Travis:
Welcome back everyone this is Travis here of Fish Effects. Today I'm going to be talking about the 300 Gallon Build, my overall plans and how the whole process is going to work.
I've been getting a lot of questions via the comment section in Facebook through the Fish Effects Facebook page, what's going on the 300 Gallon Build, what are my overall plans and kind of how it's going to play out. That’s what we're going to cover here in this video so let's go and get into it.
The first thing I'm going to talk about is the tank in stand, I'm happy to announce that I partnered up with customaquariums.com and they're going to be sponsoring a portion of this build so shout out to them. I really do appreciate it and I've actually become an official retailer through them so if you're looking to purchase a tank like mine when we start that build you can always contact me and we can set that up. Moving on to the dimensions of the display tank, we're looking at 96 inches long by 24 inches wide and 30 inches tall giving us that 300 Gallon profile.
I decided to go with a custom aquarium's H2 overflow which is a low profile overflow the skin to the surface and then that will flow into a box and behind the tank and of course down into the sump. I'm really excited to check out this overflow, I've seen several bills with it and honestly I can't wait to try it out. When it comes to the glass, we're going to be going with three alter clear panels, one on the front, one on each side of the tank. When it comes to the back and the bottom, there just going to be standard glass, the bottom will be tempered and the back will be painted black through customaquariums.com. Now I’m going to get the tank and I'll most likely use the paint that I use on all my frac tanks and paint the bottom of the tank. I really haven't decided depends on how everything is laid out.
When it comes to the return lines Custom Aquariums will also be drilling the three-quarter inch bulkhead holes that way I can go ahead into all the plumbing. No drilling on my end so I’m pretty happy about that. Enough about the display tank let's go to move down to what it will be sitting on and I'm going with Custom Aquariums powder coated steel stand. Of course it has the same footprint 96 by 24 inches and then I'm going with 36 inches tall and I decided to go with this height I know that the tank is still 30 inches tall so you're looking at 36 stand with a 30 inch tall tank will be a pain in the ass for maintenance.
I’m willing to accept that mostly because I really want to take to be up where you can be standing and have the entire display in front of you so there is no bending over to look at things. It's going to be right there in your face. The second reason is the Nile’s Quantum 300 protein skimmer I need to have enough room to fit that in the sump and right now I have a 36-inch tall stand but it is a 2 by 4 so I am losing some height there. It is a little bit of a pain getting it so I really wanted to go with the 36 inch tall steel stand for this build.
Now for the bracing on the stand, I'm going with the standard what they recommend for the sides and the back but for the front I requested to have one single bar that way I can fit my sump in there as well as a display if I decide to go that route and I just don't want to have the stand built and then get a larger sump and not be able to fit it because there's bracing in the way. It’s just like the 200 Gallon frac tank one being in the middle and there really is no issue with that. That’s pretty much all the info I have currently on the tank and stand and again shout out to customaquarium.com for sponsoring a portion of this build, I really do appreciate it and I will put a link to their website in the description below.
You guys can look forward to the delivery/on boxing of both the tank and stand here in mid-September, I will keep you guys updated as we get closer to that build process. The next thing I want to talk about is the filtration. I've decided to go with a custom red white and blue some from Geo, we're still working out the plans and trying to figure out exactly what I want to add to it but the overall picture is we're going to build it around the quantum 300 protein skimmer just because of how massive that skimmer is. I'm going to be going with a built in carbon NGA4 reactor, there will be two reactors there most are going to be doing a built in algae scrubber and maybe an 80 reservoir. It really depends on how long it is.
Section wise the devil you want to be able to fit my Marine pier blocks in there so we're still working on. Trying to find a section that that will fit the best and if I so choose to use filter socks I want to be able to have that as an option as well, and I've also decided to move away from dosing to par and go with a calcium reactor. I decide to go with Geos calcium reactor and do the same theme of red white and blue so I think that's going to look pretty cool it's going to kind of all tie together and I really haven't decided what color piping I'm going to use probably a red in maybe a white fittings.
Like I said, I haven't decided what I'm going to do for color scheme but between the red white and blue Calcium reactor and sump I just think it's going to fit very well. I mentioned previously I might add a display Refugium, I'm really not sure what I'm going to do, I might do that or I might do a custom frag tank underneath there, again that's going to be something I'm going to figure out in September because I really don't know what kind of space I have until the sump is sitting in there, the tank is worked at, and really what I want to do overall but there's either going to be a display refugium approximately 60 gallons or a frag tank that will fill in the rest of the space. That way I can have frags and not have them in the main display. The last thing I’m going to talk about is lighting. What route am I going to, am I going to stay with my current set up of having primarily LEDs with T5 sub-lighting or am I going to move into primarily T5s with LEDs sub-lighting.
I do know that I'm going to have a mixture of both regardless of what set up I go with. Now here are the two options that I've laid out budget-wise that will work for me. The first one is two four foot eight bub T5 ATI fixtures and then that would be 16 T5 bulbs total with two LEDs strips on either side. That will give me the shimmer of a tank. Now that is where I'm leaning towards, but I also have another option of having four radions LEDs with T5 bulbs on either sides of those and I am leaning more to the T5’s primarily because of the Acapour that I like to grow but then again people are still getting pretty good results with the radions. Of course I can still add a bunch of T5s with the radios because of how small they are.
Budget wise they're both within the same range and consumption of energy obviously the radiance will be better long term when it comes to using my electric bill. Yes that's where I'm at, what I probably do is put an option out there and do like a vote towards September and see what you guys think and will kind of have another conversation about it as the build goes on. Not that we’ve pretty much talked about all the major components of the build, let’s talk about stocking and the aqua scape theme. When it comes to Aqua scape theme I'm going to do something similar to my 125. I like the pillar look, I like having the open space. This time with it being so wired I can kind of set them up in a way that the fish would have to like go through it if there was like cones at a course so they're kind of off from each other and not really centered in the tank so it kind of gives more depth to it. That’s my plan doing about five pillars in that build and that way they'll be full of coral I can separate it by species and I don’t want to really worry about them killing each other too much. Now when it comes to fish and stocking, I still have my snowfalke yield which is a little over two and half feet long, he's just getting bigger and bigger.
I have cut his feeding down to twice a week instead of four times a week and that has helped not only with the nutrients but also-- Because he's in that 60 gallon cube I don't need him continuing to grow over the last three or four months and becoming uncomfortable. Now, stocking-wise regarding the fish, I do plan on adding about 10 more tanks to this, I’m going to keep my current two clown fish and I probably add some anthias and stuff like this, some smaller oddball fish just not too small that they fit the Eels mouth and yet I haven't had a problem with that so far. I'm going to be adding another slinkiest starfish probably do the red or orange, I haven't really decided, the blue is still doing great after over a year and then of course the usual cleaner shrimp and all that kind of stuff will be in there.
Guys that's pretty much all the information I currently have on the 300 gallon build and if something changes or I decide to go a different route I will make an updated video and let you guys know. I’m targeting the start time for this build to be mid-September so I will let you guys know officially when its going to star and we will be working our way up with curing rock and seeing where it's going to go in my office and just all those other videos you guys will see, so stay tuned there will be a ton of content coming from this tank. And there's one more thing I want to talk about before I let you go and that is pretty much the consistency of my content here on YouTube. Now I have been lacking or better yet slacking on my content just because there's a ton of stuff going on with the client build, family and moving here within the next month. I just haven't been able to sit down and making any content. I will put some time aside this week to try to get out a few videos, but don't be upset if you don't see one for a couple weeks. Something is just going on and I can't do it. All right, so that's about it for this video guys, I hope you enjoyed it, found it somehow entertaining. If you have any questions regarding this build put in the comment section below and let me know what you think about the lighting, I do appreciate that. All right guys I'll see you next time, peace.
