New to Reef 2 Reef

BCable01 · Jan 1, 2019

Hello everyone, I finally decided to join the forum after surfing on here for a long time. I figured now would be a good time to join. We live in Palmer, Alaska and as most of you have heard we had a pretty substantial earthquake at the end of November. Now the back story so you understand the pictures now. The earthquake caused my 3 radion lights to fall into the tank electrocuting everything. Then a snail somehow got stuck in the overflow flooded the display tank and for ways i don't understand my ATO turned on and stayed on (maybe the power surges) flooding my whole basement. This caused all the coral to die and the only thing that survived was one baby clown fish. I will not disclose the name or types of equipment i was using before because i don't think it was anyone things failure more so the tank moving almost a foot in every direction. LOL. At the same time we were moving to a new house so what a perfect and way easier time to move the tank and start over. So hear we are. Same 180 with the same rock. We purchased three hydra 26's for lights. Built a new sump. all the lights are up and working. The sump is performing great. Its hard to tell in the pictures the stand is new and is powder coated hammered copper. Flat back panels with QR panels are getting completed as we speak. Going for the steam punk look. All the piping is temp installed with flex hose. Waiting for all the new parts to come in. Just performed the first water change and checked all the water parameters and everything is good. So as of now everything is great. If you guys see anything I might could improve or if you are having a similar situation let me know I feel like I am pretty good at an emergency move now. LOL. I'll keep loading more as the tank comes along. Thanks for looking! Give me a few to load the photos.

Antics · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R!

PDR · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R!!!

Crabs McJones · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R! Sorry to hear about the quake. But sounds like you're on track to be back in the sea soon enough :)

#welcometoR2R

dbl · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R and your new reefing family. Wow, what an adventure and sorry for all the loss. Glad you hung in there and fired it back up.

mike werner · Jan 1, 2019

WELCOME TO R2R!

saltyhog · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R

@BCable Glad you are ok and are getting your tank back up and going. Don't be bashful with questions and keep the pictures coming....best way is to start a build thread!

JasonK84 · Jan 1, 2019

Glad this disaster didn't kill your enthusiasm for the hobby. Keep it going and post lots of pics as you rebuild!

Flippers4pups · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to reef2reef! We are all glad you decided to hang in there. What a story! Amazing the tank didn't blow out during the earthquake!

More importantly you family is okay!

BCable01 · Jan 1, 2019

Some pics of the devastation.

Billldg · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R!!!

KrisReef · Jan 1, 2019

You have the most interesting tank disaster story I have ever heard. Welcome to Reef2Reef. I hope we can help you recover

BCable01 · Jan 1, 2019

Now on to the rebuild..... A family Event.

Yep that’s my kitchen table and a rod from my closet attached on both ends with 550 cord and duct tape. Lol

Retro Reefer · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R! Sorry to hear about your reef, good luck with your reboot

BCable01 · Jan 1, 2019

Yes it has been an adventure. Luckily my LFS was way better off then I was. They were huge on getting me set back up again by giving me all the moving supplies some people would really like to have. Containers, 150 Gal Vat, Suction cups to help move the tank. Gave them a list of everything I needed and they started making a pile in the corner for me. Tons more stuff coming in the mail over the next few weeks. The one I am most excited about is the AI Hybrid T5/LED fixture to go with those Hydra 26's. I'll keep updating this as we continue to build.

Gonebad395 · Jan 1, 2019

Welcome to R2R sorry about all the bad but the new looks really good glad to have ya.

Sarah24! · Jan 1, 2019

Hello,

First welcome to R2R where you will find lots of lovely people and even more people with tons of knowledge. I must say as well, wow what an interesting turn of events. All I can say is glad no one was hurt and that had to be horrible.

As far as advice goes it looks really good and we love pics. I am not sure 3 hydra 26 will provide enough coverage specially in a 180. I would think that you would have too much shading and or possibly hot spots. What kind of stocking list do you plan on using with this tank?

Sincerely
Sarah

Edit sorry didn’t see the post about the hybrid coming in, but even with that would you still have enough coverage?

BCable01 · Jan 1, 2019

@sarah24 - As far as stocking goes we have no idea yet, we have a list that we are working on. I figured we are going to go super slow on that and focus on getting the tank solid again. All the plumbing is temp installed until I can hard pipe it with all the unions and fittings I need. Plus I need to add a few emergency overflows and a tank to catch it so I dont flood the house again. We have had over 3500 aftershocks since Nov 30th. Most recent a 5.0 last night.

As far as lighting goes I agree about the lighting. Thats why there is a AI Hybrid t5/led fixture on the way here now. Should be here in a week. Im hoping with the 3 Hydra's and 4 T5 fixtures mounted about 12.5 inches above the tank we should be good, I hope at least LOL. As far as the bulbs go we got 2 ATI Blue Plus and 2 ATI Purple Plus. Im not to sold on the purple plus but we shall see. Thanks for the input. I will take all I can get. This is a lot to think about over not so long of a time period;Happy

BCable01 · Jan 1, 2019

Also I forgot to add this. We had a lone survivor from all of that. A single black clown fish. He is our new pride and joy. We had to hurry and get water parameters right so we could get him some friends. Since we got friends for him. he has bounced back and been doing amazing!