Tips on a starting and maintaining 200gallon reef

[Pete’sRsR250]

Im thinking of starting a new reef. This time i plan on going with a 209gallon from Aqua Forest. Currently i have a Red sea 250(65gallon) mixed reef and few other freshwater tanks (80gallons). My plan is to get rid of everything and just keep the 2 reefs and run them off my current apex

I have few questions regarding a big tank.

How many gallons a week of RODI do you top off?

How often did you do water changes when you first started a big tank not talking about established)

How big is your RODI container for saltwater and freshwater?

What are your tips on a big tank?

 

[The Farmer]

The only difference is more water and salt

 

[blaxsun]

Answers... On my Red Sea 750XXL (200-gallons)
* 2-2.5 gallons of RODI daily.
* Almost never (three ~10% changes in 12 months, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this without specific equipment).
* I have two RODI systems linked - the master has 15 gallons and the slave has an additional 6-7 gallons, for 21-22 gallons total RODI capacity).

On a larger system take your time and plan out what you all want to run - even if you plan to add it in stages. Anything that will be a major PITA to retrofit later (power bars, controllers, UV, manifold) setup from the outset.

 

[The Farmer]

the tall one is rodi the 2 smaller ones are NSW. I have my ato plumbed into the taller one I couldn’t tell you how much evaporation I have sorry, I also have automated 7 gallons a day water change total system volume 260

 

[Susan Edwards]

I went from a 125 to a 240g system (RS 3xl900). AFter so many failures on old tank, I went the best equipment I could, esp for flow. I use 2 rs 45's on each end and 2 mp40's on back. Having good flow keeps my sand and rocks clean. I used cheaper ph's in my 125 and always had issues. And automate! AWC's are great. I don't do big water changes. Tank set up since Oct. Did one big change of 20 % after I used reef flux and another after chemi clean but did it over 5 days with the awc. Most of the time my nutrients are low or good so no need for big or even weekly wc's. But I am trying the awc for 5 to 10% per week.

For top off, I might go thru 2-3 gal depending. I have 2 60 gal containers, 1 for RO, 1 for salt. I then use 2 20g brutes--one for the ato and the other for the awc (salt). I like to have more control so didn't hook into the big containers. Not yet anyway.

It was a shock to go from 125 to 240 and the size difference (me not so tall, tank way too tall! Me short arms, new tank wider and deeper) It's a great journey. Just take your time and plan