Non-Garbage Picked 210 Journal

[magnatron]

glad to see you guys are getting back on the horse persay....i followed your last thread have to say i too loved the mad scientist overflow hehe. best of luck on the new build.

[tekknoschtev]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! And pop, rest assured that I'll earn my keep this weekend once the tank gets on the stand.

OH! THE TANK IS HERE! THE TANK IS HERE! THE TANK IS HERE! Kirby called me this afternoon to inform me that the tank arrived, unscathed, and is ready to be picked up. My pop is taking some time tomorrow to drive up here in the minivan (without the middle or back row of seats) to pick the tank up. Then we're both driving back and we're going to get this thing under way! I'm stoked that things are materializing now.

My mom (and brother and sister) did an amazing job staining the stand. My dad's busted his butt today getting the electrical in. Tomorrow we're getting the tank on the stand and then cleaning the sump out and reconfiguring it and putting it into the stand. Then the adventure in plumbing can begin. Its going to be an adventure, that's for sure, but its going to be awesome once its rolling!

I'll post some pictures this weekend when I'm home, rest assured!

[The captain]

awesome man, your old tank was the inspiration to mine. and now you are upgrading. I made sure to keep all the aiptasia out of my tank though LOL just playing. i hope you do great with this one! its cool you get along so well with your dad. i hope you get alot of tangs!

[tekknoschtev]

This is going to be a long post, so bear with me.



We had an "OH CRAP!" moment when we realized that the lip for the stand was too big and would interfere with the holes for the overflows. Hadn't exactly thought that one through completely but fortunately it only took unscrewing a couple boards and cutting out an area for the bulkheads. Still kind of stressful considering my brother's friends were on the way over at this point to help moving the tank.



Those with a keen eye will note that Floyd was around in photos when we were setting up the 150 initially back in June of '05. He now was actually helping! My dad, brother, Floyd and I picked the tank up and began moving it inside.



SQUEEZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



And then we had to lift and put this bugger on the stand. The estimate was that this thing weighed somewhere between 325 and 350 pounds. Divided by 4, its not so bad, but having to lift it nearly a foot to get it on the stand still wasn't pleasant.



Here's my mom, happy as can be next to the tank and stand. Many with a keen eye will also note that she did an amazing job staining the stand. It really looks sharp, even more so in person. Also, we did spray paint the back, but managed to get two tiny scratches in the paint on the move in. A long paint brush and some touch up paint and it'll be perfect again. And with the black background, the overflows almost disappear - its awesome.



And here's my sister next to the tank. Both of them are about the same height, and even on the ladder they can't reach the bottom without sticking their heads in the water. I'm going to buy my mom a snorkel and face mask since she's the one who ends up doing the majority of the maintenance.



I'm a little taller, but I still cant reach into the tank without aid of the ladder. I could reach over and into the 150 without getting on the ladder, but this one I need to get onto the step ladder for. I think I'll survive



This is definitely a weird sensation. There's so much more room in the stand with the extra inches we added.



AND! More keen eyes will also note that in the 150 thread, there was a black and white kitten who climbed onto the empty tank once it was on the stand. Now the grey and white one decided it was time to walk-the-walk.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day of plumbing and sump re-configuring. I'm still not 100% certain how we want to plumb this tank up, but I am certain that I want the drains to go into filter socks. I'm going to DIY my own version of the AGA plumbing kit, hopefully to the same or similar quality. Then the drains to the sump. Then some whack-o plumbing for the return lines. We're also going to probably ditch the deep sand bed in the sump (that's going to reek when we pull it out... I have a feeling we might cause the neighbors to gag... 2.5 year old deep sand bed, about 8-9" deep. Yuck!). But its another case of "once its done" we'll be golden.

Then, we can start pumping the water in. We had ~ 150 gallons of RODI water ready to go, but the one garbage can buckled under the weight and dumped 30 gallons of water into the laundry room. Go figure, it couldn't have been one of the four cans outside... it had to be the 1 can inside. That danged carpet cleaner sure has been getting a work out recently... Alas, it'll be a long time before the tank is full, including the sump and some spare water to keep things ready.

And while the tank is cycling (I hope to get salt and rocks in there this weekend!) we'll begin working on the canopy. Its going to have doors for quick maintenance things, as well as (I hope) a front flip up section like we had on the 150 so that it can open out of the way and be easy to access for bigger things.

By the way, a big thanks and appreciation goes to my family, especially my mom and dad for being so into working this out. They've been busting their butts getting it ready for the tank.

I'm really excited for how things are progressing. We've still got a LONG way to go before we can be in the clear, but its getting there.

[fishgeek88]

Looks good! Loved the old thread cant wait to see the progress on this new tank!

[patedship]

Looks nice man!

[MarineManiac]

glad your having more fun than we had loading it into the van. looks to be an impressive project!

[tekknoschtev]

CRIPE! I forgot to mention that orchestrated maneuver! I was quite impressed with how quickly that wound up in the van and am very thankful that it was you guys doing it, not my pop and myself. Many thanks!

[fishtal]

Looks Super cool! Why is it that cats love to walk around the rims of empty tanks? Mine thinks it's cool to walk across my 6 10G's in my breeding room I'm going to have to find a way to block her access when I get them filled

I'm glad you got it home with no problems

[tekknoschtev]

I'll have pictures later tonight, but at the moment I'm a little light headed due to the PVC primer and cement. We've got what I estimate to be about 130-140 gallons of water in the tank right now, and the RODI unit is running full tilt to get us the rest of the way. I really want to have this tank running before I have to go back to Lansing on Monday, that way at some point during the week we can add salt and get the cycle rolling. I'm REALLY trying not to rush anything and to do things right, not cutting any corners.

Until pictures are uploaded later, I'll be watching the Wings game and working on the plumbing.

[tekknoschtev]

I lied about the pictures... whoops. We were up late getting things set and then I took off camping with the family We're back now, the tank is still in one piece (most would expect that it would stay in one piece, but after having the second 150 let loose 2 days after it was running... we weren't sure what to expect).



The new stand allowed for us to re-arrange the electrical so that its more convenient to use and more organized. We're going to attempt to relocate the ballasts to the on-top of the canopy to remove heat producing items from the stand as much as possible since there isn't as much room for ventilation behind the stand. This is my pop finishing up the wiring. The whole tank is plugged into the outlet, meaning that if need be, we can run an extension cord to the tank and run it off of the 3,500 Watt generator that my mom received for Christmas.



This is what the new electrical looks like. Each set of outlets is on its own GFCI meaning that if something goes wrong, and one trips, not everything trips, unless water gets on those as well.



YAY! Durso standpipes. These things work like a champ, and using the expansion valves, we're able to adjust them to help change the level in the overflows - very similar to the AGA plumbing kits.



We're going to get a new ladder. This is my mom's tank, and she winds up doing the majority of the maintenance but she can't reach with the existing ladders. I wonder if she'd find it funny, or aggravating, if I brought home a full dive mask and snorkel. Heck, I'm tempted to get myself one too - it'd be fun!



W00T! We added the sand. Two 30lbs bags of Caribsea sand covers the eggcrate pretty well. We might need to add a 10lbs bag later on if need be.



And, using a double plate/bowl arrangement we were able to keep the water crystal clear through the entire filling process!



Here's a shot of the plumbing. I did my dangedest to keep this all nice and clean and organized. It was difficult, and required many trips back to the miter saw to get it right, but I think its about as perfect as it was ever going to be.



We made it so my mom was responsible for turning the return pump on. The weight of the world was on her shoulders as she flicked the power on and...



... IT WORKED! We had one leaky pipe, but it was an easy fix as I had forgotten to torque it down completely (it was a threaded pipe). A few minutes and some teflon tape later, and we were back in business. The beauty of the plumbing is that I could disconnect the affected line while the tank was running! WOO HOO! We did it right!

This afternoon we began adding salt, and with any luck, later tonight or some time during the week we'll be able to add the first round of live rock to kick start the cycle. It's going to take some time, but it'll get there. With any luck, we'll be able to have some fish in the tank before my sister's graduation party June 22. I'm not holding my breath, nor am I rushing things. But if the cycle is done and things are stable by then, we'll begin the slow, agonizing process of rebuilding the fish and coral populations that we had.

So far, my mom is certain that she wants to have another Powder Brown Tang and Foxface. I'm going to try to convince her that we should go for the magnificent foxface due to the color. Aside from that, we'll have at least one of the two silver scats in the tank to keep aiptasia under control. The lone bangaii cardinal and long spined urchin will go back as well, and we'll probably try to pick up a mate for the bangaii. Beyond that, its anybody's guess as to what other fish we may have. This tank is going to be less prone to jumpers succeeding so we may opt for more risky fish in that arena, perhaps a pair of jawfish.

We've also been exploring options for flow, as the return and Seio 2600 aren't going to cut it now and we want things to look classy. I've been secretly eyeing some of those Hydor Karolia 4s, probably a pair of them to supplement the Mag 12 return and the Seio 2600 giving us a total of ~ 27x turnover accounting for head pressure losses in the return.

[wrestler669]

Looking Good!!!!!! Keep up the nice work can't wait to see this thing start to get full.

[tekknoschtev]

We still have yet to mount the two middle doors and finagle a way to mount the left side door, but things are coming along.

Monday, before I left back for Lansing I finished up some things on the tank. I temporarily mounted a clamp lamp for the fuge. Eventually I think we'll end up needing two, so I'll probably make something a little nicer looking than just clamp lamps but we'll see. I put the big wad of chaeto in there too to get things rolling.

Adding salt was a pain and it took nearly 2 buckets of salt to get the system to 1.024. This has been an expensive venture, that's for sure.

I also installed the skimmer, and got it running, but was later told that it was overflowing and causing water to appear on the plumbing lines - inducing panic in the family who thought the tank was leaking. Whoops. Fortunately once they got the skimmer tuned down a bit, the "leaks" went away and all was well.

We also got the cycle kicked off with the addition of live rock that we've had in a tub with a heater and powerheads since the 150's seam split. I have to admit, that while its not much to look at, it looks fantastic and the amount of room we have to play with here is astounding!



The stuff on the left was cured live rock we've had in the 150 since its beginning. The stuff on the right was all dry "dead" rock that we're going to be using in the new setup. I didn't get around to fashioning the PVC racks, but its almost looking like I might not have to. We still probably have 80-100ish pounds of rocks with corals and other life on them. Once the cycle is completed, we'll slowly begin re-establishing the tank. The first additions will be the two silver scats as much of the rock has become infested with aiptasia and I really don't want to deal with that AND corals at the same time. Give the fish a few weeks to figure it out and get it cleaned up and we'll be in business!

I'm headed home this weekend again, and might begin the process of building the canopy Going to need lots of ventilation to keep it cool, and I'm thinking something a bit more powerful than your standard PC fans I've got a full server rack where I'm at now, but it only houses a rack mount switch, our modem and router - so it doesn't really need the four giant fans at the top which could probably suck water from the surface of the tank from more than a few inches away. It'll depend on how loud they are though as in the rack they are quite noisy - even behind a closed door.

Its not much yet, but its progress. Now we just wait for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to do their thing, all the while monitoring and testing making sure everything goes well. I'm also looking into rigging something up for more automatic/consistent dosing for the two part calcium and alkalinity supplements we make up. This is fun

[DLBerlin]

It looks fantastic Steve!

[tekknoschtev]

Originally Posted by DlBerlin

It looks fantastic Steve!

And we're not even done yet! Thanks Deb. I've been drooling over your new project as well, and my mom is wishing she had a cat walk similar to yours. Too bad its a major load bearing cinder block wall behind the tank.