My 240 gallon upgrade

[julioperez]

I have been in the hobby on and off for years now... I have always had a max of 150gallon tank , so This has been a big step for me.
I picked up a 240 cube from a friend that was too good to pass up. I must say though that it has taken me about 4 months to set up though.

Moving the tank from my friends house certainly was more involved than I thought

At my friends house the tank had 2 sides up against walls... but I plan on having it open on 3 sides so the cannot will need to be finished to match on one side Still.

 

[julioperez]

and here she has sat for 4 months

even though I have a tank up and running I don’t want to use any of the existing live rock and plan to start system with all dry rock.

different aqua scapes

building a rock cave

top down

left side

right side

another tip down

 

[Antics]

Looking good! That glass really cleaned up nicely. What did you use for connecting your rocks together? I think the pictures are great. I think adding a little more information about what you're doing and what your plans are will definitely help!

 

[julioperez]

Looking good! That glass really cleaned up nicely. What did you use for connecting your rocks together? I think the pictures are great. I think adding a little more information about what you're doing and what your plans are will definitely help!

Thanks for the rocks I used 2 products: Aqua ScapeFix which look like bio pellets that melt and turn into a silly puffy texture and can be reused, and Aqua ReefFix which is a cement. Both are by Fauna Marin.

 

[julioperez]

This is my original tank. It will stay running while I gradually move everything over. I plan to cut the corals off the rocks and glue to the new rock work.

i am not a fan of blue tanks, but my lights are just turning on so blue is what you get LOL

 

[julioperez]

She has water...

currently I have only set up the return pump... I wanted to use the L1 by Vortech, but heard so many negative things about first batch of pumps... and after waiting 6 months for the issues to be worked out, the pumps are still not available. So, I decided to go with the new Sicce Syncra SDC. It can pump up to 2500gph so it should do the job nicely.

 

[Mrx]

Julio I hope you removed that egg crate from below the rock before you put sand in....going to end up being one big trap for detritus in the sand bed...it won't stir naturally or release anything ...if you want support for the rocks so they dont sit directly on the glass I have a piece of thin acrylic you could use ...

 

[novahobbies]

Following along! This tank was incredible from the first owner, can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[AquamanE]

Julio I hope you removed that egg crate from below the rock before you put sand in....going to end up being one big trap for detritus in the sand bed...it won't stir naturally or release anything ...if you want support for the rocks so they dont sit directly on the glass I have a piece of thin acrylic you could use ...

Lol. I just texted him same info!!!

 

[julioperez]

Lol. I just texted him same info!!!

Yes I left it in... I only have a very thin like of large (pea size) gravel, so I am hoping it will be ok. If not I will have to resort to gravel siphoning...

 

[julioperez]

First additions to the tank

 

[julioperez]

Would love to find a Gem and very small black tang before these guys take over the tank

 

[julioperez]

my ATI T5’s are up. Once main tank is ready to come down I will move my Radion G4’s over and hang them across the middle

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I'm loving this so far! Great setup! Great scape job! On point build for sure!

 

[julioperez]

Been a while... thanks to a bunch of friends that came over I was. Able to tear down the 150gallon finally and move all the corals (now Frags) over... fingers crossed all will be ok

 

[julioperez]

Coral doing ok... some lost color but am sure they will color back up in no time... glued a few more pieces down and making some room for new Frags that I’m sure will be coming home with me from RAP

 

[Bacon505]

Did you use the same water from your okd tank?

 

[julioperez]

Did you use the same water from your okd tank?

I had new tank running for about 4 months with a few fish only... then day of move did about a 50% water change using the water from the old tank.

 

[Bacon505]

You didnt use any of your okd rock did you?

 

[julioperez]

You didnt use any of your okd rock did you?

Initially I wanted all new rock, my thought behind that was that I didn’t want to bring any pests that might be in the rocks and also if the rocks were leaching phosphates or anything.
I was able to stick to that with the exception of 2 pieces that had several corals encrusting on them.