Mike's 270-gallon custom build

[MikeG]

Looks great Mike! I'm glad it worked out for you!

Thanks, should be the perfect frag tank. Just ordered a few frag racks as well to through in there.

Also looks like cycle is almost done. Yesterday Ammonia went to 0 for the first time. Dosed it back up to 2ppm to see if it is again 0 when I get home today. Nitrite was still pretty high so hopefully that is dropping today too. Fish go in next week if cycle is complete.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Thanks, should be the perfect frag tank. Just ordered a few frag racks as well to through in there.

Also looks like cycle is almost done. Yesterday Ammonia went to 0 for the first time. Dosed it back up to 2ppm to see if it is again 0 when I get home today. Nitrite was still pretty high so hopefully that is dropping today too. Fish go in next week if cycle is complete.

Moving forward nicely! It's going to be an epic tank!

 

[MikeG]

Was struggling with the gross algae stage a bit but two days of lights out about a month ago wiped it out completely, hopefully doesn't come back. Things are starting to settle in, tank has been up about 8 months now.

 

[DylanCameron]

Awesome Mike, I remember getting this tank in with the LTR crew and it's great to see the progress! The width of this tank is killer and you've got a great scape that really makes the most of it, I'm eagerly waiting to see how the acropora fill in. How's the flow been with the 4 vortechs? I love the clean peninsula look, and issues with dead spots on the far end of the tank?

 

[MikeG]

Awesome Mike, I remember getting this tank in with the LTR crew and it's great to see the progress! The width of this tank is killer and you've got a great scape that really makes the most of it, I'm eagerly waiting to see how the acropora fill in. How's the flow been with the 4 vortechs? I love the clean peninsula look, and issues with dead spots on the far end of the tank?

I will likely add a gyre on the far end at some point, cant get enough flow down there

 

[Reefried]

Wow. Tank looks great. Cannot wait to see it fill in. Do you vacuum the sand?

 

[MikeG]

Wow. Tank looks great. Cannot wait to see it fill in. Do you vacuum the sand?

I couldnt even see the sand about a month ago. Tried vacuuming but that didnt really work and algae covered in by the end of the day. Has been completely clean for the last month after my two days lights out. I was dosing nitrate and phosphate at that time as I was battling what I thought were dinos. Nitrate was 10ppm and phosphate 0.05-0.08. There was enough algae that the first day of lights out with all the die off my house smelled BAD. After day two go a bit better with a ton of carbon and algae was almost completely gone. I stopped dosing phosphates but they have gone up and have been between 0.2 - 0.26 since the algae die off but all algae has gone away. A little worried to stip a lot of that phosphate out quickly thinking it may cause more harm than good.

I added three sand sifting fish and have a few finghting conchs to sift the sand and they seem to do more than I need.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Looking awesome Mike! Can’t wait to see it in person! Glad you were able to get it under control! Now if only I could do the same! Haha well done sir!

 

[Bao]

What is the depth of the external overflow box from the tank to the outside edge of the box?

 

[MikeG]

What is the depth of the external overflow box from the tank to the outside edge of the box?

The overflow box is bigger than I would have expected and had I known probably would have asked for it to be a bit smaller. Sticks out 4.5" off the back but where I would have gone smaller is it is 24" wide. Doesnt leave a lot of open room on the side for my vortech motors. Would have been nice if I had a bit more room to move them closer to the center of the tank.

 

[Bao]

Thanks for the info.
Do you feel the overflow box is sturdy and strong enough since it doesn't have any support on the bottom and only glued to the tank? I am thinking of ordering a 160 gallons tank (64" x 24" x 24") and just couldn't decide on internal vs external overflow. I am a bit paranoid and keep worrying that overtime, the overflow box might fall off or leak.

 

[MikeG]

Thanks for the info.
Do you feel the overflow box is sturdy and strong enough since it doesn't have any support on the bottom and only glued to the tank? I am thinking of ordering a 160 gallons tank (64" x 24" x 24") and just couldn't decide on internal vs external overflow. I am a bit paranoid and keep worrying that overtime, the overflow box might fall off or leak.

Never even crossed my mind, we are not talking a big amount of water here

 

[Brady]

Hopefully your tank from Coast to Coast doesn’t end up like mine. Just got rid of it after the front pane of glass absorbed impurities and the front glass was extremely cloudy. Took about 5 years to show up. Also had bubbles in the silicone seams and when I tried calling them several times they completely ignored all my calls and voicemails. Overflow was huge and noisy. I had to run sponges behind the teeth to keep the noise down. I wouldn’t even take a tank for free from them. Awful customer service and glass quality. I honestly just hope your tank doesn’t end up like mine.

 

[MikeG]

Hopefully your tank from Coast to Coast doesn’t end up like mine. Just got rid of it after the front pane of glass absorbed impurities and the front glass was extremely cloudy. Took about 5 years to show up. Also had bubbles in the silicone seams and when I tried calling them several times they completely ignored all my calls and voicemails. Overflow was huge and noisy. I had to run sponges behind the teeth to keep the noise down. I wouldn’t even take a tank for free from them. Awful customer service and glass quality. I honestly just hope your tank doesn’t end up like mine.

Hopefully I dont have the same experience, I searched for a long time before choosing them and found negative comments to be extremely rare. They have responded timely to all my questions so far but we will see how it goes long term. My overflow is damn near silent but only running about 1000gph through it. Happy with it so far.

The only company with literally no issues when I was looking was Reef Savy but they wanted 12k just for the tank (plus whatever shipping would have been). That was frankly out of my price range.

 

[Mike Lemming]

I had the opportunity to check out Mike's system the other day. The tank looks great and the setup is legit! Can't wait to see this thing grown out!! Well done Mike!

 

[MikeG]

Got bored so decided to redo my manifold that feeds my reactors. I used some old plumbing when setting this tank up and was really basic with a couple t's to attach 1/2" hose to. Off this I was running my UV and running my carbon reactor into my phosban reator.

Went a bit more complex adding three outlets that all have shut off valves and gate valves for adjustment. Two of the outlets have flow sensors to measure flow rate. Added a fitting to stop siphon from my frag tank (this is very minimal anyway) and will add a flow sensor there too once I get another 1" sensor.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Well done man! You scrapping the old manifold??

 

[MikeG]

Well done man! You scrapping the old manifold??

It'll just go in the used plumbing pile to scavenge another day

 

[Pat02026]

Awesome build Mike, love the setup!

 

[MikeG]

Awesome build Mike, love the setup!

Thanks, appreciate it. Has been a fun build.