Newbie advise needed... Diary of a new tank junkie
 

Warning! Long winded newbie post!!

Just over a year of Saltwater experience. First time posting here.

I acquired an 80 gallon Bow front tank. The owner had hired a local guy to maintain it and had done so for a while but then just stopped showing up.
Buddy asked me to have a look at it and it was in rough shape. Tank had 7 fish, no sand, 50 - 60 lbs mostly dead rock, algae running wild, and 2 to 3 inches of fish sludge on the bottom. Sump skimmer was running wide open spraying water through the lid , so worst salt creep ever. Really bad shape, but such a nice tank.
Original intent was to break it down, clean everything and set it back up in my office, so I saved a lot of the water, stored rock in buckets with water and moved fish to home tank. Had to take tank to the car wash to clean it.Of course, during the move, we snapped off one of the plumbing fixture elbows. Upon inspection I realized that the plumbing was totally inadequate and needed to be replaced. Now I live in Yellowknife, NT so this is not a matter of going to the LFS and picking up parts, NO. Hello J&L, week to get bulkheads. No problem, give me time to get other fittings etc. NOPE, needed new fittings to make up rest of plumbing runs. Also had to build new stand because salt creep had destroyed particle board stand. (Why do manufactures use this ???) Cleaned up all equipment, ordered new bulbs for fixtures etc.
Bulkheads arrive, multiple trips to every building supply and plumbing shop, plumbing is finished. Fill up box that plumbing lines run through to check for leaks, checked out, so started to fill tank with stored original water, topped off with new water approx 50/50 old/new saltwater. Turned on system to circulate and heat water. Added 80lbs Live sand and let it settle for a day or 2. Tank is starting to look good but find that Coralife Super Skimmer is missing its O-ring and, just by chance, the Coralife at home has snapped off at the drain hole. Guess what. can't order replacement at any of my normal suppliers. More on this later. Anyway, I find one that is close and does the job for now.
Add Live (dead) rock to tank and sump and I like the look of the tank even more. The tank now consists of:

80 gallon Bow Front tank
30 gallon sump 3 chamber
single drain and return plumbed through corner box ( Danger here I Think)
Coralife 125 Super Skimmer
Return pump (looking for advise on needed flow rate, best quietest, etc.)
2 Hydor Koralia 600 GPH power heads
2 heaters (1 in tank, 1 in Sump)
2 Coralife 130w PC fixture with 2 50/50 bulbs per
80 lbs live sand
60 lbs rock, mostly dead and will be used as base.

Tank has been running now for 3 weeks and is crystal clear,
need to do a bit of finish work on base but is functional as is.
But I am thinking that this would look good in my living room and I don't have room for 2 tanks at home. Home tank is:
36 gallon All Glass Bow front tank
Coralife 65 Super Skimmer
2 Hydor Koralia 600 GPH Power heads
Fluval 304 Canister Filter
Fluval E series 100 Heater
Hagen T5 Glo Double Fixture
LED moonlight string
3 Ocellaris Clowns (Half Stripe, Arrow, and of course Nemo.)
2 Pink Skunk Clowns (Peach and Pug)
Tomato Clown (Beefsteak)
Yellow tail Damsel
Domino Damsel
3 Stripe Damsel
Fire Angel (Redbull)
Orange Watchman Goby (Scoop)
Bi color Blenny (Pugly)
2 cleaner Shrimp
Banded Shrimp
Sally Lightfoot Crab
Porcelain Crab
Numerous Hermits and snails
2 condi anemones
sabae
one other anemone
Flame Scallop
Red Mushroom
blue Mushroom
spotted mushroom

Here are the questions.

1) Would it be possible to drain 80 gallon, save water, move home, transfer water, rock and fish from home tank and not have to let it cycle?
2) What would be ideal media for second chamber in Sump? I have skimmer in first, rock in second and pump/heater in third, but the rock is dead as far as I can tell and I need to replace it.

If you have made it this far, Thanks for your patience.
All advise welcome and appreciatted
Any obvious holes in system should be pointed out.
Pictures to follow.


Thanks

Mike

You may still have some of the 80lb rock cycling, but as for the transfer it shouldn't cause any more. I recently upgraded from a 55 to a 150 and showed 0 amonia/nitrites through the whole thing. I used new sand, and mostly new water, i tranfered some water back and forth between the 2 tanks for a bit to try and soften the shock to fish/coral.

Dead rock isn't a problem, you may have die off that will cause ammoonia/nitites for a short while, but the rock will re-seed itself and become live rock very quickly. Biggest thing I've learned and been told by most in this hobby, is just take your time. I'd wait a bit before adding fish, test for ammonia/nitrites to see when you tank has properly cycled. Then add stuff nice and easy.


The second chamber is pretty good with the rock imo, look into perhaps making it a refugium one day with some macro algee and a light, but rock itself is most of the filtration in our tanks.

Thanks
 

Thanks
I do see new growth on the rock which is very encouraging as I have a nice looking reef design going on. Since this is my first sump , I will do some more reading on here.
I have a couple of concerns. first of all, there is a single drain and return and I see the danger in this so I suppose that when I break it down I should add another drain. Where does a person get the bits or do most take the tank to a glass shop and have them do it ?
My return line has 2 elbows in it , does this stress the pump ?

Once again all advise welcome

Hello! Welcome to reefing! I have owned several tanks over the years, up to a 180 gallon that I just sold a year ago when I relocated up here to yellowknife. If you have any specific questions I can help out through PM, or I can come over and take a look. To answer your one question, how big is the single drain you have? Although two is always better than one, usually tanks that size only have a single drain. You would have to get a diamond hole saw, and I left mine with all my tools in Ontario. Remember that if you add a drain, you are losing that much more tank when you add an overflow. If you find any more deals on tanks, let me know, I am wanting to start one up here bad!

Another option would be to plumb your return lines over the back of your tank directly from your sump and use the both drains in your overflows as drains. Having just one drain is not a good thing one large snail and game over, my tank has 4 x 1 1/2" drains .... Two main drains and two emergency drains but one of each in a normal tank is ideal:)

I somewhat disagree. Two drains are ideal, but I wouldn't give up the real estate in an 80g to drill another one. Put in a stockman standpipe on your overflow, and you aren't going to get blockage from a snail. I've had at least 10 tanks now, including 5 at once and never had a blocked overflow. I build the standpipe without gluing any of the pipe, and take it apart every once in awhile and clean out any buildup. Two elbows will slow your drain a bit, but its pretty standard to have two 90's in a drain.

ensquire you are right to be concerned with one drain trust me many others will say if you can have two then go for it without you run the risk of a blocked drain doesn't matter if others say they run their tank with one I guarantee two is better and can even be quiter( check out herbie silent overflow) on reefcentral it's a great read on the risks of one drain and the bonuses of a true quiet system. There's always more than a snails that blocks overflows a large bubbletip can do damage as can fish or crabs urchins or snails that get trapped.

Sleep easy and go on vacation knowing you won't flood your display always play it safe as you can:):)

cheers:)

Like I said two is ideal, but you only have an 80g. The only tank I had two drains on was my 180. Never had a flood yet. A stockman standpipe has several holes in it, and a cover over the top of them, the chances of anything blocking it are very slim if done right. and if you use your return as a second drain, they will be right beside each other and if by some reason a large bubbletip or something gets in there, it could very well plug both anyways. If you are set on a second drain, I would go with one in the opposite corner, but be aware that the overflow is going to take up another 6"x6" of tank space. How big diameter is the drain you have?

They would be next to each other but if they are at different heights you won't block both so say your main drain is closer to the bottom if that gets clogged water rises then your emergency kicks in when it reaches that height in fact my emergency drain doesn't touch water unless a clog happens, again read up on a herbie style overflow completely quiet and safe.

Depends on where your return is located. If they are both in the overflow box then make it a drain. Do a herbie, so quiet, My equipement makes most of my noise. In my tank I had a drain in a overflow and the return in the other corner, I herbied it. And have my return coming up over the back. I do see 1 (emergency drain line) but if it had been the return you'd still see it. I like the peice of mind of having a back up, incase something happens.