RFBF's 90 Gallon Déjà vu All Over Again

[trio91]

Glad to see you are back in business Paul, looking forward to seeing this build

 

[Monroereef]

If you are done with posting about the soccer world cup - chief, can we get an update on the tank?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Glad to see you are back in business Paul, looking forward to seeing this build

Sorry Marcus, I missed this post....been a little distracted the past couple months with medical problems.

If you are done with posting about the soccer world cup - chief, can we get an update on the tank?

Sunny, you're killing me....worse than my wife!!!! By the way, three more games, consolation on Saturday and Final on Sunday.....I'm hoping France (that's a given) versus England for the final....but we'll find out tomorrow when England plays Croatia.

Anyway, I've been a bit distracted with family medical issues. Last visit to the doctors was yesterday....with the exception of a follow up five weeks from now....hopefully routine. In addition, my aunt passed, and we had a bunch of drunken Irish people at my house, where my wife made me put away all the rock work I was doing outside....so starting all over with that.

Anyway, with good medical news, I'm back at it. Making water to start up the holding tanks and fixing those darn Fathom fixtures again to go over these holding tanks. Those UV beads just don't last.

Daughter from Virginia coming in tomorrow and Sister from South Carolina next weekend....but after that, this is getting done. (The new tank is still sitting in my living room, and the wife is not happy.)

 

[redfishbluefish]

How do you like that footprint?

Sorry, I'm just seeing this post!

I really like the five foot tank. Everyone who sees it can't believe it's only 90 gallons....it looks bigger than it is. I think if I was stuck with five feet (like I am), the one thing I'd change is go a bit longer on width to give me more options on rock work. I'm currently 18 inches, and 24 would be nice.

 

[Monroereef]

Glad to hear that all is well health wise. Not so happy to hear no progress has been made .
Jokes apart, you know where I live Paul. If you need anything, anytime I am a phone call away.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Paul, I'm wishing you best for your health!

All of the tank stuff takes time.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm back....well almost. I have to get through entertaining my three kids and significant others this Holiday season....then I'm back in the game!

This past year was a rough year with a couple family issues that caused me to put the brakes on the new tank. The only thing I'll say is that 2019 will be a year of good health and accident free...and no hospitals!

So if someone told me a year ago I'd still have this leaking tank sitting here, I'd tell them that they were nuts. Here's what's happen the past five of six months...not much.

From minimal maintenance:
1. Aiptasia has taken over my tank...an Aiptasia garden.
2. Hair algae is like Fabio's flowing hair. Now I know I've lost the Millennials, so here's Fabio with his flowing hair:

My wife banished the tank from the living room....just no compassion. It's now sitting in front of the current leaker on a moving dolly to easily move it about.

You can see in the center section of the tank that blue rolled up material. That's what I'll be using for the padding under the new tank. I looked at yoga mats, and found them to be to thin and flimsy. So this mat is for campers, and used under your sleeping bag. A little thicker (7/16"), and more rigid. Came from WalMart.

On the subject of the original leaking tank, the seam on the other end started to leak. So now the tank has two pipe clamps holding it together.

I think it's fair to state that a new tank is needed!

The last thing I tinkered with during the past couple months was storage. We live in a small house, and I have enough fish stuff to sink a boat. As it is, I have a 7 by 7 Rubbermaid shed filled with fish stuff. Storage has been a real problem. With my wife's objection, I put an almost 12 foot shelf above the entrance and closet door.

Using various boxes, I made a 4 1/2" band of 5 mm plywood around the tops of these boxes. This will protect that open edge and allow all boxes to be the same height. As you can see, a number of them still need to be painted. All this storage has helped immensely.


And finally, I'm close to collecting all the bits and pieces....powerheads, heaters, HOB filters...for the four holding tanks I'll be using for the tank transfer.

 

[reef lover]

Just catching up with this. I hope that tank holds and the wifes patience as well!!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Just catching up with this. I hope that tank holds and the wifes patience as well!!

LOL...these pipe clamps are preforming fantastic. I've tried to capture both clamps in one shot....

If you like the industrial look....it looks fine.


And my daughter and husband just showed up with their beast...and the beast's cage has been set up in the fish room...you can see it in the picture...covered with blanks because he likes sleeping in the dark.

And nothing I can do about the wify...39 years of ....marriage....too old to try to train...and don't tell her I said that....she's mean!

 

[redfishbluefish]

So the plan was to use Marineland Penguin 350 HOB filters for each of the two 55 gallon tanks I'm setting up to hold current contents of the old 90, while I put in the new 90. I pull them out and notice I'm missing one of the intake screen pieces that keep fish/snails/large stuff from getting sucked up into the filter. I looked high and low and can't find that one piece. Just my luck.

I'm not buying a whole new filter just because I'm missing one piece. So now I'm thinking of ways to DIY a fix. I was first thinking about using a large pipe fitting, and cap it off and drill a bunch of holes. In holding pipe piece to the uptake piece, it's noted that the clearance of the uptake pipe to the side of the tank was pretty small....I'll need a rectangular piece to clear the side of the tank. A circular piece just won't work.

Next though was my favorite shallow plastic outlet box...a little more than a buck at HD. I've used these before as project boxes.

Thought process is to cut a rectangular hole in the side of the box that friction fits to the intake pipe; cover the box with a piece of 1/8 inch plexi; go nuts with my drill press and put in a whole bunch of holes. But first thing was to cut off the two tails.

Acrylic was cut and attached to the box with stainless steel screws. Drilling began....

When I was done drilling, I had 122 holes in this box. Just to make sure I had at least the surface area of the uptake tube (0.7 cubic inches), did the quick calculation and found that I had 3.4 square inches of open holes....more than enough.

A little shot of paint, and I'm done....side by side original and DIY filter screen

This is going to work....wait a minute while I pat myself on my back....nice job! That was a waste of 3 - 4 hours...but moving on.

My second daughter just showed up with her husband and their beast, so I'm likely done until after the holidays.

 

[kschweer]

So the plan was to use Marineland Penguin 350 HOB filters for each of the two 55 gallon tanks I'm setting up to hold current contents of the old 90, while I put in the new 90. I pull them out and notice I'm missing one of the intake screen pieces that keep fish/snails/large stuff from getting sucked up into the filter. I looked high and low and can't find that one piece. Just my luck.

I'm not buying a whole new filter just because I'm missing one piece. So now I'm thinking of ways to DIY a fix. I was first thinking about using a large pipe fitting, and cap it off and drill a bunch of holes. In holding pipe piece to the uptake piece, it's noted that the clearance of the uptake pipe to the side of the tank was pretty small....I'll need a rectangular piece to clear the side of the tank. A circular piece just won't work.

Next though was my favorite shallow plastic outlet box...a little more than a buck at HD. I've used these before as project boxes.

Thought process is to cut a rectangular hole in the side of the box that friction fits to the intake pipe; cover the box with a piece of 1/8 inch plexi; go nuts with my drill press and put in a whole bunch of holes. But first thing was to cut off the two tails.

Acrylic was cut and attached to the box with stainless steel screws. Drilling began....

When I was done drilling, I had 122 holes in this box. Just to make sure I had at least the surface area of the uptake tube (0.7 cubic inches), did the quick calculation and found that I had 3.4 square inches of open holes....more than enough.

A little shot of paint, and I'm done....side by side original and DIY filter screen

This is going to work....wait a minute while I pat myself on my back....nice job! That was a waste of 3 - 4 hours...but moving on.

My second daughter just showed up with her husband and their beast, so I'm likely done until after the holidays.

Nice work as always Paul!! Merry Christmas!!!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Finally have the first of the holding tanks wet in anticipation of moving over all the corals and fish. First one wet was a 20 long. I thought I was fairly organized but spent about two hours finding the various parts. Couldn't find the filter pads to the the Aqueon filters, so I simply made one using filter pad material.

The second tank only took another 30 minutes. However, I still couldn't find the filter intake screen. Just won't put any fish into this tank...a 20 Tall. Here are the two tanks with the Fathom LED's overhead.

Heaters - It's been years since I've used a heater without a controller. Spent yesterday and the better part of today trying to dial them in. What a pain...guess and now wait 2 - 4 hours to let it adjust....and then do it again.

My thoughts now is to use the 20 long for large colonies that I can pull out. Going to try to "mount" them in a piece of 1 1/2 PVC that gets a hole just big enough to hold the base of the colony. Here's one of these "holders" with two sanitary tees on the ends. This is a little under 29 inches and will easily fit into the 20 Long. I think I pick up two more sanitary tees tomorrow and make a second one of these. Hope it works.

Continuing to make water to start to fill the two 55 tanks.

 

[Juano908]

Finally have the first of the holding tanks wet in anticipation of moving over all the corals and fish. First one wet was a 20 long. I thought I was fairly organized but spent about two hours finding the various parts. Couldn't find the filter pads to the the Aqueon filters, so I simply made one using filter pad material.

The second tank only took another 30 minutes. However, I still couldn't find the filter intake screen. Just won't put any fish into this tank...a 20 Tall. Here are the two tanks with the Fathom LED's overhead.

Heaters - It's been years since I've used a heater without a controller. Spent yesterday and the better part of today trying to dial them in. What a pain...guess and now wait 2 - 4 hours to let it adjust....and then do it again.

My thoughts now is to use the 20 long for large colonies that I can pull out. Going to try to "mount" them in a piece of 1 1/2 PVC that gets a hole just big enough to hold the base of the colony. Here's one of these "holders" with two sanitary tees on the ends. This is a little under 29 inches and will easily fit into the 20 Long. I think I pick up two more sanitary tees tomorrow and make a second one of these. Hope it works.

Continuing to make water to start to fill the two 55 tanks.

Hey old friend, let me know if you need my help.
Good to know you are ok buddy.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Juan @Juano908 , great to hear from you! I have a large hairy mushroom with your name on it! I know you liked that mushroom I have, and now have a number in the tank that need to be "weeded" out. Let me know what works for you.

 

[Juano908]

Juan @Juano908 , great to hear from you! I have a large hairy mushroom with your name on it! I know you liked that mushroom I have, and now have a number in the tank that need to be "weeded" out. Let me know what works for you.

Whenever you are ready to start transferring so that I can give you a hand, send me a PM or a text and yes, those Mushrooms are gorgeous, I have not seen them around.

 

[count krunk]

I just discovered this thread, started on page one and hoped to see the new tank running by this post

slow builds are the best builds.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I wanted to test to see if this pipe idea for holding coral colonies would work. So I pick a Neon Green Hammer and measured the base....a little under 7/8 inches. I then drilled (an ugly) hole in the 1 1/2 pipe.

Pulled the coral out of the DT and, voila, it looks like this is going to work!

Now to get the temperature and salinity spot on in the 20 Long, and I'll start pulling colonies!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Started the transfer of corals and anticipated some breakage, but not ending up with now eight colonies/frags of Neon Green Hammer. It just fell apart. I was expecting to get more than three corals into this 20 Long....only three different corals filling ten spots.....Neon Green Hammer, Hydnophora and Frogspawn. Just moved over, so nobody is happy right now.

I might have to pull out another tank. I still have a 40B in the fish shed.

 

[Juano908]

Started the transfer of corals and anticipated some breakage, but not ending up with now eight colonies/frags of Neon Green Hammer. It just fell apart. I was expecting to get more than three corals into this 20 Long....only three different corals filling ten spots.....Neon Green Hammer, Hydnophora and Frogspawn. Just moved over, so nobody is happy right now.

I might have to pull out another tank. I still have a 40B in the fish shed.

Paul I have a 20L and a 25gal in case you may need them.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Juan, thank you for your kind and generous offer. I think I've come up with a solution that will most likely be a bit bizarre, but work just fine. I'm going to put a partial shelf in one of the 55's and put base rock below...corals above...and fish all over. Need to pick up another sheet of eggcrate to act as the shelf. Everything should fit! I do have two 55 gallon tanks and these two 20's; and long and a tall. I'm going to make it enough.

I'm also going to start getting rid of some of these corals. Pretty much all the softies (with a very few exceptions) are going.