Drukkosz Upgrade

The trial and tribulations of reef keeping! The day after we returned from the hospital when my son was born, Hurricane Sandy blew through, knocked the power out at night and for the next 3 or 4 days.

Thankfully, I had bought a generator earlier that summer. I still vividly remember going out in the dark, rainy, huge wind gusts and lightning, getting the generator setup and running. It was the first time I had to run it so there was so much uncertainty, it was crazy.

Anyways, my wife had to go stay with my parents with our new born and 2 year old for the week. I would go see them during the day but stayed at our house during the night with the generator running. Good times!

Yes for sure, it was my first time setting up generator too. Crazy part Home Depot or Lowes don't sell generator cables that connect to your transfer switch. Luckily Harbor Freight had some in stock.

And this big boy finally arrived on Monday! Dual Fuel with a remote starter, this thing is awesome.



Also old tank is ready to be resealed.

 
I've been trying to find more information on generators without much luck. What is a "remote start"? Does that mean you can start it remotely, such as over the Internet? How does that work if you don't have power?

BTW - Awesome pic of your Little Dude
 
I've been trying to find more information on generators without much luck. What is a "remote start"? Does that mean you can start it remotely, such as over the Internet? How does that work if you don't have power?

BTW - Awesome pic of your Little Dude

Thank you, he is 12 weeks old and already pays a lot of attention to the fish, that makes me very happy :)

No, you cannot start it over the internet. Its pretty much a key fob with on/off switch so you can start or stop it from the inside of your house.
I have to say I am extremely pleased with this brand. 6.6 gallon fuel storage, solid construction and runs much quieter then a generator I was forced to buy from home Depot (Ryobi)

 
Things look great. I really like the euphyllia island. Looks like your little yellow tang is growing up! I got 3 more of the captive bred tangs for the frag tank, they were even smaller then the ones I got last time. Tiny cute little guys.
 
Things look great. I really like the euphyllia island. Looks like your little yellow tang is growing up! I got 3 more of the captive bred tangs for the frag tank, they were even smaller then the ones I got last time. Tiny cute little guys.

Thank you. Yes the yellow tangs are super cute I got another one directly from biota and it was tiny, but they are growing fast :). Your tank looks amazing and when all the madness is over and if you are ever in Twinsburg area stop by for a beer.
 
This is my "dirty" area. Sink, washer to wash filter socks and beer fridge - everyone needs a beer fridge!

My garage didnt have a sink when I purchased the house and because it has radiant heading, braking a concrete floor wasn't an option. Lucky I found product called Saniflow. What it does it pumps the waist water up to the ceiling and connects to a closest drain pipe. Genius idea, They even make one for toilets!





 
Found another female at LFS and had to buy her. After introducing her into a quarantine tank she imminently burred herself in sand and I have not seen her for 8 days. I thought she was gone but I didn't want to disturb her so I patiently waited.

Finally she came out but was not interested in frozen food. I got some live brine shrimp and black worms and she really liked live black worms. I was happy to see that she was eating, I started introducing back frozen food and now she eats like a little piggy.

 
Finally major update. It has been long 13 months, working on this project almost everyday and finally I can see a light on the end of the tunnel.

I moved the old tank to its resting place and started transferring water, rock and corals from the Rubbermaid containers.






Still need to do more work on the plumbing and install UV sterilizer but I am really liking the look and can finally clean and organize the room (make wife happy)





I also relocated my water storage containers to the garage and run all the plumbing to the tank. Now I don't have to worry about spills and it looks so much better than having them in the "œfish room"



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I always promised my wife I will make her a working out area.
The spot where the old tank sat was a perfect place for it. Its crazy how much damage saltwater does, I had to repaint the wall, trim also found water under the water storage containers.
Lucky the floor wasn't damaged.

Before and after:



 
I finally had time to organize most of the wires. For a clean look I decided to keep as much of the wires and cables in the ceiling.



 
Installed UV, I got a little creative and decided to feed the refugium and make water changes easier for the quarantine tank.

The rest of discharge water is connected directly to drain for the return pump and is being pumped to the DT upstairs.



 
It has been a year since the upgrade, this is how the tank looks now, off course I recorded the video before cleaning the tank.
Was dealing with some crazy algae outbreak, dinos, hair and some other ones, new UV sterilizer saved my insanity, finally starting to win the battle.

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