Fireman's 80 gallon restart.

[Firemanreefkeeper]

This is my current tank. It's a deep blue 75 gallon, rimless, center overflow with a 20 trigger cube sump. Its been up and running since November 5th of 2017. I used the rocks and sand from my 45 gallon red sea to start with then added a few rocks every couple of weeks until it looked ok. It never really looked ok to be honest. The overflow box sticks into the 18 inch wide tank 6 inches. I tried to hide it with the rocks but it just didn't work out . I lost a lot of space in the back and sides and was never happy with it. I tried to rescape it but still wasn't happy.
Aside from the bad scape the tank has several pests in it since I didn't QT anything. I've got aiptasia, vermetid snails, those coraline eating starfish (i can't think of the name now) and some white sponge that grows amongst my zoes and makes them close up until I manually scrape them out.
I'm not happy with the tank or the pests so I'm starting over fresh. I'm going to keep this one going while I build my new one then frag off my acros that I want then break the tank down and sell it. I made my mistakes with this tank so I'll take what works to the new one and learn from what didn't work.

 

[SPR1968]

Well it looks very nice from the pictures, and keep us posted with the new tank, and especially you will need our approval on the aquascaping!! Lol

The starfish maybe the asterina starfish, in my case the coral eaters and they are not sweet little things!

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I got the rocks in and did a mock build in my driveway.

Here is my equipment list.
Deep blue 80 gallon rimless measuring 48x24x16. Its not drilled so i will be drilling it and putting a shadow overflow on it.
Trigger 34 sump.
DIY stand that's going to be 6 feet long so I have room for equipment and electrical separation.
80ish lbs of dry rock.
Bare bottom. Using starboard as the base for rocks.
Sicce 7.0 dc return pump. Transferring over from current tank.
2 gyre xf230 powerheads. Transferring over from current tank.
2 innovative marine desktop dc wavelinks. Transferring over.
BRS dual reactor for carbon and GFO
Aquatic life t5 led hybrid 4ft fixture with a kessil ap700. Transferring over.
Tunze ATO
2 BRS doser pumps.
Pentiar UV sterilizer that I picked up from LFS for 125$. Couldn't pass it up for that price.
Screen top. Had several wrasses take the leap so ugly or not I'm getting one.
My fish will also transfer over after a few weeks.

 

[smoothmove]

I bought the 80 Deep Blue pre-drilled. Looking back, I should have got the non-drilled 80 and did the shadow overflow.

You will love the 80. Please post pics and congrats

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

Rocks in the trash can full of saltwater. Cycling with red sea reef mature kit for first month then fake feeding with food after that until I'm ready to use them. See you rocks in about 4 months.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I bought the 80 Deep Blue pre-drilled. Looking back, I should have got the non-drilled 80 and did the shadow overflow.

You will love the 80. Please post pics and congrats

I don't have anything but the rocks at the moment. Christmas bonus is coming then the tank and sump. Once I have them I'll build the stand around those 2 things and put the parts and pieces I need inside so I don't have a cramp stand full of stuff I can barely get to. I'm not in a big hurry and predict fish in by May and corals by June.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I got the tank today! I finally have more than a pile of rocks in a trashcan. One big setback though. The dang sticker on the tank says tempered for added safety and strength. Not good if I'm going to drill my tank. Ive contacted deep blue in hopes they can clarify if I was sent the correct tank. If not, I guess I have a pile of rocks in a trashcan still.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

sump and overflow just came in. I figured UPS would have the holidays off.
I spoke with deep blue and they said based on the UPC number I gave them my tank is not tempered so I can go ahead and drill. I have to work up the nerve to do it now since it's something I've never tried before. Wish me luck.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I've got the day off so after I did some work inside I figured I'd give drilling the tank a shot. Never done this before so wish me luck. I hope deep blue was correct when they told me my tank was not tempered.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I took my time and drilled slowly but got through with no problems. Saturday I'm going to start building the stand.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I started the stand today. I had to clean the garage first so I had a place to build it then store it as I work on it. Hopefully the weather will be ok tomorrow so I can finish construction. Then I can figure out a color for it.

 

[Goodair]

Looking good man, how you plan on doing your returns?

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

Looking good man, how you plan on doing your returns?

Undecided at the moment. I'm thinking about drilling into the back by the overflow and adding them there since drilling wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. I may end up doing what I did on my current tank and just bring the pipes up the back and go over the top. I would use black pipes this time though.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

Well..... yesterday was awesome. I sold about $300 worth of palm trees, got a great start on the stand with everything going smoothly. Then today. I woke up with a sore throat, the sniffles and a headache. The wind blew out of the North at 10mph steady all day and it rained. All day long it rained. And it was a cold windy rain. 53 was the high today. This is Florida, it's not suppose to do this. We are the sunshine State. But.... I managed to get 4 out of the 6 doors on and squared away. I'm not in a big hurry to get this done as I don't have anything to run the tank yet but this was my first 2 days off since Christmas so I was hoping to have more done. I guess it's true what they say, nothing good happens fast with a reef tank.
Thanks for reading about my journey.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I've been working here and there each day after the kids go to bed. All the wood work is finished on the outside. Inside still needs supports for plumbing and whatnot. I'm still working on the electrical configuration and plugs too. Going to pick a stain this Sunday and maybe get started on that.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I finished the electrical work and did the plumbing on it too. I filled it with hose water to give it a test run. I found one leak. Yes I used the "L" word. Its coming from the overflow box area on the outside of the tank. Ill be finding more gaskets to fix the problem. No big deal since stupid me forgot to paint the back of the tank anyway. It not being painted probably helped me see the leak better. Everything else is great. I did change my mind and bought an abyzz return pump since my sicce has been giving me fits lately. Im super impressed with it so far. My wife was out in the garage with me during the first run and she even commented on how quiet the pump was.
I think I'm going to work on the leak, let it run for a few days to make sure there are no other issues, then take it apart and paint the back and the stand then go from there.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I did a lot of work this past week. I addressed my leak, my fault BTW, I didn't read the directions right and had the gaskets on the wrong side of the glass. I ran it for a few extra days and found no further problems. Saturday I drained everything, the tank, overflow, sump, reactors, lines, pumps, if it had water in it, I emptied it and dried out out. I prepped the tank and decided on Maui blue as my background color. I sprayed it with several light coats and let it dry. I color coded my pipes, black for return, green for in sump filtration (uv, reactor, ect) and orange for drain line. I stained my stand, 3 coats of poly and siliconed the gaps in the wood to help protect the wood from drips, splashes and whatnot.
I'm going to let that dry and harden over the next week. In the meantime I'm making 80 gallons of water to fill my tank. I've got to cut the starboard to fit too. The most daunting task I have left is to get the beast of a stand into my house. I built it very stout, probably too stout and it's heavy. Once that's done I'll fill her up and let it run for a while. Anyone feel like getting a full body workout by helping move a stand?

 

[Firedawg1983]

Looks great brother!! Love the color of the stand and the electrical setup is awesome!

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I managed to get the beast inside. I used a floor jack, 2x4s, a creeper and my daughter to get it off the ground and rolling. Once I got it into the house I slid it on the 2x4s to it's final resting place. I leveled it, put all the parts back on it, cut the starboard so it fit inside, and got 35 gallons of water made. I also spent about a hour in the attic and roof area running a dedicated line from the panel to the tank. I'd say moving the tank was easier then crawling along the roof trusses in 90 degree heat. I'm almost ready to fill it.

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

Well.... about a 100 pictures later, 3hours of working and 76 gallons of salt water made and she's full. My rock creation almost matches the one I made on my driveway and took pics of so I could remember. Now I have to buy the lights and have my buddy weld custom wall brackets to hang it from. That's next weeks project though. For now I'm going to let her run and relax.