Ninja's Red Sea Reefer 350 - still here!

[mitten_reef]

how's the alk raising experiment?  

[ninjamyst]

• Skimmer pump broke.  Who's got a referral code or coupon for Marine Depot so I can get a new one???
• Yellow tang died.  Sigh.  Algae coming back...
• SPS browning out (cuz skimmer broke for almost 2 weeks now...experiment to run without skimmer failed)

And we are moving to Orlando!  Bringing this tank with me.  Going to be super stressful moving all livestock down...

[mitten_reef]

10 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

• Skimmer pump broke.  Who's got a referral code or coupon for Marine Depot so I can get a new one???
• Yellow tang died.  Sigh.  Algae coming back...
• SPS browning out (cuz skimmer broke for almost 2 weeks now...experiment to run without skimmer failed)

And we are moving to Orlando!  Bringing this tank with me.  Going to be super stressful moving all livestock down...

What’s the game plan for moving everything?  Well, everything moved dry of course, I imagine. But livestock? Have LFS ship them after you get there?  Or Rubbermaid totes?  That’s gonna be a lot of Rubbermaid totes for the 350. 
 

[ninjamyst]

57 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

What’s the game plan for moving everything?  Well, everything moved dry of course, I imagine. But livestock? Have LFS ship them after you get there?  Or Rubbermaid totes?  That’s gonna be a lot of Rubbermaid totes for the 350. 
 

Rubbermaid totes...I have vermetaid snails on my rock so I doubt the LFS will hold them.  Plan is to drive down to Florida and keep the livestock in tote for about a week?  I did this once with LFS and softies and everything survived for almost a month.  Hopefully SPS will hold out too.

[mitten_reef]

8 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Rubbermaid totes...I have vermetaid snails on my rock so I doubt the LFS will hold them.  Plan is to drive down to Florida and keep the livestock in tote for about a week?  I did this once with LFS and softies and everything survived for almost a month.  Hopefully SPS will hold out too.

Let the mover deal with the tank, I hope?  Or r u driving a box truck down yourself?

[ninjamyst]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

Let the mover deal with the tank, I hope?  Or r u driving a box truck down yourself?

movers for sure...seems like the extra charge is only $100 to move the tank.

[uwdanno]

On a positive note you can visit WWC regularly now. Wildly overpriced but would be really cool to see the store. 

[debbeach13]

Good luck with the move. That is such a big tank to move. I would be so stressed out. How many tote's do you think it will take? What are you driving?

 

 

 

 

[Elizabeth94]

When are you guys planning to move? Sounds stressful driving everything in bins lol. Especially depending on the temp outside. 
 

Since you’ll be in florida, there is probably going to be a good amount of corals stores in your area. I would love to have options like that. Has to be somewhat exciting. Good luck! 

[ninjamyst]

Move was last Thursday.  It was the most stressful day of my life.  I almost broke down and just trash the entire tank into the garbage.  Prior to the move, I prepared by buying 4 rechargeable air pumps and went to a LFS to get a couple of large stylofoam boxes.  

• Movers were scheduled to arrive at 10am
• I woke up at 5am to run last min errand to Home Depot
• Started breaking down the tank at 6am.  I figure 4 hours is enough?
• Disconnected all equipments (DOS, APEX, skimmer, etc) and packed them all
• Started draining water into 5 gallon buckets and flushing down toilet
• My dad arrived at 7am to help me break apart the rocks.  We managed to pull out the rock structure in one piece since the orange setosa and some monti are holding everything together.  My dad took a hammer and started pounding the rock to loosen them.  CORALS FLEW EVERYWHERE as rocks fell apart.  My super giant bonsai acro broken into 10+ pieces.  So did the Starbust monticap.  
• Separated the rocks into 3 big stylofoam boxes and filled with water.  THEN THE BOXES LEAKED WATER EVERYWHERE.  Water under the stand, water under my couch.  This was the moment I said fck it.  My wife had to calm me down.  We savaged what we can then I drove to Ace Hardware to buy plastic water tight bins for $30 each.  They are $15 at Home Depot but Ace is closer.
• Movers arrived early at 9am.  I was not ready.  Tank is still filled 50% with water.  Told them to load everything first and come back to the tank.
• Hustled through everything and by 10:30am, got most things packed into plastic buckets and plastic bins.  Added air pump.  Drained the rest of the tank and sump.  I had to help direct movers so told my dad to disassemble the plumbing.  
• I still have to take apart my nano tank =(.  I decided to just wrap the whole damn thing in saran wrap and call it a day.  Drained 50% of the water.  Add air pump.  YOLO.  
• Truck was loaded by 2pm.  We stayed behind to clean up the house and load up our SUV for the 18 hours drive to Florida.  I am running on 4 hours of sleep and have to drive the first leg.  We barely fit the 4 plastic bins and 2 buckets in the trunk along with boxes of stuff that couldnt be transported in the truck.  And our 3 dogs.

That was just moving day.  Come unloading day and sooooo much stuff damaged.  When they opened the cargo door, boxes were all over the place.  50% of our furnitures had damage.  Including the tank stand.  Bottom of the stand had a couple of 5+ inch chips.  Spacers were missing to level the tank.  Plumbing leaked on the main drain.  It is now Monday and my corals are still in plastic bins.  Lost 2 fish, a cleaner shrimp, and some acros are starting to STN.  Pretty sure I lost some expensive mushrooms and zoas because there are a lot of empty frag plugs now in the bins...

 

Welcome to Florida?

 

[Reefkid88]

 Man that sounds absolutely terrible bud.. I'm so sorry to hear about all of that. Hopefully once you get settled in everything goes smoother for you and you guys have a good trip and enjoy your stay.

 

 Have you talked to the owner or manager of the moving company ? I'm sure you are enjoying this rainy and amazing weather our sauna of a state has to offer !!! 

[ninjamyst]

20 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

 Man that sounds absolutely terrible bud.. I'm so sorry to hear about all of that. Hopefully once you get settled in everything goes smoother for you and you guys have a good trip and enjoy your stay.

 

 Have you talked to the owner or manager of the moving company ? I'm sure you are enjoying this rainy and amazing weather our sauna of a state has to offer !!! 

I am dangerously close to WWC.  I am mixing water now but the humidity here caused the bags of salt to be rock solid.  I used them anyways but they take FOREVER to mix.  I may have to just buy new salt soon and throw these bags away.  

 

My dad also accidentally packed the live sand into the truck.  So they smell sooooooo bad from die offs.  I rinsed the sand 10+ times till the color went from black to yellowish.  I hope it's ok to use.  But at this point, if my entire tank gets nuked, I am ok with starting over.....

 

 

[mitten_reef]

14 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

I am dangerously close to WWC.  I am mixing water now but the humidity here caused the bags of salt to be rock solid.  I used them anyways but they take FOREVER to mix.  I may have to just buy new salt soon and throw these bags away.  

 

My dad also accidentally packed the live sand into the truck.  So they smell sooooooo bad from die offs.  I rinsed the sand 10+ times till the color went from black to yellowish.  I hope it's ok to use.  But at this point, if my entire tank gets nuked, I am ok with starting over.....

 

 

 

45 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Move was last Thursday.  It was the most stressful day of my life.  I almost broke down and just trash the entire tank into the garbage.  Prior to the move, I prepared by buying 4 rechargeable air pumps and went to a LFS to get a couple of large stylofoam boxes.  

• Movers were scheduled to arrive at 10am
• I woke up at 5am to run last min errand to Home Depot
• Started breaking down the tank at 6am.  I figure 4 hours is enough?
• Disconnected all equipments (DOS, APEX, skimmer, etc) and packed them all
• Started draining water into 5 gallon buckets and flushing down toilet
• My dad arrived at 7am to help me break apart the rocks.  We managed to pull out the rock structure in one piece since the orange setosa and some monti are holding everything together.  My dad took a hammer and started pounding the rock to loosen them.  CORALS FLEW EVERYWHERE as rocks fell apart.  My super giant bonsai acro broken into 10+ pieces.  So did the Starbust monticap.  
• Separated the rocks into 3 big stylofoam boxes and filled with water.  THEN THE BOXES LEAKED WATER EVERYWHERE.  Water under the stand, water under my couch.  This was the moment I said fck it.  My wife had to calm me down.  We savaged what we can then I drove to Ace Hardware to buy plastic water tight bins for $30 each.  They are $15 at Home Depot but Ace is closer.
• Movers arrived early at 9am.  I was not ready.  Tank is still filled 50% with water.  Told them to load everything first and come back to the tank.
• Hustled through everything and by 10:30am, got most things packed into plastic buckets and plastic bins.  Added air pump.  Drained the rest of the tank and sump.  I had to help direct movers so told my dad to disassemble the plumbing.  
• I still have to take apart my nano tank =(.  I decided to just wrap the whole damn thing in saran wrap and call it a day.  Drained 50% of the water.  Add air pump.  YOLO.  
• Truck was loaded by 2pm.  We stayed behind to clean up the house and load up our SUV for the 18 hours drive to Florida.  I am running on 4 hours of sleep and have to drive the first leg.  We barely fit the 4 plastic bins and 2 buckets in the trunk along with boxes of stuff that couldnt be transported in the truck.  And our 3 dogs.

That was just moving day.  Come unloading day and sooooo much stuff damaged.  When they opened the cargo door, boxes were all over the place.  50% of our furnitures had damage.  Including the tank stand.  Bottom of the stand had a couple of 5+ inch chips.  Spacers were missing to level the tank.  Plumbing leaked on the main drain.  It is now Monday and my corals are still in plastic bins.  Lost 2 fish, a cleaner shrimp, and some acros are starting to STN.  Pretty sure I lost some expensive mushrooms and zoas because there are a lot of empty frag plugs now in the bins...

 

Welcome to Florida?

 

Look forward to the restart.  Maybe just build a new stand? Heard most ppl weren’t all that happy with RS stand from space perspective. 
glad the move went ok despite all the challenges. 

[Reefkid88]

Yeah,Florida will do that to you. Its pretty bad. Thankfully,I don't have that issue all that often with salt. 

 

 Whew,I know that mess just great lol. I was at WWC Saturday,at the new main store. Such a wonderful place lol. Their lagoon tank is AMAZING. 

[tanacharison]

I'm really excited to see what you do with WWC right there. 😂😂

[Elizabeth94]

Oh man that sounds super stressful. This is probably why a lot of people sell off their systems before big moves. Sometimes a fresh restart is fun too. For some reason, I enjoy the planning and system building the most. 
 

Hope you settle in soon!

[ninjamyst]

time to rescape!  finished making water and just threw everything into the tank.....

[ninjamyst]

Done!  Went with two island scape.  Don't like they are both same height.  I am seriously thinking about buying a new rock on the right side and cutting off the sps and replant them.  

 

[ninjamyst]

STN party!!!  Sigh.  All the nice ones are STNing but the brown crappy ones survive.  Heading to WWC this weekend 😃

[Reefkid88]

Oh man that is terrible,I'm sorry bud.. 

[debbeach13]

That doesn't sound like a good move at all. Glad you are hanging in there. Looks like some of the coral did make it. Did any fish make the move? I hope WWC takes care of you. Sea in the City is also in Orlando and might be worth checking out (was always a 5 star store). I have not been to any LFS lately so can not say what shape they are in now. Good luck with your new home and restocking the tank.

[uwdanno]

Thats all you can do. No way was it going to without casualty. All you can really do is get the tank to a the new spot and hope for the best. 

[ninjamyst]

On 9/3/2020 at 8:20 AM, debbeach13 said:

That doesn't sound like a good move at all. Glad you are hanging in there. Looks like some of the coral did make it. Did any fish make the move? I hope WWC takes care of you. Sea in the City is also in Orlando and might be worth checking out (was always a 5 star store). I have not been to any LFS lately so can not say what shape they are in now. Good luck with your new home and restocking the tank.

4 fish survived out of 7.  Definitely looking to get more fish this weekend.  Will check out Sea in the City!

 

On 9/3/2020 at 9:51 AM, uwdanno said:

Thats all you can do. No way was it going to without casualty. All you can really do is get the tank to a the new spot and hope for the best. 

Yea. and as expected, it's mostly SPS that didn't make it.  I am just glad my Aussie and Indo gold torches seem to be fine.  Everything is still not as opened as before but that's expected too.  

[ninjamyst]

Did a LFS circuit yesterday.  Went to:

 

WWC - yup, that lagoon display tank is AMAZING!  Makes me miss my shallow tank even more.  But the prices are way too expensive for me.   Everything is 3-5x Chicago price.  Left after 10 mins.

 

Aquaholics - not much in stock, 5 mins from WWC.  Pretty sure this place will close down soon?  The owner is nice but it's kind of a dump compared to WWC and prices aren't super cheap either.

 

Sea in the City - super hard to find.  Reminds me of Aqua Pros,.  Will be back.

 

Living Reef Orlando - my fav store.  Store is clean and modern like WWC.  Prices still expensive but doable.  Bought a yellow tang for $65, foxface for $55, and diaderm dotty for $15.  The furthest one from me though.

 

Overall, I am shocked at the prices.  Chicago has some really cheap fish and corals compared to here.  I would think being close to ocean will drive prices down.  WWC is charging $50 for a single florida ricordea!!  

 

 

[debbeach13]

I moved here from MA 10 years ago and I am still experiencing sticker shock every time I go to a LFS. I thought the same thing. Florida is almost an Island I figured there would be ton's of coral farms and prices would be great. It seems at least half the stores offering aqua-cultured corals have large on shore facilities not just items in the ocean. Plus since covid-19 every thing has gone up more. How far are you from Longwood or Winter Park? I can not speak about the prices but Top Shelf is in Winter Park,, Fishy Business and Ocean Direct are in Longwood. Ton's of stores but I have not found any with really low prices.  Aquarium Direct has some good sales and because they are in Florida it is over night shipping.