My 300G Built-in Reef - UPDATE - Tear down thread

[spaulr]

Incredible tank Louey!!!

I got a question about fragging corals. How do you frag encrusting montis like the superman and others you listed? I can't imagine removing the rock their on...

I got it! You know how to scuba and have underwater cutting dremels? No, shed some light...because I've been looking at 3 of the 4 montis you posted from Reefready for a while now. Still saving :wink: .

 

[Anonymous]

I recently fragged my Sunset and Superman Monti's. I just used my forceps (that I bought at Premium Aquatic, IIRC) and hacked off a piece around the edge as best I could. Then I superglued it to a plug. They begin to encrust to whatever you mount them to pretty quickly.

Louey

 

[spaulr]

You got a pic of the sunset monti? That's a very unique looking coral. Must be a slow grower. All the cool ones are.

 

[Anonymous]

spaulr wrote:

You got a pic of the sunset monti? That's a very unique looking coral. Must be a slow grower. All the cool ones are.

Yes it is a slow grower, at least for me. Here's a picture of the frag. I am going to mount this frag in a prominent spot in my tank and start a second colony.

Louey

 

[spaulr]

That looks like a good size piece. Is that a grow out tank, or have you made room in your sump for growing frags out - I'm trying to get ideas for my next setup. Thanks for the pic.

 

[Anonymous]

That rack is in my refugium, which is a 75G tank.

I grow cheato on the other side and have LR on the bottom on both sides.

I just upgraded my light above the grow out side from a 175W MH to a 250W. Hopefully my frags will grow faster now.

Louey

 

[bleedingthought]

Louey, is your tank 30 or 25 inches deep?

 

[Anonymous]

It is 25" deep, 30" wide and 8' long.

 

[bleedingthought]

Cool, thanks!

 

[Jamesurq]

Great setup. I"m contemplating basically the exact same system (GlassCages 300 tall with Penductors) Aside from the barebottom - I'm a sand user.

If you had to do it all over again, is there anything you would change?

 

[Anonymous]

Jamesurg wrote:

If you had to do it all over again, is there anything you would change?

I'd make the drains 2" instead of 1.5" and I build the stand-pipe ahead of time and have the overflows made just large enough to handle the plumbing.

Louey

 

[wiszmaster]

louey,

have any frags for sale?

--wisz

 

[Anonymous]

Wiszmaster wrote:

have any frags for sale?

I do have a few frags growing in my fuge that I could part with.

Want to come by and take a look sometime?

Louey

 

[wiszmaster]

absolutely. - would love to.

That pocillapora is doing great BTW ... scott (keinreis) has a large piece of it, and a few other locals have picked 'em up.

here's a recent shot of my tank ...

 

[Anonymous]

Looks great.

Gimme a buz when you want to come over.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Welp, we have decided to to buy a new house and the 300G reef tank will be taken down.

This is a tough decision, but we want the new house worse than we want the tank. And yes, I made the decision to give up the reef before I even talked to my wife about wanting a new house.

Moving the tank and keeping all of the livestock is simply impossible with this size tank. It took me 2 months to build it, so I can't fathom what it would take to relocate it.

I am going to sell all of my livestock and the tank itself, and keep the rest. That way I can set up a new tank later if the urge strikes me. I spend a bundle of money on lighting, skimmer, Tunze 6200, Icecaps, Lumenarc's, etc. I'm keeping that stuff.

The new house doesn't have a spot for a 300G tank, and while I enjoyed every minute of having it, there's no way I take on another 300G built in. Been there done that.

Here are a couple of quick pictures I just took to document how it looked in the end. The pictures are crappy, but I don't have time to re-take them. I have too much packing to do.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Couple more pics...

 

[Anonymous]

Oh poo Louey, if you lived closer I'd consider housing a great deal of your non-fish livestock just in case you desired again to start up.. Oh well.

 

[Anonymous]

Louey, are you selling the livestock locally?

 

[Anonymous]

Chrispy wrote:

Louey, are you selling the livestock locally?

I'd like too, but I haven't done anything yet to find a buyer.

I'd like to sell it all to one local LFS, just to simplify the process.

This is kind of up in the air. I need to attend to it.

The good news is that I am renting my current house to my brother. I am moving in two weeks, but can leave the reef tank here for a month or so afterwards to get it sold off and taken down. Oh yeah, and rebuild the wall.

Louey