Kessil

Mike's 200 & 40 gallon tanks

Well one bit of good news, I saw my wrasse swimming around one of the temp holding tanks. So I didnt lose him. Was actually starting to worry he was hiding in the sand or managed to leap a foot over the edge of the tank.

Think for now going to see about cleaning out the 300G Rubbermade in my back yard and setting it back up as a longer term temporary tank... again. Figure there is a spot I can clean out to put it such that I can overflow to my existing sump, so I can still use the skimmer, ato, etc. Then figure out lighting over it, how I can just hang my existing lights. Might take a few days to set things up though.
 
I can come pump in water from the van if you need it. Can bring 100 gal and you just pull the hose and extension cord in as long as it’s less than 100 feet from the street.
 
No worries, I got the water from the temp tanks, which is probably somewhere around 100 gallons, And I got 80 gallons in the storage tote. Plus I think I still have salt, so can make more. Going to need to do this in a couple steps I think... I need to cycle the tank quickly.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well one bit of good news, I saw my wrasse swimming around one of the temp holding tanks. So I didnt lose him. Was actually starting to worry he was hiding in the sand or managed to leap a foot over the edge of the tank.

Think for now going to see about cleaning out the 300G Rubbermade in my back yard and setting it back up as a longer term temporary tank... again. Figure there is a spot I can clean out to put it such that I can overflow to my existing sump, so I can still use the skimmer, ato, etc. Then figure out lighting over it, how I can just hang my existing lights. Might take a few days to set things up though.
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Thank god I flaked, would feel bad if I have your brute now.


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Don't feel bad, I would have gone in a different direction I'm sure.

Ok, "tank" down on a mini stand (had to raise the level so the overflow could go into the sump), first 80 or so gallons of water in along with all the sand I scooped out, as dirty as it is I'm hoping that it helps kick start a cycle on all the surface area. Just FYI wet sand weighs WAY more than salt, I found out when I filled a 225g (7 gallon) salt buck with sand, that plastic handle snapped almost instantly. Heaters in, got an old school pump pushing water (every watt is heat in the tank). And currently working on my next batch of salt. Really need to figure out the order to go though, I tub full to use the overflow, but the sump is filled to the brim with water and I really want to reuse some of the water from the temp tanks (i.e. not a 100% water change), but I want to get the sump up so I can start the protein skimmer up to filter out some of the crap in the water.

Oh, and now starts the great aiptasia experiment. Can aiptasia live on a surface, completely dried out for a year while getting hit with the sun and other elements and regenerate. Part of me thinks yes they can. But the tub was my last shot at preservation (still thought I could salvage the tank), otherwise I would have just set the tub up and empty tank water in it instead of dumping probably 80+ gallons down the drain.

But I think this thread officially is dead, I don't feel like renaming "Mike's 40g tank"
 
And my bucket of salt is a little lower than I thought, should have enough water everywhere, I put my protein skimmer directly in the tub though to help pull the gunk out. Should have gotten in on that ReefCrystals sale :D

Tomorrow if I got time, need to plumb into sump/return pump.
 
No way aiptasia can survive being dried out for short period of time much less for a year. They are a tough cnidarian but still a cnidarian. If you see them again later it almost certainly snuck in the old fashioned way. From a friend’s frag :)
 
JVU said:
No way aiptasia can survive being dried out for short period of time much less for a year. They are a tough cnidarian but still a cnidarian. If you see them again later it almost certainly snuck in the old fashioned way. From a friend’s frag :)
Click to expand...
Are you sure? I had some majanoes In A clients sump that was empty for at least a week, maybe 2 while they were redoing floors and when I was going to set it back up they sure looked like they were pulling water into them like sponges. Scared me. Maybe they weren’t totally dry, but certainly not all the way submerged and not getting any movement etc...
 
Ok, everything moved over to the 300G tub, I miscalculated how much water I needed but thanks to having a tank maintenance guy within literally 2 minutes driving distance he was gracious enough to sell me some of his salt so I can get the rest filled up hopefully later tonight and then get the sump online.

May have killed a fire shrimp as the water he was in felt quite a bit cooler than the other tank, and didn't really think when I put the rock he was clinging to in, he kind of did the sideways barely move routine... but when I tried to grab him he did jerk and get away for a bit... but we'll see if he dies it'll be the least of my worries. The cleaner shrimp I did better and actually did a bit of acclimation to it.

While I'm sure the fish will survive my big worry is all the corals, they are almost all SPS, and there wasn't exactly much wiggle room to make sure tanks were all the same conditions other than salinity, so we'll see over the next day or two if things RTN/STN.

I was going to wait until tomorrow to put the lights on, but I figured it'd be easier to do when the tank was barely full of water, plus it's been a few days without lights I can start reacclimating them to light. Only got T5s on now because those were the easiest to reroute wiring, and damn corals look pretty good... lets hope this isn't the last memory I have of them.

After emptying my 100g salt water reservoir I saw a nasty brown coating on the walls, not sure if this is nastiness from impure salt mix like the BRS guys said, or if this is just a natural microbial/algae like coating that formed since I tend to keep it full. Either way, EWW... when this is all over with I'm going to have to figure out a way to clean it out.

At this point I also am tempted in breaking down my 40G soft tank, just so I can clean the whole area out, plus it's one less tank to think about. Not right now obviously, maybe a few days. However I will say the thought of wandering bubble tip anemones is kind of what is making me reconsider that decision.

Next few days I'll clean up the tornado like mess that I made rushing to get things setup and having all but one tank leak on me... but for now, spend the day with my family relaxing except to maybe put the salt water in.
 
Probably a bit overweight (no batteries in scale), my ankles are starting to get swollen for some reason, and my blood pressure is higher than I'd like, but otherwise I'm fine.

But did get in contact with Spectrum (Marineland parent company I guess), they want a picture of the tank on the stand, a picture of where the leak is (not sure how I'm going to do that since I'm 100% sure it's under the bottom trim, a picture of the sticker of who built the tank (I have no idea where that is, hopefully I can just find an old picture of the tank on the pallet that says "Marineland" across it), and a copy of something that says date purchased and purchase price (they did not say receipt). They did say don't throw the tank away until they or their insurance company says it's ok to do so, so *shrug*. I only paid $400 for it, but hey if I can get $400 back I'm going to see if I can get $400 back, and the upside at that price chances are they won't opt to replace it, since the glass probably cost more than that.

That said, some of the across broke off in moving, I lost a digitata frag that was growing out for a frag swap, it some how hooked on a wire as I pulled the rock out of the tank, and I didn't notice it until I was ready to move the rocks back, it was 2-3 days, I stuck it back in the water but I think I lost it it :D The tub has a ton of surface area and evaporates like a MFer, I'm surprised how much I have to top it off every day. I haven't completely cleaned up the mess of me scrambling to get things temporarily stored either, but I am kind of leaning to breaking down the 40G tank too, and tossing everything into the tub just to have one less tank to think about, and deal with wherever the anemones end up going, I mean I can break off acros if I have to. But otherwise, waiting for that first PG&E bill since evaporation = heat loss = heaters on more.
 
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