17,000 gallon Tank Build

Yes, you read that right.  A 17,000 gallon reef tank!!!

There is a forum over at The Reef Tank that is now 48 pages long.  But, man is it worth checking out.

I have been following along with the progression for about 6 months now and realized that many of you may not have seen it.
Bill (some guy) is building a new house with a 17,000 gallon reef tank in it.  It is not done yet.  He just water tested it and is now on vacation for a week, but aquascaping starts next week from what I understand.

In the midst of all this, you get to see pictures of his house (in Illinois, I think) as it is being built and his birthday present to himself (Ferrari) and his break-up with his girlfriend which almost ended the tank build.

It is worth a read and there are plenty of pictures.
Check it out here.

An update on the family and the tank

As I stated when I started this blog, I would also discuss how this tank impacts my family relations.  As many of you know, it is a constant battle with a spouse who is not fully involved.  The issues are all about time and money and how much we spend on each.

Well, I was definitely in the dog house for a while.  Getting the plumbing done and running was very important and it took many more hours than I thought it would (of course).  During that time, my wife was left to watch the kids (who can be a handful).  I knew it was a problem and I was just as frustrated as she was that it was taking so long, but there wasn't much I could about it.  It needed to be done and quickly or the entire investment would be lost.

After the fuge went online last week, my need to tinker with the tank went way down.  And, because I designed it correctly, a water change (25 gallons) takes about 7 minutes.  That is huge.  So, I was home all last week and off Thursday and Friday and spent what I consider to be a very little amount of time with the tank.  I actually just got to sit and look at it and I really enjoyed it, even with all the green algae. 

And my 2 year old daughter sits on my lap and likes to watch the fish and snails and crabs.  My 2 month old just stares at it in awe...

its so great.  And my wife even commented on how I have been "around" all weekend!!!  So, we are moving in the right direction.

Quick Update on the tank

Well, my algae still persists.  But, this is normal as you reach the end of the Nitrogen cycle.  This is where patience really comes into play.

My ammonia and nitrites are down to zero, but my nitrates are still way high.

Why?  Here are some reasons:

• Remember that the tank existed for about 18 days with no filtration, just a recirculating flow and  6 fish adding lots of detritus (read: poop) because the plumbing was not done.
• The live rock that came with the tank was not to my satisfaction and I have since replaced all of it over the last 3 weeks (4 times).  This meant almost starting over.
• I have re-aquascaped the rock several times (the last time was yesterday and hopefully THE LAST TIME).
• I had no refugium until last Sunday, so there was no additional biological filtration besides the liver rock.  The fuge now has lots of chaeto, real live sand, and more live rock.
• My clean-up crew (CUC) is not enough to keep the nuisance algae to a minimum yet.

So, those are the reasons.  Regardless, the algae seems to have leveled off and might even be dissipating slightly.  The skimmer is pulling out lots of good junk.  The fuge is working well.  The CUC is catching up.

My nitrates went from off the scale (over 200ppm) to about 60ppm) now.  I am hoping that I can move over the BioCube contents (fish, rock, coral) this weekend.

As a test, I moved my purple gorgonia this weekend and it is doing very well.  I also moved over my queen conch and bought 2 additional conchs.  They do wonders on the sand bed.

I lost one of my 5 emerald crabs.  Found his carcass in the back corner.  Not sure if I crushed him in my aquascaping efforts (as I suspect) or for some other reason.

I am seeing lots of life in the tank now.  Bristleworms, copepods, mini feather dusters.  Plus, there is a nice full size feather duster that is very pretty that hitchhiked in on one of my rocks.  He is doing well, too.

Algae, Algae Everywhere

The refugium went online on Sunday after replacing the broken  tank.  And, besides a small leak on one of the overflows (fixed), the system has been running fully for almost 3 days!

Over the weekend I went to AZ Pets & Pondz in Reading, PA.  For any of you local reefers, it is worth the drive for the rock alone!  And, Mike, who runs the fish room, is very knowledgeable.  (they are known for their pond supplies, but their saltwater fish/coral section is pretty cool, too)

So, I bought another 50+lbs of live rock, 35lbs of live sand (not  the bagged junk, but right from their tanks) and an Oceanic sump that I converted to a fuge.

All is now good with the system. However, because I have replaced all of the rock in the last 3-4 weeks, I am still suffering through a longer than usual cycle.  My nitrates are still around 80ppm and I have  been doing 25 gallon water changes for 4 days straight now, not to mention the additional 45 gallons of new water that was used when I brought the fuge on line.

In addition, my tank is covered with algae.  I mean completely.  On the right hand side, on the sand, there is the brown slime algae and the rest of the tank (sand, glass, rocks) has a nice green coat of algae.  Add to that , the water has a white-ish haze to it, I am now fully engulfed in algae. 

The protein skimmer is working overtime and doing great, though I am still dialing it in a little.

In addition to the skimmer, I also have a full bag of ChemiPure Elite in there, three small bags of Algone and a Phosban Reactor running with 150ml of Phosban.

The fuge has 35lbs of live sand, long with a large amount of chaeto and a piece of live rock. 

I will post more pictures as the tank clears.  As a test, I moved my conch from my BioCube to the big tank and I also moved my purple gorgonia to see how he fairs in the murky waters.  He has opened his feeders so I guess that is a good sign.

I am also excited to see a population of copepods in the tank.  My coral beauty and yellow tang are dining on them a bit, I think, because they keep picking at the rocks.  But, that will change when I start a regular feeding process.  I am holding back right now because I don't want to add excess detritus. 

Once my algae goes away (I hope another week), and my nitrates go to zero, I will begin the process of moving my other fish and coral from the 14 gallon BioCube over to the main tank.  I am really hoping that this algae dies off quickly.  It is rather annoying.

For now, though,I will leave you with this FTS (full tank shot).

Delaware Valley Reef Club

So, a new reef club was formed in the last few weeks.  The Delaware Valley Reef Club serves Southeastern PA, Southern NJ, and Northern Delaware.  While I have yet to make a meeting, I am working on building the website for the organization.

Though it lacks content right now and hasn't officially been unveiled to the club yet, I wanted to let everyone know the URL so you could check it out:  www.delvalreefclub.org

It is based on Joomla with a RocketTheme layered over it.  Also, I have gotten a lot of help from Phyllis over at the NJ Reefers Club!  Thanks, Phyllis!

All Systems Go!!!

It has been a long, hard couple of weeks.  But, I am proud to announce that at 6:52pm on Monday, November 12, 2007, the system officially went online! 

The main plumbing system (minus the refugium) has been running for about 30 minutes now.  Let me describe what has happened over the last couple of weeks.

Plumbers are hard to come by.  Could not get anyone to show up for 2 weeks.  So, I decided to do it myself. 

A friend of a friend is an apprentice and he helped me get the RO/DI unit up and running on November 3.  So, at least I was making water.

Took my two tanks to Eagle Glass to be drilled and to have baffles made.  Don't ever ever use them.  They took forever.  Almost three weeks to cut 3 holes and they kept promising me tomorrow for days.  As it is, they never made the baffles.  So, here's some advice. If you ever need glass or acrylic cut, go to Lowes.  They have everything and will cut it for you while you wait.  No charge!

I spent the better part of November 3/4 trying to do the plumbing.  It was very difficult and by late Sunday night (November 4), I had the plumbing through the walls and hooked up tot he tank, but nothing at the back end inn the basement.

Picked up the tanks on Thursday, and (as mentioned above) Lowes cut my baffles on Saturday.

This past Saturday (November 10) I finished off the plumbing and began to try to test for leaks.  In the process, I cracked the glass on the refugium.  So, I am down a tank right now and another is on order.

I had a minor leak at the drain of the sump, but I managed to fix that with some silicone.

Powered on the pump and had lots of problems!!!  Turns out I had plumbed the drain to the return and vice versa!!!  Ugh!!!

Luckily, I had installed unions in the basement and was able to simply switch them (after getting soaked).

But, I had a new problem.  The drain side under the tank was leaking badly.  Sunday night and I am off to Pickering Valley Farm and Feed to buy new hoses.  Last night I hooked up all of the new flexible plumbing to the tank, sealed it with silicone and put on clamps. 

Tonight, my dad came over and we fired it up and balanced the system for drain/return. 

It's alive!!!

The protein skimmer is on and in the breaking-in state.  The flow is really nice in the aquarium and lots of detritus is being moved around.  I am just hoping it makes it to the basement to get cleaned out...

I will let this run unchanged until I return from work on Thursday night and then begin the process of checking all my levels and hopefully move some of my coral in this weekend!!!

Slowly but Surely

I am making progress every day with the tank, but I am still far from where I should be.  The big mistake here was buying a tank already set-up and not having the plumbing ready to go. 

I am now roughly 3 weeks into having the tank (with fish in it) but no filtration is happening. 

Over the weekend, I managed to run the plumbing from the tank to the basement.  Both the drain lines and the returns are hooked up to the tank and the plumbing is run to my make-shift fish room in the basement.  It was a bear getting the lines run from the living room down.  We ended up cutting a few holes in the closet on the other side of the wall from the tank and then drilling a big hole in the sub-floor.  We then went from the basement up.  I ran 2 lines of 1 1.2 inch Spa Flex horizontally through the floor and then up into the living room.  However, the lines are not finished in the basement.  They are just hanging out of the ceiling.

Why?  Because the folks at Eagle Glass can't seem to find the time to drill three little holes in my two tanks for the basement.  They have had them for over 2 weeks and keep telling me they will have them tomorrow.  I got pretty ticked off at them Friday morning and they said I could pick them up Friday evening.  Went down at 4pm and 5pm and 6pm and no one was there.  Worse yet, I can see the tanks through the window and they are not even started. 

Unfortunately, I am going away for 3 days now and I am praying they will have them done when I return.  Then I can finish the plumbing and get this thing powered up on Wednesday night.

Also, I got the RO/DI unit all plumbed and it is making nice clean water.  Unfortunately, I ran into an issue there too.  We have that draining into the sump in the basement (the one used for the bathroom, not for flooding).  Well, it failed last night and I had a fair amount of water on the floor.  Luckily, it was in the back area and just concrete foundation, not the finished area.  But, the hits just keep on coming.

So, the plan is to finish up on Wednesday night and fire up the pump and get some filtration going!!!

Oh I also got my 50lbs of Florida rock from Live Rock International.  It was a lot of rubble and much of it was crushed in transit.  So, I ordered 50lbs more from Premium Aquatics and that came Saturday.  It went right in the tank and is very very nice rock.  I also added a CUC (clean-up crew) of three varieties of snails and scarlet hermit crabs (also from Premium Aquatics) and they are taking care of the algae bloom from the cycle.

I hope these fish last until I can et some filtration going.