Retirement 150g Tank Upgrade

intricate_reefer · Oct 13, 2019

Braves Fan said:
Ordered two more fish this evening ,, cheap ones for a change ,, a McCoskers & a Johnsons Flasher Wrasse,, these are two fish I wanted to add to the tank first because they are small fish ,, no one has had them for sale though ,, they should come in Tuesday with the Flame Wrasse ,, that puts me up to 9 Wrasses I think ,, should do it for this tank ,,

Wow 9 wrasses, that is awesome!

Braves Fan · Oct 18, 2019

Well ,, I did something

I bought a new ,, man made ,, scape from the LFS yesterday ,, I didn't want to do this ,, but my current Aqua Rocks scape just isn't cutting it ,, better to just bite the bullet and get it done ,, the old scape was just to tall for my 20" tall tank and I couldn't modify it anymore to make it work ,, corals are getting to much direct flow on them ,, I am not able to place corals in several spots in the tank because of this ,, pretty much one whole side of the tank ,, more or less ,, I can place a few there ,, but the tank would have coral gaps in it ,,

A good friend has one of these scapes in his tank ,, looks really nice ,, he also took down his old scape at one point and replaced it with one of these scapes ,, he added some of his old live rock into the scape ,,

I will get some pics for ya'll when I get it into the tank ,, the pain is going to be removing corals from the old scape ,, SPS corals will be easy ,,, zoas a bit more of a pain ,, at the end of the day ,, I will be much happier with my tank in the long run ,, that's the reason I did this ,, but I really didn't have a choice ,,

I think the scape is made by the same company that most of us buy our Live Sand from ,,

Other News

Chalice Tank ships today ,,,

Well,, the tank didn't ship

I have started putting the new scape into the tank ,,

Braves Fan · Oct 20, 2019

I have the new scape ,, except for one rock ,, in the tank ,, and almost done scaping it ,, its taken me two full days geez ,, had to take the corals off the old scape ,, get the old scape out of the tank ,, the new scsape in the tank ,, re mount coral ,, that was a job ,, the rock ,, if you can call it that ,, its man made ,, was heavy ,, I was by myself. I didn't know it at the time ,, but that was the easy part ,,,

I have several friends that have bought pieces of this scape from the LFS ,, to add to their existing scape ,,, no one had any problems with it ,, I bought enough of it to make a whole new scape for my tank ,,, I had problems

when I turned my skimmer back on ,, it went nuts ,,, I am guessing there was a film on the scape pieces or whatever ,, the only answer I could come up with was to make a batch of new water for the tank ,, drain a small bucket of water out of the skimmer ,, then replace the old water with new water into the return section ,,

I made 10g of water ,,, went thru that ,, made another 20g of water ,, went thru that ,, made 30g of water and went thru 20g of that ,,, the skimmer is back to working right ,, at least I got to watch the Saints win

intricate_reefer · Oct 20, 2019

Braves Fan said:
I have the new scape ,, except for one rock ,, in the tank ,, and almost done scaping it ,, its taken me two full days geez ,, had to take the corals off the old scape ,, get the old scape out of the tank ,, the new scsape in the tank ,, re mount coral ,, that was a job ,, the rock ,, if you can call it that ,, its man made ,, was heavy ,, I was by myself. I didn't know it at the time ,, but that was the easy part ,,,

I have several friends that have bought pieces of this scape from the LFS ,, to add to their existing scape ,,, no one had any problems with it ,, I bought enough of it to make a whole new scape for my tank ,,, I had problems when I turned my skimmer back on ,, it went nuts ,,, I am guessing there was a film on the scape pieces or whatever ,, the only answer I could come up with was to make a batch of new water for the tank ,, drain a small bucket of water out of the skimmer ,, then replace the old water with new water into the return section ,,

I made 10g of water ,,, went thru that ,, made another 20g of water ,, went thru that ,, made 30g of water and went thru 20g of that ,,, the skimmer is back to working right ,, at least I got to watch the Saints win

Man, that's quite the ordeal with the skimmer overflowing, glad you got it sorted out. How are you liking this scape compared to the other one. Is the flow working out like you hoped? We need some pictures

. Also can't wait till the chalice tank comes in!

Braves Fan · Oct 21, 2019

I am really liking the scape and the flow ,, scape needs a bit more tweeking ,, I also need to move a few corals around ,, I kinda rushed getting them mounted ,,, some can be placed in better spots ,, some plating type acros need to be in a better spot that will give them more area to spread ,, some zoas could also be put into better spots ,, my SPS should like the flow around them now ,, no direct flow hitting them ,, I really need chalice tank ,, my sand bed is covered with frags ,, Chalices & Favias ,, a lot of my sand bed will open up when I can remove the Chalice frags ,, I have lost some of my SPS frags because of the flow issue ,, when the frags I have left start showing growth ,, which some of them had ,, before this new scape thing

I will replace the frags ,,

I should be getting a call from Mircales Aquariums today for the second payment on the tank ,, they charge you half when you order the tank ,, you pay the other half before they ship ,, I haven't got a tracking number from Reef Savvy on the overflow box that they are supposed to be sending me directly ,, I am not going to let Mircales ship the tank until I get that tracking number from Reef Savvy ,, I won't pay them the second payment till I get the tracking number from Reef Savvy ,, I hope this won't be a problem ,,

All the new fish are doing good ,, no problems with them

they are loving the new scape also ,, the McCosker's Wrasse is really pretty ,, he is always flashing ,, the down side,, he is very small ,, I would say 1 1/4 inch, hope he gets bigger, they say max size on them is 3" I hope he gets that big ,, not sure how big they get in an aquarium though ,, had some people over to the house the other day ,, they went straight to the tank and went straight to the Flame Wrasse

if you have Wrasses and don't have a Hawaii Flame Wrasse ,, you need this fish

there are all the other Wrasses and then there is a Flame Wrasse ,,

After all that new water fiasco yesterday ,, I will put all my test kits to work today

Braves Fan · Oct 21, 2019

New Scape

Braves Fan · Oct 24, 2019

Overflow Box was delivered to the house yesterday for the Chalice tank ,, it was shipped direct from Reef Savvy to me ,, had no clue it was on the way ,,, tank ships today

the tank ended up costing around $1,800 shipping included in that price ,, just in case anyone wanted to know ,, I know ,, that's alot for a tank this size ,, but it is a quality built ,, last a life time tank ,, I like buying quality built stuff ,, even if I have to save a bit longer to get it ,, its worth it to me ,,

I worked on the stands some yesterday ,, both the Chalice and SPS tank stands ,,

I didn't know Eco Tech made brackets to mount your power supplies to your stand ,, I have 4 of these power supplies on the SPS tank for the 4 G4 XR 30 Radions ,, I call them power supplies ,, not sure it that is what they are really called ,, I have them velcro to the stand ,, they are kinda heavy and the Velcro wouldn't hold them ,, did for awhile ,, then they all fell off ,, I ordered 4 of these mounts ,,,

So ,, what I didn't know was these mounts are a one size fits all ,, you can use them for the Radion power supplies for the XR30 & XR15 ,, you can also use these mounts for the power supplies for the MP40 & MP10 and the Return pumps ,, what else I didn't know was ,, they come two to a pack ,, instead of getting 4 ,, I got 8

which as it turned out was a good thing ,, after seeing they were a one size fits all and that I had 8 of them ,, I get the bright idea that I can remove the velcro that I have on the MP10 power supplies mounted to on the Chalice tank ,, I haven't bought the two XR15s for the chalice tank yet, so I don't have those power supplies ,, but I do have the 2 MP10s ,, I hate using the velcro ,, I got all the velcro for the power supplies on the chalice tank removed ,, repainted the mounting board where I removed the velcro and got the new mounts installed ,, no more Velcro ,,

Something else I didn't know

seems to be a lot of stuff I don't know about

when you buy the Eco Tech return pumps ,, I have these pumps on the SPS tank and the Chalice tank ,, the controller for these pumps comes with a metal mount, screw onto your stand mount ,, no velcro needed

but when you buy either the MP40 or MP10 ,, they don't come with this metal mount for the controller ,, I had the controllers velcro to the stand ,, when I ordered the power supply mounts ,, I ordered two of these controller mounts for the 2 MP40 on the SPS tank and 2 for the 2 MP10 controllers for the Chalice tank ,, the goal is to remove all the velcro from my stands ,,

When it was all said and done ,, I have removed all the velcro on the Chalice tank stand ,, I have to reorder 8 more power supply mounts ,, 4 for the XR30s power supplies for the SPS tank and 2 for the MP40 power supplies on the SPS tank ,, I had 2 for the second MP40 ,, I also need 2 for the yet to buy XR15 power supplies for the chalice tank ,,

Now ,,, all that being said

this is JMO these one size fits all mounts for the Eco Tech power supplies is a poor design ,, they are all different sizes ,, return pumps ,, XR30 & XR15 ,, MP40s & MP10s ,,

but I would rather use them as opposed to have Velcro strips mounted all over the inside of my stands ,, the problem with them is this ,, they need to have a better fitting bracket for each of the power supplies that Eco Tech sells on their products ,, they need to have a tab on the sides and bottom of the brackets to help support the power supplies in the bracket ,, you can;t add this feature to them with a one size fits all bracket ,,

So much for my short post to tell ya'll that I got the overflow box for the Chalice tank and that the Chalice tank will ship today

Falco · Oct 24, 2019

Great thread and love the new scape!

I also purchased my tank from Miracles and agree their work is top notch. I haven't heard of a single person getting their tank in the time frame quoted but in my opinion its worth the wait.

Good luck and keep the updates coming!

Braves Fan · Oct 30, 2019

Chalice Tank in the house ,, Mircales forgot to add the seam proctors in the corners ,, other that that ,, nice tank ,,

JoshH · Oct 30, 2019

Braves Fan said:
Chalice Tank in the house ,, Mircales forgot to add the seam proctors in the corners ,, other that that ,, nice tank ,,

Even without the seam protection it's still a beautiful tank! Now to get it filled!!!

najer · Oct 30, 2019

Love that low look!

watchguy123 · Oct 30, 2019

Just beautiful. Plus it sounds like you’re having a very good time

Braves Fan · Oct 31, 2019

Braves Fan · Oct 31, 2019

Mircales didn't put the seam protectors on the tank ,, they offered to send them to me and let me do it,, I was going to pass on doing that ,, I want to get water in the tank ,, I have changed my mind though ,,, they also were supposed to include with my tank ,, the thru hull return fittings ,, I need two ,, they didn't send these either I paid for them and will call them today and have them send me the fittings ,, have to wait on those ,, might as well have them send me the seam protectors also ,,

Don't get me wrong here ,, its a quality made tank ,, I am happy with the tank ,,, I just have a hard time dealing with poor quality control ,, there just isn't a good reason for the seam protectors not to have been added to my tank ,, there is no good reason for my return fittings to not be added with my tank when they sent it to me ,, before that tank was created up ,, someone should have looked at the build sheet ,, make sure everything was right ,, I am paying for a custom made tank ,, and you can't get it right ,,

Its kinda like Dominos Pizza charging you insurance for your pizza in case they get your order wrong ,, you want to charge me more money ,, because your driver can't read a putor screen ,, really ,,

Braves Fan · Nov 22, 2019

I haven't posted anything new on the Chalice tank because I had nothing new to report ,, I do now ,, where to start ,, I have all the plumbing done from the overflow box to the sump tank ,, I have the manifold plumbed from the return pump ,, where that splits off to the plumbing that goes up to the thru hull return fittings ,, that's just dry fitted ,, I had to wait for the fittings before I glued all of the return stuff ,, I got the box from Mircales Aquariums today with the two return fittings and the 4 seam protectors ,, I was starting to get worried about getting that box ,, I have 4 Bruite cans in the kitchen with RO/DI water in them and 30 people coming to the house for Thanksgiving ,, some of these people are coming in from out of town and staying at my house ,, I thought I might have to dump all that water to get it out of the house ,, that's the reason I hadn't put salt in the water ,,

That's the end of the good news ,, here comes the bad and I am not sure what I am going to do about it ,, its the seam protectors and a silicone problem ,, first off ,, I need water in this tank before Thanksgiving day ,, I can't get hold of Mircales till Monday because they are closed for the weekend ,, my other tank made by Mircales also has seam protectors ,, these were installed at their shop ,, just like the Chalice tank was supposed to have been done ,, I am hoping I can explain this so ya'll can follow it ,, bear with me if I don't ,,

The first tank when they made it ,, they knew it was going to have seam protectors ,, when the siliconed the panels together ,, they didn't leave a silicone bead inside the tank ,, this allowed the glass seam protectors to sit flush in the corners and they siliconed the seam protectors onto the tank ,, the Chalice tank ,, they forgot about the seam protectors going on this tank also ,, when they siliconed the panels together ,, they used enough silicone ,, that when they pushed and clamped the panels together ,, it pushed a bead of silicone into the inside of the tank ,, they did a good job ,, its a nice even bead ,, the problem ,, now the glass seam protectors won't sit flush in the corners ,, the only way that I can see for me to install the seam protectors is to cut that bead out ,, to get them to sit flush in the corners or just don't put them onto the tank ,,,

JoshH · Nov 22, 2019

I don't think the corner protectors actually sit 100% flush in the corners... they should have a 1/16"-1/8" seam of silicone on them between the protectors and the panels. I wonder if you put the protectors in place and measure the gap (Or try to) how big the gap will actually be from the protectors being pushed out by the corner bead...

I could be 100% off base here though...

Braves Fan · Nov 23, 2019

JoshH said:
I don't think the corner protectors actually sit 100% flush in the corners... they should have a 1/16"-1/8" seam of silicone on them between the protectors and the panels. I wonder if you put the protectors in place and measure the gap (Or try to) how big the gap will actually be from the protectors being pushed out by the corner bead...

I could be 100% off base here though...

Your right ,, I will take another look at it this morning ,, I was just kinda freaking out when I saw the problem last night ,, the protectors aren't there for support anyway ,, just to protect the seam between the panels ,, flush would have looked a lot neater ,, if you look at the other tank ,, its neater than I will get the Chalice tank to look ,, I am going to have to add more silicone than Mircales did on the other tank ,, I am sure they removed most of that inside bead when they built the tank ,, it is what it is though ,,

I am still not a happy camper about this ,, that's just very poor quality control ,, someone wasn't looking at the build sheet when the tank was being built and that same someone didn't look at the build sheet to make sure everything was right before they put the tank into a create ,, they should do a better job ,, I paid twice the cost for this tank then what you would pay for say a ,, Planet Aquariums tank would have cost ,, I am paying for them to not drop the ball ,, but ,, its a very nice tank ,, I can't complain the quality of the workmanship ,,

Am going to finish my coffee this morning and get the rest of the plumbing done

Braves Fan · Nov 24, 2019

Well ,, the Chalice Tank is up and running ,, spent most of yesterday working on it ,, was wondering if the 2 MP10s would be enough for the tank ,, looks like they will be ,,

I had some problems getting the Eco Tech return pump and the MP10s into the Reef Link ,, did a update , problem solved ,,

Got up this morning took several pieces of Live Rock and 5 bags of Bio Spears out of the sump tank on the 150g ,, put them into the Chalice Tank ,, now it’s a wait game ,, Forgot,, I didn't add the seam protectors ,, I would have had to trim the silicone out of the corners ,, wasn't willing to do that ,, I just have the rock sit in the tank

all the Chalices I have in the 150g are mounted to rock pieces ,, I will scape it when the time comes where I can put corals into the tank ,,

intricate_reefer · Nov 28, 2019

I don’t know what happened. I am following your tank and have got notifications in the past when you posted. I haven’t got any recently and don’t know why. Decided to check your thread and you have been posting away, I’m mad lol

Those pictures you posted of the sps tank are great. Really love the new rock scape and you have some really nice corals. Those sps are going to look awesome after they grow into where you put them.

I didn’t even know ecotech had those power brick mounts. I’m going to have to check them out. I do have one of the holders for the mp10 controller though.

The chalice tank is sick! I’m really excited to see it get going. That’s so unfortunate about them dropping the ball. I would be highly upset, that just isn’t right. The tank is beautiful and I absolutely love the dimensions. How many gallons does it work out to be? I’m curious to see what you do with the rock. What did you get 40lbs?

Have a good thanksgiving and enjoy your company!

Braves Fan · Nov 28, 2019

I think the tank works out to be in the 65g range ,, 48x13x24 ,, that 13 is really a 15 ,, but the water level in the tank is at 13 inches because of the external overflow box ,, I did get the 40# of that rock ,, not so much of it left though ,, I have been mounting Favias and Chalices to it to it ,, I have the tank some what scaped ,, I have friends that are better at it than I am and will have them take a look at it. The Par numbers I am trying to hit will end up telling me what the scape will end up looking like ,, so I am not really concerned at this point with the scape till I get the Par meter into the tank ,, I got the two Eco Tech XR15 G4 Pros in yesterday ,, I just mounted them over the tank ,, haven't got them up and running yet ,, fixing to have to put the Turkey in the oven ,,, I have the Wife's family coming over today ,, there is a bunch of them

I bought 3 Blue Chromis at the LFS the other day ,, I think one of them has bit the dust ,, I am going to make my own screen top for this tank for now ,, I want to get one like I got for the other tank ,, I want more support bars on it though , not sure they would do that ,,

I water tested the Chalice tank yesterday ,, I use Reef Crystals in the orange box ,, I should have bought the purple box for starting the new tank ,, I know better ,, the orange box salt has a high Alk number ,, Alk in the Chalice tank is at 12 geez Calcium is pegged ,,