Re-Building 180 gallon after move and crash

[NashobaTek]

Welcome to R2R! Sorry for the loss of the inhabitants of the tank, but be a Phoenix, and rise from the ashes bigger and better!!

Look forward to seeing the re-build.

 

[ClownSchool]

My condolences on the crash, but thank you for the education on rebuilding. I’m new to reefing and am starting with a nano AIO, so anything I can learn about components associated with custom tanks is a big help.

 

[G Santana]

Welcome aboard and good luck with the rebuild

 

[jtp7004ft]

Welcome

 

[BaysEndReef]

Welcome to R2R!! Always here to help!!

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello and welcome to the channel.

 

[CMMorgan]

Hi, I have been reading r2r for years, have asked a few questions and posted a few pics. But, mostly I just read. The info shared on this site has been invaluable to me. I’m hoping maybe I could also contribute something informative and, as I re-build do one of these build threads. I recently moved and, unfortunately, upon moving my 180 gallon aquarium and all of it’s inhabitants, everything died. Before the move, I was having really good success with sps, clams, fish, and some lps, some of which were under my care for over 15 years. It was tragic to lose all of them. This was the first time I have ever experienced the crash effect. I’m not 100% sure what happened. The move was pretty long, about 5 hours in the truck sometimes over winding, bumpy roads. I packed everything in ice-chests and styrofoam boxes and in black, heavy duty plastic contractor bags with lots of water from the tank. The outside temp was pretty mild. The bags were scented, so... I don’t know if that would cause coral death, though. I think the ride was just long and at least one large ORA green planet, and maybe some others, died and without my sump and protein skimmers running, it just snowballed and killed everything. I had only one day (it was almost a 24 hour day for me) to move the aquarium, then I had to drive back and move the rest of the house. So, I didn’t have time to get all systems up and going. Plus I broke one of the bulkheads and my refugium moving the tank. I moved the tank on a Friday, started at 6am finished up about 2am, went to the hotel, to bed at 3am. We came back in the morning to check on the aquarium and the water was cloudy, but there were no leaks and the temp was good power head was running. Had to leave, had to get back to pick up the U-Haul and start packing everything else. Came back on Monday, the house smelled horrible. Still couldn’t do anything about it because we had to move in. The next day, after a night of trying to get the filtration going to no avail, I decided to call it. I drained the tank. What a catastrophe! I was clearly too ambitious, thinking I could pull this off. In retrospect, perhaps I could have figured out some way to get a stable quarantine tank set up or something already going to immediately transfer the stressed animals right when we got here. Or just found somewhere to keep them while I moved and set up the tank. I don’t know how it would be done professionally, but I did something or many things very wrong. I probably should have asked for help with this.
So, now I am going to re-build. The cool thing about the new house is there is a space in the garage, with an adjoining wall to the room where the aquarium will be, where I can keep my sump and refugium, and get them out from under the tank. I’m kind of excited about that. I did keep most of the live rock. I have it cycling now. I threw out all the sand and will be replacing it. The system will basically replicate what I had before, just with different routing for the plumbing.
Anyhow, that’s my story. I had a lot to say, I guess. I will do my best to post a build thread. If anybody has advice on a good way to do a build thread, how to plumb pipes through a wall, and how to cope with a catastrophic loss of beloved aquarium animals, please let me know. Thank you for reading.

Where do you live? Think about a few things when plumbing to the garage. I thought I was just brilliant when I did that. A few years down the road, I have learned a few things:
I live in Florida - upside, I have never needed a heater... downside.... my evaporation is crazy high which has made me chase stability for a long time.
The evaporation has rusted by AC handler .... my husbands tools, my hot water heater.... you get the point.
It is a bug magnet.
I have used great stuff to seal the holes between the home and garage to hold off CO2 but there is still a risk of that getting into the system and messing with my Ph.
Everything else you do in the garage can contaminate the sump .... paint, sawdust, WD-40....
The elevated temps in the garage have been a forever issue of GHA, cyano and whatnot in the sump area.

I did it for flood risk mitigation. When I move it under the stand, I will be using flood monitor alarms. I know that there are negatives to it being indoors also. If I lived in a more temperate climate, maybe I'd do it again but not here. Like everyone, we all dream of a fish room.

So sorry for your losses. Thank you for sharing. Maybe your experience will help another reefer down the line.

 

[AquaScott]

Where do you live? Think about a few things when plumbing to the garage. I thought I was just brilliant when I did that. A few years down the road, I have learned a few things:
I live in Florida - upside, I have never needed a heater... downside.... my evaporation is crazy high which has made me chase stability for a long time.
The evaporation has rusted by AC handler .... my husbands tools, my hot water heater.... you get the point.
It is a bug magnet.
I have used great stuff to seal the holes between the home and garage to hold off CO2 but there is still a risk of that getting into the system and messing with my Ph.
Everything else you do in the garage can contaminate the sump .... paint, sawdust, WD-40....
The elevated temps in the garage have been a forever issue of GHA, cyano and whatnot in the sump area.

I did it for flood risk mitigation. When I move it under the stand, I will be using flood monitor alarms. I know that there are negatives to it being indoors also. If I lived in a more temperate climate, maybe I'd do it again but not here. Like everyone, we all dream of a fish room.

So sorry for your losses. Thank you for sharing. Maybe your experience will help another reefer down the line.

Hey CMMorgan,
Thank you for the response and the tips. I will make use of them. I live in Santa Rosa, Ca. now. The garage is going to get pretty warm in the summer, so I am keeping the chiller inside, in the cabinet. I don’t think it would very well with the ambient temperature hotter than I want the tank. It’s not really a “fish room,” more like a filter shelf. but the hope is now I have better access to the sump, the refugium, and all the plumbing for maintenance and whatnot.
One thing to watch for if you have everything under the tank, indoors, is salt creep. Make sure you can get behind it to vacuum.

 

[CMMorgan]

Hey CMMorgan,
Thank you for the response and the tips. I will make use of them. I live in Santa Rosa, Ca. now. The garage is going to get pretty warm in the summer, so I am keeping the chiller inside, in the cabinet. I don’t think it would very well with the ambient temperature hotter than I want the tank. It’s not really a “fish room,” more like a filter shelf. but the hope is now I have better access to the sump, the refugium, and all the plumbing for maintenance and whatnot.
One thing to watch for if you have everything under the tank, indoors, is salt creep. Make sure you can get behind it to vacuum.

I had that issue in the garage also due to the evap. I had not really thought about it indoors. Appreciate the tip. This sump is a flat top, so maybe I can consider lids.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[vetteguy53081]