wade's 220

[cooterbrown]

last weekend i upgraded my coral farming operation and my dt up a couple sizes. got a really good deal on a 220 drilled for a closed loop with an oceans motions and a hammerhead for the return which will feed the 150g frag tank and 55g refugium. soon i will add a 40b upstairs for shits and giggles.

Hardware:
im running an asm g6 protein skimmer in a 125g baffleless sump. a hammerhead pump doing all the returns on the 3 systems and an jehmco pool pump on the oceans motions. i run hallides on all my systems.

sand i used what ive always used with great success, its quikrete fine white silica sand i buy from ace hardware for 10$ per 80#. i know alot of people disagree with using silica sand but ive used it in every tank ive owned with zero side effects and no algae at all.

rock i have around 200# of marco, pukani and tongan branch.

live stock, ill probably miss a few fish so lets see.
hippo tang
sailfin tang
purple tang
2 yellow tangs
yellow eyed kole tang
tomini tang
vlamingi tang
bicolor blenny
scooter blenny
lawnmower blenny
lyre tail chromis
sunrise dottyback
2 bangai cardinals
tomato clown (hosted in a rainbow bubble tip)
percula clown (hosting in a 12" squamosa hah)
2 occelaris clowns (in a long tentacle)
pink spot goby
egineer goby
6 line wrasse
harlequin tusk
harlequin sweetlips
yellow tail damsel
velvet damsel
blue devil damsel

i think thats it i probably forgot a few
im going to add a clown tang i think just to see if i can have success. ive had great luck with finicky eaters.

in the frag tank i have a couple damsels that got big and mean. in my experience the damsels that have flatter faces are way more aggressive than the pointy faced ones.

any ways i just wanted to share this build and have a place to document progress. took 3 days to get everything set and replumbed, because before it was 3 seperate systems. to store all the fish and coral during these three days i employed a rarely seen tool in the aquarium trade..... 13$ walmart kiddie pools. i probably had well over 10k$ worth of live stock intrusted in it. and it made it. i didnt sleep at all during these 3 days though lol but with this build i finally succeeded in having more gallons than square footage in my house. 1000 gallons in an 800sqft house!:bounce1:

heres pics!!
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-91.jpg (http://s953.photobucket.com/user/Cj65_jk10/media/null-91.jpg.html)
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-96.jpg (http://s953.photobucket.com/user/Cj65_jk10/media/null-96.jpg.html)
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-99.jpg (http://s953.photobucket.com/user/Cj65_jk10/media/null-99.jpg.html)
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-98.jpg (http://s953.photobucket.com/user/Cj65_jk10/media/null-98.jpg.html)
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-97.jpg (http://s953.photobucket.com/user/Cj65_jk10/media/null-97.jpg.html)

[cooterbrown]

can any one see this? I can't see it when I'm logged off????

[dave.m]

Looks fine. If you uploaded your pics to RC to display then you have to be logged into RC to be able to see them. To get around this, you could upload your images to Flickr or Photobucket or some similar service and then link them back to RC.

Dave.M

[cooterbrown]

I used photobucket. The whole thread wasn't appearing yesterday. It is now I guess

[SPotter]

looks great....love the kids pool!

[cooterbrown]

looks great....love the kids pool!

Thanks! Now that I have frags of ally colonies I'm not fragging anything in the dt anymore and just gonna let them puppies grow! Can't wait.

[Ldagger]

is that really your screen name? a walmart kiddie pool? i think your a disaster waiting to happen.

[leveldrummer]

is that really your screen name? a walmart kiddie pool? i think your a disaster waiting to happen.

:confused::confused:

[cooterbrown]

is that really your screen name? a walmart kiddie pool? i think your a disaster waiting to happen.

I don't really get what you're getting at but this hobby doesn't have to be expensive. I've been extremely successful for 3 years on a beer budget. There was about 10k$ in just fish in that pool and only lost two because some one stepped on them. Don't judge because I'm cheap.

[SPotter]

is that really your screen name? a walmart kiddie pool? i think your a disaster waiting to happen.

Seriously....don't you think you're being a little critical here.

[cooterbrown]

Well the oceans motions quite running. Or I really don't know that it was running optimally ever. So I took it apart and te wet side magnet was leaching rust. Emailed OM and that's 65$ just for a little drive shaft with magnets. Oh well.

[Ldagger]

Critical? actually I am doing you a favor in suggesting that risking 10k of fish as you say in a thin walmart pool for several days is not a very bright idea. What if it broke? how smart of an idea do you think it would have been then if you lost everything? You are very lucky it did not break. Risking the lives of that many fish is just reckless. Look at the picture of the pool you posted. the walls are barely standing up. You said you did not sleep for 3 days. I don't spend alot of money either but I keep my animals as safe as I can using common sense.
IF you are saying you don't have enough money of take care of all the live stock you have then you should sell some of them and use that money to get equipment that is not rusting into the tank etc. Just pointing out for YOUR benefit (not for mine) that you are not making very good decisions from what you have posted.

[cooterbrown]

Critical? actually I am doing you a favor in suggesting that risking 10k of fish as you say in a thin walmart pool for several days is not a very bright idea. What if it broke? how smart of an idea do you think it would have been then if you lost everything? You are very lucky it did not break. Risking the lives of that many fish is just reckless. Look at the picture of the pool you posted. the walls are barely standing up. You said you did not sleep for 3 days. I don't spend alot of money either but I keep my animals as safe as I can using common sense.
IF you are saying you don't have enough money of take care of all the live stock you have then you should sell some of them and use that money to get equipment that is not rusting into the tank etc. Just pointing out for YOUR benefit (not for mine) that you are not making very good decisions from what you have posted.

Don't worry about my financial ability to care for my animals. You judge based on a kiddie pool and somehow by my screen name. You don't have the slightest clue about me. I have 3 other tanks that I could have setup in a pinch if I needed to move te fish into. The kiddie pool worked great. I'd gradly use it again. It did exctly what I wanted it to do and it did what it's designed to do... Hold water.

As far as the oceans motions leaking rust into the tank, it's normal for them to need to be replaced. And news flash rust doesn't hurt anything. *** do you think GFO is. It's still a 500$ piece of equipment. I don't go cheap on husbandry and equipment. I do go cheap when it comes to temporarily houseing fish.

So you can ride you high horse the **** out of here because I don't need your just mental attitude ruining my positive vibes. Ad for Christs sake your picture is a cat! I'm supposed to take you serious? Please

[Ldagger]

You talk about having 10k worth of livestock and use a 13 dollar walmart pool.
I hope you do use it again and learn your lesson. You obviously don't care very much for your animals.
What kind of reaction did you really expect people to have- oh you are so smart saving money. My neighbor bought the 170 dollar walmart pool, it lasted one day, that night the entire bottom split and it was dry in the morning.
Also according to everything i have ever read in any venue says that metal rust is toxic and can kill everything in your tank- so you need to check your facts.
Don't worry Mr. CooterBrown I will not be posting to you thread again.

[cooterbrown]

You talk about having 10k worth of livestock and use a 13 dollar walmart pool.
I hope you do use it again and learn your lesson. You obviously don't care very much for your animals.
What kind of reaction did you really expect people to have- oh you are so smart saving money. My neighbor bought the 170 dollar walmart pool, it lasted one day, that night the entire bottom split and it was dry in the morning.
Also according to everything i have ever read in any venue says that metal rust is toxic and can kill everything in your tank- so you need to check your facts.
Don't worry Mr. CooterBrown I will not be posting to you thread again.

Iron is toxic to a tank your correct. 1000s I reefers actually introduce rust to they're tank. It's GFO. Incase you thought that stood for something other than granulated ferric oxide there you go. It's rusted iron particles. There's your fact check smart ***

[cooterbrown]

Anyways back to the point of the thread.

Here's the 150g frag tank and sump on the other side of the wall. The only thing you can't see is the 55g Refugium above the sump. It sucks that my hvac is in the middle of my fish room because it makes it hard to get good pics of the whole system
And ignore the mess this is just after I turned the lights on the for the first time. Right after this I cleaned for 2 days lol
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-100.jpg

[Ldagger]

so all rust is rust huh?
Read this-
Coral magazine JAN/FEB 2012 article Reefkeeping 101
for novices in the marine aquarium hobby
"Not so cheap in the long run" page 113 according them they are poisonous metallic substances."will also poison the aquarium water"
in "this" instance of rust they are talking about poor quality stainless steel.

Hope this helps. thanks.

[DLdraconias]

I feel i don't need to read it to respond im guessing your referring to impellers on marineland freshwater powerheads, they were made of an manmade alloy containing chemicals from the bonding process leaching toxins, he has a magnet with iron in it made for a marine tank, and as proof of you being full of misinformation You talk about having 10k worth of livestock and use a 13 dollar walmart pool.
I hope you do use it again and learn your lesson. You obviously don't care very much for your animals.
What kind of reaction did you really expect people to have- oh you are so smart saving money. My neighbor bought the 170 dollar walmart pool, it lasted one day, that night the entire bottom split and it was dry in the morning.
Also according to everything i have ever read in any venue says that metal rust is toxic and can kill everything in your tank- so you need to check your facts.
Don't worry Mr. CooterBrown I will not be posting to you thread again. I do believe this Is again

[Mark...]

quikrete fine white silica sand sounds like a great option...anyone else have any input on this? Any phosphate issues etc?

[cooterbrown]

quikrete fine white silica sand sounds like a great option...anyone else have any input on this? Any phosphate issues etc?

It's a great option. It's cheap, clean, and is heavier than normal sugar fine so it doesn't blow around. It's quickly inhabited by all kinds of critters an ive heard rumors or it killing sand sifters but I have 2 gobies, 3 conchs, and a sea cucumber that haw lived in it for 2 years. I've neer had a phosphate problem. I've run it on every tank I've had and every tank I've set up. The longest running is 3 years and its awesome. Alot of people tell me I'm stupid for using it but I love the stuff

[cooterbrown]

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-104.jpg

[cooterbrown]

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-106.jpg
Raptor peace favia, purple bubblegum chalice and some acans in the back
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-105.jpg
Goblin skin chalice and rainbow acans

[leveldrummer]

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-106.jpg
Raptor peace favia, purple bubblegum chalice and some acans in the back

I really like that acan in the back. Where do you live anyway?

[cooterbrown]

Levenworth ks. I'm going to start shipping coral here very soon. So stay tuned. Just want the system to stabilize. I've got tons of acans

[cooterbrown]

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null-108.jpg
"Just chillin on my leather couch."

[owenspackman]

This is looking great, i'm tagging along. As long as the other moronic user has left.

[cooterbrown]

This is looking great, i'm tagging along. As long as the other moronic user has left.

Haha hopefully the drama is gone from this thread. I'm sick of people acting like I'm a newb

[billygoat]

Looking good, looks to me like you've got a nice Squamosa in there too.

[nitr8]

I think the kiddie pool was a great idea. I probably would have water tested it out side for a couple days with the power heads going but hey it worked and like you said you had a back up plan just in case of a blow out. PS. I hate cats.

[Randrew215]

I thought the kiddie pool was a good idea. One would need to be super careful in placing rock not to puncture or rip the bottom, but so long as you proceed cautiously it seems to me that pools are pretty good at holding water. I'm surprised that silicate sand doesn't cause contribute to diatom blooms. I think one of the benefits of these forums is that they allow people to share in innovate ideas and push the (cost) boundaries of the hobby. Tank looks good and those rainbow acans are sweet!

[cooterbrown]

I thought the kiddie pool was a good idea. One would need to be super careful in placing rock not to puncture or rip the bottom, but so long as you proceed cautiously it seems to me that pools are pretty good at holding water. I'm surprised that silicate sand doesn't cause contribute to diatom blooms. I think one of the benefits of these forums is that they allow people to share in innovate ideas and push the (cost) boundaries of the hobby. Tank looks good and those rainbow acans are sweet!

I've been in sooo many arguments about my sand. What I concluded was that the particles are large enought that they aren't usable by diatoms. Essentially it's crushed glass. So it's inert. Once it becomes live it's perfect. I've used it in every tank I've set up. And several people locally have used it as well. I truly love the stuff. It's super fine, heavy so it doesn't blow around, and it's stark white so one it colors up its still pretty light colored. I try new things all the time. This was oneoy most successful experiments

[RJT]

Wow, was the cat person your ex?!!!

Great setup. Love the fish and coral selections. Did you use a heater in the kiddie pool?

[leveldrummer]

I've been in sooo many arguments about my sand. What I concluded was that the particles are large enought that they aren't usable by diatoms. Essentially it's crushed glass. So it's inert. Once it becomes live it's perfect. I've used it in every tank I've set up. And several people locally have used it as well. I truly love the stuff. It's super fine, heavy so it doesn't blow around, and it's stark white so one it colors up its still pretty light colored. I try new things all the time. This was oneoy most successful experiments

Ive used silica based sands in the past without issues, I would think at worst, you would see a little more diatom blooms until the silica is used up. I used tahitian moon sand, it was a nice look, but it showed the dirt really badly.

[cooterbrown]

Wow, was the cat person your ex?!!!

Great setup. Love the fish and coral selections. Did you use a heater in the kiddie pool?

Yea I had a 300w ti and two 150w Walmart heaters in there. Plus turned the air off in the room. So it stayed about 76. Lower than normal but better than I thought.

And no my ex just moved out yesterday lol.

[cooterbrown]

Ive used silica based sands in the past without issues, I would think at worst, you would see a little more diatom blooms until the silica is used up. I used tahitian moon sand, it was a nice look, but it showed the dirt really badly.

I use 3 conchs, and a cucumber. The big pink ones. And they keep the sand immaculate. The sand does get a brown algae on them for about the first week then it's back to a wet white sand look

[cooterbrown]

Idk where the angry red far came from on that last post

[cooterbrown]

So far the only thing I've lost since getting everything in the new tank was a blue sponge. But I think the Valentini helped with that. So I'm thinking I'm in the clear. Using close to 700lbs of rock from the various old systems must have done the trick.

[cooterbrown]

Got the new part in for the oceans motions. Still doesn't work. So in another 65$ into this and nothing. I'm to the point of just using this as a really expensive junction box and getting either a squid or an mp40

[cooterbrown]

Greased te mag drive up and it's running fine. But still have a micro bubble problem.

Added a Niger trigger to the display. Always like triggers. Hopefully he stays reef safer lol. My only clean up crew is a couple conchs and a cucumber and a few astreas. So he won't have them to destroy

[SEA-SALTED]

I am good for thinking outside the box. But I do have to say, the kiddie pool was very smart. When I moved I kept all my live stock in rubbermade tubs. I lost more stuff doing it that way. And I have had the plastic tubs leak. I was always leery about silica sands. I have always used playsand (silica free). One thing I have learned in this hobby is, if it works, great, if it don't, lesson learned. I'll try anything once. Well, most anything. I'm tagging along, as long as there are no cats.lol

[cooterbrown]

I am good for thinking outside the box. But I do have to say, the kiddie pool was very smart. When I moved I kept all my live stock in rubbermade tubs. I lost more stuff doing it that way. And I have had the plastic tubs leak. I was always leery about silica sands. I have always used playsand (silica free). One thing I have learned in this hobby is, if it works, great, if it don't, lesson learned. I'll try anything once. Well, most anything. I'm tagging along, as long as there are no cats.lol

I'm all about tryin new things too. I still haven't lost anything except the 2 fish my now ex squished.


And I'm replumbing the closed loop next weekend. Found all kinda of air leaks.

[worm5406]

Ahhh now we know why she left... Squished fish.

At least it was not a toad fish or a rock fish. That would have hurt.

[SPotter]

I wonder what the relationship failure rate is within this hobby????? Our spouses and significant others have to put up with a lot.

[thereefster]

love the swimming pool tank great DIY

[cooterbrown]

We broke up the day before. But she didn't help her case by crushing my mystery wrasse and my full grown mandarin I'd had for 2 years.

Well a little update. The oceans motions still isn't working after replumbing it completely, and replacing the magnets. But that's not the worst of it. It completely failed and the top blew off while the pump was running and pumped 60 gallons into the living room. The screws still had the plastic threads on them. Things junk. And the company doesn't stand behind anything

[cooterbrown]

Well the oceans motions blew it top literally. It's garbage. Apparently they have no warrantee for catastrophic failure. Told me it was my fault. Anyways so the closed loop is out of commission so I bought 2 mp40s. And replumbed the drain lines to allowe to open up the returns And now I've got some good flow. Also added some new live stock to the system. Picked up another mandarin so I've got 2 now, 2 Halloween urchins, a clown trigger for the predator tank, and finally got my sea horses! A m/f pair of redei.
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null_zps3eea9808.jpg
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null_zps6812df65.jpg
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null_zpsacc25cec.jpg
And my burgias are breeding and eating!
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/null_zps1829fe12.jpg

[RandoReefer]

Haha hopefully the drama is gone from this thread. I'm sick of people acting like I'm a newb

^^ +1 This

Great looking setup, and I'm a huge fan of ingenious containers used to hold livestock! If I remember correctly, my wife was thoroughly unhappy when I broke out her canning jars during my 65 to 125 upgrade. LOL

UPDATES??

[owenspackman]

any updates for us?

[cooterbrown]

only real up date is the mp 40s are great!!! but still losing corals. mostly sps and acans in th display, move them to the frag tank and they come right back. its really weird. the sps are bleaching in one and thriving in the other. same bulbs, same water, same sump. so no idea.

the frag tank spilt a seam and dumped 200 gallons down the floor drain. luckily i had a brand new 75 sitting in the garage for emergencies. so it didn't take much to get it online and everything lived. need to reseal the 150 though, got some rtv 108 fom work, its got an insane psi rating and is proven reef safe. so it should never blow out again.

lost my male sea horse. ordered 2 replacements and they showed up under an inch, they died within an hour. so I'm giving up on the horses. not worth killing them. but the regular fish are thriving! I'm still in love

[worm5406]

What have you tested for?

copper?
iron?
mg?


What are all your test results?

[cooterbrown]

What have you tested for?

copper?
iron?
mg?


What are all your test results?

I don't test anything. It's all one system so it's not water or water quality. In one tank they're thriving. The other dying. Only variable is flow and reflectors

[owenspackman]

what do you think the GPH turnover rate is in the frag tank or water from the rest of the system? Is it enough to keep temperature and parameters stable?

[cooterbrown]

Main tank is 4000gph to sump turn over. Frag tank is around 1800gph. They do great in the frag tank. My temp stays 79.9 in all 4 tanks 24/7. Heater only comes on around 5 hours after lights off. And the highest swing I've ever seen is .5 degrees up or down

[cooterbrown]

Well good and bad news. Bad news is I found my half black angel swimming upside down with no abdomen. Good news is I suspect he may be a nipping culprit causing the diference in polyp extension. The tusk must have heard me bad mouthing him and decided to help. So I caught him and euthanized him. Which I hate doin but I don't think he had a chance at recovery with no organs. So I guess we will see if one little fish in a big tank can cause that much trouble.

[cooterbrown]

So it's been a couple days since te angel met her demise. And boom sps polyps are extending and things are looking awesome.

[owenspackman]

So it's been a couple days since te angel met her demise. And boom sps polyps are extending and things are looking awesome.

it's a shame about the Angel, but at least you know who was the polyp nipper, glad the SPS are happier!

[cooterbrown]

Yea slowly but surely they're extending their polyps out. So hopefully they're quick. They've continued to grow the whole time

[owenspackman]

hey Wade, any updates?

[cooterbrown]

Well haven't updated in a while. Had a pretty rough patch. The 220 sprung a leak so I had to completely tear it down and reseal it. But I used this opportunity to remove the closed loop plumbing. Lost all my sps and most of my acan collection. Didn't lose any fish though. It's back up and running and looking amazing now. Really took my time on the aqua scape. Looks better than it ever has. Didn't use all my rock. Went with a minimalist look. http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/74F32DFC-32E9-4D51-890B-A6367A57290D.jpg
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/DEA6DF9A-DB88-4F87-9BF5-668FD47B68D7.jpg
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/4EC78A59-DF03-42A9-8EA0-68D5B1CAFBF9.jpg

[cooterbrown]

well its been a year since i updated this. so here it is.

after the big leak, i lost every single coral i had minus 2, a purple stylo and a green pavona. have lost 2 fish since the purple died from old age. and the yellow eyed hole disappeared. have added 2 more hippos and a yellow, and a clown tang. all doing very well. have also added to my clam collection and may be adding another 26" squammy soon if the lady decides she wants to sell
http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae16/Cj65_jk10/A4858D0F-85BE-458D-9BE3-38A7F6862EF7.jpg (http://s953.photobucket.com/user/Cj65_jk10/media/A4858D0F-85BE-458D-9BE3-38A7F6862EF7.jpg.html)