1̶0̶0̶0̶ 600 gallon "ish" build

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dcmartinpc

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OK Everyone, there have been a LOT of developments. I will be posting a series of posts outlining the progress up to this point. I have been holding off on posting updates until a few things got resolved, but I am done waiting.

First BIG update, unfortunately the 8 x 4 x 4 tank never materialized.

But, thanks to a local friend who was moving, I still have a monster build, just not quite as monster :)

The new tank is roughly 600 gallons. 120" x 30" x 36"

The tank is up and running and has been for a couple months. I will be posting a bunch of updates over the next few hours, so stay tuned!
 
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Fish Holding System up and running!
9/20/2020

The friend who had the tank also needed a home for many of his fish, so I setup a holding system to treat the fish with CP and hold them until the new tank is up and running.

I setup a 300G rubbermaid in my mud room with a heater and skimmer. Bare essentials.



 
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Cutting out the overflow and buffing the tank!
10/12/2020

The new tank had a center overflow, but I wanted to utilize the bulkheads for a closed loop and I wanted to open up the center of the tank, so it had to go!

Me not so impressed with my friend taking a sneak attack pic when I was trapped!


No more overflow
 
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Prepping the basement for the new tank
10/22/2020

Getting ready for the new tank I had to enlarge the whole in the wall, bring in the stand, and prep the the stand with 2 layers of marine grade plywood and a layer of 1" foam.

No turning back now!


My buddy is also a powder coater! I am truly blessed with amazing friends!








Finished product ready for the tank!
 
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Tank move in day!
10/24/2020

Finally time to move in the new tank! I was a little paranoid bringing this monster in through the window and down the stairs, so I rigged up a system to pull it through and safely lower it down.










I am surprised how smoothly it went in to the house! A little video showing how much it helps to have lots of friends and family! Video link below!

Tank is coming in, whether we like it or not!

On the stand


My oldest helping out getting the tank all cleaned up
 
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Plumbing, so much plumbing!!!
11/27/2020

These are just a few pics of the plumbing along the way. This took many long evenings and weekends to get done, but I am very happy with the result!

UV Body and Heat Exchanger from Aquarium Engineering. You can also see the 2" drain plumbing to the sump.


Overflow installed


Closed loop return manifold


Video - First freshwater closed loop test
 
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Rock Stack
12/6/2020

This was a couple sessions but many thanks to my friends and my oldest son! Could not have completed this step without you!

Lots of clean dry rock ready to go!








And we have water!
 
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Fish move in day!
12/29/2020

The tank was cycled to zero ammonia and nitrite over about 3 weeks. I was running the closed loop and heat before I finished the plumbing to the sump.

I know that seems fast, but I also moved down about 200lbs of live rock from the holding bin when I moved the fish, so they had plenty of solid bio filtration!





I love my fish.... I love my fish........


Video - Everyone settling in!



Skimmer is happy to have a job now!
 
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Lighting, for real this time, maybe...
1/14/2021

The lighting plan for this tank was 4x400w Radium with XHO LED Strip supplmentation. That has already changed! But we can talk about that later.

Light Rack built and installed. Gotta love unistrut


Slides back out of the way for tank maintenance


All lit up


Jeff, the Zebra Moray, approves! My youngest son loves to name all my fish, still don't know where he got Jeff :)
 

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Tank move in day!
10/24/2020

Finally time to move in the new tank! I was a little paranoid bringing this monster in through the window and down the stairs, so I rigged up a system to pull it through and safely lower it down.










I am surprised how smoothly it went in to the house! A little video showing how much it helps to have lots of friends and family! Video link below!

Tank is coming in, whether we like it or not!

On the stand


My oldest helping out getting the tank all cleaned up
I seem to remember a slightly different conversation regarding moving that tank in. ;Facepalm ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

It has been fun to watch this come together Don. Can't wait to watch it fill in. Great update, even though it was drinking from a fire hose.
 
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I seem to remember a slightly different conversation regarding moving that tank in. ;Facepalm ;Hilarious ;Hilarious

It has been fun to watch this come together Don. Can't wait to watch it fill in. Great update, even though it was drinking from a fire hose.
I mean I was absolutely terrified getting it down the stairs and not crushing anyone, that part ended up being the smoothest part of the whole operation :) I'll take it though, sometimes it is better to be over prepared.

Don
 

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I mean I was absolutely terrified getting it down the stairs and not crushing anyone, that part ended up being the smoothest part of the whole operation :) I'll take it though, sometimes it is better to be over prepared.

Don
It went surprisingly well. Lots of help and a well executed plan.

I noticed you didn’t post pictures of taking a router to the top of that tank. o_O:)
 
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It went surprisingly well. Lots of help and a well executed plan.

I noticed you didn’t post pictures of taking a router to the top of that tank. o_O:)

Somehow I don’t think we took a picture of that…. I’ll have to check.
 
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Somehow I don’t think we took a picture of that…. I’ll have to check.
I found this pic just after we cut it out and cleaned it up.

29703764-D57D-43A0-BA1E-28DF448E3913.jpeg
 
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Update from January to April

Tank was on cruise control and maturing well, fish were looking good, except for my Fowleri Tang showing a couple spots of what looked very much like ich, despite my full 30 day treatment of CP.

Thats brings up to the big mistake, but I will cover that in the next post.

Some fish Pics








 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 69 37.5%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 62 33.7%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.6%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 15.2%
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