Gopi
Active Member
Reef rebuilding time! We're getting new floors put in, so the tanks have to come down. This will, fortunately, allow me to fix some mistakes I made in my previous build. I started with a 55 intended to stay FOWLR (that lasted almost a year...) with a DIY overflow box made out of specimen containers to a DIY 10 gallon sump with 1 baffle. I used pieces from a HOT Magnum for the return. I did a Coralife 2 bulb T5 light (because...FOWLR?), a Maxijet 400 and 600, and got rock and crushed coral off Craigslist and some live and base rock from the LFS. This first build got in the way of my dear hubby's proposal plans. :happy: (Spoiler, he still managed to propose that weekend.)
Fast forward a year, I come home one day and have several gallons of salt water on the floor. The house smelled like...fish. The bottom of the tank had sprung a leak! (Stupid Craigslist tanks) After taking care of that issue, I bought the first new 55 I could find to reset up. I've started adding in softies and upgrade my lights to an AquaticLife 4x54w with night LEDs.
And it was the same weekend as the previous year where I start re-doing things. I traded out the DIY overflow, which worked fine, for an Eshopps pf-300 and locline return, and replaced the Maxijets with 2 Koralia 1150s.
Going forward another year...and I've been battling bryopsis. Someone really should've cooked all that Craigslist rock!
It's cooking now. Hubby gave in and let me have a small portion of the garage near the utility sink for 2 32-gallon Brutes. I also threw in 35lbs of Tonga and Reef Saver I just got from BRS. (He'll never know...)
Well, right now the HVAC peeps are here moving 2 floor vents...one will have to go near the reef. Paranoid me decided I'd better just tear down the reef a couple weeks early. So I did. I started around 6pm and finished around 1:30 am. Earlier in the day, we'd picked up our 4000lbs of flooring material.
I drained most of the water into an empty 55 (had been FW, haven't been able to sell it, worked out well) and transferred corals and fishes over. Salvaged as many snails as I could and tossed out the CC. it was NASTY. I kept a few cups of the 'cleanest' portions for re-seeding when I set up in 3-4 weeks. I figured having as much space and volume would be best versus going straight to the temp tanks in the bathroom for a month.
Don't mind the mesh bag of chaeto from the sump, I didn't have enough salt water (and was too tired) to set the sump back up. I gave everything a good cleaning, all the pumps, inside the skimmer, the overflow box, the sump, the tank itself. I've replaced the Koralias with an RW8 I got from another member last week. I love it. I want another.
The stand is in bad shape underneath...mold. The tank is entirely tempered glass so drilling is out. I'm now very much in the market for a 75/90 reef ready and will probably build a custom stand. In about a week and a half, I'll have to take the 'spare' tank down and fish placed in temp tanks (plastic tubs) in the bathroom...the only room NOT getting new floors and it's too small for a 55. I can start setting tanks back up January 10th or so...
Fast forward a year, I come home one day and have several gallons of salt water on the floor. The house smelled like...fish. The bottom of the tank had sprung a leak! (Stupid Craigslist tanks) After taking care of that issue, I bought the first new 55 I could find to reset up. I've started adding in softies and upgrade my lights to an AquaticLife 4x54w with night LEDs.
And it was the same weekend as the previous year where I start re-doing things. I traded out the DIY overflow, which worked fine, for an Eshopps pf-300 and locline return, and replaced the Maxijets with 2 Koralia 1150s. Going forward another year...and I've been battling bryopsis. Someone really should've cooked all that Craigslist rock!
It's cooking now. Hubby gave in and let me have a small portion of the garage near the utility sink for 2 32-gallon Brutes. I also threw in 35lbs of Tonga and Reef Saver I just got from BRS. (He'll never know...)
Well, right now the HVAC peeps are here moving 2 floor vents...one will have to go near the reef. Paranoid me decided I'd better just tear down the reef a couple weeks early. So I did. I started around 6pm and finished around 1:30 am. Earlier in the day, we'd picked up our 4000lbs of flooring material.
I drained most of the water into an empty 55 (had been FW, haven't been able to sell it, worked out well) and transferred corals and fishes over. Salvaged as many snails as I could and tossed out the CC. it was NASTY. I kept a few cups of the 'cleanest' portions for re-seeding when I set up in 3-4 weeks. I figured having as much space and volume would be best versus going straight to the temp tanks in the bathroom for a month.
Don't mind the mesh bag of chaeto from the sump, I didn't have enough salt water (and was too tired) to set the sump back up. I gave everything a good cleaning, all the pumps, inside the skimmer, the overflow box, the sump, the tank itself. I've replaced the Koralias with an RW8 I got from another member last week. I love it. I want another.
The stand is in bad shape underneath...mold. The tank is entirely tempered glass so drilling is out. I'm now very much in the market for a 75/90 reef ready and will probably build a custom stand. In about a week and a half, I'll have to take the 'spare' tank down and fish placed in temp tanks (plastic tubs) in the bathroom...the only room NOT getting new floors and it's too small for a 55. I can start setting tanks back up January 10th or so...
