melev

For the past 5 or 6 weeks, I've been avoiding the task of getting the 84" tall 265g poly tank out of the fishroom to clean it. It's easier with a second person, but with the Texas heat I've simply opted to put it off day after day after day. Well, at the same time my reef was at risk in case I needed saltwater for an emergency, not to mention the lack of water changes that couldn't be performed.

Friday night at 10pm, it was 103F outside. Since I was more motivated than usual, I decided to get it out the door. It's a 32" exterior doorway. After disconnecting the plumbing and Coralife circulation pump, I wrestled it into position, tilting it over to pull it through the doorway. It couldn't fit. Standing it upright again, I removed the door by its hinges, and tried again. Still too wide to fit through the door. Well, it's official, it ain't coming out of the fishroom without some serious effort and some deconstruction.

Annoyed by the situation, I proceeded with the cleaning plan indoors, in the fishroom itself. Because I was going to use Muriatic Acid, I turned off the two pumps on the protein skimmer since I didn't want those fumes sucked into the water column. I poured in about 4-6 cups of acid into the poly tank, which mixed in with whatever saltwater was left inside -- maybe five gallons worth. One breath was all it took for me to screw the 8" lid closed. For the next 10 minutes, I rolled the poly tank back and forth on its side a section at a time, making the solution slosh around inside and up the walls of the container. I had to prop it up on some 4x4 posts to elevate it enough so the affixed plumbing wouldn't get damaged during the gyrations of the water tank. Using acid, the stuff comes off the walls very quickly. I spent more time moving the container a little bit at a time because of the constraints of the room. Had I been able to do this outside, it would have been far easier a task.

Now that it was essentially clean, I stood it up again. Dragging the garden hose from the water spigot in front of my house all the way into the fishroom allowed me to thoroughly rinse the walls of the poly tank. With a 2x4 under the back edge to make it tilt toward the drain bulkhead, the acidic fluid could exit once I opened the ball valve. I oriented the plumbing over the french drain, and the solution flowed out the plumbing in the garage and down my driveway. An added perk is that the french drain looks brand new, as all the stuff trapped has been flushed away.

While the container was completely clean, I couldn't quite get out the last of the sediment that remained at the very bottom, no matter how much water I blasted it with from the garden hose sprayer. To get the very last of it, with the container lying on its side, I was able to tilt it so the water and bits of stuff collected near the 8" opening and used a wetvac to remove the last of it.

Now that the container was finally clean, I modified the plumbing, building a manifold with three different entry ports. One shoots water into the top section (which is how it was already since the beginning), which agitates the water and oxygenates it. This is great when the container is full with 250g of saltwater. After I use about 100g, it begins to sound like thunder as the water crashes down, so new port #2 will be used at that water level. That port has a medium length pipe connected, pointing down to keep the water controlled and quiet. When the water level gets to the bottom third of the container, port #3 will be utilized with its longer pipe. I'll post up some pictures once I've had a chance to add water and see how it works.

I also installed the new Reeflo Blowhole pump at the same time, since I'll be doing a product review about it in the near future. Lastly, I installed plumbing for the automatic water change system, which I've been talking about for months. Everything is curing; tomorrow I'll add water to check for leaks and hopefully commence collecting RO/DI water so I can start mixing up some salt finally.