Move and rebuilding of full reef

[West coast kid]

I am now moving and rebuilding a full reef setup. I have many new ideas that I would like to add to the reef and in this thread I will show how I set up my new 110 full reef system.
Here it is before I start. Dosen't it look peacefull? View attachment 31982

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[West coast kid]

this is a week prior to the move I am starting construction at the new location.View attachment 31984

 

[West coast kid]

View attachment 31986Ok I have decided where I want the tank and I am flooding the concrete floor with floor leveler as I want my tank to sit perfectly level.View attachment 31985 its a dirty job but somebody has to do itView attachment 31987

 

[West coast kid]

Ok I just thought of a great idea after I poured the new concrete floor.
In the old house I would add up to 6 ltr of water every day. This sort of makes me a slave to the tank so I thought it it would be handy to have a water line at the tank for auto top off. So I decided to have the water supply in the laundry room.I am running a water line from the laundryroom to the tank around 30'. It sort of sucked chipping the concrete out.
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[lizardarm]

Nice looking tank.
Do you have to float leveling compound?

 

[West coast kid]

This is the setup I have in the laundryroom.It runs under the kit cabnets then under the concrete to the tank.View attachment 31989

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[West coast kid]

Nice looking tank.
Do you have to float leveling compound?

yes it requires floating.

 

[West coast kid]

The last early morning sunrise before the big move.View attachment 31991

 

[West coast kid]

At this point I have 60 gal of new water made at the new house. All I have to move with is a van.:doubt: I am hoping I dont loose any life.
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[West coast kid]

I have used a old 55 gal that I used to have as a fresh water tank as a temp holding tank for the fish and coral. Also I am using 35 gal R.M. garbage can for the water and rocks.
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[West coast kid]

I finally got that *#^*in crab that eats all my coral!
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almost ready to move. I am pumping the water into empty garbage cans in the truck I also put the live rock in these cans as well.
I am using this opportunity to change most of my sand I will keep around 8 pounds.

 

[West coast kid]

I am at the new house setting up. The coral and water and live rock are still at the old house.
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[West coast kid]

setting up shop at the new pad.
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[West coast kid]

I have moved most of the water to the new house this was no small task. I used a van with huge garbage cans and drove at 30km all the way. It was ok because it was now dark out. There is a pic of the hose from the pump. I taped a cord to it so I could turn it on from the end of the hose. As you can see from the pic I am using gloves, I did not start out that smart though. I recieved many stings handling the coral and just couldn't stand it any longer. Also a pic of me attaching some sps to the rock
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[West coast kid]

a few pic of the coral going into the tank
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[West coast kid]

I made the right decision moving the tank first and moving in a couple days after. Moving the tank at this point has taken around 12 hrs I am ready for a sleep big time. I have put the coral, fish, live rock, and sand into the tank and now the tank is so cloudy I cant see to set it up at all.
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[West coast kid]

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This time I wanted a little peace of mind with the tank so I added overflow protection and auto top off. This is the unit here in the pictures. I had a flood in the last house and thank god I was right there to shut it down. I lost around 10 gal in that flood. I was lucky to have carpet in the livingroom and a quick cleanup with a shop vac seemed to do the trick. This time I have hardwood so a flood would really suck. The topoff water line goes into the unit and comes back into the sump. This will end daily water topoff duties. also the main pumps are pluged into this unit with float senser in the main tank and in the sump.These are pictures of the floats in the sump and main tank.


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Any high water in the sump or tank will auto shut off the pump.In a high water situation an alarm sounds with a flashing light. I have also installed a temp alert monitor with alarm as that is good protection against chiller or heater issues.Here is the temp alert unit here it also has water change reminders and pump maitenance reminders.


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[West coast kid]

In the old house I had to carry water to the tank from the laundryroom then I droped a small pump into the 5 gal bucket and pumped the water into the tank.This made doing water changes a very unplesent thing to do. The water would spill over the side of the bucket every time I walked it to the tank. This made the other half very unhappy. So this time I am going to make things easy and as clean as possible. So I have eliminated the top off problem and addressed the overflow problem already. Now I am going to make water changes easier in the new house as well. I have the water filtration system in the laundryroom.
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As that seems the only place I have room I will put the water change mix bucket there as well.I have added a float valve to the mixing bucket allowing filtered water to fill the bucket and shut off automatically. Also added a large pump that I had extra to mix salt.
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I also wondered if my water was really filterd propperly so I installed a Dual T.D.S. Monitor to monitor water coming in to the filter and water comming out of the filter. I found that the filter was working great and the city water was quite clean.8ppm
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So now I have water filtered, monitored and added to mixing can with a shut off valve.All I have to do now is add 15 cups of salt. The pump is quite large so it mixes and heats the water at the same time, quite quickly.Start to finish 20 hrs to make 35 gal of water. Now I need to get the water from the mixing bucket to the tank so I have a hose and another pump. I just wraped the power cord around the hose so I can plug it in from the end of the hose. I have the hose hanging beside the water bucket ready to go.35 ft should do it.
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So I can just stretch it out, plug it in and wait for the water.Maybe now I will enjoy water changes as it only takes an average of 10 min to change 35 gal. There is a drain outside the door beside the tank so I start the siphon and drop a hose into the drain goodbye dirty water.
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