FTS, sharing before I redo everything

[Piper27]

Okay so recently I have been going crazy with this tank, I am tired of the heat in the first level of the house during the day with all the halides. I am tired of worrying about the ac unit dying on me (its old and pieced together) and since I am not using a chiller the tank would go south quickly. This way if something bad happens I only have 5 or 6 colonies to find a home for. The house is falling apart and I need to spend my time and money on other things in my life. I wanted to completly break down but thoes couple acro colonies are very tempting to keep and also getting rid of everything would be a much longer process and almost not worth it until we move (maybe a year or two). So me and my girfriend (yes I couldn't believe it she was okay with this...) are getting rid of everything except a handful of our favorite acro colonies and maybe a couple caps. We have collected a ton of cheap stuff over the last three years and I don't feel like keeping up with so much.

Plan is to eventually have just one 400w halide on the left side of the tank where all the acros will go, then have the rocks drop off and into a sandbed, so half the tank will be a sandbed. I am kinda scared about doing this since we have a handfull of fairly big fish I think I may need to get rid of one. Also I was thinking about taking out a bunch of the old random sand thats in there and putting in some new stuff, I would like to get rid of it but I am not sure how the wrasses would do?

Thanks for looking, I figured I would share a pic before I start getting rid of stuff. Actually this pic is maybe 6 months old and I have removed a handful of colonies since but it was the best shot I have got so far...

 

[Piper27]

Any advice from people who have done something similar would be appreciated.

 

[Reefer1225]

Awesome tank. I just reaquascaped my tank too. If you have an old sand bed, I wouldn't disturb it much. A lot of stuff will be released to the water column. If you do, siphon out as much as u can so the debris/dietrus goes a long with it. I got a big cooler and pulled all rocks and frags, put it in there with a power head and heater. That way I started with a fresh slate to make it look how I wanted.

It took me almost a day to reaquascape, and accidental frags will happen. I would sell off what u can first. Corals and fish were a little stressed but made it out fine. Can't wait to see your after picture. Good luck.

 

[Piper27]

I am not so much worried about the sand, I can handle switching out the Sandbed without polluting the tank. I am more worried about the amount of fish and how I will be taking away most of the hiding spots and sleeping areas. Plus I am not sure I might just take all the sand out.

 

[Piper27]

Also curious as to how people maintain a decent alk when taking out bunches of colonies at a time. Every time I take a big one out my alk jumps, I guess I am really going to have to watch it and remember to adjust my calcium reactor everytime.

 

[nycreef]

imho, I think the tank would look weird with just one side with rocks and the other without. Why not make an island in the middle of the tank in a letter "C" shape facing the front of the tank going up in levels. Keep the acros there and you will have a nice growth pattern and beautiful look. I also personally would put a a few really cool looking rock on the sides on the sand bed just to not have an empty feel.

 

[Piper27]

Yea thats an awesome idea but its an old oceanic and has that damn glass brace across the whole center of the tank, it is a pain to reach under it. Also the left side of the tank is up against the wall, I am really going to enjoy just having one halide but its going to look really funny with so much light on one side. Oh well, its just temporary. This whole transition is just to keep my favorite acros happy until I can set up a tank the right way.

On the other hand I was planning on leaving a few nice rocks to transition to the sand bed and put a few nps corals we have around the sand and small rocks...

 

[Mangodude]

I think the one side island is really cool! I've seen a few people that do it just casue it looks cool, especially popular in penisula tanks and people that do a reef drop off look.

I've got an oceanic tank too, that glass is a real pain. nice for setting stuff on when you're working though..

Imo, i would keep all the fish until they present a problem. The extra swimming space where just the sand will be should make them even happier

sent you a pm btw

 

[Piper27]

I think I am going to like the look, but it's going to be hard to match the metal halide look on the right side.

 

[Bello]

I think I am going to like the look, but it's going to be hard to match the metal halide look on the right side.

When I was setting up my 265g, I had just the one Halide on a side with rocks. The other was a flat sandbed. The fish, mainly tangs would NEVER move to the dark side, no matter the swimming space. They were content to hang around the rocks and the light all day.

Point being, if you want to pull off the sandbed look, you'll need to have some decent lighting on that side.

BTW, that's an awesome tank you have there and hope this works out. It will look great!

 

[Piper27]

Yea I was wondering how the fish would react to the light. Thank you for sharing and for the compliment!

 

[Mangodude]

How high off the water will the halide be and how directed of a reflector? if you angle it right you might be able to get some light to spill over.. i would just buy a cheap light to put over the other side though, just enough so the fish go there

 

[Piper27]

I have two t5's on that side and a few blue LEDs so I may just toss one white and one blue on the t5's and get a few more LEDs to gradually even the color and intensity out to the end of the tank. In all honesty I may get rid of some of the coral but will probly keep the halides through the winter to heat the house and still reaquascape, then when it gets warm mess with the lighting and drop down to the one halide.

 

[Piper27]

Before

After... (not the final rock and coral placement but close I guess)
I am just glad I have room to work with to actually try and get the pieces I want to keep to grow well.

 

[on the spot]

That doesn't seem as drastic as you were first planning. It looks nice.

 

[Piper27]

Nah I haven't gotten rid of everything I need to yet, I am going to run the lights for the winter to help heat the house then redo everything and keep just one halide on. Stuff started looking bad so I kinda figured I would leave it how it is til summer. Red planet and bottle brush both started to rtn. Thank you for the compliment.

 

[Piper27]

Here are some old pics I took right before I redid the rocks and then some new pics. I am glad I decided to keep the tank up for the winter. Maybe I will get some conversation here since on the local boards the pictures just float to the bottom...

Sorry the water is cloudy from microbubbles and stuff from moving some powerheads around. I didn't get the rocks as spaced out as I wanted since there are a few pieces I couldn't get rid of but at least I could get the corals off the back wall into spots that would let them grow well and that was all that mattered to me honestly.

Comments, opinions, questions are welcome...

 

[REEF SMAC]

I was expecting to see all the corals on one side.

I've seen a tank set up with one MH on a light mover. Seemed to work pretty well actually. Just a thought.

 

[Piper27]

If I can't get the money together to fix the ac then I will have to use one light, and a mover would be something to consider I hadn't thought about that.

 

[Piper27]

All in all I think I made progress towards my final goal. I lost two corals and I think if I tried to do more than I did I would have lost more. It was a lot of work for me to do by myself. Plus I had to tear down the frag tank with all my girlfriends zoas and place them in the main tank for the time being until her tank matures some. So once I move her frags out I will have more room to play with.