I like big tanks and I cannot lie...

Muttley000 · Jan 2, 2019

You guys are doing an incredible job!

wmhaupfear · Jan 3, 2019

fish_Nerd228 and I got the ledge installed today and then filled the tank! We put in the live sand after the water was flowing and we also put in some Prodibio StartUp and Dr Tim's One and Only to help accelerate the initial cycle.

Now on to building the canopy and hanging some lights! Stay tuned!

Nick C · Jan 4, 2019

Following

PiscesPower · Jan 4, 2019

Stunning.

wmhaupfear · Jan 10, 2019

Well this year has started off with a bang! Firstly, I want to thank everyone for keeping up with our aquarium building project. You've all been with us through the good parts and (maybe unknowingly) the frustrating parts. We promised we would share the good, and the bad. This is probably the worst thing that could have happened, but we are counting our blessings and looking at the bright side of things and moving on.

Friday was a joyous day for us as we got the last piece necessary to fill our aquarium with water. We filled it and started the process of prepping it for livestock. Monday morning at 5am, as we were getting ready for the gym, the front panel came loose at the seam and dumped the 150 gallons plus the 40 gallons in the reserve tank onto our living room floor. Thankfully we were here at the time it started. We grabbed 5 gallon buckets and formed a series of filling & dumping relays to get as much water outside as possible, and not on the floor. The amount of water was tremendous and emptied in a matter of a couple minutes. The water caused 2 GFCI circuits to trip, and thankfully, because we were standing in an inch of water in our living room and things could have turned out very differently. Most of the water from upstairs ended up in the basement and we lost a few ceiling tiles and a cat tree. We vacuumed up as much water as we could off the wood floor and the carpet in the basement. The damage is minimal to the house and everyone is safe, including the cats and fish, so this is probably the best of the worst situation.

We are still planning to have a tank, but it will be a bit before it is finished now since we will be buying a brand new tank. We have definitely learned a valuable lesson through all of this and take this as a PSA to never buy a used aquarium again. Stay tuned as we recover from all of this and move on with a new tank.

Muttley000 · Jan 10, 2019

Wow, what a bummer! Thank goodness you guys were home. Hope you get back at it quickly!

wmhaupfear · Jan 10, 2019

Muttley000 said:
Wow, what a bummer! Thank goodness you guys were home. Hope you get back at it quickly!

Ripping the old one out this weekend to get ready for the new one. No sense in dwelling on it!

Flippers4pups · Jan 10, 2019

Wow, that’s heartbreaking to see! Count your blessings that you were home and was there to deal with it.

As you said, could have been worse. Hang in there!

wmhaupfear · Jan 10, 2019

Flippers4pups said:
Wow, that’s heartbreaking to see! Count your blessings that you were home and was there to deal with it.

As you said, could have been worse. Hang in there!

Thank you, and yeah we have to see the silver lining here

Paleozoic_reefer · Jan 10, 2019

Dang!! That’s some mad skills you have!!!

wmhaupfear · Jan 12, 2019

Well fish_Nerd228 and I tore the tank down today. Even got the background out in 1 piece!

Now to get some little things done until the new tank is built and delivered. I think we are going with CustomAquariums for the new tank because they have an anodized aluminum frame with a removable center brace (it's bolted in place).

ESH · Jan 12, 2019

that is crazy! glad you got things going forward for recovery. Hope it didn't take out to many of the electronics in the stand.

wmhaupfear · Jan 12, 2019

ESH said:
that is crazy! glad you got things going forward for recovery. Hope it didn't take out to many of the electronics in the stand.

Actually all of our electronics survived. The GFCI tripped on the aquarium circuit and the basement circuit tripped because a ceiling light flooded but it all survived after it dried out. Thank goodness too because the apex stuff was quite expensive. It was scarily easy to deconstruct the tank...

ESH · Jan 13, 2019

Thats really good to hear! nothing to compare but any kind of leak sucks. I had just moved a smaller tank from my office to basement yesterday, only to later find a crack causing a slow drip. So I to will be replacing a tank today. Hopefully I can find one today! Good luck with your rebuild!

wmhaupfear · Jan 13, 2019

ESH said:
Thats really good to hear! nothing to compare but any kind of leak sucks. I had just moved a smaller tank from my office to basement yesterday, only to later find a crack causing a slow drip. So I to will be replacing a tank today. Hopefully I can find one today! Good luck with your rebuild!

Oh man, idk what would be worse, the slow leak over time or the all at once. Good luck on finding a new tank that holds water a little better

jgvergo · Jan 13, 2019

Wow, this is a great build thread and an incredible disaster! I just came across the thread and was happily reading through it. Early on, I saw a picture of your electronics mounted under the sump, which was cause for concern. Any leak carries the risk of a short or worse, a fire. I was going to say something but as I continued reading, I realized how far down the road you are so I figured it was too much effort to redo the electrical.

But, since you are in the process of rebuilding quite a bit of the system, it might be a good time to move the electrical...if you have the stomach to take on even MORE work

. I always like to put safety first. Just a thought!

wmhaupfear · Jan 13, 2019

jgvergo said:
Wow, this is a great build thread and an incredible disaster! I just came across the thread and was happily reading through it. Early on, I saw a picture of your electronics mounted under the sump, which was cause for concern. Any leak carries the risk of a short or worse, a fire. I was going to say something but as I continued reading, I realized how far down the road you are so I figured it was too much effort to redo the electrical.

But, since you are in the process of rebuilding quite a bit of the system, it might be a good time to move the electrical...if you have the stomach to take on even MORE work. I always like to put safety first. Just a thought!

Hey, thanks for the suggestions. Actually the electronics under the sump are in a weatherproof box with drip loops and control an entirely different set of things than the electronics upstairs for the DT. It would be nice to have the electronics for the sump system outside the cabinet but I couldn't figure out a way to make it look nice and still be accessible with the limited space. The sump and the DT are on separate floors and opposite ends of the house so combining the electrical is out unfortunately too.

With all of that said, we will be changing a few things that didn't work as well as we intended so this is a great time to do those things.

Raege · Jan 14, 2019

Wow just catching up to see that ledge installed then bam shocked at the tank letting loose. Glad no one was hurt and damage was as low as it was. Glad to see your getting back on track really looking forward to seeing this tank grow. Hopefully this one holy bleep covers you for years of trouble free reefing

Raege · Mar 13, 2019

Hope all is well and tank is coming back. Hate to be the last poster who killed the thread

wmhaupfear · Mar 13, 2019

Raege said:
Hope all is well and tank is coming back. Hate to be the last poster who killed the thread

I appreciate the interest and nope the thread isn't dead yet! Just waiting on the new tank to get here. It should be here in a couple weeks and then we start the setup process up again. Not much else to update yet, but soooooooon!