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Tidal Gardens 700-Gallon Coral Farm

Tidal Gardens 700-Gallon Coral Farm

by Than Thein
Volume
700 gal
Dimensions
8 ft × 4 ft × 3 ft
Location
🇺🇸 Copley, OH, USA
Established
2012
Tank type
Coral propagation / display
A coral farm disguised as a display tank — and the best reef cinematography in the hobby.

A 700-gallon working coral farm that doubles as the most cinematic reef on YouTube. Than's tank is the textbook case for mariculture-first stocking — frags he's grown for 10+ years now go to retailers as named "TG" lines. His videos shaped how a generation of reefers thinks about coral husbandry.

View original source
Source: Owner's YouTube channel (1.5M subs)

Equipment Breakdown

Shop this build · 4 of 8 items priced
Tidal Gardens 700-Gallon Coral Farm — Full Equipment List
$1,241
est. build cost
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Filtration
Reef Octopus Oversized skimmer
Reef Octopus
Oversized skimmer
Protein skimmer
Run deliberately oversized — on a working coral farm, skimming headroom beats a just-big-enough unit.
Modern equivalent: Reef Octopus Classic INT Series →
Multi-stage filtration
Mechanical + chemical filtration
🔧 DIY mod
Filter socks feed GFO and carbon stages in sequence — mechanical capture first, then chemical polishing on the way back to the display.
Lighting
AI Hydra 64
AI
Hydra 64
Display lights ×4
Four Hydra 64s across a 700-gallon farm — repeatable, even output matters more than peak PAR when the frags are the product.
$701.99 Buy → at Bulk Reef Supply Details →
Flow & Circulation
EcoTech Marine VorTech MP60
EcoTech Marine
VorTech MP60
Wavemakers ×4
⭐ Premium pick
Four of EcoTech's biggest pumps keep detritus suspended and flow randomized across a 700-gallon grow-out.
Tunze Osmolator
Tunze
Osmolator
Auto top-off
Two-sensor failsafe design guards the top-off — at 700 gallons, an ATO stuck on is a slow-motion salinity disaster.
$127.49 Buy → at Bulk Reef Supply Details →
Monitoring & Control
Neptune Systems Apex Classic
Neptune Systems
Apex Classic
Controller
🏋️ Workhorse
The first-generation Apex, still handling logging and automation on a farm whose frag lines go back 10-plus years.
Modern equivalent: Neptune Apex Controller
$399.95 Buy → ⚠ Out at Bulk Reef Supply Details →
Water & Salt
Aquaforest Reef Salt
Aquaforest
Reef Salt
Salt mix
$11.29 Buy → at Bulk Reef Supply Details →
Dosing
Aquaforest Component Strong (Ca+KH+Mg)
Aquaforest
Component Strong (Ca+KH+Mg)
Ca/Alk/Mg dosing
Aquaforest's concentrated three-part covers the big three — farm-scale consumption favors strong concentrates over dilute all-in-ones.