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FarmerTy's 215 gallon - No Water Changes SPS Tank


FarmerTy

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Hello fellow ARCers!
 
It finally happened... the old tank is officially retired as we moved houses March of 2017. With that comes the end of the old FarmerTy mega-thread... it treated me well over the years. Here it is for reference and also as a tool for punishment for new reefers to join the club. [emoji5]
 
http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/29288-farmertys-215-build/?_fromLogin=1#replyForm
 

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My wife and I ended up picking this nice 2-story house in preparation for our first child, little Parker Niels Ta, who joined us March 13th.

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Two weeks later and very much sleep-deprived, we moved into the new house.

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Everything came over except the old tank as I wanted to be able to focus exclusively on its move.

 

But before that could even happen, I needed to prep our current house for its arrival. Fortunately, I started a 6 year campaign of leaving fish stuff all around my tank at the old house. Giant 100-gal tubs of coral treatment and fish QT... plumbed in frag tanks... The FarmerTy Triple Dipper setup... You name it... I did it. This was all intentional of course... [emoji6] ... As it led me to be able to convince my wife to let me have a small fish room at the new house by promising her to never have to see all that junk ever again. [emoji41]

 

The new house had half the garage converted to a play room so I was able to use half of that as my fish room... Roughly 11' x 7' as long as I will eventually convert the other half of that room back for her to park her car in.

 

This gave me a nice in-wall setup with the tank facing the dining area and front room.

 

Where the tank will be installed in-wall with the tank itself in the garage and it being viewable from the dining area.

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Down to the work! First off, got a beautiful stand commissioned by John and Nick of Ndestructible Welding who built me this custom stand with a pull-out walkboard... The wood for the walkboard will be added later once I get a chance.

 

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Then I added sealed plywood and cut holes for plumbing. Topped it off with a closed foam mat for the tank to sit on and adjustable stainless steel feet. Of course... Had to have it powder coated red so it can distract you from the mess of wires and ugly sump. [emoji4]

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What next? How about we punch that hole in the wall? Knowing nothing of framing, I reached out to a good reef buddy who used to build houses when he was younger with the family. @schrisev volunteered a Saturday morning, a week before his own move, to help a totally clueless and sleep-deprived guy out. @gigem also came over to assist and we sent the wife upstairs and started cutting up my beautiful new house.

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Viola... In-wall tank. @schrisev basically did everything while gig'em and I watched. I may have taken a nap or two. [emoji42]

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The goal was to have a setup similar to this:

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I went about and did as much of pre-plumbing as I could in anticipation of hooking up the old sump to the new setup.

 

I got the Shadow Overflow plumbed and plumbed my closed loop for my UV sterilizer.

 

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I also added Tropic Eden Reefflakes as substrate with the help of this little monkey... My little nephew.

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I also had been cycling some sand in a brute trash can and threw some bacteria in a bottle in it to spur it along.

 

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The big move day was yesterday. Me and the following awesome people, Juiceman and his girlfriend, Gig'em, Bobcatreefer, Jolt, Isaac, Jimbo, Sascha, TheOceanTraveler, and Harleyguy came over and under the promise of pizza, beer, and not having to move a tank... They gave up their Saturday mornings to help me move everything over. I wish I had more pictures to slow you guys but I was a little busy coordinating and elbow deep in saltwater to snap much.

 

Here's after the damage was done.

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Here's where the fish decided to hole up for a bit while I figured out how to put their home back together.

 

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This is how it looked 12 hrs later... I can at least say that the plumbing was finalized, the sump hooked up and running, my Apex connected to the internet, and my calcium reactor hooked back up for supplementation purposes. Don't judge otherwise... It was a long day and I'm running off of vapors these days of sleep and not even steam anymore. [emoji25]

 

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I transported the corals and rock without water and just wet packing paper and wrapped everything. Fish were bagged individually where possible and a small group were transported together in a large cooler.

 

The sump was taken out mostly intact and placed into the new setup and plumbed.

 

I'll throw up more pictures of the inhabitants soon as I start sorting through the mess of broken frags and aquascaping. There are corals stuffed into every possible nook and cranny in my tank, sump not excluded either. [emoji4]

 

 

 

 

 

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Isn't that called the trifecta?  New baby, new house, new tank... :cheer:

[emoji23] I can only laugh looking back but never again will those line up in that way again!
Wow, that was a fast transition. I hardly recognize the tank now. I like the aquascape [emoji4]

Livin the dream Ty.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I learned from the Master of fast changes! [emoji41]
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See.... I wasn't going to start a new thread because I didn't want to loose the race to the longest thread along with you.... guess I'll start a new one too!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Start it today! I'll race you! [emoji12]
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Ty it looks great.  Sorry I wasn't able to make it.  Darn work in the way again.  Congrats on the baby, new tank, new house.

No worries bud. I know you'd been there if you could. Thank you sir! Good times!
Congrats on the new baby, new house and new tank! I'm glad I got to see the old tank before it retired.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


For sure! I have a least one eye witness in San Antonio that can corroborate my story! [emoji12]

Now you'll just have to make another trip once this one is up and running!
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I keeps up with me homeez!

Loving the build, bro! Keep it up [emoji4]


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Haha, thanks bud! I was about to slam Marsh tonight with the same post to keep my homeez in Houston on the up and up on the build. [emoji3]
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Ty: I got a new house!!!

ARC: when are we putting a hole in the wall?

Ty's wife: NO!

Ty: (guessing with best probability here) *beg* ill do the dished and laundry * beg*

Ty's wife: no

Ty: *beg* extra diaper duties *beg*

Ty's wife: put it right here, and i want a bar and cabinets.

Ty: ok, but im telling everyone i wore you down and the bar was my idea

Ty's wife: *eyeroll*

 

The move was good ty, great plan.  wish that back room was larger for more support tanks and systems.  you know how you secretly love redundancy.  Plus, now you have room for WATER CHANGING SYSTEM.... no but seriously.. at least clean the sump like yearly? *lol*

that large "upper wall?"  jb-bc4d.jpg

just some crazy ideas for ya :)

 

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