Thinking of throwing in the towel....

[DeMarcusR]

I probably bit off more than I can chew with a 260g reef..
Everything was going fine as long as I had my nice laid back office job getting a lot of overtime. Now, I've been laid off - new job doens't pay as much so I cant dump as much into the aquarium.

Problems-
-My aquarium room is un-finished - Still dont have a door to block the heat from the garage. Cant afford to cool the room.
- HEAT, HEAT, HEAT. My aquarium is currently at 86.4 with the lights off. I just floated a 5 gallon bag of ice in the 100g sump, which only brought the temp down 1 degree. My icemaker apparently stopped working OR is taking an extremely long time to make more ice.
- Humidity like a mofo. I walked in my garage this morning and my car was covered in condensation. the metal stand in the aquarium room is dripping water down the legs. All the electrical cables are moist.


At this point, I think it'd be easier, more cost effective and beneficial to the animals to patch the hole in my wall and downgrade to something smaller and more manageable BUT, before I make the plunge - I figured I'd post here and see what the family has to say.......


Feedback?

 

[Carabelli]

don't give up the dream yet - if you really have your heart set on the 260, then, just see about selling some of the livestock and rock and storing the equipment - i have been where you are at, just take a deep breath and buy yourself some time... as they say, breathe

 

[ChuKronos]

I don't think it would be a bad thing to downgrade to a smaller tank for now. If you got a 75-120 you could keep and use a lot of the equipment that you bought for the 260 so you won't have to buy that again when you finally get to set up a large tank. You could grow your corals in the smaller tank and then transfer them to the larger later. this is just IMHO.
-Chuck

 

[TCU Reefer]

I've had that same exact feeling.

Here's a thread when I was contemplating on throwing in the towel. Many supportive answers from many supportive members. Maybe one of their replies can talk you out of it.

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=24516&highlight=

 

[melev]

Cover the door opening with pink foam or some sheetrock.

Our weather is extremely humid right now, so this is a bad time to look at it as any indication of normal temperature spikes. A huge fan on the sump will help drop the temperature more than a bag of ice will. The tank is definitely running pretty hot. Your home a/c isn't on yet, is it?

 

[ChuKronos]

@ChuKronos wrote:

I hope my post didn't sound like trying to encourage you to throw in the towel. My point was to find a way to keep you in the hobby at a minimum expense.
-Chuck

 

[DeMarcusR]

@Marc wrote:

I currently dont have a large fan.. The largest fan I have is the one that was over my 75g last year.. I'll have to scrounge up some change and pick up one from walmart tomorrow.

Nope.. The home A/C isn't on.. All the doors and windows are open. None of the vents from the home a/c go to the room where the aquarium is

 

[DeMarcusR]

@ChuKronos wrote:

I hope my post didn't sound like trying to encourage you to throw in the towel. My point was to find a way to keep you in the hobby at a minimum expense.
-Chuck"]


Chuck, I definately didn't take it as you encouraging throwing in the towel.... I'm actually trying to figure out ways to stay in at minimum expense... Just seems like every week I'm hit with something new.. From the time I've set up this thing, its been a huge money pit...

I've gone from vandalism of the original stand which required me to drop a load of money for a new stand to foundation shifting right under the tank - It's now unlevel to the point that water is barely flowing through one of the overflows - which the insurance tells me they wont cover foundation damage, Now my garage is a sauna and I'm having to re-route electrical to keep the condensation from dripping into outlets...

Verrrrrrrry discouraging.

 

[FISH-MAN]

what is it you have in this tank to keep it at 86 without the lights on
??!! :shock:

 

[DeMarcusR]

@FISH-MAN wrote:

The heaters are off for the season, I only have two pumps going - A single mag 24 which runs the return, uv, 2 phosban reactors, there is 1 tunze 6100 and a seio 2600.... Actually if I'm not mistaking, the UV is unplugged, just has water flowing through it....

 

[FISH-MAN]

are you using the mag as a external or in the sump? i know they can put out lots of heat to the tank i used them alot in the past but use a pressure rated pump just like the one posted in the for sale forum.. the yellow pan world or blue line both made by the same guys that make the iwaki pumps . really sweet pumps IMHO. and a really good price on it.

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=31241

wally world has a nice big box fan for $12 and you could just use it to route the hot air out of blow cold air over the sump.... just using a fan in my sump area blowing cold air over my sump water lowered the temp down by 2 .....with all the moisture going on is this because water crashing down due to skimmer, tank out put to sump , the 2 phosbans??? if this is the case you top off alot then right??? i use a acrylic box as a "step" for the water fall to break on causing the water not to crash that alone cut my top off by 1 gallon+ less a day... my skimmer is the only thing that i need to do this to the rest of the stuffs outputs are submerged under water with PVC pipe in the sump making it low evaporation with less moisture in the air. a fan would be my next big step and try to keep the water in the tank by lowering the Evap. i hope you stick with it in the end you would have done somthing you thought would be too hard. i like Carls sig so im going to steal it right now LOL "What you achieve or fail to achieve is directly related to what you do or fail to do" when i think about getting out i think about that and also about these

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=971190

one day i hope :roll:


i have read your build thread and i know youve gone through alot and that should make it all worth the while. you have gone past the point of return atleast just IMHO. 8) not all can do as Marc did and finish it in 14 days. :lol:

 

[melev]

I think the current weather is creating the sauna effect. My fishroom is at 71% humidity right now, with the vent fan pulling air out and the window a/c cycling on and off to keep the room at 75F. The tank is at 80.3F.

 

[DeMarcusR]

@FISH-MAN wrote:

The Mag pump is run internally right now. I didn't feel comfortable putting any holes in the stock tank. I was going to run one of the external pumps but quickly realized I was running low on real estate in the room - I also thought the mag 24 would be the route to go since it was powerful enough to run the whole system - my idea was to eliminate as many pumps as possible which would free up outlets and energy - the downside is that the almost the whole system is run on one pump.....

I think the moisture is due to the humidity and the heat - for some reason, it's actually cooler in the garage right now than it is in the fish room.. I cant understand it so, what I've done was turned the vent fan around to push air from the garage into the fish room instead of the opposite direction. As far as water 'crashing', I dont have that problem (if I'm understanding you correctly)... My drain lines go under the water into a 5g bucket filled with live rock.. The only 'crashing' is from the phosban reactors - which isn't a crash, more of a trickle...

Marc, I took your advice - I covered the entrance to the room (well its open right now because it's cooler in the garage). I made a makeshift door out of a sheet of birch plywood I had in the garage. I found an inexpensive window unit on craig's list that I'm picking up tomorrow for $50.. Hopefully that'll put a dent in the temp. Right now, the temp is at 84.9 and rising. It went down to 83 after the 5g bag of ice.
I hate to think what the temp would be if I were still running halides.. I had 3 250s over the tank at one time.. Talk about boiling... Right now I've only got 2 pair of 48" t5s...

Hopefully next week I'll start this new job so I can start making money to spend on my mistress ( mistress = 400 gallons of water in the garage :lol: ) as a side note, for all those people who say t5s dont shimmer.... They do,, not as much as halides but there's a shimmer

 

[melev]

You definitely want to vent the air out of the fish room into the garage area, rather than vice versa. Or open up the garage door, leave the doorway open, open up the closet door in your hallway, and open up the windows in the back of the house. That will let fresh air flow through the fishroom to help cool it down in there.

Once our weather levels out, you'll have a much better idea of what you are dealing with.

 

[Carabelli]

sounds like those suggestions marc made would help a lot - the mag will put a lot of heat out also - you will make it, just give yourself some time - worst case, you can always downgrade

 

[DeMarcusR]

I just got the window unit in... It was a beast to lift 8ft off the ground by myself - thankfully it didn't fall on my head...

Before I put the window unit in, the temp was rising .2 degrees every 30-60 minutes.. So far its holding steady at 84.7 - the room is more comfortable to work in... Its actually cooler out there than it is in the house.. We'll see how this works out for a lil bit...

Next thing I'll need to tackle is leveling out the stand.. I think I'll use a hydrolic floor jack to lift the stand on one side so I can put in some metal shims...??

 

[Flamenco-t]

ooh, I would be scared of using a jack to level the stand, it may put bit more stress on the unjack side. Just do it carefully, I don't want anything to happen to the tank/glass.

I know you propably don't want to hear this, but put your priority first...don't be a slave to your tank.

If your job is in jeopardy, take everything down...sell all the livestock, go back to a smaller tank that is more manageable. In the mean time, I know you have great deals on your current equipment, you can store them for now until you're back on your feet.

There's no point in spending every dollar you make for the big tank. You want to be able to enjoy your hobby, not stressing you out everyday with issues that you have to tackle on daily basis and costing you more money.

YOu also have to remember your livestock, they have to thrive rather than survive.

Just my $ .02...if you need more help, let us know..

stan

 

[DeMarcusR]

@Flamenco-t wrote:

Thanks for the feedback Stan!
How do you suggest I should re-level the stand? I was going to take a jack and piece of 2x6 wood to jack up the left side of the stand high enough to place a shim under it. The wood was going to be in contact with the metal stand not the glass.

Ya know... I actually thought about just scrapping the whole project and downgrading to something smaller - It's still a possibility. There are a couple of things holding me back at this point...
I'm almost done.. Well - I'm lying,, are we ever "done". The room is constructed, tank is in the wall, plumbed, etc,etc,etc..

Now on the other hand - I've still got to finish the electrical for the room, I've got three more tanks that need to be plumbed in - which those can wait, no hurry there.. The room still needs to be sheetrocked AND, I still need to purchase more lights...
Even when I do get back on my feet - it might be a little difficult to get all that done, I doubt I'll find a job that'll allow me to work all the overtime or pay me what I was making in overtime at the other job. I'm looking at another 3 or 4 grand to get setup.. I dont know if I'll be able to comfortably afford to keep a reef this large... It'll cost me at most $300 to patch the hole in the wall with two sheets of sheetrock, tape and texture...

Too many choices... To make it all short - nothing is permanent at this point, I'm taking it one day at a time... I'll try to stick it out as long as possible but I might end up trading this setup for a smaller one....

 

[Flamenco-t]

@djr2001 wrote:

Don't stick it out too long for you to lose all the money and have to make the decision that you can make right now to begin with.

I am not saying give up on the big tank, by all means you got a kick ass deal on it. KEEP IT.

Do it again at a later date...

Get a 75 or 100 gallon for now..you have plenty of space in your living room.. grow everything out...while at the same time, finish your fish room slowly...get more lights and etc...

It may take you a year or two, but you cna have it done the way you want it rather than setttling for less due to financial reason.

stan

 

[melev]

Drain the water into some trashcans, then level the stand & tank. Pump the water back in. Done.

I have at least 3 trashcans you can borrow that hold 35g each. Steve has another one of mine. That's 4.