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Maybe with water changes that big there is nothing for the skimmer to pull out?

Still working on cleaning up the wires but here ya go. Nothing fancy. Hard PVC drains and flex tubing for returns. Left side right side

Current FTS Intro My Red Sea Reefer 450 was transferred successfully to my new tank, an Innovative Marine 170g EXT tank, which is 59" long, 21" tall and 30" front to back. The glass is 3/4" thick, so that really gives me a little over 150g of water volume in the tank. I transferred over everything to this tank, all the rock, all the livestock and all the equipment, but I changed the scape so it looks significantly different and I love it! I only added one smaller rock from my 20g cube that I held on to, otherwise the extra room in this newer tank is just to make it not feel so crowded. Some of the equipment changes from my last tank: I now am using 3 ATI Straton lights instead of 2 I added a Tunze Stream 3 along the back wall and a Tunze 6105 for extra flow I got a bigger sump, but the setup is very similar - bigger frag section, yay! Here's the rundown on equipment: Tank: Innovative Marine 170 EXT with white aluminum stand Sump: Turbo Aquatics 55g sump (meant for a turf scrubber, but provides a big open chamber for my frags) Lights: ATI Straton LED (x3) Flow: x2 Vortech MP40qd, Tunze Stream 3 and a Tunze Turbelle Stream 6105 Heat: x2 150w Eheim Jager heaters Return: Current eFlux 3170gph DC pump Skimmer: Deltec 1000i with CO2 scrubber in line UV: AquaUX 57w In-Sump Frag 'Tank': Noopsyche K7 gen 2 for lights and AI Nero 3 for flow Controller: ApexEL, Trident tester, DoS for 2 part Dosing: ESV B-Ionic 2 part (switch from BRS) As with my last tank, I don't really run mechanical or chemical filtration, so no filter floss, GAC or GFO. I have the ability to run these if I need to, but not something I run 24/7. Also, like my last tank, I am a firm believer in water changes, so I change about 15g per week using good old fashioned Instant Ocean salt. My goal is to keep the following parameters: Alk: 8-9 Calcium >400 Mag: whatever it lands at? NO3: 5-10 PO4: 0.2 - 0.2 pH: try to keep it's lows above 7.9 and try to get it up to 8.3, but its been hard so far on this bigger tank. I don't really test anything else. I didn't have a lot of extra time to document the moving of the tank fully, but I have to give a big thanks to @Marley1083 and @JDS703 for helping me get this thing in here. Building the stand was extremely easy and I was able to fully assemble it my self in under an hour The tank was really heavy, but there were five of us and 6 suction cups and 3 moving carts and we made it work! Thank god there were no stairs to deal with. I documented the actual transferring of my old tank to the new tank on video and uploaded to youtube (in 3 parts): Its been about 6 weeks and the tank is doing much better than I could have hoped for. I lost 2 frags, which were nice frags, and recently my pink lemonade colony decided to RTN. I have 2 frags of it, so hopefully they make it. Not sure if it was one of three things or a mix of all: 1) the tank move was likely stressful, 2) found out my refractometer calibration solution was off, so I was keeping my salinity at 37% instead of 35% and my NO3 and PO4 dropped to zero while on vacation. Also doesn't help that I probably cranked the lights up too high. Other than those, I did have to trim some burnt tips, but otherwise, 95% of my acros have never looked better!

I think that’s piece you got from me. I had another Favites do that a while back in just one spot. I think it just went away one day? Not sure cause and never saw it happen again. Not sure what you should do, but in my case, it either popped and regrew in that spot or it deflated and grew as normal.

In theory, you would get the potential for better growth but probably not highest priority. That being said, I’ve seen positive results with increasing my pH by instant increase in 2-part demand. Chris Meckley from ACI says it’s the most important and many other on large scale operations seem to be going that route too. We’ve been feeding pretty well without pH chasing for decades so I think you’d be fine not worrying about it.

you can rent 8 from WAMAS for I think $25 total if you're a paid member - just reach out to @Origami I used composite shims on the front feet. There is like a foam pad on the 4 posts - I shimmed the 2 front with composites since they don't warp or rot like wood shims.

By the way, you’ll love the tank. Its build quality is amazing. This thing is a beautiful beast and should last forever. Super happy with it.

There were 5 of us. We could have done it with 4, but 5 was definitely helpful. If you have a long distance or have to go up steps, having 6 might be good to have fresh legs halfway thru, lol. The 200 is problem not that much heavier. Suction cup handles are a must. I would rent all 8 from WAMAS. It was actually not as heavy as we thought but still really heavy. We didn’t have to go up stairs or anything which made it easy. So we lifted it off the pallet to the ground. Flipped it on its front panel so it would fit thru the condo door. Lifted it into 3 moving dolly carts, strapped them to the tank. Moved it (via elevator and hallways) and the. Lifted onto the tank. The stand is light. I moved it, but it and leveled it on my own before the help arrived.

Correct, it’s going to go next to it. Just paid to have a dedicated 20 amp circuit with 3 outlets out in. Pricey but now I can have my system split between two breakers New tank is going to the right of the current tank which will open up the space once the old tank is removed.

This will be the last update for this tank. My new IM 170 EXT will be delivered in Tuesday and I’ll move everything over from this tank to the new tank. I’ll start a new build thread just to keep it clean. It’s bitter sweet in a way - I’m happy to have more room and a more reliable tank, but my acros are growing so fast and are so colorful that I don’t want to mess with them. This is the best looking tank I’ve ever had, mostly because I moved around so much until now so it was rare for me to have something up and running longer than 2 years before packing it up and moving it. I hope everything makes a smooth transition to the new tank but I’m expecting at least a few to pale out, stall or die. If nothing is affected I’ll be surprised . I’m going to reuse all my water and make new water and match parameters and even NO3 and PO4 so it should just act as a large water change. Should only be a few hours of disruption. I’ll run the lights a little lower intensity and ramp up over a week or two just to keep stress down. Final FTS vid of my Red Sea Reefer 450 - SPS Dominant Reef Aquarium https://youtu.be/2_BjF8NBrxs

I had a flipper a few years ago and it scratched the H-E-double hockey sticks out of my tank. I think it doesn’t sit off the glass enough and traps sand under it. I switched to Tunze and they do so much better and are good at clearing coraline. With the razors, even better. If it’s super thick coraline that’s been growing for a while, it might need hand scraping. In my experience, a properly size Tunze is the best. I went from Tunze long to strong on my Reefer 450 and it’s a beast.

I have my new tank arriving Tuesday morning, and while I have a couple helpers, I could use more if you are available and want to help. Its listed on the Innovative Marine site as 600 lb crate package but I called and they said the tank might be 600 lbs. I have 6 suction cup movers, and some dollies, but the more moving stuff the better. I am going to get some Pizza and have a few beers on hand. Also, I have some frags to give out to helpers too! I'm in DC at Thomas Circle (20005). I can provide one person with a parking spot in my garage. Or if you just want to come and look at my current tank, that works too, haha. Also, I can return the favor if I am available and lend out my moving stuff too.

Just got an email my Tank is done and just made it to the US. Still have to have it shipped - probably from California, but the day is finally coming!! I will be looking for anyone willing to help soon!!

Had to reupload the vid

New vid - turns out my DSLR takes good vids. Everything is growing well! I can't keep up my alk demand. I'm up to about 250 ml of each alk buffer and calcium (BRS) per day where this time last year I think I was at 20-30 ml a day. Very happy with coloration and growth. Since my new tank should be coming in a month or so, I decided to make backup frags for all my acros that are big enough to take a frag from since frags fare tank moves better than colonies. Since I started worrying about keeping pH up about a year ago, I have only lost 1 acro frag, and that was a small red dragon frag that kept breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. If I had room for a kalk vat, I would try kalk, but I open my window that cracks open a small bit when I can and replace my CO2 scrubber media at least weekly. Can't wait to get more room in this tank - can't wait for more depth!

Man, that sucks sorry you're loosing stuff!! good news is that you caught it and hopefully can get it turned around.

It’s pretty hollow like a bird bone so a hand saw would probably work fine

I’d caution to only use the coral snipper a few inches from the polyp. Skeleton can crack long ways and rip the polyp in half. Doesn’t always buy it can Happen. I use a snipper to get chunks then my fancy band saw to cut individual polyps if requested. Band saw makes nice smooth cuts

How have your fish been acting before they die? strong breathing, while spots? funny swimming, red sores? anything out of the ordinary? Could be some sort of disease and water changes stress them or could be coincidence. If fish are dying but not shrimp, I am wonder if there is a fish pest. Or I have heard of unmixed salt crystals affecting fish.

I would look more into recent progress with Vibrant - its been shown to be an algicide that can also kill/stress corals, so not exactly reef safe in my book. Everytime you use a bottle of something, it can disturb the balance of a tank, which can then take a while to get back into a health balance, which is when algae can take hold while corals are stunted. Some times algae is not bad, since they also need the same thing as corals. One approach that I go by is getting things that take care of algae (tangs, crabs, hermits, snails). as the corals grow, they'll out compete the algae. Not always tho - sometime crap in the water can cause algae so a good RO.DI with an up-keep on changing filters can help. FWIW, I have no algae issues really in my display, but it takes work to keep my inline frag system clean since there i no tang or crabs in there.

I remembered that, even back then I used to find it funny they never updated the file sizes of their pictures. Every picture on tank of the month was tiny. Funny how Reef Central taught me what to do for the first 10 years of my hobby experience but do not have fond memories of it, lol.

I’ve also ‘heard’ that monti’s use more Mg than most other stonies which might be why I have never had to dose Mg in my lifetime.

Looks great!

Made a quick update video - No major changes, other than swapping a Tunze Stream 3 for a pair of Gyre 330s to test it out for the upgrade. It's an eyesore for now, but will be hidden in the upgrade. Everything is growing well.

I prefer clear back to tanks with a while wall behind it. Makes the tank feel a little more open and natural in my mind.