Largest Attempt....New to Me 200g Build

Grow red zoas, or a red encrusting monti on it:)....that would be cool!:) (assuming red is in fact your company colour, and not just whatever material you could get ahold of) lol

Great idea, red is the main color!
 
Just didnt like the original way i set it up, hopefully this will work a lot better.


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Thank you. Something was off. I have (hard to see since I need to clean the glass) lots of holes and spaces for fish to go now. Just have to decide if I'm going to go aggressive or not
 
I dont know, maybe a big angel or 2, id love a little bamboo shark but would feel bad knowing at some point ill have to rehome. Im sure ill end up with a reef tank but im trying to weigh the options.
 
If you go sharks you might have to add something more on the biological filtration side to compensate for the large amount of waste. Same with a fish only set up. The rock may not handle the total burden of the bio load. Just a thought. I have experiance with shark tanks in the 450 and 1500 gallon range using Leopard and Grey Smooth Hound sharks. They are no longer available in the trade. I had large trickle filtration columns attached to the sumps fed with their own pumps and a dump back to the sump. Works great. The system is still in operation since 1996. I don't know if they still have sharks. Enjoy

P.S. many of the public displays inject ozone into the tank in shark exhibits...I used injection into the skimmers. Helps to boost oxygen in the system. I would be concerned with direct injection due to damage to the gills of other tank mates.
 
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I've seen people have success with Angels in reef tanks before. You just have to be ready to try a few different ones to find one who isn't immediately going to pick at your corals. Honestly avoid the bamboo shark.

Bit of quick background, I'm a Marine Biologist at the University of Guelph. So basically I'll say this; we have 30 baby bamboo sharks, and although they aren't super fast growing they are actually more active at a young age than most people would expect, and they do require a decent amount of sand space since they don't really swim off of the bottom. Although you do have a large tank, your bottom space is limited and truly I don't think there is enough. Realistically Bamboo Sharks use the bottom 6-12 inches of a tank and don't require any height more than that (obviously more is better, but behaviour wise-not so much), so given that I'd caution avoidance, but I do truly, truly understand the desire to have one.

I've always been a big tang and trigger fan personally. Since I have the feeling you like larger fish compared to smaller ones, what about a collection of tangs, a pair of bluethroat triggers, or something like that. :) Some of these options would give you the best of both worlds, a bit of aggression/show quality size, while still being reef safe.

Zach :)
 
Im not opposed to that at all, being new i had a LFS selling me fish left and right and i learned they hard way not to add more than 1-2 at at time and give long time gaps before adding new. I lost about 6 fish thanks to my eagerness on my 65.
 
Do you have a quarantine tank? If not use the U.V. at a 45,000 kill range or above to help control water born pests. Kill range is controlled by dwell time in the U.V. chamber. For questions search the articles on U.V. on the net.
 
Im not opposed to that at all, being new i had a LFS selling me fish left and right and i learned they hard way not to add more than 1-2 at at time and give long time gaps before adding new. I lost about 6 fish thanks to my eagerness on my 65.

Time is always critical, everything from adding 1 piece of coral, to a single snail/hermit, to a massive fat tang has an effect on your little ecosystem, more bacteria is needed to deal with the natural filtration, the system is out of balance as soon as you add something. In reality we never finish cycling our tanks. Sure we don't see the huge spikes in the nitrogen cycle like the initial cycle in our tanks, however it never stops. The larger the tank the smaller the noticeable change, but no matter what something changes when ANYTHING is added into the system.

I just want to say, I am truly enjoying your build, and am very excited to keep discussing things/watching the system grow.
 
Thank you very much, I'm enjoying it as well (minus the waiting lol). I will also say that i don't have heaters yet either so I'll be figuring that out soon as well. I wasn't sure if temp was crucial right now with it only being running for a week. Although i wish my 1 live rock would start giving life to the rest already!
 
I'd add the heaters soon rather than later personally, different temperature range=different bacteria in the system, even a change of 2-3 degrees can make the difference when dealing with bacterial colonies.

Also when adding heaters, don't forget to go with extra ones, try to go for 3-4 smaller heaters that combined heat up the tank, but if one failed (stayed on, or shut off), it wouldn't be a huge issue.
 
Well here is a good ? For you, where in my old timey setup is a good placement for them? I was thinking about putting them in the overflows.
 
I do know the sump is the best place. But I guess if it's in the overflows not much will transfer in to the drains
 
Got a little busy. Was updating the local Houston forum all day and forgot to come here and share. Picked up a new apex lab locally for cheap from a nice guy they never took the cellophane off the box.

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Started yanking out the old sump, got a nice fountain spray when I kicked the pump on forgetting the return was pointing up lol.

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Started setting the new sumps, pumps, and plumbing. It was very fun minus one union not having an o-ring thank you home depot!

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Nice build, congrats.
Just a suggestion, try to treat the wood for the stand, that tank weighs a lot with water, sand and rock in it, you don't want the humidity of the sumps weakening the columns over time.

Those sumps do look great and the second rockscape much better than version 1.
 
Nice build, congrats.
Just a suggestion, try to treat the wood for the stand, that tank weighs a lot with water, sand and rock in it, you don't want the humidity of the sumps weakening the columns over time.

Those sumps do look great and the second rockscape much better than version 1.
Thank you. I think I'm going to add some supports underneath just for the heck of it.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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