*d2mini's 200g Reeftastic Reef - Part Deux!*

[GrampaDon]

Planet Aquarium should be a excellent choice. I still use the OG stuff from them.[Oceanic]

And yea there is a big difference between "low iron" glass and the real deal "Starfire" glass from PPG.
But you know that now.

 

[Diesel]

d2 have seen some planets in the Houston area, only negative thing is the CTC overflow.
I like the idea of the Ghost overflow, more real estate for rock-scape and corals.

 

[d2mini]

d2 have seen some planets in the Houston area, only negative thing is the CTC overflow.
I like the idea of the Ghost overflow, more real estate for rock-scape and corals.

Yup, mine will have the ghost! Happy Halloween!



Man what a day... what a day....

Got all the rock, coral and fish out of my tanks.
You should have seen me carefully lifting out huge 60lb pieces of rock with colonies attached and amazingly I "fragged" very little of it!

Was able to drain the tank and do a few other odds and ends.
Important thing is all livestock is in its new home and happy.

Tomorrow I get to wake up and continue tearing stuff down. Yeesh. lol

 

[Diesel]

No worries, I fly over.
This time not blowing a tire before take off!

 

[d2mini]

Well, it took almost 3 FULL DAYS (with a break for a few hours the first day to attend a function for the kiddos) and some help from Diesel today, but my entire system is now in the garage, fully functioning.
Including my entire Profilux setup which runs the ATO and Auto Water Changes. Calcium Reactor is also up and running. The lights are running on their timers.
Some of the old equipment I'm no longer going to use is already sold and awaiting pick up.
And now I just need to clean up the garage and get it ready so construction can begin!

What a weekend. lol :crazy: :faint:

I'll take a video of the whole temp setup soon.

 

[Diesel]

It was fun to put out a helping hand to a better future reef in the country but sad to see your empty tank.
Let me know what you decide on the new room in the garage not that hard to put two walls down.

 

[d2mini]

Yup, a sad sight.

 

[kingator]

wow great thought out plan and design im def subscribe to this one here

 

[StikHedRon]

Yes, look forward to this thing as it progresses!

 

[Scubafrog]

WOW! Very Nice!

 

[o2manyfish]

Looking forward to following this. Dave from Urban Aquatics is a good guy to help with the project.

Dave B

 

[TLO45]

As my first post here on R2R let me say fantastic build and progression pics! This will be a decimate daily follow thread! Love it so far!!

 

[Diesel]

As my first post here on R2R let me say fantastic build and progression pics! This will be a decimate daily follow thread! Love it so far!!

First post............. awesome dude and Welcome to R2R.

 

[d2mini]

wow great thought out plan and design im def subscribe to this one here

Yes, look forward to this thing as it progresses!

WOW! Very Nice!

Looking forward to following this. Dave from Urban Aquatics is a good guy to help with the project.

Dave B

As my first post here on R2R let me say fantastic build and progression pics! This will be a decimate daily follow thread! Love it so far!!

First post............. awesome dude and Welcome to R2R.

Thanks, everyone!
The old space in the garage is all cleaned out!
Looks like it's time to call the HVAC guy and head to home depot for some 2x4's. :car:

 

[Nammy]

I'm following this one

 

[d2mini]

I love the smell of studs in the morning. :neutral:

 

[d2mini]

Also, I got some good questions from someone through PM and I think it's worth posting them here, along with my answers.

-------------

I'm sure you get plenty of PM's from people but I was hoping to steal some of your time and advice.
I have a couple of questions about how you've transferred your livestock into the temp housing and such because I'm looking at doing the same thing for my tank, rescape, new rock and a different direction but on a much smaller scale.
Sure, no problem.
Just know that this is the first time I've done this.
Well... i did move my old cube from my house to a buddy's shop in one day with their help, but I made the mistake of reusing the sand, and without washing it. Big mistake. Don't do that.

How did you cycle the holding tank?
First, let me start by saying that I "attempted" to cycle the tank. But I didn't test a thing other than salt levels. Since I was going to be transferring everything but the sand and some water to this tank, I'm not really sure how much it really needed to cycle, but I attempted it as an extra safety measure. So what I did was fill it with all new water and I tossed in a pump just for circulation. My main pump was still running the tank. I also through in a couple pieces of rock from my sump and a cup of sand. After about a week or so, I got a bacteria bloom (cloudy water) which is consistent with a cycle. Sometime after that, I tossed in another bit of sand, just to keep things going. It was running for maybe 4 weeks by the time i did the transfer. It was at this last minute that I shut down the old tank, stole all the pumps, chiller, plumbing, etc and got everything hooked up to this holding container. For about 36 hours the old tank ran on nothing but my Vortechs. I also did a big water change at this point, filling with water from the old tank. I know the water doesn't carry bacteria and its really just dirty water but I did it anyway. There was no skimmer running in the temp tub this whole time so that was my reason for the water change.

Did you acclimate things when you transferred them over or was it a much quicker operation than that?
Temps were similar. So everything came out of the old tank and went straight into this container.
Rock/Coral first, then the old tank was drained about 90% and I was able to net the fish. They also went straight in.
All the old sand was put into black garbage bags and put out with the trash.

Are you just running it like a normal setup but in a tub?
As normal as possible.
The only thing not running right now that was running before is my auto water changes. The equipment is all in place, I just haven't had time to test it.
Will probably do that this weekend.
The other difference, which I figured out last night, was that my pH plummeted! It was down to 7.35 with a high of about 7.5.
I realized that since everything was basically circulating within one container (even though the pump was sucking water out, sending it to the chiller and back to the tub) I wasn't getting enough aeration.
I had even had the skimmer outflow exiting beneath the water surface due to the splashing noise. So I removed that elbow and let the output from the chiller agitate the water surface and now it's already back up to 7.63 in just a few hours.

When you put your system back together again are you planning on doing the same cycle for the main tank and then transferring stock back into the tank just like a normal tank transfer?
Yeah, i'll probably let the tank cycle a bit.
I'll be adding a whole new batch of sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater so things will need a little time to settle down in there.
This is assuming everything is doing ok in the tub.

 

[Diesel]

Triple or double the studs by the door will ya!

 

[msderganc]

Something you may want to consider is running plywood behind the sheet rock for stronger mounting options.

 

[d2mini]

Triple or double the studs by the door will ya!

Double of course!
That's the king stud... notice its got space inside it for the jack stud.
Yeesh... I do work for a living... gimme some time.