My 300 gallon Drop Off Reef Tank Build

[jjntm]

this is a very cool Idea, out of curiousity tho, why not treat the baffles like a second sump/refugium? then live foods can venture into the tank at free will. also can be a sweet breeder area of the tank for inverts and smaller fish. personally I think you have a sweet lil Idea there, I'm gonna follow this thread, as I am curious to see if the 350gph will be enough flow... after all you don't need a hell of a lot of flow for a refug...

[Gripenfelter]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Nice to see some life in there! Will there be more rock added to the upper portion?

Speaking of overflows... I have a gyre in my tank and I can watch crap blast across the back, round the bend and make it's way across the front pane towards the overflow... only to turn that corner and drift within 3 inches of the overflow! Luckily things go around the tank all day so eventually it works out lol.

There will be a little more rock in the upper portion but just to mount coral to. I went a bit overboard in my 120 gallon and had 200 lbs of rock...too much. Not doing that this time. Most of my rock will be in the sump and refugium with just enough in the display tank to look cool.

Originally Posted by jjntm

this is a very cool Idea, out of curiousity tho, why not treat the baffles like a second sump/refugium? then live foods can venture into the tank at free will. also can be a sweet breeder area of the tank for inverts and smaller fish. personally I think you have a sweet lil Idea there, I'm gonna follow this thread, as I am curious to see if the 350gph will be enough flow... after all you don't need a hell of a lot of flow for a refug...

No light will penetrate the baffles once there is sand on the top so nothing will grow there. I was thinking of making it a refugium at first too but it's not a viable option. I could have filled it with live rock to make it a refuge for copepods but I already have a ridiculous amount of them living in my sump and filters.

[lastlight]

No reason you can't have a light shooting into there from the side under the overflow =)

[Gripenfelter]

Originally Posted by lastlight

No reason you can't have a light shooting into there from the side under the overflow =)

I doubt it would penetrate all the baffles. There is a good amount of grime and dust already on the glass.

[MarkoD]

Originally Posted by Gripenfelter

I doubt it would penetrate all the baffles. There is a good amount of grime and dust already on the glass.

And you don't think that'll cause nitrate problems in the tank?

[Gripenfelter]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

And you don't think that'll cause nitrate problems in the tank?

Not with a 1350 GPH pump circulating water in there.

I tried it without the pump and within 2 weeks I had a layer of crap in there so thick you couldn't see the glass.

After 2 days of using the pump 99% of the grime is gone.

[TimT]

Hi Grip,

Looks great and love the idea.

Only one small concern.
The submersible pump under the shelf will be a nightmare to service. I would either move it above the lid or use a Korallia blowing down into the first chamber next to the overflows.

My recommendation would be to put some fist sized chunks of live rock in the chambers. Have a Korallia or two blowing water down into the first chamber next to overflows. Put some egg crate on the holes in the last chamber to stop snails, crabs and fish from getting in. That area is a great place to have the bio filtration happening. As an added bonus you could have the korallia's on a computer UPS so that in case of a power failure you don't lose the tank. A computer UPS will run a Korallia for a long time.

Cheers,
Tim

[Gripenfelter]

Originally Posted by TimT

Hi Grip,

Looks great and love the idea.

Only one small concern.
The submersible pump under the shelf will be a nightmare to service. I would either move it above the lid or use a Korallia blowing down into the first chamber next to the overflows.

My recommendation would be to put some fist sized chunks of live rock in the chambers. Have a Korallia or two blowing water down into the first chamber next to overflows. Put some egg crate on the holes in the last chamber to stop snails, crabs and fish from getting in. That area is a great place to have the bio filtration happening. As an added bonus you could have the korallia's on a computer UPS so that in case of a power failure you don't lose the tank. A computer UPS will run a Korallia for a long time.

Cheers,
Tim

Thanks Tim. I'll look into moving the pump above the shelf and hiding it with rock. Thanks again for all your help with the plumbing supplies.

[Gripenfelter]

Even though it's 314 gallons I'm a little scared to add my false perc clowns to it with my black clowns in there. My black clowns are still young and do not host anemones. They just do laps of the entire tank. Hopefully the mirror trick will work otherwise I'll have to fish 2 of them out.
Anyways here are some more pics. Still need to add about 75 lbs more rock for aquascaping and get some more cool rock from Fish Whisperer.
Anyways, turned the lights 90 degrees around for the corals. They are too close to the surface so I don't get a nice spread of light. The lights over the deep end will be length wise.

[The Grizz]

Cool thanks for the more detailed pics of the OF, that is exactly what I thought it was and helps with my design greatly.