Starting ~800 Gallon Custom Reef Tank Build

[Ashish Patel]

You have a lot of rock to get creative so that is good.. The pillars would actually be beneficial in a tank as large as your and make it easier to mount corals in the middle where reaching would be more challenging. I am started to shop for a large tank manufacture and after seeing your tank builders work I would like to get a quote. who is your tank builder?

 

[ravi197699]

https://www.aquavaria.com, this is my second tank from him, I have 1st tank which was built same way for sale, it is 350 gal with 40 gallon custom overflow external box.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Thanks, I'll get a quote from them. The 350 gallon looks solid, did you sell that?

 

[ravi197699]

I still have it, I have not been pushing it, size is 48x48x32 high

 

[Ferdinand Miran]

Fantastic

 

[ravi197699]

We (friend and my self) were able to get most of aquascape done, I am pretty happy with outcome, my goal was to have these pillars and rock and shelves still on top of the pillars so the detritus won't settle on the bottom of the rock work and flow will not be blocked by too much rock sitting on the bottom of the tank, Pillars are elevated as well, I choose most of the pillars base rock with points so that water will flow under as well. here are some of the pictures, I am done 85 - 90 % but if i see need of adding more shelves then I will do it on the fly before tank is filled with water. I used white portland cement to bond the pieces together and hydraulic cement to create pillars, this aquascape is done in conduction of pukani rock, marco, reef saver, black hawaii rock and plenty of tongas that I joint together with white cement to make odd shapes which are used to connect pillars and have hollow space under the rock work for flow.. here are some of the pictures ..

 

[ocean gems]

We (friend and my self) were able to get most of aquascape done, I am pretty happy with outcome, my goal was to have these pillars and rock and shelves still on top of the pillars so the detritus won't settle on the bottom of the rock work and flow will not be blocked by too much rock sitting on the bottom of the tank, Pillars are elevated as well, I choose most of the pillars base rock with points so that water will flow under as well. here are some of the pictures, I am done 85 - 90 % but if i see need of adding more shelves then I will do it on the fly before tank is filled with water. I used white portland cement to bond the pieces together and hydraulic cement to create pillars, this aquascape is done in conduction of pukani rock, marco, reef saver, black hawaii rock and plenty of tongas that I joint together with white cement to make odd shapes which are used to connect pillars and have hollow space under the rock work for flow.. here are some of the pictures ..

Sup ravi I think I know you from mr

 

[Clayton Jessup]

This is amazing build I can’t wait to see it progress later on!!!

 

[ravi197699]

here is panoramic view of aquascape

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

here is panoramic view of aquascape

While I am usually a less is more, 2 or 3 islands person, your fish are going to love this tank. There are so many hiding/sleeping spots on all sides of this. Lots of caves and swim throughs. This will be a great tank to sit and watch even if you didn't put corals. Get the right combo of fish etc and it will be an awesome underwater world. Can't wait to see more.

 

[garbled]

Love the rockwork! The caves are nice, I see lots of opportunity for placement in there. Very nice.

 

[ravi197699]

Thank you garbled, I have plenty of shelves at differed heights, I cemented broken shelves together to create unique sizes that goes around tonga there is plenty of space on and it and under it as well, next step is to vaccume all the white cement from ABS bottom of the tank and then eboxy 1/2" couplings on the various places so that mounting frags will easier once tank is filled with water,

 

[Ashish Patel]

Looks Great, this addresses fish needs, flow and SPS growth. I've been stocking up on Tonga, Haitian rock, any natural rock so I won't have to comprise my aquascape with just marco rock. If you have any left over pukani let me know I could use few large pieces.

 

[ravi197699]

I do have rock left over but everything is going in sump, tonga, pukani, marco, reef saver etc..

 

[Ashish Patel]

Yeah thats what I would do too! how many LBs of dry rock did you have outside in your bins?

 

[ravi197699]

I had piles of rock, not sure how many lbs. but I have been buying rock for this build for a while now, every time I saw someone selling rock I bought it.. lol

 

[ravi197699]

While I am usually a less is more, 2 or 3 islands person, your fish are going to love this tank. There are so many hiding/sleeping spots on all sides of this. Lots of caves and swim throughs. This will be a great tank to sit and watch even if you didn't put corals. Get the right combo of fish etc and it will be an awesome underwater world. Can't wait to see more.

thank you, I always had aquascape that I like to see but this time I wanted to have aquascape that is elevated and plenty of room under the rock work for fishes to swim through and hide, sleep, play and it looks good to me as well. sps will be more or less up half way and up top of the rock work, I made sure there are plenty of shelves and pillars to mount corals, next step is to glue couplings to mount frags.. more pictures to come..

 

[BigMo]

Made some progress and my contractor finish the front of the tank and sunroom side of the tank, this weekend was beautiful and sunny and I was able to wash my rocks and separate out shelves, large pieces and small pieces of rock and separate out tonga branches which I want to use to elevate the rock structure so I don't loose the flow and don't accumulate detritus on the bottom of the tank, here are some of the pictures of the finished front and back of the tank and my rock, I think this should be enough for display and rest will go in the sump..

WOW, everything about this tank is awesome, a huge congratulations on your motivation, it shows you have put lots of thought into building this massive tank.

Sending you lots of good energy from here in Tehran-Iran. Good Luck.

 

[najer]

The scape looks great, nice work.

 

[ravi197699]

WOW, everything about this tank is awesome, a huge congratulations on your motivation, it shows you have put lots of thought into building this massive tank.

Sending you lots of good energy from here in Tehran-Iran. Good Luck.

Thank you BigMo, I am going to start filling it soon, waiting on di filter and I am waiting for good deal, many more pictures of progress to come....