Operation Rebuild

Flame_Angel

Ready For Business
Oh hey, look what I found in the mail today...

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  • Koralia 8 12V x4
  • Koralia 4-pump Wavemaker
  • Mag-Drive 24 return pump
  • Reef Octopus B250 Skimmer
Not seen is the filter sock/holder, tubing, and bulkheads for the tank. Basically, my store was the recipient of 4 feet of water during hurricane Irene, and as we put the fish room back together I'm going to be redoing our old DAS 350g reef tank, with all new parts and pieces, live rock and live sand. It'll look pretty snifty once it's done, but I figured I'd make this thread so I could document it.

I'll get some pics of the new stand and the tank itself when I get back to work on Thursday!
 
I guess I can give a little more info on the build, but pics will have to wait until tomorrow evening. The tank had been set up long before I took over the fish room, and was a real mess. No protein skimmer, no powerheads, minimal lighting from regular fluorescent bulbs 5 feet off the top of the tank, trying to shine through a thick piece of plastic...yuck city.

Well, the flood has had one positive effect in that it's allowed me to redo the tank the way it should be done. Dimensions are 102"Lx37"Dx21"H (It's a DAS tank; they have weird dimensions), total gallonage of 350~ gallons without the sump. The stand...get this...was made out of plywood and nothing else. No 2x4s, no bracing, no supports, JUST PLYWOOD. How it's managed to stay up this long is beyond me. Anyway, we built a new, over-engineered stand for it that raises the tank up another 6" or so; it'll make it so that you look into the tank, and not down at the top.

The plan is to stock it with an emphasis on LPS and softies, with fish thrown in for movement. Maybe a nice big school of chromis or something like that. I'll be getting a nice big shipment of rock and sand from Florida Live Rock, and the shape of the tank will let me do some really neat things with aquascaping.

Pics to come soon!
 
Well, they managed to put together and skin the stand while I was off, so I didn't get any construction photos of that, but here's one of the tank on its stand:

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The hood that's sitting on top is only there temporarily. It'll get removed and replaced by four AquaUfo LED pendants before the room reopens.

I'm waffling back and forth between a shallow and deep sand bed. I'd like to do a deep one, but I'm not really sure if the benefits make it worthwhile in a tank like this, where I'm going to have such a wide expanse of open bottom that I need to keep a flow over.
 
I don't, unfortunately. The way it was positioned, it was impossible to get a FTS of it. Rest assured though, it was grody...

Just waiting on the feed pump for the protein skimmer and some bulkheads to come in from Bulkreef, then I'll be able to tear everything apart and get some pictures while I put it all together.
 
Alright, an update! Sorry for the lack of pictures of it going back together, but honestly who wants to see bulkheads anyway?

Overflows and feed pipe installed, base rock laid down to mark out where the rock wall is going to be before everything is put in:
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That's 24 boxes of rock and sand, almost a thousand pounds total:
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(Got the rock and sand from floridaliverock.com; Dale was SUPER helpful and sent me some really quality stuff, definitely recommend them if you can get to an airport to pick it up)

Sand and live rock in and ready for water:
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Filling!
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Full!
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It was already beginning to clear up when I left for the evening; I'll try to get some better pictures of the cleared up tank tomorrow.

The lighting is 4 AquaUFO 90W LED pendants, courtesy of David Lass and Sunshine Systems.
 
Electricity in your state or country must be cheap. Mag 24 return? That is luxury.
It's called 'I don't pay the electric bill, my employer does'. :celeb1:

When the flood happened, my general manager decided he wanted that tank as a reef display, and I told him up-front to not look at the bills that would be coming in; if you want a really nice display, especially in a store, you gotta spend the bucks to get it.

*edit* - The cost is offset somewhat by the use of the LED's and Koralia powerheads.
 
It's called 'I don't pay the electric bill, my employer does'. :celeb1:

When the flood happened, my general manager decided he wanted that tank as a reef display, and I told him up-front to not look at the bills that would be coming in; if you want a really nice display, especially in a store, you gotta spend the bucks to get it.

*edit* - The cost is offset somewhat by the use of the LED's and Koralia powerheads.

That's a sweet looking tank!! I like your reasoning! :thumbsup:
 
I rather like those beveled edges on the tank...
Thanks, all the DAS display tanks come like that. The filtration on them is poopoo, and they make their stands out of plywood with no tops :hmm3:, but they do look nice.

Tank was a little clearer today; you can actually see the rock now.

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Also took a small video of the tank so you could see all the little nooks and crannies.

http://youtu.be/1Hh4SjdZQo8
 
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