upgrading/combining tanks together....

[Skeptic9962]

hey all, just recently moved into a new place and in the move my 32 gal. sps tank decided to pretty much crash...only have a few corals left so at this point im debating on upgrading to a 75gal. reef ready aga tank since the 32 just isnt big enough really anymore anyways...and it would be a whole lot more stable than the 32... my main question is will the equipment i have on the 32 be ok for a mixed reef so LPS, SPS, and softies what i would be doing is combining two tanks into the 75 i curently have a 29 gal softie tank and a 32 gal sps tank and just dont want to have to take care of two tanks anymore...have two current outer orbit halide fixtures that are 24" each one is 250w and the other is 150w along with 4 t5s on each fixture for lighting, a 20 gal custom sump with a eheim 1250 for return pump...tunze 9010 for the skimmer for flow i have two tunze nanostreams belive there 6010s...modded along with a k3 and k2 only thing i really think i would have to buy would be:

75 gal tank
stand...possibly make it if i have time...
maybe more sand....

can i re-use the sand that is in my tanks curently?

anything else anyone can think of that i might need? along with tips of how to do this....would be helpful =)

also have a pacific coast mini chiller....think its 1/13th hp says its rated to 40gal think this would become kinda obsolete...but a glass tank cools down faster along with more water volume would take quite a bit of heat to go to hot correct?

 

[roscoe]

How the heck are you Dan? Been a long time. IMO I think you are fine with the equipment you have now to set up a 75g. just keep your light loving SPS under the 250w halide and your softies and LPS under the 175w. As long as you keep up with water change your skimmer you have now is good enough. Have fun with your new tank build as I am in the process of setting up a bigger tank myself.

 

[gotfish]

Ditto on what Roscoe said. As far as using the sand you have now goes, depending on it's age, you may want to just use half and fill the rest in with new sand just to refresh the sand a bit. Don't worry about getting live sand though, the stuff you have will take care of it.

 

[Skeptic9962]

allright sounds good going to give BR a call tomorrow and see what i can get from them..all im looking for is the 75 aga RR tank so even petco might have that....ive been doing good just real busy with work and moving and everything lol and another reason that i need to do this is the tank was made very poorly and remember when i had to do the two front seems down a few inches...well the back seems starting to go after the move and i dont feel like having a tank that might one day well will one day explode lol think im going to go with only a 1" sandbed this time...and a bit bigger refugium so nitrates hopefully arent a problem...

 

[roscoe]

You should be able to get a brand new 75g RR glass tank for like $350 maybe less. Try giving tropical fish and pets in Sumner a call they have some good deals on tanks.

 

[gotfish]

A Place for Pets in Burien is cheap on tanks. I bought a 75g for 135.00 and if I remember right, the 75g RR was 205.00.

 

[roscoe]

A Place for Pets in Burien is cheap on tanks. I bought a 75g for 135.00 and if I remember right, the 75g RR was 205.00.

Yes that's right I forgot about that place. They do have some cheap prices on premanufactured tanks. I think you are right the last time I was there I too saw a 75g RR around that price.

 

[Skeptic9962]

ya i ordered a 75 RR from BR today for a pretty good price. getting that hopefully this next weekend then gotta get going on the stand cause thats whats going to take the longest...other then that its just getting everything switched over to the new tank ill be posting some pics of progress once i get this started will be much faster then the six months the last one took to get going lol

 

[Skeptic9962]

went out last night and picked up all the wood for the stand...going to get that started tomorrow evening other then that been trying to figure out a cheap way of expanding my sump...the sump is only 20 gal. and kinda small so was thinking of somehow connecting another tank for the fuge....bad idea to use pumps to connect it? also the eheim is a 1260 so it is almost 10x turnover on a 75 gallon seems to be decent along with the flow inside the tank...

 

[seattle989]

i think using a pump to connect is bad idea. just because the pump could fail and if the pump gets debris in it the amount of flow could flux. best bet would be either tie together with bulk heads. Or purchase a tank much higher than the 20 gallon drill it and let gravity feed your 20 gallon.

 

[dailydriven911]

Hey Dan if you decide to use a different lighting setup for the 75 lmk as I'm looking for a 24" 250w outer orbit. Hope all goes well with the new tank! Lmk if you ever need some help!

 

[Skeptic9962]

those two lights actually work out perfectly together so wont be changing anything soon atleast lol got the stand built,stained and clearcoated along with everything setup this weekend LONG LONG weekend lol ill get some pics up asap pretty much going to have to start over with all new sps from the move along with the move to the new tank a month later everything is pretty pissed so as soon as everything is stable in the new tank ill be looking for a few nice peices =P all the lps,softies and clams are awsome lol there loving the new extra light. ill be building the refugium soon picking up material tomorrow =P only thing ive noticed is the tank gets cold real fast glass seems to loose heat quickly...i curently have 2 150w titanium heaters in it is that good enough or should i get a larger heater?