As if we haven't already had more than our fair share of drama...
Our 4 year old custom 300g Marineland tank sprung a leak approx 1/2" above the eurobracing on the left rear side of the tank. Terry heard water dripping Thursday night (5/14) and went to investigate. After stepping into a small puddle of water on the floor and seeing water pooling on top of the counter, she grabbed a couple of towels to soak up the water and went to find me upstairs. In a calm voice, she said "You need to pull the 180g stock vat out from under the deck, clean it up and set it up in the garage". What?!? She then proceeded to tell me we have a leak. What?!? You're Joking?!? I didn't want to believe it. Our worst nightmare, ROUND 2! It took a few minutes, but I found the tiny pinhole leak and my heart sank.
We immediately setup the 180g stock vat that we keep for emergencies and added 100 gallons of fresh saltwater that was on hand, along with a heater and pump to circulate the water. Since the leak was tiny and it was late, we placed towels on the counter to wick up water and decided to wait until morning to start tearing down the display. The pinhole leak grew to a small water fountain overnight.
A huge thank you to our friends Sean Seal, Trisha and George Reiber, and Chuck and Milissa Barrick for their help and support! With their help, we were able to get all of our corals, fish and inverts into temporary housing without any losses.
Our system design allows us to keep our 2 sumps and frag tank online and water circulating without the display. Our corals have been spread out between the sumps, 4'x 2' frag tank, a stand alone 75g tank and the 180g stock vat.
Our wrasses and a pair of clownfish were placed in our 4'x2' frag tank and are handling the small quarters well. We also added several containers of sand for the leopards to sleep in.
Our Regal Angelfish, Spotted Bristletooth, Kaudern's Cardinalfish, and several Chromis are hanging out in our stand alone 75g tank of misfits.
Our 12 year old Dejardini, Stinker the Tinker's butterfly, the male Semifasciatus and his (2) females and our Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasse are in the 180g stock vat to give them more room. Chester Aquaria (LFS) was kind enough to lend us an SRO 3000 which is running on the 180g stock vat.
4'x2' frag tank:
Stand alone 75g
rescuing conchs:
Tiki Coral (LFS) is graciously loaning us a 200DD tank to use as long as we need it. This will allow us to connect into our existing sumps and frag tank which will help immensely with stability. The stand for the tank has been built and we're applying a 2nd coat of poly. Mike is picking up the tank this evening and we'll place it on the stand sometime tomorrow evening.
Once we get the 200DD plumbed in and rock and livestock moved, we'll be in a better position to take the time to make the necessary decisions and plan accordingly.
Stand for the 200dd:
DSC_4782_051115 by Terry Lauderdale, on Flickr
DSC_4836_051115 by Terry Lauderdale, on Flickr
DSC_4592_051115 by Terry Lauderdale, on Flickr
