+Todd Council Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Ok, here goes. After a tankless 20 years, I decided to get back into marine aquariums. This time, with a reef tank. I was planning on getting an AIO, Like the Red Sea Reefer 250 and starting slowly. HOWEVER, I came across a 5 year old established reef tank for sale in December. The price was close to my budget for the starter AIO I was thinking of getting. This little "fixer upper" looked great, had a lot of soft and LPS coral, some gorgeous anemones (rose bubble tipped, carpet, and long tentacle) a nice little group of fish, and a well-established live rock filter system. It was a LOT bigger than I had thought about tackling, but since it came with lights (ten bulb T5s), a chiller (those T5s run hot), a calcium reactor, and protein skimmer, I thought that I could just coast for a while. This 5 year old Red Sea Max 650 that has a total water volume of about 180 gallons with a 150 gallon DT is now my responsibility. After purchasing it in December, I chose to get some professional help with the move. Timfish, from this forum agreed to be THE guy to move the tank. Since it was located on the 39th floor of a downtown condo, we had to coordinate time for access to the loading dock with Tim’s schedule. So the move happened this past Friday. Tim, you ARE the man. Thanks for everything! Attached is a FTS 24 hours after it was reinstalled at my house. I spent the weekend doing surficial cleaning and inspecting the equipment. More on that a little later. For now, I am channeling my best Chip and Joanna and Mike Holmes to renovate this awesome looking tank that is suffering a little from age of equipment and the effects of encrusting sponges, worms and algae. So this isn’t a carefully thought out then executed tank build, but a “Holy crap, what have I gotten into” tank remodel. Buckle your seatbelts and get ready to share some ideas as I discover all the little things that need replacing, updating, or chunking all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 wow, congrats...can't wait to see this one progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I love it! I'm sure you'll do your best rehab of the tank that you can... Just don't get crazy knocking out walls! [emoji4] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 bah, walls are meant to be torn down! ask Reagan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Todd certainly has a big wall he can Knock down but we set his tank in his game room which has a pool table he's selling so he'll have LOTS of room to get a decent sized tank when he upgrades in a year or two. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 (I was thinking a 3/4 torus fitted around a curved couch.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Todd Council Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 THE TANK: The Red Sea Max series is an AIO tank system that comes ready to add water, rock, fish and corals. Everything on my “fixer upper” tank is “stock” except the calcium reactor and the chiller. The previous owner had them installed. The tank has the factory C-Skim 1800 protein skimmer, the factory return pump and circulation pumps, and the factory T5 light fixture. I knew that the support for the light was broken and the owner had it propped up on the back corners with wood to keep it from falling into the tank. He was also using a clothespin to trigger the open-close switch on the light. I thought that I would limp along with the broken fixture and look into an LED upgrade when the existing bulbs needed replacing. WELL . . . As it turns out, the plastic light end pieces were just tired of holding up all that heatsink and were also suffering from a couple of accidental drops. So the best/safest thing we could do for now was place 2x2 lumber across the tank and then just lay the three individual light fixtures across it. I also found that the center two HO Actinic T5s were barely lighting. So the light upgrade needs to happen now. Red Sea has a sleek looking LED upgrade that uses 4 AI Hydra 26 HD lights that fit in the track used by the T5s. The mounting system looks awesome and my wife loves the look. However, you can’t move the individual fixtures and they shine right in my wife’s eyes when she stands in front of the tank. After a lot of research I was leaning hard towards the Kessil A360s. The negative for those units is the cable management, but the wife liked the look of the lights on the goosenecks. The tank surface is 62” x 24” and the tank is 27” deep so I might be able to get by with 3 or 4 units. Gary at AquaDome had 2 in stock so I picked them up and tried them out. They look awesome, but the shimmer was a bit much. I used the central portion of the original T5 light fixture and placed a white and blue T5 bulb in them and installed it in the front of the tank. That looked awesome. The shimmer was still there, but it didn’t look like a disco. It also helped block the bright light from the Kessils. I plan to add a third Kessil as soon as Gary gets one in stock. I still need to find a way to clean up the look of the gooseneck with the wires zip-tied to it. I’m thinking about covering them with the plastic corrugated tubes used to bundle electrical cords. I also want to paint the aluminum side piece of the T5 light with a black paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocks Reef Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 Was going to suggest the computer cable tie ups but you already mentioned it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 http://amzn.com/B00UBWU99E would be easiest, but http://amzn.com/B004UHQMYW would look slick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Todd Council Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 Isaac - YES! The techflex is MUCH better than what I was thinking about, (This Stuff). I love the prime! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 eewww, i never liked that kind you might need smaller zip ties w/ the techflex on the bends, but it would look like it should be there anyways. or you could sew in some fishing line and tie it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Todd Council Posted February 3, 2017 Author Share Posted February 3, 2017 Tank Update – Fixing and repairing continues, death to aiptasia, Foxface got a boo-boo. I installed the third Kessil. I don’t know if it is the cyclops eeze and oyster feast that I am using or the lights, but I swear the coral polyps look fuller. I think they like the changes. When the tank arrived at the house, 3 of the 4 circulation pumps located in the tank’s rear sump were not working. They were totally encrusted in serpulid worms, sponges, and all sorts of other little soft and hard bodied creatures. I replaced these pumps with the Sicce Syncra Silent 2.0s and added the Sicce WaveSurfer controller. I am planning on getting an Apex, but after buying three Kessil A360s I need to wait a bit. The 4 circulation pumps draw water into the rear compartment and then return them to the tank through a movable jet. I pointed jets number 1 and 3 toward the right of the tank and pointed jets 2 and 4 to the left. The controller alternates between the right and left pointing pumps to create a more turbulent flow. I installed the controller last night and could already see some of the spots with detritus accumulation being blown “clean.” I can’t wait to get home tonight and see the effect after using the new flow pattern for 24 hours. When I was removing the pumps from the rear of the tank I found out why the previous owner had the file fish. There were a dozen aiptasia anemones hidden in the back chamber. With the pumps removed and the return pump off, I scraped them off the glass with a razorblade while siphoning out the material removed from the glass before it even hit the bottom. I might put a couple of peppermint shrimp back there to remove any that I missed. In the meantime, I don’t have any SPS in the DT so I am keeping the filefish for a while. The vertebrates in the tank include: 3 file fish Dusky damsel (he may be leaving soon.) Green Chromis Coral Beauty Angelfish Maroon Clown w/yellow stripes Sailfin Tang One Spot Foxface I have noticed that the Foxface has a nip out of its tail and its dorsal fin is looking a little ratty. It seems like the Tang is chasing it around especially at feeding time. It often backs quickly into the hiding places in the liverock. Last night at feeding, I noticed a white spot right in front of its left pectoral fin. I am wondering if it is a wound from the Tang. Anyone seen something like this before? **Just heard from my wife. The white spot is gone but the area does look like a wound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted February 3, 2017 Share Posted February 3, 2017 blue laser if your friend for aiptasia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Todd Council Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 I just posted in the Disease Forum about my Sailfin Tang developing black spots. This spot on the Foxface disappeared in 24 hours. I wonder if the two are related. The Tang showed his black spots 5 days after that white spot (with the dark center) appeared on the Foxface. I thought that the Sailfin might have cut the Foxface because they are jousting for position durring feedings and competing for the same hiding places in the live rock. I'm dipping the Tang in freshwater and placing him in the QT with PraziPro today. I'll see if anyting falls off of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Todd Council Posted April 16, 2017 Author Share Posted April 16, 2017 Tank is doing well. I have added some livestock and equipment including a refugium and 40 watt UV. I'll catch up one day. My large green anemone (Heteractis sp?) moved under an overhang a couple of months ago. The part of his body in the shade and nearest to top of the overhang started to bleach out. Last night it moved back into full light. It is directly under a Kessil A360W that I have manually set at about 50% White-blue and about 50% intensity. The tank is about 28 inches deep. There are also two HO T5s with white and pink lights above it as well. Is there anything else I can do to help it return to color? You can see the little overhang just to the right of the anemone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Todd Council Posted May 8, 2017 Author Share Posted May 8, 2017 Need some lighting suggestions. I'm about to replace the two T5s that are running with my three Kessils and I'm trying to decide what color bulbs I should run. The original fixture was a ten-bulb HO T5 piece that cranked out a LOT of heat. I up graded to three Kessils and have taken off the two 4 bulb T5 wings on the original light fixture but have kept the central unit that has 2 T5s and some blue LED night lights. I ramp the Kessils up using a Kessil controller and get them to about 50% white pretty quickly and then vary the intensity to peak at 60%. The T5s turn on once the lights are at their "whitest" and then turn off when the Kessils start shutting down. I like the whiter light because the fish pop and it looks more natural. I just don't like blue tanks. BUT the blue really brings out the fluorescent colors of the corals. with that I am thinking about getting at least one actinic T5. The tank is pretty much all LPS and soft corals. What color lamps would you put in the T5 fixture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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