thanks chin i'll do that

i know this thread is going a little slow but i may have the tank upstairs this week, crossing my fingers. but i completed to skid with chin's ideas, i'm glad i did it now. here is the updated pics of the skid
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0613.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0612.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0611.jpg

i got my new skimmer today, it is H&S 200-1260 fits nicely in the stand with an inch to spare to remove the cup
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0617.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0616.jpg

well after sleepless nights wondering how the hell i was going to move this beast it is done. the skid worked well, needs to be modded a little bit. the tank slid on the skid a little bit until the tie downs twisted a little but some sort of bracket needs to be installed at end to keep tank from sliding. although i will NEVER move this tank again, if need be it will be sold with the house or disassembled in the house and removed that way. lol. it was nuts, but we did it. and a major thank you to the boys at hidden reef mark, kelly, mike and a customer ray for their help, i could not have moved this without them. the tricky part was getting the tank from the front door onto the stairs, once it was there it was just brute force and ignorance to push and pull the tank up. 2 guys at the top with ropes wrapped around their waists pulling and three of us at the bottom pushing. using the melamine for a base of the skid was nice because it slid easily. also i need to design a 'ski' for the front because the half round trim was a little tricky while trying to get it on the stairs. should be plumbed by wednesday and i'll update when it is done, i have to work for the next 5 days so i wont be able to do much to it.
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0618.jpg

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Good for you colin!!!

I've admired your tank often when visiting the shop - and wondered how in the H anyone would move it.
I was a weeny when it came to my tank and paid Mike and the boys to deliver :rolleyes:
Best 5 bucks I ever spent!
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TXR312M

i completed my pvc structure for my rock work. i want a very open plan with lots of archways and crevices. i also plumbed my ro unit to a tap today. tomorrow morning the tank will be plumbed and i'll update then with some pictures hopefully. heres a few from today
the full tank
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0626.jpg
left side
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0628.jpg
right side
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0627.jpg
and the timer and plumbing i did for the RO/DI
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0639.jpg

where did you get the timer for the ro unit?

i got it from fraser valley building supplies, i believe it is also ace hardware.

there's a reducer to 1/4 on the end?

intially you have to go from a hose fitting (timer) to pipe thread and there is a reducer to go from 1/2" pipe thread to 1/4" compression fitting but you have to buy an insert to go inside the 1/4" tubing or the compression fitting will crush the line

just a little update for you guys. the plumbing is completed system running and temperature finally up. i started some aquascaping today only half done one structure but i thought i would give you some updates to keep you interested. the skimmer was hooked up today and skimmed like mad. with 5 minutes i had a 1/8" at the bottom of cup of dark goo. sorry there is a couple blurry pictures. the rock in the middle of the tank is only temporary to keep it wet
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0654.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0653.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0652.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0651.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0650.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0649.jpg

that is some absolutely amazingly neat pluming there niloc16. lookin good. keep us posted with pics and progress,

cheers

How easy will it be to remove the skimmer for cleaining? It looks like a pretty tight fit.

moereefer - i cannot take any credit, i was lucky to have had mark from hidden reef do all the plumbing, intially i wanted to the plumbing but after seeing his setup and how tidy it was i asked if he would do it. mine would have never turned out like that
dave c - skimmer actually comes out quite easily, i have to removed the cup, recirc pump and then the hole assembly pops right out.

Looking good Colin. I need to get me one of those water timers.:mrgreen: That's exactly how I have my RO unit hooked up, just need the timer.:biggrin:

i'm not super thrilled with this particularly timer. i didnt research it good enough because it is designed especially for outdoor sprinklers so max time it will run is 3 hrs at a time and 3 times a day i would have liked one that you could set for 10 - 12 hours a day steady

Your gonna need labels on those valves. :mrgreen:

i agree joe, i know what they do but i'm thinking for the wife i should label them in case something happens when i am at work i can tell her what valve to closed.

last night i FINALLY finished my rockwork. it turned out better than i anticipated. the downside to using pvc is you see some of the pipe but after i get the calcium reactor running it will be disguised with coralline. in the middle of the tank i'm saving to put some of the rock from my current tanks, i'm not putting it all but there some pieces i dont want to part with and they have some nice corals attached. the water is cloudy because i just put the crushed coral in last night but slowly it is clearing.
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0671.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0670.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0668.jpg

that is spectacular rock work my friend...kudos to you!

Very nice tank! Love the aquascape, very well done! I see that you are using a vortech pump, how do you find it?

thanks guys, i like the vortech. the wiring is a little nasty, i'll clean it up once i do all the wiring. but the pump is awesome. extremely quiet whisper quiet actually, lots of flow. its a little annoying not being able to direct flow in any direction but for where i'm using i need it to go across the tank anyway. there is a second vortech on the way next week. i got some filter floss today to try and polish the water a little. it is still cloudy so i'm hoping it will help.

here's a few more pictures from today, i made up some brackets to mount my co2 bottle to the top of my stand because of limited space at the bottom plus i think it looks alot neater. the brackets are 1/8" stainless and each held on with 6 3/4" wood screws so i dont think the bottle is going to fall. there is also a full tank shot of the rock work, i forgot earlier
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0674.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0676.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0675.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0677.jpg

Very cool brackets. You might want to ask (someone more knowledgeable them me) if it's ok to mount a co2 tank horizontally. If I recall correctly that's not a good thing to do. I could be wrong.

That is going to look so cool once it is all covered in coraline. I can't wait to see some before and after pictures in about 6 months. Great job.

i've never heard that dave. thanks for the advice, i'm going to look into it. does anyone know more about mounting co2 horizontally?

its been another busy day, i completed the plumbing of the ro top off and of the water change system. in the picture with the garbage can the plumbing runs up the wall against the 2X4 and to the right of the garbage can on the wall is a switch and outlet i wired in to control the water pump so that i dont have to unplug it all the time with wet hands. water and electricity dont mix too well and thats another reason i moved the switch a couple studs away. the tank water is really clearing up already after installing the filter floss, i put a filter bag over each overflow drain and layer under my coarse sponge baffle area and within 3 hours or so its almost crystal clear.
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0679.jpg
i installed a couple t's in the flex line for the water change tubing just to make it more tidy and the tubing doesnt bend well without kinking also
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0678.jpg

Great job on the tank......

Rock looks cool.....

How did you get it to stay on the PVC?????

on the structure i drilled tons of holes to prevent anaerobic areas (i believe its called anaerobic, correct me if i'm wrong) anyways i used these holes to attach the rock with zip ties. it work awesome, i secured almost every rock with 2 zip ties to prevent them from turning. intially i tried using epoxy but it didnt work to well. i designed the structure to come apart in sections. i would take a section out sit it on the ground and would attach rock to it. way easier than doing it in the tank. i then reassembled everything in the tank.

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very nice colin!!!
I also zip tied my rock, only to eggcrate instead of PVC. I really like the open design of your rockwork.
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extreme vaporizer review

Colin, I did some checking on RC and found these statements...

"Always tie or chain the cylinder to the side of the stand to prevent it from falling, always use it in the vertical position to insure you get gas and not liquid. If in the horizontal position, liquid will pass to the regulator which can be trapped in the body, after expanding into gas the increase in pressure can blow the regulator body cap or the gauges if not your reactor."

"Tilting it 10 degrees won't be a problem. I'd think that you'd have to go past 30 degrees before liquid would enter the regulator."

One thing to remember is that a lot of times on the net people pass on information that they don't know for sure is accurate (take the example of me warning you about this subject). That doesn't mean they're wrong, or right. But if I were you I'd put that tank upright until you find out for sure. It doesn't sound like a good thing if these folks are right. btw, here's the links for those two statements so you can read the entire thread for yourself...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...al#post7513526

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...al#post3053728

just outta curiousity, is the vortec and your sandbed playing nicely together or does the vortec shift things around alot?

it doesnt seem to effect the sand at all. the first day the flow shifted the sand a little but after everything settled it was fine.

i repositioned my co2 tank, thanks to the advice i did some research and found that positioning the bottle horizontally can be very dangerous. but i was still able to use the brackets so that was good, lost some space in the stand though but i will manage
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_0683.jpg

i've finally decided on my lighting. i'm going to go with the new icecap 250w/400w pendant 3 of them with 3 400w 14k aquaconnect bulbs and 400w icecap electronic ballasts and 8 54w T5 actinics. they will be mounted inside the canopy and we're going to put a couple fans on the canopy for circulation. the top of the canopy is routered out about 50% of the surface for venting so i'm hoping that i dont lose too much light reflecting out the top. i dont have the components yet but they should be in in the next couple days and hopefully by next week i should have some pics to show. i also a school of 8 chromis the other day, nitrite and ammonia was 0 as well as nitrate and salinity and temp have been good for 2 weeks so i thought i would add some livestock to build up the tank ecosystem before transferring stuff from my 55 gallon over. obviously i cant do that until the lighting is in but the school of chromis are doing really good. they have taken ownership of one end of the tank and dont seem to venture past halfway across the tank.

well this is a pretty lame update but it is all i have for now. with advice from jason from proline and mark from edmonton i installed 2 15amp circuit. all together the tank will run on 3 15a circuits. by fluke i was looking around in the unfinished basement which is directly below the tank and found that the electrician had spooled up about 10ft of 14/3 wire already hooked up to a 30amp breaker. it was as if it was installed for the tank because once i finished wiring the 2 GFI outlets i had about 2 ft left over of the wire. the install went really smooth. i'm pretty confident now that i wont have any issues with power or lack there of. i lost 3 chromis for unknown reasons, they were really young though so i'm thinking that may have been it. otherwise tank is running good, still waiting on getting my lighting, been told that it should be arriving shortly. i know that my bioload is really low right now, only 5 chromis but i'm getting very little skimmate. and the skimmate i get is light tea colour. i've tried pinching off the airline to bring the bubbles further down the chamber and just this week i tried the airline wide open but with now change. it is H&S a200-1260, i'm hoping it is just that i have a low bioload because the first week and a half after the substrate and rock went in it skimmed like crazy, thick gross goo, but now like i said just light tea color.

Looking good.
But that 14/3 should be on a 2pole 15 amp breaker, not a 30amp.
The breaker is there to protect the wire and the 14 gauge wire is only rated for the 15 amps.
If an overload ever did happen it would start to melt the wire before the 30 amp breaker would trip the breaker.

sorry i didnt really know the terminology but it is a 2 pole 15amp breaker. it looks like 2 15amp breakers with a rod between the two. i am assuming that is what you were talking about coderad. if not please let me know. i only know basic home electrical

Just tuning in.

Ever considered a basement sump. Many many advantages to that.