DBurr's betterlatethannever build thread

Dburr1014 · Mar 27, 2023

Okay
My build even though it happened 9 years ago. It might take me that long to get to finish this thread so bare with me.

Need to post the new tank before you start my journey.
Well, I can't post it right here... So it's at the bottom of this first post.

I've been reefing since mid 90's.
Took a break 2007, new wife, new life and picked it back up in 2014.
My wife had no idea what she was in for when she said to go ahead and build a reef.

I knew how bad the bug bites. I wanted to go small, maybe 60 gallon, she wanted bigger. We settled on a 75 standard RR. It has a basement Rubbermaid sump.

This is my earliest picture I have.
You can see some live rock and some I made with cement and oyster shells.

Lots of diatoms.
Powered by a genx pump and 175 watt MH fixture I bought used. I dismantled the fixture and mounted it in the short canopy.
I bought everything used at this time but the tank. One of the powerheads started leaking voltage, almost started a fire when the light got splashed... Good times back then.

Back then I bought a pair of clowns and the Royal Gramma that are still with me. Also had a couple pajama Cardinal fish that are not with me.

Dburr1014 · Mar 27, 2023

Fast forward a couple years.
Lots of coraline algae. Bought a few coral, some did well some not so much. The paly I still have but since I have sold of all the leathers I had. My system is now all sps and lps.

At some point, late 2016 maybe, I switched to my reef breeders light.
I have proof with all this blue.

started to collect some coral.

and sps, my tri color valida.

Dburr1014 · Mar 27, 2023

2017 was a good year.
I went to my local clubs fragtober fest and won my aquamaxx skimmer and my tunze ATO.
Do I disassembled my MRC skimmer I bought used and repurposed it for a Kalk reactor.
RODI goes in the side to a tube running to the inside bottom of the skimmer. Water mixes with the Kalk everytime the system calls for water. Kalk water comes out the top.
Not sure why but I hate to throw away good parts. I know I can't sell them cuz they barely work but to repurposed makes sense to me. I still use this today. I add a couple heaping tablespoons of Mrs. Wages every 3 or 4 days.

2017 was also a good year to add some more frags.

Dburr1014 · Mar 29, 2023

2018
The tank is definatly maturing.
Added my rainbow bubble tip and a few more lps. The tri-color valida is starting to take off.

But there is a problem.
I went to a new fish store and bought a couple calk bass and didn't QT them.
Up to now all my fish came from Blake's Aqua Den here in CT and never had a problem with any fish.
Ick has come.

Good news, I have a hospital tank I can put them in.
Bad news, it's only 20 gallons.

I gathered all the fish, purple tang, royal Gramma, 2 clowns and a wrasse and get them in the 20 with lots of pvc. Start copper and pray.
Everyday I checked copper and ammonia. Fed sparingly and every 2 days changed some water out. Not the best situation but they all survived.
This build thread is all about the journey, the ups and downs. 2018 was a high and low all at the same time. The worst part is the bass were killed by the clowns, double whammy.

October 2018, all the fish go back into the display.
Then some more bad news... I get the news my oldest brother past away. This hit home that we have limited number of days on earth and we adjoins use them wisely. He was only 62 and had a massive coronary. I say and watched the tank one night after the news. I enjoyed the peacefulness of the fish swimming around with not a care in the world. This is when I took the pic of my clown fish and had the idea to make it forever.

Dburr1014 · Mar 30, 2023

2019
At some point I converted my overflow to a Herbie and made a cover for it from a foam sheet. I remember a whole lot of aptaisia in the overflow. Thought the cover would help with that. There were so many I actually poured bleach down in the overflow. I just plugged the sump pipe and filled it up. Rinsed it out a few times and fired it back up. Oh the things we do to kill aptaisia. Then I ordered berghia and let them work on the display.

This must have been when I got my clam, not really sure but I still have it.
FTS and a couple frags, mummy eye chalice and my blue ridge.

Things are growing, tank is just coasting along.

pickup this guy. Loved this fish. What I didn't know at the time is they are sensitive to dinos. When I got dinos, I was removing my sandbed and scooped him up by accident. It was late, and I was done for the day. Checked the tank, couldn't find him. I just figured he was in the sand that was left in the tank. The next day I went to the basement where I left the bucket and started rinsing in tap water. I was really heavy handed mixing it up. I saw a flash of pink in the sand. I bugged out, no way... There he was in the tap water. I scooped him up and threw him in the display. He was completly fine... For the time being.
I had a really long battle with dinos and months later he disappeared. It was about 5 or 6 months later he reappeared very thin. He was in the sandbed the whole time. He lived for a couple days then past. It was this time I found out they are really sensitive to dinos and will hide in the bed. Miss this guy.

Dburr1014 · Mar 30, 2023

2020 the covid years
Not a lot of pics.
Few new coral, dinos, and a mess of a sump.
Not much to say, everything still growing or hanging on.

Oh, my green slimer. Nearly died because of dinos. It was down to about the size of half a fingernail. Still have it today.

Dburr1014 · Mar 30, 2023

2021
I got my apex for Christmas. Let the automation begin.
But the dinos are killing my sps.
Chalice seem unaffected. I also made a rock for the bta so I can stick it to the back wall. The guy never budges.

I never had to deal with dinos before. So I had no idea what they were out how to deal with them. Started to up my nutrients, dose h2o2 and mb7 per vetteguy53081. They would not go away... Until I pickup a uv from jeboa. My dinos went into the water column at night so I ran the uv at night also. Just used a simple pump in the display and dumped back in the display. Simple and effective.

what's in your overflow?

things are starting to look better now I'm getting thru the dinos.

Dburr1014 · Mar 30, 2023

2022
I fixed up my Reefbreeders light with a splash shield since my canopy is real short. Let the tank breath.

my walt disney frag I bought in April of 2022. Starting to encrust.

I entered my first grow out contest. Bloodbank from battle corals.

top down shots.

I added a second royal Gramma. Thanks petco for shipping the wrong order to that nice lady who gave it to me.

Dburr1014 · Mar 30, 2023

2023 to date
One year growth on the walt disney!

My bloodbank had detached itself so many times from the rock it's not even funny. I have had zero growth but it has colored up some. This last time I used thin superglue and sand. It's not coming up again. Proof you can glue wet rocks together with thin superglue and sand.

after dinos I have been dealing with small patches of hair here and there. Mostly in really tight spaces. I've been having to use tweezers. Also buying small snails, we'll see how it goes.

this year at FFM, we had some good speakers. I got to talk for a bit with Lou and Andrew.

Oops, had a mis-hap with my Kalk reactor. Forgot to turn off the pump and it delivered slurry to the tank. I have a extremely large frag of this, I'll have to replace it and frag this one up.

Dburr1014 · Mar 30, 2023

Let's look at some of my gear.
Sump is a mess, it's cramped, it's in the basement, but it works for now.
And yes, it's under the stairs. I did say it's cramped.

I have this saying, if it can leak somehow it will. So everything that holds water goes in the tub. I just don't trust not to.

just picked up this LED bulb for a little frag rack I made. Looks promising.

The fuge is lit by a 65k daylight flood light from home depot.

thatmanMIKEson · Apr 5, 2023

Looking good, I'm interested in catching up from 2014!

Dburr1014 · Apr 5, 2023

thatmanMIKEson said:
Looking good, I'm interested in catching up from 2014!

Need to update more, spring is here and been busy. Kinda forgot about this thread.

Dburr1014 · Jan 4, 2024

So, I did a thing new years day.
Went to OSA in Coventry MA and ordered a planet 150 gallon. 60"x24"x25".
I'm moving the location in the living room. So the tank will be 90° rotated on a load bearing wall. I had a building inspector come over from my town hall and he liked what he saw. I have sistered 10" joists in the basement and it is also right next to the original Foundation before the addition was put on. All I need to do is put up a couple of posts in a couple of 2x6s to Shore it up. Hopefully it goes easy peasy. Osa should be coming to deliver it to the location mid-march so they say. I think my purple tang will be very happy, LOL.
I'm going to update this with some pictures once I take a few.
When I start plumbing and switching it over I will take some more pics and more details.

Dburr1014 · Feb 11, 2024

I started my preparation for the tank to come. First thing was 'can my floor support the extra weight'?
After hours of researching, no, it cannot.
I do however have a good base to start with. The main weight beam down the center of the house is 2x10's and the joists are sistered 13" away from the beam. This will prevent them from twisting along with the bracing. But the new tank will be 24" wide and will be an EXT overflow. I'm figuring 28" away from the wall in total.

So I have to calculate the load I need to brace. I'm thinking 2000 lbs so I'm going to brace for 2500lbs. Just cuz.
My wife happens to work at the townhall and she asked the building inspector to come over the house to be sure. I don't ever ask for help and I'm glad she asked him just to be safe. Thank you hunny.
I told him my plans and he looked at the site. I originally was going to put up a beam of (2) 2x6. He thought that was a good idea and liked how the joists looked sistered. Then ON the way out he said if you hear cracking add another post. I'm not sure if he was joking or not. So I decided on 2x8 beams instead.

Dburr1014 · Feb 11, 2024

Went to home depot for my supplies.

Jack post, wood, glue, screws.

First measured the length for the beam.
92"
Cut both 2x8 at 92" liquid nails in between and screwed it together.

I didn't take a lot of pics, I had my hands full. Luckily, I have a shelf to help me on one side and duct work on the other to get this beam up.

I only needed 1 post as you can see in the pictures. The other side was the original house foundation. It is about a 4' wall so I supported the beam on that with a couple 2x4. Screwed them in to the existing wood. I made the 2x4 slightly longer for a real tight fit. Cranked up the beam until I heard the floor moving. Yikes!
Then I added 1 more 2x4 to the side for a little more support. Just incase?!

Made sure it's all level.

I also didn't know that you need ground contact wood under your post for anyone thinking of doing this.

Dburr1014 · Feb 15, 2024

Getting ready... For battle!

I have blue clove polyps and spionid worms that I don't want to transfer to the new tank.

I have been keeping the blue clove polyps at bay with hydrogen peroxide and scrubbing with a toothbrush.

The medicine fenbendazole found in heartworm drug for dogs is what I use. The thread is here:

Thread 'Eliminating Blue Clove Polyps with Fenbendazole' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/eliminating-blue-clove-polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/

I started the treatment Tuesday night. I mixed and inadvertently made the drug way too strong. I hope I don't kill my LPS.

Couldn't find any pictures but you can see one rock with the blasto in this picture.
I overdosed by a lot. It should be 2mg per gallon and I did 200mg for 1.25 gallons. Yikes. The next morning I removed 1/3 gallon and replaced it with fresh top off salt water. Things looked okay still. When I got home the next day I had no power, a tree have fallen on the power of lines. When the power came up a couple hours later I changed another 1/3 gallon. This morning and I checked my little tank and it smelled like death and was very cloudy. The LPS was closed up but looking okay, they were a little worms floating around and the blue clove polyps were all closed up. At this point I'm almost halfway into the 72 hours of treatment and had to go to work. When I get home I'll change another 1/3 gallon.

Dburr1014 · Feb 17, 2024

Dburr1014 said:
Getting ready... For battle!

I have blue clove polyps and spionid worms that I don't want to transfer to the new tank.

I have been keeping the blue clove polyps at bay with hydrogen peroxide and scrubbing with a toothbrush.

The medicine fenbendazole found in heartworm drug for dogs is what I use. The thread is here:

Thread 'Eliminating Blue Clove Polyps with Fenbendazole' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/eliminating-blue-clove-polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/

I started the treatment Tuesday night. I mixed and inadvertently made the drug way too strong. I hope I don't kill my LPS.

Couldn't find any pictures but you can see one rock with the blasto in this picture.
I overdosed by a lot. It should be 2mg per gallon and I did 200mg for 1.25 gallons. Yikes. The next morning I removed 1/3 gallon and replaced it with fresh top off salt water. Things looked okay still. When I got home the next day I had no power, a tree have fallen on the power of lines. When the power came up a couple hours later I changed another 1/3 gallon. This morning and I checked my little tank and it smelled like death and was very cloudy. The LPS was closed up but looking okay, they were a little worms floating around and the blue clove polyps were all closed up. At this point I'm almost halfway into the 72 hours of treatment and had to go to work. When I get home I'll change another 1/3 gallon.

Things are not looking good. I changed our 5/6 of the water when I got home on the second day.
Day three I did 100% water change. A chalice had totally melted in the tank, sps are only white sticks. Some acans heads are peeling. The blasto is closed up. A few hours later I dropped them back in the system.

Saturday, I'm still getting some recession. The blasto had a little bit of peeling flesh around the edge of the coral polyps but it seems to be okay so far just closed up. The acans are still throwing polyps.
And a side note, today was paint day for my living room and preparation for the tank coming. I called the OSA and they told me it would be coming March 1st or the following weekend. He wouldn't be able to deliver it on the first because the march 2nd is FFM and everybody's going there that's local. I think tomorrow morning will be to add an outlet to the existing Outlet behind a tank location.

Oh, i didn't cover the tank with plastic. Gee, nothing died from paint fumes. LOL.

Dburr1014 · Feb 18, 2024

Things are maybe stopping. I will know tomorrow. Blasto, eh, looks strange. I don't like they way it looks. Probably be a couple days before we know what's going to happen.