Brief Tank Description
250 gallon heavily planted discuss tank
What Filter System Do You Use?
Sump with bio balls and planted refugium
What Heating System Do You Use?
Finnex 1000w Titanium
What Lighting System Do You Use?
Dual Radeon Full Spectrum with Reef Link
What Fish Do You Have In Your Tank?
1 albino red discuss, 3 blue discuss, 2 red discuss, 2 orange discuss, 3 hatchet fish, 12 cardinals, 3 white neons, 3 head and taillights, 1 gold nugget pleco, 1 snowball pleco, 1 orange bristlenose pleco, 1 royal faroella, 2 faroellas, 2 zebra loaches, 3 chain link loaches, 1 sumo loach, 1 anubis Corey, 1 panda Corey, 2 roseline sharks, 1 siamese algae eater, 4 bamboo shrimp, many snails
What Plants Do You Have In Your Tank?
See tank pics
What Makes Your Tank Unique?
The tank has a large bioload that is supported mainly by natural filtration via the plants in the show tank as well as the biomedia and plants in the refugium. There is a sponge filter and carbon bag in the return on the sump. The ph is maintained by using a large amount of driftwood that release a lot of tannins in the tank. The sump has an auto top off system that is fed from a R/O filled storage tank in the basement.
What Do You Like Best About Your Tank?
The diversity of the fish species and the colors they add to the natural looking tank. The variety of species allows for all levels of the water column to be occupied and active.
The Radion lights are controlled via the EcoTech ReefLink system. There are also VorTech circulating power heads in the show tank controlled by the ReefLink as well. The light intensity and spectrum varies throughout the day cycle as well as the flow of the circulating pumps. All of this is controlled via templates that were created custom for this tank and uploaded to the ReefLink. These can be controlled and adjusted via computer or phone app.
The colors on the fish just pop with the lighting. I like the diversity of the plants in the tank & below the tank. Great set up.
The auto top off system is a Hygger system that monitors the water level in the return end of the sump to compensate for evaporation. This has a high water alarm and a timer alarm if the system takes too long to reach the fill line. The R/O water is supplied through a tube that is run through the wall from the basement into the back of the custom stand (built specifically for this tank and sump) and supplied by a booster pump. The R/O holding tank is 15 gallons that has a float valve to call for the R/O system to turn on automatically when the reservoir runs low.
Thank you Lucy. There has been a significant amount of time dedicated into attempting to achieve an attractive, diverse, low maintenance set-up. The photos pale compared to the actual appearance of the display.
This tank looks huge for 250 gallons. It looks deep. How frequently do you do water changes? Do you use your R/O water for water changes?
I try to do a partial change weekly, unfortunately I don’t have the space to store that much R/O in reserve so I use tap water. I do use Seachem Prime when I do this to protect the tank. I do not vac any of the substrate when I perform a change as I do not want to remove any of the bacteria and microbes that are living in there. I also do not use any fertilizer, iron or supplementary CO2 for the plant growth. I try to keep them stimulated to filter out as much nitrate and waste as possible. I do use an air stone to in order to oxygenate the water for both the fish, inverts and plants.