Laverda’s 300 mixed reef

laverda · Mar 20, 2019

My 300 has actually been up and running for a while now, but I thought I would finally do a tank build thread. The tank is a replacement for my 240 that was set up for about 20 years. During those 20 years I have learned a lot. For the most part I was happy with my old tank with the exception of the sump and access to it. The sump came with the tank and was originally a wet dry filter full of lava rock when I bought the tank. I replaced the lava rock with lots of cured reef rubble and 2 ceramic blocks. The sump was not big enough for a 240 gallon tank and would overflow in a power outage. In addition it was very cramped and almost impossible to get the skimmer in and out for maintance.

My coals for my new tank were to have as large a sump as possible with a large Refugium and a taller roomier stand, so it was not so hard to see and work on things. I also wanted the stand taller so I did not have to bend over to view the display. Ideally I want the tank to be set up to be viewable on 3 sides. I have a very large sailfin tang that needed more swimming room as well. All this had to be done on a tight budget. Two big reason for the new tank was a separation move to a new house and my old tank had developed a crack in the top brace a few years back. While I had repaired it, I did not want to have to worry about it failing at some point and it had always has more bowing of the acrylic then I liked.
Steve

hdsoftail1065 · Mar 20, 2019

Sounds like a nice build, do you have pics of your new 300?

laverda · Feb 19, 2021

Wow totally missed you response. This was shortly after setting in up. Sadly I lost my sailfin tang of 24+ years 2 or 3 months ago in an anemone spawning event. I did not have front panels or trim yet and the return plumbing (large curved tube was not finalized) was not compled yet. I had to get the up and running quickly so I could take down my old 240.

laverda · Feb 20, 2021

Some more older photos.

laverda · Feb 20, 2021

More recent photos.

The mangroves have been moved from under the tank to a small connected Mangrove Lagoon.

laverda · Feb 20, 2021

You can see my ATS located in my overflow here Under $30 ATS.

laverda · Feb 28, 2021

These are both of my lids i got from top lids a while back. They are stacked and still have the protective coating on them. The feed hatch is on the right with 4 pieces of tape holding it in place lifts out. Above it is a area for my auto feeder.

laverda · Apr 29, 2021

I was not able to maintain my tank for 2 months due to covid and related side effects. Due to that I had a spike in nutrients and gha popped up in the display. I have been cleaning my ATS more frequently, increased the light schedule for it and dosing blue life phosphate control and some hydrogen peroxide as well. The GHA is slowly going away. My 3 tangs do not seem to be helping much, if any. My departed sailfin tang used to love it.
On a good note all my fish survived thanks to my girlfriend keeping the ATO full and feeding them. In fact my flame hawks recently spawned for the first time!
A week ago I added a purple tang, a female anthias, a diamond goby, a melanarus wrasse and some corals that I picked up from another hobbiest getting ready to move. The addtion of the purple seemed to trigger some aggression, but mostly between my yellow and Scopus tang. The smaller purple was chased a bit but held his ground. Now they all are getting along fine. The purple tang is constantly picking at the rock work, but ignoring the GHA as far as I can tell. I have to say I love how the diamond goby has cleaned the sand bed so far. He still has a lot to clean though!