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Los Angeles
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Last February I drove up to Northridge in CA, USA after responding to a craigslist add to buy a tank. After a couple of interesting exchanges my girlfriend and I decided to make the drive.
Once we got there and I purchased the tank the owner asked me a couple of questions about his newly built setup and since it was dark I looked at it briefly to realize that someone had assembled a supposedly high end setup like a kinder-garden kid with his first Lego set, accept the kid would probably be more creative due to his curiosity and interest.
So after a few minutes of looking He asked me what I think? The original question was "If You could look at my chiller and tell me why it?s not working?"

I had to bluntly reply that "he is probably not interested in what I have to say." Considering I could see that he had spent thousands to get an absolutely dysfunctional system.
After he insisted, I told him that whoever worked on his tank wasn't qualified to even touch it and doesn't have the knowledge and experience necessary to set up and service a reef tank.
I showed and explained to him a few things that were just mind boggling. Then he asked me if I would be able to fix the problems and to get things functional.
Knowing that I live about an hour away without traffic and that I am absolutely stumped with work and short of time I told him that I won?t be able to. Instead I offered to come and look at the system more carefully during the day to give him a better Idea of what the problems were.
On my next trip there I realized how bad everything was, oceans motions set up 12' away from the tank with flex barb lines, 90 degree elbows, and metal fasteners that leaked on every joint.
A 1850 gallon return pump going through a chiller, not primed, blasting in the middle of the tank from the overflow, facing the front, it started spilling and splashing water off the top after being primed.
I felt really bad for him, and I also got excited by the challenge of building his system properly. Since he had already paid a lot of money for service on his previous tank, and when I saw that his corals were all brown, unhealthy and full of hair algae I decided to make him a deal.
I told him that I will find the time to take care of the built of his tank under one condition:
Only if he committed to become a more active hobbyist, start learning and understanding how a reef tank functions, as well as the equipment needed.
He agreed, seemed enthusiastic, we shook hands, I already had ideas and knew this was going to be a big project.
I started to do a lot of research and gave him his first homework, Randy?s Reef chemistry. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/rhf/

This is how began the saga of the 225gal rebuild. After a year it has become a 500+ gallons system with the 225gal mixed reef display tank, 50gal seahorse tank, 80gal refugium tank, 80gal live rock filtration tank, 45gal frag tank, and an 85gal sump.
 
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Los Angeles
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Here is shot underneath the tank from last Feb

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Location
Los Angeles
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Here are a few shots of the pipes going outside underneath a built in cabinet through the upstairs bedroom wall to the patio.

The return from the sump through the cabinets to the reeflo that was connected to the oceans motions


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Los Angeles
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I will track pictures of the actual tank and post them later.
The scariest part was, that two of the returns from the oceans motions, in the middle of the tank were coming through the soft pipes underneath, getting connected to the oceans motions outside 10' away.
So the connections were holding about 100gal of pressure. In case of any failure with the fasteners there would be a 100gal of water in the bedroom upstairs.
 
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Los Angeles
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Have a look at the fastener in this picture below.I was able to move it with my hand after examining the source of the leaks, and I realized they were all loose. I could not believe my eyes. This was done by a company in the valley, they were also servicing his previous 150gal tank doing two water changes a week with 5gal buckets up and down the stairs.

I don't understand how these people stay in business.(for 5 years)

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Los Angeles
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I can?t find a picture of the way the sump was originally set up, but in the video bellow you should be able to get an idea of how it was, the sump was on the right hand side under the tank.
The tank was custom ordered, with all the holes coming through the overflow, two 1.5? drains, and five 1? returns.
This already presented a major problem, after calling the manufacture of the tank and finding out that the bottom and the back panels are tempered glass. Which meant I wasn't going to be able to drill any more holes.
And with the tank being built in a cabinet in the bedroom right against the wall, the option of hanging returns wasn't possible.
With this whole idea, and looking more and more into the way the system was set up, the size of the sump, restriction of space near or within the sump for an efficient skimmer, the close loop which was set up as a return and the high pressure return pump going through the chiller, I realized it wasn't possible to salvage his set up.
So after inspecting and investigating further into possibilities, I saw the possibility of building a dedicated fish room.
Directly outside, behind where the tank was sitting upstairs, runs the chimney for the fire place. At the ground level on both sides of it, there were storage units built for keeping fire wood on one side and lawn chairs in the other.
Not being very optimistic I asked Larry if he would consider, getting rid of these two storage units and building a dedicated fish room except much higher in height since the storage units were 4? tall.
And to my surprise, he loved the idea and wondered why no one else thought about it earlier.
 
Location
Los Angeles
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a perfect example of , if you want it done right do it yourself.
i like the wire organizer, great idea.


Thanks edd
I am not a big fan of loose wires and pipes all over the place. I find that the time spent to design and organize at the beginning pays for itself tenfold in the long run of having to go around things and having to deal with accidents and disasters.
I try to make my system as clean yet accessible for service as possible. Sometimes a little too much.
 

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