RODSTAR'S REEF ROOM - 561G Display Tank

Following this for sure! A lot of thought and planning went into this, looks great so far. good luck!!
 
As the saga drags on, I thought it was unfair of me to not post pictures. So, here are a few shots from the aborted tank move day! The first couple pictures are from the shipping depot (ABF). The last couple are of the truck at the house and the final resting place of the tank in the back yard. I say final because it feels that way. Its still another couple weeks before the tank moves inside! ARGHHH!

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And to make matters worse, my temporary tank has AEFW. So, I have started treating with Flatworm Stop. I have also fragged the corals down to almost nothing. The good news is that this is not my DT. So, no SPS go into the DT and this frag tank will not be hooked up to the DT until all flatworms are eradicated. Even if that means NO SPS make it and I toss them all. These things are brutal and I will go all LPS before I introduce them again!
 
there better be a long QT process after that.....
and dont have fish that eat them... because you will still have them and never know.
 
there better be a long QT process after that.....
and dont have fish that eat them... because you will still have them and never know.

So, I am thinking that I will handle AEFW like this.

Once the DT is ready, all fish and coral, minus the SPS will move over.

The SPS and any rock in that tank will stay in the frag tank until either all SPS are dead or I can no longer find any remnants of AEFW (eggs, flatworms, etc).

Then that tank will still remain disconnected from the main system for another 8 weeks (2 months).

In the meantime, any new SPS acquired will be scoured with a magnifying glass and coral dip before going into the DT. And any SPS I get will only come from trusted sources.

Does seem like a decent way to go?
 
i have never had them... (knock on wood...)

NO SPS and NO rock that is in the tank with the worms should go in there.....

if you can afford a little extra dry rock, mix it with the good live rock and get the tank full. of rock. and i would trash the live rock.. (2$ a lb for dry rock is way cheaper then crossing your fingers... especially in a huge tank like yours.)

you can dry out your old rock and acid dip it and sell it to recoop some cash later....

then like you said QT the rock and keep dipping and treating and viewing.
then once all gone. then a 2 month qt is in order. (you can dip weekly just for insurance)

i just hate to take a chance of taking a rock with some eggs from the tank and popping it in the tank and letting them spread.

with a large tank, it can take a year before you see them in the tank.

(in my 240gal tank, i got some Monti eating Nudi's and i didnt add any corals to my tank for 9 months... then i see them on some of my huge monti colonies. i had never seen them before because of the huge tank...
i ended up throwing away huge chunks of monties.... (ended up trashing all of them except 2 quarter sized frags and dipped them biweekly for months... and still ended up throwing them away because it was a up hill fight.

and now i am nudi free. (and have some sweet montis.)
but i didnt add any more monti for almost a year. just for insurance.

big tanks arnt the same as small tanks. things can hide for long periods of time and then one day.... your infested.
 
That sounds like an extremely conservative plan.

How long do the eggs/AEFW survive without sps to munch on?

I figured that 2 months would be plenty.
 
like i said... i have never had those....
so i dont know the life span... but whatever anyone says... Double it haha.

you might check out the SPS forum. they might know more.

i just hate to see someone chance something so easy to avoid.
if you had a 29gal biocube... you could pull all the rock and sand and replace it all for a hundred$
in a tank of your magnitude, imagine how much sand and rock and loss of corals you would have if you just thought it will be fine and chanced it.
 
Slowly but surely, this build continues its progression.

Over the weekend I was able to move the stand and the sump into place. Of course that was not without its own headaches.

The new french doors made this all possible and they went in on Friday.

On Saturday morning, my wife, her brother and I moved the stand in. We ended up using an engine lift to get it up and over the half wall into the room.

But, one of the threaded feet had a bad thread, so before I could finish leveling it, I had to get a file and spend 45 minutes filing the threads.

All done.

Sunday I really wanted to get the sump in place. But, no one was around to help. So, I did it basically by myself. I will say my 7yo daughter was a big help. The sump is 180g tank (72x24x24). I used PVC pipe sections to roll the tank into the house. Then I used a portable hydraulic lift table to raise it up and slide it onto the stand. Then I moved the lift table into the fish room and slid the sump back onto it to lower it back down. Then it was just a matter of sliding it into the stand.

Now I have a new issue. SUGGESTIONS WELCOME. When the sump is inside the stand it is much higher than I thought. The legs and adjustable feet, etc cause the top of the sump to be about 31" off the ground. My other two tanks (refugium and eel tank) are much higher up, but the drain lines are well below the top of the sump. This means the drain lines will have to go UP and OVER the top of the sump.

I am hoping that this will not be a major issue because the drain line will still be below the water level of the source tank. I will try to get pictures.

Anyway, my next steps are to:
-cut the acrylic sheets for the baffles and put them in place
- finish the plumbing for the other tanks
-move in the big tank
-finish plumbing the drains and returns for that tank
- sleep

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Oh, a couple more related items.

1. A big thanks the Delaware Valley Reef Club for the suction cups. They are a huge help!

2. I am becoming a fan of the Korallen-Zucht Flatworm Stop. My SPS has stopped receding as far as I can tell. But, even better, the healthy SPS looks fantastic. I don't think I have ever seen my GARF Bonsai look so purple and the green polyps are vibrant and fully extended!!!
 
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