Blizzard Kills Tank - Opportunity Knocks!

Well, I started my 75 gal tank almost exactly 2 years ago. I'd been thru troubles with chemistry, coral husbandry, briopsys, and countless other things. I'd made some progress - tank was looking good, sps were growing (!), fish were smiling...

Then blizzard(s) hit a town that usually gets 2 inches of snow per year. We lost power several times. Too much to handle, everyone died with the last power outage.

Now that I'm done cleaning out the bulk of the mess, I'm starting to figure out how to do better the second time 'round. I'm going to list my various questions here in hope that you guys have some places to point me to for answers, and some more of the good 3reef advice that's gotten me this far in this hobby.

1. Stand for a 75 gal tank. I bought the AGA stand with the tank, and it's pretty worn out - doors falling off, etc. it also didn't give very good access to the potential sump space under the tank. I'd like to make a simple table-like stand with free access underneath so i can have a larger (maybe 45/50 gal vs the 20 gal i was using. Anyone have plans for 75 gal tank stand, or advice for how to make sure it'll bear the weight?

2. Skimmer upgrade? I have an ASM G1, which in the last 6 months seems to have been less productive than before, despite cleaning. nitrates were never a problem (always less than 0.2 ppm) but i was still suffering from cyano quite badly in the last month. should i replace this skimmer, and what with? my planned total system volume is around 150 gal (75 gal dt, 20 gal fuge, 40-50 gal sump under dt)

3. What to do with my live rock? Right now it's in a tub, sitting out in the snow so it doesn't stink up my garage. I guess i need to somehow clean it before using it again. anyone have a plan for refurbishing old rock. i want to make sure any briopsys spores don't survive to return in the new system.

4. Drilling my 75 gal AGA tank. This i really want to do. I have to do it myself - the local glass shop drilled the wrong size hole on the fuge tank i took to them. I've had an overflow box on my dt, and it's always been a point of failure (translate = flood). I'm looking for advice here on what the best way to get water out of a 75 would be - eg coast to coast overflow, single middle overflow, two corners, etc...

5. Return system. Currently used a blueline 40HDx fully open returning to 3 1/2 inch pvc outlets along the back of the tank. This sucked for flow, and i had to put a bunch of koralia's in the tank before corals would start growing. Since i'm drilling holes for outflow, i figure i may as well drill return holes as well. Here i'm looking for advice on where return holes should go, what pump(s) i should consider, should i have a separate return and closed loop circulation (seems like alot for a 75, i was thinking a bigger pump and eductors on the returns)

6. when to restart which parts of the system. when i start to cycle the new dt, when should i start the 1)skimmer 2)phosban/carbon reactor 3)fuge (dsb and chaeto) 4)lights

7. good advice on how to clean my tanks - esp dt is fully crusted with coralline. will using vinegar to break up coralline damage the silicone in the tank?

any input anyone has is greatly appreciated. i'm bummed over this failure/loss, but now i'm looking forward to a better tank in the future!

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but I'm glad to hear you're not giving up.

I like the sounds of your stand idea, but if it's on a second floor be careful. Table style legs would spread more weight over less surface area.

This skimmer would do very well for you:

Xtreme 200 protein Skimmer

It would probably be best to nuke it in a bleach/water solution. I believe the general recipe is 1 parts bleach 10 parts water.

I really like the coast to coast system just for the huge surface skimming, but it's really personal preference.

If you don't like the look of power heads, a closed loop would be a good idea. I really like Rio pumps, because they are near silent and seem to be very reliable. The amount of flow depends more on what you are planning on keeping.

While cycling, I would start nothing but flow and heat. You don't want additional filtration on the tank lowering the bio-load and giving the bacteria colonies less chance to grow strong.

Vinegar or bleach works very well. Either way just be sure to give it a good rinse. Neither one should damage your silicon.

 

I have a 90 which is just a tall 75 I believe - check my sig for the stand I built, you can leave the center brace out altogether, it's not needed at all.

mike pointed to the skimmer I was going to suggest

actually mike has good advice all the way down

 

3. What to do with my live rock? Right now it's in a tub, sitting out in the snow so it doesn't stink up my garage. I guess i need to somehow clean it before using it again. anyone have a plan for refurbishing old rock. i want to make sure any briopsys spores don't survive to return in the new system.



Make sure it's dry before you put it in the cold... otherwise it'll probably break apart due to expanding (freezing) water.


I would nuke it and then store it till you need it (bleach water 1:10 ratio is recommended, but I never measure. I probably do closer to a 1:3 ratio, it doesn't seem to hurt) Once nuked, dry it in the sun if you can... just be careful about freezing wet rock outside.

 

thanks for the advice!
any other recommendations?
what would you guys do if you were starting over again?

 

So sorry for your tank loss. I live in VA and we got hit pretty bad as well. Luckily for us the power didn't go out

 

Sorry about your tank.. were you home during this whole process?
The first thing I would buy of course is some sort of electrical source- generator or inverter.
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

 

+1 on the genny

 

was covering trauma at the hospital in the blizzard - couldn't have come home to do anything. the power loss was the icing on the cake - things hadn't been right for a few weeks leading up to this. something had triggered the auto-top off to overfill the sump with freshwater several times, and the salinity had fallen quite a bit. i had been bringing it back up, but these false refills kept happening. i think that stressed everything, and probably killed an anenome, beginning the final death spiral.

i use a blueline at1 tsunami - it's a pneumatic sensor that controls a socket. i'm wondering if the cold made the sensor fail, causing the false auto-top offs. my tank is in my basement garage in a back room, where it's partially heated, but with the severe weather the temp has been down to around 35 degrees a few nights.

 

still working on answering my questions. i found the glas*-holes.com website, and these look like what i'm looking for. i'm trying to figure out how to set up waterflow. i'd like to get as close to 20x turnover as possible, but not all thru the sump. i'm wondering if i should put in 2 separate overflows, then use one to feed a closed loop and the other feed the sump. or just one bigger overflow and split the output. or just drill separate holes to feed the closed loop.

when making a closed loop, do you use any kind of filter/screen?

thanks