tbittner April 26, 2008 Author Share April 26, 2008 It's finally getting there... The 2nd Solaris should ship next week so I can't wait to get the whole t ank lit up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishWife April 29, 2008 Share April 29, 2008 Lookin' great. I love sand in a tank... makes it look finished! That picture reminds me of blizzards in New England during my childhood! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner April 30, 2008 Author Share April 30, 2008 Thanks Marcia. I miss having blizzards. OK! Here it is with the new bottom trim on the tank, kindly ignore the clamp. That will be there for a few or three or four days while the silicone cures. If you look way back, there used to be just a black piece of plastic there. Now it's a nice piece of oak crown molding. I really think it gives the tank a nice, finished look. Patti did a heck of a job mixing and matching stains to get it to match the stand. Oh yeah, you can kind of see the curtain we (Patti) hung to separate the theater room from the aquarium room. Another oh yeah, the 48" Solaris has cleared customs coming from Canada and should be here next Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl April 30, 2008 Share April 30, 2008 I've tried matching stains myself...and never seem to get it right. Yours looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal April 30, 2008 Share April 30, 2008 I hate matching stains. Now I know who to call next time I need to match a color though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner April 30, 2008 Author Share April 30, 2008 My wife has an eye for color. I'm terrible at it. I'm sure she would love to help you, Bob. I think it matches perfectly, she thinks she still needs to tweak it a little bit here and there. Carl, she did this while I was at work. I came home and we sat it up on the stand and I was blown away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YBeNormal April 30, 2008 Share April 30, 2008 I agree, she must have an eye for it. I spent a small fortune and several weeks trying to come up with a color that was even somewhat close to a dark-colored Maple dining room set that someone wanted to match. I failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaironman April 30, 2008 Share April 30, 2008 She did a wonderful at matching the color. She must have been trained as an artist before, knowing how to mix color. Very nice tank comparing to when it was original purchased shape with broken brace, leaks, etc.... Trememdous work and improvements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishWife April 30, 2008 Share April 30, 2008 It is REALLY coming together. Love the curtain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner April 30, 2008 Author Share April 30, 2008 For a canopy, we're going to hang a curtain to cover the top 2" or so. Those are thick black. We think it will frame the tank very nicely. We're going to wait until after the move out of the 120 before we put that up though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner May 3, 2008 Author Share May 3, 2008 (edited) Ammonia - 0 NitrItes - <.1 I moved 5 turbo snails from the 120 reef into the 450 so they can start working on the dinos. Darn new sand.... I also bought the Euro-reef RS-250 from gioNVA today. Now, if anyone wants to see an absolutely incredible tank, check out gioNVA's!!! It's literally breath taking!!! I haven't put the new skimmer into action yet. I need to buy a small plastic box to sit it on in my skimmer tub because the water is too deep for it. I forgot about needing that little accessory. Edited May 3, 2008 by tbittner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dschflier May 4, 2008 Share May 4, 2008 Wow I am very excited to see what you do with that tank. If you want any history on it I bought this tank from the original owner in Alexandria a couple of years ago. It was a beast to take apart and had about 900lbs of live rock. I bought it and sold parts and still have a lot of the items from the tank. The stand is beautifull. The owner was wealthy and just needed it moved. The cracked brace happend because he had a MH light sitting on it. He told me he was working on the tank, sat the light on the brace and forgot to move it. When it turned on by timer it heated up the brace and cracked it. For water movment he had a wave maker attached to like 5 Iwaki 70s as well as an Iwaki100 for movment into the sump. He had a total of three Iwaki100s one spare, one for his becket skimmer and the third for water going to the sump. He also had 6 tunzees on a controller and his rock was stacked on acrylic rod stands. As I mentioned he had about 900 lbs of LR and he still had the stands filling in the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner May 4, 2008 Author Share May 4, 2008 Cool! I was wondering how the original owner had it all plumbed up. I'm hoping that my current plumbing job will provide adaquate circulation. It seems to be pretty good so far. I don't suppose you have any pictures of what it looked like. I'd love to see what the original owner did with it and how he had it set up. We feel VERY fortunate to have it now. Even though it took a TON of work to get it back into shape and back to this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dschflier May 4, 2008 Share May 4, 2008 I didn't take pictures of it when we tore it down. Sorry about that. The lighting was 5 or 6 250 watt pendants hung from the ceiling and hard wired. I still have 2 of them and sold the rest. He had all of his plumbing and hardware in the garage and the PVC tubing went through his wall into a study. The tank filled in pretty much one wall. It was in a large townhouse. I still have a bunch of the rock from that tank in my 210. I kept the tunzees a pair of flame angels some of the pumps. He also used a dialyseas, which was a crazy piece of equipment I ended up breaking apart and just keeping some of the insides. He had clear acrylic shelves across the back which you couldn't see in the tank but allowed for better water flow and eliminated the need of getting 1500lbs of LR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner May 4, 2008 Author Share May 4, 2008 I honestly can't imagine having that much rock in this tank. I only have 450 lbs in it so far and I'll be moving around 200 lbs down from the 120g reef when I migrate everything. That will pretty much fill it up. I DO have around 640 lbs of sand in it though. That really increases the surface area for the nitrifying bacteria. I'm really surprised that 250w MH's would reach the bottom. It's really good to know, actually. I'm putting two Solaris' over it, the 400w equivilant version. Virtually no heat, low energy consumption, and an awesome controller built into it. And the one I have really lights up the bottom so I'm pretty confident that it's plenty of light. It's amazing that he had this tank in a townhouse! Was it on the basement level? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dschflier May 4, 2008 Share May 4, 2008 Yeah it had a lot of rock. I sold rock from it for a long time. After I had it sold and weighed what I kept it came to just under 900lbs. I think like 875. Well I felt it was lit pretty well but most people now I suppose would use 400w. He didn't have any SPS in the tank but had some beautifull anemonies which appeared very healthy. The room was on the same level as the garage which was ground level but the tank had to be removed through the window. I have a friend who had a landscapping crew get it out. man those were the good old days. I could spend 3 days doing that and not even get in trouble with my wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner May 4, 2008 Author Share May 4, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner May 4, 2008 Author Share May 4, 2008 I've started water changes with RO/DI mixed water. It's time to get the tap water out of the tank. I figure I can do a 40g WC each morning and evening. In 10 days I'll have changed out 800g of water. That should do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NAGA May 4, 2008 Share May 4, 2008 sent pm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner May 10, 2008 Author Share May 10, 2008 (edited) We got the 2nd Solaris hung this evening. Please excuse the dirty glass. I wanted to get a pic before the lights turned off. You can see that the light on the left is dimmer. It had already entered simulated sunset mode. I was FINALLY in time to buy an Achilles Tang from Divers Den (Live Aquaria). We added a small yellow tail damsel to the 450 on Wednesday. But the Achilles will also get added next. In a few weeks I'll start moving everything out of the 120 into the 450. Edited May 10, 2008 by tbittner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boret May 10, 2008 Share May 10, 2008 Congratulations!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRehman May 10, 2008 Share May 10, 2008 Excellent! BTW...for the skimmer, can you set it on a stand made of pvc pipes glued together (keep the flow going in your sump). Hmnn...not so easy with slashes and dashes! /-----------/ /| /| /-|--------/- | |/ ------- |-| | | /| /-----------/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbittner May 10, 2008 Author Share May 10, 2008 Thanks Boret! NRehman, Thats a really good idea! I bought the smallish plastic storage containers, the ones with lots of holes in them, and then drilled some holes in the top so they don't trap air under them. I sit those in the bottom of the skimmer tub and then sit the skimmer on top of those to get them at the water depth they need to be at. Your way would work even better though because then I could cut the pipe exactly the height I need to get the skimmer at it's optimal depth in the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 May 10, 2008 Share May 10, 2008 Hey Terry, that's looking awesome! Question for you, are the new Solaris fixtures enough to light your tank? My buddy has a large tank in Chicago and he had to put his 250W DE halides back on so that he got enough light to the bottom of the tank. I have to say that doing my tank build was frustrating, can't imagine how you made it through 2 sets of leaks! Sounds like the family really chips in to help, which probably makes it that much easier! My kids are too young to be of much help (except when I want to buy a coral or fish, they love doing that!) and my wife is in to the final product but not the build aspects, although she helped whenever I needed a hand holding something. Can't wait to see this fully stocked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Patti May 10, 2008 Share May 10, 2008 Hi All - I am Terry's wife and I am so excited that there is life!!! I'll let him explain more in detail and hopefully even provide pics later this evening! I just wanted to say Hi to everyone! Thank you all for your support and help you have given - it is tremendously helpful to Terry - as I have no knowledge and am of ZERO help in answering questions. Now, as Terry says, it's time to sit back and relax, watch a little hockey and beautiful fishies swimming around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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