220 superbuild

[mtfatwork]

Ok so here is the deal. I set my tank up in a hurry about 6 months ago when my 135 sprung a leak. Because of this I didnt get to set it up the way I wanted. I now have 90% of my coral in a frag tank, so I will be tearing down the tank and starting over. I am going to do it right this time. I would also like to add that I am fairly stingy, so all of the equipment minus the skimmer I am having custom built, and the return pump, will be used.

Here is the idea:
220 plumbed through the back wall down to the next level into the storage/utility/soon to be fishy room. Down there will be a 150 gallon rubbermaid which used to be for some ones pond that I got for free. Skimmer will be built by spazz of aquatic acrylics. Return pump I am currently undecided about. Circulation is 4 tunze 6100's with magnets and multicontroller that I picked up for a steal. Lighting is 1) Sunlight supply dual 400w MH ballast and 1) blueline e-ballast, along with 2 ic660's for actinic supplimentation. All lighting was purchased used. Other equipment includes a MRC CR1 calcium reactor (I actually bought this new...from a wholesaler ) A Ozotech 150 (used), a 36w uv sterilizer (used), the stoney reef kalkreactor (used), and an ACII (also used). The tank, stand and canopy are also used. There is two seperate 20amp services that have been added just for the tank thanks to an electrician in my local club that works for lighting gear I will update when I get the tank empty

I am also going to keep track of total build cost trying to keep it down by doing everything on coral barters, and used equipment

Mary

[mtfatwork]

Picked up 2 47 gallon acrylic tanks from a petco that was shutting down to use. 1 will be a r/o top off container, and 1 will be a nws container for quick and easy weekly 40g water changes.

[dobejazz]

Welcome to the Build off!!

[dobejazz]

Originally Posted by mtfatwork

Picked up 2 47 gallon acrylic tanks from a petco that was shutting down to use. 1 will be a r/o top off container, and 1 will be a nws container for quick and easy weekly 40g water changes.

Nice score !!

[mtfatwork]

I decided that in order to make the most of this tank, that I want to take down the overflow on it and have a new one built. The tank currently has two holes in it, 1 for the overflow and 1 for a cls. I ran a cls for a while but decided the tunze did more for less wattage, so I capped the hole. My overflow is currently a coast to coast style and it is made of clear acrylic (which I also dont care for because you can see how dirty it gets). It has a huge box on one side. My new design will use both holes, I will have one feed directly into the skimmer and the other to the sump. It will be black acrylic and somewhat of a coast to coast (I would leave a little room on each side for cords) with 2 low profile boxes. Here is a diagram of it

[mtfatwork]

got a little overwhelmed with the holidays here and decided to wait to finish the tear down until the 1st of the year. All that is currently left in the tank is:
Blonde naso tang
Kole tang
Dejardian tang
rabbitfish
marine beta
2 o. clowns
orange spotted hawkfish
splendid psuedochromis
christmas wrasse
redheaded fairy wrasse
green chromis wrasse


1 rbta
4 black maxima clams
1 crocea
2 blue maximas
2 derasas
and 1 squamosa.

as far as coral this is all that is left in the tank:
blue and red favia colony
huge red lobo
40+ headed frogspawn colony
and a few montipora colonies

all acropora species that resided in the tank are currently being housed in my prop tank. My next move will be to move all of the fish and split them between 3 tanks. All fish will go into these tanks with the exception of the Naso who is simply too large to put into a holding tank. I am either putting him into a friends 300g or another club members 450. That should be a day or two process and then the fun of cooking rock begins, and the true fun of essentially rebuilding the tank

[mtfatwork]

Total cost so far:
150g rubbermaid sump - FREE
220g tank stand and canopy- $600
3 luminarc reflectors- $300
3x400w mh ballasts- $200
ozonizer- $100? (I dont remember if it was less)
UV sterilizer- $90
Kalkreactor- FREE (trade)
4x tunze 6100 w/magnets- $600
7094 controller- FREE
Medical 2 channel dosing pump- $50
MRC CR1- $130
2x IC660- $90 +trade
ACII- $200
2x 47 gallon tanks- $40

I am thinking for a return pump I would like to use a Sequence Tarpon, because at the height I need it to pump it will only run 150 watts, which is the best by far that I have found.

[tims]

who let mary in here?

SOunds like some sweet deals and a good set up..

pics anytime soon?

[mtfatwork]

Hey Tim! I have yet to tear the tank down, but I can take a pic of it tonight, nearly empty. Outside of a few large lps colonies, it is pretty much a fowler at this point. It is looking pretty sad IMHO, but of course to others it probably looks fine. All the rock is brown and gross. All I am waiting on at this point is firming where my Blonde Naso will go during the reconstruction. He is 6+ inches and I need to find a good and mature tank, with a good caretaker, and plenty of room to keep the big guy happy. So that is what is impeding my progress at this particular time. I do hope to have everything down very soon though.

[tims]

wow that is a good size FIsh!
hehe if you were closer i would put him in with the Batfish

[Loverotties]

I drove a 440 Super Bird!

[mtfatwork]

???

[mtfatwork]

As of now I have most of the clams off of the rocks and ready to go to the frag tank, or a holding tank (probably the frag tank though, I dont want to be dosing yet another tank...) I have two black maximas that have firmly attached to crevaces in rocks. Anyone have any ideas on how to get them off? I really dont want the rock in my frag tank, nor do I have the room for it in there. The 3x3 is pretty darn close to completely jam packed

[mtfatwork]

Ok, so I found a temporary home for the Naso Tang. He is going to hang out in one of the 400 gallon holding tanks at the Rainforrest cafe in the Mall of America for a couple months while the construction takes place. This way I will only need to set up one holding tank for the left over fish. I am gonna split the other tangs between my other tanks that are up, and that way only the small fish will be housed in the 47 gallon tank. I am going to be using my beastly skimmer that I have now on the 47 as the filtration. It will be a fowler for the most part, with a high bio-load, but that skimmer handled the 220 with all the fish no problem... Is it wrong that my skimmer will hold almost 1/4th of the tank volume it will be skimming??? LOL.

[Petunia]

so... where are the pics Mary and Dustin?