kudoras 84 gallon thread

[kudora]

quick story intro:
during october of 2007 i was playing a game called "walk my plank" and joined a fleet called MARSH. i didnt know much about MARSH but had played long hours with many of its members. After joining i found out it stood for Marine Aquarium and Reef Society of Houston. i quickly joined the marsh boards and discovered SW tanks. i have spent sometime in okinawa and loved snorkeling the reefs there but had never had a SW tank.

With the help of MARSH members answering all kinds of questions for me(reefrus, aggie, shane) i though i was ready to dive in. i waited for months reading RC and any books i could get in my hands then i saw an add in the paper for a SW tank in late feb. i took a look at the tank and handed the money over(i had 2 brute cans and 4 totes ready to go in the van plus i had cleaned out my old 30 gallon FW tank) and my very own sw tank started to take shape.

"The Tank" included an 84 gallon tank(60x18x18) stand and canopy
29 gallon diy sump/refuge
90 pounds of live rock
2 65wx2 PC lights
aqua remora C pro with a mag 3 skimmer
rio 2100 return pump
rena canister filter
300 watt stealth heater
2 aqua clear 802 power heads
CPR CS90 over flow box
various test kits, salt and lots of extras

fish:
GSM
hifin goby
cardinal fish

coral:
toadstool
mushroom
frogspawn

i had to transfer it all to my house around 20 miles away. i took the coral and the fish and put it in a tote, then started filling everything with water and putting live rock in it.
i put the fish and coral in my 30 gallon at home with a hob filter




then i put all the rocks in the brute cans with the original tank water.

moved the tank stand sump and equipment on the next run.
i tried to clean the sand out as well as i could and put it in the tank.





i didnt have a ro/di unit that night so i went and bought 50 gallons of distilled water from walmart to mix over night.
i mostly topped off with distilled water(expensive) but bought a filtration unit(think of the first 2 stages of an RO unit) on clearence that would get me by for awhile.

here is a pic of the tank after a couple of days and the live rock back in the tank.


After two weeks of it doing mini cycles i was able to put the fish in the tank.





for my first order from F&S i got some new bulbs for my pc fixtures, a K3, and a new heater.

a couple of things i would do differently on the tank transfer
1) get new sand, after the first day the skimmer went nuts and the water turned black for about 10 hours
2) replace most of the sand in the refuge
3) i should have build a new stand, i only have 22" of clearence under the tank and it has made working under the tank very difficult
4) while i was building the stand i should have drilled the tank
edit 5) put a back ground on it, the tank sits between and wall and fire place, its not going to be easy putting a back ground on it.


I will update this thread by doing monthly updates, tommorrow i will put pics up of what happend in the month of April and so on.

enjoy!!

[D to the P]

Now where have I seen you before?

That's a cool sized tank. It should look really good in no time

[Taqpol]

Wow, a five foot shallow tank with the same depth as a 75/90, that is perfect! Good depth for lighting high light corals, plenty of lateral swimming room for tangs or other active fish, just perfect.

All that and i have never heard of those dimensions before. Who makes the tank, and more importantly, do they still exist?

[kudora]

sorry taqpol but i dont know who made it, the guy i bought it from just said he bought the tank and stand when he lived in california. could have been a custom job since the silicone is black.

[Taqpol]

It sounds custom, but I haven't seem many custom tanks with a black plastic rim around the top. Well, who knows...

[Michael]

whats the hang on for at the back? could you get everything under the cabinet, nice size tank there kudora nice cabinet as well, i like the position of the tank as well, ive seen tanks by chimney breasts that look amazing with some work, ive seen the owners timber acroos from wall to chimney breast below and above the tanks so it looks completely built in, lots of future potential there

[kudora]

i cant get everything under the tank, i have 3.5 inches of clearence between the sump and the bottom of the DT. thats a good idea Michael, i could use some ideas on the stand i want to build in the spring since it gets very cold here and its hard to stain/varnish in the fall/winter.

[Aquarist007]

welcome to the dark side Kudora.
that is a great tank--the length will allow you to have a tang or two possibly.
I have already bookmarked this thread so as to follow your progress.

[chrisqueenz]

Interesting dimensions. Do you have a future stocking list? If your going to build the stand yourself, you could check this thread out

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1169964

Should help you as a reference

[Tswifty]

That's such a great sized tank... It's nice to finally see a bunch of pictures.

[Michael]

some black or even blue plastic stick on sheeting covering the back would look nice as well, i have blue, but after seeing pics on here of tanks in a dark room and bright lighting i wish i had stuck black on mine now

[kudora]

yeah its something thats been on my to do list and i have bought the background, its a project that will take place at the same time i change my overflow(more on that later hehe)

[kudora]

capn: thx for following along

chrisqueenz:i have taken that tank stand calculator into consideration, i might use it as a guide but i will prob put a side cabinet to hide everything. As far as a stocking guide, i will address that with aprils update.

swift: thx

[kudora]

here is a pic of the frog spawn a couple of days after it was in the tank



i had a bit of cyno in the first couple of weeks of having the tank, i added the K3 and also some phosban and carbon to the canister filter and took everything else out, i clean the filter out once a month and its is nasty what comes out of there.

[raen]

Very nice.....well done! Did you notice, yur tank is in the same spot in the house as TJ's?

[kudora]

yup we talked about that a couple of months ago, it helps keep the tank out of high traffic but it sucks for trying to work on the sides of the tank.

[Rustylugnuts]

I love the footprint, I'm getting shallow tank envy! That thing is the perfect size for 4-6 80w T-5's. Reef On!

[kudora]

this will be the "april" update to the thread

here is the tank on april 1st


on the second i managed to get 3 fish, a kole tang, firefish and a algae blenny. for some reason i didnt take a pic of them in the Qtank but they lasted 3 weeks. as a Qtank noob i forgot to take the uneaten nori out one night and my seachem ammonia patch and test kit showed ammonia in the water. i bought some Amquel + for this very reason but after a day of fighting it i decided to put them in the DT since they were all healthy and had shown no signs of sickness.

pics of the new guys




i bought some new test kits to cover my basis: ph, alk, calc, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia all of them API.
bought a digital temp reader. also some formula one and cyclopeeze

[kudora]

here are some more pics of the fuge and some close ups of the tank near the end of the month.

shot of the cheatoless fuge, no lfs carry it and most of the people in SW that i had met so far didnt have a fuge on thier tanks


right side of tank


left side of tank


FTS




will try to post "may" tomorrow if there are no questions lol

[D to the P]

How many lbs of rock do you have?

[kudora]

about 90 pounds

[raen]

Looking good!!! I LOVE fire fish, I need to get a couple. How many can you keep in one tank?

[Tswifty]

That's some nicely colored rock.

When I was redoing the return line the other night, I realized what a pain it is trying to get behind the tank. It looks like the space you have next to the fireplace is the same as in my townhouse, except my tank is 4' so I have a little more room... but it's still a major PITA when I have to move things in and out behind there. Plus my ATO reservoir sits on the one side, so access from the left side of my tank is almost impossible.

Seriously I could have taped a "what not to do when working with power tools" video the other night.

[kudora]

i am running some PC lights 10ks so it looks the coralline really pops out.

i think i mentioned it on your 220 thread, it sucks having around 9 inches on each side of the tank, the best i can do is stick my head in there to see the back, one of the reasons i have not put a background on yet. i have my 6 year old go mess with the back of the tank if i need something actually.


i do like the rocks in my tank, the center "island" is one big rock and a smaller one.

[kudora]

Originally posted by raen
Looking good!!! I LOVE fire fish, I need to get a couple. How many can you keep in one tank?

i think you can have several in a tank but they need to be introduced at the same time. i have also seen them sold in pairs on live aquaria.