Squatch's Continuing Adventure with a 40g breeder

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Last night I caught the wrasse in a trap. I moved it to my other tank. Currently, I have a single blue damsel remaining. When this tank gets re-done for a mantis, it will be its "buddy". I can't see that happening before this summer.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Well, this is the official official final update. This tank has served me well. It has been a solid rock when my other tank was acting up. When my large tank had troubles, my 40 held my corals safe

However.

I was adding top off tonight, and things happened and I wandered off. for 4 hours fresh water fed the tank from a 1/4" hose. Current salinity is 1.008. I cant find the fish, not that it would matter it would be killed in the 90 gallon.

I removed all the coral that I could and relocated to my 90. RIP lots of lps/softies.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Correction. This is another last update.

I found the fish, and it is alive and well......I figure that IF the salinity dropped from 1.024 to 1.008 and it survived that I could add salt and get it "fixed".

At this point I figure everything is dead from the shock. God hates a coward, so I did some math and added 32 half cups of salt. The fish is still alive. We will know in the morning.

Pray for the blue damsel.

Also, free surviving corals next weekend. I decided to take this as the sign to finally discontinue this tank.

The plus: Basement tiled floor. Water literally did EXACTLY what was planned. It went directly to the drain.

Its in gods hands now what survives.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Good Luck Squatch ! Things do happen in this hobby !
At this point I did not lose the fish. I got the SG up to 1.022 over a few hours. I was looking to break down this tank, and honestly the only reason it hasn't happened yet is because I didn't want to kill all the junk coral that was in it. I had a few "pieces" that I wanted.....most of them died.

Of what I salvaged from the tank, it looks like some things lived.....It looks like my frogspawn lived, which is the only thing I wanted to survive in addition to the fish. It was a coral that randomly popped up from nothing, and I as simply attached because of that. Oddly enough, some of the pocci survived, while others died. from the look of it, EVERYTHING that was not 100% bulletproof has died. All encrusting monti/staghorns/stylo/acro dead.

Thankfully this tank was only holding duplicates of things AND ugly stuff I hated and couldn't give away. Even though the SG is good, there is starting to be a "funk" developing....Everything is starting to rot....My HUGE issue is that I burned my forearm at work, and don't feel like gloves, but shit I guess it is going to happen...Tonight I am going to mix up some water, and tommorrow night I am going to break it down and re-cycle the rocks in a trash can. This was only terrible in that life was needlessly lost.....but by the same token, I had huge rocks covered with zoas and cyphestra, and was not happy with that. Death was inevitable. I would have preferred to pick the date and time. The fish is going into a 20 gallon piped to the main system for now. The other one will kill it, and I don't feel like seeing any more death this week.

I did have some "Darth Maul" zoas....I hope they make it, but its not looking good.....Every other zoa died. They don't look good, and I generally kill zoas...these were the first ones in a long while that actually multiplied. So be it. This is really part of the hobby.

Ironically enough, I just did some hardware swaps with a local guy last week.....The conversation kept drifting back to the eventuality. How good a reef keeper we are dictates the time inbetween crashes. That tank was up and running with only minor hiccups for over 2 years. LOTS of ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT needed.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
I think it is safe to give a bit of an update.

The "incident" has "ended". All moved corals died except what looks like a few riccordia, AND my Frogspawn. This was the bee's knees for me. Seems like softies have the best chance of survival.

Funnier yet is that I got my SG back to 1.022ish, and a few days later I did the EXACT same thing on the 40 gallon.....Flooded the floor AGAIN, and dropped the SG down to 1.012. All I did was laugh. The fish is still alive, and the SG has been re-adjusted to 1.018 and I am just going to re-cycle in-place. I may have had a few yuma that survived in the tank, but I won't be sure for a bit.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member


Science is officially finished on this part of the project. I may follow-up with findings/musings. Tank is draining through a 1/4" hose. I think the biggest loss is the bacterial life, but thankfully I was able to clone it in my other tank.

This was a DIY blessing for me. Skills learned in this transferred to larger projects easily. This project was an honest look at what some dude with a hack saw, poor choice in music and a 45 year old drill can do within the hobby. Dirt cheap entrance is possible, but you get the dirt all over your hands. Its a trade off. If you question your carpentry, turn the level 180 degrees and check it again lol. Use more screws.

Honest opinion is that it did everything I expected, and better than imagined. This was my first splash back into the hobby after a 10 year break and with no research. I spent 10 years designing and a few weeks constructing a simple and "small" sized tank that I could bring home and say "They didn't have the 30" long model"......I didn't do that, but I could have. My predictions were well on par. My biggest failure was not designing mechanical filtration into it. I like berlin systems, but they take a long time to get stable and require frequent water changes, heavy skimming and low bio load. I got totally off build when I introduced lights. Though I enjoy coral, I wish I would have stuck to my initial design. Perhaps lower intensity or even just a single low watt MH.

2015 The tank moved, and it the mantis (Pussy cat) did not recover. I really think we moved close to a molt period, and it was just too much stress. She was very particular about "that time of the quarter".

After this I skipped, and even using the change water from my 90 for changes in this. Toward the end it was the recovery/graveyard (choose your own adventure) for frags. I am very particular about the types of corals I keep. I use a tactic called "natural selection" and the ones that survive are somewhat pests.

It took a tankful of freshwater while I was at church one day to really kill the "collection". The duration, the temp and salinity killed everything off...except a fish.

The fish migrated onto my brothers in-wall tank at his house. Its only a 29 gallon made with leftovers.

I flooded the tank today. Again, while at church. It is really simple to remember to not leave the valve while I have it on (This is the 3rd time I did this).


All of the crushed coral will be used for future projects with agrocrete. I have some time off without tanks coming up, but I can make some nice agro-projects....Already planning next new DT (120g 48") and full agrocrete.


I will keep this thread tied to the tank...should the tank ever get wet on the inside again, you will be the first to know about it. My "downtime" without a caged critter may get the best of me.



feeding_time.jpg
 
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Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
I am moving in the next few weeks, and this 40 will be holding my collections for a few months until a larger more suitable tank is determined. It is too much effort to move and setup in one day, so I am using this as a temporary hold. It will be bare bottom, and there will be no skimmer. I use junk skimmers and understock, so I don't see an issue. Large water changes of 20g/week are no problem.

I will be using a 20 gallon as a "sump", and it will have lighting to support corals. I will run it on reverse lighting. Ill post photos in a few weeks when it is up and running.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Oddly enough, some of the pocci survived, while others died.

Pocci never die! Sorry, catching up on your thread and late to see what happened to you over the summer... but back to the pocci, no matter how many times I chop away at them, they spring up in other parts of my tank on their own. Amazingly and surprisingly hardy sps!
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Best of luck with the move and new tank search !
Thanks! It is going well thus far. I wanted to show off my engineering trick.....
Amazingly and surprisingly hardy sps!
They are a blast to have, and they spread like wild fire. However, this can be bad near other coral, as the pocci usually wins. I think that I have some stylo that insta-kills anything it has touched, so I don't dare test it.


So, I move the tank today. Everyone asked me why I made the stand so tall, and this was a bonus reason. First, I hate stooping over to look at a tank. This was it at the house.


You can flip the stand onto its side, and the 20 gallon nests into the 40, which nests into the stand. I used a length of 2x6s to hold it in the crate. I planned to put long handles out the top so it could be carted around like the Arc of the Covenant, but decided against it. This was done to protect it. Worked like a charm, and we stacked stuff on "top" of it.



I got it set up in position, but because it was set on a unlevel floor, it is wonky. I have to cut a few legs by 1/4". It was never square before, but needs to be now.



Plan is bottom/middle/top sections. I would like to keep the bottom tank visually isolated behind and dark for reverse lighting. removable middle shelf/lid. Top shelf is DT.

Eventually, This will run off a basement sump. Stand is going to be squared up and attached to studs in the wall as done before.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Instead of making an edit, I am going to make a self observation.

I think I should move the "sump/frag" tank up to the middle, and put a shelf on the bottom. It would never need disassembled, and it would be possible to siphon drain from the sump vs the DT. I can make a sump gather all the detritus. I am exceptional at it as is. It would simplify weekly cleanings. I think it is stupid to put a removable shelf. It sounds like a real pain in the butt.

The "skin" is going to be rustic. I have access to plenty of distressed lumber in specific lengths (Oak Skids or other). If I can find something that is close enough in length, The shelf size will be based on that. I like working with skid lumber, and have in the past quite a bit (should be no surprise to anyone who read this far). US government put regulations in place on importing "fine lumber". These people just shifted gears, and started making skids out of it. I worked in a warehouse for distribution, and they were using rosewood for skids coming from south america. They had a "help yourself" policy, but when they figured out what I was up to they stopped it. I was trying to get enough to make myself a floor. I am usually on poor terms with my employer, so I wasn't surprised.

MS paint is a joke. Photoshop hates my mouse drivers. This is what you get. MS paint is crude to the point it is almost vulgar. After using photoshop daily for decades, Id rather draw it on paper and snap a phone picture then EVER use MS paint again.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
I got the piping done this afternoon. I wanted to show off what I did, and why.
I know this method works. It is silent for water flow. The biggest offender is the pump, but it is durable and I will keep it. Noise is not an issue at this point* I will briefly touch on that later.

This tank is on a tall stand. I think it is 45ish inches to the bottom of the tank from the floor. I mounted the tank to the wall with this:


Its a 2x4 drilled into 2x studs with another as a spacer. I left my pipe marks for center lines for 3x 3x4" lines. One supply, and 2 return. They are coming through a 4" window in the anchor. The brace is level with the pine at the top of the tank. I have 3-1/8" of space behind the tank to get basic piping, which is the closest I could get using a spigot fitting.


This is the pump piped out from the rear. used a pair of 45 fittings to keep resistance low.....Of all the things I ever wanted to change in my old system, this was a big one. This is a HUGE reduction in turns and fittings. I felt so good about it, I put a check valve in, so when the power goes out I have something to help stop back flow. I know they are prone to fail, but this is a good one. The whole body comes apart, and you can clean all the garbage from it...It was excess from a job. All I need to happen is the hole in the top of the pump line to break the vaccuum when the power goes out/feeding time before it drains down.


Simple Waste lines:



I know one of the drains will take all of the flow already, and presume it to be the one on the right. I reused all my valves that were salvageable, and installed them on each line....even color coded for lolz. I added unions at the bottom, only because they were leftovers from a job and will allow me to pull out the drains and modify/clean etc. The way I have it piped makes it so that I just pushed the tank back against the wall, screw it in, and it is done. pipes are supported by the reinforcement 2x4s.

I am guessing that by TUESDAY there will be water in this system. However, It all depends on how many clean buckets I can find.

I will be adding more pipe supports with threaded rod and split ring hangars at the bottom. I would like some stability....not that this won't work, I just know it is 100% hard piped to drilled glass, and don't want to cock it the wrong way.

I also spray-painted the 2 corner areas that were never done...because at the time the corner overflows were solid black. The urchin chewed the paint right off of them. I didn't want to see the wall through the back, so I painted it. Its a minor difference, but makes me happy.

*Noise issue

My inlaws own a HUGE home, and they are also very very old. They need lots of help throughout the day, and it will only be worse. I indicated on this thread earlier that my father passed. We had moved near my parents to help with him, and it was great. Now, they need our help badly. They requested our presence. They love the joy and life my kids, their grand kids bring to the house.

We don't have noise issues due to an oxygen creating machine.

The house is a issue for offtopic, but it needs EVERYTHING (roof/windows/floors etc). It was also given to us years ago. I can't renovate with the current lung issues in the home. We are here to take care of business as necessary.
 
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Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
I am guessing that by TUESDAY there will be water in this system. However, It all depends on how many clean buckets I can find.
I couldn't find enough, and my hours are getting shorter by the day. I will deal with this all on Friday-Saturday.

APPARENTLY on Saturday, someone from my local club is coming up from an 90 minute car ride to save a Tang.....But the club site shut down, and I have no idea if he saved the message with my phone number/address.

Another basement setup would be great I think.......If I don't hear from him I am getting at least a 120, or an 80 shallow.

But why I really came here is a technical question.

I have 2 overflows. One will be getting 100% of the flow without throttling, and I can valve it to keep the level of the tank at the remaining overflow....basically its a modified durso....

I am thinking about getting rid of the box on the right, and just using an elbow and a strainer to go full-siphon. The box is getting in the way of my view of the tank. I think it would have the same effect.

Short term plans are skimmerless, but in the next 3-5 months I will setup a basement "sump" system....it may be a rubbermaid trough....If it can hold a tang, I may have to.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Everything worked out pretty well. I moved corals over from the 90 to the 40, so I expect a huge drain on minerals. Am planning a 25% WC/week.

I am too exhausted to really comment much, but here is a photo for your enjoyment.



Its a whole lot of coral just sitting around waiting for the rocks to get set. Almost there, but it is break time. almost every rock has something growing on this. I am going full "Junk yard" with this. Just random things growing everywhere. In the move I discovered I have 3 RBTA, instead of the 1 I paid for. Normally I would be thrilled....but I guess I should be happy. It never moves from where I put it. Now I have 3. I may have to peddle some out. the ONLY thing I am trying to do is isolate my softies to one area, but I may settle for softies on the substrate.

I was going to go bare bottom, but I am a total idiot who forgot to wash my hand-prints off the bottom. It is never too late to put a sand bed. The wrasse needs it anyway. It don't like the container full of fine sand. It prefers the big pieces.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
The fingerprint issue burns my ass so bad. This was something I never would have thought about never having bare bottom.

The poor wrasse WOULD NOT sleep in the plastic container full of sand....It looks too much like a little FEMA casket I think. I am wondering if later today when I fix the rock scape if I can find a way to hide it in between rocks.

I am really bummed that I somehow lost a damsel fish in the last few months. I really am that oblivious, but since September was my last pictures, the fish has vanished.

*Plumbing
TOTAL HOMERUN on drain. When I shut off the power, The 20 gallon tank sump has the water level change 7/8th inch. This means I am draining back just over a gallon of water. ONE GALLON on shutoff means I can really tinker with the sump and its size. As a professional in the field of plumbing, this is exciting for me. This was my main goal. I always wanted the smallest sump a skimmer and heater could fit.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
The fingerprint issue burns my ass so bad. This was something I never would have thought about never having bare bottom.

Sorry to hear it. I would be too. Anyway to place rocks over it instead of going the sand route?

The poor wrasse WOULD NOT sleep in the plastic container full of sand....It looks too much like a little FEMA casket I think. I am wondering if later today when I fix the rock scape if I can find a way to hide it in between rocks.

It can take time for the wrasse to figure it out. I've had similar problems in QT tanks with my wrasse not wanting to use the container. Eventually it does. Highly recommend the hiding in rocks route that may really work out well if you can swing that.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
Anyway to place rocks over it instead of going the sand route?
Nope its right up front its a huge paw print of mine and it is just off to the left of center. I Put down some eggcrate.

Highly recommend the hiding in rocks route that may really work out well if you can swing that.

I did some rearranging to get things better suited. I may need to transfer some rubble over, but it may work. I added more to the container, and just put it in the corner with a piece touching it. eventually ill get it covered.

The wrasse was funny last night. I was just curious to what it would do. no sand, and in a new tank. lights would go on, it would swim. Lights out, it would hit the floor of the tank and try to get under everything. I tried to time it over the tub, but it would just go around.







 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
I like your rockscape a lot. Let us hope the wrasse figures it out tonight. It needs to use the sand to help to create a mucous cocoon to sleep in and would be extremely stressed if it isn't able to.
 
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