Usernam Invalid
New member
Very interested to c how u made out hope all went well
Newbie buying a complete 90 gallon setup - in over my head! Need help
- Thread starter xdestry
- Start date
xdestry
SPS Addict
Hi guys, sorry for the late update, been so busy with everything the last couple days just getting a chance now to post. So I guess let's start from the beginning!
Sunday morning we left pasadena around 8 and arrived at camarillo at 9:30. Getting there I noticed all this stuff laid out on the driveway which the guy explained was all the extras he was talking about... I never expected this much and realized it was not going to fit in the two cars we took over there, at least not in one trip.
Decided to worry about it later and start tearing down the tank... Heres some pictures we took before the breakdown.
I know theyre not the most valuable but the zoas are definitely my favorite! I can't wait to get a zoa garden up, something about the variety and colors on them make them cooler than most of the other corals to me.
We started the breakdown by first taking off the canopy and getting as much water out of the tank as possible before disturbing any of the rocks to keep it clean. This water went into the 5 gallon buckets to keep the fish in. There was
1 mandarin goby
1 purple tang
1 royal gramma
1 tail spot blenny
1 pistol shrimp and goby combo
2 orange clownfish
1 cleaner shrimp
2 hermit crabs
1 yellow goby
The owner did not tell me there was a mandarin in there, luckily I decided the night before to drop off all the livestock to o2manyfishes as he was generous to offer to help. I definitely would not have been able to take care of the mandarin in my quarantine tank while setting everything up. Heres a picture of the mandarin
I have a few pictures of the breakdown but would prefer to keep the privacy of the owner and me, its just us loading the rocks and corals into the tubs I bought so nothing too interesting there.
The breakdown took approximately 4 hours, we got done at around 2 PM (i originally planned to be back in pasadena already by 1 pm :hmm5:
The tank and the stand did not fit into one car as I had hoped, so my big van was just carrying the stand and the canopy. In my smaller hatchback mazda was all of the 5 gallons and totes containing the livestock so I had nowhere to put the tank itself and all of the extras. At this point we decided to drive to encino to drop off all the livestock to o2manyfishes. The drive from camarillo to encino took about 40 min and we arrived near 3:30 PM. We found a nice johnny rockets to eat at before dropping the livestock off. If you are reading this Dave thanks again for your help in taking care of everything. After dropping off the livestock we went back to camarillo and now the space in the mazda was cleared, we stacked up all the buckets and totes and now was able to put the aquarium in there. We stuck the rest of the extras including the pvc piping, chemicals, etc in every nook and cranny we could find in the cars, and took everything he had except for the bigger chemical jugs you could see in the first picture. By the time we finally left camarillo for home it was 5:30 pm. There was a bit of traffic due to an accident but we finally arrived back in pasadena at 7 PM, 6 hours later than I had originally planned for.
I had planned to have some people here on the forums come over and help set up but decided it was too late and we were just way too exhausted to do it that night. We took a bit of a break, went to eat dinner and came back to unload everything from the cars. When all was said and done it was already 11 PM :eek1:! If I move a tank like this again I would rent out a uhaul, I didn't plan for all of the extra stuff he had which is why we had to take a trip to drop off the livestock first instead of just going there on the way back.
Sunday morning we left pasadena around 8 and arrived at camarillo at 9:30. Getting there I noticed all this stuff laid out on the driveway which the guy explained was all the extras he was talking about... I never expected this much and realized it was not going to fit in the two cars we took over there, at least not in one trip.
Decided to worry about it later and start tearing down the tank... Heres some pictures we took before the breakdown.
I know theyre not the most valuable but the zoas are definitely my favorite! I can't wait to get a zoa garden up, something about the variety and colors on them make them cooler than most of the other corals to me.
We started the breakdown by first taking off the canopy and getting as much water out of the tank as possible before disturbing any of the rocks to keep it clean. This water went into the 5 gallon buckets to keep the fish in. There was
1 mandarin goby
1 purple tang
1 royal gramma
1 tail spot blenny
1 pistol shrimp and goby combo
2 orange clownfish
1 cleaner shrimp
2 hermit crabs
1 yellow goby
The owner did not tell me there was a mandarin in there, luckily I decided the night before to drop off all the livestock to o2manyfishes as he was generous to offer to help. I definitely would not have been able to take care of the mandarin in my quarantine tank while setting everything up. Heres a picture of the mandarin
I have a few pictures of the breakdown but would prefer to keep the privacy of the owner and me, its just us loading the rocks and corals into the tubs I bought so nothing too interesting there.
The breakdown took approximately 4 hours, we got done at around 2 PM (i originally planned to be back in pasadena already by 1 pm :hmm5:
The tank and the stand did not fit into one car as I had hoped, so my big van was just carrying the stand and the canopy. In my smaller hatchback mazda was all of the 5 gallons and totes containing the livestock so I had nowhere to put the tank itself and all of the extras. At this point we decided to drive to encino to drop off all the livestock to o2manyfishes. The drive from camarillo to encino took about 40 min and we arrived near 3:30 PM. We found a nice johnny rockets to eat at before dropping the livestock off. If you are reading this Dave thanks again for your help in taking care of everything. After dropping off the livestock we went back to camarillo and now the space in the mazda was cleared, we stacked up all the buckets and totes and now was able to put the aquarium in there. We stuck the rest of the extras including the pvc piping, chemicals, etc in every nook and cranny we could find in the cars, and took everything he had except for the bigger chemical jugs you could see in the first picture. By the time we finally left camarillo for home it was 5:30 pm. There was a bit of traffic due to an accident but we finally arrived back in pasadena at 7 PM, 6 hours later than I had originally planned for.
I had planned to have some people here on the forums come over and help set up but decided it was too late and we were just way too exhausted to do it that night. We took a bit of a break, went to eat dinner and came back to unload everything from the cars. When all was said and done it was already 11 PM :eek1:! If I move a tank like this again I would rent out a uhaul, I didn't plan for all of the extra stuff he had which is why we had to take a trip to drop off the livestock first instead of just going there on the way back.
xdestry
SPS Addict
Monday I got up way later than normal with my body pretty sore from all the heavy lifting, and got to disassembling the electronics from the stand and cleaning up some of the equipment. Here's everything I ended up getting from the deal.
Overview of some of the equipment
2 radion gen 2s, bunch of extra powerheads and dosers
2 vortech mp40s, two powerbar 8s
nice par meter! didn't know this was coming with everything
two full apex units here with the probes and some extra modules, a refractometer, and some more water pumps.
1/5 hp arctica chiller and the ro di unit from the filter guys
more apex stuff
battery backups, tests galore! boxes full of pipe fittings
Overview of some of the equipment
2 radion gen 2s, bunch of extra powerheads and dosers
2 vortech mp40s, two powerbar 8s
nice par meter! didn't know this was coming with everything
two full apex units here with the probes and some extra modules, a refractometer, and some more water pumps.
1/5 hp arctica chiller and the ro di unit from the filter guys
more apex stuff
battery backups, tests galore! boxes full of pipe fittings
xdestry
SPS Addict
some coral pro salt, bunch of brs chemicals
picture of front of the stand after most of the lectronics were removed
back of the stand
tunze ato, 4 dosers
the live rock with no corals inside my planned 150 gallon quarantine
Not pictured here : enough pvc piping, unions, valves to plumb probably another two tanks! Also another two boxes full of equipment which I don't recognize.
Wow thats a lot of stuff! I am still organizing everything and getting ready to clean all the calcified equipment and stuff. Once I have everything cleaned and stored away I am looking to clean up the tank and the stand. I have decided to probably buy a new stand and tank, the tank itself is 48x18x24, which is not enough depth I think for what I want to do. I am thinking of going 48x24x22, with a much larger sump to be able to plumb everything inside the stand without anything sticking out the back. The electronics were also all mounted originally on the back of the stand and I would like everything inside it and not have to go behind it since it will be setup against a wall.
Hopefully o2manyfishes will not mind keeping the fish for a while longer while I am setting up the tank. I am going to do a full water change on the quarantine to get rid of any ammonia left in there from the live rocks rotting, and then pick up the corals and fish from him probably at the end of this week or next.
Looking now to purchase a new tank and maybe build a stand, need to hurry though since the livestock are all waiting for their new home!
If i did it all again heres what i would do differently.
- Make sure the totes i bought were waterproof! :bdaysmile: Don't know how much seawater spilled inside my car. Luckily I had blankets at the bototm which absorbed most of it.
- Brought smaller dead rocks to jam in between the larger ones to make sure they don't move in their containers.
- Brought a uhaul truck!
- Give everything twice as long as I thought it would take just to be sure
A lot of the pressure was taken off by having another reefer close by taking care of the livestock, didnt have to hurry once we got home to acclimate everything in quarantine, and no pressure to set the tank up that fast. I did not think I would be wanting a bigger tank but the 18 depths really is too small, the tank was pretty cramped and I wanted a bit of open sand area near the front of the tank.
Today I am still organizing the rest of the equipment and putting everything away for now. I am looking to buy a new tank preferably with starphire glass and I am thinking maybe a 120. Need to also figure out whether I will be building a stand or just purchasing one. Also going to sell off the extra apex unit and whatever else I don't need to recoup some of the cost back, to go into the new tank. Once I clean the old tank and stand I might be selling that off too!
Overall its been a good experience, I am excited to get everything up and running, I have all the equipment I need to get everything going but will try and go slow, only installing the equipment I need as I need it. I have a lot to learn with programming the apex, radions, using the chiller, rodi unit, etc. Hopefully it won't take me more than a few weeks, I can't wait to get the corals and livestock back but I need to make sure I can take care of them first. This was a long post ! Hope you guys enjoyed reading and I will be updating this thread as I build the new tank! Thanks!
picture of front of the stand after most of the lectronics were removed
back of the stand
tunze ato, 4 dosers
the live rock with no corals inside my planned 150 gallon quarantine
Not pictured here : enough pvc piping, unions, valves to plumb probably another two tanks! Also another two boxes full of equipment which I don't recognize.
Wow thats a lot of stuff! I am still organizing everything and getting ready to clean all the calcified equipment and stuff. Once I have everything cleaned and stored away I am looking to clean up the tank and the stand. I have decided to probably buy a new stand and tank, the tank itself is 48x18x24, which is not enough depth I think for what I want to do. I am thinking of going 48x24x22, with a much larger sump to be able to plumb everything inside the stand without anything sticking out the back. The electronics were also all mounted originally on the back of the stand and I would like everything inside it and not have to go behind it since it will be setup against a wall.
Hopefully o2manyfishes will not mind keeping the fish for a while longer while I am setting up the tank. I am going to do a full water change on the quarantine to get rid of any ammonia left in there from the live rocks rotting, and then pick up the corals and fish from him probably at the end of this week or next.
Looking now to purchase a new tank and maybe build a stand, need to hurry though since the livestock are all waiting for their new home!
If i did it all again heres what i would do differently.
- Make sure the totes i bought were waterproof! :bdaysmile: Don't know how much seawater spilled inside my car. Luckily I had blankets at the bototm which absorbed most of it.
- Brought smaller dead rocks to jam in between the larger ones to make sure they don't move in their containers.
- Brought a uhaul truck!
- Give everything twice as long as I thought it would take just to be sure
A lot of the pressure was taken off by having another reefer close by taking care of the livestock, didnt have to hurry once we got home to acclimate everything in quarantine, and no pressure to set the tank up that fast. I did not think I would be wanting a bigger tank but the 18 depths really is too small, the tank was pretty cramped and I wanted a bit of open sand area near the front of the tank.
Today I am still organizing the rest of the equipment and putting everything away for now. I am looking to buy a new tank preferably with starphire glass and I am thinking maybe a 120. Need to also figure out whether I will be building a stand or just purchasing one. Also going to sell off the extra apex unit and whatever else I don't need to recoup some of the cost back, to go into the new tank. Once I clean the old tank and stand I might be selling that off too!
Overall its been a good experience, I am excited to get everything up and running, I have all the equipment I need to get everything going but will try and go slow, only installing the equipment I need as I need it. I have a lot to learn with programming the apex, radions, using the chiller, rodi unit, etc. Hopefully it won't take me more than a few weeks, I can't wait to get the corals and livestock back but I need to make sure I can take care of them first. This was a long post ! Hope you guys enjoyed reading and I will be updating this thread as I build the new tank! Thanks!
canlax
New member
If you are getting a new tank I say clean up the tank and put a fresh coat of paint on the stand/canopy. It looks a little worn but with some effort you could definitely make some money.
Why the 150g quarantine? Dosing meds in that much water will get expensive. You are better off getting a used 20g or 30g, no?
Why the 150g quarantine? Dosing meds in that much water will get expensive. You are better off getting a used 20g or 30g, no?
Last edited:
xdestry
SPS Addict
Hi canlax, Went 150 just to make sure i have enough room to put the live rocks and corals, its actually only filled up half way to where the hang on side skimmer intake is so theres only about 80 gallons or so in there.
The fish sitter has the fish in his outside frag tank for now, but yes it is part of a big system with the main tank being inside and the two sharing the water.
Also sorry about the huge pictures guys I did not notice they were that big... Im not sure how to resize them and why the later ones came out much smaller.
The fish sitter has the fish in his outside frag tank for now, but yes it is part of a big system with the main tank being inside and the two sharing the water.
Also sorry about the huge pictures guys I did not notice they were that big... Im not sure how to resize them and why the later ones came out much smaller.
I contemplated purchasing an established system myself, but decided against it given the difficulty and potential of crashing everything. So I commend you for having the intestinal fortitude to take on the move.
However, a friend of mine recently purchased an established system and everything went smooth and I believe there was one reason why... Perhaps this post would be to help anyone for future reference.
Prior to the break down he picked up a preformed pond on CL for around $20 (cheaper than buying totes). He set it up in his garage. Got his water mixed and stable. Then picked up all of the rock, livestock, skimmer, lights and power heads and quickly set them up in the pond. He cut slats in a bucket to hold the skimmer in the pond. When transporting the rock and corals he used tons of plastic to hold everything in place and give it a cushion for transport. Similar to how frags are packed at a lfs. Everything went well for him and I don't believe he lost a single thing. The pond allowed him to take the time to setup and hookup the tank and all of the plumbing. Plus allowed time for him to seed the new sand bed. I have to admit I was kind of sad to see the pond reef get broke down and put in the tank. It looked really cool.
Nevertheless, perhaps this info will help someone else. Good luck in getting your reef set up.
However, a friend of mine recently purchased an established system and everything went smooth and I believe there was one reason why... Perhaps this post would be to help anyone for future reference.
Prior to the break down he picked up a preformed pond on CL for around $20 (cheaper than buying totes). He set it up in his garage. Got his water mixed and stable. Then picked up all of the rock, livestock, skimmer, lights and power heads and quickly set them up in the pond. He cut slats in a bucket to hold the skimmer in the pond. When transporting the rock and corals he used tons of plastic to hold everything in place and give it a cushion for transport. Similar to how frags are packed at a lfs. Everything went well for him and I don't believe he lost a single thing. The pond allowed him to take the time to setup and hookup the tank and all of the plumbing. Plus allowed time for him to seed the new sand bed. I have to admit I was kind of sad to see the pond reef get broke down and put in the tank. It looked really cool.
Nevertheless, perhaps this info will help someone else. Good luck in getting your reef set up.
mitch91175
Premium Member
All I can say is that you got the deal of the century at 3K. With all of that HIGH-END equipment, you save a small mint buying used from the seller. You were right to jump all over that regardless of the outcome of the livestock (not wishing any bad). I am sure you will have minimum 95% of the livestock once you get everything situated. Everyone here as given you great advice to follow. Out of everything you purchased, the SPS will be the most difficult to not only maintain, but thrive. Keep a very close eye on them and your water params. Maybe even consider testing your params everyday and logging them so you can be in front of any swings in your params. There is a cool app AquaLog for Android and iPhone. Check it out.
xdestry
SPS Addict
Hi cuzza, I think if you were to pick up an established tank you definitely need a quarantine like your friend set up. Too many things can go wrong and things can take a lot longer than you planned for, and the fish will not do well in buckets for that long. Especially if you were new like me I suggest having the quarantine or giving the livestock for someone else to take care of. After buying the tank you don't know what might break, how long it will take to mini cycle, and finally you might find some things you want to change about the tank/stand and having the livestock somewhere else gives you not only the peace of mind but lets you take your time with everything else. I actually did not know there was a mandarin goby coming with the tank, even if i put him in my quarantine he probably would not have done too well without the copepods. I jumped head first into the purchase and would not have fared well at all without the help of the many people here on these forums, especially on the socal forums. I am lucky however as the socal forums is probably the most active one of them all. If you are thinking about doing this as a complete newbie, take it from me - there is way more to learn about this hobby than you think! Not as easy as picking up the tank, setting it up, and having everything go smoothly
Thanks! I saw the deal on craigslist after browsing every area around los angeles for about two weeks and that was by far the best deal I saw pop up. I am definitely going to test every day for the first couple weeks and write everything down to see where the levels are going. I am still in the process of setting up the tank now, I found a leak which I got fixed up and will probably have it up by this saturday or sunday. I will keep posting here with updates!
Hi cuzza, I think if you were to pick up an established tank you definitely need a quarantine like your friend set up. Too many things can go wrong and things can take a lot longer than you planned for, and the fish will not do well in buckets for that long. Especially if you were new like me I suggest having the quarantine or giving the livestock for someone else to take care of. After buying the tank you don't know what might break, how long it will take to mini cycle, and finally you might find some things you want to change about the tank/stand and having the livestock somewhere else gives you not only the peace of mind but lets you take your time with everything else. I actually did not know there was a mandarin goby coming with the tank, even if i put him in my quarantine he probably would not have done too well without the copepods. I jumped head first into the purchase and would not have fared well at all without the help of the many people here on these forums, especially on the socal forums. I am lucky however as the socal forums is probably the most active one of them all. If you are thinking about doing this as a complete newbie, take it from me - there is way more to learn about this hobby than you think! Not as easy as picking up the tank, setting it up, and having everything go smoothly
I myself purchased everything new. I came to that decision based on a few things, warrantys and assumed longer life of all the equipment, a leak in the tank like you mentioned and finally the potential of a crash and/or an issue with the tank the seller hasn't disclosed. Like some sort of pest or nusiance that would require a future tank break down.
I wouldn't think quarantining everything would be necessary if the seller hadn't added anything in a long time (don't hold me to it but my understanding is ick will eventually die off in a 11-12 months) or already quarantined the livestock.
My point of the aforementioned post is a preformed pond is a great way to easily and quickly transfer everything from the tank and buy you time to work on the setup.
Don't get me wrong, I think you got a great deal and purchasing an established system has it's benefits too. For example, the tank already has great growth and looks sweet. Please don't take this as suggesting you did anything wrong. To each his own. The pond suggestion was more for anyone who is contemplating an established system. I was a little to late to the show, as you've already moved the tank. Again, good luck, the system looks great.
xdestry
SPS Addict
Picked up the new tank and stand yesterday, tank is a 100 gallon Leemar 48x24x20 with starphire front and left side panel, right panel is normal glass. Stand is also leemar made.
Tank has a bit of coralline that still needs to be cleaned off, will get to that in the next few days
Here's the stand after i cleaned and sanded it
Primed with this.
Looks brand new! After the first coat of primer dries I will be sanding the parts where the paint dripped/thickened a bit, and probably putting on one more thin coat of primer onto the parts that need it. Then comes the flat black coat which I will do tomorrow. The doors have been removed and aren't in the picture, I haven't done those yet either and will probably do so a bit later on tonight. Stay tuned for more updates!
Tank has a bit of coralline that still needs to be cleaned off, will get to that in the next few days
Here's the stand after i cleaned and sanded it
Primed with this.
Looks brand new! After the first coat of primer dries I will be sanding the parts where the paint dripped/thickened a bit, and probably putting on one more thin coat of primer onto the parts that need it. Then comes the flat black coat which I will do tomorrow. The doors have been removed and aren't in the picture, I haven't done those yet either and will probably do so a bit later on tonight. Stay tuned for more updates!
Usernam Invalid
New member
Nice tank love those dimensions .
xdestry
SPS Addict
Pretty eventful weekend and got a lot done. Heres some updates
Stand was painted black, left inside white to see a bit better
Some simple herbie plumbing, very happy with the overflow being on the very right corner, no pipes running everywhere in the sump.
First time cutting glass and siliconing, didn't do too well. Broke a few pieces before I got a clean break, and ended up making a few pieces just a millimeter too long.
Return coming over the back left side of the tank, will be spray painted black and have the anti siphon hole drilled tomorrow.
The tank is half filled now, waiting on a bit more ro water to be made overnight. Hopefully get the tank fully filled tomorrow and onto the first leak test, if everything goes well it could be filled with live sand and rocks by tomorrow night!
Things next on the to do list tomorrow/the day after
Dave if you are reading this thank you for taking care of the livestock for me, gave me the time to really decide what I wanted to do and get all this set up, if I had to get the original tank set up the day of the move things probably wouldn't have gone too well, and I wouldn't now have the experience of having my own build and knowing intricately how it works.
Looking back on the purchase, I would say if you are thinking about buying an established setup as a complete newbie, do it only if the deal on the electronics and livestock is going to save you a significant amount of money. For the livestock either sell it off immediately rr have another reefer take care of them as soon as possible. I don't think the fish and corals or I would have fared well at all setting up the tank immediately and trying to run it as if the move had never happened. I would have to agree with the people warning me to take it slow before I made the buy, there's just too much you need to learn in this hobby to be successful, and I think it's a little too much for a person to take in immediately while still having to deal with problems with the tank , fish, and corals at the same time. Go slowly, and make sure you know how your particular set up works!
More updates to come soon, can't believe cycling the tank will take so long!
Wish I could be cryogenically frozen while it did! :headwally::headwally::furious:
Guess it gives me some time to read up on how to program all the electronics and perfecting the parameters... Just want a fish in there!
Stand was painted black, left inside white to see a bit better
Some simple herbie plumbing, very happy with the overflow being on the very right corner, no pipes running everywhere in the sump.
First time cutting glass and siliconing, didn't do too well. Broke a few pieces before I got a clean break, and ended up making a few pieces just a millimeter too long.
Return coming over the back left side of the tank, will be spray painted black and have the anti siphon hole drilled tomorrow.
The tank is half filled now, waiting on a bit more ro water to be made overnight. Hopefully get the tank fully filled tomorrow and onto the first leak test, if everything goes well it could be filled with live sand and rocks by tomorrow night!
Things next on the to do list tomorrow/the day after
- Buy styrofoam or some kind of vibration reducer under the sump, or just under the skimmer/pump
- Build stand for the skimmer
- Drill anti siphon hole in return
- Buy a hose clamp for when i fill the tank up with the pump, just duct taped it to the side today while filling and it ended up getting loose and spraying everywhere... was pretty funny actually
Dave if you are reading this thank you for taking care of the livestock for me, gave me the time to really decide what I wanted to do and get all this set up, if I had to get the original tank set up the day of the move things probably wouldn't have gone too well, and I wouldn't now have the experience of having my own build and knowing intricately how it works.
Looking back on the purchase, I would say if you are thinking about buying an established setup as a complete newbie, do it only if the deal on the electronics and livestock is going to save you a significant amount of money. For the livestock either sell it off immediately rr have another reefer take care of them as soon as possible. I don't think the fish and corals or I would have fared well at all setting up the tank immediately and trying to run it as if the move had never happened. I would have to agree with the people warning me to take it slow before I made the buy, there's just too much you need to learn in this hobby to be successful, and I think it's a little too much for a person to take in immediately while still having to deal with problems with the tank , fish, and corals at the same time. Go slowly, and make sure you know how your particular set up works!
More updates to come soon, can't believe cycling the tank will take so long!
Wish I could be cryogenically frozen while it did! :headwally::headwally::furious:
Guess it gives me some time to read up on how to program all the electronics and perfecting the parameters... Just want a fish in there!
shesacharmer
New member
I moved a 75 gallon setup with 30 gallon sump six weeks ago. Here is what I did: I rented a U-Haul truck and bought some food grade 14 gallon barrels with locking covers. I took all the existing tank water and put the live rock in the barrels to keep it submerged. Because your corals are large (though many will retract when moved) you might want several large totes for that. The fish will move in a bucket or two of tank water for 3-6 hours. When you get to your destination you can put in a heater and a thermometer and an airstone temporarily. Setup a tote as a temporary tank because your sand is going to make a big mess when you refill the tank and it takes a few hours to settle down. Aquascape before you refill the tank or you won't be able to see what you are doing. Try to clean everything off as you put it into the tank. I chose to run a garden hose through my live sand and I'm not sure I'd do that again since it stirred up a lot of silica which caused a diatom bloom in subsequent weeks. I picked up the tank about noon and drove it two hours home and collapsed into bed at 11 pm with everything up and running. It's a very big job. I had three helpers to move everything.
xdestry
SPS Addict
Did you end up having a mini cycle after you set everything back up?
