Der ABT March 7, 2013 Author March 7, 2013 (edited) progress has slowed a little with the baby getting fussy at night (only time i have to work on the tank) but hopefully water will go in this weekend. Electrical is run with 2x20amp circuts (thanks Coralhind for walking me thru the moron questions) test fit the plumbing need to glue everything up, go get my gate vavle and the run the temporary plumbing for the return...going to go with a mag 9 until i can decide on a return pump leaning towards the DC 12000 or the diablo 10500 Light rack will be on a pocket door slider and in an aluminum frame for the two reflectors which will also have 2 t5s attached to that. and 2 more t5s will get attached to the wall so i have light when im wokring on the tank but im taking those off the 90g so they will have to wait. Also thinking about putting some LEDs on the aluminum light rack (luckily i have some sitting around that just need to be wired up etc so down the road it will be MH/T5/LED...and hopefully ill like the leds enough to get rid of the t5s. internal overflow cured last night and is ready to go in tonight so the tank will be ready for water tomorrow.hopefully. still need to work out an exhaust fan for the room but i htink i have it covered as long as i can find the correct size. Edited March 7, 2013 by Der ABT
steveoutlaw March 10, 2013 March 10, 2013 Dude - you may want to raise the emergency pipe level a little. That will give the secondary a chance to kick in to full siphon before the emergency steals the thunder. BTW - My Grandmother used to rub whiskey on our gums if we got too fussy........that's probably where I got the taste for it. A little scotch might be just the thing to give you time to work on the tank more!!! Also, you might want to put a splash box in your sump. They are the greatest thing since sliced bread and will make your tank SILENT. Plus, they keep the salt creep down. I'll try to send you a pic of mine.
Der ABT March 11, 2013 Author March 11, 2013 (edited) Yeh that was just a scrap piece of pvc i had laying around for the emergency, will do some fine tuning when i get water circulating. Please send pics of the splash box and any other pointers. Got water started today for a test fill, hopefully will get the water running tomorrow and get a chance to play with things a little. didnt have any time this weekend really but at least got it able to have water in it. Havent been this excited in a long time. really cant wait to see this thing with some salt in it....but not looking forward to the transfer or the rockwork...this hobby is soo much work Edited March 11, 2013 by Der ABT
scott711 March 11, 2013 March 11, 2013 very nice Evan. Coming right along. You just have to ditch the baby for a little while to finish it up
matt March 11, 2013 March 11, 2013 Looking good And things that will give you more tank time... - baby swing - baby bjorn (when a little bigger) - grandparents Cheers
YHSublime March 11, 2013 March 11, 2013 Havent been this excited in a long time. really cant wait to see this thing with some salt in it....but not looking forward to the transfer or the rockwork...this hobby is soo much work I can't imagine anything bigger than what I have now! It's a lot of work, but something tells me the juice will be worth the squeeze.
Der ABT March 18, 2013 Author March 18, 2013 Well i got water in it and was able to test flow etc using a spare mag9.....everything went well, gate vavle was a little more closed than i want it to be but after some further testing the secondary pipe handles all the flow and then some even before full syphon so i feel much safer. it runs suprisingly queit, and will only get better once i get a pad for the mag 9 (that was the only hum i could hear. So i need to get the ro waste water outta there and then fill with RO....i have about 130g made and ready to go so hopefully it wont take much time to get the water changed out and start salt water flowing. otherwise just need to finish up the lighting and then get ready for the transfer. Went to the 90g and did its first water change in 6 months.....it was alot dirtier than i thought it was (corals all looked decent but tests showed it may be getting overfed a little by the caretakers) so did a 35g change and was amazed by some of the stuff i pulled outta there... hopefully this friday i will get it all up and running and test the lights etc...least thats the plan as the wife is going to give me some time to work on the tank....really need to get this done before my attention switches back to the car.
Der ABT March 25, 2013 Author March 25, 2013 got the mermaid shot before i put water in it the first time, wife was nice enough to give me friday to really work on the tank....daughter came home and she had asked to get back in the tank again before i fill it...looks at the water in it and asks if she can get in it now ready to run up and get her bathing suit haha....i felt HORRIBLE. So there is now saltwater in it, some liverock and sand from my 90g in the sump, hooked up the ASM G-3 just to get some of the junk floatin in the water out ... i have two pumps, one impeller the magnet musta cracked and expanded. the other one has a broken ceramic shaft (well they both do now haha) but was able to get it running though its really loud, hopefully ill find a spare or order online (new ceramic shaft is like 8 bucks online i think) Got the lights finished up for now (still goign to add some LEDs and or more t5s to the hanging light rack lights are on a pocket door slider for easy of access to the tank. turned out pretty good and will probably paint the exposed wood before long (or will build an aluminum frame for the top too. Tested out the lights (well one light cause i only have one spare ballast) well one working spare ballast so here is 1x 250w radium ]umenarc reflector thats in ok shape (aka has some salt stains) and here are 2 54w t5s and the same 250w radium these are cell pics so the color doesnt look that blue in real life. oh yeh and i forgot to put the reflectors on teh t5 for the pic equipment panel can be seen in the back waiting for the transfer and for it to be populated with....wait for it.........equipment. that is all for now, going to let it cycle a little, probably will add some real reef rock from Sean at F&F and get teh aquascaping going, trying to go minimalist in the tank and let the corals really grow in with a few shelfs etc. hopefully ill get some more done/ordered and figure out a final return pump soon (mag 9 running strong now)
trockafella March 25, 2013 March 25, 2013 im impressed how well your daughter holds her breath underwater..
Der ABT March 25, 2013 Author March 25, 2013 yeh i wasnt sure so i threw her in with weights first...no floating
trockafella March 26, 2013 March 26, 2013 yeh i wasnt sure so i threw her in with weights first...no floating Well at least you know she isnt a witch.. Thats always good news... Tank looks like its coming along.. So, how long til its actually a fish tank.?
Der ABT March 26, 2013 Author March 26, 2013 ?? with my rate next year or two...hopefully by 2020... hoping to get some rockwork once i get the real reef rock from F&F (probably should order it first) and then ill start slowly transferring over some corals and see how the cycle will go....if the cycle gets done quickly ill probalby try to do the transfer over the course of 2-3 weekends (since i dont get much time to do it, or if i bring some corals over and they do fine for a week ill just try to do it all in one day for the big stuff...gonna leave the 90 running until im sure things are settled and ok, have a few colonies im not willing to loose so will keep them going in the 90 till im happy. and to get to some of the rock in the 90 i need to move/transfer some corals since it all pretty much has corals on it...and i also want to take time to make sure no aiptasia etc comes with it, well as little as possible. fish will come as i can catch them from the 90 and frag tank...hopefully it wont be difficult. still have some finishing stuff to do..equipment panel, i want a psudo hood to help minimize evap/sound/light spillage but i have a plan that should be VERY easy and cheap for this, also need to find some back ground cloth (probably will just grab some black cloth from michaels and rig somethign up to hang it, and some other odds and ends. gotta get some new test kits to check the water (havent checked anything cept alk in a LOOONG time...phosphates/mg are the only two other test kits i have right now. but im thinking of snagging my frag tank and bringing it over to have a holding tank (and or setting up the 50g i have that will probably be the new frag tank) and just bringin the water over from the 90g to get things settled and slowly out of my parents house. just soo much to do.....well not really but its alot with the family obligations i have....and so many different ways to do it....but mainly dont want to move too fast and end up hurting more than helping. id love to do it all in one swoop but i dont think that is feasable with the plethora of corals/frags etc i have.
trockafella March 26, 2013 March 26, 2013 Ive got an extra Ca and MG salifert kit if you want. It will go bad before I use them. Just let me know.. Yeah that wife/kids/family crap always gets in the way.. Its like they dont understand just how important are work (or hobby) really is.. I mean were trying to save the ocean here... Geezz.. Looks good so far though, I think you will be moving things soon. Let me know if you need a hand with it, maybe I can do you a favor in advance so you'll feel obligated tohelp me move a new tank.!!
Der ABT April 13, 2013 Author April 13, 2013 Tanks been running for three weeks now and things are goign pretty good, got a few corals in there that were testers and things are good, headed out to F&F and picked up two rocks to help have a little of rockscape in there, dont have a pic right now but ill get one soon, he had some really nice new fish and a couple of corals i really wanted to but but deiced it was better to wait, didnt realize how hard it is to not buy corals and fish haha. decided to take a few pics of the old tank when i was grabbin some corals....its going to be TERRIBLE to transfer those tanks...ugh. i cant wait to get this process done
YHSublime April 13, 2013 April 13, 2013 awesome tank! If you give me a few days in advance, I can always give a hand. Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
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