Be forewarned!

[Reef Bass]

Grant is in the middle of a complete tank tear down and rebuild. Much to my dismay and delight, his corals are looking quite good in their temporary home (my 48x24x12 former lps flat plumbed into his sump).

He has done a terrific job cutting away dead bases and remounting the remains on frag plugs. He is basically cooking all his rock, eliminating problematic ricordia yumas that were invasively and negatively affecting the health of his previously fabulous sps.

In my opinion, having experienced first hand the substantial rejuvenation my corals demonstrated following the complete cleaning and moving of my old mature tank, there is something that test kits don't measure that is valuable to purge after 8+ years.

My corals are showing polyp extension and color like they haven't in some time. And I'm seeing signs of that in Grant's corals as well. Remember, I macro photographed many of his coral during his tank's peak and it was phenomenal with polyp extension and color. I offer this pic of his GARF Bonzai at its peak as proof of my assertions:



His ATL Crayola plana had outstanding polyp extension:


An irony is one could argue his tank in decline still looked better than many tanks out there. I for one am glad to see him tackle his clean out and rejuvenation. Go Grant!!

 

[Grant W]

Thanks for the encouraging words Ken. I have to say this whole process is not for the faint of heart. So far Ive gone through over 200 gallons of salt water and a tremendous amount of scrubbing, cleaning and dipping of the corals, tank, rock and the sand bed. Chopping corals the size of dinner plates off the rocks and trimming all damaged areas off and dipping all of them in a solution of interceptor and melafix to clean any and all possible pests off has also been interesting. Interesting because there were 57 differant acros to go through. Yes 57!!! I've also caught my mystery wrasse as he had become quite the invert killer and my Tomini tang had aquired a taste for chalices so he had to go also.(wasnt eating them just bothering them)
I'm about half way through the process with half of the rock completely stripped, cured and back in the tank. The sandbed has had over 50 gals of gravel vaccing done over two weeks and the corals are about to go through their second of three dipping sessions at the end of this week.
Ken took a couple of pictures of the carnage or setup as you please. Maybe he will post those pics for us. Stay tuned for updates and think good thoughts for me as I begin the process of rebuilding the rockwork and reset all of the corals in their new fully cleaned and refreshed home.

 

[lokii_37]

I bet you will have a lot more room in the tank once you get it all the nasties out and everything else set back up and running. I'm sure it will look great. I can't wait to be able to see it again.

 

[Grant W]

Thx Nick, I probably will but I am also going to be reducing the height of the rockwork and removing probably 20% of the overall quantity of rock.

 

[Dragonvale]

Grant, what are you doing with the extra rocks? Will they be live or dead? Looking for some for my sump. For some odd reason my heater decided to put a hole in my brute in the garage. I didn't notice till a week later since the heater cracked and all I saw was white rock halfway up. So in the next month I'll be pressure washing them. Cant wait to see the tank or atleast see pics of your journey of getting the tank back in order.

Ken that bonzai pic is my favorite pic out of all your photos so far.

 

[Grant W]

The rock will all be cooked and cured so I can use any and all pieces to build with. I'll probably be removing some of the base or boulder type pieces. Some of them are 15-20 pounders. I'm not sure what will be leftover but I already have one big piece out of the mix.

 

[thysrof]

Great idea to remove some of the rock. It will feel like a bigger tank.

 

[coralfarmer]

Make sure you post some pics . For Those who are 3000 miles away.

 

[Grant W]

Right on James. BTW hows it going out there?

 

[Reef Bass]

Ken that bonzai pic is my favorite pic out of all your photos so far.

Thanks Dragon. It's a fav of mine as well.

Make sure you post some pics . For Those who are 3000 miles away.

Here you go. Some quick point and shoot snaps. Already well into the process. Only one more batch of rock to go. I've never seen Grant's tank so empty. Oh wait, the sump grew a shallow tumor to the right!


While this pic only hints at the beauty, Grant's temporary holding tank looks better than the displays at many LFSs. Such concentrated goodness!


Rocks partially through the cleaning process


Icky bucket!



My reason for the "be forewarned" is that I think it is highly likely Grant's tank will be stunning after his corals settle back in following the completion of this process. Go Grant!

 

[AMAYEU]

Oh my... massive tank makeover. This should be called Tank Overhaul. Can not wait to see the new scape !

 

[thysrof]

I saw it yesterday and it's quite a project

 

[Grant W]

Friday update.
Removed the last four pieces of rock from the tank today and got them in the fresh water(killing vat) and did the final fifteen gallons of gravel vaccing of the sand in the tank. Transferred another load of rock from the saltwater curing vat back into the tank. Tomorrow the corals get dipped and trimmed up again.

 

[kodiak23]

Nice job Grant, that is a HUGE project, let me know if I can ever help out. Can't wait to see your tank after this.

 

[Grant W]

Thx Cody, How did your move go?

 

[woodnaquanut]

Nice shots, Ken.

I'd like to nominate Grant's wife for the 'Most understanding spouse' award! To us reef addicts this is cool, to the rest of the world, not so much! It's like having heart bypass equipment in your entrance way!!!

 

[AMAYEU]

How's the progress, Grant.
Jokingly you should keep the temporary tank hooked up because its the true tank size for all your beauties. You really need a bigger tank +210.
I should talk, I need a 120. Haha. Lol.

 

[Grant W]

Sunday update, All corals have had their second dip and trimming. Most of the corals are taking the punishment pretty well. A few are looking a bit beatup but thats to be expected. Hopefully they will bounce back once they are back in the tank. One more dipping session to go.

The last pile of rock is out of the killing vat and has been powerwashed and is now drying out in preparation for step two, back in freshwater again and more scrubbing and cleaning.

The left side rock stucture is also built(I think) I'm sure I will have to adjust it a few times. I'm doing the diagonal canyon type layout with the rock starting high on the left and tapering to the sand on the right with a lot of shelves and opening for the fish to swim through and improved flow. I'm trying to keep the rockwork as open as possible and still maximize the mounting points for the corals. I plan on having the corals down both sides of each of the parallel "canyon" walls as well as the top surfaces.

I think I would have rather been at the NVR swap but I have been needing to do this work for a very long time. Getting there now

 

[Reef Bass]

Well done Grant! Great job getting the last load of rock out, and getting your left rock wedge prototyped. I think your doing the rocks in batches will help / has helped keep your system less disrupted than if you had yanked all your rock at once. Plus your fish still had something to relate to. Kudos.

 

[crispyreef]

Hey Grant. What caused the breakdown? I think your corals will love a nice new rockscape. Re-did my tank last year and it's funny, I thought my sand was somewhat clean. A note of caution, with all the new rock your tank may cycle again. I had a diatom outbreak.