Fish building/man cave build!

[dantimdad]

Doors are painted waiting on last one to dry enough to touch it.

I also designed and printed a way to mount my metal art pieces to the doors. Should work out well.

These are a couple of the art pieces when they were in the store:

 

[dantimdad]

Tomorrow, I mount the art pieces and wire the stand. I hope to have the tank salty by Sunday.

For now, it'll run off a canister filter (currently on the 55) and some wavemakers. This will allow me to empty the 75 and the 55 and swap some fish out with the tub. The goal is to only have fish that are going in the 187 in the tub and everything else broken down by the time we go to the beach. I also need to get my son to learn the feeding routine for everything.

 

[dantimdad]

Turned out pretty decent.

 

[dantimdad]

I finished the screens for the 12 foot tank and the true union valves came in today. I also got the power brick holders for the lights printed. Need to mount them, program the lights, and start filling it up.

 

[dantimdad]

Got up in the attic this morning and ran the RODI line to the laundry room. I flushed the line and it's putting out about 5 gallons an hour. Which is awesome over that distance. I love the Buddy Booster pump.

I have to put a couple more shims under the 12 footer and then I start filling it. I will run it about 1.5" low so it doesn't get in the overflows.

I am getting excited!

 

[dantimdad]

OK, like an idiot, I have been avoiding figuring out the flow for the 12 foot tank. I did, however talk to the guys from panta rhei about a new product they are working on and it would have been perfect but, spending $1400 on flow for a 140 gallon tank seems a bit excessive.

I generally, on a mixed reef, shoot for 25X flow but avoiding dead spots is really more important in my experience.

I thought about an over the edge closed loop. I like closed loops but maintenance on them is tough. Especially with long runs of pvc to clean out.

I have used the jebao non-controlled 528gph units before and had good luck with them. They are small, cheap and quiet. I can buy extras to keep on hand for maintenance and in case one fails. I thought about two at each end and three along the back wall about two feet apart in the middle of the tank. I can still get dealer pricing on these. That's about 22-25x turnover plus the return pump which will be another 5x.

No pump I have can work on 3/4" glass. I have had terrible luck with the MP pumps and they are just way too powerful for my needs so turning down a $400-600 pump is just silly. Same goes for my beloved Tunze power heads. If they are strong enough to hold on the glass, they are $$$ and would have to be turned down to avoid locally ridiculous currents.

Any thoughts on this? Remember the tank is only 18.5" tall and 16" front to back.

I have to do something pretty quickly.

 

[dantimdad]

The shimming is complete and RODI is going in! As soon as it's high enough, I will turn on the heater a couple power heads and start adding salt.

I may drain the 55 water into this tank just to help with bacteria although I doubt it's necessary. Just depends on how long this takes to fill and heat up.

 

[dantimdad]

WOW! this thing already has 3 inches of water in it!

The tank is approximately 3mm end to end out of level I thought I had it closer than that after the shims this morning but over 12 feet, that is close enough and shouldn't cause any problems.

I have a reminder set for 7pm tonight to shut the water off so it doesn't overflow overnight and will plug the heater in then and start filling again in the morning.

 

[dantimdad]

I also got the power brick mounts printed and installed and setup the lights. Super simple to setup in a master/slave fashion. There is not shadowing from the screens or the cross braces and the shades are the perfect depth to stop glare but not cone the light hitting the tank.

Much brighter in person and less blue.

 

[Zach B]

Wow! This looks amazing! Really great work

 

[dantimdad]

Wow! This looks amazing! Really great work

Thank you so much! It's been a ton of work and worth every second!

 

[dantimdad]

Tank is about half way to where I want it to be. I will shut it off for tonight and start filling again in the morning.

 

[dantimdad]

Back on at 6:48 let's see how long this takes... salt going in today.

 

[dantimdad]

I got 4 of the 530gph power heads on the way and then I remembered: I think I have a few in storage that are new in the box. doh!

 

[dantimdad]

I tried to wash some rock from a friend's tank with my pressure washer and started blowing pieces off of it and it was creating a huge mess with the spray going every which way from reflecting off the rock.

I found this and figured it was in between the garden hose pressure and my pressure washer and it was on sale for what a 4aH battery cost. So I figured why not give it a whirl?

Worst case scenario is I use it for cleaning floor mats and rugs. But, I plan on using it as a dedicated rock washer that my friends can borrow too. I have about 100 pounds worth the clean. Well, worth $99 and free shipping.

Should be here tomorrow. Just in time to wash the rock I need to add to the live rock that is ready to go in the 12 footer.

 

[dantimdad]

OK, I know I am updating a lot. Sorry for the overload. Just excited.

It dawned on me a few minutes ago when I shut off the RODI feed and put in the salt, that I will have the fish, rocks and coral in the 12 foot tank tomorrow... The two year anniversary of draining it and moving it out of the store. It was the last thing besides trash and sweeping the floors to happen. So much has happened in that amount of time and I have to stop and thank everyone for following along and putting up with my whiplash inducing changes. The room isn't done but it's getting there and this is one of the biggest milestones.

I appreciate all of you!

I will post (probably terrible) pics after everything goes in tomorrow.

 

[Scratch08]

OK, I know I am updating a lot. Sorry for the overload. Just excited.

It dawned on me a few minutes ago when I shut off the RODI feed and put in the salt, that I will have the fish, rocks and coral in the 12 foot tank tomorrow... The two year anniversary of draining it and moving it out of the store. It was the last thing besides trash and sweeping the floors to happen. So much has happened in that amount of time and I have to stop and thank everyone for following along and putting up with my whiplash inducing changes. The room isn't done but it's getting there and this is one of the biggest milestones.

I appreciate all of you!

I will post (probably terrible) pics after everything goes in tomorrow.

That is a great milestone to hit. Glad things are coming together for you. When is the beach trip? May have to load you up with some stuff for @Eagle_Steve while you’re down here. Kidding, sort of, I’ll be heading to Nashville with a load of tanks soon, hopefully next weekend. But you should hit me up while you’re here.

 

[dantimdad]

That is a great milestone to hit. Glad things are coming together for you. When is the beach trip? May have to load you up with some stuff for @Eagle_Steve while you’re down here. Kidding, sort of, I’ll be heading to Nashville with a load of tanks soon, hopefully next weekend. But you should hit me up while you’re here.

We leave a week from Tuesday. Be there until Saturday.

 

[dantimdad]

One thing I have learned in almost 50 years of aquarium keeping is to trust my gut. So, I am selling all of my apex stuff. Meeting the guy today. losing my butt on it but, it's better than sitting on a shelf waiting for "some day".

In other news, I designed a controller holder for CP150 gyre and printed it in Neptune orange and got paid. Shipping today. I may setup a page to design and print stuff for aquariums after the room is done so I can make use of all of this equipment. May even do acrylic work with the two CNCs and the laser engraver. If it doesn't take off, I am out nothing because most of the equipment I got for doing reviews/editing.

What do you guys think? Is there a market for it? Is it over saturated with people doing it?

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Like the niche market ideas. Just finished upgrading one CNC machine for stone to a 5' x 10' bed and installed a 5' x 12' for solid surface to replace our old 6' x 8' piece of junk. Having a hard time finding a new source for cell cast acrylic as all the distributors stopped stocking it.