to bleach some filter socks. Idk what happened but now I’ve got 3 dirty pairs and none are clean.

Broke apart the rock that had the devils hand on it. They don’t look so hot, but the rock had aptasia on it so had to be done. Even saved a random ricordia that was hitched on it.

Be careful with Reef Roids. Over use can quickly pollute your tank spiking NO3 & PO4 levels.
Use sparingly only for spot feeding you should be ok. If/when needed you can use more and broadcast feed the tank when nutrients drop vs dossing NO3 and PO4. My tank went of the rails on roids. Stopped using, nutrient levels balanced out and less nuisance algae growth.

Would try Two Little Fishies GoniPower that is made for Goniopora.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Be careful with Reef Roids. Over use can quickly pollute your tank spiking NO3 & PO4 levels.
Use sparingly only for spot feeding you should be ok. If/when needed you can use more and broadcast feed the tank when nutrients drop vs dossing NO3 and PO4. My tank went of the rails on roids. Stopped using, nutrient levels balanced out and less nuisance algae growth.

Would try Two Little Fishies GoniPower that is made for Goniopora.

Great to know! I’ll have to check my levels as I’ve been spot feeding the goni daily… fingers crossed it’s fine I am growing some really wild hair algae in the ATS so hopefully it’s doing its job.

I’ll let ya know in the a.m.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Just finished the final plumbing of the tank. It’s not beautiful, but it functions great. Going to do a final leak check tomorrow, and then I’ll have a protein skimmer online. I’m going to use it mostly for oxygen and Ozone at night and not so much for the skimming side of it.

Excited as I’ll finally be able to return the extra fittings… I hope…. Lol

 

[Frosty Latte]

Leak checked the protein skimmer, and it turned it on. Works great!

Added a carbon reactor. Added a fluidized GFO rector. Plugged in the 4 various pumps into the apex and programmed them. Removed a molted fire shrimp shell. Cut the lid so now it’s a 3/4 - 1/4 split to feed the coral better. Adjusted the right side gyres to be 10/30% power. Bought a mini wash machine for the filter socks from FBM (need to get some attachments to add it so it works). Moved the large frogspawn to the center. New tang is doing well with his two tang friends. All the named fish, crabs, corals are still alive.

Near future: install 2nd auto feeder with macro algae, plug in reefbot and waste bin, add 1/5 micron reactor, and set up a quarantine tank.

Long future: work on some apex programming. Figure out how to harvest the ATS and feed it back to the tangs.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Hooked up the new filter sock washing machine. Had some wild leaks at first, but nothing a few o-rings couldn’t fix. Ran a cycle, and now socks are getting their fist bath.

 

[clownfishmama]

I've been dreaming about putting together a tank worthy of ROTM for over a decade. This is going to be my documented history at a crack at that dream.

Goal: ROTM
Background: Multiple reef tanks since 2010, freshwater since I was 5, design engineer, computer builder, athlete, gamer, Ai dabbler, crypto enthusiast, and a bunch of other things that don't matter anymore. Point is, I'm going to put my skills to the test to build something that I have had in my mind for many, many years.
How: 5-15 tangs in a 300 gallon mixed reef tank, focused on Acropora.
Timeline: 1-3 years
Budget: DIY/FBM centric, with some splurges on gear I've always wanted.
Thesis: I believe that tangs can be housed together if they are given enough food, shelter, and flow. This can be handled by understanding the best nutrient export methods, maximizing flow locations, and giving them the space they need to thrive. I plan on using technology as much as possible in order to monitor these parameters, and maybe even create some new toys to help me along the way.


More on this thread build:
I'll try to give a brief history of how I got to where I am today so you can fast forward to my current tank condition and situation.

I hope you enjoy going with me to where no reefer has gone before. I'll do my best to be transparent so that others can learn from my triumphs, mistakes, and efforts to move the needle just a little bit further into this beautiful hobby.

I hope you find this valuable, insightful, and interesting as I did learning from those who came before me.

Thank you for your precious time. Please enjoy.

I’m so proud of you!!! Go keep achieving your dreams!

 

[Frosty Latte]

I’m so proud of you!!! Go keep achieving your dreams!

Thank you

 

[Frosty Latte]

So how do I eliminate fish smell from the protien skimmer?

 

[thomas_neil]

Definitely going to be following this thread! I just ordered a 300 gallon tank and it will be here sometime in May. Also just finished my basement this weekend so I have somewhere to put it. Looks like you have very similar wall paint that I have

 

[lbacha]

Following along, planning a 280g build for this spring

 

[Frosty Latte]

Definitely going to be following this thread! I just ordered a 300 gallon tank and it will be here sometime in May. Also just finished my basement this weekend so I have somewhere to put it. Looks like you have very similar wall paint that I have

Excited to see what you turn yours into. It’s for sure been a journey trying to get this to be stable.

My basement is still a work in progress for sure. Needs some light and a ceiling

Also want to run a separate electric line for the tank, but I’m out of space in the breaker…