OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[ccampo]

I started reading this thread last weekend (since the very beginning back in 2005) and I've just finished reading these last posts, ufff, this looks like a real novel, I like happy endings and I know this one will not be the exception, best of luck for you, your tank and of course for all its inhabitants.
Keep us posted on how you finally fix it, I'll be reviewing this thread to "hear" good news.
Good luck again.

 

[chris wright]

Damn this sounds like a pain in the butt poject mate. I hope it works out.

What I don't understand is, if you put in the bulkhead, is it going to be big enough to remove all of the crazing? Is there a chance that now that these points have been weakened and become brittle, is there a chance of ongoing problems? I know it's a temp fix, but still :eek2:

I hope that you get a new tank real soon J, this would worry me to no end

 

[jnarowe]

Thanks for checking in Cesar!

Chris, I had to put in a 3" pipe bulkhead that has a 4.5" hole. It cleared the crazing by plenty as you will see in the following pics and vids.

The operation was a complete success. Sherman and Greg helped out and it really went smoothly. A couple of corals don't look so good, but we'll see how they are tomorrow. I have frags of them if the go tits up on me.

Sherman and I pulled one of the Flex-PVC return lines and attached it to a drain line and drained the tank that way. It worked well but went a little slow for me.

It took about an hour to drain the tank and maybe half an hour to drill the hole. I took it slow with lots of stops and Greg continuously sprayed cold water while I drilled. Then it took about 45 minutes to an hour to re-fill. pH was down to 7.67 and the water temp. was down to a bit over 74F when being put back in. I had the kiddie pool on top of one of our grappling mats to try and insulate it from the cold concrete.

All-in-all, it went well. I am probably forgetting details but my brain is fried. Sherman can fill in the blanks!

The freakin' kiddie pool had a leak too, which Sherman spotted an we repaired on the fly.

Sherman inspecting his handi-work:

The plug:

Draining:

Supper ****ed off foxface:

Um...where'd the water go?

 

[jnarowe]

Drain vid:



The hole:

Plug Installed:

Re-fill:

 

[Elliott]

piece of cake, right? :lol:

 

[jnarowe]

Re-fill Vid:



Re-fill vid:



re-fill vid:

 

[jnarowe]

Plug when filled:

From the front. Isn't it pretty??

Tank filled:

My little friend:

 

[jnarowe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11696279#post11696279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Elliott
piece of cake, right? :lol:

All in a daze panic! :eek2:

 

[Kent E]

entertaining videos. Congrats on success. Still having to do it stinks.

 

[jnarowe]

Well, I feel the pumps were a risk worth taking, but I think being admonished for expecting more as an "early adopter" kind of sucked. I am just trying to get my brain around having to swap out tanks and what that will take. At least with this bulkhead in, I don't feel so pressured to make decisions.

I am looking into a hybrid tank that is acrylic with a Starfire viewing pane and built in wave boxes. I really want to get down to zero visual pollution.

 

[chris wright]

Well the bulkhead doesn't look that obtrusive, and it shouldn't take long to get covered in coraline.

I suppose the main thing is that all your livestock make it

 

[jnarowe]

uh...you've got to be kidding...that's an 8" long clam in front of it dude.

 

[chris wright]

Well if the clam grows big quick you won't see it :lol:

It still looks better than the crazing, and what a patch would look like :eek1: You won't have to worry about it when you get your new tank though

May have to re-aquascape that section to try to hide it a little bit, or glue a frag to it :bum:

 

[Elliott]

just think of 1000g of seawater on your floor, makes the bulkhead look pretty!!

 

[cbui2]

congrats on the repair and the bulkhead doesn't look to bad :beer:
on your foxface do you see any white mucus excretes out of his top or bottom dorsals from time to time?

 

[Micki]

Glad to hear things went well! So who eats the mollies? Do you raise them in the tank?

 

[Bax]

Looks like a successful patch job ... good decision in a bad spot

 

[jnarowe]

Thnaks everyone!

Bart: Actually the Foxface will shed its slime coat occassionally, and did so last night. It looks like very thin tissue floating around in the reef. The first few times I saw it, I had no idea what it was. Yesterday, two fish tried to eat it at the same time and both spit it out. :lol:

Well, I realized late last night as I was re-thinking every move I made why those corals RTN'd. I made a HUGE error in judgement. As I was measuring the inbound water temp. finding it to be about 74F, I decided to turn the lamps on to warm the reef up a bit.

Unfortunately, I did that before it was filled with water and those corals that are on the reef wall got a prolonged direct dose of 1000W lamp heat unprotected by the water column.

Very stupid move but I was concerned that the temp. difference would cause the fish some problems. So I basically baked those corals to death, but I do have spare frags. All of those corals still had good tissue on the lower 1/3 of the colony so we'll see today if they are completely gone or if they might recover.

Always something!

 

[Micki]

And what about those Mollies?

 

[jnarowe]

num num...Actually they are doing fine. I have a couple in the overflow and maybe 8 in the fuge. The loner in the display is just the only one that seemed to be able to hold his own in there. That would be the Alpha molly! :lol: