Im finally doing it.......sand is coming out of the second tank too

[Fly Guy]

I wasnt planning on it for a year or two...but was planning on it.

Being as my 225 main display is a leaking disaster waiting to happen.......its coming down.........and that means im switching it over to bb now instead of later

New tank will be here in 3 weeks.

Im going to model it very similar to my BB 90, which I couldnt be happier with the flow design and tanks set up.

1" acrylic, true Eurobraced, toothless external coast to coast overflow.

I will follow my hollow reef program the 225 currently has as far as using acrylic rod to cret a hollow reef with every single rock independent of each other creating very little flow restriction anywhere in the tank and tons of swimming room as well as tons of places to mount corals at every angle possible via the pegs. Very little rock, although it appears like a lot more than it is.

One major difference between this and the 90 is I cant achieve all the flow I need with a single Hammerhead powering an OM 8 way. It will have an OM 8 way powering two spraybars and 6 other ports randomly, but it will aslo have 4- Tunze 6100's as the leaking POS sitting there now does.

thats all for now. This is my build thread.

Oh...and my BB 90 is currently one of two frag tanks i need to deal with breaking this tank down and doing the changeover. When complete a month from now.......the BB 90 will be solely a polyp tank with a few select montis and lPS here and there.

The next few weeks are gonna suck. Its all damage control and set up.

[YLChik]

ahhh damage control... feel free to detail the steps you are taking for that so we can learn as I seemed to have browned everything out or killed it

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by YLChik

ahhh damage control... feel free to detail the steps you are taking for that so we can learn as I seemed to have browned everything out or killed it

It can be tough uprooting everything. Ive done this more times than I would like to remember as every time you are moving tons of corals it very hard on them and very stressful for you.

The fact that my entire reef and every coral in it is pegged makes this not nearly as hard as it would be for most people with the amount of corals I have.

here is my gameplan:

In the next weekl I am dumping the 225. There are a couple hundred sps colonies and frags, and nearly the same amount of polyp and and other frags. I am moving a 70 gallon frag tank into the living room. (48x24x14). I THINK I can fit most everything sps wise in it with some creativity. all the polyps and other random stuff will go into the 90.

To keep the stress at a minimum, and create the most stable environemtn for the sps for the next few weeks, I am going to plumb this frag tank into my existing 100 gallon sump from the leaking tank....the sump will remain in the stand. throw 20-30 pounds of rock from the display into the sump so its all familiar bacteria as well as a slam dunk easy move from the display to the frag tank...and from the frag tank back to the new tank when its ready. Just two steps away.

So all life support will still be online for the corals. And I can plumb the frag tank in in less than an hour as the only thing that needs done is a simple quick dirty overflow piping and return piping.

I feel good about this plan. Or I should say as good as i could under the circumstances

[VWD]

Very cool Bill, Look forward to the pictures as You do it.

[gwaco]

bill , what size tank are you getting ? will it be another 200+ or larger !
moving corals seemed to always cause me the most grief !

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by gwaco

bill , what size tank are you getting ? will it be another 200+ or larger !

its going to be a 240. the existing one is a 225...same foot print.

Super bonus and what I have wanted to do anyway is lose that stupid center overlfow box that is in the way of flow and aquascaping. done deal with the external coast to coast. i am also getting rid of the crossbraces and going with true eurobracing, and of course getting rid fo the sand.

So besides spending money I dont really have at the moment, it will be a very positive upgrade..........I just got to get through it and keep these corals somewhat happy for the next few weeks in a tight space

[gwaco]

sounds great !
as far as keeping things happy , i know a bunch of fish that weren't to happy with me when they had to spend two weeks in the garage !
please post the pics of the tank when you get it . when you say a toothless overflow , are you having them put in multiple slots or are they running the whole length with one cut out ?

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by gwaco

. when you say a toothless overflow , are you having them put in multiple slots or are they running the whole length with one cut out ?

it will be one long cut out for all intensive surface skimming purposes, but it will be connected in two places. My 90 (4 foot tank) is set up exactly the same way, and it is conencted in the center for a few inches

[OneDummHikk]

I want to tag along with this as I have some questions about BB tanks and want to see this one and gwacos go together.

[crvz]

Good luck! I'm happy to lend advice, but you tend to have all the answers before me anyways. I'll be sitting here awaiting pictures...

[luvmylo]

bill I know this sux for you but I am amped to see this go down and maybe help you with it.

[chrischris]

good luck i will be tagging along for this also because im going to have to do the same thing when i get some free time

[Fly Guy]

update.

my living room is a fish room. Man do I love my wife. She is SO tolerant.

I havent emptied the corals out of the tank yet. Been busy and the tank is affording me the luxury of time as the leaks are still holding at a cup or two a day. I have the frag tank hooked up to all life support and plumbed in with the big tank as well as just this evening moved the new tank into the living room to start building it.

Man this tank is SWEET.

And a couple of pics.

First pic is of the existing display and the frag tank next to it ready to hold the sps corals for a couple of days when I need to swap tanks. I need a wide angle lens to get it all in the same frame so that pic is as good as I can get.

All polyps and other random stuff will be going intop the 90 which will be dedicated to polyps from this point on. The other pics are of the new tank. Gwaco, the tank did end up getting built with the coast to coast truly going the full lenght minus 6" on each side. I guess with the 1" true eurobrace it didnt need to be connected anywhere across for tank integrity purposes.

[luvmylo]

either carver shrank or that is one big aquarium. nice bill.

[Loverotties]

Tagging along! Good luck!