Moving a 57 to 75 gal. mixed reef..1000 miles apart

[Cristy17]

Oo

 

[Cristy17]

I apologize for double pictures and out of order. Posting from my iPhone on a small screen at 3:50 AM.

 

[Cristy17]

I have not posted since the travel date of Sept.5th because once I arrived and placed everything in the new tank, Irma was on her way. Here is a picture of one of 3 tubs I used for the corals and live rock when we were getting ready to leave. It took me approximately 3 hours to break down the tank and start the journey. The fish didwell, except for the marine betta . It was my fault and a hard lesson to learn. I had one bucket with all the fish and very few delicate corals and an air stone. I had a second bucket also with an airstone and some bigger rocks. This was where I kept the crabs, snails, pistol shrimp, etc..About 4 hours into the trip, I noticed the marine betta appeared to be at the top of the water , still alive. I decided to leave her there a bit longer. Two hours after that, I again checked on all the fish and now she was gasping at the top of the water. She was the only fish that was doing that. So I decided to scoop her out with my hand and put her in the other bucket. She quickly swam and hid in the rocks. When we arrived to the destination, she had gotten all beat up from the rocks shifting during the transport. I felt awful. I tried to save her by putting her in a quickly set up hospital tank, but she was too injured. She died half hour later. Lesson learned. All the other occupants did great and have acclimated very well. A few of the coral plugs were knocked off the live

rock, but have bounced back! Here are a few pictures..

 

[Cristy17]

Once Irma was on her way, everything with the tank stopped so we could prepare for the storm. I decided to stay because my rationing was that we had just traveled 14 + hours with stops, I was not about to abandon my tank! I brought the tank's generator as well. Where the tank goes, the generator goes! Turns out we were spared! We never lost power! There was very little damage to our neighor hood. Here is what we suffered....My heart goes out to all the people that have lost their homes or have suffered a great deal of damage..

 

[Cristy17]

Here is a FTS I just took..I still have a lot coral plugs to glue onto the rockwork...

 

[Cristy17]

I decided my sump was too small for my tank and so was the skimmer. I ordered a custom sump from Jeff at Pimped Out Aqariums and used a $100 gift card I won at my local reef club, WAMAS (Washington DC Aquarium Marine Aquarist Society). I had to request the chambers in the sump be reversed since I will be accessing it from the back of the tank. I also wanted to have lights so I could see better AND it looks cool! Here are the before sump and the new sump.

 

[Cristy17]

Then came time for the cabinetry. I do woodworking as a hobby but I certainly am not experienced enough to create a cabinet around my tank...especially while it is occupied and running! So I called in the professionals! I must say, it wasn’t inexpensive but it sure was nice to have it done all in a day!

 

[Cristy17]

 

[Cristy17]

Finished!!! I know the cabinet looks really large around my little 75 gallon, but I made the stand tall enough that people don’t have to lean down to see the tank. I am onlly 5’2”..so I made it more to my size. Afterall, I am the one that will be looking at it the most! And enjoying it!

 

[Cristy17]

I then added a hang on the back refigium. It over flowed my original sump twice before the new sump arrived. I was happy to finally recieve and install the new sump. Again, I broughtt in the professionals because I am a bit intimidated with hard plumbing, especially to get it to loook nice and not sloppy. I had. it plumbed to accomodate a future manifold should I decide to add it later. It was great to have the extra water capacity to have more error room! Also, I lined the inside of the stand bottom with a pice of pond liner just incase anything leaked. I got that idea from a member on this forum. I can’t remember the member name, but thank you! Just another safety net!

 

[Cristy17]

 

[Cristy17]

The next project was to get cabinets up in the sump room to store all my “stuff” and to also set up an RODI system with holding tanks and reconnect the ATO. The wall cabinets I purchased at Ikea. Very easy to build and wipe down to clean. I purchased a small matching narrow floor cabinet to serve as my testing area and a place for the dish/fish stuff I washed to dry off. I had to first build the stand with limited room in the sump room. I had no idea how quickly things would get crowded! I did build the stand and it was simple since I had used the same design for the tank stand which I had also built. I also knew since I would be blocking the door to get to the HVAC system.

 

[Cristy17]

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Great stuff, man! This is a thing of beauty! Love the work you've put into this!

 

[Cristy17]

Great stuff, man! This is a thing of beauty! Love the work you've put into this!

Thank you very much mdbannister! It has been a long time planning and saving!

 

[Cristy17]

Finally completed the holding tank stand. I was having problems with my RODI not shutting off when its connected to the top tank. It seems it would stop filling the tank as it is suppose too, but water continued to run out of the black line (waste water). After doing some research in the BRS website, it seems I need to add an in-line check valve. The auto shut off valve is not enough. I ordered one and recieved it today. I hope to install it tomorrow and test it. If that doesn’t work, I will welcome any ideas! Please excuse the mess, still organizing. Here is another picture that show the adhesive plastic hooks I used to hold the cords that were hanging down in front of the back of the display tank. And finally, starting to hang up the various accutramants used to feed the corals, clean the tank and catch the fish! I decided to hang these items where they would not be an eye sore.

 

[Cristy17]

My next step will be to set up the two Apex leak detectors and a dosing sytem for BRS Bicarb and calcium. I have been shying away from this because I need to figure out how much the tank is using and that means testing everyday. Also, since I am not in this house full time...yet..I don’t want to have something go wrong and my friends, who are kind enough to take care of the tank, have to deal with it. Oh, and of course I have to figure out what to do with this mess...ideas??? I will be looking at other builds to see what everyone is doing with their birdsnest of wires!

 

[Cristy17]

I have not updated my build thread in a very long time (2 years 2 months)! I have changed and added lots of things that seem to have made things easier and better. I still have not tackled the wire mess on the Apex and other equipment. I think I'm putting it off because I know how much of a headache it will be! So for now this is some of the things that have been done. First and foremost, I decided the water station I had was too big for my sump room/reef room and I did not need to house 35 gallons of water for a 75 gallon tank. I purchased 2 new food grade tanks (20 g each) and did the plumbing much the same way. I kept the Iwaki pump which works great. I also invested in a new RODI system that I absolutely LOVE! It's an Aqua FX with a booster pump. It makes over 20 gallons in about 2 hours with a lot less waste water. I added a dual inline TDS Meter to the RODI so I can have a better idea of when to change the filters. I also added a manifold system to the sump after upgrading to an Apex Cor-15 which is actually too powerful for my single line return (wish I had thought about that before getting this 75). I connected the chiller, oh yes, another thing I added,

and a Zeovit Reactor to 2 of the 3 outlets. I have since removed the Zeovit reactor, although it was working well. For Christmas I received two Red Sea C90s LEDs! I liked the Cobalt C-Ray 200 and I was seeing some great results, but the adjustments of the lights were more cumbersome than I wanted or had patience for. Lastly, as far as equipment goes, I added 2 Apex sensors to the Alkalinity and Calcium dosing containers so I would know when they were running low. Just helps to keep things stable and keep my sanity! Here are some pictures. The next thread update will be more focused on the aquascape and corals. Thanks for looking!

 

[Cristy17]

By the way, that is my blind kitty, George. I find him often in the sump room sleeping. I think he likes the humming of the pumps.

 

[Cristy17]

Ok, I just noticed in the pictures that I had not updated the skimmer. I decided to get a Quantum Nyos that was highly spoken about on this forum. I must say, it was expensive but worth every penny! It was very easy to dial in and it works perfectly! Even after I clean it!