I like big tanks and I cannot lie...

[wmhaupfear]

Woo! And @fish_Nerd228 and I are back in action! Got the tank delivered from CustomAquariums in a very well built pallet/container. We had a little scare when the delivery guy whipped the tank around on the lift gate and it slid to the edge and teetered and then rocked back onto the gate. We both had a mild heart attack, but he got it down safely and into the garage.

We got right to work and put the background in the new tank. Thankfully the center brace on this tank is removable so we could get the background in. That was one of the things we liked the most about CustomAquariums. We had to cut the hole for the return pipe and test fit the H2Overflow. We kept the overflow box to hide the probes and in case we need a heater in the future. After we fit everything in we siliconed the background to the tank and waited for it to dry.

Stay tuned...

 

[wmhaupfear]

As it turns out, the new tank is about 1/4in larger in length and width. Since the quartz ledge was butted up against the old tank and it's epoxied into place, the only way to fit the new tank was to precisely cut the quartz by 1/8in on all sides. I got a diamond coated trim bit for my router to cut the quartz and a diamond blade for my angle grinder in case the router method didn't work (hit it with a bigger hammer method). Since quartz is probably the dustiest stone to cut, I built a small house in the living room to contain the dust that the vacuum didn't get. Cost me about $30 in materials to make the enclosure but it was well worth it with the amount of dust I created. I cut 2 pieces of wood the exact dimensions of the tank and used them as my guides after each pass to see if I needed to cut more off. I also used the canopy cover frame as a mock tank.

Next is the tank move after I convinced some friends to help lift it with promises of venison burgers and beer.

 

[wmhaupfear]

And the tank is in! Thanks to some friends with a love of beer and venison and picking things up and putting them down. We put a lot of faith in those suction cups but we got it in and it fit like a glove.

We need to plumb and put some sand in and then its ready for water and start the cycle all over again.

Here's to hoping round 2 goes much more smoothly than the first haha!

Thanks to all of you following and not giving up on us! More to come as we get everything back up and running!

 

[fish_Nerd228]

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0QxBJADZT5fEEyFy-QBeCW6KA#Clarkston,_MI

 

[fish_Nerd228]

Great work with a great team today!

 

[Raege]

Awesome! Excited to see it coming back to life it’s going to be a beauty

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I've been meaning to start this build thread for awhile, but I wanted to get at least halfway done before I created the thread so I could make it somewhat interesting. The title implies a much larger tank than we have, but it is 150 gallon replacing our current 29 gallon biocube. We bought the new tank used and actually got a bigger one than the 120 gallon we originally planned on getting. We wanted to make the tank maintenance as streamlined as possible so I went outside the norm a bit on some of the things for this tank and I will try to explain them as I go along. I am an engineer, so I get kind of giddy doing stuff like this and being able to think outside the box. All comments/critiques are welcome, just make it constructive (i.e. if you aren't a fan of something, you can say that, but also provide what changes you would make to the particular design so others and possibly I can benefit). Enjoy!

I will follow up this first post with pictures and progress, but I wanted to make this first post a living post that I will update as needed.

Tank:
150gal custom tank with starphire glass on all sides
Single corner overflow
60" x 24" x 24"

Sump:
Repurposed 40 gallon tank
Jax.Racks sump baffle kit
Reef Octopus 110INT skimmer
DIY King overflow

RODI:
BRS 5 stage (we have Chloramiine treated water)

Return Pump:
Reeflo Yellowtail

Heaters:
800w Finnex Titanium
JBJ Heater controller

Lights:
3 x Ecotech Radion XR30w Gen4

Powerheads:
TBD

Aquarium monitoring:
Neptune Apex..?

You can do it!!!!

 

[MoReefSafe]

Any updates to your build?