Alrighty guys, I know, it's been about a month since I have been on and updated. What can I say, between life and all the mishaps I've had with this tank upgrade, I have to say that on Saturday night, I was pretty sick of this whole thing. "Who gets sick of an upgrade?!" you may ask yourself, but, when you get through my post you may understand why.
Erin (@
Kensington Reefer ) told me once that life will always balance itself out. We were talking about how to stock a tank right when I first ventured into this hobby, and we were on the phone talking about what can I add (fishwise) what I should add, and what I should avoid. That thought has always stuck with me, and I never imagined I would be testing it out.
You all know I have tons of fish. I love my fish, and I am working super hard to get them a bigger box. I was using the 90 as a pseudo quarantine; I got my cleaner wrasse, and copperband from Jim, trying to make them happy and super healthy before putting them in the big tank. Only problem was, the big tank was taking me much longer than expected. So, I took in a little nekkid clown, and I put her in what we call "the nursery." Well,, she didn't like it too much and almost immediately broke out in crypt. I was hoping that by feeding her good food, she'd be on the road to healthy again and would be ready for the 210, I mean, so far, my fish haven't been able to resist the cocktail of food I fed! Well, she did, and the other fish didn't like the nursery being in the tank (not like I blamed them) so eventually, my kole tang broke out in a horrible case of crypt, and so did a female anthias. Everyone else still looked, good, but I knew their immune systems were compromised. Well, to make this shorter, I ended up with a loss, in the first time of fish keeping. I lost my nekkid clown, my cleaner wrasse, smallest anthias and copperband to crypt. Everyone else was still doing ok, but my male mandarin and midas blenny looked so so. Well, I think because of their low immune system, they were predated on, because they just disappeared, as well as my biggest female anthias and sand sifter. Not sure if they just weren't feeling well and a worm got them or what. It was pretty nauseating. 8 fish, and several of those were fish I had had for almost 2 years. But Erin said that life will balance itself out, and I think by my adding that last clown, I knocked down the precarious balancing act of my system that I had maintained for so long. Ugh, talk about disheartening.
After this, when I really didn't want to deal with my tanks, I had to still work on the 210. I last left you off with me still needing to fill the sump. Well, needless to say, I got it filled! And I was super excited, because the day to turn on the WHOLE system to make sure things were working right and to fix any leaks was here! That means if everything went well, I could start cycling! Little did I know...
I don't know if I mentioned before, but I glued the drain together, and I had a friend help me measure out and glue the return. He did plumbing every day for a living, and the return was a little more complicated, and I wanted to be sure that I got it right. After all the plumbing was done, we were all together leak testing it. Our friend came over to help us tighten joints as needed if we found any leaks after I turned on the system. I ended up having one small leak, because I cut the piece of vinyl tubing too short. We needed to cut a second piece of vinyl tubing to replace one that I didn't make long enough. My friend thought that the tubing that connected the plumbing to the bulk head was much longer (and it wasn't) so when he tried to move the vinyl piece of tubing over the sump to catch all the water that was coming out of the full return line; he snapped the bulkhead. We cleaned up and called it a night. I had to track down a bulkhead now. After some research and digger, I found it and bought it off ebay, and it was supposed to be here 12/05/13. It never arrived. UPS almost sent it back (took almost two weeks to get here, even though it was 2nd day air) because I was never home to accept it (I live in an apartment complex and we still can't figure out why they didn't take it to the office on the first attempt) and then they had truck issues for three days. What a mess. When it finally arrived, we quickly got everything reconnected and I plugged in the tank after fixing the leaks, only to find out that the right side of my overflow wasn't working. Denzil was sure something was wrong with the check valve but I wasn't convinced. I tried to solve the issue by cutting my four return outlets down to two. When that didn't work, I thought it was because the tee from the return pump wasn't even between the two outlets, the left side was longer than the right. Well, I was going to start cycle it anyways, and the day I was going to go pick up a bucket of salt, I had a pipe on the return bust. I couldn't figure out why Denzil shut off the darn tank that night. LoL, well, now I knew. So, I decided to cut out and redo the whole return line and make it even so both overflows had flow. I undid the unions and ripped out the return line and I checked the ball valve on a whim, remembering what Denzil said he had thought. Sure enough, my friend who helped my return line used so much glue that he glued the ball to the wall of the check valve = / and he didn't glue well enough and a pipe burst. Lesson learned; I will struggle through my own plumbing by myself. So, on 12/22, I patched the hole we drilled into the sump, and started getting my return line built. I was able to save my unions, and after hearing about anti-siphon holes, decided against any type of check valve. Funny thing how things tend to work out. My unions were savable because my friend swapped the ends of the check valves and ends of the unions; so when I swapped them back, all I needed was a 3/4" male to slip adapter, which I got on 12/23. They worked like a dream. After everything was measured out, I glued everything together and let it sit over night. Denzil suggested that I put a union right by the pump, to make pump maintenance easier. I got the union on the 24th, glued it in the early morning, and let it sit for a few hours. Right before I left to work, Denzil and I hooked everything up, and damn, no leaks on the first try! Easy hook up, easy disassemble. I am pretty sure at this point we can cycle the tank!
We went to Christmas, and left the tank off, because we still needed to drill the four anti siphon holes on the locline. When we got back on the night of 12/25, Denzil drilled 2 small holes on each locline, 1/2" below the normal water level (this was Marc Levenson's idea) and we turned on the system to test it out... worked perfectly!!!!!! Now I added 3 heaters; 1 in each overflow and the giant one in the sump, and we turned the system on. Keep in mind, we have had fresh water in it this whole time. It was noisy, but for a fresh water tank, it was still pretty darn quiet. I believe with the addition of salt, it will quiet down. Now...
No leaks?? Check! Good flow on both return outlets?? Check! Sump is complete??? Check!!! It's now time for salt!!!!
We heated everything up and this morning (12/26) I added my first batch of salt! 30 cups!! I went to work and got home, and it was all clear. What else is there to do but to add another batch of salt?! Added 30 more cups about an hour ago.
LoL congratulations. If you've read this whole post, you must have the patience of a saint. Your reward is pictures!!! Don't have many, but I have a few
