Blue Tang Clan

Plumbing is a little bit fun when you get to make your mitre saw look like a Skittles massacre

Hey Pedro, it’s been quite the journey. Overflow situation is now a private matter, but progress has been made with the various companies. The fish room plumbing is taking forever! I have had quite a few joints that leaked, which I didn’t expect. I used primer and glue, gave it a twist, but still had some places that had droplets. Instead of replacing lots of plumbing parts, I tried re-priming and gluing the outside of the fittings (which was a ridiculous long shot) and that seemed to work. Getting the glue in the seams helped for now. If it leaks again in the future I will replace the joints. Home Depot cabinets went in for storing stuff, and I am now cycling the tank. The crushing part is that I lost all of my SPS corals in the move to the frag tank. Everything. Dead. I can’t begin to describe how devastating that is, but hopefully when everything is stable in a few months, I can begin to restock the tank with frags.

I think way forward is going to be a new interior box from Modular Marine. Custom Aquariums has been very responsive so far, so I hope to have a good resolution soon.

Everything else is solid - I like their design and bracing, and the silicon job is pretty good. Modular Marine can probably make another custom overflow - 6-8 weeks is usually the lead time, but it will take me that long to get moved into the house and get the support system plumbed.

Yeah, I think that will be the best solution - getting a replacement custom overflow. It’s 72” long and not cheap, but it’s probably cheaper than shipping a new tank or flying someone out to widen the holes

Disaster The holes in the tank were not drilled properly. The Right hole is short horizontally by 1/8" (just over 3mm) and the Left hole, while being perfectly drilled horizontally off of the Middle hole, is too high by 1/8". I tried fitting my overflow in last night and it wouldn't fit, even with a little pressure. I thought to myself, "Oh crap, the overflow fittings are off. Let me reverse the bulkheads and fit it on the outside of the tank to confirm." I reversed the bulkheads and mounted the overflow on the outside of the tank, and the same hole did not fit. If the overflow was the problem, the opposite hole wouldn't have fit in the reversed configuration. So, the holes aren't evenly spaced? How is that possible? Custom Aquariums measures down to the MM. I got out my tape measure and eyeballed the Right hole being short by 1/8". That isn't scientific enough to write an email to them, so I carefully positioned a drywall saw in the middle of the Middle bulkhead, and used a laser measure tool from both ends of the Left and Right holes to the middle. Confirmed, of by 2/16ths, or 1/8". Adding insult to injury, I checked the height of all three holes, and the left hole was 1/8" too high. what the heck! You can almost visually make it out with the naked eye. This thing weighs a ton and it took several crews of people to unload it from the truck, move it from garage into my house, and then do a final position on the stand. I have no idea how this is going to play out, but I do have a request for a phone call with Custom Aquariums on Monday morning.

A huge thanks to @YHSublime; @Pedro; @maevepotter; my friend George, and my wife Cristina for getting this tank NUDGED! Also, thanks to @Origami and @AlanM for allowing me to rent the club's suction cups. Those things are a life saver! Lesson learned -- if you are going to use a foam pad underneath, have it made an inch wider than the tank so you have some wiggle room if it's askew. Cutting off excess is definitely easier than lifting it up to reposition the exact MM measurement! Thanks again guys!

Fish tank is on its stand!!!!!! I'm still looking for 1 more person to help me (and 3 others) shimmy it a little to get the plywood to line up underneath. It should literally only take 5 minutes. Text me at 617-372-3849 if you can swing by at 11:30 before the WAMAS meeting!

I was thinking 11:00 since some people like to get to the meeting early.11:30 works too !

Hi all - the tank is In!! However, I still need a little help with adjusting it on the stand. The pad/cushion is a little askew and I need 30 seconds from 3-4 people to get it lined up. Anyone able to lend a quick hand before the meeting?

PVC sump is almost completed. Advanced Acrylics did a fantastic job

I am still looking for a few good men and women to help get the tank to its final spot. It's only about 65 feet away, and there is one small step. Suction cups will be on hand to make it an easy lift, but I need your help before the WAMAS meeting kicks off. I am just a few miles from North Bethesda Middle School. Can anyone else help out at 11:00am before the meeting next Saturday?

Hi everyone -- my new tank has arrived!

Hi everyone -- my new tank has arrived! I am still looking for a few good men and women to help get the tank to its final spot. It's only about 65 feet away, and there is one small step. Suction cups will be on hand to make it an easy lift, but I need your help before the WAMAS meeting kicks off. I am just a few miles from North Bethesda Middle School. Can anyone else help out at 11:00am before the meeting next Saturday?

Thanks -- I'll definitely do that. No problem on the deposit and rental checks -- it's such a great perk of being a member!!

Awesome -- thanks so much guys! This is going to be great!

Hi everyone -- the time has come to get my 550 gallon tank placed onto its stand, and I'm throwing a stand lifting party! I've never done this before, so chime in with any comments/suggestions! We're going to pregame the WAMAS meeting! The 10/26 quarterly meeting starts at 1:00pm just a few miles away at North Bethesda High School. I was thinking 11:00am for a lift n' lunch. Suction cups are being provided by WAMAS There are no stairs! We are just taking the tank from my garage around the side of my house through a French double door, and right onto the stand inside. Easy! A bunch of us can obviously lift it with suction cups, but if anyone has a lead on scissor table lifts (or extra suction cups), let me know -- they are always useful You will have my eternal gratitude for being there at the start of my 550 gallon tank journey! I have 3 guys volunteered already -- and in a perfect world, there would be 8-9 more to make it an easy lift. Any takers for doing 3 minutes of lifting?

That sounds great -- how wonderful to have suction cups for the members to use! I'm targeting the weekend of October 26/27 for the tank lifting party. I'll probably create a separate thread for that since not everyone follows this thread or forum. I looked around for scissor lift tables but couldn't find any for rent. Does anyone happen to know of a place that carries them? Or if I can borrow their lifts for 90 seconds?

And, I haven't told my builder yet, but there is a mysterious 1250 pound crate that is due to arrive this week... Hope they don't mind if I store it in the garage for a few weeks

The polyurea floor is in! Now I just have to keep the painters from getting paint all over it. They spray coat the baseboards, but they aren't the most accurate... Drain in the middle for water changes and those "Uh oh" moments!

The QT system is probably going to be a 40G Breeder -- I'm just not sure where it's going to go yet. Nothing is going under the tank so there is plenty of room there, but I also plan to have a step/bridge most of the time for access, so I'm not sure if that would block it too much. A tank reveal party -- that's genius! I may have to make it work where whomever lends a hand to move the tank into place gets pizza, beer/wine, and then an invite to the reveal party a month later -- along with a free frag! I need to find 9-10 people to help me move this thing somehow!

That's so awesome! Do you happen to know how many cups there are? I think I'll need about 12 to move this things safely. It's not a far distance from garage to fish room, but I want to do it safely

Thanks guys! It is really coming along now! Aside from Pepco (who totally dropped the ball on my power installation) - there haven't been too many hiccups. The tank is supposed to be delivered around October 1st. It has seemed like an eternity, and now it's 2 weeks away!! I'll probably have it delivered and inspected later in the week, with a tank-raising on Saturday/Sunday. Did I read somewhere that the club has suction cups that can be loaned/rented out? It's dawning on me now that my buddy and I will need help moving this thing onto the stand!!