My new project: 120 Gallon reef with basement fish room!

[JohnL]

This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...13#post9747813

[WAGERJA]

Well that sucks... no pun intended...

looks like its time to build a bigger screen?

I really wouldn't think a healthy SF tang would get caught by that large of a screen. ???

-J

[tgunn]

Originally posted by WAGERJA
Well that sucks... no pun intended...

looks like its time to build a bigger screen?

I really wouldn't think a healthy SF tang would get caught by that large of a screen. ???

-J

Yes indeed!

Yeah, I guess so. This intake screen is already quite large and unwieldy as it is.. It will certainly be a challenge to make something decent looking!!

I removed the screen and i think the problem was that the top half was loaded with vermetid snails (those little tubes with filaments), and a crop of bubble algae. So I guess the suction must've been stronger than I thought because of all the blockage.

The big problem I forsee with any new screen I make is that its just going to get plugged up like this again in the long run. And once the tank grows in I'm not going to be able to reach it for easy cleaning.

I dunno what happened. He was doing perfect up until the day he got stuck on the intake screen. Very active, alert, always a good eater.
The only other thing I can think of was that he was affected by the ozone incident that caused my anthias to die. Though that was months ago, so I'd be surprised if that was the cause.

Oh well, gotta move forward with my tank overhaul; not much else I can do..

Tyler

[tgunn]

Alrighty, I just picked up the HDPE sheet for my bare bottom, the acrylic rod to join rocks, and a few of the fittings I will need for the closed loop.

Tommorow I'll pick up the glass braces. Then I will be officially ready to start the overhaul!

Tyler

[original-reefland]

I had a purple tang get stuck to the side of a Vortech Pump. I think the surface area of the fish creates just to much suction. Luckily I saw it happen and within seconds killed the power. It was long enough to tear up his dorsal fin and part of the tail. No long term issues, but he looks "unique" now.

I don't think you need a larger strainer, just something with bigger holes.

[tgunn]

Originally posted by original-reefland
I had a purple tang get stuck to the side of a Vortech Pump. I think the surface area of the fish creates just to much suction. Luckily I saw it happen and within seconds killed the power. It was long enough to tear up his dorsal fin and part of the tail. No long term issues, but he looks "unique" now.

I don't think you need a larger strainer, just something with bigger holes.

Glad to know I'm not the only one its happened to. I only hope I can prevent it from happening again.

Good idea to make the holes larger on the strainer. Perhaps it wouldn't clog up so quickly then.

Thanks,
Tyler

[tgunn]

Well, I started the major overhaul....

As I've removed rocks and scrubbed them, I've used my hammer drill to drill some holes in the surface of the rock. This way I can mount frags easier to the rocks..


I also picked up my 1/2" HDPE today:


Here's the left side of the tank with most rocks removed. The corals are all detached with the exception of the largest rock.

Now I just gotta finish up the right side tomorrow.


Tyler

[tgunn]

Oops, left side didn't work:

[gkarshens]

Congrats on the thread split! Sorry about the Sailfin! I think bigger holes on the intake screen is a good idea. Less likely to get clogged.

[tgunn]

Originally posted by gkarshens
Congrats on the thread split! Sorry about the Sailfin! I think bigger holes on the intake screen is a good idea. Less likely to get clogged.

Thanks! Once I get the tank all changed over and fixed up its time to start restocking the fish. I think this time I'm going to sit down and make a stocking plan, and read up on the different fish I'm interested. This way I can be sure I have the right conditions on hand, and I have the right foods for them.

Perhaps I will make the new intake screens out of gutter guard... All I did was use my dremel to cut two huge slots in a piece of 2" pipe. That gave me a nice sturdy frame to wrap the craft screen on. I imagine the same will work just fine with something like gutter guard.

I'm also going to make a couple extra screens. This way every few months I can pull off the screens and replace them with new ones. The dirty ones can then be given a nice vinegar bath so they're ready for the next change.


Thanks!
Tyler

[tgunn]

After a long hard evening of moving corals to the sump and scrubbing most of the remaining rocks, here is the result!

I'm almost there...

Tyler

[tgunn]

Well, today I'll be trying to catch my fish to move them to the sump. Then I can finally shut off the return pump, thus isolating the main tank from the sump. Tonight the canopy will be coming off so that I can actually reach some of the last rocks in the back, and pick off the rest of the snails.

Then, its finally time to start draining the tank. Unfortunately I do not have anywhere to store 140g of saltwater, so most of the water in the tank will be going down the drain.. I suspect I'll have to refill the tank with RO/DI and dump salt directly into the tank. Not the optimal solution, but its going to have to do. For what it'd cost to buy holding containers for the water, I might as well just use most of a bucket of IO to make up a whole new tank of water.

Tyler

[tgunn]

Well, I removed the last of the rocks today and drained down the tank. My sand is now in a bucket with a heater (a local reefer expressed interest in buying it)...

It was hard to catch all the fish, and I think they were not happy about the whole ordeal. I picked up a 10" net, that made it a LOT easier. They wouldn't come near the pop bottle trap I made. Oh well. In the future I shall have to build a nice acrylic one...

What else. Well, I removed the canopy with the help of my wife, and shop-vaced the rest of the water and sand out.

I drug the garden hose in the window and proceeded to hose out the tank (I'm glad my closed loop has a ball-valve drain in the fish room)...

After cleaning all glass (removing coraline, etc), I noticed that the side acrylic panels of my overflow were actually being held on by bubble algae alone!! So I removed those completely and cleaned the glass and both panels....

I also used rubbing alcholol to clean the bottom of the tank and the sides where I'll be siliconing in the sheet of HDPE.

The sump is quite ghetto-setup right now. I've got my spare PCX-40 keeping the water moving and a Maxijet feeding my skimmer. An aquablue T5 and 6500k T5 are lighting the sump. The corals actually seem quite happy right now.

Tommorow's plans:
- Cut and install HDPE sheet...
- Resilicone the left and right acrylic panels to the overflow.
- Silicone the braces on the top of the tank.

Saturday is prenatal class most of the day, but in the evening I'm going to stop by Home Depot to pick up a huge variety of PVC fittings for the closed loop and the new sump return setup.

Sunday I'm going to cut the hole in the back of the canopy for the new sump return plumbing, and install the closed loop piping.

I'm filling every empty salt bucket I have kicking around with RO/DI water and rough mixing salt in to them all..

Got 140g of saltwater to make up!

Tyler

[tgunn]

What I've got so far:

I've installed the HDPE and the side and back braces. I accidentally dropped the front brace. Ooops! Oh well, only $9.99 for a new one..




Tyler

[tgunn]

I picked up the fittings for the closed loop. I just got a whole bunch of 1" 90s and 45s so I won't run out in the process of assembling things.
I also picked up a 37g brute trash can as well. So that means I'll have 92 gallons of RO/DI with varying amounts of salt by tommorow evening.



Tyler

[gkarshens]

It's like a whole new tank build!

[tgunn]

Originally posted by gkarshens
It's like a whole new tank build!

Pretty much. Except my original build I did over the span of many months. This one is going to be whipped up in a matter of a week! Lol.

I'm sure able to do things more efficiently now that I've learnt all that I have though...

I'm glad I decided to go all out like this though. There were so many things about my setup that were bugging me. Hopefully now I'll be able to correct most if not all of them..

Tyler

[Mojo Jojo]

Wow early in the thread and it has split issues allready .... Looking sweet man

[drstupid]

Originally posted by tgunn
I suspect I'll have to refill the tank with RO/DI and dump salt directly into the tank. Not the optimal solution, but its going to have to do.

tyler, i did this when i setup my 120 last summer, and wish that i hadn't. there's so much crud that precipitates that your equipment is a mess, especially pumps. if you have an extra mag pump or something sitting around, maybe you could just do a fast premix in your mix container ahead of time, that's got to help a bit at least. i think it would be worth the extra time.

it's sad to see your tank so empty, can't wait to see its reincarnation.

[tgunn]

Originally posted by joeyjoeq
Wow early in the thread and it has split issues allready .... Looking sweet man

Heh, if this was a new tank buiild just starting, then WOW that would be a long thread. Been going for a while, so not as impressive!

[tgunn]

Originally posted by drstupid
tyler, i did this when i setup my 120 last summer, and wish that i hadn't. there's so much crud that precipitates that your equipment is a mess, especially pumps. if you have an extra mag pump or something sitting around, maybe you could just do a fast premix in your mix container ahead of time, that's got to help a bit at least. i think it would be worth the extra time.

it's sad to see your tank so empty, can't wait to see its reincarnation.

Hmm, really?
Wel, I bought a 40g brute trashcan, so I've got around 90g of water that will be premade. I'm going to be premixing the salt in all of this.... I'll make sure to premix the remainder too.

I've got some fittings so I can just suck up the water using my return pump and send it right to the tank. Should work well.

Thanks,
Tyler

[msuzuki126]

I had my lieutenant tang get stuck to my seio 2600 the other day, luckily I was standing right there and quickly unplugged, he's fine now.

Oh and, barebottom all the way! I've seen better growth and color in my corals and the water is so much clearer.

[tgunn]

Originally posted by msuzuki126
I had my lieutenant tang get stuck to my seio 2600 the other day, luckily I was standing right there and quickly unplugged, he's fine now.

Oh and, barebottom all the way! I've seen better growth and color in my corals and the water is so much clearer.

Well, I've got a different closed loop intake screen planned with 2 intake screens and larger holes. Hopefully I can prevent further problems.

I'm looking forward to barebottom! It's nice that I don't have to care about where the flow is positiioned. I can worry about the corals and not the sand storms!

Tyler

[tgunn]

Well, water is on its way back into the tank!
I pumped in the 95 gallons of premade, warmed saltwater that I had ready. I'm not putting RO/DI directly into the tank. I'm going go predissolve salt in a smaller amount of water and mix that into the tank to make up the salinity required.

I've also got the new closed loop manifold designed:



There are 4 x 1" outlets on each side. I have one pointing down to the back on each side. So far nothing collects back there. However with this many outlets the flow is a lot more diffuse so stuff does settle up front. I may reduce it to 3 outlets on each side for a total of 6. I dunno. Gotta think about it more..

The new sump return:


No, it won't just be open pipes like that. I need to trim those and add elbows still. This is nice because I can now access the entire back side of the tank for cleaning! No more corraline on the back!

T

[tgunn]

The tank is now full!

Water is at 77F and rising quickly to the setpoint of 79, thanks to a 150, 200, and 250w heater..

I picked up a new brute can for change water makeup:


Here's all my rock in the QT tank:


Here's how things are in the sump.. My old PCX-40 provides main circulation:


All fish and corals in the main part of the sump:


And here's tonight's project... I'll be laying the rock out on my "fake tank". I measured everything out and reproduced with tape on the floor in the basement (conveniently by the drain).. The closed loop manifolds are out too so I can play around with configuring them to the rock structures I create. Acrylic rod and a supply of coat hangers provides my attachments rods. A hammer drill will be used to make the holes..