The why, oh why, 38 stair, 290 gal build revised

[reefwithareefer]

So this is about where my original thread ended and I never added to it.
Life got busy and the tank sat at my entryway for about 2 months.
Of course the wife had much to say about this, but I reminded her that she was the one who talked me into setting up a saltwater tank for her in the first place, which has lead to this addiction...

The 2 months gave me time to think about how I was going to set up the new tank and change the sump room.

So I organized the endeavor, had my daughters friends come by and help me out for all the food they had eaten over the years...

Of course I was not going to lift this sucker up by hand, so off to the rental store to pick up this...




What is this you ask? It is a Genie, material lifter. It will lift 600lbs 18ft in the air...I call it a blessing!!!

Needless to say I had to bring it up all the damn stairs! good thing it was a rental, cause I gave it a push down the stairs, when I was done with it. Amazing how fast one of those can go down 20 stairs...

[reefwithareefer]

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of us lifting the tank into place with the material lifter....We never would have gotten it up there without it and it was so easy to do...

Anyways, this is where I kept my lil friends while exchanging the tanks out.




and this is some of the plumbing needed to set up the new tank with the Bean Animal...

[reefwithareefer]

Ripped out the old plumbing




put the 180 gal bowfront out on the lawn
It is for sale....7000.00 with the stand.




I felt sooo bad...One of the cardinals went missing about 4 days before do the tank swap. Figured it was just his time and he became crab food. After getting the tank out on the lawn, I started to take the bulkheads off an hour or so later. guess who I saw laying at the bottom of the tank, inside the overflow box? Yep...Mr Cardinal and he did not look none to healthy

Lesson learned, forgotten and remembered....Remember to look in the overflow box if you are missing a critter...

[reefwithareefer]

WooHooo! Tank in place and ready for action...



Hmmm, damn it..I knew I forgot to do something! never cleaned the inside of the tank before lifting it in place!! aaaargh!!

Lesson# 3 or 5, maybe 10...When you make a list detailing each thing needing to be done. listing each task to be done in order, so that you do not forget anything while rushing around...Maybe try reading it when completing a task or two..!! Ugh...

Thank goodness for skinny folks...

[reefwithareefer]

Getting to be late by the time this picture was taken. Started at 8:00 am by picking up material lift, then emptying tank of criiters etc. Started swapping tanks at 12ish and finished by 2 ish...Spent the rest of the time setting up the rock..Gawd my arms needed to be 3 inches longer...






i think it was about 9ish when the pic was taken..

[reefwithareefer]

I kept about 75% of the water from the bowfront setup and had another 150 gals mixed up downstairs to fill the DT, sump and refugium.

The water is pretty murky all said and done, but the critters were all fine. corals started coming out about 20 mins after placing them in the tank.

[reefwithareefer]

Now that I think about it, I did the move on the family day long weekend..Not a bad way to spend some time with the family..Right?

This is how the tank looked the next morning....









No loss of critters...









just in case you are wondering...No, that is not how I am leaving the aquascaping. We just threw everything in there for the nite, so the critters did not get stressed out.


Bought the Hawaian black substrate online from Drs fosters and whoever. Good timing as it was on sale for 12 bucks a bag, regular 20.00, so i bought 8 bags, had it shipped for free to Pic It Up in Sumas Wa and then brought it across the border 5 days later. Substrate is bagged by Caribsea and comes live...It is quite nice. Has black, with white and red specks.