120g new rehab project

Scott B. · Jan 16, 2021

I will start my rehab build thread. I purchased a 120g tank with lots of extras. Will be moving the tank to my house on Jan 29th. Move will be done by Aqua Aquarium. Original owner let this tank go and is also moving and can't take it with him. $1,500 for everything. The tank is overgrown with Aptasia and bubble algae. I purchased a new sump tank since his is a self made freshwater tank currently. Purchased 50# of Fuji life rock to intermingle with the existing. Some of his rocks I will just get rid of so I have room for new corrals. He only has a few fish in there and I can't see much for clean up crew so I will purchase additional cuc for the install. Here are pictures of what it looks like now. Wish me luck, Will update once installed

Ron Reefman · Jan 18, 2021

Nice find to do a rescue. Good luck and have fun!

saltyfins · Jan 18, 2021

wow

this will be fun to watch! Nice job finding that, and hopefully you can have some success with clearing up those rocks

fishguy242 · Feb 1, 2021

hi,looks great!!! ,seen in other thread,might want to sump file ,it will eat your nudi's

try sumping and placing a piece w nems on to see if it will eat them

Scott B. · Feb 11, 2021

Ok, 2 week update. The move was successful. Since it was an existing tank, the cycle went quickly. Still dealing with some Aptasia, but coming along nicely. I have added some corals this week, but most of them were existing.

I'm happy so far.

Scott B. · Mar 2, 2021

Update 1 month in and I have some questions

My LFS did the move, but i don't know if I am completely happy with the rock work. They just set it in there on the sand without any kind of glue or epoxy and the pistol shrimp that came with the tank, of course, has dug under all the rocks and they have shifted. Now that my clean up crew has gotten ride of 80% of the hair algae and aptasia that was overgrown, I can get a good look at the rocks and can see other encrusting corals that look like they may want to be happy and come out. i also would like to move some large and med mushrooms and possibly a tree type coral that I don't see that they are on a Frag. Other corals that i have put in are on a frag and I can move those easy enough. I just would like to re-arrange the rocks and get them deeper in the sand and also connect them together with some epoxy to hold the structure better.

My questions are...

1. I have a rock that has a large ricordia mushroom on the front and a couple small ones that I can now see at the lower back that is sandwiched between the rock and the overflow. How easy would it be to detach the smaller ones and relocate?? ( pictures with arrows )
2. I also have a purple tree that looks like it has a good footing on the rock, maybe it was smaller and has grown over the frag, idk, but I may want to move this one. I just looks like it could be happier. If I can identify it, i can look up the care and move it to where it may be happier.
3. On some of the encrusting corals that have tiny polyps looking like they want to come out, but it was once overgrown with algae. Can the remaining algae be cleaned off with a soft toothbrush carefully ? Maybe they would be happier with a clean surface to live in ? ( picture with drawn circle )
4. I also have some GSA and some type of Zoa that looks like it wants to come out, little tiny polyps peak out ever now and again, but not the whole colony. Can the algae be cleaned off of them ? ( last picture with drawn circle )

So far I am pretty happy with the results so far in a months time. So many new things pop up as the CUC gets everything cleaned up better and water parameters are consistent.

Lost in the Sauce · Mar 15, 2021

Just caught up on this. You picked up an amazing tank. What was your experience like prior to this undertaking?

I just also recently bought an established reef tank (build thread in banner). Did the move myself with a buddy and 14 hours and LOTS of swearing haha. I've had fish tanks my entire life but this is my first journey into salt.

I really Liked the scape your movers set up. It is pretty cool. It is a bit lighter on rock than I personally prefer, but it is Beautiful to look at and I'm sure the fish are stoked with the room and clean tank.

Scott B. · Mar 16, 2021

Lost in the Sauce said:
Just caught up on this. You picked up an amazing tank. What was your experience like prior to this undertaking?

I just also recently bought an established reef tank (build thread in banner). Did the move myself with a buddy and 14 hours and LOTS of swearing haha. I've had fish tanks my entire life but this is my first journey into salt.

I really Liked the scape your movers set up. It is pretty cool. It is a bit lighter on rock than I personally prefer, but it is Beautiful to look at and I'm sure the fish are stoked with the room and clean tank.

I have the same experience as you. I have always had freshwater tanks. Used to have a 75g, 55g & 20g. Took down the 20g last year and when I found the sw reef tank, I took down the 55g and gave it to my daughter and put the 120g sw tank in its place

I actually just purchased a "Blemished" Trigger Platnium39 Roller Fleece sump and matching ATO 10g tank. Well, we couldn't get it out from the front, so we had to completely tank down the DT, move out, replace the sump and then move back and reset all the rocks and corals. I had wanted to rearrange my rock anyway because the Pistol Shrimp that came with the reef tank has bulldozed and changed my sand bed and rocks were moving and tipping. So, got the pistol shrimp out and got all the rocks back in. I think I am going to like it. The new scape give me more room for different corals

7 hour breakdown, move and set back up.

Lost in the Sauce · Mar 16, 2021

That looks great and like a lot of work. I would have for sure removed one of the face frame braces to get the sump in through the front first even if it meant a little bracing for the interim. 2 pieces of 2x4 and a good oscillating cut off tool would have probably made that job way faster.

Scott B. · Mar 16, 2021

Lost in the Sauce said:
That looks great and like a lot of work. I would have for sure removed one of the face frame braces to get the sump in through the front first even if it meant a little bracing for the interim. 2 pieces of 2x4 and a good oscillating cut off tool would have probably made that job way faster.

Well sir, that's a story in itself. I had the LFS come to move it and when we couldn't get it out the front, they put it all back together. I had cleaned the Skimmer collection cup and left the drain hose open because it was not going back in the sump because I purchased a new one. When they put everything back together they left the drain hose hanging off the back of the sump, open, and it put about 7 gallons of dirty sump water onto my carpet and it migrated under the tank and into the closet behind, so I had a water damage and HAD to move the tank to get the carpet out from under it. So now the tank is sitting on the concrete and I will tack the carpet around the tank and replace the pad. LFS is coving all the damage I could have been an ******* and filed it with my homeowners insurance and they would have Replaced all the carpet in the LR, Closet, Stairs and upstairs game room because it is all continuous run of carpet. And then my insurance would have surrogates against the LFS to get their money back. But since everyone is hurting due to the pandemic and I have known the owner for years, I decided to work out a store credit deal with him.

Lost in the Sauce · Mar 16, 2021

Ok yeah. It had move for sure.

Scott B. · Mar 16, 2021

Lost in the Sauce said:
Ok yeah. It had move for sure.

I do have a friend that said he would build me a steal support if I needed to cut the frame braces. I still might do a brace for the End panel. I would like to have doors on each end to mount all my power and equipment controllers. Right now it is just a cord mess lol I have only had the tank for a couple months, so it is still a work in progress. Right now I am working on dialing in the Platnium fleece roller sump for optimum performance. I have to take some water out today because the LFS put too much water in the system and the whole sump is all one level

Lost in the Sauce · Mar 16, 2021

Sounds good. I'm also going to be adding internal bracing inside my existing cabinet, then cutting out access to both ends. I'll end up building new magnet secured panels that will attach to all existing base frame.