Emergency 150 Gallon Upgrade

dankolle

dankolle

Reefing newb
I know an emergency upgrade sounds strange, but my 55 gallon at work ended up getting structurally compromised and was in danger of bursting last night. My wife and I decided we would either get out of the hobby (with nowhere to put our livestock) or upgrade to our "dream" aquarium. We opted for the latter, and the 150 gallon emergency upgrade commenced. I feel way out of my league now!

More photos to come soon!

 
After transferring about 60 gallons of my 'old' aquarium water, purchasing 31 gallons of RO water from the store, and running my RO/DI for 2 days straight now, the tank is almost full!

I took my first set of levels last night and so far we are Ammonia: 0 - Nitrites: 0 - Nitrates: 0! Not because I am good at this, but probably because I have almost doubled the volume of water in 2 days with 100% pure salt water. Let's hope the trend keeps up, all of my livestock are doing awesome!

 
Last edited:
It's going to eventually be a reef again! I had to move everything quickly, so I keep the sand out of the new tank to avoid the huge spike that happened to me the last time I moved the tank. Once I have enough water to overflow, I'll end up putting the sand back in. So for now it's just glass and rock.
 
Your old sand will cause a MASSIVE nitrate spike...unless it was completely stirred by an amazing cleanup crew of sifters...Old sandbeds are ridiculous detritus traps....

PLEASE opt for new sand....
 
So far things are still very stable. I got my overflow going and have it dumping into my little 20 gallon sump from my old setup. We did a little rock work over the weekend and have things positioned the best we can with the rock we have to work with for now. We will eventually get more rock, but for now we are happy.

Lighting has been a major concern for me as the new tank is 12" deeper than the last one (and 12" wider too). I just ordered a couple AI Sol units with the controller, so hopefully I'll have them this week! Crazy sticker shock, but in the end it will be worth it.

Forgot to mention, we are putting in new argonite instead of reusing the old sand. I moved a tank before and ended up killing everything, after realizing the sand was the issue. Thnx for the advice!


IMAG0188 by
x2boarder, on Flickr
 
I had to do a snail order because I had almost no snails in the 55 gallon (stupid hermits), so I actually added the yellow tang, and 3x cardinals. I also got an ORA Acro baby along with 50 snails for the new tank.

I am getting a TON of hair algae growth as the sun is hitting the tank directly for about 5 hours during the spring season. The tang is so happy!

I already have my favorite fish (clowns + anemone hosting) so I am set with fish. I am more of a coral guy for some reason. But my wife has more of a say now that the tank is home, and she likes fish. I think we both want to get a ray, but are having trouble finding one that is under $200 that will fit in our tank.
 
A Ray? As in a Sting-Ray? I don't think there are any small enough to fit in a 150g. I can check for you though, I'll report with progress when I find something :)
 
They are really hard to find. My LFS that went out of business had some that only grew 6" nose to tail, but I don't remember the species.
 
So, what I've found out so far, is, one of the smallest stingrays is a California Round Ray. And even they are suggested to have a minimum tank size of 240 gallons. Your clowns, would most likely become a snack to any ray you put in the tank. If you are set on putting one in, and don't want it to be overly stressed, it's recommended to keep the temperature of the tank in the low to mid 60s. This will decrease activity of it. Unfortunately, your corals would all die, as well as most of your fish. So, decision making time :o
 
Lowering the temperature of the tank will not make up for not having enough space. If you're serious about getting a ray, do your research and house them properly, please.
 
Lowering the temperature will decrease the activity of the ray. Meaning, it won't move around as much. Not saying it was right to do it, but, if that's what he had his mind set on, that is one of the methods that some people use.
 

Similar threads

Mike
We're Back!
Replies
0
Views
624
Mike
Mike
2XAl
2XAl's 125 Upgrade
2
Replies
31
Views
3K
2XAl
2XAl
noy
NOY's 110 Gallon Mixed Tank
2 3
Replies
56
Views
8K
texreefer
texreefer
N
New To Salt <3
Replies
6
Views
902
Becky
Becky
Tifoez
newb couple Robbie & Lisa
Replies
7
Views
1K
Tifoez
Tifoez
Back
Top