My House Reef upgrade

[scubadan206]

Does anyone know if this plastic box will be a problem in saltwater?
I found it for sale and it is exactly the right length and height for my skimmer to sit on.
Oh yeah. The air intake is modified for a 1 inch line to the outside.

[scubadan206]

Some pics of the finished glass.

The main drain section is 22 inches tall. Then overflows into the filtersock area.

Pic from the outside looking at the coral grow out area and the refugium area behind the white eggcrate.

The coral section has a moveable piece of acrylic built into the wall. The area that has the visible black eggcrate can be either opened or closed independently.
By sliding the acrylic side to one side I can force the water to flow into a different location to exit the coral area.

This complicated section of glass will force the water to travel a longer linear distance, also increasing the speed of the waterflow. Back and forth with glass to force more current down toward the substrate both to keep it clean and to maximize nutrient uptake through contact.
Eggcrate again to keep any fish out of the pump area. Will glue a finer mesh to the eggcrate as well. Return pump section back left side.

[scubadan206]

Working on a rack to hold Radion's. Want to find metal brackets to be able to move the lights around a little bit.
Mr. Saltwater tank had some nice metal with channels built in on his old tank. Going to see if I can find that stuff.

Daniel.

[dave.m]

If you plan to light part of your sump you might want to rethink white eggcrate for black. White eggcrate really attracts coraline growth which could eventually choke it off. Just a suggestion.

Dave.M

[Rtankster]

Originally Posted by scubadan206

Does anyone know if this plastic box will be a problem in saltwater?
I found it for sale and it is exactly the right length and height for my skimmer to sit on.
Oh yeah. The air intake is modified for a 1 inch line to the outside.

I used one like that for years under my rock work to create a cave without issues.

[scubadan206]

Originally Posted by dave.m

If you plan to light part of your sump you might want to rethink white eggcrate for black. White eggcrate really attracts coraline growth which could eventually choke it off. Just a suggestion.

Dave.M

Choke off the flow you mean? It's just there to hold back the cheto.
If the coraline starts to close off the holes in can just soak it in vinegar. I made that piece removeable.
Thanks though..

[druzzelle]

this is so different and so cool!!

[scubadan206]

Plan to use some lengths of this stuff to move my lights around. I plan to be able to move them 20 inches or so length or width.
http://www13.boschrexroth-us.com/Fra...&subcategory=1
I have 4 more radions as spares I bought from a local coral seller.
My thanks to Adam at Battlecorals. Still need to find uses for these.
I'm thinking of a few species specific tanks. Diving last month got me interested in the little yellow head jawfish that had eggs in their mouths.
The 90 gallon tall is 30 inches. They need like 8-10 inches of sand to make their burrows...

[scubadan206]

To any of you who may have caught it. I had by BA drain set up a little off.

This way will make it easier to start the main syphon.

[scubadan206]

I was hoping that my skimmer was going to be short enough to be covered by the lids. Guess that idea is out the door. Even more so if I decide to get a swabbie kit from Avast...

[scubadan206]

Anyone have good advise for mounting one of these? I can't mount it vertical at all. I know the outlet must be higher than the inlet for making sure the bubbles do not accumulate.

[scubadan206]

Ready to add water. Fitting at today is my birthday. Didn't plan it this way it just worked out as far as waiting for glue to dry.
Some pictures of the almost finished product. I still need to disassemble the tank upstairs for the swap to the new tank. Then I need to cut holes in the floor and line up the tubing for final connections in the ceiling downstairs.
The main pump and several reactors then need to be transferred.
I have a brute can full of liverock that has been curing for almost two years for some of it. I also have several large pieces sitting in my sump as well as my cheto refugium. I will be adding all the well seasoned rock to the new sump.
I also have miracle mud for a section of the new sump. I will add this and as much from the current system as I feel I can get away with.
I have a biopellet reactor running on my tank. I hope to be able to get away from needing these in the future. I will keep them running for the foreseeable future.





Daniel.

[swanny]

Holy woodworking skills man! Looks great, following.

[scubadan206]

Thanks. Appreciate it.
Water is off now but I had it filling for about 25 hours.
About half way there now. Will get back to it on Sunday night.
When it's full I will add the mud very carefully and then add a brute trashcan full of liverock.
I have some bacterial starters. I will give them about a day and then add the contents of my cheto refugium. It's swarming with pods and stuff.
Oh yeah. I suppose I should add the salt first. That would work best, and a heater...

[scubadan206]

To really drive home a main reason for this upgrade, especially the new 120 DT, my aqualifter pump stopped working again today. I have a syphon style overflow on the tank now, and it relies on the small pump to pull out air from inside it.
My Apex essentially saved the tank from a PH overdose and an overflow. The last chamber of the sump does not have enough volume to overflow the tank if the overflow stops working. However the ATO will think the sump level is low and fill the sump with more water. Which will then start to spill saltwater on the hardwood floors.
My Apex will sense a PH spike at 8.5 and kill the ATO. It will also shut off the main return if the water sensor on the top of the glass lids is tripped.
I was able to phone in some instructions to restart the syphon and later had to rebuild the aqualifter for the third time in a year.
Too anyone who has one of these I would highly recommend that you get rid of it ASAP.
To anyone thinking of a HOB style syphon overflow, please reconsider.
Just drill your tank so you don't have to worry about this problem constantly.

[scubadan206]

Update.
So after another episode with the darn aqualifter pump, in which I phoned a local reef shop, I had a friend swap out the old pump for a new/used model.
Anyway. Tank is filling as of Feb 18.

Man did that ever take forever. My RODI is 150 gallons per day.
Tank as of 2/23

I took a break for the weekend so it's slower than usual.
After about two days running full of water and salt, I added a couple bacterial starters for a jump start and diversity. Tank is running on three heaters. About 700 watts keep it at 78 or so.
Miracle Mud went in the tank in an area designed to hold it and increase waterflow close to the surface of the mud. That stuff really makes a mess.
Two days for that to settle and then I added a 44 gallon brute full of liverock. Have not had any discernable cycle. No trace of ammonia or nitrite.

[scubadan206]

Next.
The refugium on my main display has rock and cheto algae. The tank is only 20 gallons so I figured [how much can cheto really grow I there]?
The tank was sectioned off so only 2/3 was cheto, but when I pulled it out it was like a brick.
I added the contents of my refugium to the new tank in the designed section, and the cheto expanded. It now takes up about the size of a 55 gallon tank.
It's swarming with pods and little worms so I expect them to populate the entire thing soon

[scubadan206]

I have been emptying out my main display in expectation of the tank swap. Corals in the sand first. Then some [plugged] into the rock. Then corals that are completely encrusted.
Main tank looks dull. No more colors
Not really sure what to do with some of the larger pieces. The anemone is also a bit of a concern. It needs to go, but I don't want it to get hurt, or go on walkabout.
Next is to set up a temp holding bin and then go fishing. The tangs follow the nori clip around like puppies, so the first few should be easy.
After they get wise I will have to make a mess and pull out all the rock and start draining the tank.
A 55 gallon in place of my main, connected to the original sump will be plenty of filtration for a while.
Then on to disassembly of the old tank. Cutting holes in the floor, and connecting pipes to downstairs. Then to new sand, and re-aquascaping the new 120 display.
Moving the main return pump will make filling the new tank easy. Just fill extra water downstairs and turn on the pump.
Daniel.

[scubadan206]

Lots of work done. Waiting for the last pieces of pipe to dry on the overflow before I fill the new tank with water. Hope I have enough...
Updates incoming later today. I changed back to 3rd shift and I have off tonight.
My boss did this to me..... Jerk. I'm better off away from people like that.

[scubadan206]

Teaser.

[scubadan206]

First had to empty the tank of the water and rocks. Then move any fish I couldn't catch with the nori clip method. Also move all coral still attached to rocks into the basement tank.

Then had to remove the old tank and replace it with the new one with the built overflow.

All the corals not attached to large liverock were moved downstairs.






One of the toughest parts of the build on the replacement tank, was matching the lengths and getting the curves right on the spa-flex overflow hoses.
The three hoses make two 90 degree bends each in the ceiling downstairs.
Cutting holes in a perfectly good hardwood floor has a sense of finality to it. I took the advise of many on RC and cut the holes to the size of a heating vent so that if I ever move I can just pop in a vent and cover up the big hole in the floor.

[scubadan206]

Water went in easily. Still a little less salt in the system than I would like so I am letting it evaporate to a higher salinity. New sand went in after the rocks in a different aquascape minus the largest piece of rock.
Fish and coral went in next. All the coral from downstairs came up over about three days.
I left two fish to the tank downstairs, one mandarin and one yellow tang to eat algae in the coral section. The mandarin has since discovered he has the full run of the sump to explore. I will get him a mate some day but for now he sits at the glass and pecks at the copopods on the other side of it.

[scubadan206]

My spotbreast angelfish developed popeye just after the move. I suspect it came from chasing her around twice in two weeks with a net.

I now have her in a hospital tank with some epsom salt. I will treat her with an antibiotic made for things like that later. For now she is doing much better after just one day in her ICU tank.....

Daniel.

[scubadan206]

Update.
I bought a clean-up crew as my collection of snails and crabs was severely lacking. Bought about 100 mixed snails and 30 or so dwarf crabs. Also some tigertail cucumbers and sand sifting starfish.
Distributed them all between the two tanks. Everything is doing well minus the starfish. They don't seem to ship very well at all and were disintegrating in their shipping bags.
They continued to basically fall apart over the last three days, so I just pulled them out and gave them a burial at sea.
Salinity is up where I want it finally and my top-off is running. I use a DIY 10 gallon Kalkwasser setup with my ato. I have a small mixing pump in the reservoir that turns on three minutes every three hours. I dump in about 5 heaping teaspoons of kalk and mix it up. My ato pump has been running just fine for more than two years with no problems. Kalkwasser is great for adding your dosing elements and the PH stays about right since the mix pump does not break the film on top of the kalk slurry. Have been testing daily to get my levels stable.
Going to start fragging my collection to let them grow out soon, and then go find me a frag swap or something else cheap to find as much variety as possible.
Happy Easter everyone!!
He is risen indeed!!!!
Daniel.

[scubadan206]

Time for an update.
My anemone has split. I knew they do on occasion and it really doesn't come as much of a surprise.
It kind of exploded from the mouth, or kind of melted from the middle and separated into at least three smaller bubble tips.
I know that ALK swings can prompt this right? Well my ALK has gone down to below 6 DKH in the last few weeks. I have brought it up slowly with doesing and kalkwasser. It now is solid at 7.8-8.0 for a while.
I don't know. it's fine really as it was starting to wave at some sps corals.
I got it when it was only silver dollar sized, and last week it was reaching about 20 inches with it's tentacles.
We'll see if I can keep the kids from exploring too much.
Almost time to go vote!

I also collected a bunch of frags from my main tank. Many of the zoa's have no more room to grow on their little rock islands so I broke off a bunch of little polyps growing on the sand and stuff. Also cut up some birdsnest and some acro's into multiples. Most of the zoa's I glued or epoxied to large rubble rock to give them lots of room to multiply.
Grow baby grow!
Daniel.