HPFUNK's 300gallons and counting

[hpfunk]

This tank is still a work in progress 1 year latter. The plans and initial setup of this tank took only a week and a half.

Replacement tank 180g 72x24x24 Photo taken 3/15/2010

Water and survivors in tank 4-10-2010

This tank is replacing a 90 Gallon tank that split a seem...more on that latter.

This pic was just after sand was added on 5-7-2010

And to skip ahead real quick...we will back track a bit on the next post.

This is really bad FTS from 2-15-2011

 

[hpfunk]

My history in the hobby

My history in the hobby

This is my third reef tank, I have been in the hobby for about eight years. My first tank was a softies and LPS tank that lasted for three years before one of my many mistakes caught up with me and crashed my tank. If you must know it was a cucumber that got stuck in a power head, kill all fish and most corals. I was in the process of house hunting and so we just broke down the tank. I was learning a lot about the hobby...mainly that I was addicted to it. Then right after we found our new house, I got a call begging me to come rescue a 300gal tank who's owners split and the tank was in neglect of about 6 months. I was skeptical of high jacking some strange guy's reef who is a cop with a history of well lets call it bad behavior. There was at least six months of construction that needed to take place on my new house, so no good location to put a new tank, but there is a reef that is rotting away that I can save if I want.
Did I mention I was addicted?
So I go see this tank that turned out to be an SPS heavy tank. It wasn't serviced in forever, the protein skimmer was not working, the lights were not being run and the lady was topping off with 500ppm RO water. The algae was out of control but I could see some amazing pieces in there. So I rescued it and put it in my old 90gal acrylic for my first set up. Did I mention this transfer took place in the dead of winter, Feb 2009.
This Pic is two months after the rescue.

Then this pic was taken fall of 2009 10-2009

Some of the corals

Everything is going grate!!!SPS growing like crazy and coloring up.
Then I come home after working 36hour strait after a crazy snow storm in Feb 2010 and find my tank void of water full of corals baking under my MH lights and fish still flopping around in the sand.
So, fully exhausted I attempt to re-rescue what i can, but this time the rescue includes my new house and more important than all of this combined my wife's artwork. I made the mistake of setting up the tank in the room that was to be my wife's studio because it was the most isolated room from the construction on the house.
The construction of the house was to include a built in 2000 gal system for a new reef. I never intended for the tank to still be in the studio by the time she was using it, but budget overages lead to my tank being postponed.
Beware the pics below could be painful for some of our more experienced reef keepers that have had a catastrophe.

this one is the rescue attempt

Pulled the base board, the built in cabinets, the carpet all the way down the hall, it was a nightmare that nearly cured me of my addiction...Nah I had survivors and they needed a home.

 

[hpfunk]

Survivors

Survivors

Fish
7" redsea sailfin tang
striped gobie
purple fick gobie
one spot foxface
pair of pajama cardinals

Coral

one out of 120+ heads of frogspawn

a couple giant orange recordia

and a large green paly rock

Inverts
out of all the death some how this clam lived

 

[hpfunk]

impatience is not one of my best assets

impatience is not one of my best assets

The 180g that I now have was a rush job that I threw together, but the potential is amazing.
First and for most I got to move the new tank set up to my man cave so now I get to see it all day everyday.
Second I can now have a fish room instead of an under tank setup. It will have to share space with the mechanical equipment for the house but this will be plenty of space.

Still a work in progress but this is what it looked like 6 months ago.

I still have plenty of projects to show you but...
next post man cave construction.

 

[hpfunk]

Man Cave Construction Pics

Man Cave Construction Pics

The man cave is in the basement, and was originally a huge unfinished room. The pics show the finish work and some of the furniture in place. The drop ceiling is still not finished because I can't decide what I want to do for panels.

 

[hpfunk]

The Sump or Ref or both

The Sump or Ref or both

The 150g rubbermaid stock tank was converted to a ref. in may of 2010.
First I added 5~6" of fine sand.
Then I cut 12 inches off the bottom of a 5g bucket and used it to keep sand out of my return pump.
I chose egg crate for a shelf supported by 8" PVC pipe for the 30g sump box that contains two simmers a heater, the micron sock, and media reactor. (the calcium reactor sets under the old stand next to the stock tank). The sump overflows on all sides into the ref.
Stacking as much live rock as I could on the shelf around the sump, gave me good flow over the rock.
You will also notice the milk crate that is filled with rock rubble, and latter chetto on top
I just added a couple of mangrove trees to the milk crate.
The Ref is not a true ref because I keep a yellow tang (never feed, ever) and a couple urchins.

The auto top off I use is simply a float valve plumed directly from a 4stage RODI system.
This is one of my ongoing projects that I can't seam to make up my mind on.

 

[hpfunk]

Equipment as of 3-23-2011

Equipment as of 3-23-2011

Sump/Ref-------------------------------------------------------------------Lighting

 

[hpfunk]

Livestock as of 3-23-2011

Livestock as of 3-23-2011

Tank shots Left, -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Center-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Right

 

[hpfunk]

Tank in action

Tank in action

I have two clown fish that have chosen to host my giant clam. One of the clowns was missing for 3months but was later found alive and well in the overflow.

This pic of the newest frags (the top two)

This pic is of the 5" recordia (now 50+ heads not all 5")

This pic shows the frogspawn now with 7 heads

 

[bigrock]

Great comeback! I think that would have cured me of the addiction for sure.
Nice man room!

 

[hpfunk]

Over flow

Over flow

The two overflows were placed in this location as opposed to in the corners for viewing reasons. Each overflow has two 1.5" holes, one for a drain and one for the return. Yesterday a DIY silent siphons was installed, replacing a standpipe with a plastic screen. This has done in amazing job of eliminating all sound of water running.
Now that its gone I don't now if I might miss the sound of a little running water. But now all I hear is the Vortech MP40's humming away, kind of annoying although vary quite. Never noticed the hum when the water was running.

 

[hpfunk]

It's as hard to quit reefkeeping as it is to keep doing it

It's as hard to quit reefkeeping as it is to keep doing it

Great comeback! I think that would have cured me of the addiction for sure.
Nice man room!

Thanks
I ended up losing everything but that list that I posted. I have made a nice turn around, but I'm still left wanting. I now have only frags starting to grow in my tank with the exception of the survivors, of witch I never picked out, they were rescues.
Starting over is something that takes patience of witch I have not much of. I rushed the tank I have now and intend on rectifying all of its issues shortly. The problem is that along with my impatience I am also indecisive, constantly changing my design. I have a long list of projects for the tank, that never got done. The overflow was the latest upgrade but definitely not the only. Early this year I accidentally dump a T5 into the tank opps, so I got six of those stunner strips LED's. They look grate on the rack I made from scrap PVC parts and I intend on expanding the rack to hold the three 250w MH as well and some more LED's. The sump box I had made after the one I jerry rigged proved problematic. The return line was hardline piped to the display tank but created a vibration in the wall of the house, so from the pics you can see the flex pipe return. I still have to finish building the hood. The frag tank is not set up yet...that because the tank and corals to young to frag. The electrical is not the way I would have it. No quarantine tank, no new saltwater holding tank, (just a 35 gal RODI tank). I will be working on these issues and will be posting as I go. I intended on doing a build thread but a number of life complications kept me until now. Hope it is not to late to do a thread on this tank.

 

[hpfunk]

QT tank

QT tank

My sail fin seams to have contracted something, I am trying to negotiating the use of a friend's empty 50g tank for QT, it might be smaller but I need to get him separated, diagnosed, and treated if possible.
This brings me to a point of indecision, regarding the new old stand for the 90g tank. I don't think I mentioned earlier that I bought a new stand with the intention of moving my 90g to the man cave, but the tank broke before the move could happen. As seen in the posted pics the stand next to the sump is all set for a new frag tank once I am ready to take frags. Now I'm thinking that I want to move the stand to my office (also in the posted drawing) and buy a new tank and use it as a QT tank. I could also put some of the annoyingly fast growing softies in there with minimal rock and sand and T5s only over it.

 

[hpfunk]

When to Premium Aquatics today

When to Premium Aquatics today

I got some more stunner strips, the black light ones. I went to premium today to try to find some cool LPS but instead I came home with a fish. I will show pics of both the new lights and the fish when I get a chance.

 

[sneaton]

looking good...this is lomax's friend seth,we are sitting here going thru your thread...awesome tank...i would love to come check your system out sometime..lets see some pics of the new fish

 

[hpfunk]

The new fish is a 4" clown tang, but doesn't seem to want to have its picture taken yet. But I will keep trying.
To keep you interested here is a shot of my mystery wrasse.

 

[sneaton]

sweet....whens that frag tank getting set up....ill be your first customer

 

[hpfunk]

Sooner rather than later. I am going to look at a shipment of acan lords tomorrow morning an hour north of indy. I am not 100% no this yet but I think that I am moving the stand that was to be the frag tank and turning it into a Q/T tank that is really a new display. Then for the time being I will use the ref/sump for my extra frags (currently 3). I intend on setting up another system 1000+ or so with a 250 display and 400+ grow out and a couple refs. I intend on keeping sps and lps but I have already got softies growing like crazy. I would have a full frag tank already but as the thread shows, one year ago I lost everything (except those softies, the calm and the fish).
I do fully intend on growing, selling/trading in the future.

 

[hpfunk]

The new stuff

The new stuff

Today I took a road trip to see some ultra pieces. I have never met this guy before so its nice to find a dealer that's not a LFS. There were at least 100-120 acan frags to pick from and a number of other really nice specimens. I picked up 12 ultra and rainbow acans, a blasto and a micronesia. The pic shows my acclimation technique; step one temp regulation in sump. I use the drip method for everything (usually), the pic shows my little DIY acclimation kit including half a plastic water jug, drip line with controllable flow, a siphon line for removing half the water (three times), and a clamp (not pictured) to keep the line in the tank. Then into the display down on the sand, temporarily until I find the place for them. I might just get a rock out of my sump and glue a few to it. I will try to get more pics of the new corals when they come around and open up.

I also included a pic of the fish that I picked up yesterday. He is just a little guy but seems to feel pretty comfortable in his new home. Now if I only could convince myself to hold off on new livestock for a couple weeks I might be able to spend some time on the tank equipment projects I have planed. Fat chance of that though

 

[hpfunk]

My cat has started to notice the tank. She never paid any attention to the tank until a couple of days ago, now every evening when the MH kick off and its all LED's the cat is hunting fish at the front of the tank. She was batting at the glass but now seams to be studying the next move. Sorry for the bad pic but its and i phone pic as are all of the other pictures I've posted. I have not finished my hood, but I do have a temporary shield because of a previous encounter. Although this cat has never seen a fish my other cat is well aware of what's in my tanks. So while watching football this winter the cat jumps from the back of my chair and lands perfectly on the edge of the aquarium. Are you kidding me, I grabbed the cat and tanked my lucky stars that I wasn't soaked and scratched from head to toe...not to mention a tank full of hair, and p!$$&? off livestock. So now that the kitten is interested in the tank it's a reminder that the hood project that was on the back burner needs to get moving aging.

How do you get good pictures in blue light only??? Because that is when the tank is most impressive.