jkhchris 105 gallon tank build

[Chowder]

Thanks Tony , I believe I still have some room on the underside of my powerheads and I guess the trays. Hey Jason what is with the spelling today. (climsy) ........ (genitally)
Chris

[Jason McK]

I was Diving all day yesterday. With Cprowler and Jack. On Cprowlers boat. Ate dinner at 10PM then got up to take my wife to the airport at 5:00am.
Not thinking sorry

[Chin_Lee]

Chris
let me know when your transfer day will be. If i'm "around", i'll come by to help out.
Whats your plan for transferring? I ask because I've heard so many tragic stories of losing massive amounts of corals when people upgrade to bigger tanks. I lost about 60-70% of my acros when I transferred them to my 300g and i attribute the loss to the drastic change in water parameters. Start thinking about this because I would hate to see you lose any of your wonderful collection.

[Reefer Rob]

Just in case you're looking for some ideas, this is what I did when I transfered everything over from my 72 to my 180. I left all my corals and fish etc in the 72. I did all my aqua-scaping in new water, then moved the fish over. I let the new tank run for a week then I moved a couple of corals over as test pieces, acclimating them as I normally would. When the test pieces did OK for a few days I moved the rest over. No losses at all from the move, just a whole lot of stress.

Rob

[Chowder]

Thanks for the offer Chin and the advice Rob. I was actually thinking of doing a post to get some suggestions. What I was thinking of doing was to having the other tank set up and ready to run. I do a 15 gallon water change every week on the 65. I would put the change water into the new tank with some power heads running to keep it stirring. I probably would do two of these a week for two weeks. About the time my wife could stand before saying something. That would create about 60 gallons of aged water in the two weeks and still have about 75 gallons of cleaner aged water still in the 65 gallon. I would also have my skimmer running in the new tank. I am still planning on having sand but would go with new and use a couple of pounds from my 65 to seed it. Then I would set a day to change it all to the new tank. I would also like to clean my old rock as much as possible durring the transfer. I also have about 50 or so pounds of dried dead rock that I have cycling in a rubbermaid with a 8 pound piece of live rock for about 2 weeks now. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Chris

[Tom R]

Looks great Chris

Just take it slow and plan out every move ahead of doing it.

Good luck

Tom R

[Chowder]

Thanks Tom. How are you doing? Did everything go well?

[Chowder]

Worked on The cap for the tank today. Got it built , sanded and a coat of stain on it today. Will put another coat on it tomorrow and try to take a picture of it.
Chris

[Chowder]

Here are two pictures of the completed stand and cap.

[Chowder]

This is the frankenstien sump I will be using for the new system. It is a Allglass Mega Flow 4 Sump. It met a timely demise when it fell off the back of a truck upon delivery to a local LFS. I picked it up for $20 dollars. I figured if I couldn't make it hold water atleast the plexi would be worth $20. The trickle area was broken off in the spill which allows lots of room for the new Skimmer. I took 3/8 plexi strips and glued them over the cracks with weldon 16 and let them set. I drilled three 2 1/2" holes in the trickle overflow to allow the water to flow through instead of cascading over the first wall. I have had it at the shop holding water for 2 months now with no lose.
So far this sump has cost me about $35 dollars and a little bit of my time.


Chris