tank rebuild - graphic intensive

[rs2208]

Last weekend I re-did a lot of my plumbing and put my rock back in my 185g display. Here are a few photos:

Cleaned my Hammerhead pump and fitted with 2" ball valves. This runs my closed loop via an Oceansmotions 4 way.

Penductors that are fed by a PanWorld 200PS. These alternate via a 1.5" actuated ball valve.

4" PVC was used to protect the plumbing and botton penductors. I also used other pieces to elevate the rock and create a tunnel for the flow of the bottom penductors.

Back of the tank shots:

 

[rs2208]

Rock in the tank. Cooked for 2 months. It did not turn out the way I wanted, but my main goals were to:
1. Hide the PVC supports
2. Leave access to the closed loop input strainers for cleaning
3. Have lots of places for acros
4. Find a place for my 12" clam(didn't work too well)

What's left of my corals. Some are still in the prop tank.

My 4 ft GEO skimmer:

Calcium reactor and 29g prop tank:

Sump:

Randy

 

[Letmegrow]

Where's the guy who goes 'hey I hope those bulk heads hold." ?

That's awesome, I have the same scheme planned but my over flow will span the back of the tank and be external. And the closed loop will pump will be on a stand behind the tank not under.

Acrylic is so cool. Good job Randy.

 

[DrBDC]

Very nice.

 

[TWINPEAKS]

This maybe a dumb question but doesn't all the holes weaken the tank?

 

[rams]

Man that clam is BIG, nice setup Randy

 

[ReeferRon]

Nice job Randy...man I thought i had alot of plumbing.

 

[Im Lon 2]

Looks Sweet. :thumbsup:

Have not heard from you in a week or so, did you get a grip on whats was messing up the tank..

 

[rs2208]

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

Letmegrow - I really like the idea of an external overflow. Whenever I get to get a big tank, I will have it buit with one. Acrylic is great but it is too easy to drill more holes. I already have 14 in the tank. I am going to have a hard time selling a tank with 14 holes in it.

TWINPEAKS - From what I have read you can put alot of holes in an acrylic tank without weakening it - I hope.

Im Lon 2 - I never really figured out what the entire cause was. I found an acro flatworm that cleared 1/2" strips of tissue of my green slimer. It also destroyed 90% of a nice purple acro colony. Hopefully I only had one. I am going to do regular dips and powerheading of some of my acros to see if there are more. I am also getting a six line wrasse to help. I did a 180g water change with IO. Most of my acros look better. They are all browned out from being in a 55 holding tank with no lights for 3 days.

One thing I didn't make very clear and is hard to see in the pictures is that there are a total of 4 penductors. 2 on at a time. One at the top and one of the bottom, switching sides every 4 minutes.

 

[Nanook]

Your plumbing work looks really nice!! I think mine will look lousy in comparison because I am using all flexible, clear braided tubing instead of PVC and flex PVC. I am leary of PVC and like the familiarity I have with flexible tubing. I just need to make sure all the hose clamps are good and tight.

Good luck with your new setup.

Dave

 

[chadfarmer]

acro flatworm

if you found one you will find more (sorry to hear this)

 

[trottman]

Im Lon 2 - I never really figured out what the entire cause was. I found an acro flatworm that cleared 1/2" strips of tissue of my green slimer. It also destroyed 90% of a nice purple acro colony. Hopefully I only had one. I am going to do regular dips and powerheading of some of my acros to see if there are more. I am also getting a six line wrasse to help. I did a 180g water change with IO. Most of my acros look better. They are all browned out from being in a 55 holding tank with no lights for 3 days.

I don't think that three days without light would make the acros brown. You have to remeber that these things are form the !extremely violent! ocean. In the ocean corals go for a week or more without light due to Hurricanes and large sea storms. I think that people believe that corals are very delicate and do too much "stuff" to them. They are probably brown due to a masive environment change.

But........i could always be incorrect. I don't knwo very much...

By the way nice tank set up

 

[JxMetal]

Matt, you also have to remember that those corals are in their natural environment. Us, as hobbyists, can only offer corals so much. Our tanks will never compare to the natural state of the ocean.

 

[jamison74]

first off very nice setup, i have a question about your sump, in the middle suspended by the 2x3's can you tell us what you have in there? live rock rubble, just curious i am setting up my 100 gal sump and looking for advice, thanks in advance
jamison

 

[geoxman]

this is an old one and I doubt Randy will see it. In the larger sump it is all LR then from what I can remember the smaller Rubbermaid had some filter floss in it and it was supported by the 2x4's. He did not run a fuge because his main display was bare bottom.
It was mainly a source for more LR and water volume. good luck

 

[Letmegrow]

Ah this is why I was getting emails about a subscribed thread.

I would liek to know how the BB was going.

 

[rs2208]

geoxman is right - small rubbermaid has filter pads in it to collect crap and the sump is just an area for all water to return to. Skimmer and reactors pull from the sump as well.

BB was going great until I started working insane hours and got some AEFWs. Took the main tank down for a while and am in the process of restarting it. I have a few corals in it but not much.