336 A.G.E. Peninsula Tank

[bag151]

Hey Guys,
So I finally got a chance to take some shots real quick and get them up here. Dave and I totally redid the aqua-scape which I think looks much better, I still could stand to remove a few large pieces out of the ramp on the left, but for the most part I am pretty happy with it. Now I have plenty of grow out room for my SPS colonies, the fish have more open swimming space, and the Island on the right is intended for LPS, zoos, and Gorgonian's. By isolating some of the corals to the island I will be able to cut back the photo-period in the far right Halide to keep from scorching some of the lower light corals. I also added a layer of thicker substrate over my bed of southdown and that instantly made a big difference in the amount of sediment in the water column, the water is so much clearer now without the constant sand storm. I also added a ton of fish here last week even though it doesn't look like that much. I added 43 chromis to the 9 that I already had so I have a nice school of blue green chromis as well as two other types of Chromis that I am not sure of their official name yet. I also added the Achillies/Gold Rim Hybrid who is a gorgeous fish, I will try and get some closeup's of him later. Next up is more sps colonies and a collection of clams to go on the back side of the tank.

-Brett

 

[AQUA DAVE]

looks good.... any updates?

 

[mcliffy2]

Its looking good. I dig the new scape. Just a thought - maybe you could move the Tunzes from the visible side to concentrate more flow on the left with the SPS, since you don't need as much flow for the corals you are planning on the island.

 

[usefulidiot213]

I dig the new Scape.. Looks nice. It's crazy how big the tank is.

 

[bag151]

Hey Guys,
I suppose I have a few things to report, after I took the previous pictures I got a wicked dynoflangaltes outbreak again, I suspect the new substrate was the source of my issues. Then about 3 weeks ago I came home from vacation to find my lights off and my Aquacontroller stuck on the boot screen. So I have been running the tank off manual timers and without the calcium reactor until I get the controller back from neptune. I talked to curt yesterday and apparently the firmware got corrupted, the controller should be on it's way back now.

I also finally caught who was flipping my Acan colonies upside down and killing them. The Red Corris wrasse is the culprit, I will flip the colonies right side up and 30min later he will come by and flip them over again and peck at the critters underneath them. I am going to start gluing them to the rocks from now on.

I also have another tank in the works I suppose, my GF's parents gave me a 55gallon tank that they want me todo something with. I am trying to trade it for a nano cube and start either amano tank, pipefish/seahorse tank, or set it up in my office at work. Just what I need, another tank.

Mcliffy I actually like how the powerheads are now, they are pointed right at the base of the large stack so the flow pattern runs right up the ridge. Plus the Tangs really like to dart in and out of the water streams and shoot to the other side of the tank.

-Brett

 

[bag151]

Hey guys,
Well it's about time for some updates now that I got a chance to breath. Busy season is now over at work, my fiance and I bought a home a few weeks back, and we are planning a wedding so things are pretty crazy. Unfortunately the new house meant I got to break down the tank an move it to the new house. Of course right about now is when everything really stabilized and starting growing like weeds. Guess I will get back to that point here in another 6-12 months.

Since I did have a two week led time I was able to get a temporary tank running in the garage using a 300gal stock tank with a 100gal Rubbermaid stock tank as a fuge. The move was accomplished in two phases, first we moved all of the livestock, rock, and water in the tank out to the temporary tank in the garage using brute trash cans, 3 large coolers, and a special van equipped to transport 400gal of water. We emptied the tank contents into the assorted containers and then tied a very long hose into the Barracuda closed loop to make the 100ft run out to the van. The head pressure was so great that three of the hose joints separated and I got to take a nice salt water shower pulling the joints back together while someone shut down the pump. That thing was like a fire hose. After several hours and about 10gal of lost water we got everything out and loaded up. Once at the house the 300+ gallons when into the large stock tank and the inhabitants were unloaded. The 100gal fuge had a fresh batch of salt water so I effectively did a slow large water change as I fired the system up. Everything looks great and there have been no casualties as of this date. We pulled the sand biled out of the tank with a wet vac and set it aside for future use as a RDSB. I wl be replacing it in the main display with new Tropic Eden Aragasnow.

Now for the fun part, I then stripped the system down to the frame and tank to prepare it for the move. I hired Aquarium Environments to move the tank itself so if something happened they would just send it up to Tom to be rebuilt (A.E. is the sister company to A.G.E. and delivered the tank the first time). Moving the tank was an adventure in itself, nothing ever just works perfect. Monday the guys showed up and quickly got the tank out of the apartment and loaded up thanks to the help of a genie lift. We were barely there 30min. We then ventured out to the house and proceeded to unload the stand. When we got it up to the front door it looked like a tight fit so we measured again and we had a inch of clearance, but the front door wouldn't swing open enough so we had to take it off just as we had to do in the apartment. Of course they used special security screws to fasten special hinges that prevent people from stealing the front door. FYI they don't sell a bit for these screws at Home Depot. So two hours later a door company got the door off and we are back in business. We then carry the stand in to prevent damage to the hardwood floors and then follow it up with the tank. I swear that thing is lighter then my old 180g because of the PVC bottom. The tank is currently in the former formal dinning room/new aquarium room waiting to be plumbed this weekend.

Funny how you loose sense of scale in photos. The large purple cap is at least 12in if not bigger, I took these shortly before the tear down. I will try and snap some more photos here this weekend.

-Brett

 

[jjackson]

Bret tank looked great before move. Hope to see it all set up again soon. I have some pics of my 240 you need to see.

 

[ReefTECK]

Does this tank essentially separate your living space and your bedroom?.......


.....


THAT"S AWESOME I TOTALLY WANT TO DO THAT!

 

[bag151]

ReefTECK- It did, my apartment was an open floor plan so I used it as a divider between the bedroom and living room. Now it will just be a peninsula in our former formal dinning room and will have a seating area for viewing the tank. More of a sitting room now.

 

[Chrisrush]

Just read the updates Brett. Hopefully the move went slowly. My wife and I just purchased a house in Georgetown so I'm getting ready to move my tank in a few months. Luckily for me, it is only 40+ gallons. I'm hoping to set up a larger tank at the new house, but we will see.

Good luck and Gig'em.

 

[bag151]

Unfortunately it wasn't as slow as I liked in some ways and not fast enough in other. I only ended up with a two week overlap so the tank had to be moved quickly, but I was prepared. On the other hand there are still a ton of boxes to unpack and several rooms that look like a bomb went off in. It will get there eventually.

In good news, I talked with Scott at Aquarium Specialty the other day and it looks like I am going to get one of the first self cleaning heads from Planctonite for my Bubble King 250. Sounds like it should show up sometime around the end of the month.

-Brett

 

[fjr_wertheimber]

I've been reading this thread for months, and for some stupid reason it wasn't until Chrisrush mentioned Georgetown (where I lived before I deployed) that I realized y'all were in Texas... LOL I've got to see your tank someday, bag151! Chrisrush, did you ever end up upgrading from your 40g cube?

 

[beex215]

i liked the metal stand and that huge sump. but when you upgraded to that wooden stand. o my.

 

[sweet ride]

very nice build thread and setup.

 

[bag151]

Thanks for the bump and the comments, I have been needing to update this for awhile.

Well there is good news and bad news. Good news is the tank is up and running and I have finished a number of my projects and installations. The bad news is I lost a number of SPS colonies in the process and I currently have a wicked hair algae outbreak that is coming under control.

Guess I will start where I left off in April. My main goal in the move was to make the tank easier to maintain and make the wife happy when it comes to isolating some of mess associated cleaning the tank. With these constraints a must we decided to place the tank in the Formal Dining room because it shared a common wall with the Garage. It just made the most logistical sense. This way I could house the bulk of the equipment in the garage. The tank is positioned coming out from the wall that shares a common side with the Garage. This allowed me to install a 20x20in sealed access door in the wall that gives me tank access from inside the Garage. I can pull the skimmer and filter socks directly into the garage without dripping through the house. Also I moved all of the equipment I possibly could into the garage to reduce heat transfer, reduce noise, and allow easier access. There is a lot to describe so I will just try and take pictures instead. Essentially I have moved every piece of equipment to the Garage except for the sump, skimmer, and return pump. I really wanted to move the sump out there, but I just didn't have the space. I also added 2x 210g water tanks for fresh and salt water storage. My last set of projects hinge on the completion of my garage utility sink which should be finished tommmorow when the plumber finishes tying in the drain. Then I can finish mounting my RO unit and run my lines for my Auto Water Change system.

Got to run, but I will try and add some pictures and a more comprehensive update here this weekend.

 

[reefsafe]

bump

 

[bag151]

Thanks for the heads up, I will try and get an update here this weekend when I have some time.

-Brett

 

[PaPa_Johnny]

Can't wait for the updates Brett! I have a measly 90 gallon going now, not a lot going on with it, but I have a 240 sitting waiting for me to get busy. I love the way your tank looks and will be very interested in how you did your remote equipment setup.

Pictures this weekend (it's Christmas you may not have time )

Thanks!

Johnny

 

[Holyreefer]

Great looking tank

 

[usefulidiot213]

Tank looks amazing..