JasReef

Thanks for the offer, you are a stand up hobbiest, but I have had it for months now so it's my responsibility. You always hook me up anyway when I buy from you and I thank you. [emoji106] I don't want to get anything new until transfer is completed. It was painful missing out on LAMAR. I couldn't even go because the temptation is so strong.

Hmmm, if all parameters are stable, check for pests? Maybe since everything is on a rack, just dip everything in Bayer just in case?How dare you drop the p word on me, I do declare. [emoji30] I can't see anything using my phone camera as my eyes. I wasnt going to do a dip until they are ready for the transfer to the big tank. Most of them are healthy and showing good colors about 10 are the pouty brown but still healthy. I want to make sure the are optimal for the dips. However i will remain vigilant and inspect daily to rule it out. The bottle brush went brown soon after the move and was just starting to tease with the blue tips and 2 days later pure white. I did swap out my passive carbon the week before but I could at best prove correlation but not cause. Since then I have changed a 5 gallon bucket 2 days in a row to put new trace back into the mix.I will do another change tommorow and the test all. On a good note the 300 has a nice ph 8.25. alk is about 10.2 and i need to drop it a couple down I will be happy a 8 for now. I did some calculations with muriatic acid and it looks like 1/2 cup would bring it down. I don't have anything alive in the tank so i imagine I will just add it to the display. Once that is stable and the diatoms are gone I can start the transfer. I am tired of see my beautiful fish down in the rubbermaid.

They are all still in the old system. I'm not sure why it died. I am keeping a close eye on parameters. I won't transfer to the new tank until I feel it is stable and most of the uglys are done.

So a little bad news, the blue bottle brush I got from Ty just decided to die. I have lost some color but this is the first to bight the dust in this move. The chips ora is not looking good either but everything else looks normal with good growth. Full battery of tests tomorrow but alk has stayed consistent. Stay tuned.

I could not believe how big this thing is! I have an SRO Ext2000 and I thought that was so big when I first got it but now it looks puny in comparison. If I have any problems I don't think I can say it's because I am under skimming.

This thing is amazing quiet! I am probably not going to use the float but who knows.

I got the last of the big equipment I needed today. It kind of throws off the color scheme. But I do have adjustable leds lighting the sump area, ha.

I have been running a geosreef 618 for a while now. It is the single best purchase I bought for alkalinity stability. The 618 is a little small for this setup but not until it is fully stocked with large colonies. It will be a couple of years.

I started this tank with the advice of G. Alexander on the Zeovit forum. Lot's of ZeoBak in there. I also had 2 of the large marine pure blocks and plenty of good live rock to transfer over so yea a lot of good bio stuff. I started using zeo around the beginning of the summer and really like the method. I was able to control no3 and po4 pretty easily in the 160. The system really takes no more time than the usual daily checks that any reefer should be doing anyway. I have an Avast Vibe so I don't even need to shake the rocks, even if I did have to it would be no big deal.

I have a case of the uglys happening, I didn't miss these at all.

Full lighting. I guess I am going to buy a par meter so I can get this thing mapped.

Full tank shot. You can really see my mix of lights. T5 on the left and 3 AI Primes on the center/right side. These are just the night time settings. That ATI Powermodule is a beast when all 8 bulbs are on, and the halides are, well, halides.

The tank took about a month and a half to get to my house. They were very quick. I know they were going to macna right after I ordered and they anticipated a little more lead time after from sales. This 300 build has been a part time job. Well worth it.[emoji1]

Some lights on.

I love the way those look. Awesome!

That one is good but I was thinking more like this one.

I think the rest will be acros. I'm trying to look ahead a couple of years and see which table, bush, and stag and find a placement where everyone is not crowded. I'm playing the long game. The ledge one I was trying to build like a spiral staircase so everything would be able to grow without being shadowed. Maximizing space and keeping everything off the bottom. All those ledges are also drilled so frags can be put in them or water flow through. It will be mainly acros. The idea of the islands is trying to replicate what I have seen on nat geo and bbc shows. It seems sometimes there will be a mound dominated by one specific coral and then some secondary corals fighting for space.

I have to have the encusters and digitatas somewhere. I will make another rock with the monti caps. Two monti islands! This just turned dangerous. [emoji1]

Ok, I have most of the rock that's going into the display. This is not final placement, I think. I plan on the branches being a monti garden. Bad reflection but with this one I drilled it and broke up my large flat pieces to make this. This one looks like something from starwars. I am trying for multiple islands and with as little rock touching the bottom as possible. I also really dig the grey pvc bottom, looks much better than I thought it would. No full tank shot yet. Soon. I loved working with the emarco 400. It was easy to use I just found you need to let them set overnight before you move them. I am using pretty large heavy rocks so maybe that has something to do with it. Let me tell you am a very impressed with the Gyre 280's and the new controller. Lots of options and easy to use. They are pretty quiet for such large pumps. I can hear the hum when they crank up to 100 but still not loud. Between those 2 and the 4 returns there aren't many dead spots i can see happening. The sump is performing beautifully. Very smooth and with a couple of adjustments very quiet. The AGE tank is looking great with water flowing through. Really built to perfection. I see many great years with this tank. I started it all up right before taking the kids trick or treating. My wife stayed with the baby to hand out candy and told her if you hear anything that sounds like 400 gallons of water spilling on the floor call me, lol. Everything went fine, buckets of candy and water where it should be. I even slept pretty good without the new tank insomnia/jitters. I feel like I stuck to my time line and plans pretty good and got the tank up in just over 3 weeks. Couple little things left to do and a massive cleanup and it will be back to normal.

Slow, the emarco 400 cement takes a long time to set. The first time i picked up a piece after an hour and it broke. I am just going to let them set until tommorow because a couple are pretty elaborate so I want them to hold.I will post some pics in a day or 2. I am definetly trying to go pretty minimal, I want lots of room for corals to grow.[emoji106]

I did my initial leak tests and I am happy to say that so far only 2 small leaks with 2 of the return bulkheads. I only hand tightened them, which is recommended. I prefer hand tight plus a little twist with these. Just a little, not even a quarter turn. It is a small oil filter wrench. Shot from top of overflow returns. A little under half full. TDS into d/i. TDS out of d/i.

That looks painful... Like watching water boil.I like to think of it more like watching Michelangelo carve David out of a block of marble. Unfortunately I am doing the aquascape so it will probably look more like a Jackson Pollock.

Only 299.8 gallons to go!

I am all hooked up with everything and ready to start scaping. Also filling up ro/di water.

I'm working on the enclosure. I went with melemine shelf boarding. It has an easy to clean surface which I like. The bad is it is pressed wood which doesn't do great when wet but it was not expensive so we will see how it holds up. I countersunk some magnets on the bottom piece to hold it against the steel stand. I still need to do the side, that piece on the left isn't attached yet.