A Lil Upgrade...

FritoBandito

New member
Hello everyone, my name is Andrew and I've been in the hobby since May of this year. I have never thought of owning a SW tank until my wife told me to get a fish tank for my 24th birthday in May, think she was thinkin somethin small and a freshwater, I decided how awesome would it be to have a saltwater tank! At that time I had never even seen a saltwater aquarium in person except at a zoo or some type of wildlife park or museum. We ventured into the Old Town Aquarium here in Wichita and they had an established 46g Bowfront tank and stand with a Marineland C220 canister filter, pc lights, and 25lbs of live rand and a two inch SSB for $400. So I bought it. Lol, had no idea what I was getting myself into. From that night on, bein a total computer nerd, I immediately hopped on the net. Came across RC and have been an avid member ever since! A quick thank you to all for your input, answers, comments, and all around help to me in this hobby, its very much appreciated! Anyway, still have the 46g bowfront, up an runnin smooth with weekly water changes. Current upgrades: Tek Light 4x39w t5's. AquaC Remora HOB skimmer w/MJ1200. Originally came with crushed coral, swapped for 3 inch Sb of CaribSea Sugarsized sand and Caribsea Live aragonite, and added another 20 lbs. live rock. In July I purchased a 12g aquapod for my oldest boy on his 8th birthday, currently running buy does not have any fish in it(he's so picky and is still deciding what he wants), it has 18 lbs live rock and black aragonite ssb(really cool).

After I purchased the aquapod, I was really wanting to add a new fish to the 46g but wasn't sure what I wanted. At the time I had a lawnmower blenny and two false percs. My wife thought she would be really nice and go buy me a fish(without researching) she went to the LFS and they sold her a blue hippo tang that was the size of a quarter. I was NOT happy, and this LFS wouldn't take it back so I said fine I'll find someone to take it. After a few days and no responses online, and my wife and kids falling in love with the fish, my wife came to me and said I think we're just gonna have to get a bigger tank....and after I got ahold of myself because my wife was giving me permission to buy a bigger tank, I said ok we can but not from who you got the fish from! Since then I had been saving and looking around for a used tank and even researching new ones. I was planning on a small 125 long room divider in our upstairs living room til I came across this on craigslist(some of you may have seen this post previously http://wichita.craigslist.org/for/887266104.html). So I bought it, for $1200, and the movers delivered it today! The tank was up and running when I went and looked at it, and the water was crystal clear! No algae present and the rock has GREAT pinks, greens and purples all over!

Contents included:
Almost 2 year old 240G Tall Perfecto 72"x24"31" - blue background(rattlecanned, will soon be scraped and painted black).
Pine stand 32" tall(soon to be upgraded to a taller stand) total height is 5'2", i'm six foot. I'd like the top to be eye level...possibly.
Wet/Dry filtration system, bioballs,pump and plumbing included. Will most likely be converted to a sump after tank is drilled and overflows installed.
2 Koralia 4's
Over 250 lbs. of live rock, currently in two brute's in the garage, pics below. I'm going to weigh all of it before it enters the tank to get an exact weight on it all. Most is Fiji with some Tonga branch.
2 36" Coralife Deluxe Lunar Aqualights, each has two 10000k's and two actinics with lunar moonlights(will definately be upgraded soon!).
Tons of accesories, food and supplements(some pictured)
Live stock:
5.5" Clown Trigger - beautiful fish and very docile.....currently lol
5" Humu Humu Trigger - extremely docile, can hand feed
5.5"(maybe close to six) Miniatus Grouper (very very shy)

Can't think of anything else, getting tired, I work at 2 am lol, gotta go to bed, so here's some pics! This will be a pic heavy post, sorry for such a LONG initial post! They'll get shorter(I hope) More pics and future plans to come tomorrow! Thanks for reading!
Moving it in
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Full room view
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My boys and the tank
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Wet/Dry in stand
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Box o lights!
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Top o tank, glass tops aren't on it yet, gotta clean em but the lights are on it lol.
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Good luck with the build.

I would never use that LFS for anything ever again, in fact I would go out of my to make sure they know that.
 
I never will either, I haven't been back in since and don't plan too. I've found a new LFS that I've been using since then, he's holding my triggers and that grouper(probably going to sell him) and I just bought the RO/DI from him that should be here tomorrow. Takin my time not to rush anything, I want this to go smooth so its testing my patience lol. I'm going to start scraping the back today and possibly repaint it this afternoon. I'm wanting the background to be black, and I've got to put a mat under the front of the tank cause its not sitting totally level, the front is about a half a centimeter lower than the rear. I'm going to post pictures of my live rock in the brutes shortly and some pics of the cleaning and blue background removal this afternoon too.
 
Well, bad news, my LFS's ro units are runnin a day behind. The Typhoon 5 should be here tomorrow, so i went ahead and had him add a couple 40 pound bags of Caribsea Ocean Direct Live Sand, the original grade substrate, to his order from Oklahoma City that'll be here with my RO unit tomorrow. So in the mean time, I cleaned the inside of the tank out. It still had tons of left over detritus and dirt from the old substrate in the tank(the old owner didn't even have it completely empty when the movers and i showed up to get it, i wasn't amused lol). Of course as i'm cleaning the tank, mom and my youngest had to come downstairs and check out what I was doing. Mama started taking pictures as Ethan climbed on the chair and started yelling "Daddy out!" So i had to get out, and when I did he wanted in, so in he went and then so did my oldest, Kaden. After they horsed around in the tank making faces in the glass toward their reflections, and mom and I snapped a ton of photos which you see here I pulled them out to continue working.

I filled the tank for a leak test to make sure nothin got knocked loose by the movers, and it went perfectly. Filled it almost to the top and then had fun making trips with a 44 gallon brute to the bathroom to drain the tank lol, man that takes forever, next purchase will be a long enough tube to run straight to the drain! I still need to post some pictures of my rock and I've got the plumbing hooked up too which I'll need help with, I've never used a wet/dry unit before and I don't wanna end up with a flooded basement! In the meantime, new photos.

Cleanin it out!
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Daddy get out!
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Daddy you're not out yet! So I'll clean the outside!
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My turn!
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My tank came with Sea Monkeys!
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Fillin her up!
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I used a spray bottle with RO water, and also used a cap full of white vinegar on some of the tough spot with alot of dirt. Then I used a big ole squeagy to make sure the glass was nice an clean. Took maybe an hour to make it look brand new then the boys got their grubby little finger prints all over it and made it look dirty again in five minutes lol!
 
Yeah there's that keyword there again, HELP lol! Headin to pick up my RO unit and my Caribasea live sand here in about an hour! Gettin excited lol!
 
Need help with RO/DI unit and garden hose attach!?!

Need help with RO/DI unit and garden hose attach!?!

Got my RO/DI unit yesterday! Here's some pictures of it and my other pickups and my rock that's waiting for the tank to get filled! The more colored rock is at the bottom of the brutes as it was on top of the aquascape when removed from the tank.

Had a little miscommunication with my buddy at the LFS who ordered it from airwaterice.com, and he forgot to order the garden hose attachment for me. Anyone who also has this unit and has used the garden hose attachment, can you give me pictures and instructions along with what parts to buy to hook it up and get it running please, the help would be greatly appreciated. I'd call the LFS but its closed today cause he had somewhere to be. Thanks for all the help and the views of my chronicle, i'm getting excited but staying patient. I hope to have the tank filled by a week from today, after filling and testing multiple times for a constant salinity i'll add the live sand and once settled i'll add the rock. I'm guessing aquascaping will take at least 3 days to find somethin i like lol! Anyway thanks again for the help, hope to hear from you all soon.

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Got it installed, didn't use the y garden hose attachment, just used the brass puncture fitting and tapped into the cold water line entering the washer in the basement. I have it testing into a brute can, i am curious from other users of this RO/DI....is this enough pressure to slowly run through a line about 25 feet long, probably not almost definately not but thought i'd ask. If it'd do that i could just run the line into the tank instead of filling a 44 gallon brute and then pumping it into the tank. Anyway, here's some photos. Letting it run tonight for bout another thirty minutes then shutting it down for the evening. I work from 4 to 8 in the morning tomorrow so when i get home it will be time to start the initial fill! Thanks for checkin in on me! :bouncer:

Mounted!
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Testing it out!
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Well guys, just got home from work a bit ago. Gonna run the RO/DI for a bit and test the water and hopefully by afternoon it'll be time to start filling the tank! I've read a few posts here and there that most Typhoon's, depending on your water pressure, will produce a gallon every 20 minutes. Gonna be a long two and a half days lol, but well worth it!
 
Just a thought, you mentioned you were going to add sand first then rock. If you plan on keeping any fish that will dig, putting the rock in first would be better. That way you avoid rocks falling later. I have the same size tank in the RR config. What are you going to use for an overflow? I would look into a U tube style or possibly look into getting the tank drilled, but stay away from the CPR units.
 
I really wanted to get it drilled but i don't have the cash at this time. So i'm just going to go as is for now with the HOB overflow, its similar to the CPR HOB overflows, it currently falls into a wet/dry that's inside the stand. I wish it was reef ready with overflows in the corners but money's tight. I have been lookin at lowe's and home depot for egg crate lately cause i'd like to add rock and then sand and have a nice deep area, my wife wants a BSJF lol. So would you recommend filling it up after placing the egg crate then adding rock then the sand? My RO/DI is brewing up some water currently. Made about 5 gallons so far lol! Yippee! Thanks for the input!
 
Drilling is very inexpensive. There are at least three people in the Wichita area that will drill the tank for you for somewhere around $5-7.50 per hole. It is better to do it while the tank is empty. Click the red house and then "home" for the Wichita club. You can post there if you are interested.

If you are going to put eggcrate in the bottom, I would recommend cutting it short so it doesn't rest on any of the siliconed seams. Before placing it, dab some silicone on the glass and press in the eggcrate. Weight it down for 24 hours to cure. The silicone will hold the eggcrate in place so it doesn't slip around. After the silicone has cured the water, sand, and rock can be added.
 
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Hey very nice to hear from someone here in Kansas. I've been dealing with Vince from Marine Extremes for a while now. Got my RO/DI from him, and he actually bought a daas system from the guy i got my 240 from. My problem currently is I don't have the money to build a better sump out of the one i have with the wet/dry now. I could easily pay for the drilling lol, but the cost of the acrylic for the overflows and the skimmer, bulkheads, pvc, etc....sucks. I do plan on making this a reef tank, but I'm planning further ahead in the future to buy a reef ready acrlylic 240 long. We'll see how things go, I could always drain it and start over come tax season if I wanted to go to that extreme.
 
Quick update, added over a hundred pounds of live rock after placing the egg crate down with adhesive, then added 80 pounds of live sand and threw in 4 deli shrimp to kick start the cycle. After three days my params were:
pH 8.2
SG 1.024
Ammonia 1
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 0
Calcium 480

Gonna go take a few pictures and post them here in a few minutes. Oh and a quick question, i'm was going to pull out the deli shrimp once they started stinkin. I had three in a nylon bag and one tied to a string. The one on the string started to decay and fell apart and dropped to the bottom. I got part of it out and the other part fell into a small section of exposed egg crate and I can't fish it out. Is it ok to leave it in there throughout the cycle, or should i find someway to get it out of there?
 
Here's a few photos, cloudiness from adding the sand. And a few picstures of the rockwork that will be totally reaquascaped. I made a couple nice shelf pieces with epoxy in the garage and those will go in in the next couple days. I am also thinking about ordering some marco rock too!

Dust storm
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Side view
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Left Half
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Right half
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FTS
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Thanks for checkin in, not too exciting, but i'm workin on it lol.
 
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