i'm going to have it all plumbed and ready to go by the 20th of july,
so that when i get back from vacation on august 5th i can just add water,rock,and sand and start my cycle :)

update
 

so a bit of an update,

i have almost all my plumbing supplies. just waiting on a valve,some vinyl tubing, and also i need to make another trip to home depot (some of the stuff i bought is wrong:redface:)

also, my step dad works at gregs industrial distributors, so he picked up some stuff for me:
-5 gallon pails
-40 feet of siphon tubing (reches from tank to toilet, plus extra)
-clip on light
-and one gigantic brute container. i think its like, 40 some gallons? its made of thicker plastic than the smaller ones too.


oh, and i found a mantis for the mini fuge!
He's only 2 cm long, and i think he might be a G.smithii, but i have to get a better look at him.
he's currently in one of the tanks at elite aquatics.
once he outgrows the back section ill set up a new tank for him.

water
 

well today i did a leak test, and it went great. no leaks what so ever.
the tank was a little tiny bit off being perfectly level.
but, once the rock and sand is in the tank, it should be perfectly level.
pics:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/001-14.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/002-12.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/003-16.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/005-13.jpg

Word of advice....get the tank level now, as I doubt very much that the 50ish lbs of rock and sand you add will shift the stand level with 300lbs of water already in the tank.

+1... Shim it while you can. That way you don't have to worry about it later. You've taken your time so far, no point in taking any short cuts now.

makes sense. thankfully it doesn't need much shimming, but ill have to shim it from the sides, as my sump hangs out the back of the stand on a block of wood (for easy plumbing and added water volume)

is it just the pics or did you use white silicone to attach the refuge?

its just the pics. its clear silicone.

well i finaly have an almost exact ETA for water...

cowbell role please...

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...01/Cowbell.gif


First Week Of August

if its not up by then, someone slap me.

also, i was tring to think of how to hang my lights, because with the hagen glo, the hardware it comes with for hanging doesnt allow you to adjust the height of the lights, for getting in and out of the tank.
so i jay at elite aquatics gave me the great, yet simple plan, of making a second set of loops, putting those rock climbing clips on them, and then taking the loops that are on the fixture and clipping them to the higher loops (if that makes sense :p)

here's a diagram:

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...ghtingfig1.jpg

does anybody see any flaws? does anyone know of a good way to make the second, higher up loops for the clips? does anyone know of a better idea all together?

thanks for following my thread, and i hope you guys have some good light hanging ideas :biggrin:

im almost there!!!
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/021-4.jpg

here's my little mantis's castle of doom (his name is jeynkim)

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/016-4.jpg

and just for fun, a fish that most Calgary aquarium owners know as George

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/014-3.jpg

I get what you're saying about a loop to hook your lights to... your idea sounds functional, you could even find colored carabiners to use as your hooks.

woops, i forget to update that. i ended up ordering these:

http://www.laststoplighting.com/710120.html

they rock! they make your lights totally adjustable

sorry everybody that i wasn't updated when i should have bin working my butt off, but i was too busy doing this:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/045-5.jpg
its time to really get off my butt and get some stuff done.

That is a great idea, ZZZZZzzzzzzz! :biggrin:

got my lights hung today,
but im not exactly sure what to do with the wires...anyone got any ideas? (the power bar will be on the the side with the dresser)

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/001-16.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/002-14.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/003-18.jpg

looks good buddy great work :wink:

thanks asmodeus! now i just gotta get water in the friggen thing xD

Could you attach your power bar to the dresser? Then creating drip loops would be easy!

that's a possibility.
i kinda worked out how im gonna do it. ill just have the wires going through loops on the side of the dresser, so that they are off the tank,
but i can still adjust the lights height with ease.

woohoo, we're almost there!
heres what i had to get done:

• saltwater mix station-done
• hanging lights-done
• plumbing-other than the standpipes, done
• leak test-done
• setting up controller-done

i hope to be picking up my rock and sand on sunday:biggrin:

PICKING UP ROCK ON SUNDAY!:Banane27:

its finally up! its taken two years (don't ask) but its finally up!

here's: the rock (i accidentally too much:redface: )
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/001-17.jpg
here is the dry rock scape:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/003-19.jpg
here it is filled:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/007-12.jpg
right side:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/010-10.jpg
left side:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/011-8.jpg
left overhang (hard to get pic of):
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/012-8.jpg
right overhang:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/013-5.jpg
fts:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/014-5.jpg

Congratulations!! It's a sweet feeling! :mrgreen:

you got that right. especially when it takes an extra 3 or so hours because you gotta use the bucket system from the basement to the top floor.:lol:

Looks great! Lugging buckets is fun :lol:

Its Alive!:mrgreen:

Looks great, love the scape.

thanks guys :)

thankyou noirsphynx. i did go for a bit of a bonsai look.

looking awsome

tested params today:

ph:8.11
calc:380
phosphate:1.0
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:0

i was surprised that the ammonia, nitrite and nirate were at zero, so i threw in two table shrimp for good measure.

well here's the parameters from today:

PH:7.98
dKH:10
calc:400
ammonia:1.0
nitrites:0
nitrates:0
phosphate:2.0

so basically the table shrimp lowered the ph just a lil bit, and made the phosphate go up,
but it looks to me like my cycle has started, so i pulled the shrimp out (that smelled great:lol:)

2 years must have damn near killed you! I'm happy your wait is over. You can spot an Elite tank anywhere with all the fancy routed curves lol. PIMPIN!

haha, trust me, i died about a year and 5 months ago. i was a zombie for quite some time.
yup, the fact that we have access to a CNC machine makes a big difference sometimes.

got a new toy today!
colby at elite got it for me.
its a hydor performer series skimmer
we have on running on one of our coral tanks and the skimmate it pulls is crazy, so i thought i'd get one.
this thing is heavy and built very solid.
pics:

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/002-15.jpg
very well packed:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/004-14.jpg
first view:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/006-11.jpg
out of the box:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/007-13.jpg
in action:
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...y101/009-9.jpg

here's some updated pics:

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...azy101/224.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...azy101/226.jpg

here's the amount of skimmate made in aprox. 2 days with no livestock whatsoever.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...azy101/231.jpg

Wow Evan the tank looks great!!! Shoot me a PM in a few weeks when your ready to start putting coral in and I will send some frags your way!
Levi

thanks levi! and i've still got a few tricks up my sleeve :wink:

oh, and also jay will probably come with me (he wants to buy some frags too :lol:)

Lookin good man! I really like the 'island' look... I actually tried to pull that off this week when I scrubbed (and smashed) the Florida rock from my tank :lol:...

It didn't go well for me but looks great in your tank :wink:

well, plans for the back chamber have changed.
im not going to tell you what, but make you guess, what's going into the back chamber:twised:

this game is off limits to my facebook friends :lol:

here's a picture of its color pattern. good luck.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/h...101/009-10.jpg

Impressive work! Especially from a 13year old. By the way, it's no different for grown ups, the money doesn't just appear for your hobby out of blue. Good progress, I'll be enjoying this thread.