[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

So, my friend Richard asked me to rehome his fish & corals for at least the next couple of years, maybe forever & we finally settled on his 220g starfire tank instead of the 7' 265g (too big to fit into my place). Really SHOCKED that Irene said yes to having another huge tank in here.

The new tank had its front pane replaced by BCMosaic, Kolewolf & myself and has sat in storage for about a year.

Timeline:
Saturday - Aug.14, 2010 - Built 6' x 25" x 34" stand out of 2x6s, 2x4s, & 2x3s
Sunday - Richard brought over tank & we water tested it on my lawn
- water test went well so we drained, drilled 2 holes for 1" bulkheads, painted back blue & built black acrylic overflow box system
- the 2 of us transported the tank into my livingroom & hefted it onto the stand

Monday-Thursday - Plumbed the tank, built an 80g sump (too tall) so bought an old 90g wide & cleaned it up & modified into a 4' x 2' x 18" tall sump. Sump has 2' wide 28" long skimmer "box, a section for the refugium (stored extra live rock) and a 6' section for the return pump

Friday - transported 200lbs of Live Rock, some corals and saltwater from Richard's 7' reef tan
- spent most of the night aquascaping the rocks

Saturday morning - went to Richard's & caught & transported fish, corals & water to my place
After lunch (all-u-can-eat fish&chips at C-lovers), we caught out the last fish, scooped up the last corals & drained thte tank to collect all the sand
Released fish into my tank at 7:30pm and started washing sand (2 or 3 hours) then did final aquascaping, setup skimmer, setup return pump, setup lights
- FINALLY finished at 4 am & turned on the new lights (6' 3x1502 metal halide with 14000k Phoenix bulbs - but we only turn on the end lights not the middle

Monday - August 23 - Added second skimmer due to heavy bioload

 

[target]

Wow, that's a busy weekend. When you get a second to breathe, lets see some pictures.

 

[2wheelsx2]

Wow...sounds like a mondo project. So you guys cut out the old front glass and replaced it with a Starphire pane?

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

System Specs:

220g 6' long x 2' wide x 30" tall
Starphire glass front - low-iron glass for extra clarity
Overflow - 12" x 6" x 6" DIY black acrylic with 2 x 1" drains & 1 x 3/4" return
Return - Sedra 9000
Skimmers - SWC Extreme200
- Marine Tech 250 with Sedra9000 meshmodded impeller pump

Stocking:

1 6" Vlamingi tang
1 4" Elongate (A. mata) tang
1 4" Blonde Naso tang
2 4" Purple tang (Red Sea)
1 4" Chocolate tang
1 3" Orange Shoulder tang
4 4" Yellow tangs
1 3" Blue Regal tang
1 2.5" Kole tang

1 8" Porcupine puffer
1 6" Marine betta
1 4" Emperor angel (Juv.)
1 4" Lamark's angel
3 Lyretail anthias
2 Psychadelic Mandarin gobies
1 Cleaner wrasse
1 Leopard wrasse
1 Scissortail goby/dartfish

Still to be added from my other tanks I'm shutting down &/or selling:

4 Blue-eyed cardinals
1 Bangaii cardinal
1 Yellow Watchman goby
2 Black Leopard wrasses
1 Lyretail hawkfish
1 Black Sailfin blenny

Corals:

Assorted LPS, SPS, Photosynthetic Gorgonias & softies (mostly frags or small colonies)

Inverts:

Lots of snails
Not much else (Poofie the puffer would make short work of them)

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Now for some pics - Cause a tank journal thread without pics is a waste of time, I know, I know.

These were taken Tuesday morning after I spent Monday plumbing the overflow system.

Empty tank on stand

DIY black acrylic overflow with Durso silent drainage system

Felicia in front of tank to give size reference & cause she's sooo cute

Side view from my computer desk

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

These pics taken Friday night (after hauling rocks & water from Richard's):

90g wide sump (allows me to work inside the short stand (I usually build much taller, but wife wanted a shorter stand for viewing from the couchs)

Tank with 150g new water, 40g old water and 170lbs live rock

Other side view

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Saturday night - around 4am after finally installing lights

The plywood & doors have NOT yet been installed, just leaning up against the front of the tank:

No flash for this last full tank shot:

 

[O.C.D Fishies]

Anthony you are just crazy. Looks good so far though.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Water is a little murky since everything is still a little stirred up:

Side view (Saturday night/4am)

Just the tank

Left Rock structure

Right Rock structure

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Today (Monday early afternoon: August 23) - second skimmer just installed & micron filter sock on down tubes have helped clean the water up

Cut the plywood facing, installed facing & cabinet doors - VERY HAPPY with how it turned out (cabinet stand) but still need to finsih the side panels (adding doors to those as well)

 

[2wheelsx2]

You're going to add doors to the side? I see you have vertical supports there. Will they be just little ones for easier access to some things?

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sectional shots (Monday, August 23, early afternoon:

Left side:

Right side:

Most of the pics were taken without my contacts on (relying on teh Nixon DX3000's autofocus completely)

Thanks for looking & hope you enjoyed.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Wow...sounds like a mondo project. So you guys cut out the old front glass and replaced it with a Starphire pane?

It was a tank with a broken front pane that Kole found off CL. We cut it out along with the old silicone, bought a piece of 6' long Starphire and installed it ourselves.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Anthony you are just crazy. Looks good so far though.

Crazy? Whatcha talking about? I'm OCD - Obsessive-compulsive disordered

The crazy part is that I was doing all this while still working lots on my tutoring (last students on Saturday morning) so minimal sleep for the whole week plus.

 

[target]

Looks really good Anthony. What color/type of paint is that for the background?

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

You're going to add doors to the side? I see you have vertical supports there. Will they be just little ones for easier access to some things?

Nope, full-sized doors (31" tall by 18" wide). The supports are NOT screwed in. Just cut them to fit really tightly by sheer weight & friction alone. I can move or remove them if needed.

The side door openings will be big enough to allow me to add or remove equipment into the sump like the skimmers through the right side and to have a 5g bucket auto-topoff systemon the left side.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Looks really good Anthony. What color/type of paint is that for the background?

Dark blue RONA spray can of anti-rust paint. I sprayed heavier/darker on the bottom and only a light coat on top but it doesn't really show the variable shading when the water is int he tank.

 

[snow]

omg, that is a great looking tank, great stock too, well done setting it up.

 

[2wheelsx2]

I still can't believe that after a couple of years, you might have to give it all back....man that's a lotta work. You certainly work fast, and you're making me feel guilty that my 100 gallon tank is still sitting in the garage, but then I don't have your DIY skills and I have 2x the kids.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Richard's fish & corals may end up going back to him if he ends up buying a house & building a huge tank for them. By that time, most of the tangs will be more than double their present size, so it will be time for me to catch out my own tangs from the 210g reef and split them between the 2 6' reefs.

When full grown, my bioload will be measure in te POUNDS or KG, not inches of fish

Several of the bigger tangs & the Porcupine puffer may readch 18"-2' in length each. May have to flood the sunroom just to house all these future monsters.