Scrapz 190G of Brown Pt. 2 - REBUILD

scrapz · May 22, 2012

Hey guys! moving my thread here from another forum..

February 24, 2012

About a year ago, I got news from the landlord that I was to move out in the next 3 months so his relatives could rent the place so I began tearing down the tank, selling off my livestock only to have him tell me 2 months later that he no longer needed it..

I also had AEFW in my system so i just decided to set up a QT system. Grabbed me a 5x24x15 to house all the corals and begin the qt process. Everything looked like crap after the move. Stared at the tank and just didnt love it anymore, just seems so empty and dead. Frag tanks just arent as enjoyable to look at vs a display...

Neglect started to set in. Hardly did any water changes, tank got overun with bubble algae and thick hair algae. Never filled up my supplement containers, parameters were always jumping. Didn't calibrate my refractometer so my salinity was at 1.030 for quite a while.. Needless to say, everything was dying.... The only corals that survived are still going on strong, guess they're bred for hardiness, lol.

So now that I'm done with my story. There will be strict protocols to be followed when introducing anything new to the tank. I REUSE to get aefw again, this was the biggest nightmare ever.. Zeovitz is suppose to introduce a new intank treatment problem, but the verdict is still out on that one.

QT System Spec:
20G All-In-One
DIY 12 Led System
150W Ebo Jager
2x Koralia 2 Evo
Skimmerless - Bi-weekly water changes.

Display System Specs:
Tank - 84x24x22 Eurobraced Glass
Sump - 71x21.5x16.25 AA 3 Chambers
Return Pump - Laguna 2100
Skimmer - Warner Marine AS-200 (really want a cone next)
Pumps - 2x Ecotech Vortech mp40w /w Battery Backup
Wavebox - Tunze 6212 Wavebox
Heaters - 7x Ebo Jager 250w
Chiller - JBJ 1/5th
Controller - Ranco Dual Stage Industrial Controller
Lighting - ATI Sunpower 6x54 and 6x39W
Doser - Bubble Magus 3 part doser - BRS CA and AL

Video of my old tank in 2010 when it was still growing in..
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/T-StSXy3hQo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Last pic I took before taking it down sometime in 2011.

Let's get to the love of reefing!

scrapz · May 22, 2012

Link in post #1 for video is broken.

Heres the proper link:

180 Gallon Saltwater Reef Tank - YouTube

scrapz · May 22, 2012

February 24, 2012 - Continued

Thanks to Sanh and Jimmy007 for helping me snag up this killer sump from Stryker when he was tearing down his tank. Probably the single piece of equipment that motivated me to get off my *** and start working on the rebuild.

I was previously using a 40g br sump, about 20g of water volume. Way undersized for a 180g tank. 40 Gallons of water would spill all over the floor if there was ever a power outage. No space for any spare liverock, no place to house new fish and feed them until they were eating and fat. Just bleh!

Look at this sucker. Going to solve all my problems...

Me and Chigga126 spent the next hour trying to figure out how to get it under the stand. Wouldn't go in sideways, couldn't angle it in. Ended up taking the center brace to get it under the tank...

2 buckets of DD salt, 100g rubbermaid tank, 11x5G jugs, 20g tank, 40g breeder + 24 hours of water making = 280G of water and a very messy garage.. but it's filled!!

Next up, cleaning up all the wires and moving the ato and dosers over.

scrapz · May 22, 2012

Moved over some corals last night.. Amazing that they are still alive..

scrapz · May 22, 2012

April 23 2012

Looks like it's been two months since my last update...

Honorable mention:

I've been wanting to upgrade my skimmer to a cone type for a while now so when a skimmer swc 250a1 popped up locally, I began waiting for the seller to finish taking down his tank but looks like he never did..

Ended up seeing a brand new SWC 230 go on sale two weeks later for $425 shipped from Luke at reeffiltration dot com. Only problem there was a thin 2" crack near the outlet fixed using weldon. Didn't see that it would affect performance since it was going to be below the water and the crack was way below the bubble plate..

I have 2 of the exact same skimmers, WM AS-200.. In order to raise some extra funds I end up putting one up for sale. Get a buyer and his drive over when I begin to dig out my skimmer under the heap of crap its underneath.

Thank god no one was there to witness it. As embarrassing as it was, I have to tell the story.

So there I am yanking away, 1 hand on the cup and the other one the body of the skimmer.. As I pull it free from the pile of crap its under, I fly back and semi trip over my own foot. Skimmer cup separates from the body and as I'm trying to regain my balance, I end up smacking myself in the head hard with the cup. Reaction ensues and with my other hand I drop the skimmer body, trying to catch the skimmer i drop the cup, cracking both at the necks. :debi::debi::debi::debi::headwallblue::headwallblue:

I wasn't even mad.. Was there on the floor by myself laughing my **** off.. only if it was on video :lol:

Carnage:

scrapz · May 22, 2012

April 23, 2012 - Continued

I wasn't going to be receiving the skimmer until the next week so I was skimmerless for a week.. So I hit up my buddy Sanh (lowbudget) and asked if he had any skimmers lying around.

He said "Got a MCE300, some bubbles better than no bubbles right?"

In my head I'm thinking "that tiny thing on a 200G+ system, it's not going to do anything"

This is 3 days worth of skimmate, I have a new respect for HOB skimmers..

scrapz · May 22, 2012

April 23, 2012 - Continued

It's Saturday, so I'm out to lunch with the gf when I receive a txt saying my packages have arrived. We had a few errands to take care of but obviously I rushed her and went straight home.

If you're reading this dear :love1:

Get home unbox it and get to assembling.

Size Comparison Shot:

It's in baby!

So far I've loving it.

Pros:
Disassembles Completely - this was my biggest quirk with my previous skimmers. Finding a vat large enough to house the skimmer and buying enough vinegar to dip it. Skimmer performance suffers alot when corraline gets built up in the cone

Cone Body - much smoother transition that my previous skimmers

Laguna Pump - quieter and big air draw!

Cons:

Skimmer cup is too loose - I know it was made like that by design but it's really unsafe. A kid could pretty much push on the cup and have it fall off.. I almost dropped it after assembling it.. Dejavu?:facepalm:

Wire outlet from pump - it's hard to have the skimmer sit flush since the wire comes out from the bottom.. Only improvement design I would add is 1" legs on the bottom..

scrapz · May 22, 2012

April 27, 2012

It's picture friday but I only have some vids! Sorry for crappy quality, recorded wit my ancient samsung galaxy s1

4/8/12 - 1.5 months in. tank is settling, starting to get some diatoms in a few places so I'll have to increase the flow in there.
[video=youtube;32RPDrIlJSo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=32RPDrIlJSo[/video]

4/26/12 - Added a modded 6045, a tunze 6100 and a korlia to increase the flow on the left side.

6100 @ 100%
Center Vortech @ 60% on yellow
Right Side Vortech @ 85% on purple

Here's how the new flow is looking..
[video=youtube;DYCeENrvATo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DYCeENrvATo[/video]

Heres a progress video from yesterday. I moved around a few things and glued down some frags into their permanent location..

Really loving the TLF Aquastik in purple.. Glues and blends in fairly well.
[video=youtube;t_XUpZgL2LE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t_XUpZgL2LE[/video]

revhtree · May 22, 2012

Sweet tank! Glad to have your build here!

wysiwyg · May 22, 2012

welcome back great looking tank. speaking of cleaning skimmers i dred cleaning my aquac ev 240 such a huge unit

scrapz · May 22, 2012

Right now my tank is looking really lifeless, especially with only small sps frags in there and hardly any "wavy" lps. What I really missed about my old tank was how lively all my fish made the tank look.

Shot from my old tank:

So I ordered some fish:thumbsup:

Box came in early afternoon but they'll have to remain in the bag for another 6 hours until I get off of work..

Unboxed, peeping through the plastic. Everything seems alright!

Temp acclimating for about 15 mins while I feed the fishes in the display. I usually do this to try and reduce aggression when adding new fish..

Giving them a bath in my SW before going into the tank. I don't usually drip acclimate, I figure if they can't survive a small salinity swing, they probably weren't strong enough to live anyways.

6 female lyretail anthias
2 helfrichi firefishes
1 yellow coris wrasse (which turned out to be a hogfish instead:lol

scrapz · May 22, 2012

All my "old" fish hang out on the left side of the tank. Maybe because thats where the prime real estate is. Live corals, rock structures to swim and hide in and of course the the big wavebox which they like to take a ride in front of. BLING BLING.

Using my awesome fishing skills, I chased the fish around with my hands in a 5 gallon bucket. Boy, was that hard. They finally went into the tank. Typical behavior they all went darting into the rocks to hide.

I witnessed the most awesome behavior from my "old" blue chromis. A little background about him, I got him when he was as small as a dime about 1.5 years ago and threw him into my frag tank. As soon as he hit the water, he was social with the other fish and started doing laps like a marathon around the tank. I think I have a video of it somewhere but all in all, it was hilarious..

Anyways, so all the new fishes are hiding and the blue chromis is the first to welcome them in. He hit up each of them, one by one and begins to gather them...

Gathers 3..

Bringing them into society slowly..

Brings the 3 away from the corner...

Gathers 4..

Eventually he gathers all of them and brings them out to the Park Ave of the tank. He even gets 1 of the helfichi to come out.

All in all it took over an hour for the chromis to gather all the new fish and introduce them into the community. One of the most amazing behaviors I've witnessed so far in this hobby, had a giant smile on my face the whole time.