700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance

[erics3000]

A little while back we spent a weekend in Long Boat Key FL. We have some really beautiful beaches on the west coast. The sand is almost like Baby Powder. I got to take a little trip the Mote Aquarium. They had some huge squids preserved in a few tanks. I got a few pics of a little lab they had. A lot of there tanks had sand filters. Anyway thought it was a pretty cool little place,


They also had a weird skimmer for there larger dolphin tanks. The guy said they had some kind of patent on it. I got a few pics.

I have been thinking about moving down the line. I already figured I would just fill in the new wall I made with dry wall on one side and cabinets on the other side. I doubt if I sold the house someone would want a 300 display. I figured the end result it would just be a closet. Heck I am already there what the hell I might as well go all the way. I could tell the new buyer the closet has a natural sunlight.

If I did decide to go natural I would want to find a sky light or make my own similar to yours. The solar tubes were expensive last time I looked. Over my tank ceiling there is about 6-7 feet distance to my roof. Inside my house I have 10 foot ceilings. I figure I would probably need about 9-10 feet of tube or reflective material. I need to check on the tubes and compare the price and length they come in. I really would prefer to make a 2x6 window or the full tank size 8x3 over the tank. I assume I would have to frame the tunnel in and use some insulation all around it. So it would be a little job. I don't think it would freak my wife out that much; she has gotten use to my projects now. In the beginning I would here you are going do what, are you crazy, who does this kind of stuff. hahahahhahah

I know you business deals with roofing. If I went plan B I would frame it cover it with some type of plywood (I think they used that cheap OSB). I do live in FL and although it is new cookie cutter house we have the decent hurricane ratings. I would paint everything with kiltz. Wrap the tunnel in my roof with Insulation. Did you just screw your reflective material on? Thank just make some new mounts my other lights.

Plan A does sound a little easier. If I could get 3 20in 10ft tubes a decent price. Time to hit the web and loose some more sleep…THANKS>>.

Hahaha

Really thanks for the feedback

 

[Reefski's]

solar tubes are good and we install them for clients, cheaper than a skylight with a shaft to build and in our case line with aluminum. mylar would be a cheaper alternative to aluminum.

i would do it again. i like having a big open area over the tank too. i do have the light rails in there but it is still relatively easy to work on the tank.

about the kiltz, i think you meant killz paint to block mold. don't do it. i think it has caused a part of my issues with die off. it is still too soon to tell after we painted over it in the garage and surge closet. Daniel Knop had similar issues with corals perishing for two years inexplicably and couldn't find a cause until he painted over the mold inhibiting paint. the same corals didnt' die in his system didn't die in mine.

my reflective material is held on with contact cement and screws. when i do it again i will not use the contact cement but only screws. there may be offgassing from the contact cement too! and the aluminum does really get hot with the sun.

choose option B if you can. i think it can provide a lot more light. on my tank there is 32 square feet letting light in compared to 6-10 if had used tubes.

one thing i might have done differently is to slant the shaft to let sun straight in with the angle of the sun in the sky. now there is not direct sun down the shaft for much of the year. last summer one of the Favia corals bleached on a part of the coral that was not shaded by a coral overhead. that coral went on to die entirely. maybe not just from the one part bleaching but it didn't help.

next time i will use two skylight to have a bigger area for light to come in and then shade it which i have to do anyway but the light would be more even. and a shorter shaft if possible would use less material and let in more light but the placement didn't allow that in my case.

i have just ordered some of the blue shade cloth. i have excess light to play with. that should be interesting.

the 20" tubes of course would let in more light but most roof framing is 16" OC and so the 14" tubes fit between the joists and don't require reframing part of the roof to install, just cut a hole and go, relatively simple.

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

a couple random shots.

even with the urchins grazing there is still plenty of algae for the fish.

 

[Reefski's]

a little difficult to see in the photo but the urchins spines have turned pinkish from all the coraline i guess.

he can go from this

to this in a second.

every couple of weeks the Gorgonian will withdraw the polyps for a few hours.

i assume this is a molt. i found in the glass tank in the garage where i didn't think i have a crab. it may have somehow come from the display tank where i know there is a crab big enough. the part in the photo is about 1.5"

 

[Eric the half-bee]

Reefski, I have 2 of the same gorgonians and they behave similarly. That crab claw is near eating size.:eek1:I have a 400 gal. and had a stone crab claw show up after he molted. I never saw him but had a few livestock disappear. Solution? I added a 18" zebra moray and he literally cleans house. I've found at least bits from 3 different types of crabs carapaces/claws. The eel is a model citizen. He's a little messy, but I don't worry about sneaky crabs anymore.

 

[techreef]

Not to derail, but speaking of natural predators, does anybody know of a fish that would/could take out eunicid and oenone worms? I've got one oenone and about 5 eunicids that have basically pushed the nuke the LR countdown button on my 90G display tank. I can't maintain a population of blueleg hermits or snails due to the predatory nature of these worms. (they blew through the addition of 75 mini bluelegs in about 2 weeks) The speed that eunicids withdraw when in danger has be doubting that anything could catch they as prey, but who knows?

 

[Lightsluvr]

Not to derail, but speaking of natural predators, does anybody know of a fish that would/could take out eunicid and oenone worms? I've got one oenone and about 5 eunicids that have basically pushed the nuke the LR countdown button on my 90G display tank. I can't maintain a population of blueleg hermits or snails due to the predatory nature of these worms. (they blew through the addition of 75 mini bluelegs in about 2 weeks) The speed that eunicids withdraw when in danger has be doubting that anything could catch they as prey, but who knows?

PM sent

LL

 

[Reeftanks6]

Beautiful reef shots. What do you feed your fish. That kole looks very healthy, fat and happy.

 

[erics3000]

Thanks for the info Karl. I new when I mentioned about the paint you would kick back on that. I have my stands in the garge painted with it so your post never me think about it again. I did just realize my interior walls inside the tank room are also painted. I guess it might be worth it to get a gallon of the stuff you used and repaint inside the house where the tank is. It wil be on my list $45 well worth it the more I think about it.

Last question about the solar stuff. With such a wide spread of light did you see a lot algae on your tank sides?

 

[Reefski's]

Beautiful reef shots. What do you feed your fish. That kole looks very healthy, fat and happy.

thank you- the Kole tang is the one of the hardest working fish in the tank. constantly grazing on that green stuff you see on the rocks. she will pick up the big gravel and clean the algae from it.

that is mostly what he/she eats. the other tangs graze too but are also very interested in the prepared food.

mostly i feed a mix of stuff from the fish market, asian market and some rotifers, mysis, and cyclopeze with some vitamins if i have them.

there are some photos of the food being made a few pages back.

 

[Reefski's]

Thanks for the info Karl. I new when I mentioned about the paint you would kick back on that. I have my stands in the garge painted with it so your post never me think about it again. I did just realize my interior walls inside the tank room are also painted. I guess it might be worth it to get a gallon of the stuff you used and repaint inside the house where the tank is. It wil be on my list $45 well worth it the more I think about it.

Last question about the solar stuff. With such a wide spread of light did you see a lot algae on your tank sides?

time will tell about the paint. if the paint does it that is cheaper than just a few corals that have died. it is done now so we shall see. along with the other changes i will be making.

algae, i don't know if it is any more than any other tank. for a while i had 6" wide pieces of black acrylic layed over the bracing around the tank to decrease the amount of light on the sides of the tank. i don't know if it made a difference or not. i thought it is also blocking light that would be going into the tank so i removed it.

 

[erics3000]

Got yeah. thanks.

I also love the yellow eye kole tangs. That tang has been the one that eat the most algae for me also. My vlamingi is just a pig. The kole I had a few year back was non stop pecking on rock or anything it could

 

[Reefski's]

I had a freak out last night.

Two nights ago our power went out for a few minutes, less than ten. Last night it went off again just as I got home, so I didn’t think too much about it for a few minutes. After fifteen minutes I started to get worried and started trying to start the generator. I finally got it out and started but there was no power coming out of it. The engine was running but nothing. I tried the 400 watt inverter in the car to at least run a pump or two but nothing. By then it had been a little over an hour. So I got in the car and headed to home depot to rent a generator. Fortunately they were still open for a few more minutes and I was able to rent a generator.

By the time I got home and set it up it was over two hours with no power. The power was off for about 3.5 hours total.

Observing the fish after-most were still hiding in the rocks but the Naso tang was swimming around running into things like he was dazed and/or blind as long as I was observing him. I am worried about him. I will see how he and the rest look in a couple hours when the sun comes up.

what is your backup plan?

if i would have been just a few minutes later to Home Depot it would have been closed and it would have been much worse.

i'll be looking at new generators soon. more money, sigh.

Carl

 

[techreef]

The burn rate on this hobby can truly get tiring, no doubt. But the upside to this new spend for you is at least a generator isn't hard to justify as having other everyday uses! A new Tunze or Vortech - not so much.

Good luck with your Naso. I hope your painting efforts solve the problem and your fish slowly returns to normal.

 

[Reefski's]

some PAR meter readings over the last couple of days. the initial and end higher readings are with the two 400 watt metal halides on. they are on light rails as you can see in the picture above. about 2 hours morning and 2 hours evening.

the last couple of days have been partly cloudy.

the near zero readings are night time.

4/24/2010 1:02:11 PM
30 Min Avg
Quantum Flux Meter
00144, 00161, 00077, 00160, 00332, 00280, 00267, 00262, 00234, 00241, 00260, 00212, 00192, 00188, 00183, 00138, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00006, 00015, 00141, 00227, 00280, 00197, 00191, 00125, 00072, 00076, 00163, 00208, 00379, 00496, 01061, 00436, 00231, 00069, 00063, 00056, 00178, 00207, 00199, 00198, 00176, 00117, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00000, 00000, 00000, 00000, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00001, 00000, 00001, 00006, 00016, 00171, 00219, 00250, 00130, 00112, 00101, 00129, 00120, 00199, 00181, 00002

4/24/2010 1:04:31 PM
Daily Totals
Quantum Flux Meter
011.6, 006.4, 013.4, 000.5, 007.5, 008.1, 007.2, 006.5, 009.6, 008.0, 008.4, 011.7, 009.5, 008.4, 008.7, 006.6, 003.6, 007.3, 007.3, 006.7, 006.4, 007.5, 008.1, 006.3, 007.1, 010.6, 010.6, 011.1, 010.8, 010.2, 009.2, 010.4, 007.6, 009.1, 009.1, 004.8, 008.5, 009.3, 010.0

i don't like the way the data is displayed. they don't give any way to manipulate the date into graphs. i don't know how to interpret the daily totals.

the readings were taken with the 30% blue shadecloth over the skylight. i can see a little difference in the color in the tank. the heavier ones are to dark i think.

still waiting for the sand from Nature's Ocean to come so i can empty the DT and redo it. they promised sometime in May i should have the new sand.

i almost moved this past week.

Pam and i found a house we would be willing to sell our house to buy. www.1936granville.com

we would have been almost mortgage free. however they got a little lower offer than ours from a Dr and she had the cash, unlike us who would have to put our house up for sale to have the cash to move.

the house did not have a great place for the tank.

selling our house quickly would be difficult, after all, who ever buys our house likely will not want a 700 gallon tank in the living room. at least a tropical tank. maybe a terrarium or freshwater tank.

and then the thought of moving it all, i have a headache.

so we are staying put for the time being, likely until our daughter moves out some day. she is graduating from grad school in June and will start making money as a social worker here in Los Angeles for at least a year commitment to DCFS at a good salary. she will start helping the family coffers soon. she is welcome to stay as long as she likes. along with her future husband and kids too!

 

[Reefski's]

i have used a bunch of these in my system for mounting the LR on.

i have had persistent problems with sps corals dying for no apparent reason.

a friend suggested that maybe the concrete blocks are toxic.

i know many people make their own rock from concrete. are the blocks that different?

as some of you may know i am about to redo my system. should i remove all of these when i do?

 

[cpl40475]

Im by far an expert or even a novice in reef keeping. So take this as a grain of salt or a poud of gold. If you thnk it could be a contibuting factor them remove it. If you remove it and no changes occur then they can always be added back in.
Tracy

 

[erics3000]

Yeah I would just take the out to be on the safe side. I know others use them with success but I also hear certain cement is used for home made rocks from garf. Why take a chance When you can use live rock or egg crate. That is just my opinion I am finally taking the step to go with some sps as soon as I get my nitrates under control..

 

[Reefski's]

i have decided that i will take them out. i have several big pieces to put back in the tank when i redo it. i may take a few out tomorrow when i move some rock around.

just one more thing i won't have to worry about.

 

[Beaun]

Those looks like cinder blocks rather then concrete blocks, I would be cautious about using new cinder blocks for a few reasons. I think it's a good idea to remove them.