220g Reef Tank

This is a journal of the makeover of a tank that I have been (shoddily) maintaining for the last few years. It is located in a Japanese Hibachi Grill type steakhouse in the Des Moines, Iowa area.


A short background:


When I first approached the owner of this tank in Spring of 2010, here is now the tank looked:





Needless to say, Nitrates were >800 and I couldn't even test P with any accuracy. The tank also had a Charlie Brown pattern across the front where someone had gouged the inside panel with a Mag-Float. I emptied the tank, QTd the fish, sanded & polished the tank, and refilled it. I used the existing bioballs to avoid anything more than a mini-cycle (successfully) The Yellow Tang made it about a month, then freaked out (I think the light timer got flipped to the "on" position, and no one turned it off), bled out, and died.


The filter system up until now has consisted of a filter pad, drip tray over bio-balls, and a generic skimmer.





I re-stocked the tank with fish from an LFS, most of them eventually died. I added a few fish I bought from local club members, and most of them are still alive.


The tank was generally over-fed, but what are you going to do. Performing anything over a 20% PWC was difficult, and didn't seem to make a dent. The existing sump was not friendly to any kind of algae scrubber setup at the time. The new feeding-based guidelines then came out, but it was still problematic. The owner sold the restaurant and the new owners eventually decided that they wanted the system to have more fish, and perhaps a coral reef.


Here is the tank now:





I added an L2 Algae Scrubber, but after months of running it - no results. I started a thread to help determine the problem. Long story shot is that when I originally tore the tank down, I sprayed the rocks with bleack, powerwashed, and soaked them in freshwater/prime, etc, but this does nothing to release stored up nutrients - I should have soaked them in acid. The cyano and red algae growth in the tank is not as bad as it used to be, but still pretty bad, and this combined with high phosphate seems to be inhibiting GHA growth on the scrubber all I get is gel-like algae that clogs the slot pipe rather easily, and a bare screen everywhere else.


So the solution was going to be to QT the fish, acid soak the rocks, and set it up again. Which did worry me, as I feared losing fish again.


Then, something dropped in my lap: a friend in the local club decided to get out, and tear down his 220 Reef system. I bought all of his Live Rock, Substrate, and fish. Here is what his system looked like (he had already sold all his corals):

















He lived about 75 minutes away. Me and a buddy hopped in my minivan with the sto-n-go seats and headed out. Got there around 9am, left around 12:45, and got to my home at around 2:15. The van was at maximum capacity: 24 5g buckets, 2 7g buckets, a 20g Brute can and 32g Brute can (with big rocks and 1/3 full of water), on top of that, 3 totes w/misc stuff including a Geo Kalk reactor and a 100g poly mixing station. It was a low-ri-der.


A few hours later, all the fish were in their temporary home. The night before, I had plumbed in my utility sink, ran a dedicated electric circuit (lucky for me, discovered a "future" circuit wire, 20A circuit, in the perfect location) and set up an borrow 5' 120. I had to also set up a 40B as there was ust too much rock.


After a few more hours, and getting some loaned light fixtures, I had circulation, heating and lighting in place.





Rio 1100, MJ-1200, MP10 (borrowed)





Kessils (borrowed) over the 40B, one blue, one white








Tangs (8" Vlamingi, Yellow, Desjardini Sailfin)





Chromis (12 Blue/Green, 9 Reef) and one big honking wicked cool rock, a plate/cap (not a live coral). I call it the Fish Satellite Dish.





Coral Beauty Angel





Lawnmower Blenny





Other fish not pictured:


Flameback Angel

Bicolor Angel

Goby & Pistol Shrimp Pair

Reef Chromis (hiding) 9 of them

Blue Damsel (a calm one)


I got all the Live Sand also, as well as snails, hermits, and other crabs (including one of the biggest emerald crabs I have ever seen)


After all was done - cleanup time.








Here is the Geo Kalk Reactor (for my use, or on another tank)





and the 100g mixing station (full tunrkey setup, pump and all)





...and here they shall stay, until the next big move, in 2 weeks.


In the meantime, I will be re-working the filtration system and planning out the rock scaping.

 

HUGE thanks to Troy (Troy C) for tagging along for the entire day, and to John Goldani (cowdust9) for loaning me the Kessils and the MP10, as well as a 250W MH and 2 LED PAR lamps (which are not currently hooked up, but may be).


As of course, Doug (BigD), who I know will be back to the hobby someday /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/tongue.gif

 

Don't let your wife see that post LOL

 

Well the long weekend reeked havoc on my body, and it fought back. I pretty much completely lost my voice starting Sunday night and it seemed to get better, then worse today. So now I'm on steroids. So don't anyone go ticking me off right now. LOL

Anyways been testing the H2O and the 40B tank w/most of the corals/angels/clown/goby/shrimp/blenny is doing great.

On the big tank, I seem to have a trace of ammonia that won't go away. I thought I originally counted 12 blue/green chromis and now I only can seem to ever count 11, and the Reef Chromis are always hiding in the rock. All other fish accounted for but since the bigger fish are in the 120, I've been feeding them more.

Monday I mixed up about 30g of SW and did a small PWC on both tanks. Got 30g of RODI standing by to mix up if needed.

So I stopped at Seascapes and picked up a multi-filter pad and wrapped that around the media cartridge for my 20 yr old and still reliable Marineland Magnum 330 canister and hooked that bad boy up. No change today, still a trace of ammonia. So I'm going to sacrifice filtration on my personal 120 and take the UAS test unit off that and put it on the temp 120 as I feel it needs it more.

~10 days left to the next move. Snagged a used Reef Octopus NWB-150 to replace their POS generic skimmer, as well as a BRS Dual Carbon/GFO reactor, 'cause they're gonna need it probably.

 

Started on the new sump insert this week.

Pieces



Chamber walls



Overflow Channel



I also bonded the back on then called it a night. More pics coming tonight.

 

Here is the back panel bonded on



Holes cut in the front panel for drainage into the sump and overflow points as well



Bonding



Added a strip for holding filter sock holders and/or drip trays



Next step is to make the top euro and covers.

 

After much input from others on another thread http://www.greateriowareefsociety.org/Forums/tabid/78/aft/29971/Default.aspx (thanks mfisher for the advice, and sponge for the mortar, and Marc w/Marco Rocks for taking a call) here is how I plan to do the structure. The first structure will be the larger one, on the left side of the tank, using the rocks I got from BigD's tear down. The second structure will be other rocks from my stock, and will be done in stages over the course of many weeks.

The Marco Rocks bonding mortar needs 20 minutes before it can be submerged, and more like 45-60 minutes until it is more structurally reliable, then fully cures in several more hours (overnight). Because I want to do this a little faster than that, I'm going to use epoxy and rubble rock in combination with the mortar.

After draining and emptying the tank, I will build the first structure in stages.

The first level will be base rock. It will have putty epoxy "feet" on it to keep it from moving. I will probably cut little sections of egg crate to set these on so that the putty doesn't contact the bottom of the tank, and to give it a little spread footing if you will. Then I will fill the tank with enough water to partially submerge the rocks.

The level or two will be intermediary. I will create 3-point connections between each rock using a combination of putty and rubble rock (when needed), and when I have each level stable and in the final position, I will fill in the middle with the Marco mortar and let it cure for about 45 minutes, and keep wet towels over the rocks to keep them from drying out. After 45 minutes, I will raise the water level with each stage to submerge the rocks and the new mortar joints. This way, I can safely build the structure up as the putty epoxy and rubble rock is actually the primary support until the mortar cures fully.

The final level will be the big plate rock (satellite dish). This will need a good base rock and lots of putty and mortar, and probably some temporary support so that it stays balanced and in the desired position.

I will fill the tank and get the filtration system set up, then call it a day.

A few other things I plan on doing:

- covering the mortar with some substrate to give it a more natural look
- Using the mortar to make little shelves for frag plugs and discs, for the future

The next step will be to transport the fish and substrate. The tank will be full of new saltwater, so I will have to drain it down as low as I can, add the substrate, then fill it back up with a combination of the drained water and water from the temp tank, and let the filtration run for a bit longer. So now I'll have water in the tank that is a mixture of new tank water and water from the temp tank, then I would acclimate the fish using some left-over new water pulled out of the tank. After doing a few stages of water exchange between the tank, extra water, and water in buckets with fish in them, they should be well acclimated and I will transfer the fish to their new home.

The second rock structure will happen a few weeks later, after things have settled down a bit, and all the fish have adjusted to their new home.

This second structure will be smaller, and on the right half of the tank. I will likely be using dry base rock, so this structure will go into the tank in stages. I will build the structure the same way, except it will be done on a bench. I will build the entire structure and use the epoxy & rubble rock technique to make the structure fit together. Then I will apply the Marco mortar in such a way that the rocks will seat together, take the rocks apart, and let the mortar set. The end result will be a set of rocks that have perfect 'seats' in which to interlock into each other. Then I can add a few rocks at a time. I may cure the rocks before adding them to keep the tank stable. I haven't decided yet, but it is probably the better course of action. I'm not worried about the rocks throwing off ammonia as they will be nuked with a Muriatic Acid bath, followed by a Vinegar bath and much power washing and soaking prior to any structuring work. But, the system will be running a scrubber, which sucks up ammonia like a mop. Can't be too safe though.

So that's the plan. As long as I can get over my 1 month string of illness, I should be able to get this whole process started very soon.

 

Tank transfer is a go this weekend. Looking for any help to transport water from Matt's house near I-235 & Guthrie/Delaware to Taki. I need to pick up 100g of RODI from him on Saturday between 10am and 2pm, and 100g of SW on Sunday between 10am and 2pm. I have tons of buckets and can buy more if needed.

 

A few more pics.

Drilled the 40B. A little chip out, but no cracks. Yay.





Eurobrace for the sump insert



Next is to make the lids and filter sock holders.

 

Sump insert is pretty much done

Holes in the front left are for Uniseals for drainage and overflow drainage if one gets blocked. These will drain into an elevated skimmer pan. Holes along the top are for clogged sock overflow.



Each end has an intake chamber. I will probably route a hole in the side for the intake bulkhead which will have a nylon 90 in it, then a street elbow and a downpipe inside. This fills up and overflows along the back channel.



The back channel overflows into the filter sock trays. These sit on rails and are not bonded in place. I may bond them in place. Haven't decided.

 

Tear down and rock build starts tomorrow around 9:30 AM for anyone wanting to get in on the fun. Go to the side door and knock, or knock on the front windows.

 

Big thanks to all that helped Saturday: pwfish, Fence13, rocketmann, tyler, and Eric. Couldn't have done it in the time frame allowed without all the help!!

Having many perspectives and opinions on the layout of the rock structure was great. Didn't end up using nearly as much of the Marco Mortar as I expected - but that stuff is fantastic, and sets up fast!

Here is how it looked on Sunday morning after everything had settled out



Big thanks again Chris (Fence13) and Tyler (torino06) for fetching the saltwater yesterday, and to Nick (Nik) for helping with the sand, fill, and stocking. It all went well until I fired up the pumps and found leaks, as well as discovered that my intake plumbing plenum had a flaw in the design that essentially airlocked the pumps, and they wouldn't start running.

Had to put PHs and heaters in the DT and put the fish in and then cleaned up.

Didn't get out of there until close to 6pm - 2 hours after they opened. With the storm, they weren't that busy though. Got home and everyone decided they wanted to go to dinner...at Taki. Tank was looking pretty good, didn't get any pics as it was still cloudy, but I did get a few of these



Nick and I came back in this AM and took the insert out and drilled relief holes in the intake pipes which solved that problem right away, then spent another 3 hours chasing leaks. The bottom line is that while using TFE paste instead of tape supposedly is what you are supposed to use for PVC threaded fittings, as it is supposed to seal and prevent crack-out, it's a bunch of bullsh-t. All 4 of the fittings that transition from thread to hose barb on the return pump (high pressure) side were leaking. I replaced one fitting with tape and it stopped leaking. The rest of the fittings are still leaking but it's pretty minimal. Not sure if I will re-do them all or just wait and see if they self-seal. Will be watching it. Anyways filter box is finally up and running.

More pics coming. It looks pretty good!

 

I was thinking to add (not ***) some gravel on top of it but just decided it would grow over eventually no matter what and will look fine.

As far as petroleum jelly goes - I would think that would be a bad idea. Not only would it slicken the threads enough to allow you to very easily over-tighten and crack out fittings, it would seem to me that water under high pressure could easily push that out of the threading, just like the TFE paste. Also the TFE paste I think allows potential over-tightening as well though. The fitting on which I replaced the TFE paste with teflon tape went in by hand a full 2 turns less that with the paste, and it didn't leak. The one with the paste was fully seated, and still leaked.

I stopped in on the way home from work and checked it, and it's a good thing I did - I had a couple of cups catching drips and must have knocked one of them over, and water was pooled up on one side of the cabinet (no damage). Also I found more water dripping away from the cup, so I just shut off that pump and moved the Loc-Line up so that the line was dry and I'll fix that another day. One pump is fine for now.

Eventually...it will be right.