The Eagle's 300g Aerie

eagleeyez5 · Apr 1, 2009

Ok, so I am upgrading my tank from the 125 gallon to a 300 gallon. On the system this will give a total of 475 gallons.

Currently the 300 is sitting on the floor in front of the TV waiting for me to build the stand. The plan is to take down the 125 and set up the 300 in the same day. This will be quite the project since 125 is almost overflowing with corals. We did a quick count the other night and there are currently over 100 different corals in the tank, colonies from 14-16 inches across to frags of 1-2 inches. As you can probably guess, this will be fun.......

Any suggestions for doing the switch?

msman825 · Apr 1, 2009

lets see the 120.

eagleeyez5 · Apr 1, 2009

here are some pictures of the 125 from a few months ago. Each pic is of a 2 foot section in the tank. Also, this is a point and shoot kodak camera with no photo shopping done, {so the colors are close, but better in person}.

SaraB · Apr 1, 2009

eagleeyez5 said:
Any suggestions for doing the switch?

Maybe turn off the TV and start building that stand?

Sounds like a "fun" project!

Your existing tank looks nice too!

Sikryd · Apr 1, 2009

Ive only done this 3x! never again!

Fill a 150g rubbermaid with 1/2 tank water and fresh mixed. Transfer coral to it on egg crate - almost fits perfect - just have to cut the corners. Set new tank up - fill with sand/h2o/rock - then corals.

eagleeyez5 · Apr 1, 2009

Here is the tank now....sitting empty on the floor, and my cute pregnant wife....
We also had to take out the window to get it into the house...

eagleeyez5 · Apr 1, 2009

SaraB said:
Maybe turn off the TV and start building that stand?

And see the TV is already off......:bigsmile:

Also great idea on the tote.....I am planning on doing a 50 gallon water change tonight, and then keeping the water to use in the new tank.....adding a heater and pump to keep it alive...

The trick is that I have to come up with almost 175 gallons of new water when the new tank goes up.....(A great problem to have :bigsmile

.....

eagleeyez5 · Apr 8, 2009

No messing around here, I already have fish and corals in the tank....I will spare you the boring details about having to redo the plumbing, as well as running out of rock.....now just the waiting game for the vortex.....

I have to give a huge shout out to John Hill and Aaron Ferre.....oh and lets not forget Courtney....They came to my rescue this weekend and helped keep me going in this very overwhelming hobby. Without them, I probably would have just thrown my hands up in the air and posted ALL of my fish stuff for sale on KSL..... So thanks for helping to keep this hobby fun for me. I really appreciate your friendship and support, and I cant say enough about the time you took away from your families to come 'PLAY FISH'...Thanks again.

anyway here are some pictures....and as you will see, I need to put more rock into the tank...

As you can see we used five 32 gallon garbage cans and the big water trough to do this move

Here is where the tank goes:

yeah it is big

I need to move more rock into this section

Center section, leaning against the back wall, and still needs about 8 inches to reach the top

Here is the right hand side, It has a big space behind it for the fish to swim around the pillar

And there is a channel between the two sections.

bannshy · Apr 8, 2009

Looking good Jerry

revhtree · Apr 8, 2009

Great tank!

cloakerpoked · Apr 8, 2009

How'd all the coral transfer? Any losses, or do they all seem to be pretty good? I'm dreading taking mine down when I move in a few months, and have actually thought exactly what you said, the whole "lets just sell the contents, keep frags of everything I have" approach

eagleeyez5 · Apr 8, 2009

Thanks Rev and Bannshy.
The water is still a little cloudy, but seems to be getting better by the minute. Also, some of the fish have ick, but now that the ozoner is hooked up and kicking again, it should clear up quickly.

As for the corals, I lost one 1 inch Frag when I started doing the large water changes, but that happend before I started the tear down.

To explain, In anticipation of increasing my water volume by over 175 gallons, I did heavy water changes during the week before. I kept the water in garbage cans with pumps and heaters. Then when setting up the new tank, I just pumped that water into it.

Some of my corals have browned out, especially the delicate high end one

SaraB · Apr 8, 2009

Very nice! You sure moved quick with that TV off

eagleeyez5 · Apr 9, 2009

HAHAHA..... You know it NCAA Championship was coming up.....

cloakerpoked · Apr 9, 2009

eagleeyez5 said:
HAHAHA..... You know it NCAA Championship was coming up.....

Yes, but unless you're a UNC fan, that game wasn't really much of a game, and really barely worth watching at all :tongue:

If you are a UNC fan...well, I have nothing left to say to you :sad:

Murfman · Apr 9, 2009

Here is my 300 build;
http://www.thescmas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2380

I upgraded, just like you did, from a 125 in Jan. I left the 125 running and moved rock/corals once the 300 had been up and running for about 3 days with 100# of fully cooked live rock. No losses.

cloakerpoked · Apr 9, 2009

Murf, what material is your turf algea filter made out of? I saw it was a gutter guard, but it couldn't be metal or I'd be afraid of rust or it leeching something into the tank right?

eagleeyez5 · Apr 9, 2009

Alright, the more tank build threads I read, the more I realize that people are more interested in the 'anticipation of setting it up' then the 'final project' being done.....

....So I am sorry to all for getting the tank and setting it up in the same weekend.....

So I guess I will have to explain what equipment I am using.

Lighting:
With an 8 foot long tank, I decided to go with two 400 watt MH 20k's on each end and a 250 watt MH 14k in the middle. (the main reason I went with these is because I already had them laying around.)
I also have two 4 foot VHO Super Actinics for supplimental lighting.

Plumbing:
On my last tank, I had a closed loop system. I decided to go a different dirrection with this tank due to the advances in technology with internal pumps. While I am not a huge fan of having pumps visible in the tank, I am going to use the vortex on each end.
I also plan on using two pumps in the ceter section of the tank pointed tward each end for additional flow. These two pumps will be buried in the rockwork and hidden from view.

Murfman · Apr 9, 2009

cloakerpoked said:
Murf, what material is your turf algea filter made out of? I saw it was a gutter guard, but it couldn't be metal or I'd be afraid of rust or it leeching something into the tank right?

Plastic from Lowe's. I think the holes are too far apart, I think I am going to add some needle point plastic backing to it.

Murfman · Apr 9, 2009

eagleeyez5 said:
Alright, the more tank build threads I read, the more I realize that people are more interested in the 'anticipation of setting it up' then the 'final project' being done..... ....So I am sorry to all for getting the tank and setting it up in the same weekend.....

So I guess I will have to explain what equipment I am using.

Lighting:
With an 8 foot long tank, I decided to go with two 400 watt MH 20k's on each end and a 250 watt MH 14k in the middle. (the main reason I went with these is because I already had them laying around.)
I also have two 4 foot VHO Super Actinics for supplimental lighting.

Plumbing:
On my last tank, I had a closed loop system. I decided to go a different dirrection with this tank due to the advances in technology with internal pumps. While I am not a huge fan of having pumps visible in the tank, I am going to use the vortex on each end.
I also plan on using two pumps in the ceter section of the tank pointed tward each end for additional flow. These two pumps will be buried in the rockwork and hidden from view.

Make sure you have access to the pumps for cleaning or emergency maintenance. I had to pull a CLM inlet screen because it was clogged and had major micro bubbles and it was buried behind the rock. Lucky for my, my sub conscience knew I might need access and I got to it by moving just 3 rocks.