Eric's 90 upgrade

[erichm20]

Currently I have a 75 and have to get rid of the sand So instead of trying to remove and replace the substrate I started looking for a new tank that would fit on the current stand. Other than the sand issue this tank is badly scratched and has a few chips along the seems so I've never been super comfortable with it anyway.

I found a great deal on a 90 reef ready tank so I'm going to check it out in an hour and most likely buy it.

I have a 20 L sump right now but am leaning toward getting a 55 from petco while the have the $1 sale and Turing that into the sump/ refugium.
Now figuring out how to get it into the stand will be a task but I'll worry about that later.

 

[erichm20]

Picked up the tank last night and it's in great condition, not a scratch.

Going to do a leak test today.

Now I need to order sand. I'm considering macro rocks as they have a pretty good deal and have seen a couple people use it. The thing is they have 2 options/ grades: fine, which seems too fine and course, which looks to be a little on the big side - not quite crushed coral big but bigger than average.

If not macro then I'm thinking Caribsea special grade.

I would also like to get a bigger return pump. I have a mag 7 and the flow through the sump is too low. I am thinking of doing a mag12 then add a t that could feed a reactor down the road if I wanted to add one. I was also considering the quiet one 991 or 1400 and wonder if anyone uses these?

As for rock I am more than good I think I have 150 lbs worth in my current tank.

 

[erichm20]

Passed the leak test!



Ordering 90 lbs of Caribsea sand and bulkheads today.

Next order of business is a bigger sump.

This is my situation now...


As you can see I can't even fit the skimmer in it because I messed up with the baffles.

Now because I am using the same stand and just replacing the tank, and would like to make the transfer between tanks as quick as possible, I am going to cut a hole in the side panel of the stand to replace the sump. I'm going to use a 40 b.

This is the side I will be cutting. It's just 1/8 " panelling so it will not affect the integrity at all.



This will work out good because I wanted an access door on the side anyway.

 

[erichm20]

Went to the lfs to pick up bulk heads and ended up getting 80 lbs of Caribsea ocean direct as well.

Also painted the back pane black.

Should be able to do the switch next weekend just have to pick up some plumbing supplies.

I've decided to change display tanks first then upgrade the sump later.

 

[erichm20]

So I'm looking out on eBay for a better skimmer and I see a bubble magus curve 5 for $155 and a reef octopus NWB-110 for $190. Not sure if the octopus is enough for a 90 though. Bum says it's rated for a 140.

Any other suggestions??

 

[54seaweed]

those little guys look like there ready to get it set up
I avoided the internal overflow as it takes up so much room I went hob route

 

[erichm20]

Thanks for chiming in! Yea they're my little helpers for sure, always excited to do water changes.

I thought about hob overflow as these boxes do take up precious real estate but have always been a little nervous about the siphon break risk.

So it turns out the holes are 1" and 3/4" as opposed to 1.5 and 1 that I assumed. No biggie just have to get a 3/4 bulkhead. It actually works out good because my current return line is 3/4 vinyl with an adapter to screw it onto PVC anyway so all I'll have to do is get a threaded bulkhead.

 

[54seaweed]

the way my overflow is set up is it sits 2inch in tank so if power goes out it will fill the sump till the overflow is no longer submerged and stops feeding the sump, it also restarts after power returns and return adds water back to main tank raising water level to the overflow and everything restarts it self
its nice not having to worry bout a flood

 

[erichm20]

Nice that it restarts on its own.

I am possibly going to make the switch today so I'm pretty excited. One think I'm nervous about, though. I have a mandarin that I added about 2 months ago and he is doing good and getting fat. I'm worried that the new setup will not have the pod population to support him at first so I am thinking of just putting him in the sump for a while (thousands of pods swimming around in the refugium section) or buying pods for a few weeks? Or am I over concerned and all the pods in the rocks will be enough? I really don't want to lose this one I lost the last one and it was sad.

 

[erichm20]

So I made the switch, first I moved all the coral that wasn't attached to a rock to a ten gallon. Then I moved all the rock into a 50 gallon Rubbermaid tub and put the fish in with the coral in the 10.



Then I had to move the existing tank off the stand, drill holes into the stand for the drain/ return for new tank, and move the new tank on.



Then I put the sand and water in followed by rocks then the fish and corals. That all went well except the fire fish didn't look too good and an acan was too close to a Duncan in the 10g and it was attached to/ consuming the Duncan so if I had to bet I'll probably lose the Duncan.

Then I worked on all the plumbing and found out I did not tighten the return line bulkhead enough and it had a small leak.... Uggghh!! ? So I drained the overflow and turned on the powerheads in the DT to keep flow going while I figure this out. The crappy thing is I only cut 2 inch holes for the pipes to stick out and cannot fit a wrench in there to tighten the nut.

My two options as I see it, without having to drain the whole tank, is either try to fit a big socket up through the hole, or cut a larger hole with a jigsaw to give myself enough room to use a wrench, I know there is a little space between the stand and tank bottom in the overflow area but this option scares me a little....

 

[54seaweed]

My mandarin didn't take transfer well he died overnight hope you have better luck , pissed me off I had him over 3+ years he was part of the family , I miss him a lot he always was waiting by front glass in morn waiting for me to turn on the lights he always waved he was a smart lil guy
my new guy just don't have the same personality

 

[erichm20]

54 I know what you're talking about every fish has a unique personality and losing them is tough, especially when we have them for a while- losing a new fish stinks but can happen for a number of reasons- many that are out of our control, but when a fish we've had for years dies because of something stupid we did it is a real bummer...

On that note we had a rough day yesterday, the kole tang and firefish perished.. Had the fire fish for a year and the tang for over 9 months and he was a really cool fish, really whacky swimming patterns. I'm pretty sure I crushed both of them during the move, the tang had a visible wound on his left side. It really makes me mad because this whole thing wasn't exactly necessary and ultimately I was trying to create a better environment for the critters and I killed them... To make matters worse a lot of the coral looks really terrible- pretty much all of the LPS flesh has turned white and polyps are fully retracted... of the SPS the monti looks the worst- totally pale and no polyps out at all. Surprisingly the anemone looks great!

Fortunately the plumbing issues are all fixed and it's not leaking. System is running good - added a wp 40 which is awesome. Left the koralia 1050 on the other side and thinking of putting the 750 on the back wall. The mandarin is still doing good but I added a bag of pods to be safe. I'll add some pictures in a bit.

 

[erichm20]

Photos look really blue

 

[Jaketit]

Good job E. Looks good. Makes me want to upgrade so bad.

 

[erichm20]

Thanks Russ, you should! Only recommendation is to make sure you get a tank With a stand lol.

Did a water test and everything is great..
Ph was a little low at 7.8 but I took the sample early in the day. I added some buffer for that.

I added 5 chromis today and also got chalice and zoa frags.





All the coral except to montis look much better and even those look a little better.

 

[Cichlid-dude]

Glad its getting better, good job bud.

 

[erichm20]

Thanks! It's coming around for sure.

I've decided to hold off with the sump upgrade for a bit. Instead I might finally get an rodi system. I figured right now I'm spending 12.50 a week on 10g of sw and 5 g of fresh which is $50 a month to change 40 g of water and top off. I can buy the 200 g bucket of reef crystals for $50 which would last 20 weeks or about five months changing 10 g per week. With the rodi unit costing about $150 or so it looks like the filter pays itself off in just 4 months. Seems like a no brainer.

The instant ocean is only $38 for 200 g worth.

Any comments on salt preference?

 

[Cichlid-dude]

Ro/di units are a must IMO, the best thing i bought for my tank. I got really tired of lugging buckets of water from the lfs or wherever i got it from.

 

[erichm20]

My buddy Rod hooked me up with a 6" piece of Monti cap! Told him I would frag a piece of birds nest in exchange.
I'll post a pic when the lights come on.

Down to 3 chromis which is strange because I didn't even see any that we're stressed or anything. I also didn't see any on the ground or in the rocks either. The clown was picking on them bit nothing more than normal territorial behavior.

On a good note the mandarin still appears to be happy, there are TONS of pods in the refugium so they must be making there way in along with the colonies in the rock.

One thing that stinks a little, some Cyanobacteria has formed on some of the rock - which is wierd, the last time I did an upgrade there was a small bloom shortly after getting it running as well. so I'm gonna do a little wc today to try to siphon out as much as positive and try to get ahead of it.

Also might have found a buyer for the 75 - for $100!

 

[erichm20]

Plus a new fts