Bigfish
Supporting Member
Hello everyone!
I've been meaning to get to this, but It's been a crazy few days shout out to @FreahSaltyGuy and his buff friend along with my helpful brother-in-law we were finally able to transport this beast back to my place.
There were a lot of interesting moments and unexpected mishaps from figuring out electrical to getting drenched while trying to save a long lost Goby! I will be referring to @FreahSaltyGuy as FSG for short just to save from typing it out.
A few nights before getting the tank I tried to find the best spot in my place for it. It was not easy with such a large footprint, but I was inspired by its location at FSG's residence somewhere near an exterior wall so I can eventually plumb the external water source for the tank from outside. This turned out to be a really great idea, also I needed to plan for a new electrical outlet to be able to run all the various equipment from pumps to lights.
First day was emptying the tank and breaking down all the live rock, coral, etc... Showed up at 8:30am with 7 Costco yellow topped bins and a full spirit, after disconnecting most of the electronics we started removing the live rock piece by piece, with roughly 250lbs of rock this was a tall task we coordinated them into buckets along with tank water, eventually also getting the all the fish out as well, except for one.....a Goby that apparently had been stuck in the overflow for the past few months, impossible to reach by conventional means.
My brother in law and I were in charge of manning the bulkheads found at the bottom of the tank in hopes of loosing the connecting nuts fast enough before all the water drained and catch the goby coming down. As soon as we loosened the bulk head nuts water came pouring down all over us and the house. It was to our horror to find out there was no way to fully pull out the plumbing because how it was glued to the quick disconnect valves. I got drenched but we were able to eventually save the Goby thanks to FGS's quick thinking. Unfortunately due to this we ended up having to cut all the piping that ended up going into the sump. This caused me a lot of problems later but was unavoidable.
Once the fish and live rock was sorted, we realized we needed more Costco bins to hold all the sand, made a quick trip to get more bins and we finally got everything put away and taken back to my place. Then came the biggest hurdle...figuring how to move this massive tank and stand (which included a 75 gallon sump). I was grateful my father in law told me if I ever buy a truck make sure it's a 6 foot bed, because I needed it today. It took a lot of heart, grit and internal cursing to figure out and move everything to my place. Praying we don't drop the tank or accidentally nick it anywhere, but again thanks to FSG, his strong friend and my brother in law who were able to make it happen.
Now the real work began... after all the work my brother in law did to help me move the tank, I couldn't ask him to help me do this part. I had to by myself add back all the water, sand, live rock and fish back into the tank, this has been a huge undertaking for me the last few days. It took me hours to put everything back in. I ended up staying up till 2 am the first two nights slowly adding all the sand back and arranging the live rock and getting the fish in, figuring out the water situation. My wife and I came up a funny slogan of "4 the Feesh" I chanted to keep me going late into the night. I placed the protein skimmer in with the thermostat to help keep the fish happy while I was working on mixing another big 50 gallon drum of salt water. This ended up being a big unexpected hurdle as it was hard to realize just how much water this beast held, coming from a smaller 75 gallon tank a few years ago made me forget, even with all the original tank water I brought in the 10 Costco bins. I was truly grateful to FSG for giving me a deal on his commercial grade RODI water system and including his big 55 gallon drums in the deal. As I wouldn't know how to get that much clean water ready to mix salt in.
However before I could even fill the tank up all the way first and foremost I needed to figure out all the plumbing. Another thanks to FSG who helped me in trying to figure out getting that set up. It took me much longer than expected but I finally got a plan and figured out the fix which in hindsight involved a few couplers and some DIY'ing (maybe a little on the inside but still alive thankfully hahaha). Unfortunately soon after the bulkheads started to drip a bit and I had to figure out why, I realized I made the same mistake and couldn't remove the overflow pipes out to clean the seals. Then I thought back to the goby incident and realized I can try to flush any sand or debris out by moving the fitting around while my helpful wife poured water down the back drains. I got wet again but finally managed to get the sand flushed out enough to get a good seal. After all that work I realized it was leaking again but not from the bulk heads but a bit from the threads. I know generally not recommended but I was desperate (and at this point probably a bit delusional) as I slapped a good amount of pipe dope on them and prayed while tightened them up. Thankfully that seemed to work! After a bit more tightening (making sure I don't over tighten and break either the gasket or valve) I got it to where I could trust it. I came back the next morning and made sure it held up.
Moving all the +250 lb live rock by myself was tough, I didn't even think about looking at FSGs layout but at this point everything was so mixed up in the tubs and what I had already put in the tank I pretty much just had to start from scratch. I just started one by one slowing stitching together the pieces until I was happy with them trying to be careful with the corals as I moved the rocks around. I accidentally tripped my breaker and blew my extension outlet by making a big rookie mistake. I had all my electronics on the ground and had a splash of water anciently fall on them. I realized how dumb I was, reset the breaker and make sure everything was high up (since then I screwed in a waterproof extension outlet on the side of the tank)
After a lot of blood, sweat and tears I finally got the tank fully set up and filled with water, I think It came out beautiful. I filled up the sump and powered it on, but again it seems like I will have to mix up another batch of water to help fully fill the sump especially when I get the protein skimmer up again! Hopefully by tonight, but for now this is my updates thanks for reading and following me in my journey!
I've been meaning to get to this, but It's been a crazy few days shout out to @FreahSaltyGuy and his buff friend along with my helpful brother-in-law we were finally able to transport this beast back to my place.
There were a lot of interesting moments and unexpected mishaps from figuring out electrical to getting drenched while trying to save a long lost Goby! I will be referring to @FreahSaltyGuy as FSG for short just to save from typing it out.
A few nights before getting the tank I tried to find the best spot in my place for it. It was not easy with such a large footprint, but I was inspired by its location at FSG's residence somewhere near an exterior wall so I can eventually plumb the external water source for the tank from outside. This turned out to be a really great idea, also I needed to plan for a new electrical outlet to be able to run all the various equipment from pumps to lights.
First day was emptying the tank and breaking down all the live rock, coral, etc... Showed up at 8:30am with 7 Costco yellow topped bins and a full spirit, after disconnecting most of the electronics we started removing the live rock piece by piece, with roughly 250lbs of rock this was a tall task we coordinated them into buckets along with tank water, eventually also getting the all the fish out as well, except for one.....a Goby that apparently had been stuck in the overflow for the past few months, impossible to reach by conventional means.
My brother in law and I were in charge of manning the bulkheads found at the bottom of the tank in hopes of loosing the connecting nuts fast enough before all the water drained and catch the goby coming down. As soon as we loosened the bulk head nuts water came pouring down all over us and the house. It was to our horror to find out there was no way to fully pull out the plumbing because how it was glued to the quick disconnect valves. I got drenched but we were able to eventually save the Goby thanks to FGS's quick thinking. Unfortunately due to this we ended up having to cut all the piping that ended up going into the sump. This caused me a lot of problems later but was unavoidable.
Once the fish and live rock was sorted, we realized we needed more Costco bins to hold all the sand, made a quick trip to get more bins and we finally got everything put away and taken back to my place. Then came the biggest hurdle...figuring how to move this massive tank and stand (which included a 75 gallon sump). I was grateful my father in law told me if I ever buy a truck make sure it's a 6 foot bed, because I needed it today. It took a lot of heart, grit and internal cursing to figure out and move everything to my place. Praying we don't drop the tank or accidentally nick it anywhere, but again thanks to FSG, his strong friend and my brother in law who were able to make it happen.
Now the real work began... after all the work my brother in law did to help me move the tank, I couldn't ask him to help me do this part. I had to by myself add back all the water, sand, live rock and fish back into the tank, this has been a huge undertaking for me the last few days. It took me hours to put everything back in. I ended up staying up till 2 am the first two nights slowly adding all the sand back and arranging the live rock and getting the fish in, figuring out the water situation. My wife and I came up a funny slogan of "4 the Feesh" I chanted to keep me going late into the night. I placed the protein skimmer in with the thermostat to help keep the fish happy while I was working on mixing another big 50 gallon drum of salt water. This ended up being a big unexpected hurdle as it was hard to realize just how much water this beast held, coming from a smaller 75 gallon tank a few years ago made me forget, even with all the original tank water I brought in the 10 Costco bins. I was truly grateful to FSG for giving me a deal on his commercial grade RODI water system and including his big 55 gallon drums in the deal. As I wouldn't know how to get that much clean water ready to mix salt in.
However before I could even fill the tank up all the way first and foremost I needed to figure out all the plumbing. Another thanks to FSG who helped me in trying to figure out getting that set up. It took me much longer than expected but I finally got a plan and figured out the fix which in hindsight involved a few couplers and some DIY'ing (maybe a little on the inside but still alive thankfully hahaha). Unfortunately soon after the bulkheads started to drip a bit and I had to figure out why, I realized I made the same mistake and couldn't remove the overflow pipes out to clean the seals. Then I thought back to the goby incident and realized I can try to flush any sand or debris out by moving the fitting around while my helpful wife poured water down the back drains. I got wet again but finally managed to get the sand flushed out enough to get a good seal. After all that work I realized it was leaking again but not from the bulk heads but a bit from the threads. I know generally not recommended but I was desperate (and at this point probably a bit delusional) as I slapped a good amount of pipe dope on them and prayed while tightened them up. Thankfully that seemed to work! After a bit more tightening (making sure I don't over tighten and break either the gasket or valve) I got it to where I could trust it. I came back the next morning and made sure it held up.
Moving all the +250 lb live rock by myself was tough, I didn't even think about looking at FSGs layout but at this point everything was so mixed up in the tubs and what I had already put in the tank I pretty much just had to start from scratch. I just started one by one slowing stitching together the pieces until I was happy with them trying to be careful with the corals as I moved the rocks around. I accidentally tripped my breaker and blew my extension outlet by making a big rookie mistake. I had all my electronics on the ground and had a splash of water anciently fall on them. I realized how dumb I was, reset the breaker and make sure everything was high up (since then I screwed in a waterproof extension outlet on the side of the tank)
After a lot of blood, sweat and tears I finally got the tank fully set up and filled with water, I think It came out beautiful. I filled up the sump and powered it on, but again it seems like I will have to mix up another batch of water to help fully fill the sump especially when I get the protein skimmer up again! Hopefully by tonight, but for now this is my updates thanks for reading and following me in my journey!
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