Iron Mike's 220 Gallon Mixed Reef (re)Build

[iron_mike_gt]

I've had this tank for over 5.5 years and am at the point of doing a warm reboot of it this weekend. That makes no better time I can think of than to start a (re)Build thread!

The tank is a Marineland 220 measuring in at 72" long x 24" wide x 30" deep. Up to this point, I've been running:

1800gph return pump
Reef Octopus External Skimmer 250
2x Ecotech MP40
3x Ecotech Radions
Emperor Aquatics (now Pentair?) 40W UV Sterilizer
Apex Classic Controller
Apex DOS & Rersevoir for Reef Fusion 1 & 2
Tunze ATO

Here she is with initial setup & rock scape

And here's one a few months later after cycling and putting in some zoas and other frags.

Less than 1 year later, we moved about a mile - so the rock scape evolved, but other than that equipment stayed the same.

Life changed a bit more taking on a new job that took time away from my tank. Here she is at what I'd consider the peak in October 2016

And now to present day. I haven't been consistent in water changes and testing up until a couple of months ago. Testing regularly has been easy since buying Hanna checkers for alk, calcium and ULR phosphate. The water changes have still been challenging, but every couple of weeks I've made them a priority.

Current plan:

1. Move the tank to the basement. I had it finished and moved my office down there a year ago. That has meant 1 year where I'm not sitting at my desk staring at my tank and picking a small issues as they arise. This move is happening this weekend, 3/23.

2. I can't rely on water changes to replace elements and export nutrients. I know Triton has been a love/hate topic lately, but so long as I can get my hands on their elements (which doesn't seem to be an issue now), I'm going to give it a shot. I've bought a new sump and some other toys over the past year since I knew I'd be moving, and am using this weekend to get things cleaned up and ready for this.

So I've got some new gear here that I've collected over the past year, and I'll post pics as I get them unboxed and as the move goes. I know lots of folks feel post on R2R questions about moves and have a lot of angst about them. I have angst, but much less on the 2nd go around, so I'll document the weekend as best as I can.

 

[iron_mike_gt]

New sump going in. I became familiar with Crystal Reef Aquatics when they had a contest going on here 6 months or so ago. I was really impressed with the layout, john guest ports, spacious fuge and skimmer section, and then return pump area big enough to easily accommodate a pair of pumps. So, after comparing with the Trigger Triton 44, I spent the extra dough and am really happy with it (in the box of course).

It shipped safely and was packed well. We’ll see flow through here in about 48 hours!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

looks nice. Really like the sump.

 

[iron_mike_gt]

looks nice. Really like the sump.

Thanks. It's the Triton TRS 44 from Crystal Reef Aquatics. My original sump was the Trigger Ruby 36. My skimmer was too big to fit inside it, and various other equipment (reactors, dosers, ATO, etc.) led to a good deal of salt creep. I really like this built in tubing on the dosing and ATO connections, as well as the deep runs on the drains. The size and layout should make for a cleaner experience for sure.

 

[iron_mike_gt]

On March 23, we moved this beast from this room upstairs


To this space in the man cave.

In addition to Tito from Caribbean Aquatics in Cumming, GA, I had my brother Gary and buddy Dave to help. We saved most of the water and had it staged in a whole bunch of 5 gallon jugs in the gym:


All the rock and coral were either in 55 gallon brute trash cans or some Rubbermaid bins. The fish were in 5 gallon buckets with heater and air stone.

All went well — EXCEPT that both of the cross braces cracked/broke in the process. I’m not real sure why - one theory was that 5+ years of UV hitting it made them brittle. We ordered a new rim, but that was going to take 3-6 weeks, so I bought some 3 foot pipe clamps at Home Depot, and used those to ensure the front & back panes of glass did not bow and crack under the pressure. The picture below shows this setup, along with the red solo cups that were put on the end to try to avert putting eyes out.


4 or 5 weeks later the new rim came in and it was time to get the tank back in shape. Tito came over

And began to drain down the tank to take pressure off the glass. We pulled the hood off and took the clamps off and he proceeded to cut the plastic all the way around the top of the tank. It smelled awful, produced a bunch of smoke, and the melted plastic splashed on the wall in places (don’t tell the wife - it’s behind the tank)


After prying it all off (over 90 minutes worth of work), the glass was cleaned and ready for the rim to be set in place. Here’s the new rim being expoxied up



We set it in place, filled the tank back up, and got the hood back on. Just to be safe - we set the pipe clamps back on and left them there for 24 hours to ensure the epoxy set up and the cross braces were ready to take the load. 24 hours later (and really 6 weeks after we started), I can call the move complete.



During this time I started the Triton method, which included setting up dosing, my fuge, and flow through the new sump. I also took advantage of the wall the tank is now on to move my UV, reactors, dosing setup, and ATO into a “fish room”, which is also the tool room. Not 100% ideal - but much roomier and cleaner of a setup than cramming it all under the tank. I’ll post more on this with pictures.

 

[Maacc]

Looks great, especially the sump, I am sure you will be glad to get rid of the salt creep.

 

[Mariette]

What a process! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Reefpuck]

Such a sweet tank...love those dimensions.

 

[Eros]

Looks amazing! Love the 'scape... and seems like it has also been quite the journey... Although I am settled in for a minimum of a few years, I am not looking forward to eventually moving house...

 

[iron_mike_gt]

Over the past few months my corals haven't looked as great and I've battled dinos. Lo and behold I think this boils down to nutrient imbalance. I've registered 0 nitrates across API and Salifert test kits, and .13ppm phosphates. Instead of dosing, I decided to up my bioload by adding fish. What better day than black friday?

With 55 gallons of made up water sitting at 77 degrees and 1.025 salinity, I ventured off to a black Friday sale and picked up some sweet fish

1 Flame Angel (rolling the dice a bit here in my mixed reef)
1 Royal Gramma
7 Kupang Damsel

I got home, pulled 40 gallons out of my display and into my qt tank, put a seeded bio cartridge in the hang on back, and powered it on. And checked that I powered it on. And the lights and heater came on.... but the hang on back filter did not.

It would be at least another hour round trip to get out and back to Petco or Petsmart to get a replacement and I don't have a spare laying around. So, I'm rolling the dice further and we're going straight in the display. Fingers crossed. My LFS is great and the fish looked good, but I hate rolling the dice this way.


TL;DR - TIL to always check your equipment before bringing home fish. I'm now adding straight to my display tank from a very reputable LFS because my HOB filter died.

 

[iron_mike_gt]

Been awhile since I updated my thread so just sharing a pic of this little guy hanging out.

 

[iron_mike_gt]

Starting over... sort of. Maybe I should start a new build thread. TBD.

A couple of months ago, I noticed some salt residue on the glass of my 220 as I was cleaning it. Didn't think much of it - could've been a random splash or something that I missed. I cleaned it --- and it returned a few days later. Sooo my 10yr+ tank had a leak. Fortunately it was in the seam maybe 10" from the top and super slow, so I had time to deal with it.

After reading many threads on here about tank repair, I took the safe route of buying a new tank. My 220 had been torn down and moved twice, and I figured it just wan't worth the risk. So I bought a Planet Aquariums 180 and had it delivered.

I reached out to a local fish pro that had helped with one of the previous moves and got on his calendar. He came out, tore down the old tank, put livestock in buckets and trash cans, and we got the old tank out the door. He went to unwrap the new tank and OH NO - it had a ding and scallop in the corner.

Reef Lesson #1893 - always inspect every inch of your tank upon delivery. Trust nothing. Do not trust the process of the LFS delivering. There's more to this part of the story, but in the end things sort of worked out and after a month, I had another new tank delivered. Yes, inspected every inch of it and yes, the LFS had a form for me to sign and we all inspected it thoroughly. In the meantime, I had some livestock not make it. They were just too stressed out from the temp move that turned into a long term move, etc. But I will be reunited with what survived in a few weeks after I get this new one cycled.

So, here's the new tank wet. Lights are on for the picture but I'm keeping them pretty much off to minimize some of the nastiness that is to come. I was able to keep my rock alive in a trash can with a powerhead running. No light other than the ambient light and no heater, but it's really amazing what survived on those rocks - several mushrooms, a flower pot anemone, some little starfish, etc.

On the plus side, I got to change some stuff that I probably wouldn't have if I wasn't forced to. There's less rock but still a good amount of aquascape to support a mixed reef. The tank is 6" shorter so it will be easier to clean the back. So, new build, new journey, and a decade of mistakes and lessons learned to build upon. Hopefully I can get another decade at least before any similar calamity and a new slate of lessons learned.