vinnyguitara
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2020
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 0
- What state or country do you live in
- Connecticut
So, I'm not exactly new to the hobby but I've effectively been out of it for the last 4 years. Also, I am posting as a running log on rebuilding an in-wall tank that was neglected and crashed quite a while ago.
I moved into my first home around this time in 2016 and at the time had a very beautifully kept 90 reef (had been continuously run for 10 years). I set the tank up in our finished basement in the new house as an in-wall tank where the front is in the finished area and the access is in the storage room behind the finished area (unfinished). Everything was going well (relatively speaking) for about 6 months and then we had a bad tropical storm come through while I was away on work which took the power out for about 5 days. My wife was unable to do emergency lifeline stuff like keeping the water fresh, getting the generator running etc (no blame, its not her hobby and she tried her best to help) So I came home to ruin. I had a couple of frogspawn corals left that eventually died off. I lost about 10 species of soft and LPS corals. All the fish except a mated pair of clowns had died.
With a heavy heart I officially declared my tank nuked, but I didn't want to just tear it down. To this day I have kept the system online but due to my job I've had no time at all to work on it. No water changes in probably 2 years, been using Walmart distilled bottled water with decent success (I'm on a well with very hard water and RO/DI inserts just wear out so fast) for top off water. Surprisingly both of those fish have survived this long. All inverts have died, there is algae everywhere.
Fast forward to today and I have more time to dive back in. I've already started to revive this system. Here are the current problems I see going forward:
Current livestock/equipment:
I've decided to try my hand using a canister filter (fx6) filled with bio spheres. Currently I am running the sponges while I clean the rock/sand etc.
Any help getting started on this journey back to a beautiful tank would be awesome! Thanks so much in advance.
I moved into my first home around this time in 2016 and at the time had a very beautifully kept 90 reef (had been continuously run for 10 years). I set the tank up in our finished basement in the new house as an in-wall tank where the front is in the finished area and the access is in the storage room behind the finished area (unfinished). Everything was going well (relatively speaking) for about 6 months and then we had a bad tropical storm come through while I was away on work which took the power out for about 5 days. My wife was unable to do emergency lifeline stuff like keeping the water fresh, getting the generator running etc (no blame, its not her hobby and she tried her best to help) So I came home to ruin. I had a couple of frogspawn corals left that eventually died off. I lost about 10 species of soft and LPS corals. All the fish except a mated pair of clowns had died.
With a heavy heart I officially declared my tank nuked, but I didn't want to just tear it down. To this day I have kept the system online but due to my job I've had no time at all to work on it. No water changes in probably 2 years, been using Walmart distilled bottled water with decent success (I'm on a well with very hard water and RO/DI inserts just wear out so fast) for top off water. Surprisingly both of those fish have survived this long. All inverts have died, there is algae everywhere.
Fast forward to today and I have more time to dive back in. I've already started to revive this system. Here are the current problems I see going forward:
- Basement gets hot in the summer but I may have solved this with a second hand chiller (still need to verify the functionality)
- Basement gets pretty cool in the winter. Never goes below 55-60 but my heaters cannot keep up. I keep blowing through 300-400 watt heaters. I keep two running at a time.
- The access room for the fish tank contains my oil burner, therefore there is always the slight odor of diesel in there (its not bad and we are replacing the burner this spring so not a problem after April)
- Water seems too hard to use my RO/DI system and I'm stuck using the bottled distilled water from Walmart
- Tank is so filthy right now I'm having a hard time jumping back in
- A lot of my equipment is very old
- I have a PS but haven't run it since the storm that took out the tank
- My salt level is very low (I can update when I get home with a true reading).
- My temp has been unsteady since the beginning but starting to stabilize now since I bought two brand new 300 watt heaters
- If I remember correctly in the first 6 months I was having pH problems. Maybe this is due to the location of the access in relation to the oil burner. This cannot change at this point, but we may be moving to a propane system that will vent outside the house - we are about 2 years from this.
- Sump pump died
- Unwilling to hook up another sump because of damages it caused in the past (admittedly due to poor maintenance)
Current livestock/equipment:
- 2 mated black Ocellaris Clownfish
- Maybe one or two hermits left
- About 120lbs live rock all covered with algae
- 2-3 in. sand bed (same sand since we moved into the house)
- Older model 36" Maxpect razor led (I know this is too small for the tank but my MH 48" needs repairs
- 2 300 watt heaters
- CPR BakPak 2 skimmer (too small for tank but its free)
- Aquafuge2 refugium
- Couple of random powerheads
- FX6 canister
I've decided to try my hand using a canister filter (fx6) filled with bio spheres. Currently I am running the sponges while I clean the rock/sand etc.
Any help getting started on this journey back to a beautiful tank would be awesome! Thanks so much in advance.
