GabeB
Guest
As some of you know from seeing my previous posts my old tank began leaking. I was able to stop the leaking by using 2 ratchet straps around the tank which gave me time to figure out my next move. I ultimately decided to replace the tank with one of the same footprint so I could reuse all my plumbing, equipment, and the stand. I was debating between this option or selling off everything. I'm writing this to document the swap process as I have had some people ask me about it and hopefully it can be helpful to others in the future.
Here is the tank right before I began the swap. You can see the ratchet straps holding it together and my multitude of buckets ready. The plan was to remove about half the water and fill a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank I had ready. At the point we would move the live rock and coral into the tank. I also had my 20 gallon long quarantine tank prepped. I was planning to put most the fish in the 20 gallon and put my Desjardini sailfin tang in the 100 gallon rubbermaid with the coral. As this was a very busy process I did not take many (or any) pictures doing the transfer process unfortunately.
I had this table prepped next to the tank with anything I thought I may need to help with the moving process. Dremel, gloves, razors, flash lights, nets, etc.
Also had a wet/dry vac on stand by if needed.. It actually was extremely useful to empty the tanks fully and get the thin layers I could not siphon. It was also helpful for the sump which was too low to siphon.
Everything was successfully moved into the rubbermaid tank to a storage room very close to the tank. You can also see the quarantine tank in the background. I put a mosquito net over the top to keep the cats out. I had about 5 bubblers running in the rubbermaid tank and 3 heaters. The quarantine tank had its normal setup of a HOB, heater, and powerhead. I had to put some rocks and biomedia in the quarantine tank just because of space in the rubbermaid. The fish were only supposed to be here for 24 hours so figured this would suffice. The transfer went very smoothly except for one hiccup where the live rock broke in my hands while moving into the rubbermaid and when it broke up two fish (an anthias and an Exquisite Firefish) fell out and onto the ground. At that point I learned to shake the rocks before moving them to make sure no fish were inside of them. I was able to pickup the fish and get them in quarantine tank though and the rock was not destroyed.
I also used this time to clean all my equipment so my pump and skimmer were placed in citric acid baths outside and I did a thorough cleaning on my sump.
After removing the tank from the stand we placed it on a dolly outside. The leaking tank was donated to Max (@popper) who picked it up about a day later. He is planning to repair and use it so hopefully we'll hear more from him. He was nice enough to donate some AOI zoanthids which are now happy in my tank.
The first major issue was upon removing the tank and sump from the stand I noticed the back left corner was rotted out... It was pretty bad and I was not comfortable reusing the stand in its current condition. I am not sure if this is what caused the leak or if the leak wasn't cleaned up well enough and the leaking water rotted the stand. Here are some pictures of that.
The rotting/mold from underneath.
You can see the entire bottom piece of plywood is warped.
The original plan was to remove the livestock at night one day (Tuesday night). The floors were then going to be replaced the next day and finally replace the livestock in the new tank that night (Wednesday night) for a total turn around time of about 24 hours. This meant I had about 24 hours to figure out my stand. However, when the old carpet was pulled up there was a large crack in the cement underneath meaning the crack had to be repaired and then flooring installed the following day. This gave me more time to figure out the stand which was helpful but also stressed me out as I was worried to keep everything in the temporary holding tank too long.
The morning after (Wednesday) removing the live stock I went around the Bay looking for new stands but the only acceptable one I found was $1500 at Neptune which I did not want to pay. I felt comfortable having someone repair the current stand as the only rot/mold was the bottom piece of plywood. All important load bearing pieces of wood were fully in tact. Therefore, I had a carpenter replace the bottom piece of plywood as I felt better having a professional do it than myself. He was able to do this the morning the flooring was getting installed (Thursday). He put roofing silicone on the stand to waterproof it so I just had to wait for this to dry and then it would be ready to be installed.
The area where the tank goes with the old carpet removed and you can see cement over areas where cracks had to be repaired.
Ultimately, the stand dryed and the new floors were in and I was able to start refilling the tank on Thursday night. We got the stand inside and leveled it using shims. I plumbed the tank and sump away from the wall then moved everything to where I wanted it. I used the club suction cups throughout this process to remove the old tank and maneuver the new one. They were extremely helpful.
First, I installed the lights to illuminate everything throughout then began filling the tank. For this process, we filled the tank with about 35 gallons of freshly made salt water and supplemented it with water from the rubbermaid as well. We carefully removed water from the rubbermaid with a small utility pump I use since it was too low to siphon and I thought the vacuum was too aggressive. We were able to siphon the quarantine tank. We then moved the rocks and coral in and created a new aquascape as recreating the old one would have been more difficult. After that, I caught the fish and shrimp and moved them back in and added more water to the tank from the rubbermaid and quarantine tank as needed.
Everything was in and running by about 1am at which point I tried to start the pump. I had a Neptune COR-20. The pump didn't start. Fusion was giving me a volt error. I had run into this issue before and usually it just needs time and then it starts again. I was very tired and couldn't get the pump to start even after another deep cleaning and making sure the O-Ring was in place. I decided to put the bubblers and heaters into the main tank and go to bed. I woke up the next day (Friday) at about 6:30am because I had an appointment at 7. Before leaving I tried to start the pump and to my joy the pump started. Unfortunately, one of the unions was leaking pretty bad. I did not have time to figure out the leak so I turned the pump off and went to my appointment leaving the bubblers and heaters in the tank. I got back from my appointment and unscrewed the union and redid it to make sure it was in place before taking more drastic measures like replacing it. However, after doing this the pump would not restart. I tried contacting Neptune for support by phone but they never picked up. I submitted a ticket by email but did not want to wait any longer as by this point everything had been out of the main system for over 48 hours. I had run into similar issues with the pump before and I've had it for about 5 years so I bit the bullet and decided to replace it. I was able to call the closest Neptune dealer with a phone number in my area, Aqua Lab Aquaria, and confirmed they had it in stock and picked it up about 10 minutes after they opened. I brought it home and set it up and got it running right away and finally the majority of the process was complete. I still plan on repairing the old COR-20 with Neptune support to either have it as a backup or sell it to make some money back.
The swap process was finished Thursday night and I got the pump running by noon on Friday. Today (Saturday) the tank is looking very good and everyone is happy. I do not have everything quite set up yet like my dosing pump as I want to set that up differently than before. Additionally, I still have the doors off my stand to make set up of things easier but those will be going back on in a day or two. My main issue right now is my AP700. For some reason it is running its cycle on a different time than its supposed to. I did some research and its supposed to use the time from my phone so I am not sure what's happening and will contact Kessil support on Monday when they open. Until then the light is still working and I have my A160s so lighting is not an issue.
Unfortunately, I did have two fish pass during the process. As of now, all the coral, anemones, and clams seem to be happy but only time will tell with them. Some of the leathers and zoanthids still haven't fully opened but I still think they just need time and I am not too concerned. I lost a lyretail anthias the first morning of having it in the temporary quarantine tank. This could have been because it fell on the ground but I am not sure. I also lost a bengaii cardinal on Friday morning after it was moved back into the main tank. Its eyes look clouded over when I moved it back over and I had a feeling it wouldn't survive. Not sure if anything specific happened to the cardinal, it was an older fish and it was probably just the stress of the process. The rest of the fish all seem healthy and are eating.
I'll post a comment with photos of the tank today as I have already reached my max 10 attachments on this write up.
Here is the tank right before I began the swap. You can see the ratchet straps holding it together and my multitude of buckets ready. The plan was to remove about half the water and fill a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank I had ready. At the point we would move the live rock and coral into the tank. I also had my 20 gallon long quarantine tank prepped. I was planning to put most the fish in the 20 gallon and put my Desjardini sailfin tang in the 100 gallon rubbermaid with the coral. As this was a very busy process I did not take many (or any) pictures doing the transfer process unfortunately.
I had this table prepped next to the tank with anything I thought I may need to help with the moving process. Dremel, gloves, razors, flash lights, nets, etc.
Also had a wet/dry vac on stand by if needed.. It actually was extremely useful to empty the tanks fully and get the thin layers I could not siphon. It was also helpful for the sump which was too low to siphon.
Everything was successfully moved into the rubbermaid tank to a storage room very close to the tank. You can also see the quarantine tank in the background. I put a mosquito net over the top to keep the cats out. I had about 5 bubblers running in the rubbermaid tank and 3 heaters. The quarantine tank had its normal setup of a HOB, heater, and powerhead. I had to put some rocks and biomedia in the quarantine tank just because of space in the rubbermaid. The fish were only supposed to be here for 24 hours so figured this would suffice. The transfer went very smoothly except for one hiccup where the live rock broke in my hands while moving into the rubbermaid and when it broke up two fish (an anthias and an Exquisite Firefish) fell out and onto the ground. At that point I learned to shake the rocks before moving them to make sure no fish were inside of them. I was able to pickup the fish and get them in quarantine tank though and the rock was not destroyed.
I also used this time to clean all my equipment so my pump and skimmer were placed in citric acid baths outside and I did a thorough cleaning on my sump.
After removing the tank from the stand we placed it on a dolly outside. The leaking tank was donated to Max (@popper) who picked it up about a day later. He is planning to repair and use it so hopefully we'll hear more from him. He was nice enough to donate some AOI zoanthids which are now happy in my tank.
The first major issue was upon removing the tank and sump from the stand I noticed the back left corner was rotted out... It was pretty bad and I was not comfortable reusing the stand in its current condition. I am not sure if this is what caused the leak or if the leak wasn't cleaned up well enough and the leaking water rotted the stand. Here are some pictures of that.
The rotting/mold from underneath.
You can see the entire bottom piece of plywood is warped.
The original plan was to remove the livestock at night one day (Tuesday night). The floors were then going to be replaced the next day and finally replace the livestock in the new tank that night (Wednesday night) for a total turn around time of about 24 hours. This meant I had about 24 hours to figure out my stand. However, when the old carpet was pulled up there was a large crack in the cement underneath meaning the crack had to be repaired and then flooring installed the following day. This gave me more time to figure out the stand which was helpful but also stressed me out as I was worried to keep everything in the temporary holding tank too long.
The morning after (Wednesday) removing the live stock I went around the Bay looking for new stands but the only acceptable one I found was $1500 at Neptune which I did not want to pay. I felt comfortable having someone repair the current stand as the only rot/mold was the bottom piece of plywood. All important load bearing pieces of wood were fully in tact. Therefore, I had a carpenter replace the bottom piece of plywood as I felt better having a professional do it than myself. He was able to do this the morning the flooring was getting installed (Thursday). He put roofing silicone on the stand to waterproof it so I just had to wait for this to dry and then it would be ready to be installed.
The area where the tank goes with the old carpet removed and you can see cement over areas where cracks had to be repaired.
Ultimately, the stand dryed and the new floors were in and I was able to start refilling the tank on Thursday night. We got the stand inside and leveled it using shims. I plumbed the tank and sump away from the wall then moved everything to where I wanted it. I used the club suction cups throughout this process to remove the old tank and maneuver the new one. They were extremely helpful.
First, I installed the lights to illuminate everything throughout then began filling the tank. For this process, we filled the tank with about 35 gallons of freshly made salt water and supplemented it with water from the rubbermaid as well. We carefully removed water from the rubbermaid with a small utility pump I use since it was too low to siphon and I thought the vacuum was too aggressive. We were able to siphon the quarantine tank. We then moved the rocks and coral in and created a new aquascape as recreating the old one would have been more difficult. After that, I caught the fish and shrimp and moved them back in and added more water to the tank from the rubbermaid and quarantine tank as needed.
Everything was in and running by about 1am at which point I tried to start the pump. I had a Neptune COR-20. The pump didn't start. Fusion was giving me a volt error. I had run into this issue before and usually it just needs time and then it starts again. I was very tired and couldn't get the pump to start even after another deep cleaning and making sure the O-Ring was in place. I decided to put the bubblers and heaters into the main tank and go to bed. I woke up the next day (Friday) at about 6:30am because I had an appointment at 7. Before leaving I tried to start the pump and to my joy the pump started. Unfortunately, one of the unions was leaking pretty bad. I did not have time to figure out the leak so I turned the pump off and went to my appointment leaving the bubblers and heaters in the tank. I got back from my appointment and unscrewed the union and redid it to make sure it was in place before taking more drastic measures like replacing it. However, after doing this the pump would not restart. I tried contacting Neptune for support by phone but they never picked up. I submitted a ticket by email but did not want to wait any longer as by this point everything had been out of the main system for over 48 hours. I had run into similar issues with the pump before and I've had it for about 5 years so I bit the bullet and decided to replace it. I was able to call the closest Neptune dealer with a phone number in my area, Aqua Lab Aquaria, and confirmed they had it in stock and picked it up about 10 minutes after they opened. I brought it home and set it up and got it running right away and finally the majority of the process was complete. I still plan on repairing the old COR-20 with Neptune support to either have it as a backup or sell it to make some money back.
The swap process was finished Thursday night and I got the pump running by noon on Friday. Today (Saturday) the tank is looking very good and everyone is happy. I do not have everything quite set up yet like my dosing pump as I want to set that up differently than before. Additionally, I still have the doors off my stand to make set up of things easier but those will be going back on in a day or two. My main issue right now is my AP700. For some reason it is running its cycle on a different time than its supposed to. I did some research and its supposed to use the time from my phone so I am not sure what's happening and will contact Kessil support on Monday when they open. Until then the light is still working and I have my A160s so lighting is not an issue.
Unfortunately, I did have two fish pass during the process. As of now, all the coral, anemones, and clams seem to be happy but only time will tell with them. Some of the leathers and zoanthids still haven't fully opened but I still think they just need time and I am not too concerned. I lost a lyretail anthias the first morning of having it in the temporary quarantine tank. This could have been because it fell on the ground but I am not sure. I also lost a bengaii cardinal on Friday morning after it was moved back into the main tank. Its eyes look clouded over when I moved it back over and I had a feeling it wouldn't survive. Not sure if anything specific happened to the cardinal, it was an older fish and it was probably just the stress of the process. The rest of the fish all seem healthy and are eating.
I'll post a comment with photos of the tank today as I have already reached my max 10 attachments on this write up.
