150 Tank Rebuild!

[ouccmich]

Originally Posted by crvz

Hmm, kind of hard to answer. If you had re-used your rock and sand from the other tank, I think a straight swap could have been done (then add more sand/rock slowly over time as needed). It looks to me that you're using some cured live rock, and when you add the LR from the old tank you're also adding all the good thats with it. You may not see a huge cycle (or any, if there is no die-off), but thats hard to know. Anyone else have ideas?

Yea, I know. I didn't reuse the sand because all the experts at the LFS said that I should just replace it. So new sand bed and some new LR, but going to move all my water and LR to the new one in a bit. Do I have to move the water? I'm assuming that would be a good idea, but I am upgrading to 150 so the 75 gallons of water is only going to fill 1/2. I hope to keep everything alive, but you never know....

I think I have to put my house on the market next month with the reef tank here. My real estate agent said that's not good, because people are scared of previous flooding, etc..

But I don't think I can move the tank now yet. We don't have enough flow in the new tank either. Trying to decide what pumps to get. Definitely upgrading from the maxi-jets...

[crvz]

Originally Posted by ouccmich

Yea, I know. I didn't reuse the sand because all the experts at the LFS said that I should just replace it. So new sand bed and some new LR, but going to move all my water and LR to the new one in a bit. Do I have to move the water? I'm assuming that would be a good idea, but I am upgrading to 150 so the 75 gallons of water is only going to fill 1/2. I hope to keep everything alive, but you never know....

I wouldnt say you need to keep all the water, just however much it takes to transport everything wet (I'd recommend totally submerging the rock for transport; i used about 10 home depot buckets with lids, which are pretty cheap, but of course old salt buckets are great too!). I've often done very large water changes (greater than 50%) without trouble; just make sure most of the parameters are the same for all the water when you combine it (temp, pH, and specific gravity are obviously most important, but alk, calc, and nitrate could also be measured and adjusted).

Originally Posted by ouccmich

But I don't think I can move the tank now yet. We don't have enough flow in the new tank either. Trying to decide what pumps to get. Definitely upgrading from the maxi-jets...

I tried maxijet mods, but have since purchased a Tunze 6100. It's awesome. I'm going to get another for my 150 upgrade. They may be pricey, but there's no denying how much water is moving. What are you considering?

[ouccmich]

We got the sump and refuguim put in. What do you think? Looking at putting in two Seio 2600's with the controller for flow.....

The gray tub on the right is what we are using for the autotop off for right now. The auto-top off is a brand new thing for me. I love it! No more adding buckets of water on a twice daily basis!

[JY13131]

Looking good!!!

[VWD]

Nice Job , Keep up the good work!

[dobejazz]

Great Job Michelle it's coming along nicely

[ChrisPrusha]

[ouccmich]

Refugium sand/light/acrylic for sump: $80
2 Seio's used for 2 months (M2600): $100
Total: $2257. This is getting nuts.

[ouccmich]

I will post pics as soon as I'm more coherent. Been up for the past 72 hours on call and dealing with emergencies.

[crvz]

Well get some sleep, then get us some details of the move. Great looking tang!

[ouccmich]

how nice is this looking?

[ChrisPrusha]

You do good work!!

Your webcam has been down, at least when I have tried it in the past week. Are you aware of this?

[ouccmich]

Webcam down: yep. Aware. There a problem that the new tank is in my dad's basement that doesn't have any internet hookup. So I gotta buy a wireless. I posted about it but no one replied at all (do a search). I posted it manly for you Chris.....

I will get it up as soon as I can.

[ChrisPrusha]

No worries...I'll just keep trying.

[ouccmich]

So the webcam is up and running fairly well. When I move the tank a third time to my actual place we will have a larger bandwidth so that the picture is not as choppy. Enjoy! It's the only way I get to see my fish since I'm still 6 hours away from them...............

http://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~meyer234/fish2/ (small)

http://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~meyer234/fish/ (large)