hnnhflns
New member
As many people know, we have just too much aquarium volume for our little apartment. Tanks were taking precedence over absolutely everything, including furniture. We are talking BIG tanks too! We had two 8 foot long tanks (300 and 360 gallons), but no place for anyone to sit. We only have our kitchen table and my desk, which is not ideal for entertaining guests and friends.
With big tanks, comes big fish. Those of you who have been to our apartment know that we LOVE tangs, and a large majority of them are nearly full size. Now fish are not the brightest animals on the planet and they don't always know where their tails are, so many corals end up getting knocked off of the rock work in the tank. Unfortunately we also have many engineer gobies, a sand sifting goby, and a couple sea cucumbers to keep our sand bed clean. The downside is that any corals that fall and aren't seen immediately tend to get covered up in sand and they die (except for zoas, we've found zoas months later and they just spring right back).
So we needed a solution to both of these problems. We decided that we needed a designated SPS/Frag tank, but it had to look good as well and be of a size that we could fit a couch/futon next to it. We looked at many different tanks and set-ups before we found one that we liked. We ended up buying a CADlights 60-gal from beancounter04 because it was the right size, we could both reach the bottom of the tank, and the tank looks awesome!
We both had a lot of work to do getting ready for the swap, so the tank hung out at Chris' grandparents for a couple weeks while they were out of town. We finally got around to taking down one of the tanks on Wednesday and Thursday before Chris went to work. It was just live rock and a couple fish that were in there just for quarantine. The part that took the longest was draining all the water out.
We weren't able to move the tank out that night, so it sat empty for a couple days while Chris was at work. With the help of one of Chris' co-workers, we got it moved out and into Chris' truck this morning, A quick clean and a mop later and we were ready to move the new tank into place!
Getting Ready to take down the tank
Work in Progress
<a href="http://s1065.photobucket.com/user/hflens/media/Tank%20Replacement/DSCN4146_zpsqkzxvgw5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u389/hflens/Tank%20Replacement/DSCN4146_zpsqkzxvgw5.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSCN4146_zpsqkzxvgw5.jpg"/></a>
Empty Tank
Moving the new stand in was a piece of cake, but we both think that the new CADlights glass tank weighs almost half of what the acrylic tank weighed if not more!
OMG! There is actually room in this apartment!
New CADlights in place!
I will update this when we have the plumbing and sump installed, and when we actually fill the tank and start cycling. There will be very few fish in this new system. We only want to have fish and inverts that are going to serve a purpose in the tank (i.e. eating pests and algae, and keeping the corals healthy). We aren't sure if we want to run T-5's, LEDs, or a 250 W Metal Halide for growing the corals yet, but I am sure that we will sort that out soon. Hopefully this is our last tank build for a while...maybe...
With big tanks, comes big fish. Those of you who have been to our apartment know that we LOVE tangs, and a large majority of them are nearly full size. Now fish are not the brightest animals on the planet and they don't always know where their tails are, so many corals end up getting knocked off of the rock work in the tank. Unfortunately we also have many engineer gobies, a sand sifting goby, and a couple sea cucumbers to keep our sand bed clean. The downside is that any corals that fall and aren't seen immediately tend to get covered up in sand and they die (except for zoas, we've found zoas months later and they just spring right back).
So we needed a solution to both of these problems. We decided that we needed a designated SPS/Frag tank, but it had to look good as well and be of a size that we could fit a couch/futon next to it. We looked at many different tanks and set-ups before we found one that we liked. We ended up buying a CADlights 60-gal from beancounter04 because it was the right size, we could both reach the bottom of the tank, and the tank looks awesome!
We both had a lot of work to do getting ready for the swap, so the tank hung out at Chris' grandparents for a couple weeks while they were out of town. We finally got around to taking down one of the tanks on Wednesday and Thursday before Chris went to work. It was just live rock and a couple fish that were in there just for quarantine. The part that took the longest was draining all the water out.
We weren't able to move the tank out that night, so it sat empty for a couple days while Chris was at work. With the help of one of Chris' co-workers, we got it moved out and into Chris' truck this morning, A quick clean and a mop later and we were ready to move the new tank into place!
Getting Ready to take down the tank
Work in Progress
<a href="http://s1065.photobucket.com/user/hflens/media/Tank%20Replacement/DSCN4146_zpsqkzxvgw5.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u389/hflens/Tank%20Replacement/DSCN4146_zpsqkzxvgw5.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSCN4146_zpsqkzxvgw5.jpg"/></a>
Empty Tank
Moving the new stand in was a piece of cake, but we both think that the new CADlights glass tank weighs almost half of what the acrylic tank weighed if not more!
OMG! There is actually room in this apartment!
New CADlights in place!
I will update this when we have the plumbing and sump installed, and when we actually fill the tank and start cycling. There will be very few fish in this new system. We only want to have fish and inverts that are going to serve a purpose in the tank (i.e. eating pests and algae, and keeping the corals healthy). We aren't sure if we want to run T-5's, LEDs, or a 250 W Metal Halide for growing the corals yet, but I am sure that we will sort that out soon. Hopefully this is our last tank build for a while...maybe...
