6 months later.. pics of moving a tank and upgrading from a 135 to 180

[radobahn]

I started off with a 29 gallon reef tank about 15 years ago, eventually moved up to a 55, then a 135 about 6 years ago.
I've always wanted to upgrade the 135, but we really didn't have the room at our last house. So when my wife and I finally realized that we had outgrown our house (we also have two boys ages 11 and 9) we decided it was time to start looking for a bigger home. With our decision made, this was my chance to slowly stock up on equipment and shop around for a new setup.. and I wasn't gonna waste any time at all.

I began with trying to find a builder for a new acrylic tank and sump. So after spending days digging thru the archives on this site and a couple others I finally decided on a local builder.. Clear Fabrications in Seattle.
It's a one man operation and I was impressed with the quality of work, prices were reasonable, his shop was only 45 minutes away, and the place was highly recommended by people in this area. It was an easy choice..

Here's the tank and sump the day I picked them up from Jason.. tank is 72x24x24 and sump is 48x20x20

After getting them home and finding a safe place to store them, that's where they would sit until we moved. Tucked away with boxes of fish tank stuff that grew a little every couple weeks as I added to it.. patiently waiting for the day I had everything I needed.


Fast forward a little and it's time to pack up and move, and also break down the 135. The combination of the two at the same time WAS NOT fun. We wanted to keep the kids in the same school district, so lucky for me the new house was only a 10 minute drive away.. this was a huge help

Here are some pics of the 135 before tearing it down..

Edit: just found out we're limited to 10 pics per post.. so I'll have to add the rest as replies

 

[radobahn]

The fun begins.. breaking it down with the help of a friend. He's had reef tanks for about 10 years and currently running a 220gal reef tank.. having a buddy that's done this a few times and knows what to do really helped out

Amazing how much garbage and dust had collected within the last 6 years..

 

[OrQidz]

lots of work! can't wait to see pics of the new set up, nice looking tank!

 

[radobahn]

All moved into the new place and pretty much had everything needed to get started. I put the 135 in the garage and its basically a life support system until the 180 is ready. I didn't take the time to aquascape, just got everything in there somewhat organized. Pictures were taken after taking a lot of live rock out and putting in the new tank..

With that out of the way it was time to find a new stand and canopy, and I was having a hard time finding something I liked.
Remember my friend that helped me move the tank? Well his dad has been a carpenter and building cabinets for years. So he stopped by one day for some measurements, we agreed on a price and he got started.

A few weeks later it was done and his son and I helped bring it over. The bottom of the tank is 43" from the floor, so tank is very close to being eye level.

Before going any further, I took a peek under the floor in the crawlspace. Unfortunately the joists ran parallel with the tank. I spoke to a few guys and was told I 'should' be ok.. but decided to beef it up a little just in case. It wasn't easy, but the hard work helps me sleep better at night

The orange stick was my marker. I drilled a tiny hole right in front of the tank so I wasn't guessing when I got down there.

Both 4x6's are about 6" inside ends of the stand.

 

[OrQidz]

looks like it's going to be great! How tall are you? or the person standing in front of the tank (not on the ladder). That really is up high! I like that you took the time to shore up the floor. I hate the "should be ok" assurances. Are those pictures under the house? What's all the black plastic and hose things? (just curious, I've never looked under a house before)

 

[radobahn]

Thanks! That's my friend and his dad in front of the tank.. the entire thing from floor to top of canopy is 7ft tall. I was a little hesitant on it being that tall but I like how it turned out.

Yeah the last few pics are under the house. Black plastic covers the dirt and black hose things are the air ducts for all the heat/AC vents. Hardest part was dragging the concrete blocks down there. The entrance to the crawlspace is about 60 ft from where the tank sits. Crawling and dragging that first concrete block was tough, so I used my kids plastic sled and just slid the rest across on the plastic.. it worked better than I thought it would

 

[hoooop54]

Looking great! The stand is nice.

 

[SS_Sean]

Great so far!!

 

[radobahn]

With the stand and canopy done it was time to get to work.. plumbing, wiring, etc..

Two returns, emergency overflow pipe, dry pipe for cords, and the drain..

I used 12v LEDS for my sump lighting and moonlights. I think I got a roll of maybe 100 of the blue and white for about $15 each. They have an adhesive back, are protected with clear rubber, and I have both connected to a dimmer switch.

Float valve is no longer in the return area, was just a good spot for it at the time.

I liked the shelves I installed in the last tank, so decided to do it again.

 

[radobahn]

With the plumbing done it was time for some water. Light used at the time were the blue LEDS with dimmer on full power for anyone wondering..

Playing around with some Marco rocks.. I think I changed the aquascape about 50 times. May still change it again.. cardboard was 72x24

Lights installed. I came very close to buying some Kessils, but decided to stay with T5's and 14k 250w halides..

Water pumping, no leaks, just added the CaribSea sand and waiting for it to clear up. This was the first time I've added sand after filling the tank, and will go back to adding the water after the sand from now on. It took a long time time to clear..

That's it for now guys.. thanks for looking. Gotta run so I'll post the rest of the pics later tonight

 

[ggk1988]

Inside the stand looks really clean. I'm jealous

 

[Mael]

Great read and love the amount of pics, definitely gives better insight I bro everything involved. Your thread and others are what made me decide not to step up tank sizes, gonna go from medium to big in one shot in a year or so.

I also really like the setup of the sump and shelving, giving me many ideas for the sump enclosure I'm a out to build, keep the posts coming.

 

[reefermike1]

Very nice tank man. Congrats on the upgrade.

 

[supervdl]

Def nice to have so much room in a stand

 

[radobahn]

Thanks for all the replies

The guy that built the tank and sump doesn't have anything pre-built to choose from, its all custom made to customer specs.. so I knew I had to put some thought into this one.
I liked my last tank but it didn't take long before I wasn't a big fan of the sump, but it was my first one and I thought it was a good design when I bought it.
First it was way too tall, I could barely get the skimmer cup out to empty it, and if I would have had to replace the skimmer for some reason good luck.
I ran a calcium reactor for awhile and I'm still not sure how I managed to get it in there.
The fuge was in the back and couldn't be seen at all unless you used a mirror, and the only place to put the the skimmer was right next to the return pump. So without an ATO, evaporation was constantly screwing up the water level for the skimmer unless you were topping off daily.

So knowing what I didnt want combined with everything I've learned and seen here, I came up with the sump shown above.

A few of you mentioned how much room is inside the stand. This was really important this time and also part of the plan. Not only does the stand give plenty of room above the sump, the inside of the stand is 24" wide and the sump only 20" wide. I put it 3" from the front and has 1" clearance along the back.. the last sump touched 3 sides of the stand and salt creep was almost impossible to clean up.

Here's some more pics..

I cant stand wires.. around the house, under the hood of a car, TV/DVD/stereo wires, etc. This took awhile to organize and cleanup.

Almost there..

Thanks again for looking! I hope the pics have helped out so far and possibly given you guys some ideas.

I'll finish up and post the rest tomorrow

 

[Pife]

I'd looks good. How are your fish doing?

 

[radobahn]

I'd looks good. How are your fish doing?

Thanks! Fish are doing fine, they're still in the old tank out in the garage while this one cycles. Going on a month now and its almost ready..

 

[vipermaverickk]

One of the coolest builds I've seen, looking forward to the next update!

 

[radobahn]

As promised, here's the rest. This is currently how the tank looks right now.. It's gonna be a mixed reef with mostly SPS so I'm hoping to have some decent growth worth showing in the next 6-12 months. I'm still not sure on this aquascape, but its been good enough to at least keep me from staring at it too long and then moving things around.. again

Please let me know what you think.. pics were taken with a phone so aren't the best

Back underneath for a quick look at the equipment..
The last tank had a Reefkeeper2 that did a great job and I was very happy with it. I planned on transferring it to this one but I think she's about done. 2 out of 8 outlets don't work anymore, the control wire is zip tied due to a loose connection, and the last couple weeks its been randomly turning my halides on and off. Not too bad for running almost 7 years straight..
So after a lot of reading I decided on the Apex Controller. As expected it took some time to figure it out, but like most things the more you mess with it (usually) the easier it gets. It does way more than I think I'll ever need, but I like knowing its capable of so much more should I decide to add to it. Seriously, checking on my tank at work or anywhere my phone has a signal is very cool. First thing I'm planning on so far is adding a webcam to it.

After years of carrying 5gal buckets of ro/di for top off and dosing manually, I wanted to try and automate as much as possible this time. Reading about some of you who never have to topoff or dose anything manually sounded so nice! So I decided on the Tunze ATO and Bubble Magus doser. They were both very easy to setup and are working great so far.

I have the ro/do line running thru the wall from the kitchen to the ATO, the line runs right to a float valve I installed inside the reservoir. The thought of running a full time water line to the sump and then walking away, relying only on a $10 float valve wasn't gonna work for me.. not to mention the wear n tear on the ro/di system turning on/off all day. So for now I just keep an eye on the reservoir and turn the water on when it gets low. I'll leave the stand doors or kitchen sink doors open as a reminder, or just set a timer. Maybe I'll eventually install the Tunze Water Valve.. but for now the current setup is so much easier than what I'm used to.

Here's the Tunze sensors with electronic eye and backup float. To the right is the top-off tube next to the alk, cal, and mag lines from the doser.

And here's how it all looks now.. guess I could have cleaned up that top shelf before the pic huh? Thanks again for all the kind replies and comments guys!

If you have any ideas or see something I may have forgot, looks out of place or I installed wrong please let me know..

 

[radobahn]

Bump for a 4 month update, I enjoy looking at all the daily tank pics on here so thought I'd share a quick update on mine.
Tank is still young and has a lot of growing to do, but so far everything is healthy and happy. Sorry, I did the best I could with my phone.. I'll eventually get a real camera

Parameters are pretty stable (tested weekly via Salifert) with the help of 25g water changes every 2-3 weeks, Tunze ATO, and Magus doser for alk, cal, and mag.
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77-80
PH: 8.15-8.3 (24hr swing)
Alk: 7.7-8.0 dkh
Cal: 430
Mag: 1350
Phos: 0.05-0.08
Nitrate: almost always tests right at 10ppm

All sps/lps are spot fed Oyster feast mixed with reef chili at least twice at week..