Hooked's 90 Tank Rebuild

[NaH2O]

After much thought Hooked aka Katrina decided to rebuild her 90 gallon mixed reef. The sandbed was leaching phosphates, corals browning, the red acro bugs had come and gone and come again. There was a lot of beautiful SPS RTNing and bleaching, so......the rebuild happened on Sunday.

2 Tunzes on a controller were added, as well as changing the return of the chiller (which is on its own closed loop), and one of the returns. The sandbed was removed, and starboard used in its place. Some of the old rock was removed for new rock. Some fish were also removed from the system.

Here is the process we went through on the rebuild. Thanks Maxx/Nick for helping out.....even though he waited until the girls did all the back breaking labor prior to his arrival :lol:.

Here is the tank prior to sand removal. We took the canopy off, so that's why the tank looks dark:

Someone feeling nervous:

The bins for liverock and corals. Heaters and powerheads in each. These were also treated with Interceptor to get the red acro bugs. An acro crab was safely removed prior to treatment:

Here is the tank right before the sand was sucked out with the trusty shop-vac. The sand didn't look too bad in the back, however, had some nasty areas in the front of the tank. The water is really cloudy because I was digging around for snails and hermits.

 

[NaH2O]

Here is a shot of the prop tank (on the left), and the fish from the tank (on the right)

Here is the tank fresh and new:

Added the starboard:

Here is the new flow pattern. After reading the plumbing workshop thread, Katrina decided to have her Chiller return (on its own closed loop) come straight down the back middle of the tank. Reedman had posted this in the thread, and it turned out to work really well for keeping the bottom back swept of detritus (uses a mag 12 I think? lots of flow). Tunze on the left front and right back (sides) - they swivel, so the flow was directed to bounce off the glass, too (run on a controller). I mapped out a bit of the circulation, but I didn't show any of the flow pattern bouncing off the glass:

 

[NaH2O]

Finally - the beginnings of the reaquascape:

Almost there:

The clams stressed out, so they spawned for several hours. The water was really cloudy:

The final shot, with clam cloudy water:

 

[NaH2O]

Hopefully, as the corals grow and fill the upper spaces of the tank, the plumbing in the back will be hidden with coral and coralline algae. The Tunzes work really well, and as a side note: don't ever get the magnets stuck together! The aquascaping looks really great - the picture doesn't show all the caves and swim throughs that were created.

 

[mojoreef]

Hooked I can see your bottom.......



MIke

 

[Hooked]

Well Mike, while you're the first to announce it, you're certainly not the first to see it

Thanks for the photojournal Nikki and thanks to both you and Nick for all of your help. Nikki got to my house at 11 am that day and stayed until 11 pm when we were done. That's a friend. And Nick drove over from St. Louis to help--too cool.

Here's a pic now that things have cleared up. Honestly Nick and Nikk did the aquascaping (I was fried by then) and I love the way it looks.

 

[mojoreef]

Well Mike, while you're the first to announce it, you're certainly not the first to see it

Well way to bust up that special moment,

I was going to say its looking a little white, you might need to get some sun on it


On a side note, boy does that water ever look crystal clean!!



Mike

 

[MtnDewMan]

Looks good Katrina ... you are now in the club

 

[NaH2O]

Wow - Katrina the pic you posted is great! When you add the UV to the closed loop, are you going to change the closed loop outputs at all? I think the plumbing plan worked out really well with keeping the detritus off the bottom - only a few spots collecting. Any change in that, since its been going for a few days?

 

[wrightme43]

Looks nice, Mighty cool of Nikki and Nick to come and help out like that.
Steve

 

[Hooked]

Most of the detritus is settling right up front where it will be easy to siphon. I plan to continue to use a split return on the CL when I add the UV, but I am going to use loc-line so I can make some adjustments.

I'm happy with the flow, and I think the larger fish are loving it too. However, the royal gramma and flame hawk are sticking much closer to the rocks than they used to--and the clowns are still hiding in the back.

I've got to come by and look at your UV plumbing again. I think the unit needs to be installed vertically rather that horizontally, but it looks like it will take more 90s that I'd like

 

[scottw]

Well Mike, while you're the first to announce it, you're certainly not the first to see it

Thanks for the photojournal Nikki and thanks to both you and Nick for all of your help. Nikki got to my house at 11 am that day and stayed until 11 pm when we were done. That's a friend. And Nick drove over from St. Louis to help--too cool.

Here's a pic now that things have cleared up. Honestly Nick and Nikk did the aquascaping (I was fried by then) and I love the way it looks.

Much better looking. The colors look a lot better welcome to BB

 

[Elmo18]

Oh I feel all alone....LOL

- Elmo

 

[mojoreef]

Its ok Elmo, just think of all the sand left over for you to have????



Mike

 

[NaH2O]

LOL - Mike...I don't think Elmo would want that sand....I'm sure the horses have made a mess of it by now .

Elmo - you aren't alone....MikeS still has sand!

 

[CarlaW]

Elmo, don't feel bad, I still got lots of sand.

Tank looks great Katrina, good luck. How long had the sand bed been in there?

 

[Hooked]

Thanks Charlie. The sand had been in there for about 22 months.

 

[Hooked]

I turned the Tunzes off with the food timer and fed the fish. When they kicked back on, the food they had missed was blown into the water column and they ate it. Very happy with the Tunzes.

I also bought some new livestock recently. Here are pics.

 

[NaH2O]

Glad to hear the Tunzes are working well. Do you use the night mode? Did you get the moonlight hooked up yet?

The third pic is awesome!

 

[CarlaW]

Katrina, where did you get the copperband, it's a beauty!!

what did you guys do to maxx, he must still be recovering?