New house, new tank. 290 Gallon Build

[dusty16]

Question. Is it ok to have a lot of places for fish to hide or does that just create dead zones where debris will collect.

[jason604]

Originally Posted by dusty16

Question. Is it ok to have a lot of places for fish to hide or does that just create dead zones where debris will collect.

both! places for fishes to hide is good, but yes it does cause some dead spots. You should keep that rockscape tho its rly nice

[dusty16]

Originally Posted by jason604

both! places for fishes to hide is good, but yes it does cause some dead spots. You should keep that rockscape tho its rly nice

Thanks. Hopefully I have the rock in the tank within the next few days. Currently cleaning a bunch of rubble that was extremely dirty.

[reefwithareefer]

Originally Posted by dusty16

Thanks. Hopefully I have the rock in the tank within the next few days. Currently cleaning a bunch of rubble that was extremely dirty.

Must be really dirty if you have not had time to post anything..

[dusty16]

Originally Posted by reefwithareefer

Must be really dirty if you have not had time to post anything..

The rubble is clean. Been busy with final exams the past few weeks. I have spent a couple hours using Fijicrete to do up my aquascape. Still have some work left to do which will probably have to wait until after all exams. So probably another week and a half before any updates.

[Dearth]

Originally Posted by dusty16

Question. Is it ok to have a lot of places for fish to hide or does that just create dead zones where debris will collect.

I've found the more hiding spots you have the more your fish will tend to stay in the open as they aren't so busy defending limited hiding spots. Also there will be more detritus buildup in those areas but I found my CuC does a fairly good job of cleaning up those areas as well

[The Guy]

Wow very impressive set up. More pictures.

[dusty16]

Finally got some work done. Figured I would wait a little while for all the workers to finish making their mess and the dust to settle.



Just have a few pieces of rubble that I want to use to fill in some gaps and then ill probably fill it up. May also be putting up the lighting sometime this week. Want to use a pulley system to raise and lower them. Hopefully its not to hard to figure out.

Meanwhile I have been without any fish for a while now. I was thinking about starting up my 30 gallon with some saltwater and throwing 2 clowns in there. I will probably be using that tank as a quarantine tank once I have the other up and running. I was wondering if I need to do anything special or will a heater and HOB filter be enough?

[Snappy]

Great build - tank & house.

[dusty16]

Ok. Back to this thread. Its been a while with no updates so here we go.

Lights are all set up. 4 x Radion Gen 3 Pros. Took a little while to figure them out but we got it. We bought a pulley system from Princess Auto and used 3 aluminium rods to create a frame to hang the lights off of. As a safety back-up we used 2 steel cables that are screwed straight into wood on top. The lowest the lights would be able to come is about 9 inches from the surface of the water.


This is what the finished cabinetry looks like. All the panels can be opened and taken off if needed. This would be the most viewed side as it is in the family room.


View from the other side. This is the side that is visible from the moment you walk inside the house. Still working on the water currents. Cant figure out a spot that doesnt make the sand blow away.


Still working on my cable management. Auto top off still needs to be set up. I didnt realize that the Tunze auto top off pump was missing from the box. I opened the box one year after purchasing it $20 for a new pump from Tunze.



Current tank photos



Current fish:
10 - Blue/Green Chromis
3 - Azure Damsel
2 - True Perc Clowns
1 - Foxface
And I had a copperband but it decided to stop eating and died a few days ago