Monday, February 27, 2012

Tearing Down the 40 breeder

Tomorrow I start to tear down my 40g tank in anticipation for my new 90g tank. In the interim between now and when the tank is complete I will be running the 40 solely as a frag tank. I have been battling hair algae and various other problems in the tank. I wasn't planning on putting my current fish in the 90 and I can't afford to run two reef tank so I am striping it clean. I built a large 1'x2' frag rack that will go in the 40 and I will be able to grow out my frags in peace and safety and the algae problems should subsist due to the radically decreased bioload. The only things I'm keeping besides my corals are my tiger conch and my cleaner shrimp.


I will have one new addition though, a Magnificent Foxface that I am getting tomorrow. The Mag will be a permanent resident of my 90g and in the meantime my hope is if any hair algae does come back he can graze on it and keep it to a minimum; plus I got a killer deal on it.

The 90g reef



Well, if its not one project with me its another. The 55g high-tech planted tank is done now so what else is there to do but buy another tank. So this morning I scored a 90g tank at a pawn shop for dirt cheap. $50 for a pre-drilled, dual corner overflow, mini-monster. I can already tell you that this build is going to be a big one and its gonna take some time. Here's the problems I already know of:

-Tank looks terrible, needs to be deep cleaned, badly
-Who ever pawned it had the "smart" idea of sealing the overflow holes in the bottom of the tank and removed the overflow boxes 
-Aqueon, AllGlass, Marineland, and GlassCages will not sell me aftermarket overflow boxes, I already called them.
-I have no clue how old this tank is so I'm going to reseal the entire thing so I don't wind up with 90g of water in my carpet.
-The upper rim is cracked. Not a big deal and its on the back of the tank.
-The front pane has a chip in it. Possibly not the safest thing in the world.
-It did not come with a stand.
-I will eventually be building my first sump for this project.
-I'm sure more problems will come to light as I get deeper into this project.