ordering a monster

mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
Well everybody . We went to 2 LFS yesterday to price out a monster 300 gallon. 1st store quoted me a price of 4300.00 for tank only no pumps filters stand lids anything. I about had a heart attack on the spot. It was a glass tank not acrylic. The second store said they couldn't even get a 300, that the biggest they could do was a210 for 800 dollars. so I came home and started looking around online. well I found a place that will ship out a reef ready 300 for 1500. So we are going to order it . I'm going to have to piece the rest together a little at a time. But it will be in the works. I will be builing a custom stand and canopy .
we're going to do some aggresive fish. these are some of what we are thinking of stocking. We know most are not compatible we also understand that if we got everything we wanted it would be over stocked. but this is our wish list. I would love to hear you opinions on stocking . I know there are a ton of wish lists on the boards but ,I would like to hear not only about fish and inverts but also about how you would set it up as far as how you would arange the rock work and such.
I would like
huma huma trigger
cortez ray
bamboo shark
dog face puffer
minitus grouper
panther grouper
Posibly a small eel of some kind
My wife wants
Voliton lion
cortez ray
bamboo shark
dog face puffer
panther grouper
dragon wrase
 
aquapro_1

aquapro_1

Member
Originally Posted by mitzel
Well everybody . We went to 2 LFS yesterday to price out a monster 300 gallon. 1st store quoted me a price of 4300.00 for tank only no pumps filters stand lids anything. I about had a heart attack on the spot. It was a glass tank not acrylic. The second store said they couldn't even get a 300, that the biggest they could do was a210 for 800 dollars. so I came home and started looking around online. well I found a place that will ship out a reef ready 300 for 1500. So we are going to order it . I'm going to have to piece the rest together a little at a time. But it will be in the works. I will be builing a custom stand and canopy .
we're going to do some aggresive fish. these are some of what we are thinking of stocking. We know most are not compatible we also understand that if we got everything we wanted it would be over stocked. but this is our wish list. I would love to hear you opinions on stocking . I know there are a ton of wish lists on the boards but ,I would like to hear not only about fish and inverts but also about how you would set it up as far as how you would arange the rock work and such.
I would like
huma huma trigger
cortez ray
bamboo shark
dog face puffer
minitus grouper
panther grouper
Posibly a small eel of some kind
My wife wants
Voliton lion
cortez ray
bamboo sharkI had to
dog face puffer
panther grouper
dragon wrase
I have a huma huma & a dog faced puffer. They are too sweet to be aggressive. My pup, if nipped zips to the other side of the tank. Occassionally, I wake up & see my pup half the size of my tank. Guess he had enough nipping?? The Huma & pup fight for food. They both are hand fed. So beware if you do this...I had to feed the huma on the other side to avoid Blow ups....
Sorry for the pun...
 
mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
about how big are your huma and puffy pup? well when there isn't a blow up how big are they? what else do you have them with?
 
aquapro_1

aquapro_1

Member
Oh forgot to add, keep the shake on frozen krill....Live food jeopardizes the tank. If you don't know, the puffer is poisonous to devour. The Lion will stick anything that pisses him off. Recommend no to EVER stick your hand in the tank! I do to clean my tank...they killed my cleaning crew!
 
harlequin

harlequin

Member
with both lists. Dont mix the trigger and puffer with the shark, the shark has a good chance of getting its butt kicked. Not advisable to mix those two with a lion either. If you absolutely have to have a trigger go with one of the more peaceful kinds, niger, sargassum or pinktail. Putting one of the more aggressive ones is just asking for it. The Dragon wrasse will get eaten.
Lions are generally not aggressive, they will not use their spines as offensive weapons. If you run into it however then yeah. As many lions as I have had I have never had a problem cleaning the tank or messing with the clean-up crew. You could go with multiple Vols lions or perhaps have a few different of the big species or color morphs like black lions and Russel's Lions as well as the Vols.
Eel should be ok, get one of the mid sized (2-4 feet)ones and make sure its one of the first entrants before adding the main carnivores so it knows where to hide and has a chance to get a little bigger before the big boys arrive.
You will need rock for the eel, wrasse and lion but you will need lots of (read: majority of tank)open sand for the ray, you make the call.
The groupers will eat anything they can but otherwise not a big deal, they wont go out of their way to do anything.
 
J

jcrim

Guest
I just saw a 300 gallon on the auction site for $800 plus shipping. You might want to check it out.
 
mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
the tank I'm ordering is 850 , the shipping is what kills you . since you have to shipp it common carrier.
The way I'm thinking of setting it up is say about a third of the tank will be rocks either one side or the other then across the back of the tank . so insted of the back of the tank being the reef wall it would be the side of the tank. with the other 2/3 open sand .
I don't too much care for lions my self and my wifes not much for eels.
 
mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
My wife had mentioned something about a purple tang we saw yesterday. does anybody know how that might fit in to the mix?
 
promisetbg

promisetbg

Active Member
Originally Posted by mitzel
My wife had mentioned something about a purple tang we saw yesterday. does anybody know how that might fit in to the mix?
Not....tangs are more delicate....keeping nitrates down will be difficult in this tank.Not a good idea IMO.
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
1. Get a sulphur denitrator if you're going to have that kind of fish load and one good skimmer.
2. Either do a shark and ray focused tank, or an aggressive tank. Don't mix them.
3. Before you think about fish, what kind of equipment are you going to run on it? Expect to spend 1500+ to do it right. This will make your tank much more successful.
 
pco1988

pco1988

Member
There is a guy out in TN who makes custom tanks called glasscages.com. The tanks he makes are nice and good prices. He will either let you come and pick it up, or if you are near one of the shows he goes too he will bring it close to you.
290 Gal 72 x 30 x 31 Tall $950
300 Gal. Tall 96 x 24 x 31 Tall $800
300 Gal . wide 96 x 30 x 25 tall $850
310 Gal. Sq 48 x 48 x 31 $1035
Philip
 
mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
Originally Posted by pco1988
There is a guy out in TN who makes custom tanks called glasscages.com. The tanks he makes are nice and good prices. He will either let you come and pick it up, or if you are near one of the shows he goes too he will bring it close to you.
290 Gal 72 x 30 x 31 Tall $950
300 Gal. Tall 96 x 24 x 31 Tall $800
300 Gal . wide 96 x 30 x 25 tall $850
310 Gal. Sq 48 x 48 x 31 $1035
Philip

Thats the place . I just didn't want to use the web address.
 
mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
I might see if I can swing going and picking it up at a show. the problem with that is taking time off from work and the gas money it would cost to drive to the show. plus getting my brother to go with me to help load and unload it. It might just be less hassel to have it shipped.
Well I think we have scratched the lion off the list. And I think we might try the huma huma in there but be ready to move it incase it gets nippy,same with the dog face.The bamboo might be a scratch too , But the grouper is a must and I'm undecided on an eel. My wife said the green wolf wouldn't tottaly freak her out. But she said absolutly no topless mermaids.
clam shells must remain on at all times.
I plan on building my own sump system.using a 55gallon tank and getting a very very big skimmer . I'm going to try and run at least 1500 GPH on a closed loop . two 300 watt heaters. I have one in my 125 and it hardly ever kicks on. I wont be using a chiller because the tank will be in the den which is on the north side of the house out of direct sunlight and is also the room that the swamp cooler is in durring the summer. And I plan on a huge reffugium in the sump to help displace nitrates. I plan on WEEKLY water changes of 30-40 gallons.I'm going to double up on everything that might fail mechanicaly. I'm thinking 5 400 watt MH stagered three in front and two in the back. 3 20,000k and 2 10,000 k. Not to sure how that will look but I'm willing to replace bulbs to get the right lighting . I'm planning an auto top off to the sump . I will be feeding frozen squid shrimp and scllops from the deli , As well as frozen silversides. OH YEA AND GOLDFISH
just kidding .
 
pco1988

pco1988

Member
you are going to need more than just you and your bro because it takes about 2 to move a 135 let alone a 300. I would suggest getting it shipped and have a group of people to help you. :thinking:
Philip
 
roofis

roofis

Member
Originally Posted by pco1988
There is a guy out in TN who makes custom tanks called glasscages.com. The tanks he makes are nice and good prices. He will either let you come and pick it up, or if you are near one of the shows he goes too he will bring it close to you.
290 Gal 72 x 30 x 31 Tall $950
300 Gal. Tall 96 x 24 x 31 Tall $800
300 Gal . wide 96 x 30 x 25 tall $850
310 Gal. Sq 48 x 48 x 31 $1035
Philip
I second this. I bought my 115, ALL WOOD STAND, ALL WOOD CANOPY for like 500 dollars. I went out there, picked it up, and the work he does is REALLY GOOD. My 115 is all glass and weighs about 230lbs empty. No plastic braces, thick, THICK glass. For anyone, I'd highly recommend. He delivers to shows, so check him out.
 
mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
Ok I was looking at my den and I see where I want to put the tank I have a spot where the wall is recesed about 26 inches where the stairs come from the basement. the spot is also a little over 98 inches wide . the tank would fit perfectly in this spot. the thing I'm wondering is one side of the tank would be against an outside wall. and near a window. this would be on the north side of the house an wouldn't recive direct sunlight . With some good insulation between the tank and wall would I have any worries. this spot would work very well and it would have that built in look.
 
mitzel

mitzel

Active Member
I have been looking a filtration ideas and I came across a red sea canister/uv steralizer that is rated for tanks up to 1000 gallons with heavy bio load. I was wondering if anbody had any experiances with this in there set up ? Here is the tech info copy and pasted from their website.
A multi purpose filter system including a 25 Micron spin-bonded polyester filter cartridge to provide polished filtered water and an 18 watt UV sterilizer to kill harmful free floating bacteria and algae. The combination of a 25 Micron mechanical filter and an 18-watt UV sterilizer make this filter ideal for large aquariums, ponds or for aquariums with heavy waste loads.
I'm thinking of adding this in to the filter system with the skimmer and refugugem. I'm just not sure how to set it up, Maybe have the water come in from the tank and thru the refuge then into the skimmer and out in to the canister/UV then pumped back in to the tank.
What do you think?
 
aw2

aw2

Active Member
Originally Posted by mitzel
I would like
huma huma trigger
cortez ray
bamboo shark
dog face puffer
minitus grouper
panther grouper
Posibly a small eel of some kind
My wife wants
Voliton lion
cortez ray
bamboo shark
dog face puffer
panther grouper
dragon wrase
If you're going with either a shark or a ray, you're going to have to leave out the Dog Faced Puffer (will nip slow moving, bottom dwelling fish). The only other problem would be the Lion, which someone else mentioned. Bamboos are clumsy fish, often just pushing others out of the way. If it tries to do that with a Lion, it's going to get stung. Humu Triggers, most of the time, are quite peaceful but the personality will vary with each fish. Triggers are notorious for nipping Lions fins, and also for picking at the eyes of sharks or rays.
The only other problem, that I see, is your eel idea. You're going to have quite a bit of live rock and an eel, but on the other hand, you're have to have very minimal rock for the shark or ray to have room to move around. Going with a small eel is just going to give the Bamboo a midnight snack. If you're planning on keeping any eel species with a shark or ray, it needs to be a good sized Gymnothorax species.
For filtration, the best and easiest thing to do is to go with a large sump/refugium with a massive skimmer. That's one hell of a bioload and you're going to need a very large skimmer to take care of it. Putting a UV on a tank like this isnt really going to make a difference...only in keeping algea away, which is easy enough. Stay away from any type of filtration that has "bio balls" in it as they will only help trap detrius and will raise nitrAte and ammonia levels.
The ideal setup would be the water draining from the tank, into a drain chamber, in your sump. Then, flowing into the refugium section and father along, into a skimmer chamber. Then, a return pump, back into the tank.
 
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