Azoox Tank Re-Build

[PFoster]

Now its time to move the sectional for the last time!!
One more moving of our giant couch and the fridge is installed under the tank and we are ready to transfer the livestock!



I am sooo happy I don't have to re-arrange the living room anymore to move this tank and stand again...

Now with the fridge in place and the tank back against the wall, we removed most of the corals from the rock work and were ready to transfer the rock. When we put the Cardiff together we used a combination of the artificial rock that we make and live rock from Australia as the structure and diversity are like nothing I have seen before of since. The artificial rock was great as it raised the live rock well out of the sand bed. And the Aussie rock was great as we could create some real cliff hanger structures. This of course did require the assistance of epoxy and for this we used the Two Little Fishies Pink epoxy. In hind sight the pink probably was not the best choice. As this is a NPS tank there just isn't enough light to get coraline growth so the pink is still clearly visible... But as there is only one piece of live rock and 2 pieces of artificial rock at least there are only a few joints.
K.. back on track..
Trina and I went to move this rock and after all this time the epoxy is still rock solid!
The entire structure lifted up in just one piece which was just awsome as it made the transfer crazy easy and crazy fast.



One of the biggest issues with the last tank was that we really did not have the space for the azoox gorgonia as they grew out. So for the new tank with a much larger foot print we decided to keep the exact same rock structure and just enjoy the extra space that I am soon would soon be filled in with corals



You can see in this picture the piece of Diodogorgia nodulifera growing on the side of our rock structure. This piece has been in our tank for over a year now and growing quite well. Hopefully it doesn't mind the transfer as it is one of my (and Trina's) favorite pieces.

Time for some gravel!
We picked up some of the Carrib Sea, special grade reef sand locally and I left Trina to rinse the gravel
She added 2-3" of gravel in a bucket at a time and rinsed it as best as she could but it never goes perfectly clear...
After washing about 30 lbs we added it to the tank.





And now for a part we can all truly appreciate.
To add the water to the tank I just opened the ball valve on the 3/4" line and let the water start to flow!
You can see the ball valve that controlls the flow to the tank in the first pic in this post, just above the fridge.
All the splash on the front glass was because I had the water pouring onto the rock and it made a bit of a mess which doesn't really matter anyways since its inside the tank... but still..

[PFoster]

Now while the tank clears we started to run the wiring. I am crazy fussy when it comes to running piping lines or wires or anything. I really like all the wires to run in line and be nice and clean looking. Yes the end product looks simple, but that's the beauty of it. In the end if the lines look easy it was probably pretty tricky to put together but IMO well worth it.

I am not sure if I will run a controller on this tank yet. I do have an old RK2 sitting around the house somewhere that I might use but for the time being I am going to use an individually switchable power bar.

Here is the cabinet inside that we are starting with



Here you can see the ball valve that controlls the flow to the tank. The fridge and the lines coming out of the top are tight to the left side of the stand. This should give me enough space to always be able to reach the ball valve and install the power bar on the right side and always have decent access to it.

I put in a couple screws, and attached the power bar to the inside of the stand



It may be hard to see in the pic but I used the cable staples to attach all the lines to the side of the stand and keep them in line.
The plug on the far left of the power bar is for the fridge.

So for this power bar to have the switches on the bottom for easy access the cord had to be at the front side of the tank. To keep the lines clean I left a bit of space above the power bar and ran the power line to the back of the tank up here.


Now with the power bar installed and clean, we need some flow.



On the Cardiff we had been using 2 of the MP10's. We were not sure if this would be enough flow, but before we replace them with some MP40's we might as well give them a try and see if they will cut it for flow on a azoox tank. If they are enough flow we will probably upgrade them to a pair of MP10WES's but again we want to be sure first.

But to install the MP10's the holes were a little too small for the screws that we had on hand and well... I didn't want to make the trip to Home Depot..



So its time to break out the drill again!



And sure enough they fit just fine now



I didn't want the cables to be in the way of the ball valve so I installed the pumps on the left side of the back of the stand.



I zip tied the lines coming out and down from the controller and the line going back up to the tank together so that it looked clean.
For the power supplies I didn't want a birdsnest behind the stand so I zip tied all the lines together and stuck them on the back of the fridge. With the tank against the wall and now full of water I couldn't get a pic of this but I can fill in more details if anyone is interested.

Ran the power lines to the switchable power bar and tacked the lines down.



Here is a full shot from outside the stand

[PFoster]

So the tank wasn't quite clear yet but my lack of patients got the better of my and I turned the system on. I figured on a system with over 500g of water volume in total, the dust from a 45g wont make much difference.

I ended up removing the Diodogorgia nodulifera while we were filling the tank as I was worried about how long it was out of water + if the dust would causeit any damage. You may or may not have noticed, but its actually missing in the last few pics.



The glass is still a bit hazy, but in the pic above you can see one of the two firefish in the tank and in the center of the rock work you can see one of the dendron

In the pic above you can see an orange azoox coral in the center of the rock work. This pieces has orange polyps.
In the pic below you can see another orange azoox coral, but this one has white polyps.



These 2 pieces have a few things in common.
They were both shipped as Dendronephthya sp.
I am positive that neither of them are Dendronephthya sp
I suspect the bottom one may be a Alcyonium glomeratum.
And both of them have proven to be quite hardy!

Here is a list of the current tank inhabitants for fish and inverts:
2 Firefish (Nemateleotris magnifica)
1 Yasha Haze Gobie (Stonogobiops yasha)
1 Blue Stripe Pipe Fish (Doryrhamphus excisus)
1 Cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
3 Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
20 or so Nassarius
1 Caribbean Serpent Starfish

Now with the tank water cleared up we will start to transfer the corals over and should have some pics and a list up soon.