Rob's Really Rad 180 Reef Rally

[jk_s124]

Wow, I transferred him at around 1pm cst into the tank and he's already tearing apart the LRS seaweed I have clipped to the side of the tank.

That’s great!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I love k beck!

I honestly haven't met a Canadian I didn't get along with. Y'all are good eggs

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Quick shot of the new member! 3 hours after dumping into the quarantine tank it tore into some LRS nori like no one's business! I mean like devoured it lol

 

[jk_s124]

Quick shot of the new member! 3 hours after dumping into the quarantine tank it tore into some LRS nori like no one's business! I mean like devoured it lol

 

[The_hobbyist]

Powder blue looks great! One of my favorites.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Powder blue looks great! One of my favorites.

Thank you, I'm pretty excited to get back into this so I'm geeked out about every aspect of the hobby at this point lol.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Yet another step closer!! Got the top sheet to my stand in today finally. Going to bolt it down (because I can't help myself @Reef370 ) at some point this weekend. Freight company is still sitting on my tank in Toronto...kinda irritating really. I hate customs. Anyhow, this sheet which is Type I PVC is super heavy, I mean really stout. That 3/4" thick 24x72 sheet weighs almost 70 lbs! But it's super strong and absolutely corrosion resistant to saltwater, it'll distribute the weight of the tank nicely over the stand. Hopefully by end of next week I see some glass in my driveway.

 

[Reef370]

Yet another step closer!! Got the top sheet to my stand in today finally. Going to bolt it down (because I can't help myself @Reef370 ) at some point this weekend. Freight company is still sitting on my tank in Toronto...kinda irritating really. I hate customs. Anyhow, this sheet is super heavy, I mean really stout. That 3/4" thick 24x72 sheet weighs almost 70 lbs! But it's super strong and absolutely corrosion resistant to saltwater, it'll distribute the weight of the tank nicely over the stand. Hopefully by end of next week I see some glass in my driveway.

Haha! Yeah cuz 2000 pounds won’t do it!! Looking awesome Rob... remember to add the side panels before you put the tank on!! Haha!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Haha! Yeah cuz 2000 pounds won’t do it!! Looking awesome Rob... remember to add the side panels before you put the tank on!! Haha!

I wish, unfortunately that just won't happen. I'll be designing them in such a fashion I can put them on with the tank in place. That's the theory anyhow

 

[Reef370]

I wish, unfortunately that just won't happen. I'll be designing them in such a fashion I can put them on with the tank in place. That's the theory anyhow

I know someone who did that as well! Turned out pretty

 

[drtechno]

Yet another step closer!! Got the top sheet to my stand in today finally. Going to bolt it down (because I can't help myself @Reef370 ) at some point this weekend. Freight company is still sitting on my tank in Toronto...kinda irritating really. I hate customs. Anyhow, this sheet which is Type I PVC is super heavy, I mean really stout. That 3/4" thick 24x72 sheet weighs almost 70 lbs! But it's super strong and absolutely corrosion resistant to saltwater, it'll distribute the weight of the tank nicely over the stand. Hopefully by end of next week I see some glass in my driveway.

Great build thread! Definitely following along as I am going through a similar process right now (at some point I'll start a build thread but things are going much slower on my end).

Question - did you cut that 3/4" type 1 PVC board yourself or did you order it to exact size spec?
Also, how did you bolt the white (base) piece of PVC board onto your tank stand? I imagine you did the cut-outs for the feet, but what do the bolts go into in the aluminum stand? Is there a nut or something on the other side?

 

[drtechno]

Quick shot of the new member! 3 hours after dumping into the quarantine tank it tore into some LRS nori like no one's business! I mean like devoured it lol

2nd question
Why are you repeating quarantine after ordering from Marine Collectors? and how long are you running him in there for? I thought the point of using Marine Collectors is that they do the quarantine for you .. ??

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Haha! Yeah cuz 2000 pounds won’t do it!! Looking awesome Rob... remember to add the side panels before you put the tank on!! Haha!

Great build thread! Definitely following along as I am going through a similar process right now (at some point I'll start a build thread but things are going much slower on my end).

Question - did you cut that 3/4" type 1 PVC board yourself or did you order it to exact size spec?
Also, how did you bolt the white (base) piece of PVC board onto your tank stand? I imagine you did the cut-outs for the feet, but what do the bolts go into in the aluminum stand? Is there a nut or something on the other side?

Hey there! Thanks for following along! While it would be possible to cut that on a really robust table saw a full size sheet would be way to heavy to be practical to work with in a home setting and way too expensive. That stuff isn't cheap but it's really strong. On the bottom I used a lesser material that I also bought cut to size. They actually cut it a bit to large so I ended up running it across my table saw anyhow. HDPE is a lot lighter than the PVC material and it was easy to do. So they make what they call t-nuts for the aluminum extrusion so you can bolt all manner of things on to it. They come in many forms for a variety of purposes . Quick Google search will show you. If you scroll back on my thread I believe I actually posted a picture of the particular t-nuts I'm using in this application. I used a jig saw for the cut outs and then hand drilled and used a counter sink to get the flat head screws (1/4-20) just below flush to the surface.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

2nd question
Why are you repeating quarantine after ordering from Marine Collectors? and how long are you running him in there for? I thought the point of using Marine Collectors is that they do the quarantine for you .. ??

Great question lol. That guy isn't really in quarantine, I'm not medicating him or anything. He's just waiting in my quarantine tanks until my display tank gets here. I'd love to get all my fish from marine collectors but ultimately that's not a sustainable budget for me so I'll be doing traditional medicated quarantine processes for future fish I get through other vendors. I should add since my rock is already cycled I can just throw them in once I have the tank filled.

 

[drtechno]

Awesome. Thx for the reply. Makes sense for the fish as I just realized your tank and sump aren't in yet

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Awesome. Thx for the reply. Makes sense for the fish as I just realized your tank and sump aren't in yet

Yeah getting them a bit early served a few purposes. 1) gave me something to do as I was getting impatient lol 2) gave me practice in cycling a couple tanks which I valued the learning experience 3) I can't think of a third reason.

 

[Reef370]

Hey there! Thanks for following along! While it would be possible to cut that on a really robust table saw a full size sheet would be way to heavy to be practical to work with in a home setting and way too expensive. That stuff isn't cheap but it's really strong. On the bottom I used a lesser material that I also bought cut to size. They actually cut it a bit to large so I ended up running it across my table saw anything l anyhow. HDPE is a lot lighter than the PVC material and it was easy to do. So they make what they call t-nuts for the aluminum extrusion so you can bolt all manner of things on to it. They come in many forms for a variety of purposes . Quick Google search will show you. If you scroll back on my thread I believe I actually posted a picture of the particular t-nuts I'm using in this application. I used a jig saw for the cut outs and then hand drilled and used a counter sink to get the flat head screws (1/4-20) just below flush to the surface.

Soooo..... you quoted me in there because someone else agrees 2000 pounds isn’t enough!!!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Soooo..... you quoted me in there because someone else agrees 2000 pounds isn’t enough!!!

Lol I never said you were wrong! I'm just satisfying my OCD

 

[Reef370]

Haha! Nice build! That’s pretty awesome!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Well, the official verdict is in; I'm an idiot. I feel I should share my dumb@butt moments as much as my not so dumb@$$ moments cuz otherwise I'm just not being real. Who succeeds all the time?
Life hack #142:. Don't be lazy and dunk your refractometer in RO water to clean the viewing glass.
Water eventually seeps through the calibration set screw and accumulates inside and you can no longer see through it.

Guess who's making money today? No seriously, that's a quiz, who am I buying a new refractometer from today? And go!