Upgrade from 40 to 72

[chaoscat]

I've had my 40 gallon reef up for about a year. Recently, I've become "less than satisfied" with it and looked to upgrade a bit in size. Ogre997 had just recently completed his own upgrade(72 to 175 - some upgrade), and so had a 72 gallon bowfront he no longer needed. I snapped that up from him and also bought a protein skimmer that Patriot76 had available. I will begin the swap...sometime soon...I'm gathering my nerve. Truth is, I'm considering setting up a 3rd small system for cycling in the rock for the new refugium, then move all the corals into it when its ready - then I'd shift the sand and rock over into the bigger tank, let everything settle and then move my corals into that. I've read that some people have done the whole transfer in one shot, without stashing the corals - I've also read that that some have experienced big nitrate swings and small cycles after transfer. I'm still thinking about it....Do I feel lucky? Anyway, once I get everything into the new tank, I'll take another picture.

Anyway, this is what I have:

And this is where I'm going:

 

[Patriot76]

good luck!!!!

 

[shipwrecked]

Yeah,gd luck keep us posted,I was wondering-have you ever had any issues having a deep sand bed?

 

[chaoscat]

That's not exactly a deep sand bed, but a Jaubert Plenum instead. The bottom of the tank is covered with a number of 3/4" pieces of PVC pipe topped by a platform of egg crate material. The egg crate is covered with a layer of plastic screening to keep the sand out(maintaining the plenum). A couple of inches of fine aragonite gravel is put on top of that. Then, there's another screen (which you see) with 2 more inches of Aragonite on top of it. It's a method that's worked well for me. The tank is run with minimal equipment. Just a heater, hang on filter, powerhead and small air operated Protein Skimmer. As long as I stay on top of water changes, I have no issues. The water changes and the aragonite keep my alkalinity and calcium up where it needs to be - with no additives. (keep in mind though, that I only keep soft corals )

That "system" is part of what's giving me hesitations in my transfer. That gravel is filled with bacteria that doesn't like oxygen. I'm thinking about trying to keep it covered with water as much as possible during the transfer, just to limit O2 exposure.

 

[Hawkeye]

Not trying to dissuade you from attempting the move...but two things to pause/consider:

exposure to oxygen will be detrimental to the anaerobic bacteria. Just by moving it you are bound to expose the bacteria to oxygen. You will also likely trap some aerobic bacteria in the bottom of the new tank that has no oxygen - potentially causing a die-off. The die off in the sandbed could result in a mini-cycle that could spark a further problem.

Unless you have fauna in that SB (bristle worms etc) that help keep the bed turned, there could also be a lot of trapped nutrients/detrius in the SB.

All of the above are things that would push me to suggest to you to consider starting a new sandbed and seeding it with the existing one.

 

[chaoscat]

All of the above are things that would push me to suggest to you to consider starting a new sandbed and seeding it with the existing one.

I'm kind of leaning that way myself. One hurdle is the wife, who was told, "This tank is replacing that one, and the old one is going away." She's already giving me the evil eye over the 55 sitting in my basement that was recently replaced by a 90 for my cichlids. "I was gonna get rid of it...really I was...but...but, well...don't those rainbows look awfully crowded in that 30?"

...and, of course I would NEVER look at that already set up empty 40 with a perfectly good seasoned sandbed sitting in it and go hmmmmm.....

 

[Phyl]

I would agree with not keeping the sand. The water itself has lots of O2 in it (otherwise the fish wouldn't be able to breathe), so regardless of whether or not it is exposed to air proper, it will be getting exposed to O2, which is what you'd want to avoid. I see no practical way of salvaging the old sand without thoroughly washing it and letting it cycle.

 

[chaoscat]

Well,as you can see from the date I started this, this build has been a loonnng time in the making. In part due to time availability, in part due to indecision and in large part due to monetary limitations. Indecision was a big part: bare bottom vs sand vs plenum vs DSB, filtration methods, lighting methods, GFCI's, etc. As for the monetary aspect, I've been collecting things here and there over the year, $100 here and there. The time became available when I got laid off last month. :-\ It's a good thing I've got most all the parts already.

I decided I want sand. It may end up being a source of trouble, but hopefully regular vacuuming will help. I want animals that need the sand, so that dictated the substrate issue. I did buy a grade of sand that's not so "sugary" in hopes that it won't limit flow so much.

Lighting will ultimately be a mix of halides and actinics. I have the fixture, bulbs and ballast, just need to build a hood for it. For right now, I'll use the PC light that came with it.

Filtration: this is where I'm going way off the reservation. No skimmer and no cheato in the sump. I'm going to try an algae scrubber. This is my home made attempt at an AS device to fit over my sump. I should have taken a photo of it completely assembled before I mounted it over the sump, but I didn't and I'm not dragging it back out now.lol. You can see it pretty well there on the right. The pump in the incoming sump area goes to the red handled valve, which feeds a double spray bar that sprays out on both sides of the gray plastic sheet you see hanging in the background that is lit from both sides. If this works as advertised, hair/turf algae will grow on the plastic scavenging nutrients from the water. Scraping it off weekly will export out nitrates and phosphates. We shall see. I'm not going to run it with a skimmer on the system because I want it to prove out without it. If it doesn't work I can always shift to more conventional methods later.

The drain from the main tank is going into a basket strainer that will have carbon filter and other filter pads in it. I really don't know how well this is going to work. If it's too noisy I'll have to punt to something else.

Electrical. I decided 2 things:
1. I wanted GFCI outlets installed after seeing the RC post about the guy losing his house to a fire started by a reef tank. (now installed)
2. I wanted a second breaker so I could split the load AND also still have some water movement should one of the GFCI's trip. (now installed) I put in separate power bars that can be plugged into the 2 outlets.

No water in the tank yet. I'm making RO even as I type this. (with one friggin hand as I had surgery on my left hand today. I want to get the tank up, running and stable before I shift over the contents of my 40 gal. The rock in there now will be the base for what I'm moving over. The red on it is just sand that stuck to the wet rock.

 

[Hawkeye]

I see you went away and came back a believer in the algae turf scrubber.

I'm not sure i buy the idea of no skimmer or other macro algae - so I guess I am a firm "on the reservation" guy. LOL.

Personally not a fan (i am just truly lazy and a believer in an over-sized skimmer) but would love to see your trial and attempt.

One thing that I would advocate in a system like this would be to start the bio-load small. I think a turf might work if the overall tank has a low bioload...but as I have on experience with them - I don't know!

All I can say is - Good luck and I will be lurking to see results!

 

[chaoscat]

The main reason I'm trying the algal scrubber is the claims that they handle LARGE bio-loads very well. I've read statements that turf algaes can be up to 100 times more efficient at removing Nitrate and Phosphate than other macroalgaes. Supposedly, well stocked tanks have run for years without water changes when filtered this way. I don't plan to test that aspect, lol, though I may try getting by with reduced changes.

Anyway, I'm gonna try it. I've been in a number of reefers houses over the last year for one reason or another. Almost all of whom had a lot of expensive filtration going (ie skimmers, phosban reactors, etc)In many of those tanks algae is still a tremendous water problem even with water changes.

 

[Hawkeye]

The key with the scrubber though will be total volume. The idea of putting the algae on both sides (to double capacity) is a good one - I just don't know if that is enough to handle whatever bioload you have. I've also read that there is a risk of the algae getting into your display - which is not what you want.

Will be following...