New 265g from Portugal

[rmgaspar]

And moving stuff

First island out

looking at the vat I could really appreciate the colours of the corals ... amazing!

Mid island out!

and everything in the vats.

Almost empty. Few fish to catch and the sand to remove!

With the sand out I had to put a small pump and filterbag to try and clear/clean the dirt as much as I could.

 

[rmgaspar]

And finally empty

This was late by now and without being able to make some noise I started to build the plumbing.

meanwhile the sand looked more clear ...

One very big important thing ... everyone thought I was completely crazy to change aquarium specially when he was getting really good.

To a point that I myself started to doubt me and thinking I was letting my OCD getting over me!

But when I pushed the aquarium away from the wall I could verify what I have long suspected!

See the white lines of the silicone???

Continues ...

 

[rmgaspar]

Well back to plumbing I had to throw away my old manifold as it wouldn't fit in the new sump design and I had to find a design that allows me to change/add/remove exits without ever throwing PVC away.

Equal sections that will allow me to add, remove, replace pieces of the manifold!

Ended 5am in the morning.

Saturday morning Paulo Oliveira arrived to help with the wall and the change.

We had to create a new frame to close the drywall

making sure everything was aligned

 

[rmgaspar]

Frame ready it was time to clean and plan how to change the glass

And since we had to wait for the others we started to align the old one to get out.

Cut of the roofmate to support the new beast!

And by this time my GoPro decided to shut down hence only pictures of the new tank in place.
I think I found the problem that is related with the SD card quality. But the fact is that GoPro films for anywhere between 5 and 20s and then stops recording!

Align to wall face

Inside cleaning ... Guess who?

At this stage another friend (Marco Madeira) had already moved the sand back into the tank!

 

[rmgaspar]

Meanwhile we put the cover of an IKEA box inside the aquarium to support a pump and not to displace so much the sand that someone forgot to remove before we passed all the rock back in

All the rock in the new tank!

And finish filling

Some people had to leave but these two guys stayed strong until the end (3am)
Paulo Oliveira and Miguel Malheiro

And the final result ...

Water was completely milky as the Tuxedo urchins (I have 6) decided to have an orgy inside the aquarium!!!

 

[rmgaspar]

And here with the temporary sump connected and a little more clarity!

leveled up!

Next day was time to turn myself to the return lines, discharge and SUMP as that has not been finished yet!

And finally with fuge also connected. It will be change as I did my math wrong and the fuge has 1mm more that what I need to completely align to the SUMP!

return plumbing done!

 

[rmgaspar]

And the final result!

3am this day and still pumps to adjust, wires to manage, clean the mess we did and a NSW WC in the middle

Let see how it goes from here! My biggest concern now is KH as I am not at home to be able to check!

I cannot close this post without a BIG THANK YOU to My Friends that helped me with this endeavour. Without them it would not be possible!

And they are: Paulo Oliveira, Miguel Malheiro, Marco Madeira, João Tomás, João Ramos e Rui Vieira. You guys ROCK!!!!

All the best,
Rui

 

[worm5406]

Nice documentation. Thank you for sharing it all.

Glad to have friends that dont mind getting a bit wet.

So what is up with that seam? I could not tell from the picture.

 

[sahin]

That seam looked liked its coming apart.

Good job with the friends help: glad the transfer went smoothly.

Those top down shots show just how well your acros are coloured up.

 

[rmgaspar]

Nice documentation. Thank you for sharing it all.

Glad to have friends that dont mind getting a bit wet.

So what is up with that seam? I could not tell from the picture.

Thank you ... My pleasure!

Well sahin is right ... can you notice the two white lines in the seam?

It was about to open!

 

[rmgaspar]

That seam looked liked its coming apart.

Good job with the friends help: glad the transfer went smoothly.

Those top down shots show just how well your acros are coloured up.

Yes Sahin. I am very happy and fortunate with all the friends I gathered over time because of this hobby!

Those top down was from iPhone crap with only ceiling light! That really shows the colour ...

just the pumps as I have 50% of the aquarium without sand! But I will only touch this when I return!

Meanwhile 3 days after the move and being away from the tank here is the status:

1 - Corals seem fine. No loss of colour and with the same polip extension!
2 - All fishes very active.
3 - KH dropped from 6.4 to 5.1 (I was not expecting this) I already reconnected the Kore Doser and reduced the triton amount by 25%
4 - The red dragon the got a little white because she fell in the sand didn't progressed and shows signs of being healthy!
5 - My solitariensis got buried in the sand and 75% of it is white! Should recover well
6 - I really need to read

All the best,
Rui

 

[rmgaspar]

Returned home after 1 week of country working ... everything is really fine.

I wasn't expecting to see corals growing and colouring after one week of the change ...

And since I bought a BAO Top Down Picture Tube ...

All the best,
Rui

 

[rmgaspar]

Hello again ...

trying to keep a close look on everything every time I get to be at home ...

 

[rmgaspar]

All the best,
Rui

 

[rmgaspar]

Here is an small update.

The more I am away from the tank the better he looks ... Glad I will be out another three weeks ...

 

[rmgaspar]

 

[rmgaspar]

Hope you like it.

All the best,
Rui

 

[rmgaspar]

Hello everyone,

Long time no update ... I was completely overwhelmed by work with no capability to progress.

A couple of things have changed nevertheless:

Finally
I received the rest of the Osmosis system

that got immediately installed!

It's a Bulk Reef Supply 6 stage 75GDP!

The good thing is that even with a pressure pump I got very good pressure values out of the line

In my trips I also bought a case for the aquarium test mimicing what Terence Fugazzi did! Thank you for the idea Terence. Hope you don't mind I stole it. All the tests are now inside and this was a wonderful idea! Kudos to you Terence!

Meanwhile since I was long time out of the country my head started to really work. That is what it takes to have a lot of time far from the aquarium. You can actually start to think and plan ... LOL

My refugium was old and kind of broken and didn't fit the place I wanted by 1mm and all the holes were in a bad position. On top of that I had to cut several frags of corals that were touching or about to touch each other and I really hate to have frags and frag plugs inside the display.

 

[rmgaspar]

With the plans in my hand I quickly ordered the glass and a good friend @Paulo Cunha did the favour of building and painting the structure.

in the car on it's way home!

 

[rmgaspar]

installed and filling!

and of course following the T5 tradition of the main tank I purchased 2nd hand an 8x T5 24W fixture

also started to work on the aquarium wall. Still pretty incomplete but getting along just nicely.

And with all this travels (around 6 weeks) the aquarium and the corals felt ... a little ... LOL!

as you can see ...