Hello all!
I've been setting up a 200 gallon that I picked up about 4 or 5 months ago and thought I should probably start a thread for it. Everything from my 150 was transferred a couple weeks ago and is doing really well so far. The 150 was a sweet setup but over the years I realized I wanted some different things in terms of ease of maintenance, height, equipment concealment, and of course SPACE!
150 thread
Here are a couple of pictures of that tank before I moved everything over.
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When I bought the 200 it was all oak which the wife said was not going to jive with the rest of our home decor. I said, meh, but the forces of nature insisted it be transformed!
View attachment 21667
So we spent time when we had it, stripping the glossy shelac and covering it with a white-wash made from Killz. I left the inside of the stand as it was but everything else including the inside of the canopy got a new coating. Since the tank was used I needed to make sure it wouldn't leak anywhere and ran a leak test with tap water for a week.
This next pic is from once I had the stand inside the house and the tank positioned and I began mixing up the extra water I'd need to make up the difference between the 150. I actually mixed up a new 100 gallons of saltwater.
View attachment 21670
One of the biggest differences from my old system is that now I can squeeze most of my sump and equipment underneath the stand instead of behind the tank as I had to do with the 150. I got a bigger tank and actually reduced the amount of floor space that the system took up compared to the old setup.
Once that was good I took a deep breath and moved everything over!
View attachment 21671
Combining the contents of an established tank with a new tank was not easy and I wouldn't really recommend it. I honestly expected to lose some fish or at least a cleaner shrimp due to stress but so far I've been really lucky and literally everything survived in stride. I considered a holding system for the livestock but in the end just bit the bullet. The total process took about 4 or 5 hours.
Since then everything has been going well. The tank has cleared up considerably and I've been able to get things organized the way I want them... for the most part.
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Needs more rock though!
I've been setting up a 200 gallon that I picked up about 4 or 5 months ago and thought I should probably start a thread for it. Everything from my 150 was transferred a couple weeks ago and is doing really well so far. The 150 was a sweet setup but over the years I realized I wanted some different things in terms of ease of maintenance, height, equipment concealment, and of course SPACE!
150 thread
Here are a couple of pictures of that tank before I moved everything over.
View attachment 21668 View attachment 21669
When I bought the 200 it was all oak which the wife said was not going to jive with the rest of our home decor. I said, meh, but the forces of nature insisted it be transformed!
View attachment 21667
So we spent time when we had it, stripping the glossy shelac and covering it with a white-wash made from Killz. I left the inside of the stand as it was but everything else including the inside of the canopy got a new coating. Since the tank was used I needed to make sure it wouldn't leak anywhere and ran a leak test with tap water for a week.
This next pic is from once I had the stand inside the house and the tank positioned and I began mixing up the extra water I'd need to make up the difference between the 150. I actually mixed up a new 100 gallons of saltwater.
View attachment 21670
One of the biggest differences from my old system is that now I can squeeze most of my sump and equipment underneath the stand instead of behind the tank as I had to do with the 150. I got a bigger tank and actually reduced the amount of floor space that the system took up compared to the old setup.
Once that was good I took a deep breath and moved everything over!
View attachment 21671
Combining the contents of an established tank with a new tank was not easy and I wouldn't really recommend it. I honestly expected to lose some fish or at least a cleaner shrimp due to stress but so far I've been really lucky and literally everything survived in stride. I considered a holding system for the livestock but in the end just bit the bullet. The total process took about 4 or 5 hours.
Since then everything has been going well. The tank has cleared up considerably and I've been able to get things organized the way I want them... for the most part.
View attachment 21672 View attachment 21673 View attachment 21674
Needs more rock though!
