Retirement 150g Tank Upgrade

Braves Fan

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I have been debating on wither or not to take down my old tank and start a new tank ,, at my age I just didn't want to go thru the process of doing it though ,, its a lot of work ,,, but life changes have left me with time on my hands ,, so I figured I would " Just do it "

I am fixing to retire from my job ,, as of this coming Friday I will no longer have a job ,, my wife passed away a few months ago ,, between not having a job and my wife not being here ,, I have really nothing to do ,, I am looking to the new tank to at least keep me busy and maybe keep my mind on other things ,, enough about that ,, onto the tank ,, I am not well on my way with the new tank ,, but the process has started ,,

The old tank was a Planet Aquariums 48x30x25 mixed reef tank

The new tank ,, I would have loved to have a Reef Savvy tank ,, the wait time for one of their tanks was just longer than I was willing to wait ,, I wanted a tank of their quality as best as I could get it though ,, yea ,, I know ,, that's most likely not going to happen ,, I talked to a builder and thought I had a deal for him to make my aquarium ,, lets just say ,, that didn't work out ,, I was now looking for a new builder ,,

What I didn't want was a assembly line aquarium ,, which is ,, the way I look at it ,, what I would get from a Planet Aquarium tank ,, I wanted a few options on the new tank that I may or may not be able to get on a Planet Aquariums tank ,, they were still on my list ,,, just at the bottom of the list ,, I figured I would talk to Miracles Aquariums first ,, this is a company out of Canada ,,

Miracles Aquariums ,,, I did my research ,, they are not without their issues ,, as far as I know ,, the owner of this Forum has one of their tanks ,, he has had issues ,, at the very least ,, he hasn't given them rave reviews ,, my research has shown ,, silicone work seems to be their biggest issue ,, I talked to the owner of Miracles ,, I ordered the aquarium ,, am I still worried about the quality of the silicone work that will be done on my tank ,, yea ,, guess I will just have to wait and see what I will get ,, the upside for the members of the Forum ,, you will get a current ,, up to date review of the quality of the work they do ,,, Sooo,, what did I order :) 60x30x25 rimless tank ,,, Starfire glass on the two ends and front panels ,, armour vertical seem proctors on all four seems, this feature was a must have for me ,, duel return lines and a Reef Savvy Ghost Overflow Box ,,, I am thinking the delivery date for the aquarium will be around mid May ,,

The new tank will be nothing like my current tank ,, which has been taken down ,, new tank will have no live rock in it ,, I have bought 6 bags Maxspect Bio Sphere's ,, 44 sphere's per box ,, four are fully cured ,, all are in a Brute holding container with a heater, circulation pump Brightwell Aquatics Microbacteria 7 ,, live rock and all the Bio Sphere's. When the new tank is up and running ,, all of these Bio Sphere's will be housed in my Advanced Acrylics 60x18x18 sump tank.

So ,, what will be in the tank in place of Live Rock ,, I bought scape made be Aqua Rocks ,, it will be about 48 x 18 x 16 This isn't for everyone ,, but I like the look ,, this link will take you to some of his pieces ,, the scape I bought will be like his Sweden scape with a few changes ,,

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=aquarocks&epa=SEARCH_BOXSweden scape

My equipment list for the new tank will be ,,, some will have come from the old tank other will be new ,,

Eco Tech will be supplying most of the equipment ,, cost a bit more ,, but quality is quality ,, I like to buy stuff once ,, I have been down that road ,, buy cheaper ,, then replace a year later ,, I have learned that lesson ,,,

2 Mp40 power heads
M1 return & Manifold pump
4 G4 Pro Radions with their rail mount system

Pax Bellum ARID n24 Chateo Reactor ,, have never used one of these,, have friends that have and they seem to like them. Took a bit to get it ,, but its in my hands :)

I have a old Reef Octopus skimmer that has never missed a beat ,, I want a new one ,, but will keep the old one online till the tank settles in ,,

Aqua Maxx GFO reactor ,, I really like these reactors ,, seems to be the best quality reactor that I could buy ,, it didn't come from BRS :( but I guess they can't sell everything :)

Colalt Aquatics Neo Therm heaters

That's about all I can think of ,, I will get some pictures posted for you ,,, not many ,, but its what I have at this point ,, I am not a putor savvy person ,, I typed this on my desk top ,, the pictures are on my phone ,, not sure how to get the pics from my phone to the desk top ,, so I will add them to this post by coming back into R2R thru the phone and adding the pictures that way ,,, that's the plan anyway lol
 

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I'm so sorry to hear about your wife. That's the hardest loss to adjust to, but then having your retirement come at the same time will be very hard for you. Do you have family or close friends nearby? You might think about doing some volunteering at your local zoo, aquarium or museum. That would at least get you out of the house on a regular basis to give you a little structure. <3 to you.

I look forward to seeing what you will do with your new tank.
 

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Regarding the computer issues. Have you tried downloading Tapatalk to access the forum through that app on your phone? I find it very useful.
 
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46320C7F-5505-48ED-A52C-19CBFE15CA49.jpeg
The old tank
 
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New tank will be a mostly SPS tank ,, scape should look nice as SPS frags grow :) aquavista99 and Battle corals ,, I will be needing frags :) I really don't have skills ,, building the stand framing is one thing ,, skinning it , is a whole other issue ,, that will be done by someone else :) I have a bunch of stuff coming from BRS today :)
 

Birddog

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Hello Peter, so very sorry to hear about your wife.

I think it’s awesome you’re starting a new reef and from what I can see thus far... you without a doubt have skills. The stand is very nice and the birth of a new SPS tank is always exciting!
 

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Howdy Peter. So sorry to hear about your loss [emoji17]. It's the most difficult thing to overcome. But time does heal [emoji120].

Sounds like you've got yourself an interesting project here, will be following along to see the end result on this one to.

I recently came across a very similar looking aquascap product here in Hong Kong and although its rather expensive here it does look pretty amazing when it's loaded with corals. The LFS has this in 2 of their display tanks and it's just amazing. (I'll try to post a photo next time I get down there) the one we have here I believe is ceramic material. I've been debating if I would use this or live rock and after 2 months I think I've decided to go with your type[emoji106]. It saves all that rock gluing and is much easier to stack. Also saves having to glue the corals down as each platform is flat.

By the way that is a quality built stand. All done by you or not you certainly have some skills there and you clearly have lots of experience in the hobby. Looking forward to more posts from you.

R2R is your family to [emoji6] keep us updated and enjoy the build.
 

ylreefer

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Howdy Peter. So sorry to hear about your loss [emoji17]. It's the most difficult thing to overcome. But time does heal [emoji120].

Sounds like you've got yourself an interesting project here, will be following along to see the end result on this one to.

I recently came across a very similar looking aquascap product here in Hong Kong and although its rather expensive here it does look pretty amazing when it's loaded with corals. The LFS has this in 2 of their display tanks and it's just amazing. (I'll try to post a photo next time I get down there) the one we have here I believe is ceramic material. I've been debating if I would use this or live rock and after 2 months I think I've decided to go with your type[emoji106]. It saves all that rock gluing and is much easier to stack. Also saves having to glue the corals down as each platform is flat.

By the way that is a quality built stand. All done by you or not you certainly have some skills there and you clearly have lots of experience in the hobby. Looking forward to more posts from you.

R2R is your family to [emoji6] keep us updated and enjoy the build.
Found a pic that I took but I'll get another later with the corals in place [emoji106]
20190224_194736.jpeg
 
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A bit of a update ,,, Called Mircales Thursday to get a update on the tank ,, glass has been cut & tempered,, they said they would start putting it together in the next few days ,, shouldn't be long now :) I have as much done on the stand as I can do without having the tank.

The plumbing is done ,, I have it about 50 / 50 dry fitted and glued ,, the manifold is glued ,, everything else is dry fitted ,, it won't take but a few min. to glue the rest ,, figured I would wait on gluing the rest till I see how I need to run pipes to and from the Reef Savvy overflow box ,,, I bought another Eco Tech Battery back up ,, that will give me one back up for each of the two MP 40s and one for the M1 pump ,, I have all the controls mounted into the stand ,, as always ,, I have wires everywhere :(

I started buying the lights ,, the only reason I don't have everything bought for the lights is because the store didn't have everything I needed lol they were sold out and have another shipment coming this week ,, I should be able to pick up what else I need then ,, hopefully ,, what I have and still need ,, I have one ET Radion XR30W G4 Pro ,, I still need 3 more ,, I have 3 of the Multi light RMS slides for the XR30s , still need one more ,,, I still need to get the Multi light RMS Track , they had all the different Track lengths , except for the 5' one that I need ,, I have the Multi light Arm kit ,, as soon as I get the rest of the light stuff ,, I will mount the light controls on to the stand ,, I can mount the lights to the track, program them and then just unplug them ,, when they go up over the tank & plug them back in ,, they should be good to go ,,,

I have 5 bags of live sand and a 200 # box of salt ,,

I still don't have my scape yet ,, it was supposed to have shipped two weeks ago ,, that didn't happen ,, Aqua Rocks was supposed to have sent me pics a few days ago ,, that didn't happen either ,, He had to make some changes to it that I wanted,, the changes have supposedly been done ,, I think he procrastinated on getting that done ,, its not a big deal ,, its not like I have a tank to put the scape into ,, I told him this and that all I really cared about was that I get the scape before the tank gets here ,,

As soon as I get pics of either the scape or the tank ,,, I will get them posted up for ya'll ,,, till then I am just playing the waiting game :)
 

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A bit of a update ,,, Called Mircales Thursday to get a update on the tank ,, glass has been cut & tempered,, they said they would start putting it together in the next few days ,, shouldn't be long now :) I have as much done on the stand as I can do without having the tank.

The plumbing is done ,, I have it about 50 / 50 dry fitted and glued ,, the manifold is glued ,, everything else is dry fitted ,, it won't take but a few min. to glue the rest ,, figured I would wait on gluing the rest till I see how I need to run pipes to and from the Reef Savvy overflow box ,,, I bought another Eco Tech Battery back up ,, that will give me one back up for each of the two MP 40s and one for the M1 pump ,, I have all the controls mounted into the stand ,, as always ,, I have wires everywhere :(

I started buying the lights ,, the only reason I don't have everything bought for the lights is because the store didn't have everything I needed lol they were sold out and have another shipment coming this week ,, I should be able to pick up what else I need then ,, hopefully ,, what I have and still need ,, I have one ET Radion XR30W G4 Pro ,, I still need 3 more ,, I have 3 of the Multi light RMS slides for the XR30s , still need one more ,,, I still need to get the Multi light RMS Track , they had all the different Track lengths , except for the 5' one that I need ,, I have the Multi light Arm kit ,, as soon as I get the rest of the light stuff ,, I will mount the light controls on to the stand ,, I can mount the lights to the track, program them and then just unplug them ,, when they go up over the tank & plug them back in ,, they should be good to go ,,,

I have 5 bags of live sand and a 200 # box of salt ,,

I still don't have my scape yet ,, it was supposed to have shipped two weeks ago ,, that didn't happen ,, Aqua Rocks was supposed to have sent me pics a few days ago ,, that didn't happen either ,, He had to make some changes to it that I wanted,, the changes have supposedly been done ,, I think he procrastinated on getting that done ,, its not a big deal ,, its not like I have a tank to put the scape into ,, I told him this and that all I really cared about was that I get the scape before the tank gets here ,,

As soon as I get pics of either the scape or the tank ,,, I will get them posted up for ya'll ,,, till then I am just playing the waiting game :)
Sounds like a well thought out plan indeed [emoji3]. Nice update to thnx. Can't wait to see this bad boy getting wet. I woukd say good luck but sounds like you don't need luck. Everything seems to be going well. Keep it up, and the updates coming [emoji106]. Sounds like your tank will be wet before mine at this rate haha.
 
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