Looks awesome Kevin! much better than the last time I was there.. :lol:

urge them not to put a tv on that rock wall, it will distract from the tank!!

Wow! Things are really moving now, a lot of progress since I popped in a few weeks earlier.

Hope you don't mind I share some pics I took back then:wink:


Kevin cramming himself into a tight space to drill out the plumbing holes in the stand:

http://www3.telus.net/lucas-mustangs/AQUA/stampede1.jpg



This is a shot of the exhaust duct from the ultra-silent fan to vent moist air from the canopy and wall space.

http://www3.telus.net/lucas-mustangs/AQUA/stampede2.jpg



Test fit of the canopy frame:

http://www3.telus.net/lucas-mustangs/AQUA/stampede3.jpg



Looking forward to more updates!

Francis

This is looking just awesome. Could you tell me more about how the return plumbing will be pushing the water towards the overflow? I have been working on how I would do a peninsula tank (smaller than this) and not have holes in the tank for the return other than through the overflow like this.

Looking forward to some new pictures.

Thanks for the encouragement all.

Thanks for the offer I will most likely take you up on it as I am planning on moving 300+ gallons of water + 400 lbs of LR into it.

The contractors are doing great.

Too funny.

Francis: I'm not talking to you after you posting a picture of my @$$ with me laying down on the job. LOL We are on the final stages now. They made the doors so small that they had to add a wood frame for the doors around your openings in the metal frame. It is hard to get your hand in the water change tanks. Have to make sure no-one drops anything in them. LOL

mseepman: The last picture from alberta-newb you see the frame of the canopy sitting on the tank. That will be enclosed in wood. The return plumbing 1.5" comes up through the over-flow and will attach and follow inside the canopy all the way to the front of the tank. At the front there will be dropped down a spray bar or loc-line nozzles pushing the top of the water back towards the overflow thus skimming the surface. It will be a week or so till I get pictures of the finished project but I will make sure I get detailed shots of this for you.

Kevin

PS

A question for debate!!
I am not sure I can easily run a drain line for the R/O unit. So I have been considering a 4 stage 2 x sediment and 2 x carbon filter instead of a R/O membrane. Since this is a FOWLR (fish only with live rock) and I will be running a large UV sterilizer also the water change water will be mixing for 7+ days I am hoping this top-up and water change filtration will be sufficient. Any thoughts, concerns are welcome.

I would ass at least a deionization to it also. RO would be the best, espcialy with Calgary's hardness of there water. Even in FOWLR the excess minerals are going to contribute to algae.

Steve

:lol:A$$ on the brain?

You could run the RO waste to the coffee maker, never been to a dealership that had good coffee anyway:mrgreen:

Are they plumbing a small sink in the counter? My RO at home is tapped into the sink drain just above the trap with 1/4" tubing.

Thats a pretty good idea!
Nice job on the setup guys, looks like it will be stunning.

Thanks Kevin, looking forward to those pics.

WOW, now I will be eager to bring my truck in for maintenance service:lol:

Any new developments???

bump....still wondering how this is going.

There has been some new developments as it is coming close to opening time.

I filled the tanks (all 4 of them) with fresh water to test for leaks and run the pump. Everything was perfect except 1 bulkhead was leaking.
YOU LEARN SOMETHING EVERY DAY.
When I cut the wood out in the stand for the overflow lines I cut the wood about an inch larger around than I needed for the bulkheads. It was no problem dealing with the Bheads when no lines were attached and when no doors or tanks were in the way (hence the pic with my big butt showing(thanks again Francis)) but I couldn't get anything to get a grip in the tight spot to tighten the Bhead. I had to cut away a little extra wood and it was not an easy job. When I finally could get a wrench on it it took a 1/4 turn and lesson learned.

The canopy is finished and lights are mounted in it. A lot of thought went into the lights. I decided T5 for the heat factor and since it is a Fowlr system it is the best choice. There is under 10 feet of space to put lighting in and due to a limited width a 6 bulb TEK was not doable. I also wanted glass covers, UL rating, and reliability. I choose the Aqua medic T5 set up
http://www.aqua-medic.com/Aquastarlight_T5.shtml. My combination's were (2 x 4' and 1x 2') or ( 3 x 3' ) as it worked out neither combos would fit. What did work was 3x 2' and 1x 3' figure that LOL.

Now I wait for the plumbing and electrical to be hooked up and I can start bringing in equipment and draining out the fresh water and start the salt process.

Time to crash
Thanks for reading.
Kevin

offer still stands for when you need to move rock and everything over Kevin.
(secretly, I'm just trying to find a way to get in and see this tank ASAP)

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to seeing the latest pics.

May 08/09
 

Well Francis and I put in a good day at ST today. Thanks Carmen for covering for me at the shop.

I will list the things we accomplished today.

Electrical setup and run
Plumbing to drain and Fresh water in.
Canopy up; plumbed and lighting tested
sand in
heaters in
worked on canopy doors ( back wall that canopy fits in has huge bumps and bulges and is far from being straight)

The pump is running and all that is needed is the loc-line connectors as I am just running a straight pipe down now.

We washed the sand out but it still caused an Iraq Eclipse. The pics look blue but I am happy how it is progressing.

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_08-05001.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_08-05003.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_08-05006.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_08-05008.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_08-05014.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_08-05005.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...e_08-05002.jpg

I am back at it again tomorrow
Thanks for looking
Kevin

Looks great....

Wow, that is one nice tank. I am excited to see more photo's of this one. Good work
you guy's. Need someone to come and take care of it! he, he! Will have to make a trip
out to see this in person, I mean visit my cousin.

INCREDIBLE Kevin! You really accomplished alot! It looks fantastic!

wow looks great! Who parked that dodge out front? I think my taco needs a new service dept. Show us more!

Great set-up. How did you decide on the clear silicone for the tank?

Thank You lots to be done yet.

Look forward to meeting you (drop by the store)

Everyone is contributing including yourself. Thank you

Kevin

Ya thats twice my old Dodge has jumped in the pics.

I am glad you brought this up. In hind sight I should have gone Black silicone as you don't see any growth on it; but for the first 3 - 6 months it will be enjoyable seeing the transparent seam.

Kevin

That is really looking good, I sure could picture that sitting area/tank as my living room nver mind a dealership :high5: Great job so far Kev

Hey Kevin, that's an interesting picture showing the lighting in the canopy. Do you have any further pictures of the plumbing that will be going through the canopy to the far end? I see the straightpipes that you are using but not how it runs through the canopy.

Thanks.

Exactly what I was thinking. Over the long term clear silicone is a bad idea. It always gets nicked and then the algae become visible, where as with the black silicone this does not occur.

Whomever is doing the maintenance on this tank, well I would keep the scraper away from the silicone. Use a toothbrush to clean the corners and the silicone will keep looking good longer and remain free of nicks. Good advice for all corners really. Cheers.

Black, clear... you could have gone with hot pink silicone and the tank still would have looked fantastic. Really coming along nice.

Not a bad looking tank... :wink:

That is going to one relaxed secretary sitting next to that tank, i assume she is not going to work very hard and spend alot of time watching the fishys.
Suppose tho she will be an expert on the fish after a while, but really anoyed with the questions peeps are gonna ask about the fish.

Great Job Kevin, no one can do what u do!!.

Hey Kevin,

Any updates on this one? Especially pics?

No pics sorry . We are on the last stages as they open on the 1st of June.
350 lbs of live rock is in and we've been cycling for 3.5 weeks. 2 weeks with Krill and LS and 1.5 so far with cured live rock. I took the live rock right out of the tanks that housed the first group of fish being moved there. The skimmer is pulling hard for us already and we have had no leaks in the plumbing. Tuesday and thursday we will change out 150 gallons of water each day from Red Corals fish system. And Friday we will put in 7" yellow tang, 6" Niger Trigger, 5" Blue Throat trigger, 6" Emperor Angel (changing to adult), 6" Koran Angel (changing to adult), 2 x XL Black Clowns, 20 XL Margarita Turbo Snails, A few large mushroom corals and a few rocks of GSP and Zenia. So we will keep a close eye on things as we will be dumping in 7 fish and 20 snails at once. All these fish have been housed together in the same water and this live rock for 3 + months and I feel should be hardy enough to weather a small cycle from their addition.
Hopefully pics soon.
Kevin

Wow, sounds like a lot happening. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Hey guys...I think they must be open now...any new pics?

Still very interested in the final product with this one.

I agree with Mark. Would love to see pics.

Thank You all for your continued interest. I finally was able to take some pictures and take a close look at everything.

It will take some time to type everything as I am one of those 2 finger typists.


I guess to start I will talk about the cycle and how we accomplished it in a demanding 2 month period.
It started by having the Fish, the Live Rock, and the Water already cycled months in advance. Still there will always be a cycle period.
We had 350 lbs of rock and 75% of the fish in our store fish system waiting for the transfer.
Prior to this we set up the Stampede tank with salt water and ran it with krill and sand in it for 1.5 weeks. This started the cycle of the 400+ gallons of water and also broke in all the equipment.
Next came the Live Rock (400lbs), 300 gallons of water out of our fish system, and 7 of the hardiest of fish that was in that water and with the LR. Also we added 20 xl turbo snails and 15 algae crabs. This we maintained for close to 6.5 weeks before any more additions.
We have since added another group of fish, snails, and crabs.

Our List to date is:

7" changing Emperor Angel
7" changing Koran Angel
7" Yellow Tang
6" Powder Brown Tang
5" Regal Tang
8" Queen Adult Angel
4.5" Juv. French Angel
4" Blue Devil Damsel
3" Black Clown
5" Niger Trigger
5" Blue Throat Trigger
2 X 4" Orange Spot Gobies
30+ XL Mex. Turbo Snails
15 Algae Crabs
5 Red Legged Crabs
2 x Pillow Stars ( I found out the hard way they are not reef safe)
For corals that are doing great are some xl hairy mushrooms and GSP.

When I took a really good at the fish I noticed that something had picked on the 4" Blue Devil Damsel as it looked a little rough and the 4.5" Juv. French Angel had a white spot on one of it's fins. When I tested the auto feeder everything took their turn eating. I was very pleased with their health.

This picture is to show you one of the problems we face with sunshine.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01049.jpg
Some different side views.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01050.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01052.jpg
Top and Overhead shots
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01053.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01054.jpg
Our return plumbing.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01066.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01065.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01064.jpg
Just a few fish shots but enjoy.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01047.jpg
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01055.jpg
And my Favorite Pic is the Queen checking out some mudders.
http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...ms/ST01067.jpg

Thanks for looking.
I will finish this update later in the week.
Kevin

Thanks so much for the update. It looks great!

Love the overhead shot. Classy build you guys are pros!

wow, awesome tank! I love them peninsulas :-D Did you notice that there was a tire (or part of a tire) showing in every single photograph? :lol:

K.