I think it would be ok to include a disassembly in a build thread.
Nuvo 20 dissassembly:
Who would have thought that breaking down a 20 gallon tank can be such a chore. I can't even imagine reefers with 200+ gallon tanks that need their tank broken down. Back to my little 40. I had 20 gallons of new SW circulating in a bin with a heater night prior upgrading. Turned ATO off and started mixing my old water to the new water. I think I did half a gallon every 30 mins. While removing old equipment, I had the idea to keep both AI Primes running on the holding bin during transfer. I later saw how exposed and vunerable the lights were to water splash and decided to just keep them off. Would have been a very expensive emergency mistake. So rocks out first along with my remaining SPS. I noticed one dry rock had dozens of pineapple sponges. This rock is where my pistol shrimp lived. Next came fishes.... Really didn't have a hard time capturing the fishes. I really didn't like the fact that not all will be coming back for the upgrade. I will both miss my flame angel and purple tang. I was already irresponsible putting a purple tang in 20 let alone do the same mistake twice. It's the right thing to do and I hope the go home to a better environment. Last came my loose corals. Next came rinsing sand. Holy crap, I did not know how much gunk accumilated with 20 lbs of sand in a span of 10 months. I really could siphon some areas due rock formation and will be carried over of how rock formation will be for the 40. I used a filter sock to strain the dirty water while sifting through the sand. It was so dirty and foul that i had to rinse the sock every two to three fills. I went from pure white to almost black after three scoops. I think next time I'll just won't reuse sand. Honestly, if it wasn't for other possible baby RFA's I would of picked up new sand instead.
