Memorial Day Free Professional Seminar with food and drink - How to Move a tank!

[MadTownMax]

On Monday, May 29th - Memorial day, I will be sponsoring a free seminar on how to move a tank!

Well, maybe I'm not a professional, but I have moved tanks a total of 4-times in the last two years - all successful moves without any coral or fish losses

The seminar will begin at my current residence on Washington Street - right behind Newark Library - and will end at my new residence on Choate street - the street (off of main street) that Klondike Kate's is on

The plan:

I'll have the tank broken down to bare-minium equipment - heaters and in-tank circulation. I'll be distributing about 30-gallons of water into whatever containers people bring - the more people - the easier it will be. Then corals/rocks will be distributed to the containers - we haul all of this over to the new place, put in the 30-gallons of pre-mixed saltwater I will have waiting, and put everything back in.

People who have expressed interest so far are:

bloopbloop
kaptken
mbbuna
Safir
nanoreef16g

Free Burgers and beer or soda for attendees :beer: :eek1: I'll also be serving some of Wisconsin's Finest - Beer Brats!

Please reply in this thread so I know how much food and drink to get - also let me know what time would work better for you - before Noon or after noon -

If you're bringing buckets/coolers/other containers let me know - I have two buckets and a rubbermaid container, nr16g has a few buckets, and bloop's got a BBB (Big Blue Bucket), and possibly mbbuna with a few coolers - that would probably cover it, but a few extra buckets wouldn't hurt.

 

[nanoreef16g]

I've got the 2 5 gallon buckets and that 3 gallon jug you gave me. You know I'd prefer after noon man but whatever is good for everyone. I'll also have 2 helpers with me so it should go okay. My Suburban isn't exactly pristine so anything you want to put in the back is fine with me. I've got some sweet zoa frags ready to go for you so we need to get you up and running.

 

[kaptken]

noonish sounds good for me, but whenever works out for everyone is fine too. Ive got some extra buckets to bring. soon as i find the lids. looks like 2 instant ocean 6 gallon buckets and perhaps a couple other 5's. plus i got a 7 gallon blue cube water jug i bought long time ago to make a top off system with. never been used. I'll have them all cleaned and sterilzed and rinsed and ready to go. so figure at least 25 gallons worth.

oh, i also have my old big white120 quart fishing cooler. would be good for the rock. rope handles on it.

Hey we can loosely wrap the corals in plastic bags and set in the buckets of water to transport. that way they dont roll around and break the tips. Have you got lots of clean plastic bags?

 

[Safir]

i've got two insulated boxes used to ship me my LR, and some 5gal buckets - they arent particularly clean, but are fish-only so they are "safe"

got a 6.75 ft bed on the truck so i can carry pretty much anything - we just need to get the stuff in there out temporarally.

any time is fine - lost my job so my one concern is no more *lol*

 

[MadTownMax]

awesome guys :thumbsup:

kaptken and safir - I'm going to stick to the 5-gallon buckets for this one - sounds like we'll have plenty between us for all of the water and rock:

- 22 gallons between me and nr16g
- another 25 from ken makes 57 gallons

the whole tank :lol: sounds like we have it covered - A few more buckets from Safir and then each one will only have to be about 1/2-full - which means "nice and light" to me

almost all of the corals are attached to large rocks, so separarating them won't be an option - just one large rock/bucket will probably be perfect - I'll toss all the small pieces in the bottom of a small container or another bucket.

I got the OK from the guys there now to install the RO/DI and start filling the trash can (tomorrow night) so everything will be ready!

 

[kaptken]

Safir,
its easy to clean buckets . just put a couple inches of water in it. then add a splash of bleach and scrub it clean with a hand cloth or better still, some polyester filter matte. then rinse with fresh water a couple times and dry out. we should do that now and then to stop bacteria and stuff. if you are real persnickedy, you could even dechlorinate as the last step with fresh water and a touch of dechlorinator.

clean buckets make for happy tanks. I learned that from fishing and boating. If you dont clean your fish or beer cooler with a little bleach and then rinse and leave openand upside down to the air to dry, while the boat sits there in the water and sun all week., you just might get a case of the green apple two steps the following week when you drop your beer and ice in for the next weekend.

Painful lesson. I wouldn't reccomend it..

 

[mbbuna]

Re: Memorial Day Free Professional Seminar with food and drink - How to Move a tank!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7422190#post7422190 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MadTownMax
On Monday, May 29th - Memorial day, I will be sponsoring a free seminar on how to move a tank!

Nick!! you are brilliant!!:lol:

ill bring 2 coolers and buckets at what ever time you all pick

 

[MadTownMax]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7426376#post7426376 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kaptken
you just might get a case of the green apple two steps the following week when you drop your beer and ice in for the next weekend.

Painful lesson. I wouldn't reccomend it..

FWIW - I am an accomplished grill master and beer meister so no one should have any kind of strange dance after eating my cooking


- the beer may have other plans though :beer:

 

[MadTownMax]

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The good: I checked out the basement - looks like the beams are solid (4X10 or 12's)- it even has a few extra support braces next to where I plan to put the tank.

The Bad: water pressure looks really weak - too weak to supply my RO filter - I tried today

?question? If i move the feed line about 10-feet closer and connect directly to the city water line (now separated by 1/2" copper pipe and a few valves) - will I see a big difference?

It may be possible that the RO membrane is a little old - but it worked flawlessly at my current place - putting out about 1.5-gallons an hour. At the very least I can by-pass the RO membrane and just use the pre-filters to make the water for moving- they'll remove most things and chlorine. Luckily incoming nitrates were at 5ppm, and I'll add a little rowaphos to the water before mixing the salt to remove any phosphate..... I may contemplate adding a pressure pump at some point - but I don't think I'm going to need one for very long (hopefully).

The Ugly - placement of the tank - one person may still have their things there, exactly where I want the tank If they are still there on Monday, I'll have to temporarily put the tank on the back porch :eek1: the porch is enclosed and on a graded concrete slab - which means I'll be using more than a few shims to make it even until I can put it in it's final resting spot. I contemplated permanently setting up the tank on the porch, but temperature swings would probably be pretty, well, ugly

 

[mbbuna]

Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7433004#post7433004 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MadTownMax


?question? If i move the feed line about 10-feet closer and connect directly to the city water line (now separated by 1/2" copper pipe and a few valves) - will I see a big difference?

if the city water line is galvanized steel most likly that is where the pressure loss is coming from.

i keep 40gal of ro/di on hand, if you want some you can have it

 

[Safir]

I've got 10-12 G of RODI as well - always 000 PPM on my handheld meter

 

[MadTownMax]

First thing tomorrw, I'm going to go check the TDS and nitrates coming out of the quasi-filtered water - if it doesn't look good, I'll let you guys know.

I'm feeling optimistic that I'll be able to run it through the DI cartrige and just burn a litte more resin off than usual and still get near-zero tds water.

Chris - I didn't take too good of a look at the incoming pipe - I remember that it was pretty rusted, and well-wrapped - so steel is probably right - and if that's the case - I don't think my plan of using a needle piercing valve will work very well either

I've seen some nice tanks that were maintained with tap water - maybe I'll get lucky and just have to buffer less - yeah, I know I'm dreaming

 

[MadTownMax]

Ok - TDS after the sediment/carbon/carbon filters is 240 - Then after DI resin it's 24 - far from perfect, but manageable (with the amount of generic rowaphos I have - a few tablespoons will pull out all the phosphates I need to worry about)

 

[kaptken]

I guess there are lots of things to work around low water pressure. the booster pump would work best.

or you could get a poly- bio KOLD STER-IL straight thru filter.
http://www.championlighting.com/home.php?cat=459
the good thing is it leaves all the good alkalinity and magnesium in the water, and filters out bacteria too at tap water speed. the bad thing is you need extra media to pull out the phosphate and silica. and theirs is hard to find. but your rowa would work. and its an expensive unit over $300. but saves lots of water. but with one tank, wouldnt make too much cost difference for you.

or you could play chemist and use an anion/cation resin filter. and regenerate the resin yourself with acid and caustic. time consuming, messy, tricky and a bit hazardous.

i would go for the booster pump .

 

[bloopbloop]

After noon. OMG unless you want a zombie present.

 

[MadTownMax]

OK - after noon it is - Let's say 1PM - just for a number

hopefully we'll have everything wrapped up in an hour or two (then it's beer, burger and brat time), but I've learned not to try to associate moving a tank with a time-line

 

[Safir]

This is still on for tomorrow, right?

Ive ot those supplement ingredients set aside for you.

 

[kaptken]

Yup, see you there between noon and one. closer to one.

Ive got some AC problems. seems my old heat pump finally sprung a leak when i turned it on saturday. oh well its 19 years old, i new that was coming. so time for a more efficient unit.

my big tanks got up to 83.6 degrees yesterday afternoon. but i put a couple of $5 clip on fans to blow under the hoods and sumps and knocked em right back down to 77 overnight. just barely rising today with the lights on. about 78 even though its 80 in the house. cheap evap cooling works great. who needs a chiller.

 

[nanoreef16g]

Sorry I'm an idiot MTM. I was totally operating under the assumption that it was Sunday, not Monday. I'll try to make it tomorrow but I'm not sure.

 

[MadTownMax]

:lol: nanoreef16g - thanks man - the buckets already came into use, so I appreciate having them early!

everything's on for tomorrow:
- I've got the sump there filled w/ tank water (about 12-gallons)
- 12-more gallons of RO/DI in buckets (I plan to do a waterchange right away to clean out all the detritus that settles out from the move)
- and the 30-gallon trashcan cycled and ready for action.

As far as setting-up the tank, I think I'm going to go to HD tomorrow to get some foam for under the stand for setting it up on the back porch - the concrete pad isn't sloped, but is cracked in many places and uneven - I probably don't need the foam as the wood on the stand could probably distribute the weight easily, but I'd rather play it safe.