300 gallon AGE build

jschultzbass · Aug 12, 2014

Good news! The diatoms have been receding! I have been running GFO and my 57W UV sterilizer and everything is looking a LOT better. I had ordered a biopellet reactor from Reef Dynamics which should be here by the end of the week. Since I stock pretty heavy I thought I'd give this a try along with GFO. I'll let you know how it goes.

Daddio · Aug 12, 2014

Did you notice a significant difference when you added the UV sterilizer?
Right now my rebuild is devoid of fish as I am trying for once and all eradicate ich. I was hoping to be done with hardware but am tired of tangs getting ich. Have been toying with the UV idea to maybe help out a little.

Hope you enjoy the biopellets! I am dosing Nopox and even though I don't have problems with diatoms or cyano (nitrites/nitrates/phosphates - I was able to transfer over 90lbs of 14 year-old rock), i have noticed an overall general tank health with carbon dosing. That is a future addition I may make but I like my refugium the way it is.

Only bad side effect that I have noticed with carbon dosing is that your filter socks are going to clog up insanely fast as the additional bacteria seem to really like the porous felt material. And skim heavy or you will get stringy, slimy bacteria colonies in dead flow areas.

Daddio · Aug 12, 2014

BTW, your build is first class... I was looking at your build when I was working on mine and it was very inspirational!

jschultzbass · Aug 12, 2014

Daddio said:
Did you notice a significant difference when you added the UV sterilizer?
Right now my rebuild is devoid of fish as I am trying for once and all eradicate ich. I was hoping to be done with hardware but am tired of tangs getting ich. Have been toying with the UV idea to maybe help out a little.

Hope you enjoy the biopellets! I am dosing Nopox and even though I don't have problems with diatoms or cyano (nitrites/nitrates/phosphates - I was able to transfer over 90lbs of 14 year-old rock), i have noticed an overall general tank health with carbon dosing. That is a future addition I may make but I like my refugium the way it is.

Only bad side effect that I have noticed with carbon dosing is that your filter socks are going to clog up insanely fast as the additional bacteria seem to really like the porous felt material. And skim heavy or you will get stringy, slimy bacteria colonies in dead flow areas.

I think the UV has helped with the diatoms as it kills any free floating algae in the system. I run a pretty strict QT system as well so haven't had to worry about ich really. I'm mainly using the UV to help algae control. I do know that running a UV on your system will not kill all ich. It will help lessen the amount of free floating versions of the parasite when sized properly which can lessen the damage done to fish. The only way to really be ich free is let your DT stay fallow for at least 10 weeks and QT all new arrivals and treat with cupramine or "tank transfer" method.

As for the biopellets, the reactor comes with a "T" fitting that fits right on the pump of the Reef Dynamics skimmer so ALL effluent from the biopellet reactor will go through the skimmer. Hopefully that takes care of some of those issues.

Daddio said:
BTW, your build is first class... I was looking at your build when I was working on mine and it was very inspirational!

Thanks for the compliment! I've looked at so many builds over the last couple years in preparation for this. I tried not to cut any corners.

jkirk · Aug 13, 2014

Lots of nice, big fish. Do you deal with any aggression issues?

jschultzbass · Aug 14, 2014

Actually there isn't much aggression at all. The Achilles tang will chase the blue hippo tang every once in a while and can sometimes become ornery but not bad at all. The yellow and purple tangs will spar every once in a while as well but that only last a second and then they are buds again.

zibba · Aug 14, 2014

jschultzbass said:
Thank you! I'm not at all artistic and the aquascape was starting to get to me...I must have redone it a dozen times.

What were you doing up in the North woods?

I'm very tempted to do smoked acrylic on one side and the end and leave it open on the other side. The side with the acrylic will be on the movie/family room side and the other side will be the office. That way when I'm working I can see the whole thing What thickness acrylic do you think would work?

We have family in that area and, as you know, it's one of the best times of the year to be up on the lakes! We had a great time.

I'm not sure on the acrylic thickness yet, but I suppose it depends on how you want to mount it and whether you want any sound proofing from it. It will probably come down to the cost of it for me...I haven't started pricing it out yet.

jschultzbass · Sep 4, 2014

I decided to just use 1/4 Mahogany so we'll see how that goes

jschultzbass · Sep 4, 2014

Some more pictures! The guts of the tank are pretty much complete now. I'm not crazy about the wires but it's the best I could do.

jschultzbass · Sep 4, 2014

More pics

jschultzbass · Sep 4, 2014

And a couple more. Kore 5th doser and frontside of under the stand.

Nvizn · Sep 6, 2014

Great looking tank, buddy! =)

webersole · Sep 6, 2014

Tagging along as I'm in the planning stages of an upgrade as well. Looking good.

jschultzbass · Sep 8, 2014

Nvizn said:
Great looking tank, buddy! =)

Thank you!

webersole said:
Tagging along as I'm in the planning stages of an upgrade as well. Looking good.

Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions on why I did what I did.

butters417 · Sep 8, 2014

How are you liking the reef dynamics skimmer? I'm thinking about getting the 180 for my 150 reef build

jschultzbass · Sep 8, 2014

Me being an idiot I failed to turn off my GFO and UV when I started the biopellets. Without these being off the pellets will seed very slowly....so I basically wasted three weeks of it running. They are off as of tonight and I will keep you posted on where my nitrates and phosphates level out. Right now NO3 is 25 ppm and PO4 is 0.02. It usually takes 6 to 8 weeks for the pellets to start working. I am having a pretty bad Cyano outbreak still so we'll see how that goes.

jschultzbass · Sep 8, 2014

butters417 said:
How are you liking the reef dynamics skimmer? I'm thinking about getting the 180 for my 150 reef build

I absolutely love it. Very easy to dial in once it's broke in and it pulls very consistent skimmate. I would fully recommend spending the extra money and getting the Eheim pump, they will last you forever and are super quiet. Plus can't beat made in the USA!