Double or Nothing... AJ's 405-Gallon Reef Savvy Upgrade

[Stylo328]

Very nice tank I love the split granite wall

Thanks. We had it installed around the fireplace as well.

 

[locito277]

Looks amazing in that wall!! Loving it! What’s next? You know it never ends lol

 

[Stylo328]

The next thing to go up were the sliding doors to separate the tank from the data he air and in turn create a pseudo fish room. We went with 8’ dual pane insulated vinyl doors. These should hold up well given the harsh environment the salt water creates.

In these images you can see one of the first iterations of the return plumbing which came over the back of the tank. While it worked, the plumbing was very much in the way. It has since been redone.

I will continue to “catch the thread up” over the coming days. There have been many perils since the move, including the loss of my crosshatch male trigger, popeye for the female crosshatch trigger, hurricane Irma, alkalinity spike, etc... To say it has been a rough time is an understatement. Just in the past two weeks have things finally started to settle down with the tank.

 

[locito277]

Wow that is super cool. Came out super nice. Biggest regret with my system is the lack of a tank room. It’s gonna look better than ever. Who’s that in the reflection!, lol

 

[Maritimer]

Just super-stinkin'-gorgeous!

Wondering if it wouldn't have helped you aquascape if you had temporarily mounted a mirror to the front of the tank . . .

~Bruce

 

[Black Pearl]

Awesome idea. I wanted to do something similar in my garage but just didn't seem like I had enough space, had I though about the sliding doors it might have gotten more consideration. looking very good!

 

[Stylo328]

Wow that is super cool. Came out super nice. Biggest regret with my system is the lack of a tank room. It’s gonna look better than ever. Who’s that in the reflection!, lol

Hah. Good catch. That’s me in the reflection.

I like having he pseudo-tank room. It creates some unique opportunities. For example, with the recent cold spell, I was able to use a space heater to heat the “room” and avoided having to use a heather in the tank. I like the gradual change in temperature better.

 

[Stylo328]

Just super-stinkin'-gorgeous!

Wondering if it wouldn't have helped you aquascape if you had temporarily mounted a mirror to the front of the tank . . .

~Bruce

Thanks! It is definitely a conversation piece at the house. We are happy with how it turned out.

We tried lots of approaches:
- wife inside on phone with me listening via speaker
- screaming through the wall
- kids carrying messages

Ultimately I wound up running back and forth.

Even now when I need to glue faltaba, pick up fallen corals, etc... it requires her helping me from inside, unless I can angle my view and see the reflection on the inside of the front pane.

 

[Stylo328]

Awesome idea. I wanted to do something similar in my garage but just didn't seem like I had enough space, had I though about the sliding doors it might have gotten more consideration. looking very good!

Thanks.

When we were planning the tank move, it was by luck that we stumbled on the sliding doors. I was committed to having the ability to visualize the rear of the tank and my wife suggested sliding doors. I though, genius! Turns out they span almost the entire rear, floor to ceiling. Just happened to work out that way.

 

[dragon99]

Thanks! It is definitely a conversation piece at the house. We are happy with how it turned out.

We tried lots of approaches:
- wife inside on phone with me listening via speaker
- screaming through the wall
- kids carrying messages

Ultimately I wound up running back and forth.

Even now when I need to glue faltaba, pick up fallen corals, etc... it requires her helping me from inside, unless I can angle my view and see the reflection on the inside of the front pane.

Try a video call maybe (facetime/whatever).

I'll echo what others have said, that facade is gorgeous. Do you have AC in the pseudo fish room?

 

[Stylo328]

Try a video call maybe (facetime/whatever).

I'll echo what others have said, that facade is gorgeous. Do you have AC in the pseudo fish room?

Now that we haven’t tried! Thanks for the suggestions and kind words.

We do have A/C in the room. Two vents and one return. We also have two dedicated 20amp circuits.

 

[Nola Bear]

Just read through your thread throughout the day. Fun read and journey. Glad to hear you are getting it all sorted.

 

[Stylo328]

Just read through your thread throughout the day. Fun read and journey. Glad to hear you are getting it all sorted.

Thanks for reading through. This past year has definitely been interesting! Nothing like getting a big tank set up only to move across the state a few months later.

Thanks for tagging along.

 

[Nola Bear]

Thanks for reading through. This past year has definitely been interesting! Nothing like getting a big tank set up only to move across the state a few months later.

Thanks for tagging along.

...Not too mention a pretty serious hurricane season to boot. I’d say I lost 80-85% of stonies in Irma. Rebuilding now. I’m in st. Pete, Tampa-born, what part of FL did you end up in?

 

[Stylo328]

...Not too mention a pretty serious hurricane season to boot. I’d say I lost 80-85% of stonies in Irma. Rebuilding now. I’m in st. Pete, Tampa-born, what part of FL did you end up in?

I lost several colonies to Irma as well.

SW Florida

 

[Stylo328]

I’m going to post a few photos to bring the thread up to date. This will include what The tank looked like at initial set up and some of the death that resulted from hurricane Irma. I’ve also made a few changes to the plumbing and the configuration of the fish room.

This is the rear view of the fish room. The sliding doors allow for good access to the rear of the tank and a step stool makes maintenance possible.

I plumbed a manifold into one of the Vectra returns to feed the calcium reactor and two BRS jumbo reactors, one for carbon and the other for GFO. I use carbon and GFO occasionally, but am not as consistent with either as I should be. Each feed can be regulated independently.

As you can see in this photo, I mounted the apex and controllers up and out of the way in the wall. Also, as if this photo, I had the RO running directly into the tank using a tunze controller and tunze solenoid. The solenoid eventually failed (thank god it wasn’t a catastrophic failure) and I have since moved to a reservoir model. Still have a ton of wire management to do.

This is what the livestock looked like before Irma.

And our rarely seen Marine Beta.

Sadly, as of this post, the female crosshatch trigger has also died...

 

[Stylo328]

Hurricane Irma happened not long after our move. The tank really hadn’t had an opportunity to settle and ultimately took a hard hit. While the storm itself did minimal damage to our home, the resulting multi-day power outage was difficult to manage through. We do not have a generator and had to rely on battery powered air stones. While the fish all survived, I think the lack of water circulation led to significant SPS losses. Some of the colonies had tissue remaining and have bounced back while others were lost altogether.

Here are just a few photos of the losses.

Christmas Mirabilis

Shawn Bennet Tort

Blue Tenuis

Purple Polyp Nasuta (what a hard loss; it’s all gone)

RMF Last Dragon (completely lost)

Miyagi Tort Acro (immediately filled with bryopsis in the center? The tips survived and is slowly coming back. Bryopsis is gone.

Battle Corals Spain Bow (completely lost)

After the losses were cut out of the tank, I took the opportunity to do some rearranging of the aquascape and added some dry rock that I had kept on hand. This is a FTS with the updated scape. I made some significant changes in each end of the tank.

 

[locito277]

Sucks man:-/ here’s to new beginnings. Send me your address. Got you a Mirabalos

 

[Stylo328]

Sucks man:-/ here’s to new beginnings. Send me your address. Got you a Mirabalos

Thanks brother. You are a good guy...

 

[Stylo328]

Fast forward to today. This is what the tank looks like from left to right, broken up into four pictures.

And a few cool closeups. This is one of the black onyx Picasso clowns hosting the green toadstool along with the lawnmower blenny.

A recently acquired torch. Digging the purple green and the orange hue.

One of the zoa gardens.

And finally a bounce courtesy of my friend the Reefchick.