"Big Kid" Tank v2

[ksfulk]

Ugh.

Great way to start a build thread, huh? Well, Ive been fighting my 180 gallon tank build for a year (almost to the day, which is conincidental, but nonetheless neat) and I came to a point where the things that bothered me the most about the tank, its inhabitants and my attempt to "do things right" were at such odds, I just didnt want to deal with it anymore. However, I love the hobby and couldnt just "drop" everything. Plus, my system had some really great parts - as with most things, the base was good, just the execution needed some help.

So. I spent a large portion of December trying to figure out what issues I had and how I could address them without breaking the holiday bank/budget and correcting the things that I saw to be issues both now and down the road. Time for a list:

• Tank depth of 36" - its near impossible to touch things at the bottom of the tank without climbing on top of it, and at 6'4", Im not built for having this type of issue. It was frustrating to do even the most basic task, like scraping the tank.

• Pennisula style - I love pennisula tanks, dont get me wrong, but I didnt have a good spot of it. So it stood much like a standard tank. I wasnt crazy about how I could only really have one style of water movement in my tank as well. The gyre pump did this flawlessly, but I was crazy about it overall.

• Footprint - Oh, this one drove me crazy. Having a 180 gallon tank with a 5' footprint was aggrevating, as I could keep all kinds of livestock, but I was limited with aquascaping and corals that I could put on the sand as well. Keep in mind, the end overflow stuck out about 6", really giving me around 4.5' to work with on the sand, and giving me two odd cut outs that didnt get much flow and trapped junk.

• Acrylic - Never again. I hated not being able to scrape coralline with wreckless abandon. It drove me nuts.

So, I started to look for solutions to these problems. I know I wanted something in the same ballpark gallon-wise, so I looked into a few local options for a custom built piece, but ended up having an Aqueon 125 gallon fall into my lap for (basically) free. With a 6' footprint I was looking at a near blank canvas. So, here's what I did with that tank:

• Tank Depth of 24" - SO much better! I can reach the bottom without having to strip down. Everyone appreciates that!

• Standard style tank - I can really crank the flow up in this style of tank. I needed to upgrade to new powerheads for this, but that also was exciting. I debated briefly on using two gyre pumps, as I already had one of them, and the control box.

• Footprint - I wanted the overflow to be as un-obtrusive as possible. I knew that I would have a ton of flow pushing through the tank as well, so I needed something that would handle that without fail. I was limited previously by only having two returns in the pennisula, so even though my return pump could push massive GPH, I couldnt take advantage of that. I sent off a few emails, and settled on the Synergy Reef 20" Overflow.

• Glass tank - Oh, how I missed you!

I had a few obstacles to overcome in "switching" the two tanks out for one another. But I saw these as opportunities as well. Firstly, I had managed to contract a pair of lovely pests that were plaguing my tank. Firstly, I acquired a few frags from a vendor that had some small aiptasia on the plugs. I always dip and remount my frags, but somehow (guessing there was some little aiptasia goo on one of the skeletons) I found a few rogue anemones in my tank. I tore out the rock that I could get to, but with there being a few I couldnt get to, I knew it was a matter of time before Aiptasia-geddon occured. I bought a couple peppermint shrimp to keep them at bay in the interum, which seemed to work quite well.

The other pest I found was Zoa eating nudibrachs! I was so mad that I had missed them. I noted that my zoa garden was closing up more and more, but only in certain spots. I assumed (wrongly) that this was the result of my clowns wiggling on them, but it wasnt until I saw a bright green "skirt" in the midst of some solid red zoas, that I saw the culprits. After reading up on treatment of them, I tore out the zoa rocks, put them into a 10gallon tank and started treatment with Flatworm Exit (thanks to @Pete polyp for that write up!). A month later, tons of dead nudis, and happier zoas! Hooray!

From there I just started working on the tank. I knew that I wanted a taller stand, so the tank would be slightly below the previous tanks height, so it was nicely viewable, but with a drop ceiling in the basement, I wanted a little more wiggle room with the lighting. I also knew that I wanted to paint the back of the tank to match the wall color. I hated seeing the blue wall through the coralline haze in the last tank, and I knew that this tank would sit a little lower, so I didnt want the wainscoting to be seen through the tank. Also, since I was using the Synergy overflow, I didnt want to look at all of the plumbing. The former tank had the drains and returns run through the bottom of the tank, so I didnt have that issue.

So, I dont know how many people live in the northern MidWest, but in December, its pretty cold here. Even in the garage. Particularily in Michigan where the lake effect snow band is. Unfortunately for me, thats where my house is, so I had to deal with that. Painting and drilling a tank was going to be a chore. I spent my time drawing out exactly where I wanted the holes for the overflow and returns, settling on four 3/4" returns with wide mouth sweeps on them to give me optimum flow. These would be spread out evenly accross the back of the tank, with the overflow in the dead center.

Using a corded drill, playdoh (dont laugh, I swear it was great), some rigid foam and a pair of clamps, I got to work on drilling the tank. I managed to drill both of the holes for the overflow and two of the four holes for my returns before the cheap bits that I bought off of amazon started to bend where the shank meets the hole saw. I noticed the wobble when I was almost through the last hole and I was lucky that it didnt cause some major issues. Lesson learned, always buy one more bit, LOL. I waited two days for the new bit to come in (Thanks, Prime!) and then finished drilling the back glass. No chip outs at all! I was pretty happy, even more so that I managed to drill all six holes in the basement without getting anything on the carpet!

The next day I went over the entire back of the tank with a razor blade and alcohol, cleaning it all thoroughly so I could proceed with painting. Also in the basement... my wife LOVES me. So, I taped off the whole tank, and proceeded to paint the whole thing blue... on our relatively new white carpeting. I didnt even use a drop cloth (mostly because Im an idiot), but managed to put three coats of pain on the back of the tank in less than two days. I really wanted it to dry thoroughly before putting on the next coat, and with the windows opened in the basement, I didnt want to kill any of the people in the house either. Fun times.

Now that the tank was prepped, I could turn my attentions to the stand. I went with the same basic setup that I did for my last tank, only modding the dimensions slightly so I could 1) access the rear plumbing without much squeezing and 2) have enough places to secure the drains and returns. On the last stand, there were some many "extra" supports, I had a hard time routing things without getting in my own way. It was extremely way over built. I did over build this stand as well, just not to the same level of paranoia. I also bit the bullet and bought a Kreg jig (if you are debating getting one, just do it!) and rand it all together with coated deck and kreg pocket screws. I will eventually skin the thing in expoy painted plywood, but I plan on waiting until I can use the garage for that one. The stand came together quickly and it was nice and level once complete. I hoisted the tank up onto it and mocked together some plumbing so I could see where the tight spots where before leaving it in the "game room" of the basement.

Im not sure if anyone has swapped out two big tanks before, but its daunting. Theres a lot that will and can go wrong, and I wanted to minimize that from happening. I also wanted to change up some of the stuff I was using in the old tank, and without having a real driving force behind it, I didnt need to rush into things.

Things to change for the new tank:

• Screen tops - I had expansive Eurobracing on the 180, so I didnt worry about losing fish to jumpers. This tank has no such thing, so I knew I needed screen tops

• Powerhead - I wanted to go with either two gyres or something completely different. I didnt have the budget for several MP-40s, so I started looking at Tunze pumps and the Neptune WAV.

• Lighting - I wasnt happy with my current light. I think it might have been one of the limiting factors in that tanks success. At 36" deep, even the 250w MH were struggling to get sufficent light to the bottom. The reflectors were also crap, so likely I wasnt putting any real sort of PAR to the sandbed. My clam was alive, but definately not thriving. I needed to change that. Plus, my last tank had LEDs, and while not immediate, I had long term success with those lights... and I really cooked my corals. ~300 watts of LEDS at 4" off the water line! Still, I had corals growing right upto the waterline with great coloration. I was glad to have tried MH, but I knew it wasnt a long term solution. I started looking for something that could combine LEDS and T5s.

• Substrate - I really really really like Tropic Eden sand. Its nice, its white, and it looks clean. But... I had purchased such a small grain size (miniflake ~1mm) that it would really blow around and drift if the flow was cranked up past 30%. I also didnt want such a deep bed as the last tank (~4"), but I knew I needed at least 2" for the wrasses that I have. I ended up buying 60lbs of Tropic Eden meso-flakes (~1.5-2mm) and am really happy with how it looks.

• Rock - I would use some of my rock again, but I had a weird mix of branching, base and marco rocks. With the aiptasia invasion still on my mind, I took out about 50% of what was in the tank and let it dry out completely. The rest I would use in the new tank, along with 50lbs of cherry scape and single/double cut pieces I ordered from MarcoRocks. I was really pleased with the selection of rocks that was sent to me. I planned on expoxying and threaded rods in the entire setup this time.

From there... the fun began.

 

[ksfulk]

Here's a bunch more pictures to break up the massive walls of text.

 

[ksfulk]

So. Here I was, not rushing to get the tanks switched out, and trying to stretch out the new equipment purchasing over an amount of time that met with the wife's budget, when a local posts on Facebook that they are looking for a 5' tank and stand. I leapt at the inquiry, knowing that I didnt want to sit on having two tanks in the house forever and that these opportunities dont just pop up all the time in my area. I contacted the inquirer and we haggled until we reached an agreement on price and pick up.

Fantastic, right?!?

Not really. I was elated that the tank was sold, but less so, that I needed to tear down and swap out everything with only two days notice. I swung by Home Depot on my way home from work and picked up three 29 gallon totes, and then the LFS to grab another heater and a few airstones and then went home and got to work.

I pulled out the rock that wasnt going to be used in the new tank and either put it to the side (aiptasia rocks) or placed it into the sump (150 gallon livestock tote). The rock with corals got placed into the 29 gallon totes and then I used a MJ pump to fill the totes with water from the tank. I then ran a siphon line from the inside of the tank to the overflow, so it started pulling water into the sump. I then went around into the fish room and ran a second line attached to another MJ pump from the sump to the floor drain. Since the pumps were basically the same, and the sump was big enough to handle any excess, I let them do their work, while I started pulling livestock out of the tank and into the totes. I also grabbed out a 5 qt bucket of sand with some water in it to seed the new tanks sand bed.

I managed to wrangle all of the fish, most of the snails and crabs out of the tank before the siphon line sucked out most of the water. I was super happy this worked out as smooth as it did. I then went into the fish room to pull the drain line and the MJ out of the sump, so I could preserve a few more gallons of water for the new tank. I closed it all off and then took a hacksaw to the plumbing lines, so I could remove the tank and the stand.

Heres where I learned a few more cuss words. It should be noted that planning out your plumbing while its in use is great, but it generally means that the deconstruction of said plumbing is going to be a pain. My bulkheads where placed so that the threads were out of the bottom of the tank so I could get to them easily when installing them initally. However, once I plumbed it all together, the valves that allowed me to close off the drains were so close to the bulkheads, that I couldnt simply remove them. Needless to say, I spent the better part of two hours disconnecting/destroying plumbing lines with several hacksaw blades and severely re-aggravating my torn rotator cuff.:mad: The Wye that I worked so hard to preserve coming from my pump, as it was connected to the manifold also snapped off right as I was finishing up. So I had to replace the entire set up, as there werent any unions on this piece of plumbing and it was all glued together. :mad::mad::mad:

Anyhow, the tank and stand were free, all of the livestock was rocking it out in tote-land and I was about to be several hundred dollars richer and rid of something that I didnt want to keep in my house. All in all, I felt pretty good. Then I checked my cell phone. The buyer had texted me about a family emergency that occurred that he had to take care of. He apologized profusely, but wouldnt be able to get the tank. He said he still wanted it, but didnt know when he would be able to pick it up. I told him not a problem, and to take care of his family. I then put down the phone and let loose a tyrade of swear words that would impress most navy men. Dejected, I went upstairs, washed up, went out for lunch, and came home ready to finish what I had started.

Three days later, I finished reworking the entire plumbing for my system and leak tested it all. I got ~100 gallons of new saltwater in the tank, and mixed it rigorously, knowing that the next day, if everything went alright, I would move livestock back into their new home. I had a few leaks (mostly bulkheads), but was able to get everything working in a dry manner relatively quickly. Once the system was in full circulation mode, I put in some of the new macro rocks and then turned the lights off for the night.

The next morning I came downstairs, greeted by a nasty smell, and to see that one of the totes was filled with a nasty surface scum. I flipped on the lights and saw three fish dead in the bottom of the tote. After pulling them out and changing about 80% of the water in the tote, I found that my large elegence coral had also bought the farm adding even more gross-ness to the situation. The reason behind all of the dead livestock, I believe, is that the air pump that I had providing the tote with air died sometime in the night. There were three large fish and several smaller ones in that tote, and with out the airstone, they suffocated I lost my 7" goldrim tang, my 7" rabbitfish, three chalk bass, a dottyback, a pyramid butterfly and a pair of clowns, along with several LPS corals. :mad::mad::mad:

So I finished checking for leaks and satisfied that it was all looking good, I carefully moved over all of the residents of the totes back into the new tank, along with several fish that I had been keeping in QT. Im really excited about this because I was able to pick up several fish that I thought would fit the new build much more nicely than the previous residents, and while I dont like admitting it, most of the livestock I lost was likely going to be sold off anyhow. So, I moved in an ornate leopard wrasse (!), a McCoskers Flasher, a Carpenter's Flasher, 6 1" blue green chromis, a pair of small female lyretails (for my lonely male) and a pair of Carberryi anthias. I figured adding everything at the same time would really mitigate the territory issues that can sometimes occur, as everyone would be new at the same time. So far, so good!

Bad pictures, but still... exciting. Anyhow, everything was settled and exploring, as I knew that the final pieces that were missing were the new lights and sand! My sand order from Premium Aquatics took a few extra days to get to me, so I had to add the sand about a week after the water and fish were in. The sand was nice and clean, but I couldnt figure out a "gentle" method to add it into the water so, I clouded up the water again for a few hours while the sand settled, and I worked on rescaping the rocks.

Its been about two weeks since all of the real work was put into the system and it seems to be running well. I took this opportunity to rework some of the things that really bothered me about the old system. Including finally mount and routing all of my Apex modules, and some of the switches I use for my system.

From this...

To this:

Night and day difference... I wish I would have done this a year ago.

I also finally decided on my lights. I wanted to use some AI lights, as Ive always liked theie products, but never really had the money to go after them. I figured I would be able to get away with using 3-4 AI Hydra 26s for the main lighing, while supplementing them with a Miro T-5 2 bulb retrofit with 80w ATI Blue + bulbs. I picked up the Hydras and an AWM module. After working with them and trying to troubleshoot for two days, I found out that the board on the light I was pairing was bad, so AI is sending me a new one. That said, I had a bad taste in my mouth from working with the AWM. I used a credit I had at DrsFosterSmith to purchase the AI Director, which hooked up all the lights without any real struggle on my part. Im much happier with the director than I am with the AWM, which is kind of disappointing, as I had bought the AWM thinking that if I had all Apex stuff, might as well buy that over the AI product.

So, current state of the tank, Im waiting on the new board to come from AI before I put together the floating canopy and the light system that will be the permanent setup. I might pick up a pair of Vegas from a local guy to fill out the shadowing that may come from the 26s being spread so far apart. Im not sure on that one. Meanwhile, the tank has the old fixture sitting on one end (T5s only), while a pair of Hydra 26s light up the other side. Real dicotomy of tank lighting, and its crazy watching fish swim from one side of the tank to the other and seeing their colors change just because of the lights.

I'll get up a video of the tank later today or tomorrow, but I wanted to get some of the corals placed and glued before shooting a tank full of frag plugs and broken rocks. I did most of that last night and Im seeing a nice "sheen" of diatoms on the new sandbed, which means everything is working nicely. My only real concern now is the sand sifters, as there isnt much algae in the new sand bed for them (Ive been hand feeding my conchs ulva from the fuge for the past two weeks) but they seem to be doing alright. All the fish are doing well, even the new arrivals and I hope that this continues. Just got my second set of Triton elementz, as Im almost through the first 10L, so I hope that once things settle, I can show more improved growth, as the lights should provide what I think was the bottleneck in the last tank.

 

[Pete polyp]

Looking good bud

 

[ksfulk]

Here's a look at the tank as it stands tonight. The fish are waiting for me to feed them, which is why they are following me and the camera, lol

 

[ksfulk]

Have a newcomer going into the tank today into my Synergy Acclimation box. Really happy with the coloration on this guy, Now just to wait a few days until he can be released in to the DT.

 

[ksfulk]

Was able to finally pick up some LRS Reef Frenzy from a "semi-local" shop this weekend and was able to get some into the tank this afternoon. Man, those fish go crazy for this stuff. Not only can you see the fish go crazy for the bits that fly off in the current, but the corals went crazy too. The rock nem got a big chunk that blew right into it and he's been super inflated all night long. LRS Reef Frenzy makes everyone go nuts!

 

[ksfulk]

Also managed to get the live webcam up and running. If anyone's interested in viewing, click HERE.

Username: guest
Password: notanemo

Lights come on at 8am EST and go out at 9pm EST

 

[revhtree]

Great job bro!

 

[ksfulk]

Everything's looking great in the tank right now. I had some doctors appointments in the morning yesterday, so I took the day off and had my live sale goodies delivered to me yesterday when I could take some time to get everything into the tank. The whole process took about 4 hours when it was all said and done. I'm really excited to see how things take off in this tank!

Here's a quick morning shot before I left to go pick everything up. The lubbock's wrasse was getting a bit of harassment even after spending two days in the social acclimation box. Seems to be ok now, but my solon must have been having some kind of inferiority complex. My remaining QT'ed fish, a tank-raised Bangaii Cardinal, has finally made it into the tank as well. He's stopped eating (or at least I havent seen him eat in the past day or two) which is somewhat alarming, but going from his peaceful "alone tank" to this one that pretty full of movement might be the issue. I'll keep an eye on him.

So, anyhow, onto the main event. Cherry Corals had a live sale this past Saturday, and I've never been able to not participate in one. Also, now that I wont be able to go to the big Michigan Swap at the end of February (because of work obligations), so I was able to grab some really nice pieces this way. As it happens, I also had a couple of nice coupons and gift certs for Unique Coral, which was running a 10% off sale as well, so I made an order for each place.

Unique Corals order:

Im sure a lot of people have their own "processing" procedure for when they get in a load of corals. I'll document mine here, mostly for me, since there isnt a whole lot of traffic through these parts.

1. Individual bags are unpacked from shipper and checked for obliterated corals before opening. If ok, bags are placed in refugium/sump to warm up for approximately 30 minutes
2. Using a small styrofoam cooler with a piece of eggcrate stuck into the side walls, I fill this 1/2 with tank water
3. Removing coral from the bags, bag water is dumped into the cooler, creating a 1/2 tank, 1/2 bag water mix. The corals are visually inspected and then placed in the cooler to acclimate.
4. Corals are removed from acclimation chamber after 15 minutes. They are then placed in a coral dip (Bayer Total Insect Killer + tank water) for 10 minutes (time is 10 for most sps/lps, 7 minutes for smooth skin sps, 15 for zoas)
5. Corals are blasted with coral dip three times through the dipping process to remove any clingy pests.
6. Corals are swished in dip, removed to a tank water bath and allowed to rest for 1 minute, then removed from rinse #1 and placed in rinse #2 (again, just tank water) and allowed to rest for 1 minute before being swished again
7. Corals are inspected with magnification and removed from frag plug and remounted onto clean plugs before being placed into another styrofoam cooler with eggcrate to allow the glue to set.
8. Corals are moved into the tank and onto the frag rack.

Sounds complex, but its really simple, once you get a good rotation going. Not a knock against any vendor at all, but removing the "stock" frag plug is a great way to avoid pests coming into your system. Ive only not done it once, and that time I managed to get both zoa eating nudibrachs and aiptasia into my system. Now, its basically zealous overkill, but I do it regardless. And here's why:

Those little buggers (aiptasia on the right, some kind of flatworm (I believe, its not a sponge or a slug/snail) on the left). No blame to the vendors, as this is what Im putting into my tank. Its hard to avoid hitchhikers, but this little amount of prevention makes me sleep better at night.

Anyhow, I'll put the cherry corals order pictures in the next post, as there is a LOT of them. But here's a checklist of what I ordered and some pictures of the new livestock:

 

[ksfulk]

Cherry Corals order:

Thats all the processing/unpacking pics for that shipment. Once I got them all in the tank and happy, this is what it looks like:

Minor note: I ended up with a pair of Hawkins frags, after I dropped the original and broke off a branch. Hooray! Back up frag! Sorry the frogspawn and elegance are blurry - and I forgot to get another shot of the Wellsophyllia. But all in all, Im really happy with the way this all turned out. I also restocked my Triton Elementz and recalibrated my dosing pump last night. Now to start monitoring again on a daily basis and document the growth from these bad boys. Hopefully nothing has turned while Im at work today!

 

[ksfulk]

I finished my lights as well. I got the new board from AI in the mail today, so I was able to put that to good use. We'll see how the coral like it. I think I lucked out with the color schedule program as I like the look out of the box.

Anyhow, its simply a 60" Miro T5 retrofit with 3 AI Hydra 26s. I was afraid I would need more AIs to cover everything and prevent shadowing - but it looks good so far.Perhaps its my own naivety though.

 

[Reeflogic]

Enjoyed reading ALL you had to say, lol, you put in every detail, much like I do haha, but hey, at least we have something to say! Following along to watch it grow. Also, I just moved from Battle Creek to Knoxville, no more lake effect snow for this guy!! (but I do miss Michigan!)

 

[ksfulk]

Enjoyed reading ALL you had to say, lol, you put in every detail, much like I do haha, but hey, at least we have something to say! Following along to watch it grow. Also, I just moved from Battle Creek to Knoxville, no more lake effect snow for this guy!! (but I do miss Michigan!)

You probably arent missing it too much this week then! I think we had about 10" of snow on Friday, and it was a balmy -3 yesterday before wind chill!

I appreciate the comments on the thread. I write like I speak, which is too often for most people. However, I think its important for myself and others to see what the ups and downs of having one of these big tanks is like. Its not all "nemos" and glamourous huge colony corals. It takes sweat, swear words and a lot of "on the job" learning.

In the end, I hope its worth it for others, as its already worth it for me.

 

[ksfulk]

Random pictures from my reef tonight. Some better than others, and all shot with my phone. Might break out the DSLR this weekend.

 

[ksfulk]

Broke out the good camera and the Avast porthole for some nice pictures.

 

[ksfulk]

Nothing much going on with the tank at the moment. I had a phosphate spike from a dead fish - I have no luck with rabbits at all. Which made my frags look like crap. Ive added some more rocks to give me more "prime" SPS real estate, and i epoxied my frogspawn, goni and elegance in place. I also have a pair of lyretails in the social acclimation box for a few days.

 

[ksfulk]

 

[Reeflogic]

lol, that song went very well with the feeding frenzy! Nice video, tank is looking great!! Thanks again for your help on the Avast Marine top off!!!

 

[ksfulk]

Blech... lost nearly every stony coral that Ive gotten. Doesnt matter what it is - acro, monti, cap, digi, pavona.... they're all dropping like flies. Problem is that I have no idea why. Parameters have been stable, and most everything else has been looking good - the LPS and zoas have been doing well. Maybe its just a matter of maturity, who knows. Im sending out a Triton test to rule anything else out.

I did notice that there is some small white flatworms living in my refugium - I believe them to be acoel flatworms, as they have a white body and a crescent shaped end, which is what a long internet search seems to confirm. Im guessing that my leopard and melanurus wrasses are taking care of any that wander into the display tank, but there are a few dozen hanging out in there. I thought about getting a yellow coris to living in my fuge, but that seems like he'll decimate the pods in there too. Never had to deal with these kind of flatworms before, so I guess I'll just keep an eye on it.

Ive also been battling aiptasia. Took out a lot of rock and Im aiptasia-x and super gluing my way to victory. I hope... its looking better at least. I'd love to get some berghia, but with my wrasses, I doubt theyd last very long. So blech on that too.

I did get a few clams from Uniquecorals the other day, and they were the "they pick" variety, so I had no idea what they would look like. And when they showed up, the maxima clam bag was pretty nasty looking and I didnt see any mantle poking out at all. After acclimation it was at least not completely pinched shut and an hour later, both the derasa and the maxima were stretching out and basking in the light. They've been doing well the past few days. Here's a crappy picture... both of them flinched because of the flash.