Joe's Tank Raising and Ultimate Fishroom Thread

[joefitz]

Well, things are really starting to move along now so I thought I would post an update on my progress.

I decided to move everything twice instead of trying to reinforce the floor while the sump room was still in use. The first move is to a 300g rubbermaid trough tank which will support everything while I prep the sump room. Once that is ready and the floor of the tank room has been reinforced, I'll move everything into the display tank.

The 300g is filled with saltwater and has been aerating for the last few days. I put a few things in yesterday to make sure they were doing ok and tested levels today...everything seems fine. Today I am moving all the rock and livestock from the existing 150s into that 300.

I goofed trying to adjust calc/akl too quickly and caused a bit of a snowstorm in the 300g but nothing was even in it yet so it wasn't a big deal...just a waste of time/additives.

Later today/tonight, once the rock/livstock has been moved, I will empty the room of the remaining equipment (almost everything is already out), rip out the rotting wood, crumbling drywall and existing insulation and then powerwash the room and set up fans to dry it out.

I have acquired pretty much everything I need to complete the process -- at least the essentials... Items remaining to purchase include a few sheets of greenboard for the exterior wall, some insulation, plastic, 2x4s...so I have at least one more trip to HD or a lumber yard.

Tomorrow I'll be patching the floor and hopefully later that day seal the floor with the basement floor epoxy I bought.

I don't think I'm going to bother sealing the concrete walls with anything but I may pick something up to do so when I'm picking up that other stuff. We'll see. I think the floor is more important to protect -- I don't spill stuff on the walls quite so much!

I'm a bit bummed that we had a bit of an accident...my wife was trying to slide my 90g glass sump tank so she could clean it a bit (it was on a couple 2x4s) and she pinched a finger and it dropped an inch and cracked one of the panels of glass. It is just one pane of glass though and it is a sump so I shouldn't have too much of a problem getting a replacement piece and getting it back together. I've been following Steve McNally's thread re: his custom tank so I'll try to find the glue/silicon that is mentioned in that thread.

The display tank stand is probably halfway through prepping...there was a fair amount of rust on it and unfortunately, I won't be able to get it 'perfect' as the tank is still on the stand so I can't get to all the surfaces of the stand. But a power sander, dremel, and naval jelly are getting the job done. I'm just going to put a few coats of marine primer on it to protect it in the future.

I've refilled all four of my 55g drums with RODI so I should be in decent shape to get the display tank up and running quickly once I have the sump room completed.

The "big" challenge is going to be Thursday/Friday which is when I have schedule the 'floor reinforcement' project. The beams I have are massive and I don't have the tools I'm going to need to get the job done. I'm pretty sure I have friends/family that have most of what I need and I'm sure I can rent anything else.

I am getting pretty pumped now though. In probably about two weeks my display tank will be back up and my sump room is going to be much more useful. I'm trying to remember to take pics every now and again to show progress but I've never been good at that...I'll post them when I can.

Thanks for everyone who has helped in this process! Once it is all set up I'll have to throw a frag begging party as I'm going to need to finally stock this beast.

Well, I don't have any more excuses...time to head to the basement and start moving all that rock!

 

[naturebatslast]

Damn! Sounds good.

 

[joefitz]

Well, the first move is pretty much done...the old sump room is now empty and everything is in the new 300g tub. I didn't get a chance to clean the sump room yet so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Everything seems to be doing ok for the moment although one of my clams decided to go on the move and I'm nervous that isn't a good sign.

 

[joefitz]

This pic shows the 300g tub that I'm using as a temporary home for everything for the next few weeks... You can see the Euroreef RS12-2 in the corner and I'm in the sump room getting ready to start moving rock.

 

[joefitz]

Here is a shot of the sand from my old display...it was sitting in salt buckets for nearly two years. Outside. I wasn't sure if I was going to use it but it didn't smell nearly as bad as I thought it would.

I am currently using the 150g trough tanks to clean (bleach/water) and rinse the sand. I'm done bleaching it but I plan on rinsing it many times over the next week or so.

I will probably still buy some new sand but I shouldn't need much. I'll probably buy some coarse grain stuff to go with the Southdown since the "bare v shallow v deep" sandbed research was presented at that meeting last year showed a mixed bed had the lowest mortality rates.

 

[joefitz]

This is a shot of the beams I'm going to use to reinforce the floor of the room the display tank goes in (directly above the 'sump room'). There are several 2x10s that I'm going to use to double up the joists on top of the beams, but the beams themselves are quite hefty...two 6x12 beams (16') that will be supported by three temporary columns.

Way overkill. I'm an idiot. But since I'm doing this myself I'd just assume go that route and maybe sleep a little better at night.

 

[joefitz]

This is the sump room...empty! As of about midnight on 6/26. I spent several hours on 6/27 cleaning the room and then I spent the better part of today preparing the floor for the epoxy sealer I'm going to put down. I spent a lot of time removing loose concrete from various cracks in the floor today and trying to get it dry. Tomorrow I'll be patching up all those cracks and if I can manage to keep it dry and hot enough in that room, Saturday I will put the epoxy down.

 

[joefitz]

The before pic again because this was a LOT of work...

 

[joefitz]

This is a poor photo of the "fish" tub...I kept all of my fish in one of the 150g tubs, along with my rose anemone (which is now 2 rose anemone's as it split), a gorgonia that grew from nowhere, and some mushroom and zoa rocks. You really can't make much out of this pic except along the bottom you can see the Powder Blue Tang, Sailfin Tang a few inches to its right, and the two anemones with the pair of clowns a bit further over.

I put in some very large diameter (6") PVC tees for the fish to hide in and I have to say that was probably the best decision I made. The fish LOVED swimming through the tees. I tossed one in the new 300g tub and it remains by far their favorite feature. I am strongly considering putting some in my display tank too but only if I can find a decent way of "hiding" them. I don't want to wait for them to get encrusted with coraline.

 

[fanaglethebagle]

Your fish look very healthy and happy

 

[joefitz]

This is the other tub...I gave away/sold much of my coral before I moved because I didn't want to put it at risk in the move but I still have a few things in the tank come moving day so they went in the other 150g tub. Along with mounds of algea and my Euroreef CS12-2 (the RS12-2 was connected to the other 'fish tub').

I've had trouble maintaining temp over the past two years so I lost a few of the corals including a birds nest, a cap, and a hammer. A brain took a beating and was almost completely gone but I managed to nurse it back to about half of its original size again. The clams seemed to be fine/happy in the tank with nothing to bother them.

This tank did struggle with bubble algea though...it was a fearsome foe but two dozen emerald crabs (about the only livestock I bought in the last two years) really did a number on that problem. Actually those pics deserve their own posts so I'll do that momentarily.

I also developed an aptasia outbreak over the last few months which I still have to deal with...

 

[joefitz]

Ok, bubble algea pics! Talk about a nightmare. I don't deserve a reef looking back on these photos...I just didn't do enough regular maintenance. Never let this happen to you!

I'll start off with the 'good rock'. You can see the bubble algae has 'infected' the rock on the right side. Those are 1" diameter tubes...that rock is about a foot long. Bad but not horrifically so, easy enough to take that out, scrub them off and put the rock back in.

 

[joefitz]

But then you get to this photo...which shows the "middle" of that tub. You can see that the bubble algae is covering more of the rock than it isn't covering. The clams seem ok and you can make out a snail between them, but nearly ever inch of rock is covered with the stuff in the entire photo...there are a few rocks that don't have much on it, but there are a dozen sizeable pieces that were covered.

 

[joefitz]

And one more...this one shows one of my soldiers taking care of business. It took them about a month, but 24 emerald crabs (it actually may have been 48, I can't honestly remember) ate 95% of the bubble algae.

Then they dined on chaeto as if it were spaghetti.

 

[joefitz]

Ok, well, back to the move... This is a photo of the 300g with everything from the two 150s in it, plus my old 20g tall 'refugium' which hasn't really been a refugium since I bought the 350g display tank.

 

[joefitz]

The 20g tank now holds my watchman goby and paired shrimp...sorry for the horribly bad photo. I didn't see these two guys for over a year (they were in the 150g fish tub sans sand) -- I thought they were goners for sure. Then I noticed a buildup of empty snail shells below my new "feeding" spot and sure enough, within a few days, I started seeing these two regularly.

The 20g makes it a lot easier to find/see these guys!!

 

[joefitz]

This was one of the first pics taken of everyone in the new 300g tub... You can see the rows of snails on the sidewall of the tub as they hadn't had time to move about yet.

You can make out the Powder Blue Tang, the Sailfin, a green chromis, the two clams (to the left of the sailfin about a foot or so, the blue clam is about six inches away from the brown), the two anemone's along the bottom and their clownfish and the honking big, bright white, PVC tee that the fish love so much.

The blue clam detached from the rock a few hours after this pic was taken. I'm not sure why but I suspect it didn't like all the fish constantly swimming around it (coming out of or going into that tee). I moved it last night to a location I thought would be better but the clam didn't agree and has again relocated.

I think I am going to have to relocate it again as it has wedged itself into a crevice that I'm not sure it can fully open in. it looks better than it has since being moved into the tank though so I'm not sure, I may let it be for a bit.

 

[joefitz]

Here is another full-tub shot, this time after the lights have been on for a little while. Not a really great pic but you can make out a few more corals (as well as the yello, hippo, and powder blue tangs). I can't really get any decent photos that demonstrate perspective but the tank is about 5' wide x 6' high x 2.5' tall. That hippo tang is about 10".

 

[joefitz]

A close-up of the rose anemones...they bubble up nicely and although you can't really make it out in this photo, often have bright purple at the very tip of their branches.

 

[joefitz]

GSP...I think I may try to move this mat of gsp onto the back wall of my display tank (overflow wall) and see if I can get it to eventually cover most of that wall. I don't really want it anywhere else in the tank so it is there or nowhere i feel.