My 180 Gallon "Pair" Themed Build Thread

MrsBugmaster · Dec 14, 2022

4FordFamily said:
This is awesome, glad to be officially following! Where do you get your pre-QT'd fish from?

So far I've been very happy with TSM and OceanDevotion!

I’ve been getting them from TSM. I will have to check out Ocean Devotion too

MrsBugmaster · Dec 15, 2022

Shipping packages has gotten so expensive. I just spend $70 shipping 5 packages. $14 shipping for a $20 item. It’s crazy! No wonder everyone buys from Amazon and free shipping!

4FordFamily · Dec 15, 2022

MrsBugmaster said:
Shipping packages has gotten so expensive. I just spend $70 shipping 5 packages. $14 shipping for a $20 item. It’s crazy! No wonder everyone buys from Amazon and free shipping!

Yes, it's unbelievable. The only economical shipping that can be found (which is 2x+ what it cost 1-2 years ago still) is commercial accounts where they move a lot of volume.

One thing I found interesting (since you're local) is that there are independent mailing centers around here that can ship USPS, UPS, Fedex, and even DHL from the same place (so you can shop prices). I've seen shipping prices vary by 100% between carriers here.

At 11807 Allisonville Rd, Fishers, IN 46038 there's one called "Mailing Station" which does all 4. On a google search, there are others such as Postal Annex (also located in Fishers I found by accident) which can do all but DHL. I don't know why I never knew of "shipping brokers" but it's genius and anytime I am in that area I go!

It looks like there's this in Carmel: https://us.inxpress.com/services/ which uses at least UPS, DHL, and mentions USPS and Fedex on the website also. May be worth checking out.

MrsBugmaster · Dec 15, 2022

4FordFamily said:
Yes, it's unbelievable. The only economical shipping that can be found (which is 2x+ what it cost 1-2 years ago still) is commercial accounts where they move a lot of volume.

One thing I found interesting (since you're local) is that there are independent mailing centers around here that can ship USPS, UPS, Fedex, and even DHL from the same place (so you can shop prices). I've seen shipping prices vary by 100% between carriers here.

At 11807 Allisonville Rd, Fishers, IN 46038 there's one called "Mailing Station" which does all 4. On a google search, there are others such as Postal Annex (also located in Fishers I found by accident) which can do all but DHL. I don't know why I never knew of "shipping brokers" but it's genius and anytime I am in that area I go!

It looks like there's this in Carmel: https://us.inxpress.com/services/ which uses at least UPS, DHL, and mentions USPS and Fedex on the website also. May be worth checking out.

Thanks for the info. I will check them out for sure.

danieyella · Dec 15, 2022

MrsBugmaster said:
Shipping packages has gotten so expensive. I just spend $70 shipping 5 packages. $14 shipping for a $20 item. It’s crazy! No wonder everyone buys from Amazon and free shipping!

Yup, I just went through the same thing. It's gotten so bad.

MrsBugmaster · Dec 20, 2022

Christmas baking done. We don’t eat much sweets but my daughter insists on me making these every year.

update on the new tank: tank is done but still working on the stand. Will ship the first week in January!

danieyella · Dec 20, 2022

MrsBugmaster said:
Christmas baking done. We don’t eat much sweets but my daughter insists on me making these every year.

update on the new tank: tank is done but still working on the stand. Will ship the first week in January!

I'm about 1/2 done. Doing one more thing tonight, and maybe rolling the truffles I mixed up. Baking the rest of the cookies I prepped tomorrow. 75% of it goes to work, 20% of the remaining goes to family, 5% stays with us

MrsBugmaster · Dec 21, 2022

Woke up at 3 am and started thinking/stressing about the new bigger tank I ordered. “What am I doing?! Why do I do this to myself? Plumbing and transferring is going to be so much work!”

Maybe I should have waited another month before ordering the tank. I forgot about the trip to India for a wedding the first week of February. So that means I got about 3 weeks to get new tank plumbed, up and running, transfer rock and fish. And make sure everything is running smoothly before I leave the country. UGH!!

Fudsey · Dec 21, 2022

Better idea: Leave the tank for when you get home. That way you have plenty of time and don't have to stress over it

MrsBugmaster · Dec 21, 2022

Fudsey said:
Better idea: Leave the tank for when you get home. That way you have plenty of time and don't have to stress over it

That means LFS where I ordered it from will have to keep it until the week of February 20. He doesn’t want to or have the space to store it for 6 weeks. They are delivering it and removing the 180 the same day so if they delivered in January and came back in February it would cost another trip fee also.
My 180 is already sold and he would like to get it before then too. Not an ideal situation.

Fudsey · Dec 21, 2022

All I can say is....... UGGGGG

danieyella · Dec 21, 2022

Ew stress, I'm sorry

MrsBugmaster · Dec 23, 2022

It’s -9 with windchill of -35. Got only 2” of snow here but an hour south of me they got 4”. Thankfully we have power. Guess I’ll start making saltwater and getting ready for the new tank. It will take me several days to make water cause I’m on well water with high CO2. So I have to run RO into a container then degass for 24 hours (sometimes less) and then pump it through the DI Resin. My containers are only 20 gallons. So 2 days to make 1 batch.

Stay safe and warm!

MrsBugmaster · Dec 27, 2022

I picked up 200 lbs of live rock from someone getting out of the hobby. It’s old rock from when we could actually get it out of the ocean. I have it in a container with heater and power head. I tested the water yesterday and the nitrates and phosphates are both so high it would not register on my Hanna checkers. So I added a GFO reactor and started dosing carbon. I think the carbon dosing would be more effective if I added a skimmer in there too. Anyone have any other recommendations? I need to get these numbers down before adding it to my new tank.