Several years ago, I purchased a 92 gallon corner bowfront with the intent to create a Caribbean Biotope aquarium. I wanted to keep Jawfish in this tank, so it was set up with a pretty deep sand bed. Originally, the tank did well, but after losing 2 Jawfish, I decided against trying to keep them.
With the kids still being involved in sports, the tank went on auto-pilot for several years. As a result, I lost most of my corals a few of the fish. The tank began to have all the algae issues associated with minimal maintenance.
Now, all of our kids are in college and I should have more time to dedicate to the hobby. I decided that I still wanted to have a Caribbean Biotope, but I also wanted to get back into keeping Acropora species and Tridacnas. So, I decided to tear down (and eventually sell) the 92.
The 92 will be replaced with a 40 gallon Caribbean Reef and a 75 gallon Indo-Pacific reef. These will be positioned in an L-Shape for display purposes. The plan is to have a combined sump/filtration for both tanks using a 40 gallon breeder converted to a sump, which will be located under the L-Shaped stand.
The rock in the 92 is a mix of Reef Rocks base rock and Haitian live rock. All of this rock will be cooked after the 92 comes down. The base rock will be used for the 75, with the Haitian going into the 40.
The new tanks will eventually occupy the space where the 92 is currently located, so I'll need to do this in steps.
The first step, was to set up the 40 in a temporary location and transfer what remaining livestock I have. So, two weekends ago, the slow process began.
I started by drilling the 40 for an Eshopps Eclipse Overflow, painting the back and side of the tank that will be against the wall and installing the overflow.
Then, it was time to build the temporary stand.
The permanent location of the 40 will be to the right of the 92 you can see in this picture.
Then, I painted the stand, put the tank in place and added 50 pounds of Reef Rocks dry rock as my base. I'll eventually top this off with aqua-cultured live rock from the Keys, Gulf or a combination of the two. Most likely, a combination of the two to obtain the largest amount of diversity.
This past weekend, I built the temporary sump using a 10 gallon tank and a Modular Marine Sump Kit and put that in place. I'll post pics of that later this week.
I'll update this thread as I make progress if anyone is interested in following along.
With the kids still being involved in sports, the tank went on auto-pilot for several years. As a result, I lost most of my corals a few of the fish. The tank began to have all the algae issues associated with minimal maintenance.
Now, all of our kids are in college and I should have more time to dedicate to the hobby. I decided that I still wanted to have a Caribbean Biotope, but I also wanted to get back into keeping Acropora species and Tridacnas. So, I decided to tear down (and eventually sell) the 92.
The 92 will be replaced with a 40 gallon Caribbean Reef and a 75 gallon Indo-Pacific reef. These will be positioned in an L-Shape for display purposes. The plan is to have a combined sump/filtration for both tanks using a 40 gallon breeder converted to a sump, which will be located under the L-Shaped stand.
The rock in the 92 is a mix of Reef Rocks base rock and Haitian live rock. All of this rock will be cooked after the 92 comes down. The base rock will be used for the 75, with the Haitian going into the 40.
The new tanks will eventually occupy the space where the 92 is currently located, so I'll need to do this in steps.
The first step, was to set up the 40 in a temporary location and transfer what remaining livestock I have. So, two weekends ago, the slow process began.
I started by drilling the 40 for an Eshopps Eclipse Overflow, painting the back and side of the tank that will be against the wall and installing the overflow.
Then, it was time to build the temporary stand.
The permanent location of the 40 will be to the right of the 92 you can see in this picture.
Then, I painted the stand, put the tank in place and added 50 pounds of Reef Rocks dry rock as my base. I'll eventually top this off with aqua-cultured live rock from the Keys, Gulf or a combination of the two. Most likely, a combination of the two to obtain the largest amount of diversity.
This past weekend, I built the temporary sump using a 10 gallon tank and a Modular Marine Sump Kit and put that in place. I'll post pics of that later this week.
I'll update this thread as I make progress if anyone is interested in following along.
