Oops it cracked... Ian's 220 Build and Rebuild

[krazysvede]

So first a little catching up,
About a year and a half ago we closed on our first house, which had the perfect spot in the living room for the 180 that I had been dreaming about for a while. I made some measurements and played with sketch up for a few months and came up with what you see below.

Finally in July, it was time to begin! First task was running 2 new 20 amp circuits from the breaker panel to the wall where the tank was to be located, with that knocked out I took over a small closet and mounted my RODI and set it up as my fish closet and ran lines to the garage for my water storage and mixing tanks. With that out of the way it was time to build the stand. I spent 4 weekends in the 100+ degree heat cutting, welding, grinding and coating 150 feet of 1.5" square tube into the stand. Sometime during construction I ran into an issue with the manufacturer and LFS I had ordered the tank from. The acrylic builder was unable to fill the order at the current time and I was given my deposit back while the LFS worked to find another manufacturer to order from. I happened across a used 220 gallon LeeMar on Craigslist and purchased it instead, because when is a bigger tank for less ever a bad idea?








Here I am, proud owner of the new used 220.

 

[krazysvede]

Over the next several months I purchased more equipment and began aquascaping in Decmeber with hopes of having the tank running by the new year, after about a week I was finally happy with the aquascaping began the long slow process of filling the tank. I turned on my return pump for the first time on Christmas Eve 2012, it was the best Christmas present ever! This is what the tank looked like then.



Equipment panel




Electrical all cleaned up.

 

[krazysvede]

Cramped little 90 gallon



In mid January the tank had been running a few weeks and I was comfortable enough with it to move all my livestock and rock from the 90 into the new tank. Everything was moved over and adjusted well, everything was great from January until middle of May, when while out of town for business I received the following phone call,

"I just got home and there's water all over the floor, it goes all the way from in front of your tank through the living room and into the kitchen."

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCC.......................................!!!!!!!!!!"

Trying to be as calm as I could from 1000 miles away, we found the source of the leak at the seam on the bottom of the front panel. My heart stopped! I had planned so carefully and had extra parts, pumps, lights, batteries, powerheads, heaters, coolers, water etc etc but the one thing I had no contingency plan for was what to do if the tank broke. I hung up the phone and called 2 good friends and said get over to my place ASAP, all the while I sat on the bed in my hotel room helpless waiting more news. About 2 am I got the call that all the fish and corals had been caught and that the tank was drained. I arrived home the next afternoon, my living room smelt like a pier and my tank was empty except for the sand and several rocks. I looked over the tank to try and figure out what happened and was able to see that the bottom seam on the front panel had failed and the tear in the silicone almost 18" right across the center of the seam. I got the rock and the rest of the sand out of the tank that day and found what had caused the seam to fail. It looks like there was a load point right at or just behind the front edge of the bottom panel of the tank. This is the crack in the bottom panel, the bottom panel was 3/4" thick.

Tank empty and sad looking


The crack in the bottom panel


Everyone that has seen the tank agrees that the front panel would have blown off at some point that night whether we were home or not, so I consider myself lucky that neither Jen or myself or either of our cats were hurt and all we've lost though this is CUC, a clam, a birdsnest colony and a cleaner shrimp, everything else is living happily in a friends tank, and the only damage to the house was some tile damage.
So that pretty much brings us up to now. The tank cracking has given me a chance to change some things I was unhappy with and to improve the system.

The new tank was ordered about 2 weeks ago now and is another 220 gallon, same dimesions 72 X 24 X 30, eurobraced, starphire, PVC bottom and is being built by DSA. I hope to have it here in the next few weeks and can't wait to get going on the rebuild.

 

[Lyghtning]

all i can say is ouch

 

[Lyghtning]

If there's anything i can donate to your rebuild shoot me a PM, i'm currently running a 40breeder, and 46 bowfront, and just sealing up my 220 to start myself.

 

[m-six hundred]

Ouch man that really stinks. Can I ask, the tank is wrapped. When I was searching for tanks long ago I remember coming across a tank like this being sold as recently warrantied by lemar. Is that how you bought it?

 

[dotcommer]

Wow, that's a story. Always happens when you are out of town. Glad to hear you have a new tank and getting it all back together.

 

[Weyrman]

Your story brought back that gut wrenching feeling I had when I discovered a tank had similarly blown out a bottom seam and there was water all over the floor.

Great that you've already ordered a new tank.

 

[krazysvede]

Thanks for the condolences and offers of assistance guys.

Ouch man that really stinks. Can I ask, the tank is wrapped. When I was searching for tanks long ago I remember coming across a tank like this being sold as recently warrantied by lemar. Is that how you bought it?

Yep, I'd bet that it is the same one.

Your story brought back that gut wrenching feeling I had when I discovered a tank had similarly blown out a bottom seam and there was water all over the floor.

I feel like I'm part of some super exclusive club now... lol A club that no one ever joins by choice and would like to never have anything to do with ever again.

Anyways, putting a positive spin on this thing, this does give me the chance to change out some equipment and some other things that weren't quite right before.
Lighting is 5x AI Sols in combination with a 4x 80w T5 retro and the light rack that I was using previously was trapping quite a bit of heat as it was a metal enclosure, causing tank temp was fluctuate almost 2 degrees between lights on and off. Ordered 32 feet of EZ Tube and some connectors to build a new rack that is more open in an attempt to get rid of some of the heat. The other issue I had with the light was the pulleys, they were too small to lift the light and it wasn't lifting evenly and would end up jammed sideways when raising and lowering it. I have new larger 2 1/2" pulleys and turnbuckles in place to help give me some adjustability, you can see them in the last picture in my previous post. The final issue was that I grossly under estimated the weight of the light rack with everything on it and had a system in place to raise and lower it manually and it sucked! So I'll also be adding an ATV winch to help me out. Plans for the new rack are below, I hope to finish it up today.

 

[dotcommer]

Anyways, putting a positive spin on this thing, this does give me the chance to change out some equipment and some other things that weren't quite right before.
Lighting is 5x AI Sols in combination with a 4x 80w T5 retro and the light rack that I was using previously was trapping quite a bit of heat as it was a metal enclosure, causing tank temp was fluctuate almost 2 degrees between lights on and off. Ordered 32 feet of EZ Tube and some connectors to build a new rack that is more open in an attempt to get rid of some of the heat. The other issue I had with the light was the pulleys, they were too small to lift the light and it wasn't lifting evenly and would end up jammed sideways when raising and lowering it. I have new larger 2 1/2" pulleys and turnbuckles in place to help give me some adjustability, you can see them in the last picture in my previous post. The final issue was that I grossly under estimated the weight of the light rack with everything on it and had a system in place to raise and lower it manually and it sucked! So I'll also be adding an ATV winch to help me out. Plans for the new rack are below, I hope to finish it up today.

Having a canopy that lifts up is a great feature. I just finished building a canopy that is attached to the back of the stand that raises up with a linear actuator. I can raise mine up 20".

 

[krazysvede]

Heck yes!!!!

Heck yes!!!!

The tank has arrived!

It'll probably be Friday before I have time to pick it up but at least its in town! 8 weeks of waiting, WORTH IT!! :bounce1: :inlove:

 

[Bigred]

Very nice set up. Keep the pictures coming.

 

[krazysvede]

Very nice set up. Keep the pictures coming.

Thanks Bigred, your new 215 is looking good too!

Alright update time!

The Equipment:
I ordered a new skimmer, CA reactor and BP reactor a few weeks back and they arrived. Ive also been looking at replacement regulators for the Milwaukee I have. Im looking at the Aquarium Plants regulators, I hear that they are the best but have never seen one. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Whats in the box?

Peanuts!

And a Skimmer! yea!

The whole family and one of my helpers

The Tank:
Took a half day on Friday and headed down to The Aquarius to pick up the tank. DSA did an awesome job, the tank looks great. It's got a Starphire panels on the front and right viewing panes, a 2" double euro brace and a hybrid glass/PVC bottom. The hybrid bottom made this tank a dream to move, 2 of us were able to get it out of the crate and off the truck into the garage and 3 of us were able to carry it out around the back of the house and up onto the stand. After the tank was on the stand I got the hand winch installed for the light rack and spent some time moving all the equipment back into the sump and getting cables sorted back out and cleaned up. I've got a couple more weekends of work until the cabinetry is finished and ready to install and then I'll get it filled up, I'm hoping that won't be too much longer.

A couple weeks ago I gave all my existing rock an acid bath and started to cycle about 40 lbs of it, the cycle is well under way now. Hopefully I'll have time to do some aquascaping this week with the dry stuff. It's been a while since I've seen these colors on a test kit! :lmao:

 

[gamecraze15]

Looks great, Ian!:thumbsup:


-Carl

 

[krazysvede]

Did some aquascaping today, what do you guys think?

 

[db DeepBlue db]

Looks dope!

What are your plans for the stand?

 

[h.cordero]

Oops it cracked... Ian's 220 Build and Rebuild

Really nice tank but awful experience waiting for a call with your hands tied! Could you explain your sump drawing please? Which model skimmer and calcium Rx are those? reef dynamics right?

 

[Stolireef]

Someday, I'll have wiring as neat as what you have planned. Beautiful setup. I understand a BB tank but are you going to locate either a DSB or more live rock elsewhere?

 

[krazysvede]

Looks great, Ian!:thumbsup:


-Carl

Thanks dude! Start a thread for your 280 man!

Looks dope!
What are your plans for the stand?

Thanks DeepBlue! The stand is being skinned to match "“ish our kitchen cabinets. Hopefully in a few weeks from now we'll have them ready to go.

Really nice tank but awful experience waiting for a call with your hands tied! Could you explain your sump drawing please? Which model skimmer and calcium Rx are those? reef dynamics right?

Thanks h.cordero! This should help a bit with the sump. It's changed around a little now that I have the Reef Dynamics stuff. Let me know if you have more questions about it. The skimmer is the INS-350 and the Calcium reactor is the 250e.

Someday, I'll have wiring as neat as what you have planned. Beautiful setup. I understand a BB tank but are you going to locate either a DSB or more live rock elsewhere?

Thanks Stoli! The wiring is an ongoing pain in my rear but I'm happy with the results though I've probably gone through $100 in zip ties, which is a TON of zip ties. Every time I think I have everything exactly where I want it and the wiring looks good I remember something else I forgot to put in or something needs to be moved"¦ I will have about 40 lbs. more rock that will be in the sump. The tank will have a shallow SB, probably only about 1" or so. I'm re using the Reef Flakes I had in the tank prior to the crack, I started cleaning the sand yesterday and it is currently in the garage soaking in RO.

I've had the reef dynamics stuff for a few weeks now and staring at it sitting in a dry sump was really killing me. The curious geek in me finally got the best of me and I HAD to fill the sump. The Mrs. came home to me elbow deep in the sump with a grin on my face like I'd just found all the Christmas presents.

"œ What are you working on?"
"œI'm testing all this new equipment to make sure it's silent like you asked for honey."

It could have been worse, she could've come home to me sitting in a plastic kiddy pool in the middle of the living room with a scuba mask on and a snorkel in my mouth playing with the skimmer"¦

Needless to say I am THRILLED with the RD equipment. The biopellet reactor is silent, the calcium reactor is almost silent, the only noise from it is when a CO2 bubble hits the pump impeller, and the skimmer pumps have a low hum to them that should go away once the stand is skinned. I picked up an Aquarium Plants regulator and a couple more Tunze 6105s a couple weeks ago and am done with all the equipment now.

I've got a couple days to let the cement on the rocks cure and hopefully this thing will see water this week.

 

[db DeepBlue db]

Cant wait to see it finished and thriving. Keep up the good work!