Upgrading my 50 gal.

[Alaska_Phil]

About 4 years ago I inherited the care of a 40 Long salt water tank in our office lobby. And I've been slowly improving it ever since. When I first took over it had an under gravel filter with about 6 inches of crushed coral over it. Somewhere the caretaker had heard that you shouldn't gravel vac a deep sand bed and had stopped. At this point few fish lasted over 2 weeks in the tank. And no wonder, the Nitrate was off the scale at over 200ppm! Needless to say I deactivated the undergravel and added a skimmer. Then upgraded the lighting to 2x55W PC and started trying to grow corals.

About 2 years ago, I discovered that it wasn't actually a fish tank, but a critter cage with a plastic bottom that was sagging ominously. So I swapped the tank out for a 50 long and finally was rid off all the old substrate. But, I was skeptical about a DSB because of all the foul gunk trapped in the old crushed coral bed, so went with just enough sand to cover the bottom in front. I kept parts of the old undergravel sysem to support the power heads, but with no gravel on top.

Well, after 4 years of reading reef central I've decided to go-ahead and do the smart upgrades.
1. Deep sand bed
2. T5 lighting
3. Sump with refugium

 

[Alaska_Phil]

Today I started by adding the deep sand bed.

Here's what I started with, unfortunately I forgot to grab the camera before I got started. But as you can see, I've got a pretty bad hair algae problem right now. It's been one nuisance algae bloom after another with this tank.

 

[Alaska_Phil]

What was left of the under gravel plate. On of the problems was that my snails and hermits kept falling down the lift tube holes and getting trapped under it. Of course at the moment my flame angel was hiding under there.

 

[Alaska_Phil]

Filled up again, with the new gravel bed and live rock scrubbed clean of hair algae. I added 40 lbs of dry coarser sand, 0.5 to 2mm and 30lbs of dry sugar sand. I'd have preferred more sugar sand, but that was all that was left in town. I added the sugar over the coarse, but I'm sure they'll mix eventually. I added the hang on filter to help clear the water. I had to rinse the pad after 10 min.

 

[Alaska_Phil]

Temporary home of my fish and corals. Located on the floor next to the main tank so I can use an airline to aclimate them back to the main tank.

And finished. The water is starting to clear and the skimmer is still pulling lots of wet skimmate. I be back first thing in the morning to check on things and empty the skimmer cup.

 

[Alaska_Phil]

next up is the T5 lighting. I've got an Icecap 4x54W kit ready to go and got a pretty good start on the hood last night. It's built from 3/4" birch ply. I plan to remote mount the ballasts, so I'm hoping the slots in the top will provide adequate convection cooling since the lobby is usually right at 72 degrees.

 

[melev]

That looks like good progress! Who knew algae grew at the North Pole? :lol:

You can mount the ballast on the back panel of the canopy, which will keep it dry. That's what I did with my 55g.

 

[Alaska_Phil]

That's what I'm doing with the current hood and 2x55W ballast. But don't like the exposed wire nuts. Just grates on me professionally. I'd have to write up any electrician I caught doing that after all. I'm planning to buy a big non-metalic or corrosion resistant metal electrical box to put them in. Then mount to the back of the hood or under the stand.

I should also note that there's a phosban reactor full of carbon running on the tank right now too. Just in case I stirred up anything bad.

I'll order a new clean-up crew on monday since I'm down to one snail now. The LFS has a couple lawnmower blennies too, so I'll probably get one of those too.

Phil

 

[darkdruid]

Good cleanup so far, looking much better!

 

[Bill14]

Looking good. I'm looking forward to seeing it after it's all cleared up. I'm sure you already know this, but make sure you go slow when turning those T5's on so you don't bleach anything. It will be quite a bit more light then the PCs you had on there.

Are you planning on keeping the same corals you have in there now? Looks like a good selection of LPS, softies, shrooms, and zoas. Also, can we get a run down on all the equipment currently on the tank?

 

[jose7878]

Looks a whole lot better know. looked like you had you hands full with all that algae.. Looking forward to seeing the complete setup....

 

[Alaska_Phil]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15378357#post15378357 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bill14
Looking good. I'm looking forward to seeing it after it's all cleared up. I'm sure you already know this, but make sure you go slow when turning those T5's on so you don't bleach anything. It will be quite a bit more light then the PCs you had on there.

The T5's are on 2 separate ballasts, so I'll 2 lamps all day initially and slowly add more time each day to the second pair. I learned about light shock the hard way when the direct sunlight started hitting my nano tank this spring.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15378357#post15378357 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bill14
Are you planning on keeping the same corals you have in there now? Looks like a good selection of LPS, softies, shrooms, and zoas. Also, can we get a run down on all the equipment currently on the tank? [/B]

Current Equipment
50 Long tank
2x55W AH Supply lighting kit with 10,000k lamps
BakPak 2 skimmer
Phosban reactor (alternates between phosban and carbon)
One 400 gpm Koralia power head
One 800 gpm Koralia power head
Auto top-off system.

Current Livestock
1 Yellow tang
2 False Perc clowns
1 Flame Angel
1 huge Banded Coral Shrimp
3 finger leathers
1 toadstool leather
1 rust red zoanthid colony
1 fairly large frog spawn
1 open brain
Lots of different mushrooms scattered all over the tank.

Other than adding a clean-up crew I'm not planning to add anything more except maybe a lawnmower blennie.


OK, I"m off to see how thing look in the light of a new day.

Phil

 

[Alaska_Phil]

I checked on the tank today. But unfortunately my camera decided to die . I'll get some photos tomorrow with the office camera.

Anyway, the water had fully cleared. All the corals and fish looked fine and ate readily when fed. My leathers were expanded, but the polyps were closed. I'm especially worried about my toadstool since it was damaged near the base when I removed it. But otherwise the tank looks great, and the new landscaping is allowing for much better flow, before, I had several large dead spots.

I'm holding off ordering the clean-up crew since I have a deadline on Wednesday and won't have time to aclimate them till after then. But I did make a little progress on the light hood. After the glue dries, I should be able to start fitting the lights tomorrow.

Phil

 

[Alaska_Phil]

OK, my clean-up crew has shipped and should be here tomorrow. I'm adding the following:
12 Blue leg hermits
15 Nassarius Snails
12 Cerith snails
25 Astraea Turbo Snails
1 Emerald Crab.

I have updated pictures that I'll post later.

Phil

 

[Alaska_Phil]

OK, here's the photo's from Monday

First the full tank shot. Looks pretty good, but I did a little rearranging now that I can actually see everything. :lol:

Right side of the tank, I ended up with a cool little cave under that biggest rock. I've got sections of PVC on end supporting that rock so it won't settle into the sand, so the cave should remain.

This frogs spawn has been pale since the day I bought it 3 years ago. But it's 10 times the size of the frag it started as. I'm relieved to see some darker colors returning to it. I went through Eric Borneman's slide show on a frogs spawn recovering from bleaching so I'm encouraged by it's current appearance.

OK, this is a problem. I've since rotated the rock the toad stool is on so it's near the back of the tank now. The brain was trying to eat it. :eek1:

And here's everyone favorite kritter in this tank. Nicknamed Scorpious. He lost a claw during his last molt, so I'm anxious for him to molt again and get it back.

By this afternoon the sand bed was showing a light dusting of diatom algae. My clean-up crew will be here tomorrow and none too soon. I'm also thinking about adding a Rainford's goby. I had one for a couple years in my nano and he constantly sifted the top couple mm of the sand bed keeping it spotless. I'm also going to see if the LFS will sell me a couple pounds of the fine rubble from the bottom of their live rock tank. It should be full of micro organisms to seed the new sand bed.

That's it for now, time to go work on the light hood for a bit.

Phil

 

[melev]

Let's hope that cleanup crew focuses on your tank and gets it completely under control again. I like the big changes you've made.

 

[chi3f]

hopefully ev everything works out OK

 

[Alaska_Phil]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15394656#post15394656 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Let's hope that cleanup crew focuses on your tank and gets it completely under control again. I like the big changes you've made.

What else would they focus on? :lol:
I like the changes too, I just wish I knew then what I know now.

hopefully ev everything works out OK

Got my fingers crossed too!

Didn't get too far on the hood tonight. I wanted to mount the light bases, then remove them to do the sanding and painting, but I'm out of 1" stainless screws. I'll have to run get some at lunch time tomorrow.

Looking ahead a bit, does anyone know the clearance above the rim of the tank needed for a life reef overflow box? I want to make sure my new hood will work with one.

Phil

 

[Alaska_Phil]

OK, I know it's been too long since an update. Finally found some time and got a camera that works again. :thumbsup:

Here's photos from Wednesday July 22, when the clean-up crew came in.

Bags of snails and crabs OH MY! Drip acclimating the new clean-up crew.

My faithful assistant Tuan (langtudatinh01). The bucket under the cart is full of clean saltwater and hooked up to the auto top off to replace the water dripped into the bags.

And my current light hood showing the two 55 Watt power compacts.

 

[Alaska_Phil]

And some updates from tonight.

Got the supports glued into the inside a couple days ago. So it's ready for the split.

And it's a split! OK, I'm a long way from a thread split This is a nerve racking cut for me since I can't clamp a guide onto the hood at this point, and I don't have a table saw. So it's free hand with the skill saw. Turned out pretty good. I got a couple of small gouges, but they'll fortunately be under the piano hinge when it's done. :thumbsup:

OK, time to fill the screw holes and end grain voids for final sanding. I've never used this stuff before, it's a two part epoxy based filler from MinWax. It should be cured by now so I'll report on it's sandability a little later.