I was called by a friend to help tear down a five hundred plus gallon reef tank. It was suppose to be a guys night out for about 6 of us.
All the beer, chips and salsa you could consume. The rule was no women to show up.
They started working on tank at 8am Saturday. Eric the owner of tank brought two 240 gallon tubs to put livestock, coral colonies, fish, clams, etc into.
I got there about 3pm. I see Eric inside the tank still cleaning it. It had just been buffed inside. The tank looked awesome. Eric wanted to make some adjustments with flow. So a few more feet of pvc and lock line were added. The idea was to leave the two end of lock line sticking up with just spray output showing from sand.
The next addition was the sand. It had been rinsed drained of all the bad water from top. Eric had two 33 gallon garbage cans full of live sand. So sand is in place. 4 outlets recirculating current looked awesome barely sticking out from sand. So now the Large pieces of Live Rock were added. Paul (Fragman), Mike (Nomercymike), Stephen (Stephen11), Tracy (salmonslayer) Eric (salsaking) and I were having a awesome time.
So the Live rock is placed. Eric and Paul made three really cool little islands with back wall. It looked great! So now the animals go in. First the coral colonies. Corals are placed where they get good flow. The corals that require more light are placed accordiingly. SPS that grows straight up is usually place on sides.
Knowing the growth patterns of each coral is important. You do not want a stag growing up out of water. LPS usually placed closer to bottom, softies closer to bottom. Each coral is placed where coral will will grow best.
Things are moving along well. We move what is a good 16 inch Maxima back into tank. Now the smaller maximas, croceas are added. The next step was the Fish.
Eric is on top of tank. The tank is so big its hard to add stuff.
We all heard a Crack. Stephen sees the top of bracing on tank had seperated. The mood changed drastically. But we thought it would be ok. So we continue to add animals. All animals in.
The Tank looks awesome! The water is clearing remarkably fast.
Eric wanted to fix the crack. So Eric bought a few big clamps to support tank while he added number 4 weldon to crack. We started cleaning up mess from setting up tank. Tracy and Stephen left. Paul, Eric, and Mike and I were there. Eric decides that tank is pretty solid and starts removing one clamp. Half of the front of tank broke lose from seem at top. We all instinctively pushed against Tank to support it from bowing more, etc. One person moved clamps back to support tank while others pushed hard to keep tank from coming appart. The tank was clamped tight across the top. Eric could not stand the thought of tank coming apart. You could only imagine having 500 plus gallons going everywhere. We stayed up dismantling tank to wee hours.
All animals survived and moved into Eric Frag system (300 gallon plus). I was offered the tank for free. Stace said no. I knew that would happen. I am assuming the tank can be shortend a inch or two and top put back on. I do not know. Eric (salsaking) says He will have another Tank built within a month fo him. . Wow!
I have pictures of this. I just do not know how to post them on here!
