The Juan The only

[Juanhunglo69]

My 30 Euro is filled to capacity with softies and I wanted to make more room. So in my quest to upgrade I sourced a 52 gallon Euro tank and was preparing it. A friend and I went to our LFS store to get it drilled. After all of the planning and careful considerations I was standing there in the LFS with all of the plumbing and 2 holes drilled into my newly acquired 52 gal tank. Everything was going as planned. What I hadn't planned for was the find AFTER I had all of this done. I walked out back and found this giant cube laying on it's side. It was a display tank in a zoo or something. It was viewable only from the front as it had foam/fake rocks on the back and sides. I asked how much for this and a few other tanks. The shop wanted them all gone for 200 Euros. (If I was in the states I would have jumped on it, there was at least 25 tanks) We renegotiated the price into 60 Euros for my tank, (the 147 gallon) Ryan's tank, (a 60-70 gallon all in one) and a 45-50 gallon acrylic fuge. I got my tank home and started working on getting all of the foam out of it. 10-15 hours of work over a few weeks and all of the foam was out. I then discovered why the tank was so easily discarded. It had a crack in the bottom where the return came back into the tank. So I was bummed. Then I thought about it, a lot of large tanks crack and they just put more glass on top of it. So off to the LFS I went. They gave me the glass and I siliconed it in place. Leak test and it is perfect. More coming!

[Chrissy]

Take some pictures! I would love to see a 147 gallon cube!

[tyty22]

sweet.....but

 

 

Chrissy's right we need to see some pictures

[Juanhunglo69]

Sorry for the wait but I am active duty and we are getting set up for an exercise. I will start slow. Don't want to reveal it all at once. Well reveal what is done.... I made my stand out of 2x4s. I made the frame in 2 halves, for some reason I saw it being easily taken apart to accommodate my moves that we seem to do every 3-4 years. I think that I overbuilt it. The thing has sixteen 40" 2x4s holding it vertical! I found a few different sets of plans and they all suggested four vertical 2x4s. I wanted to trust it as 1,800 plus pounds will sitting on it. I hate to bend down to look at a tank so I went tall. That was another reason for the overbuilding. Taller = less stable. Younger kids from the neighborhood have to be picked up to look in it but the tank is for me. Look at the pic that is a 48" level sitting next to it.

[Juanhunglo69]

I was looking at putting 2 Phoenix 14K 250 watt MHs above this. Icecap ballasts will be the power behind it. Anybody have a better lighting idea? I have looked at using the coralvue 2x 250 ballast but don't know alot about this particular name brand. I am open to suggestions until tomorrow.

[Juanhunglo69]

No suggestions so the 2x250 phoenix/icecap combo is what is on the way.

 

I skinned the sides of this stand with some leftover material from another project of mine. The hood will hopefully be the same look. These pics show the frame to the invisible door on the sides. I wanted full access so they come off and go as far away as I need them to.

[Juanhunglo69]

After making the doors I skinned them and here is the final product.

[Juanhunglo69]

Funny thing about being in the military, people move and we move allot. At the most convenient time, for me that is, 2 guys decided to tear their tanks down getting ready for their moves. They both sold their tanks at a great price so I jumped on it. One tank was a 40 gallon with three damsels, 2 hermit crabs, about 30-40 pounds of live rock and 30-40 pounds of live sand. The other was a 25ish gallon bow front with a proper reef going. There had to be 40 pounds of premium live rock, 25-30 pounds of live sand, 12-15 each snails and hermits, a clown, a pajama cardinal, cleaner shrimp, and a bicolor blenny. He was growing stonies under a PC lamp and the things were actually growing. So I received them as well. I guess that I will give it a try. He also had a load of softies. I tore both tanks down and put them into my massive cube. Even though it isn't plumbed all the way or for that matter ready. I am waiting for the 80 pounds of arag alive and the last pieces of my plumbing to get here before I move my "prize" into it. I will hang my current 250 mh pendant above it while I wait for the new stuff to come in. Here are a few pics of the tank filled with the combo of the two tanks. I put the stonies and most of the fish in the small tank as it has the mh hanging over it right now and this one has a ghetto rigged 2x96 watt pc lying on top of it.

[IMaNoob]

Very nice. I wish I could build a stand like that!

[lakshwadeep]

That's a huge cube. What are dimensions?

[Juanhunglo69]

It is a German made tank so it is actually made in centimeters but what I have measured is close to (in inches for all of us Americans of course!) 39 wide x 31deep x 28 tall.

 

 

Edited to put the inches blurp in there

[DCG1286]

Sweet Tank!!!! I am thinking of getting 150G cube as well...love the design!!!

[lakshwadeep]

It is a German made tank so it is actually made in centimeters but what I have measured is close to (in inches for all of us Americans of course!) 39 wide x 31deep x 28 tall.

 

 

Edited to put the inches blurp in there

 

I was wondering how it was so big. I don't have a good sense of centimeter lengths without converting them into inches.

[Juanhunglo69]

So while I wait for my plumbing and sand to come in I was looking to get an add-on stock list. I currently have 3 clowns, 1 royal gramma, 1 pajama cardinal, 1 three stripe damsel, 1 coral beauty, 1 green chromis, 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 anemone crabs, 1 sexy shrimp, 50+ hermits of different variations, and 35 + different snails. My LFS is an hour and change away so I have to settle on what they have in stock. I am looking at having a few variations of tangs, the tangs that I have seen in my LFS on a regular basis are the typical yellow, hippo, naso, and mimic. These are almost always in the store. Occasionally there are other species but they are way expensive. Purple tang 189 euros!!!! That is close to 300 bucks! (Just for the record an emporator angel is the same price) So that puts me more than likely having a hippo or two and maybe a naso or yellow. I am more than likely buying a copperband butterfly and a bicolor angel. I would like to add a few more butterflies but can't seem to find any that are reef safe. There is a perk; a friend of mine said that if I set up this 150 while I lived here, he would buy an emporator angel. I am not 100% sure that I want one. Looks like it may be a bad thing from what I have read, well an adult one is the problem so we may be looking for a juvi.

 

The question here is if you had a 150 gallon reef, what would you put in it on top of what I currently have?

A few pics attached of how full the 30 Euro is....

[hooligan_78]

A school of lyre tail anthias!

[lakshwadeep]

Or a school of chromis (don't keep them in small groups).

[clownfish1124]

the dims remind me of this tank:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...mp;pagenumber=1

[Juanhunglo69]

Well Premium aquatics came through and my sand is in. The ebay seller from China also came through on my 3/4 eductors. (They create more flow than I ever thought they would.) So the move is coming soon. Hopefully I can document the move better than I did with everything else. The 2x250 MH Phoenix/icecap combo is in the mail. So the hood will be waiting for that. In the meantime the single 250 Hamilton/icecap will have to be the light. If work cooperates the move will be Monday/Tuesday as I am working 12-14 hour shifts right now with no weekends for possibly the next two weeks.

 

My plan is to drain the 150 and 30 of most of the water. Remove the rocks from both tanks, and transfer the sandbed from the 30 to the 150. I was thinking of spreading it out on top of the sand that is in place and then putting the 80 pounds of arag alive on top of all of that. The rock will then go in with no water in place so I can see what I am doing. Water goes back in and hopefully there is little to no cloudiness, for some reason I don't see this happening. I will let it run for on hour or so to warm back up and then add the fish. I know that I will have a small cycle but it shouldn't be a big one as everything is from an established tank minus the arag alive.

 

 

Or a school of chromis (don't keep them in small groups).

I have one chromis right now and was thinking of about 3-4 more when I move everything. Is that enough for a school?

 

the dims remind me of this tank:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...mp;pagenumber=1

 

I WISH that I could do the aquqscape of that tank. Thanks for the ideas though

[Juanhunglo69]

I got home at a reasonable time, 1900 after starting my day @ 0500, and was thinking of doing the move. The more I thought about it the more I realized that I just don't have time. It is going to have to wait until I have a day off. I mean I have to literally tear down 2 tanks, combine them, clean up the old empty tank and get to be before midnight. No way I could get it done and be functional tomorrow morning @ 0500 again. So I did the next best thing, I took more pics. And we all like pics don’t we? These are of the stuff currently in the 147. Rock work isn't bad considering it was literally thrown in cause it was to cloudy to see anything. I then placed each piece of rock with coral down on top of something stable feeling. I imagine that when I get real lights above this everything will open better. This shows the eductors that I put in last night. Loads of flow! The plan is to hide them with a piece of rock. We will see how it works out.

 

Still looking for stock list Ideas.

[Juanhunglo69]

Well I got it switched over. Damn did it stink the next day! I had dreamed up this awesome tank layout with the rock and it turns out that you don't plan your scape it "happens". I mean you can have an idea what your going to do but there is no way that you can predict what it is going to look like. I laid towels out to help soak up any water spilt, drained all of the water and placed everything in tubs and even a spare tank. I then went and emptied my original tank down stairs. Everything came out minus the original sandbed. I carried the tank upstairs full of sand and scooped it over on top of the sand that i had alrready put in the tank. I smoothed it over trying not to stir it up too much. I then poured 80 pounds of aragalive on top of it all. next cam putting all of the live rock from all three tanks in the new tank in a nice and neat fashion. I am pleased with how it looks now but may give it one more shot later. Pics are what I have right now. more to come tomorrow.

[Juanhunglo69]

An update.

 

Finished all of the plumbing and cleaned the wiring up. Made a temp hood so that I could go ahead and mount the 2 new 250 watt mh's. Bought 4 new fish. One of each: Moorish idol, Golden butterfly, (red sea) long nose butterfly, and a Blue tang. This is where things went south. One of them had ich, didn't see it, and instead of hospital tanking them I put them directly in my tank. Mistake. So far I have lost 2 clowns, 1 royal gramma, 1 blenny, both butterflies, and a striped damsel. The Moorish Idol is by far the hardiest thing in the tank as the ich hasn't even fazed him. My coral beauty and pajama cardinal are looking good too. I have a tang and one more clown that were deathly looking the other day now looking hopeful. Learned my lesson the hard way. One fish at a time and in a separate tank first.

 

Don't read into this thinking that I did nothing to save my guys because I have done more that I care to discuss. When I finally gave up is when things started doing better.

 

The Moorish idol was a difficult decision since I have read that they are so hard to keep. The dude eats! As long as I am putting food in he is eating it.

 

I still have to finish the top and will soon enough, work has been ridiculous. You know the military’s motto now days DO MORE WITH LESS! I have pics of the other fish the day after I put them in and discovered the ich. Will post them at a later date.