Upgrading from 33g to 75g

[Rudy00]

I see you get towels from the general

[dan2x38]

I see you get towels from the general

Actually untrue! A friend shut down his business it was a garage. They buy rags and the old towels from there and some other locations end up in the bags of rags.  Many of the towels and even sheets are not reused.

[dan2x38]

OK here are more pictures of the upgrade. Hoping by Tue to have it up and running?

This is the tank today before I break it down next couple days.



Picked up some Macro Rock from Ottawa Inverts (Pat/Trina). After careful selection and messing up Trina's carpet found three cool pieces to create a coral rock tower. Below are the pieces. I used DD Aquascape Epoxy from Ray to stick the pieces together. Then the final picture coated the grey epoxy with silicone then covered it up with CaribSea Aragamax (sugar sand).








This is the tank after being painted, bulkheads installed with DIY screens, air relief vents and 'V' Coast to Coast Internal Overflow taped in place. Also had to clean all the tape gum from the original background on the tank this was the actual back of the tank this took much longer than you'd think it had been on there a couple years.



To reach in the bottom of the V and the side used a long balloon and wooden dowel of a dollar store Canada Day flag. Pulled the balloon over the dowel then use it to apply silicone to the tight corners. Only problem I made a bloody mess of it. Only thing to make it look proper was cut it out and start over. 



After cleaning off all the silicone took a 2 x 2 I had laying around that was less than 47" long. I measured the right distance from the top and taped the 2 x 2 in place. Now by hand held the glass at a right angle against the 2 x 2 and siliconed the glass to back of the tank. A trick is to use water and dip your finger in it to smooth the silicone keep an old rag handy to wipe the excess silicone off your finger. After that I placed what I was using to get the right depth of the 'V' a bottle of Primax. I laid the glass on the angle. Carefully and using the dowel siliconed the sides. Left this over night then in the morning taped off the outside siliconed in the seams and removed the tape right away pulling straight up. The glass is 5 mil x 47" x 7.5". The 'V' is 8" from top of trim to the outside bottom of the 'V'. The 'V' opening is 3.5" wide at the top. The top edge is 1/4" under the trim so you do not see the water level. I found no measurements anywhere these are determined by bits and pieces picked up from several builds online and from others I talked with.

[salvini55]

Lookin good! I wish I had that v style oerflow instead of the big ugly box style in my tank.

[Vincenzo.]

nice job dan, its coming alone nicely.

[karjean]

Looks good, looking forward to see the final product.

[dan2x38]

The switch over is under way. The 33g is torn down (soon to posted in c/f) and the 75 is in place. All the plumbing is connected. I have several pumps circulating the water with a heater and a Fluval 204 connected to clear it up. It's 1/2 full fish are in one rubbermaid & corals plus the other inverts are in another rubbermaid bin. Both are heated and circulating with Korlias. Just need to wait for it to clear more to add the rest of the rock. I am looking at a tank half full of milk... LOL BUT at least it's half full! 

Tank in Place




Plumbing in place. Have brackets but need to go back to Home depot for drywall anchors ones I got are to short. 




Tank circulating waiting for it to clear.




Rubbermaid containers holding fish, corals and all the inverts.

[dan2x38]

Well everything is transferred but still quite cloudy. I think my feather duster is done for though. I thought I had it out of the other tank but I didn't he was exposed to the air for a bit. Placed him in the new tank but it looks like he is dead the head is sort of wilted and a snail crawled on it. I moved it higher up but likely lost it...

The other issue and I was afraid of it my return pump isn't pumping enough. It is a Rio 2500 max. 750 gph. I need a Mag 9.5 or similar.

The other causality I broke the centre baffle out the bubble trap I built from the fuge to the return chamber in the sump. Since my fuge is so deep I created a trap for it to prevent bubbles getting into the pump. It will be OK since it is the centre baffle it was just and extra addition it will function fine without the centre piece.

When it clears up I'll have to move some rock around and the corals. After that will post the pictures.

There isn't enough flow quite yet but the overflow is dead silent for far.

[dan2x38]

Well the pump is fine... D'OH I have a switch that fits in the power bar the pump plugs into so I can turn it off and on easily for water changes. Well when I started it it ran for a bit but I didn't push it hard enough so it tripped off and I thought it wasn't pumping enough. Once I figured that out turned it on it works perfectly. It runs great and very quiet.

Here is a picture of it up and running almost cleared totally. Will likely move some rock around still. OH it looks like the feather duster will make it but it still looks a little peaked.

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[salvini55]

TOP SHELF good sir

[dan2x38]

Below are pictures of the recent changes to the setup. As this goes along there are some little mods but for the most part the build has gone quite smooth *cross fingers*

My Firefish is starting to show himself but the Linkia Star is not looking any better...

The plumbing which includes 1.5" True Union Ball Valves is very heavy. Those ball valves must be over 3 lbs each? I was not comfortable having it all supported by the glass alone. Using a little ingenuity with some serious dry wall anchors, CPVC 3/4" pipe as spacers and ribbed 1.5" electrical brackets secured the plumbing to the wall to support the weight.

The glass tops I have are from the African setup that was in this tank. I created hard water with Salt/Epsom Salts/Baking Soda so they had calcium deposits that etched the glass. So decided to replace them with black egg create. They carry it at Rona in 4' x 2' pieces 3/8" thick which is perfect. The egg create is not sitting flat because it is not cut out entirely. I am waiting on some Loc-Line to finish the return plus making sure I do not have to move the circulation pumps. After that will cut out pieces so it sits flush.

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[dan2x38]

Here it is now totally cleared up but there is some glare from an open blind. the Linkia Star is in the picture looking a little better still crossing my fingers. Firefish shows himself from time to time. The Hawaiian Feather Duster still has it's head but not seeing it out much but my Coco Worm is fine. Finally saw my Tiger Pistol Shrimp tonight too and he is teamed up with the Pink/Blue Gobie again first sighting for him. Crossing fingers everything settles in it's shaping up but not out of the woods yet. Do have an issue with my skimmer but that is a different thread I think? OH The MJ900 near the front is coming out I replaced the pump with an Evo 1024.

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[dan2x38]

I lost a couple things on the transfer... In the picture below I need to paint the strainers black - still haven't gotten to it. Will take one out at a time and plug the hole. Paint it with Krylon Fussion let it sit for 7 days then do the other.

The coral tower I built with Macro (base rock) Rock from Ottawa Inverts is starting to colour up with coraline already - it has a pink hue over it now.

All in all it is coming alone nicely with only a few small hick-ups.

OK after 1 month here is what is looks like so far.



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[Rybren]

Looking good Dan.

How is the Anthias holding up?

[Bob P]

Awesome

[dan2x38]

Thanks guys...

The Anthias is doing well. I am not 100% sure he is getting enough to eat though he does spit out a lot I feed the tank like brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, marine NLS. I hope he is and am watching him closely.

[Tyler.L]

i have a feeling that anthias will out grow that tank lol, i dont know if you have seen a full sized square spot... but he would be in tight spaces for tank that size

[dan2x38]

I've seen the full grown ones on line only. The research I did says they will do well in 75. They are not suppose to be as active as all other anthias.

[Tyler.L]

some sites say they get up to 7". I have seen them at about 6ish" and liveaquaria which i find to be the most true to min. requirements pegs all anthias to be at a 125g min. due to the amount of swimming they do.

[dan2x38]

Thanks Tyler guess I'll just have to watch him. I like LiveAquaria too but many sites I researched on said 4"-5" and 70g - 75g. So I bought him according to that. Also most sites said they are not as active as other anthais. Most fish never reach their max. size but if he does guess he will end up in the classifieds somewhere.