New sump and replacement

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

I'm replacing my sump today. At least I'm going to attempt it anyway. I'd like to have it done today but I'm worried about a few things that I wanna bounce off you guys.
First thing I have to do is drain my tank(90 gal.) down and take out rocks and corals. Maybe even sand.. I have to move my stand away from the wall it's against in order to take out the old wet/dry and re-install a new refugium as the sumps will not fit through the front doors. Without disassembling the stand's middle support, and risking a collapse, I thought it safer to just drain the tank and move it, and replace everything back into the tank... What a nightmare!
I bought a 50 gal. Storage bin to place Corals in and a 33 gal. Trash can to put water and rocks
in. Will the fish and corals be ok in the bin overnight if I can't get everything back together in time? The tank has just finally started to level out and stabilize since initial setup and now I fear I'm gonna have a cycle, and everything has to get all back in order again. Also afraid of stressing fish and losing them..
Needless to say, I need some ideas and insight!
Please help! Thanks in advance!

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Well, new sump is in but by the time I knew what fittings I needed to plumb it, the stores were closed.. Fish and corals are in the bin with an aerator and rocks are in a trash can filled with water. Hope everything makes it through the night. After I plumb the fuge in the morning, I'm gonna fill it with probably 60 gal. of the water I took out put 25 or 30 of new water in. Then, run the filtration and get the water as clean as possible, then add rocks, and corals and let it filter for a few hours. Last thing ill do is add the fish. Hope I don't have to do this again till I upgrade in a few years!

 

[Daniel Fishy]

I feel for you! I had to do the same mine was a 75 . 20 seconds to drop fuge in 4 hours to put tank back together but as you know well worth it. Your fish and corals should be fine good luck with the plumbing.

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

I feel for you! I had to do the same mine was a 75 . 20 seconds to drop fuge in 4 hours to put tank back together but as you know well worth it. Your fish and corals should be fine good luck with the plumbing.

Thanks! Yea it's such a pain! Wish they would have designed this stand with all this in mind!
Definitely worth it for the upgrade though!
I can't believe the amount of detritus I siphoned out! Poor fish! It will be nice and clean now though. Between adding a skimmer and the fuge It will never get like that again!

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

I found out that my pistol shrimp died. After removing all the rock, he was no-where to be found.. My poor watchman goby was sitting alone in his den, missing his best friend : (

We were suspicious of his death after not seeing him for a couple weeks.. I've got no idea what caused his death... Any ideas?

 

[Daniel Fishy]

Sorry to hear that idk what could of happened.

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Finally! All is back together and everyone made it through! Corals are opening back up nicely and the fish are swimming around checking out the new rock-scape.
Skimmer is breaking in and im getting a light brown skim. Still needs tuning. I've got it set low right now until it breaks in. Don't know if that's right or not but that's the best strategy I could come up with.
The plumbing came out nice. I'll attach some picks. Still have to sort out the wire mess and get it all looking nice. Wanted to make sure I got the fish and corals in ASAP so I threw everything together quickly.
Quick question about the skimmer. Can I put a 90 degree fitting on the tee where it dumps water out to make it so its not splashing and making noise? Basically silence it by directing it under water?

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Oops! Forgot pics!

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

So first thing this morning I checked the skimmer and there was no foamy frothy type bubbles at the top of the collection cup. Just little bubbles down at the base of the collection cup.
What's going on? It was fine last night...

 

[Spotted]

I have a t on the end of my skimmer outlet. It works fine and helps a lot with the noise. Also i find that from time to time my skimmer bottoms out like that too. After a while it perks back up.

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

I have a t on the end of my skimmer outlet. It works fine and helps a lot with the noise. Also i find that from time to time my skimmer bottoms out like that too. After a while it perks back up.

Awesome! Good to know!

 

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Skimmer is back up and running again.
I read up on similar issues discussed on other forums and articles and the common fix was to do a water change with the skimmer by setting it really high in order to blow out whatever was keeping it from producing tiny bubbles. So I tried it and it worked!
Figured I'd get the info out there for anyone else having this problem.
Doesn't look like its pulling as much gunk out as it was just prior to setting it up though. Ill just wait and see what happens. Maybe this is just part of the break-in process.

 

[MyR6Rocks]

Skimmer is back up and running again.
I read up on similar issues discussed on other forums and articles and the common fix was to do a water change with the skimmer by setting it really high in order to blow out whatever was keeping it from producing tiny bubbles. So I tried it and it worked!
Figured I'd get the info out there for anyone else having this problem.
Doesn't look like its pulling as much gunk out as it was just prior to setting it up though. Ill just wait and see what happens. Maybe this is just part of the break-in process.

Break in period should be around three days, at least that's how long mine took.