Dave's twin 210 gallon in wall rebuild.

[dkeller22]

Starting my rebuild thread. The system was lost years ago and is finally going back together.

Pretty much everything except the tanks is going to be new and I'm making design changes on the things I didn't like or really didn't work well over time. There's also better technology these days in some areas.

The Plan:

One tank is FOWLR for things that aren't reef safe, the other is SPS dominant mixed reef. The fish room is in the basement on the other end of the house in what was the old utility room. Assuming the relentless remodeling gets done and I have time to finish the plumbing under the tanks I should start making water and filling them in about a week.


Where I am at the moment:

The tanks are cleaned out.
The lights are hung.
The DIY sump is re-DIY'd
The new skimmer is in the sump
The QT tanks are up and running.
The RO system has been replaced and expanded to 7 stages.
The refugium tank is clean and plumbed.
The overflow and return gaskets have been replaced.
The new return pump is installed.

Equipment:

Reeflow gold hammerhead return pump
Ecotech G5 Pro XR-15 lights
Reef Octopus skimmer


I still need:

Power heads
Sand
Stuff I haven't thought of yet

The doors go back on after I get the aquascape done.

And yes there are steel support poles under the floor.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Going to be super nice.

 

[KingTideCorals]

THE REBUILD!!!

Loving this thread and so excited to see what you do with the revamp of the system. The dual systems next to one another is a really cool look. Going to be fun what you do with it and how it grows out! Keep the updates and pictures coming!

 

[dkeller22]

It took longer than I wanted, but life gets in the way of hobbies sometimes. The water is warm and salty and the pumps are running. Dr. Tim's fishless cycle will be here tomorrow, but something organic was on my old rock because it's cycling. I tested it out of curiosity last night because the sump was building up foam with the skimmer off and the ammonia and nitrites are off the charts.

Now we wait some more.

 

[dkeller22]

It's been while, but the tanks are cycled and it did a 400 gallon water change to get the nitrates down to something I could actually measure. I got the down under 150 so hopefully that will feed the Chaeto grow. The ugly browns are mostly gone now so it's a battle between the Chaeto and the inevitable hair algae.

I managed to get one of the new Neptune refugium grow lights so we'll see how that works. So far so good. The almost baseball size hunk of Chaeto I was able to find has doubled and is a really dark green under the new light.

The extra rock is cooking for the Lion tank that's destined for my office now that we work from home.

Over the past month I've started the fish QT process and this guy comes out tonight or tomorrow depending on when I get the salinity in the QT tank to match the display tank. I do a five gallon water change in the QT using the water from the display, which raises the QT .001.

His 4 weeks are up and I need the tank -- I have 3 tangs coming into my LFS on Thursday. I'm meeting the owner when he gets back from the airport so they never go into his store system and I only have to deal with what they come in with and not what they get from the other fish. It also saves me some money because he doesn't have to handle them.

The other QT has two Ocellaris captive bred clowns that move in two weeks or maybe sooner since I haven't seen anything to worry about.

I have a week to decide on the next order. What next? Foxface maybe?

 

[DH78]

Great looking rebuild. Hope my in wall turns out looking as nice as yours.
Can't go wrong with a Foxface in my opinion. Algae destroyers and in my opinion and not too aggressive. Mine is a a little skittish when folks approach the tank unless being fed. I always find it amazing how a 6" to 7" fish can hide in my 120.

 

[dkeller22]

I’m stocking and my LFS is letting me piggyback on his weekly orders. Of course I can only get what’s available and it’s kind of a crap shoot buying sight unseen. Anyhow when I went to pick up fish today he had a yellow tang and a powder brown.

 

[Dcal]

Update?

 

[dkeller22]

The tangs are still in QT, but the clowns moved to the DT. I’m thinking about what fish is next. The aggressive side of the setup is still empty and my wife is pushing for her porcupine puffer, but I don’t think things are stable enough yet.

Both tanks have entered a new stage of ugly brown that seems to be fading. It’s worse in the tank I’m feeding

My cheato is growing like mad in the refugium. I got my hands on the new Neptune grow light and it seems to work as advertised.

My Robo-tank controller cleared customs a couple of hours ago and I should have it by the weekend. That’s a good thing because topping off evaporation is getting old.

Since the puffer is a given any suggestions for tank mates?

 

[dkeller22]

The clowns moving means I have a 20 gallon long QT tank that’s empty at the moment.