Tank upgrade - Results

Well after a painstaking 14 hours and counting, my new 72 is up and running. I say "and counting" because even though the livestock is in and the overflow is going (and it's a built-in overflow, YAY!!), I still have pumps and corals to position.

My friend Ralph and I got to the tank at 11 yesterday morning, and began The Great Tank Upgrade. Took me about 2 1/2 hours to drain the 72, tear it down, gather all the stuff. Man this guy gave me EVERYTHING.

I got 2 working MagDrive pumps, one 5 and one 7.
A Rio 1700 also working.
A 56lb bucket of Kent Marine Salt about 3/4 full.
38lbs of live rock.
TONS more!!

Not sure how much live sand. He had about an inch and a half in the tank, and another bucket of sand that had water in it, but had been sitting for like a year. It seemed ok until I got about halfway down, then the sand started smelling like rotten eggs. I had been adding that sand to the tank but stopped when it smelled bad. So I hope that little bit I added doesn't have any adverse effect...:-[

There is a wet/dry filter but I don't think I'm going to use it. He also had a little mini bow front tank setup as a refugium, but his skimmer pump went out about a year ago and so that kinda sentenced the fuge to death since it was relying on the skimmer for water supply. Again, I don't think I'll set that back up. I already have my own sump/fuge going that I built myself.

Tons of little extras, poweheads, siphons, buckets, etc. The $350 I paid can be justified in the MagDrives and Rio and Live Rock almost alone. Plus there were 4 fish, 3 stars, and several CUC critters. I turned in the fish and the 2 Chocolate Chip Stars for store credit. I kept the Sand Sifter and the rest of the critters.

Now for the sad part.....

The Royal Gramma that I had with me for 4 years didn't make it. He was the first to die. That thing survived a move before, and all kinds of other things. But I guess this one was too much for him. R.I.P. my little friend!!

I also lost the Powder Brown Tang and the 6 Line Wrasse. The Tang doesn't surprise me, he was on his way out because he was starving. I was working on fattening him up, but I guess this was just too much stress as well.

The Wrasse, well I don't really know what to say. He was new to my tank and between being taken from the ocean, sent to my LFS, then taken home by me and trying to acclimate to his new tank only to be caught and put aside AGAIN for several hours was probably the limit.

The clown and all my corals have made it though! So the loss was relatively minimal. Oh and I did also lose a Turbo Snail. So all in all I got a good deal and will be selling off my old tank and several of the other things he gave me that I don't need.

 

Sorry for your loses mate! However sounds like a good deal! All the best...!

 

Oh yea and I got a UV sterilizer, too! Needs a new bulb though.

 

Sorry for the losses, but congrats for the gains......

 

Losses always suck!!!

 

No doubt. :-[

But we want pics!

 

I'll get pics up when I have everything positioned. I went with the double island kind of aquascaping scheme this time. I like it!

 

Hey Brandon,
Congrats on the new tank...that is a darn shame about your losses...Sorry for those....