The Frankentank

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Following is my attempt to document the last year and change of working on the tank I call my Frankentank.

I've always been interested in getting a saltwater aquarium, but I move quite a lot, and tanks are not exactly the definition of portable or inexpensive. That said, on August 3, 2019, I was offered a free, abandoned, 38 gallon FOWLR and its surviving inhabitants, with bags of random unidentified, possibly tank related parts. I took this as a sign, so with no experience, everything was loaded into buckets and bags and I set off on a fabulous adventure.

After setting it back up at home, the real work began -- bringing the salinity and nitrate levels down to acceptable levels, and furiously searching R2R for tips.
20190804_201251.jpg


A week later, the tuxedo urchin was a casualty, but the salinity levels were down to 1.030 and nitrates were at the top of the chart. Still too high, but definitely better than before.

Two weeks in, and salinity was at 1.026 and nitrates at 160. Moving in the right direction, but much more work to go.

Week three, after much research I realized that within the bag of random items, there was most of a HOB protein skimmer. I ordered the appropriate missing O-rings and pump, and it was soon up and running.
20190829_220232.jpg


Within a week, and some vodka dosing, nitrates had dropped to 80. Two weeks later, in September of 2019, nitrates were at 20, still high, but better!
 
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fishguy242

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hi,Frankentank,meet "Frankentank"great job with the rescue ;) following along:)
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. .my "Frankentank";Facepalm:)
 
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After getting nitrate levels under control, I was finally ready to add some new tank inhabitants in September 2019, starting with some red macro and a gorgonia, then gradually over a couple of weeks a blue-green chromis, a blue damselfish, a royal gramma, some hermit crabs, and snails. The royal gramma was one of the last to be added, and didn't survive long -- RIP little fishy.
20190916_202815.jpg
 
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What do you think killed him? Stress? Ïve just bought a royal gamma too little shy but has finally started eating mysis still hides most of the day. Loving the tank though

I suspect it may have had problems before I got it, or it had a close encounter with the long spined urchin when it was first going into the tank. It never ate -- it would swallow something and then spit it back out -- and one of its eyes became a bit distended. It did teach me how difficult it is to use a net in a saltwater tank versus a freshwater tank -- darn rocks -- and the next time I had to remove a fish I made a fish trap out of a plastic bottle, which is MUCH easier than a fish net.
 

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After getting nitrate levels under control, I was finally ready to add some new tank inhabitants in September 2019, starting with some red macro and a gorgonia, then gradually over a couple of weeks a blue-green chromis, a blue damselfish, a royal gramma, some hermit crabs, and snails. The royal gramma was one of the last to be added, and didn't survive long -- RIP little fishy.
20190916_202815.jpg

Looking good and sorry for the loss.
 
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October 2019 was the month the blue damselfish was caught (with the bottle trap) and returned to the store for the crime of picking on the blue-green chromis. With the store credit, a chalk bass was added to the tank in November, followed by a handful of peppermint shrimp and a colorful ocean floor scene background. As the year end approached, a long nosed hawkfish and a flame scallop were added. The hawkfish was evicted before the year end after eating many of the tank CUC, to include a number of the peppermint shrimp. Lesson learned on impulse fish buying. ☹
 
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In November 2019 my friends and I built a sump and an overflow/return. The sump is a 10 gallon tank from Petco with baffles made of glass from a hardware store and some repurposed frag rack material from my LFS. Below are my friend's napkin sketches of our build brainstorm for the sump and overflow.
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So the HOB filter was removed, the sump and overflow were installed, and the HOB skimmer was moved to the sump.

Fast forward to December 2019, when I switched from the regular DIY overflow to a DIY weir, which I'm still using now in November 2022. I don't have any sketches of the weir, but it is a larger diameter version of the overflow, but with the last section removed -- in the sketch above, the left side of the overflow from the second elbow is gone in the weir version. Instead, the remaining downward facing pipe now acts like a straw that sits in a separate PVC "glass" in the display tank. Below is a picture of the painted overflow and the weir side by side in the tank in February 2020, along with what I thought was GHA but later determined was green turf algae. I haven't been successful using the overflow as an emergency backup drain for the weir, so currently the overflow is in storage and the weir is the lone tank occupant.

20200211_215408.jpg
 
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In July 2020, I moved the tank long distance, so everything went into 5g buckets with airstones, heaters, polyfilter, and ammonia monitors. The sand bed was tossed out, the tank was scrubbed, extra saltwater and RODI water was packed, and the roadtrip commenced. One hermit crab was lost enroute, but everything else arrived safely.

After a brief hotel stay, the tank inhabitants were moved to temporary lodging in the new house while we refinished the tank stand. A large rock and all the critters were placed in a clear 10g tote from Ikea, a light and a HOB filter were placed on top, and a heater and ammonia monitor went inside the tote.
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