Well here it goes. This will be a long read with a ton of pics to follow.
I had a nice sized zebra snail decide it wanted to go into an area to small for it, move a rock that wasn't supported, shift the structure, and crack the bottom of my old tank. Luckily I was home when it happened, my stand did exactly what it was supposed to and channeled the dripping water into the sump. Not a single drop hit the floor. Well until panic mode set in and all items had to be moved to totes and coolers lol.
Timeline: Friday 10/26/2018 the tank cracked at about 13:30. Livestock was moved and had life support by 14:30. By 16:00 new tank was located and it was complete buy out of a 3 month old system. Previous owner gave up at GHA stage. Heck of a deal. tank was a 90g reef ready, with a 20g sump (Fiji DIY kit), Reef Octopus 150 int, heater, mp40, 2x BRS small reactors, couple Jabeo dc powerheads, eshops filter sock holder, Reefbreeders Photon light, 100lbs of really nice white rock with a ton of GHA on it, and a ton of misc. things along with it. I got a steal on it since he was moving and it couldn't go. The lord was on my side that day. the rock is soaking and will be used in the future when we get the remodel done and the 500g going.
I was home by 20:30 with the new tank and all items. I started setting up everything instantly. the tank fit on my old stand, but there is now 6" on either side of the tank. This works though. Wife is going to use the space to put pics of us at the beach and scuba diving there. Being as this tank was a single overflow and the previous one was duals, all my pretty purple plumbing had to change.
22:30
The tank was on the stand, plumbing was redone with no gluing required. Having some threaded unions was one thing that I was so happy to have in the garage. Also the old plumbing from when it was white pipe was still in there. So i used some of that piping and low and behold, where I had a union just after my feed for my reactors, I was able to use the solvent union already in place and then the other end of it I used a threaded one. This allowed my just to soft pipe the feed to the return at the tank. Actually doesn't look bad and I may just leave it that way for now.
23:00
I did a tally of how much water I had stored and was right at 40g. Shame on me for doing water changes on the other 3 tanks. So I started the RODI flow to the brutes, and broke out my old RODI and hooked it to the faucet. Sadly It still would have been the next day before I had enough water. On the horn I got with a friend. He had 100 gallons of salt water already made. Again thank the lord. He was set for WCs but had not done them yet. So he started to head my way with the water of life. Luckily we use the same salt, so that made it even better that I could just mix what I was planning to the next day and replenish his so he would still stay on schedule with his plan for WCs on Sunday. With him on the way and me at a standstill, I figured hmm what to do now. Outside I went with all my sand for a snail/work recovery adventure. I found all of the snails and worms I could, got them in some water in a bucket and was still pondering what to. Sand was washed a while back during a re-scape, but what the heck, I washed the sand again. 15 minutes until super clear water. I was very happy with that. Seems my qyres are doing there thing as there were no dead spots after them in the old tank. Sweet.
00:00
My bestest friend in the whole world arrived with the water of life. He also brought beer. Really needed that after my day so far. Man he is a good friend lol. Even brought his wife to keep mine sane lol. Once we got the holy crap it really did crack and wow how did the bottom not fall out done and over with. We cut a piece of starboard to fit this tank as a safety precaution for the bottom. The last tank didn't have it. Granted I have to order another sheet for the 500 now, but hey, you do what you gotta do.
00:30
We now have starboard laid in and are pumping all of the water out of the sump. Figured I had enough new water, may as well get rid of all that old water lol. We also took the rocks, grabbed my handy cordless Hilti and drilled them all for rods since the old holes probably wouldn't work now. Built a nice little structure, inserted rods and then placed them in the tank on the starboard. Once in there to test the look, they came back out and back into the temp live support system.
01:30
All water form sump out, skimmer got a good cleaning by the wife, sump got scrubbed down real quick by friends wife, now we began the process of filling it all back up. Sump was back full pretty quick and the tank was at 1/4 full at the same time. We started putting rock in while it was filling. We stopped at 1/2 full, put more rock in, inserted rods and then tested the stability. It was wonderful. This time all rocks got drilled and had rods installed. We also put in all the nice clean sand.
02:45
Tank full all rocks back in, sand in, all corals that were affixed to rocks were back in or relocated to somewhere else on the rock work. Snails and all were dripping since it was all new water. Time to crack a beer since we waited on that until we go to the easy work.
03:30
Everything was back in the tank, old lights were still up so I turned them on and then turned them down some, as I wanted to see what started to open. I was shocked, everything was slightly open in 15 minutes of the lights being on.
04:00
12 pack downed, everything in the tank except the fish. They were almost done with QT and the tank still had 2 days to hit the 76 day mark. Granted, all new water, all old water discarded, all rocks washed with new water before they went it, blah blah blah, didn't care I don't want ich again. they would go in at day 77 now.
04:30 My friend and his wife departed and left all his jugs for me to refill lol. Was planning on it anyways as it was a life saver. I then sat down, took a deep breath and relaxed for a minute.
05:00 (guessing lol)
Fell asleep in the recliner.
10:00
Woke up, checked everything, light was back on it schedule and everything was mostly open. Some of the LPS were not extended as much as usual, but they got moved, par changed, all new water, etc. I was pleased. I then needed to set up the new light, as a 5' light setup over 4' tank looks funny. I moved my DIY conduit arms inwards based on the new lights hanging mounts, hung the light, setup an acclimation program on it and then powered it on. took all of an hour to get it done.
11:00
Set Up what i thought I wanted on the light for after acclimation, broke out the par meter and tested. Holy crap this thing was a stout light. at 100% blue and 50% white I was about 1500 par at the waters surface with the light at 13". It was putting 390 on the sand bed. So down the light went intensity wise lol. I looked at my old tanks readings and then tried to come close to match it with where things were now. Nailed it and will work the light up to that over the next 2 weeks. I may also go up over that a bit depending on who the corals react.
12:00
Stopped for the day. Den was a mess, didn't care, had a Reef Club meet to get ready for.
Ohh, the zebra snails have now been banished to the sump for now. They are about the size of a racquet ball, so a bit to big at this point.
Pictures to follow shortly.
I had a nice sized zebra snail decide it wanted to go into an area to small for it, move a rock that wasn't supported, shift the structure, and crack the bottom of my old tank. Luckily I was home when it happened, my stand did exactly what it was supposed to and channeled the dripping water into the sump. Not a single drop hit the floor. Well until panic mode set in and all items had to be moved to totes and coolers lol.
Timeline: Friday 10/26/2018 the tank cracked at about 13:30. Livestock was moved and had life support by 14:30. By 16:00 new tank was located and it was complete buy out of a 3 month old system. Previous owner gave up at GHA stage. Heck of a deal. tank was a 90g reef ready, with a 20g sump (Fiji DIY kit), Reef Octopus 150 int, heater, mp40, 2x BRS small reactors, couple Jabeo dc powerheads, eshops filter sock holder, Reefbreeders Photon light, 100lbs of really nice white rock with a ton of GHA on it, and a ton of misc. things along with it. I got a steal on it since he was moving and it couldn't go. The lord was on my side that day. the rock is soaking and will be used in the future when we get the remodel done and the 500g going.
I was home by 20:30 with the new tank and all items. I started setting up everything instantly. the tank fit on my old stand, but there is now 6" on either side of the tank. This works though. Wife is going to use the space to put pics of us at the beach and scuba diving there. Being as this tank was a single overflow and the previous one was duals, all my pretty purple plumbing had to change.
22:30
The tank was on the stand, plumbing was redone with no gluing required. Having some threaded unions was one thing that I was so happy to have in the garage. Also the old plumbing from when it was white pipe was still in there. So i used some of that piping and low and behold, where I had a union just after my feed for my reactors, I was able to use the solvent union already in place and then the other end of it I used a threaded one. This allowed my just to soft pipe the feed to the return at the tank. Actually doesn't look bad and I may just leave it that way for now.
23:00
I did a tally of how much water I had stored and was right at 40g. Shame on me for doing water changes on the other 3 tanks. So I started the RODI flow to the brutes, and broke out my old RODI and hooked it to the faucet. Sadly It still would have been the next day before I had enough water. On the horn I got with a friend. He had 100 gallons of salt water already made. Again thank the lord. He was set for WCs but had not done them yet. So he started to head my way with the water of life. Luckily we use the same salt, so that made it even better that I could just mix what I was planning to the next day and replenish his so he would still stay on schedule with his plan for WCs on Sunday. With him on the way and me at a standstill, I figured hmm what to do now. Outside I went with all my sand for a snail/work recovery adventure. I found all of the snails and worms I could, got them in some water in a bucket and was still pondering what to. Sand was washed a while back during a re-scape, but what the heck, I washed the sand again. 15 minutes until super clear water. I was very happy with that. Seems my qyres are doing there thing as there were no dead spots after them in the old tank. Sweet.
00:00
My bestest friend in the whole world arrived with the water of life. He also brought beer. Really needed that after my day so far. Man he is a good friend lol. Even brought his wife to keep mine sane lol. Once we got the holy crap it really did crack and wow how did the bottom not fall out done and over with. We cut a piece of starboard to fit this tank as a safety precaution for the bottom. The last tank didn't have it. Granted I have to order another sheet for the 500 now, but hey, you do what you gotta do.
00:30
We now have starboard laid in and are pumping all of the water out of the sump. Figured I had enough new water, may as well get rid of all that old water lol. We also took the rocks, grabbed my handy cordless Hilti and drilled them all for rods since the old holes probably wouldn't work now. Built a nice little structure, inserted rods and then placed them in the tank on the starboard. Once in there to test the look, they came back out and back into the temp live support system.
01:30
All water form sump out, skimmer got a good cleaning by the wife, sump got scrubbed down real quick by friends wife, now we began the process of filling it all back up. Sump was back full pretty quick and the tank was at 1/4 full at the same time. We started putting rock in while it was filling. We stopped at 1/2 full, put more rock in, inserted rods and then tested the stability. It was wonderful. This time all rocks got drilled and had rods installed. We also put in all the nice clean sand.
02:45
Tank full all rocks back in, sand in, all corals that were affixed to rocks were back in or relocated to somewhere else on the rock work. Snails and all were dripping since it was all new water. Time to crack a beer since we waited on that until we go to the easy work.
03:30
Everything was back in the tank, old lights were still up so I turned them on and then turned them down some, as I wanted to see what started to open. I was shocked, everything was slightly open in 15 minutes of the lights being on.
04:00
12 pack downed, everything in the tank except the fish. They were almost done with QT and the tank still had 2 days to hit the 76 day mark. Granted, all new water, all old water discarded, all rocks washed with new water before they went it, blah blah blah, didn't care I don't want ich again. they would go in at day 77 now.
04:30 My friend and his wife departed and left all his jugs for me to refill lol. Was planning on it anyways as it was a life saver. I then sat down, took a deep breath and relaxed for a minute.
05:00 (guessing lol)
Fell asleep in the recliner.
10:00
Woke up, checked everything, light was back on it schedule and everything was mostly open. Some of the LPS were not extended as much as usual, but they got moved, par changed, all new water, etc. I was pleased. I then needed to set up the new light, as a 5' light setup over 4' tank looks funny. I moved my DIY conduit arms inwards based on the new lights hanging mounts, hung the light, setup an acclimation program on it and then powered it on. took all of an hour to get it done.
11:00
Set Up what i thought I wanted on the light for after acclimation, broke out the par meter and tested. Holy crap this thing was a stout light. at 100% blue and 50% white I was about 1500 par at the waters surface with the light at 13". It was putting 390 on the sand bed. So down the light went intensity wise lol. I looked at my old tanks readings and then tried to come close to match it with where things were now. Nailed it and will work the light up to that over the next 2 weeks. I may also go up over that a bit depending on who the corals react.
12:00
Stopped for the day. Den was a mess, didn't care, had a Reef Club meet to get ready for.
Ohh, the zebra snails have now been banished to the sump for now. They are about the size of a racquet ball, so a bit to big at this point.
Pictures to follow shortly.
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