232 gallon build (1 Viewer)

[Bradlincoln]

Started this build August 4 2025. It’s a Glasscages custom 72”x26”x30” glass tank on a 40” tall red oak stand made by them as well.

I did the finish myself with a golden oak satin stain.


I decided that I would tile the floor under the tank so I would not have to ever replace it and also works well if you splash water when doing maintenance.

The tank has two 1” returns and four 1 1/2” drains. I used purple pvc and sch80 fittings. 2 drains go to my sump filter socks, 1 drain goes to my refugium, and 1 for an emergency drain.



I reused my 75 gallon sump from my previous tank.

I’m running a varios 8 return pump and a reef octopus reagal 250 skimmer.
2 icecap 4k gyres, 2 icecap 2k gyres, 2 octopulse 2’s, and an octopulse 4 for flow in the tank. I use a maxspect gyre 230 in the sump camber I dose into. I use a brs dual chamber reactor for carbon/ gfo.
Lighting consists of 4 radion XR30 G4 pro’s, 3 radion XR15 G6 blue’s, 2 66” blade grows. And a kessil h80 in the sump.


I have the tank fully automated by Apex and hydrous wave engine for the pumps which uses commands from apex for different flow patterns. I run 1 dos for auto water changes, and 4 others for Alk/Cal, Kalk/nopox, Red Sea trace A,B,C,D, top off water come right from my rodi unit and is controlled with a selinoid and a float valve for redundancy.


I originally planned on doing a mixed reef but I’m definitely leaning toward being SPS heavy. My fish load is pretty light right now so I’ve been adding some. As of now there’s:
A pair or blue mandarin’s
4 springri damsels
2 pajama cardinals
2 tomato clowns
Six line wrasse
Solar wrasse
Strawberry basset
4 chalk bass
Clown tang
Sailfin tang
Chocolate tang
Orange shoulder
Purple tang
Tomini tang
Powder brown tang
Copper band butterfly
Pair of lyre tail anthia

 

[Bradlincoln]

Newer picture of control.

 

[spsick]

What a setup!

 

[Bradlincoln]

What a setup!

It’s a work in progress. I get lazy when the tank is going well so automation makes sure everything gets done. I still do monthly manual testing and started ICP testing quarterly recently. I’ve been battling aptasia for about 8 months now and I’m still not winning.

 

[Varig]

Wow awesome, now I’m double sad I missed your meeting. Next time! I love that you’re also an aspiring stick head, though it seems like with a lot more success than me so far.

My only comment, I hope that FTS is old. Because I spy a two little fishies nori clip. And I swear from Ken’s meeting you promised to rip it out and make sure it’s not rusty. Right? Right?

It’s great to have you here Brad. I can’t wait to watch the tank grow out.

 

[Bradlincoln]

Wow awesome, now I’m double sad I missed your meeting. Next time! I love that you’re also an aspiring stick head, though it seems like with a lot more success than me so far.

My only comment, I hope that FTS is old. Because I spy a two little fishies nori clip. And I swear from Ken’s meeting you promised to rip it out and make sure it’s not rusty. Right? Right?

It’s great to have you here Brad. I can’t wait to watch the tank grow out.

There’s actually 2 of them still in there”” until I get a new way for nori they stay.
I am watching closely for signs, when I do my next icp i will see if any thing looks like a magnet. I also have recently had a varios 8 pump magnet swell and by watching how fast it happened I think it would become very noticeable very quickly. I kept the magnet in water and it did this in 3 weeks.

 

[Varig]

I get it. Mine was not obvious until I opened the case. I do think the suggesting of preemptively opening it and filling it all with epoxy was a good idea.

In any case, looking great Brad. Really gong to try to make it if you grace us with another meeting someday.

 

[Bschowa]

Newer picture of control. View attachment 72249

Are you running both the hydros and an apex system for controls? If so are you leaning on switching over to just one or do you have them controlling different aspects of the tank? I would guess there is also some overlapping to verify if there is issues with parameters?

Great looking tank by the way.

 

[asifiqbal2]

There’s actually 2 of them still in there”” until I get a new way for nori they stay.
I am watching closely for signs, when I do my next icp i will see if any thing looks like a magnet. I also have recently had a varios 8 pump magnet swell and by watching how fast it happened I think it would become very noticeable very quickly. I kept the magnet in water and it did this in 3 weeks. View attachment 72261

Darn how long have you had it. I have a 10 .. I think the shaft on them are ceramic though

 

[Bradlincoln]

Darn how long have you had it. I have a 10 .. I think the shaft on them are ceramic though

I bought it the end of 2018 and I don’t clean my return and skimmer pump very often. I now have 2 each and just swap them out every few months. I have used various pumps since 2014 and have been happy with them.

 

[Bradlincoln]

Are you running both the hydros and an apex system for controls? If so are you leaning on switching over to just one or do you have them controlling different aspects of the tank? I would guess there is also some overlapping to verify if there is issues with parameters?

Great looking tank by the way.

I’m only running a wave engine V2 and a wave engine LE for my pumps, I plan on upgrading the LE for a V2 cause I am running 7 pumps in my tank and plan to add 1 more. The wave engines allow me to get rid of a few power bricks. I’m too invested in apex to switch, that said I’ve been using apex since 2016 and have had very few problems and support has always been top notch for me, I’m pretty familiar with the programming and with enough thought can make it do everything I’ve wanted to do. My Hydros experience is very limited and have not taken time to figure out what it’s capable of yet, so right now I use apex 0-10 volt output to hydros 0-10volt input to trigger different flow patterns programmed in hydros.

 

[asifiqbal2]

What all devices are running on wave engine, are they non Ecotech/AI

 

[Bradlincoln]

2 icecap 2k gyres, 2 icecap 4k gyres, 2 octopulse 2’s. I have an octopulse 4 run on its own controller and plan to add another and at that time I will upgrade my wave engine LE to a V2 and have them all under hydros control. I thought about doing vortecs but I’m not ready to spend the money yet. I can replace a pump about 6 times for the price of an mp60 and I would rather have to many pumps and I believe I would need 2 mp60’s and 4 mp40s for my tank. Flow is to important for sps to try and make it work with less.

 

[Bradlincoln]

2 icecap 2k gyres, 2 icecap 4k gyres, 2 octopulse 2’s. I have an octopulse 4 run on its own controller and plan to add another and at that time I will upgrade my wave engine LE to a V2 and have them all under hydros control. I thought about doing vortecs but I’m not ready to spend the money yet. I can replace a pump about 6 times for the price of an mp60 and I would rather have to many pumps and I believe I would need 2 mp60’s and 4 mp40s for my tank. Flow is to important for sps to try and make it work with less.