+etannert Posted October 7, 2013 Author Share Posted October 7, 2013 Progress was made this weekend!! Plumbing! Couldn't resist finally putting the sand in... And messing around with the rock. (I probably won't use all of this since I have live rock already in my currently-running tank, but it's fun making shapes - and it got one more box out of the living room!) Also got the Durso standpipe and loc-line installed. Twins! I still have to get a couple parts for the TLF reactor, but everything else won't get moved till I'm ready to break down the Solana. And that won't happen for three more weeks at least, till competitive marching season is over. It's so close to being done that I'm really tempted to start making water and dumping it in, but I'm going to hold out until I have a little more time to devote to things that might go wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 Looking good! I see a perfect spot on the sand for the fungia plate! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 Great job with the acrylic. Everything is coming together nicely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorien Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 Wow, sweet! I love the acrylic work. I may have to try that one day... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted December 30, 2013 Author Share Posted December 30, 2013 New tank got wet today. 20g in, about another 50 to go. I'm making RO 5 gallons at a time and dumping it in, then plan to add the salt at the end and mix in tank, so this will take a couple days. Good thing I have a whole 'nother week of winter break to go! I have some Dr. Tim's at the ready and plan to finish filling/mixing tomorrow, then transfer livestock around Wednesday or Thursday. Time to get the old tank listed for sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Ran into a hiccup tonight... 50 gallons in, the sump springs a leak... this is what I get for not leak-testing my own acrylic work! Laziness just leads to more work later. I pumped out enough water to get the water line below the level of the leak, and tomorrow I'll pull the sump, drain it, dry it, and apply a coat of Weldon #16 to all the seams just in case. Not sure why I didn't think of that earlier. Hopefully that will take care of this and any other potential leaks. It sets be a day behind on getting the tank up and running, but that's what I get for not taking care of this earlier. Note of interest: the sand and rock is displacing more water than I thought it would - between rock, sand, and splash room (it's rimless), I'd guess the tank is only holding about 45-50 gallons. Add about 10 in the sump and a 60g drilled system will hold less than the tank itself is sized... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bogdan Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Very nice progress. Please test the sump and ATO container for at least 24h to make sure they hold water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 2, 2014 Author Share Posted January 2, 2014 Applied the Weldon 16to the sump and ATO reservoir yesterday and leak tested today - not the full 24 hrs as Bogdan suggested, but several hours, and with more water than I intend to keep in them. Both passed with flying colors and so I was able to get everything hooked back up tonight, finished filling all up, and added salt. Mixing overnight and tomorrow I'll add the Dr. Tim's. Livestock transfer and final equipment transfer Friday/Saturday (depending on the progression of the cold I've managed to catch) and whew, it'll all be done before we go back to school Monday. Provided no disasters strike between now and then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 very exciting ms. tannert. good luck with the cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! Tank transfer is COMPLETE!!! I started out with getting all the equipment moved over: ATO, reef keeper, doser, etc. I took my time and velcro'd everything carefully inside the stand, and made sure cords weren't getting unduly tangled (yay for velcro cord wraps). Moving the light was the hardest part, and the biggest "lesson learned" from this whole process: I didn't leave myself enough room behind the stand to get my drill back there in order to put the screws into the stand. Thank goodness for a 90 degree drill bit. It took some patience and ingenuity, but I finally managed to get the thing securely mounted. It's not quite 100% centered, but I'll take it! After getting all the electrical stuff programmed and settled, I started on the livestock. I pulled 10 gallons of the new water from the new tank and replaced it with water from the old tank; I saved that extra water for future water changes. I moved over the few rocks that had corals encrusted on them, then pulled the rest of the rock and put it in a bucket with water and a powerhead for its future owner. I drained as much of the remaining water as I could into two different buckets, one for coral and one for livestock. I put a couple gallons of water from the new tank into the livestock bucket to act as something of an acclimation between tanks; I put SeaChem Reef Dip into the coral bucket. All the coral came out, then the livestock. My golden coral banded shrimp was none too happy to be caught, and dropped his forearms in defense, but he'll recover. My Helfrichi jumped from the bucket on the way into the tank, but seeing as I've never made it through a tank move without a fire fish jumping, I took this as a good sign. (I picked him up and put him in the tank in a matter of a few seconds.) Today was just about getting everything in the tank. There was a decent amount of sand kicked up when I moved some of the rock work, so I was sort of blindly placing frag plugs in the sand, trying not to let anything touch. I'll take time the rest of the week to shift things into more permanent locations, once everything has had a chance to settle. Most of the fish have been out and about a bit, with the exception of my Helfrichi, who is shy on even an average day. My tribal blenny is missing in action - once I had all the rock out of the old tank I realized he wasn't in with the rest of the fish, so I pulled all the extra rock from the bucket just to make sure he hadn't hidden in a hole somewhere. He wasn't in the bucket with the extra rock, so I figure he must have hitchhiked into the new tank on one of the few pieces of rock that went straight from one tank to the other. I can't figure where else he might have gone; he's not in the bucket with extra rock and he's not in the old tank (and yes, I did see him this morning before the whole adventure started). Hopefully he'll turn up in a day or two. The last thing to get figured out is, I have a ton of micro bubbles coming into the display through the return. There's not a lot of room in the sump and I think it's being caused the drain, even though I have it as far away from the return as possible. I'll wait and see how much letting things slime over the next few days helps before I decide if something like a filter sock will be necessary. Before livestock transfer: Everything's in! Yay! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Awesome! I want to do the same thing! Looking good Etannert! Did you dose any bacteria in the new tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 I did! I put in Dr. Tim's a few days ago. I should do it again tomorrow... thanks for reminding me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Thanks Ty!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 14, 2014 Author Share Posted January 14, 2014 Lots of stuff last week. The old tank went away - sniff - it was the first time that patch of wall in my apartment has been bare since I moved in last summer, and it was disconcerting. The same night, I picked up all H20Cool's livestock, and because that involved taking home about half a Solana's worth of liverock, I suddenly had WAY too much rock in the tank. I've never liked the "wall of rock" look (I know it works fine as a method of reefkeeping, I just prefer more openness in my own tank) and it had caused me to loose my entire sandbed. I also now had frag plugs out the yin-yang since H20 had quite a few to add to my own. Time to get on the rescape! I'd sworn against having a frag rack in this beautiful, rimless, no-visible-equipment tank, but I really had no choice. So Ty hooked me up with some eggcrate and I glued it to an old Magfloat. I also removed two large rocks (from the dry rock that I had added to the tank) and rescaped the remaining rock. Yesterday when I went to bed the tank was still pretty sandy from everything that I shook up in the move, but I glimpsed it this morning on the way out the door and it looked pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing it with the lights on and all the coral opened up! H20's livestock mainly consisted of zoas (and zoas and zoas and zoas) so I'm curious to see what sprouts now that everything is well positioned. I hadn't really planned on having a zoa-heavy tank as I really want to focus on LPS, but he gave me a great deal and I want to take good care of his stuff in return. A beautiful chunk of blue sympodium has already opened up, and there's a Christmas-tree worm rock that I'm very hopeful about. It is currently covered in some turf algae, but the emerald crab that hitchhiked in with the zoa rocks is getting after cleaning it up. Sadly my tribal blenny has not turned up. I really can't figure out where he might have gone, but I think it's pretty safe to say that he's no longer with us. RIP, little buddy. You did a great job perching on a plate coral for the last year. I hope there's one there for you in the big aquarium in the sky... I'm still at work, but I'll try to get pics posted later tonight! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 looking forward to seeing the pics. sorry to hear about your blenny, though. maybe you just aren't used to finding fish in such a big tank and he'll turn up later . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 Sorry it took me so long... I was at work till 8:45pm, gotta love those long band director days... had to turn the lights back on to get a snapshot! I'm not in love with how high the rock is but the arches are pretty cool, as is the fact that half the sand bed is clear! (sorry the pic is sideways) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 I know it's personal preference on styles, but I think once all the rock is darkened up the top part won't look so out of place. I think it's the white sand - line - beige rock - line - purple rock that kinda makes you look at it in three pieces rather than a whole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Huzzah, fungia buddies reunited! Looks great etannert! Any shots of the entire setup? Want to see how the stand, sump, and MH setup looks all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Is that a helfrechi I spy in there ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 Yes, that's my pride and joy Helfrichi. My kids don't understand how a fish can cost $75... Jeeper, I'll take some pics of the whole set up tonight or tomorrow. I'm currently posting from a band booster meeting, i.e., still at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 I totally get it and im totally jealous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 More pics: Full set up With sump In case you're wondering why the pico (which is dry right now) has a towel over it, here's why... Sorry for the sideways pics, I've been emailing these from my phone to my work email, saving to my work desktop, then uploading, so I haven't been able to fix anything.\ I am ready for this workweek to be over as I'll have logged my 40 hours by the time I get to leave tonight, but it runs through late Saturday evening... ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 That's not a sea cucumber in your pico. its cat poop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Sweet setup! I like the look of it... very clean! Thank you for humoring me by snapping the photos and I'll send you a medical bill for the kink in my neck from looking at them sideways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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