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Casey's Red Sea S-1000

CaseyP

Treasurer
BOD
Finally catching a breath to start this journal. The past two months have been crazy hectic as I tried to move houses, do renovations (self done), juggle work, all while setting up a new tank and taking down the old one. Truth be told, I wasn't planning on upgrading my 4ft peninsula until later this year. I was eyeing the Red Sea S-850 because the S series had most everything I could ask for. Aluminum framed stand, euro braced, armored seams, and the best part is a frag tank connected to the sump. Well, opportunity arose and after convincing myself of the pros and cons, I picked up a used Red Sea S-1000 from a fellow BAR member.

First order of business was to float the idea by the wife on why spending $$ on a much bigger tank after just having bought a new place and juggling all the above was a good idea :p . Going from a 4ft tank to 7ft is a sizeable upgrade so I SketchUp'd it with the floorplan to get a feel of the scale and if it'll work with the space. Eventually I'm going to build matching cabinets on the side of the tank for a built-in look.

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Drove from Dublin to Elk Grove to pick up the tank. This thing was heavy! The tank alone was almost 600lbs.
FYI because of the wheel hubs, the Chevy U-Haul cargo was was just barely wide enough to fit the tank and stand side by side. The Ford was 2 inches too narrow.
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Can't tell you enough how much I appreciate fellow BAR members for coming to help me unload the tank into my garage. Big thanks to @guihan @euod @dswong01 @Arvin R . Their experience handling large aquariums made the process a breeze.
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In the garage it sat for about a month while home renovations were being done until last week when we were able to get it in the house, on the stand, and leveled.
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And here we are today. Tank is running the bare minimum of a return pump and heater for the livestock transfer. Additional equipment will be set up in the following weeks.

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Lol that is awesome! Might have to consider that if he doesn't grow out of it. The dining table will eventually be next to the tank so I'm hoping he'll just sit on a chair there and look.
 
About two weeks post transfer and I'm happy to say no losses! Doing a direct transfer from my old tank into the new, instead holding all the livestock in temporary holding tanks while I moved the old tank, proved to justify the upgrade hah. The last time I moved tanks it did not go as well. Corals are a little unhappy with drab colors but they're all opened up and alive.

Tank is slowly coming along while house moving and renovations are getting in order. I picked up a couple Kessil arms to mount the A360Xs with two more coming for a total of 6. My plan is to eventually build an extruded aluminum light rack and wall mount it. Still figuring the design with pneumatic lift arms so I can move the rack up and down for maintenance clearance.

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Temporary Ikea cabinet to house all the power bricks and EB832. Plan is to build matching cabinets on each side of the tank so it's wall to wall and have a built-in look. I also need to route two dedicated 20A breakers to the cabinet. Unfortunately I didn't have this option during construction so I'll most likely run the wires through a conduit from outside and then behind the tank.
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Can't say wire management is my strong suit
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For flow I carried over the two Octo Pulse 2 from my old tank and added two Octo Pulse 4s. I like these over say, MP40s, because they're highly flexible on where you want to point them and aesthetically IMO, wires inside the display are less ugly than motor blocks hanging on the outside of the tank.
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Next up is getting the aquascaping. I just laid out all the existing rock and didn't try to stack them in the same way they were before since it originally designed for a peninsula layout, viewable on two sides. I picked up ~150lbs of rock from @ashburn2k 's tank breakdown. Going to bleach soak them this week to remove any residual organic matter then figure out the scape. It's going to be tricky trying to combine new rock with old coral filled rock that I can't keep out of water long. I'm thinking I'll build foundational structures with the new rock and lay the existing rock over them.

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I know youve been in the hobby for a long time and you know what your doing. I would hate to see something go bad, so Depending on how much dead rock to live rock in an aquarium with corals my be tricky. If it’s sps , I would probably cure the dead rocks in a bin for a while. If it’s softies your probably ok.
I did a test to see what would happen. I mounted sps frags on dead rock rubble. They all died. I didn’t the same to live rock rubble. They all lived.
I still believe there’s something that’s on live rock or in live rock that supports coral and fish.
Just be careful.
 
Appreciate the insight. It'll probably end up be a 50/50 mix of existing live rock and bleached out rock. I'll probably do as you suggested to avoid risk and cure the rock in a tub for a while before getting the aquascape together. Just to get some bacteria and biofilm going and leech out anything that still might be residual. Patience is the most key and most hard to accept skill of this hobby.
 
Trying something different. My previous Octopus classic skimmed like a champ and I was planning just upgrading size. This Aquavitro Division 500 came up for sale and some features intrigued me. This skimmer uses a straight body and has the option to become a recirculating one with an added external pump. All meaning longer contact time. Kind of classic in some ways.

Coffee cup for scale
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5 minutes in and looking extra frothy.
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Not much update inside the tank as I'm waiting for the new base rock to cure. I'm not adding any new fish or coral until the aquascape is set.

To light the frag tank underneath, I'm using an Orphek Atlantik v4 compact. Got some longer 100mm m4 bolts to replace the stock ones which allowed me to put a nut on the end and slide them into some leftover slot rails I had from a wood working tabletop I built. The rails screwed to the stand's top panel then the lights slide right in. A bit overkill for such a small tank but I already had the light from a previous build.

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Egg crate and zip ties to hold bio media. Going to add more eventually. Times like this I wish I had a 3D printer and the know how to make a custom basket.
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Today on CaseyTV investigates, can six Kessil 360Xs on a 7 foot tank provide the punch and shimmer of metal halides without the shading issues point source LEDs are known for?

Just need one more rigid arm. Will also be testing with 55 degree reflectors when I borrow the PAR meter.
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I'm running 3 A360X on a 3 foot tank. Not too much shading, still a nice shimmer. Also waiting for the PAR meter to tune intensity :)
 
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