550G Display + Fish Room Frag Tanks = 900G of Fun

[Blue Tang Clan]

So often we see build threads here — but never many tear-down threads. Why? Because they are often sad or rushed, but I think there is a tremendous amount we can learn from the take-down process.

• What did I think I knew about the hobby X years ago when I did this really bad plumbing job?
• What would I have done differently in a new build? What would I absolutely do the same?
• How do I empty a fish tank without taking days and days to get it done?

Here are some things I found:

How do you efficiently get the sand out of the bottom of the tank? A heavy duty dustpan for under $4 does the trick. Put it directly into some black contractor trash bags and you’ll be done in no time. I’ve emptied a lot of tanks the wrong way of the years — this can definitely save you hours!

$4 Dustpan!

What about getting water out of the sump? I can’t create a siphon down there and my pump can’t fit into all the little chambers! Suck it out with a Bucket Top Vacuum! These things are insanely helpful and I guarantee you have a 5-gallon bucket already lying around. It will save you SO MUCH TIME — and it’s only about $25

Bucket Head Vacuum!

What kept the bottom part of my stand looking pristine? Buy some shower pan liner and lay it down BEFORE you install your sump and start plumbing. It water proofs your stand and you can put your sump, etc. on top of it. You WILL get water down there — don’t let it ruin the wood! I just emptied out my stand and the liner protected everything.

Oatey Shower Pan Liner

If you are putting plugs into ceiling outlets or high up outlets — use a Carabiner clip to keep the plug from falling down into the water. A zip tie works the same, but this seemed useful and can easily be unclipped as needs change and evolve

Small carabiner clips

What other best-practices for tear downs or products do you guys recommend?

 

[TexAgReefer]

So often we see build threads here — but never many tear-down threads. Why? Because they are often sad or rushed, but I think there is a tremendous amount we can learn from the take-down process.

• What did I think I knew about the hobby X years ago when I did this really bad plumbing job?
• What would I have done differently in a new build?
• What would I absolutely do the same?
• How do I empty a fish tank without taking days and days to get it done?

Here are some things I found:

How do you efficiently get the sand out of the bottom of the tank? A heavy duty dustpan for under $4 does the trick. Put it directly into some black contractor trash bags and you’ll be done in no time. I’ve emptied a lot of tanks the wrong way of the years — this can definitely save you hours!

$4 Dustpan!

What about getting water out of the sump? I can’t create a siphon down there and my pump can’t fit into all the little chambers! Suck it out with a Bucket Top Vacuum! These things are insanely helpful and I guarantee you have a 5-gallon bucket already lying around. It will save you SO MUCH TIME — and it’s only about $25

Bucket Head Vacuum!

What kept the bottom part of my stand looking pristine? Buy some shower pan liner and lay it down BEFORE you install your sump and start plumbing. It water proofs your stand and you can put your sump, etc. on top of it. You WILL get water down there — don’t let it ruin the wood! I just emptied out my stand and the liner protected everything.

Oatey Shower Pan Liner

If you are putting plugs into ceiling outlets or high up outlets — use a Carabiner clip to keep the plug from falling down into the water. A zip tie works the same, but this seemed useful and can easily be unclipped as needs change and evolve

Small carabiner clips

What other best-practices for tear downs or products do you guys recommend?

Awesome post with some great tips!

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

Thanks! Pics for proof!

 

[Schnizzle]

"What did I think I knew..."

Greatest admission ever!

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

Ugh, I just saw some levels on my Trident and Apex do weird things, and I tested the water and I've got 2-3ppm of Ammonia! ;Wideyed

I had been cycling the tank for 2 months and I added ammonia (pre-fish) and it went away through Nitrite and Nitrates within 24 hours. I guess adding the bio load of the new fish re-cycled the tank.

• 1 yellow tang
• 1 blue tang
• 1 bicolor angel
• 1 coral beauty
• 1 royal gramma
• 1 purple spot anthia
• 5 green chromis

That's not a huge stocking list, and I transferred all of the live rock from my last tank so I'm a little annoyed and perplexed, but dealing with it now.

I dumped the recommended dose of Seachem Prime in to neutralize/bind the ammonia, which should last for up to 48 hours. The test kits still show the total ammonia (both NH3 and NH4) so it's impossible to tell which part of that is toxic. It's also hard to do a 20% water change when the RODI system only drips out a little more than 100gpd. I was able to replace about 70 gallons yesterday, but that's only 10% of the total 750 gallon system volume.

I'm going to go grab some TurboStart 900 and hope that I can accelerate the process to eat up this ammonia faster than water changes.

 

[Miller535]

Ugh, I just saw some levels on my Trident and Apex do weird things, and I tested the water and I've got 2-3ppm of Ammonia! ;Wideyed

I had been cycling the tank for 2 months and I added ammonia (pre-fish) and it went away through Nitrite and Nitrates within 24 hours. I guess adding the bio load of the new fish re-cycled the tank.

• 1 yellow tang
• 1 blue tang
• 1 bicolor angel
• 1 coral beauty
• 1 royal gramma
• 1 purple spot anthia
• 5 green chromis

That's not a huge stocking list, and I transferred all of the live rock from my last tank so I'm a little annoyed and perplexed, but dealing with it now.

I dumped the recommended dose of Seachem Prime in to neutralize/bind the ammonia, which should last for up to 48 hours. The test kits still show the total ammonia (both NH3 and NH4) so it's impossible to tell which part of that is toxic. It's also hard to do a 20% water change when the RODI system only drips out a little more than 100gpd. I was able to replace about 70 gallons yesterday, but that's only 10% of the total 750 gallon system volume.

I'm going to go grab some TurboStart 900 and hope that I can accelerate the process to eat up this ammonia faster than water changes.

Maybe try another ammonia kit

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

Maybe try another ammonia kit

Oh it’s definitely a new cycle showing ammonia - cloudy algae bloom too. I figured the size of the tank could handle a few small fish, but apparently there wasn’t enough rock to support them. Even though the same rock and the same fish were in the last tank. Ugh.

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

Seachem Stability is in the tank now, along with some more Amm...something. Hopefully we can't get this under control quickly and there hasn't been any lasting damage to the fish

 

[Schnizzle]

I would offer my salt water (25 gallons) and RO (~60 gallons) but I doubt you'll want to drive an hour into the shore for it.

 

[Miller535]

Seachem Stability is in the tank now, along with some more Amm...something. Hopefully we can't get this under control quickly and there hasn't been any lasting damage to the fish

As long as you get it down, and keep it down I think you'll be fine. As the fish you listed are all generally pretty hardy.

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

I would offer my salt water (25 gallons) and RO (~60 gallons) but I doubt you'll want to drive an hour into the shore for it.

Thanks! My RO has been working around the clock, and I'm about to install a booster pump for even better rates.

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

As long as you get it down, and keep it down I think you'll be fine. As the fish you listed are all generally pretty hardy.

I thought that ammonia could cause permanent damage to fish gills. Is that the case or just lore? I'm trusting "hobby lore" less and less these days as the real research ramps up.

 

[Miller535]

I thought that ammonia could cause permanent damage to fish gills. Is that the case or just lore? I'm trusting "hobby lore" less and less these days as the real research ramps up.

It can, but I am incline to think that for short period of time without prolonged exposure, you're probably ok. Thankfully it sounds like you caught it quickly.

 

[emvanburen]

I too had a bump when I added the fish. Took about 4 scary days to go down. Added lots of dr Tim’s. All was well.

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

I too had a bump when I added the fish. Took about 4 scary days to go down. Added lots of dr Tim’s. All was well.

The team has assembled to help me get through this. More Prime and Stability are on their way.

Amazon needed some education that these were akin to pet medical supplies and didn’t need to take 10 days to ship 50 miles.

 

[Miller535]

Have things improved?

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

Have things improved?

Ammonia is showing 2.0 right now, which is definitely an improvement. I'm not too worried about NH3 right now, as that 2.0 reading is likely all NH4 (Ammonium) from using SeaChem Prime and Ammonia remover.

Nitrites are a bit elevated which means they are eating the ammonia as well as the Stability bacteria that I loaded in yesterday. Our Reef2Reef chemist Randy doesn't give Nitrites any mind in a marine aquarium (freshwater is where the danger is) so I'm just testing Nitrites to see how the cycle is doing.

Nitrates are still pretty low, and my 40G chaeto refugium is ready to pounce

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

I'm an idiot.

As I wrote, my tank is unexpectedly cycling, and Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates are alarmingly high. Ammonia is detoxified, but I need to let the rest cycle -- water changes remove all the bacteria I've been adding.

1. I can't catch the fish in the 550G - it's just too big. They are not happy, but still breathing
2. My SPS is pretty much all dead, including a gorgeous plating Monti. What I SHOULD have done was move the SPS coral into one of the 4 empty tanks that I have sitting in the fish room, and fill with new saltwater. Why that took me a week to figure out, I can't say. I was just overwhelmed by the situation and didn't look at my available resources.

Hopeful solution:

• I just moved what's left of the SPS into my frag tank
• I turned off the supply to the frag tank (from the main system) - drained it down 75%, and then added new saltwater so it is now an independent system. There is plenty of flow from pumps, good lighting, and a single yellow tang.

Let's hope this saves the Monti

 

[JumboShrimp]

Can you drop down sheets of egg crate or acrylic or even clean plastic trash can lids to make tank dividers, making the room for your fish to swim smaller, and smaller, and smaller until you can finally net them (?)

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

Can you drop down sheets of egg crate or acrylic or even clean plastic trash can lids to make tank dividers, making the room for your fish to swim smaller, and smaller, and smaller until you can finally net them (?)

Thanks for the good ideas - the fish seem to be doing okay since the ammonia has been neutralized. The SPS has been moved, but I think after 5-6 days of poisonous water, they may be gone.

you learn the best from making mistakes, but I wish I could have avoided this.

Tomorrow is a new day, and you guys all inspire me to keep going!