How To: My 300 gallon salt water reef tank

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
by Brian Daniel Eisenberg

This is a repost from another blog I used to have setup that I’m now consolidating. Here’s the cut & paste from the original post, where I explain how my 300 gallon reef tank came to be, along with a rough approximation of how much it cost me to setup.

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With a background in the biological sciences, I’ve always been amazed at the complexity of natural systems, especially those that exist in the oceans. Just over 10 years ago, I got into salt water reef tanks and the science of growing corals and other marine species. I started with a 50 gallon setup, and before I knew it I had like 6-7 reef systems up and running. Over time, this became quite cumbersome and time consuming to maintain as separate tanks, so when I had the opportunity to remodel one of my apt units, I decided to take the plunge and go big. The result is an in-wall 300 gallon salt water reef aquarium that is filled with exotics collections of marine life. Here are some links to some older pics. I hope to post lots more and also video clips of the amazingly complex ecosystem and slice of the ocean in my living room.

Quite often, I’m asked what it really takes to pull something like this off, so here are some rough estimates. This is a 10 year project in the making and some of my live animals are original species that I still have from my first few reef tanks. It took about a year and a half to get everything in order and dialed in to where it is now - which is basically a thriving 100% biologically filtered marine ecosystem.

I will try to post some new HD video clips soon (new Panasonic HDC-SD1P AVCHD video camera).

Cost estimates:

1. Tank - $2250 - SeaClear custom ordered from The Fish Store in Seattle, WA USA. It’s 96″x18″x30″ (LxWxH)
2. Primary flow pump - Dolphin AMP Master S-Series - 5600/4700 extenal pump - $330 - main flow pump from 2x 40 gallon sump tanks.
3. Power head circulation pumps 4x @ $250/pump - EcoTech Marine Vortech Magnetic impeller pumps. AMAZING TECH.
4. ~500 lbs of live rock - $6-10/lb - assorted Fiji, Marshall Island, Tonga live rock.
5. Custom tank room - $10k - contractor helped build, electrician wired
6. MH Lighting - 4x @ $125/ballast/reflector - 250W IceCap Metal Halide lamps + ballast
7. MH Lamps - ~$100 each - 2x 20k Radium Blue, 2x 10k Ushuii White
8. VHO ballasts - 2x @ ~$315/ballast - Icecap 660 VHO
9. 48″ VHO lamps - 4x @ $25/lamp - super actinic (420nm), 4x @ $25/lamp AquaSun
10. Animals - hard to estimate - rough guess - $5000 live corals, fish, inverts.
11. Titanium Heater - ~$200
12. Auto top off and mixing system - ~$600
13. Air, Water, Ice - RO/DI - $250 + filter media
14. Assorted test / water quality / monitoring kits - ~100
15. Salt / additives / foodstuffs - ~$200/month
16. EcoTech Marine Battery backup units - 2x @ $150/unit
17. Monthly electrical cost ~$150

GRAND TOTAL (rough estimate - probably a bit low, but fairly close) = $26480