Xiaan's 180G Reef Tank & Move

[xiaan]

Some of you might have heard that I have made moved up to Chelsea from my small home in Nepean. It has been a tough and exhausting journey for my tank I had just over 1 week to move my tank a vacate my old house.

I decided on getting a new tank and selling my old tank instead of moving it as that would allow me to have both setups in place to move livestock. I went again for a custom tank from Miracles Aquarium as there build quality is the best I have seen and I can get the tank size I like with the features I want. I ordered the tank 3 months ago from them in anticipation of the move.

Here are the tank specs
This time I went for a slightly bigger tank 180G (48x36x24) with 3 viewable starfire glass sides and two 3/4" returns and again I went with a external coast to coast overflow. I also got Miracles to make me a custom stand for the aquarium to sit on.




For the sump I will be only saving one tank out of my current system it is a 50G (36x16x19) sump tank.

I will be also adding another sump area for my skimmer and other equipment
Custom made rimless 20G (24x16x12)



And finally I am replacing my frag tank with a new custom rimless 30G (36x18x12)



I was planning to use most of the other equipment from the old tank as much as possible but I did get some new things.

Skimmer:
With a total water volume around 280G I decided to get a a new skimmer that was rated to at least 300G. I decided to go with the Vertex Alpha Cone 200 It had a nice small footprint that would fit well in my tank and I like the ultra silent Red Dragon pump it comes with.

Return Pump:
The return pump on my old system was a Reeflo UNO Wahoo it is a good pump for pumping up to a second floor but since my setup was going to be all on the same floor I did not need the pressure rated Wahoo. instead I settled on a Octopus Water Blaster HY-5000

Lighting:
My sump Area is currently all LED lit. I had a 5 x 15" ReefBrite fixtures running on my frag tank but I had recently upgraded that to a AI Sol White so I was going to use both of these to light my frag tank. For my Refuge I am using one 15" White ReefBrite and a 14K Par 38 spot light. For the main tank I wanted to go with mostly LED but I am still not 100% sold on there use for Growing SPS (still testing on my frag tank but I am about 98% there). on my old tank I was using 2 x 6x39W ATI Sunpower and 3 x 36" ReefBrite Blue Fixtures. I sold off one of my Sunpower fixtures and Got 4 x AI Sol Blue Fixtures for the main tank. so now the display tank will be lit by 1x 6x39W ATI Sunpower, 3x 36" ReefBrite Blue and 4 x AI Sol Blue. (I should also explain that I have replaced the ballasts in my Sunpower with dimmable ones and also the drivers for the ReefBrites are swapped out for dimmable ones I did this about 10 months ago but that is another thread )

Flow:
I already had  2 x Vortech MP40wES  and  2 x Vortech MP10wES (for the frag tank) I only need to get one extra MP40w for the main tank to give it the flow I needed. I also picked up a extra battery backup just in case.

This will be my 4th tank upgrade if you would like to see my previous tank builds and progression to this build:
First tank Build pt.1: http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=22059.0
First tank Build pt.2: http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=24393.0
Sump Upgrade: http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=31097.0
130G Tank: http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=40791.0

So here is how the build went:

Day 0 Wednesday June 29th
Picked up some final plumbing supply from PVC plus & picked up my frag tank from Jim (Forty Fathoms) at the airport.

Day 1 Thursday June 30th
9am Packed up my car full of plumbing supply, tank build stuff and new sump stand.
10am Got keys to new place

Again I will have a remote sump to keep the noise down and for me to have room to work (and to make a mess on the floor ) Here is a photo of where the sump will be located (I moved the washer and dryer to an adjoining bathroom)


I spent the rest of the day cleaning the house and prep for painting.

Day 2 Friday July 1st
Since my sump stand was a little bigger than the area I had planed for I had to do some modifications to it so it would fit in the area I had to move the drain pipe from the kitchen sink over about 4" so I can fit my stand in.

Day 3 Saturday July 2nd
Placed stand in the correct location and leveled it.
Here is a photo of the sump stand in place it measures 5' long by 2' wide by 4' high.


Day 4 Sunday July 3rd
Added overflow and divider to the frag tank. I am planning on using this as both a QT tank and an frag tank.



Mass of plumbing supply's waiting to go.


Day 5 Monday July 4th
Packing up old the house (no work on the tank)

Day 6 Tuesday July 5th
Move day not much happening on the tank.

Day 7 Wednesday July 6th
I moved my RODI from the old house to the new house and started making water. I also found out my tank will be delivered to my old house the next day  . since my new address was in Quebec they needed to use a different shipping company and that would cost me an extra $200 so I decided to have it shipped to my old place in Nepean get about 7 guys together to move the tanks (I needed to do this anyway) and then rent a truck.

Day 8 Thursday July 7th
This was a big day I had made about 100G of water overnight (I have a 150GPD RODI unit  ) and at 6am started mixing salt at the same time I did some plumbing to hook up the sump completely, at 12pm I headed back to the old place stopped in at PVC Plus to get some extra fittings (and locked my keys in my car for 1hour while my GF came to rescue me) finally getting to my house.
At 2:30pm at that time I disconnected my sump and had my display and frag tank running independently each with just the heater and the power heads & lighting running. I drained the sump and put all the live rock and macro algae in buckets.
At 3pm the truck from Miracles arrived with my stand Tank and sump along with Kumara's (Kman) tank and parked it in my old house's driveway.
At 4pm I went off to pick up the 15' Rental truck I was back to my house by 6pm in witch I met up with 4 friends, Kumara & his brother In law. we loaded all the tanks (even my 50G sump tank, equipment & live rock from my basement) in the truck and drove off to Kumara house to drop off his tank, he had ordered a 48x36x27 but that think the tank felt twice as heavy as mine and we had to take it off the palate and rotate it into its side to get it into his house (It was a good thing there was 7 of us). Next is was off to my place witch was a little easier to place (I have a walk out basement and double french doors into the basement = no rotating the tank on its side) when the tanks where in place it was pizza and beer for all

After everyone had left (around 9pm) I returned the rental truck and went back to my old place to pickup some leftover plumbing and cables returning to my new place by 1am for bed.

Day 9 Friday July 8th
I spent the next day from 8am to around 12am plumbing in the new tank. while plumbing I also added the new sand bed and started to fill up the display. That evening I had the whole tank plumbed in but I was short about 10G of water (I could not put my standpipes in my overflow or my return would not work)

Day 10 Saturday July 9th
In the morning I checked for leaks and finished off a bit of the plumbing (Added in my reactors and set up the skimmer)
at 2pm I left for my old house with lots of buckets and some large Rubbermaid containers. When I arrived at the old house I spent the next 1.5 hours loading 130G worth of my live-rock/coral/fish/inverts into my Toyota Matrix (yes I did it all in one trip!) and by 8pm that evening I had everything into my the new tank (absolutely no aquascaping was done just made shore that the coral was was going to sting any other coral).

Day 11 Sunday July 10th
The next day I when back to the old house and filled up my car with the lights and controller & pumps from the old display (I did not have room to bring them with the livestock) I also emptied out my frag 15G frag tank in the basement and put all the frags in buckets. I also had time to clean out the old tank and dismantle my old sump stand to get it ready for pickup I also did a big cleaning of my sump area and living room. I headed back home and added my pumps, lights & controller to the main tank and set up the lights. at 7pm I went back to the old place since Alex (ordi260) was going to pick up my old tank

Day 12 Monday July 11th
Possession day for old my house (not much tank work)

Fast forward:
Day 14&15 July 13 & 14
Back to work (Real work) in the evenings I set up my dousing pumps and ATO

Day 17 Saturday July 16
Aquascaped my tank I went for a patch reef in the center of the tank very simple but with lots of caves and it is very open (my tang can swim right though it).

Day 18 Sunday July 17
In the days leading up to the move I had neglected my tank and I actually forgot to keep my AC on one day this over heated the tank a little (tank went to 85F) and it caused me to loose several fish and my cleaner shrimp (only the most hearty survived) but all of my coral survived. when I moved I was down to only my Sailfin Tang, Pair of clowns, Midas Blenny, Royal Gramma, Six-line Wrasse, and two Cromids.

On the Sunday morning I sopped over to Ray's and picked up a pair of Swallowtail Angels (I had lost my first one a couple of days ago) I also picked up a Randall's Shrimp Goby (Amblyeleotris randalli) & pistol shrimp.

In the afternoon I stopped over at Alex's (CanadaReef) to pick up some dry goods, cleanup crew, and pickup a blue spotted Jawfish from him that I had on hold before the tank move.

I got home and acclimated the fish, Jawfish & Goby when it to the frag tank system and the Angles went into the display (they are too big for my frag tank)

After sitting down to eat my plan for the evening was to sit down and enjoy my newly aquascaped and stocked tank. but at 7:05pm the power went out....

I quickly scrambled to install my battery backups for my Vortech's (I had not done that yet) and for the next 12h I was just running of these.

Day 19 Monday July 18
After not a very restful night I awoke to still no power at the house. I gave a qick call to hydro and they told me that power might be restored by 3pm today  and one of my battery backups was starting to fail (2 MP40w is stated to run for 18h run time but that is a brand new battery they only lasted 13h)

At 8pm Canadian Tire opened up and I was the first one in the door to pick up my shiny new 3000w Generator (I was planning on getting one within the month but this accelerated my plan) and by 9:30 my return and vortech's were up and running again (along with the fridge and freezer)

I went off to work and came back around 4pm and still no power. We decided to head off to the beach for a couple hours with my GF as since we are on a well we have not had running water or a shower in 24h. when we got back at 6:30pm we had power.


Yesterday I did a little work on the tank aquascaping (epoxying things that have fallen) I also received a new return pump I found that my HY-5000 was a little under powered for what I wanted to run so I got the HY-7000 and it seems to be working quite well.

I still have some work to do. My wiring is not nice and neat and I have to hide the three pipes from the display to the sump in the wall. but other than that the tank is operating quite nicely and everyone is doing fine (no losses yet since the over heat)

I hope to have some photos up of the final build ether today or tomorrow sorry I did not have allot of time to take photos during the build I was very pressed for time.

[JetJumper]

wow, sounds like a fun week!  haha.. can't wait for the pictures!

[xiaan]

So here are some photos of the current setup

The tank is 3 sided viewable starfire

Display tank FTS Front


Left Side


Right Side


Lighting setup over display


Completed sump room




Frag Tank


Sump


Return Pump and ATO Tank


Skimmer


Dousing Pumps and Monitoring computer running Reef Status.


Softy Frag tank


SPS Frag tank (currently full after the move)


Refuge


New residents:
Randall's Shrimp Goby


Male Swallowtail Angelfish (the Female is hiding in the rock work)



And finally the bane of my tank move (I got stung twice and it was not nice my thumb swelled up and kepted me awake for most of a night)

[dan2x38]

I know about moving tanks did this year for just a 75 + 30 sump in stand that killed me. Dedicated an entire day to just it and rented a van for just that day. I understand not wanting to move it wish I could setup a new system first. It is very stressful... enough about me...

That is an amazing build looking very good. Well planned out system especially the back-up 3000w generator - need that in Quebec I hear.

[xiaan]

thanks.

I think for a tank this size a little disaster planing is good.

Here is a good video on planning for one for your tank:
http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/disaster-planning-for-your-saltwater-tank/

My tank right now is really maxed out with coral so the the only things I will be adding to the tank will be some fish.

Currently here is the list of fish in my tank:

Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma veliferum)
2x Blackspot Lyretail Angelfish (Genicanthus melanospilos)
Royal Gramma Basslet (Gramma loreto)
Midas Blenny (Ecsenius midas)
2x Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
2x Blue/Green Reef Chromis (Chromis viridis) (*one)
Randall's Shrimp Goby (Amblyeleotris randalli)*
Bluespotted Jawfish (Opistognathus rosenblatti)*
Six Line Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia)*

* Currently in QT

Here is the list of fish I am currently looking to put into the tank.
Helfrichi Firefish (Nemateleotris helfrichi)
5 x Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) or Ignitus Anthias (Pseudanthias ignitus) (1M & 4F)
4 x Neon Goby (Elacatinus oceanops)
Hector's Goby (Amblygobius hectori)
Red Velvet Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus rubrisquamis)
Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus carpenteri)
Yellow Pyramid Butterfly (Hemitaurichthys polylepis)

The Wrasses are still in debate as I might put the six-line in the main tank.

also has any experience with the Pyramid Butterfly? I here they are "Reef Safe"

[kole18]

very nice tank man & are you selling some frags now

[xiaan]

Soon 

[kole18]

man you should try to post your tank at RC very empressive tank 

[az]

very nice, you already need a bigger tank!!!

[xiaan]

very nice, you already need a bigger tank!!!

I have been told that is as big as I can go 

[jimskoi]

That looks amazing.Great job!

[kole18]

Pyramid angel is a plankton feeder so this fish a reef safe

[xiaan]

I do know that the Pyramid Butterfly is reef safe but I was wondering if anyone had tried to keep them and If they have had any issues with them.

[Cheebs]

Fantastic looking tank Xiaan, I am impressed.

[zoom111]

Tank is looking good ! And nice detailed walk-through on the move.

If you dont mind me asking, where did you pick up your power-bar with the multiple on-off switches. I was looking at rackmounts but this one looks a bit cheaper than $40+.

[Rybren]

If you dont mind me asking, where did you pick up your power-bar with the multiple on-off switches. I was looking at rackmounts but this one looks a bit cheaper than $40+.

I got mine at tigerdirect.ca.  I've never been able to find them locally.

[xiaan]

That is where I got mine.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=914023&CatId=5313

[zoom111]

very helpful, thanks guys.

[xiaan]

So here is an update I have decided to go all LED for my lighting and will be replacing the ATI Sunpower with 3 more AI Sol Blue modules bringing my total count up to 7 AI modules. I have ordered these and should be getting them within a week or two.

Also currently I am using a EHEIM 1250 Universal for my Next Reef Bio-Pellet reactor but I have been finding that pump just doesn't give enough flow so I went ahead and ordered a Water Blaster HY-2000 (500GPH) hopefully that will be enough flow to keep the pellets tumbling (I found that 300GPH is not enough flow)

[Greatwhite]

I got mine at tigerdirect.ca.  I've never been able to find them locally.

+1... I ordered 2 of them.  Works perfectly.  I forwarded the info on to Az to see if he could get them locally, but they wanted too much shipping and weren't really giving him a deal any better than we could get ordering them ourselves.  Tiger Direct ships fast, at least.