Rural Montana Reef

[Gjedde]

Just got the call that the tank is complete. Sounds like shipping is a couple hundred dollars less than I had expected so I will have the tank shipped locally. Possibly sometime in the next week!?!?
Attached is the layout for the basement. Starting to think about a salt mixing station. Will have it under the stairs, about 8' from the utility sink. Stud to stud under the stairs is 41".
Think i might go with a couple of these guys.
https://north40.com/den-hartog-horizontal-leg-tank-35-gal

 

[Flameback Pair]

Wow Lucas that's a sharp turn down those stairs. How does the empty tank weigh?

 

[Gjedde]

No clue on weight of tank, but i just talked to them and they seem to think that carfully bringing it down the stairs on a dolly should be fine? Im guessing around 275#

 

[Gjedde]

“Your order has shipped”
~Glass Cages

 

[Gjedde]

I better finish that stand…

 

[Flameback Pair]

Lucas, did you try calling me the other day? I was out of town. Got my suction cups last night and you're welcome to use them. I will take them to Troy for you.

 

[cosmicbread]

Following! I always think these sorts of builds where you construct the house as you construct the tank are so cool.

 

[Gjedde]

Gonna be a busy day.

 

[Gjedde]

I can finally breathe. Got the tank down the stairs and onto the stand! Probably should have gotten some pictures!
Put the tank on a blanket and belayed it down to the turn stood it in end, rotated and carried it right to the stand. Way easier than i had expected! Once the house has insulation ill start cycling the tank. Hope to get the bulkheads in tonight!

 

[Gjedde]

Starting to fill it up! The house doesnt have water hooked up yet so i am bringing buckets from our rental. I might take a while. Haha. 100 gallons to go, and no leaks yet!

 

[Gjedde]

The tank is full! Main drain has a slight leak on the bulkhead. I might just let it seal with salt creep. Maybe a drop every 30 seconds.
Ive got about 100 pounds more live rock that i will put in the tank but i am waiting for the house to be fully insulated. Currently the water in the tank is around 40 degrees or so. Dont think the snails and crabs would like that.
Should be getting a trigger and puffer from dr reef by the end of the month, and will transfer the rest of the fish in the first week of February.

 

[Gjedde]

Temperature of the basement is now 64 with a fire going. The cement floor is sweating pretty good, once it is all dried out ill plug in the heater and move about 75 pounds more live rock over and work on the scape.
Worked on the canopy a bit, hope to have it mostly skinned in tomorrow. Will wait to put the formica fully on until the hvac is installed.

 

[Gjedde]

Got the formica skin on. Just need to clean up the edges and glue it on.

 

[Gjedde]

While i wait for some hardware to come in I figured id get the tank going officially. Moved over 100 pounds or so of live rock that uve had which is all atleast 3 years old. Current inhabitants are a few snails, a load of pods, and one giant crab in the sump!
It lives!!!!!!

 

[Gjedde]

Scape is done, fish are out of qt on Monday for a transfer over, and the canopy is nearly done( atleast on one side).
So ready to move all the corals over.

 

[Gjedde]

Different angles

 

[Gjedde]

Fish are transferred from qt.

 

[Gjedde]

Hoping to do a longer update this weekend but had a bit of excitement today. Went over to the house this morning to say goodbye to the contractors and start moving things in. Took a look at the tank and noticed that the duncans looked grumpy. Glanced at the thermometer and saw that it read 91!!!! Thinking that it may be busted i stuck my finger into the tank and zap! Not good!
Unfortunately for me i had not yet organized all of my wires or labeled them so i had to pull them out to one by one and stick my finger into the water to see if i got zapped or not. It took 11 wires. ELEVEN. Heater was busted apparently. The closest place to get a heater is about two hours away, but we lucked out both in that HVAC had just been completed and the house is currently 76 and i had a friend in the big city (population 10000) that was able to get me 2 200 watt heaters.
Just left the house and I have not noticed anything looking unhappy and nothing died. Great success!

 

[Gjedde]

Can start to enjoy the tank. Almost all our junk is moved into the new house. I figure that by the end of the week i can work on finishing up the stand and canopy as well as take care of cords and maybe do a waterchange.

 

[Gjedde]

Moved all corals other than my acros. Everything was looking good after the 30 gallon waterchange, so i went to test the water for the first time in a while. All was good accept for phosphate… 2.06 ppm!?!? Nitrates were pretty low at .02.
Just did a 10 gallon waterchange change. Plan on doing a 30 gallon waterchange in a few days to see if that helps.