Christy, if you buy other reefing stuff from that LFS, maybe ask them to do a partial refund, keep some credit there for future purchases & use the rest to come into the Lower Mainland to snag the rock you need at cheap prices now. That way they get future business, and you get your LR & save money. Just explain that you need the rock asap, but can get other stuff from them later.

I wonder if you can get a price adjust like at the bay? My wife says a lot of stores do that actually.

yeah I dunno, I might go ask him about it actually.

I think I know where you are talking about. I got his last few pieces :twised:
You could always get some from Scott if you dont want to travel to Vancouver.

I went and talked to him, turns out I got a pretty good deal so I'm gonna wait :biggrin:

Got my rock!!

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7599.jpg

Rather anti-climactic eh? :razz: Oh well, at least the tank is moving along :biggrin:

Whoo Hoo!
Are you going bare-bottom again? Are you using some of the rock from the 90g?

Yep bare bottom and I'm using all of the rock from the 90. The 180 only has 60lbs in it so far. 60lbs sure don't look like much, I'm wondering if I should supplement it with some of that dry stuff. Then again maybe it will look alright once I get the rock from the 90 in there.

Yeah, good idea. See what you've got first, I'm sure you'll come up with an awesome reefscape!

Oh there's the pictures I've been looking everywhere. Silly me.

Looks Great Christy just about ready for some SPS

J

Christy,

It will look great when you transfer stuff over. I am so jealous. If you were only closer I am
redoing my rock in my 95 and will have lots of extra. I want to try a more open scape. If you guy's come to the Okanagan keep me in mind.

Just a question? why didn't you put up the drywall befor you started the tank, it is going to be real hard to keep the drywall dust out of your system now and it makes a tone of dust finnishing drywall.

Steve

I think she is doing panelling to match the rest of the room, I did my drywall after and no dust, just need to be carefull with the application and no sanding, knock off the high spots with a damp sponge.

She didn't want to follow my example. I don't blame her. ***I*** don't want to follow my example...

Easy fix...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENdtNQbQCjE

Didn't want drywall. I hate it when its not professionally done, I always think I've sanded it to hell and back and that the seams will be nice, then you get it painted and it looks like arse.

Theres panelling in the rest of the room anyways and I like the look of it. My husband wasn't impressed though, the panelling is twice the price of drywall (I had no idea :eek:) and its hard to work with. There was much swearing and complaining on his part, as well as an "I told you so" on mine, when we noticed that the prepainted sections could be easily peeled off with a fingernail so they needed to be sanded and primed before painting :razz:

Hopefully more pics today, we're going to frame the tank :biggrin:

Tank is almost cycled too, nitrates are about 10 although I wouldn't be surprised if I could maintain nitrates in an empty tank :razz:

This is looking really good :) Can't wait to see the aqua scape. When I go to do a new set up I think I'm going to add mostly dry rocks, the pests with live rock still cause me grief to this day. Keep up the good work.

Four days without an update? C'mon Christy, we're anxiously waiting for news and pics!

Asmodeus is slacking lately on requesting pictures?
Making us do it... :lol:

Yes that is right mister.. now ask again MUCK yes Im using the VULCAN MIND SENSE.....

:wink:

LOL, there hasn't been much progress lately. The inlaws have arrived so its kind of slowed things down. I'll try to get some pics for you tomorrow :biggrin:

I've seen a few tanks in-wall like yours is Christy and what really impresses me is when the rock slopes up on either end with low rockwork or sand showing in the middle...not quite symmetrical though. Only an idea I'm sure whatever you have planned will be bomb =)

Here's a fairly densely packed scape that illustrates what I'm talking about although this particular tank is not in-wall. The design could always be thinned some.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/totm/index.php

I'm hoping to do something like these with two "bommies" and a pass through. I can't find the other pic I had but basically from a top tank point of view, the two bommies were offset and you ended up with an "angled crevasse" look that was pretty cool.

I think we're all the same here. Saving random fts shots as we surf the forums. I must have hundreds of inspiration shots. I get what you're aiming for though and that will be nice to watch fish navigate.

Hmmm maybe I should start saving pictures too. I never save them and then often can never find them again.

Justin even the pics you sent me went into my random folder of goodness.

Nobody get any fast ideas...it was interior design =)

I think Brett should share his aquascaping photos in a new thread, I've only found three that do anything for me, I need more inspiration!

progress!

today I moved the wavysea from its position on the side of the tank:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7592.jpg

to the front of the tank:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7671.jpg

Yay me! :becky:

man not even one sarcastic comment :razz:

More progress.

So this is the tank room, not the fish room but the nice relaxing spot to watch the tank.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7666.jpg

Yeah theres a whole ikea kitchen in there. Thats also why the next photos suck so hard. Its hard to balance on various boxes while taking photos :rolleyes:


Hmm, didn't take any photos of putting the paneling up. Oh well, imagine what its like putting paneling up, with swearwords and stuff.

Got the tank framed. This color we used in our bathroom and since we had a whole can I thought I'd try it on the frame. I didn't really like it. The frame is MDF and weighs a ton but it was only $2 a foot compared to the lovely other real woods I had picked out which were $20 a foot :p So the MDF is screwed into the wall and then wood puttied over the countersunk heads.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7667.jpg

Then I went to the store and bought the color I originally wanted (it sucks buying those halfy cans of paint, they're so pricey!). Got the low VOC paint so I didn't have to turn off the skimmers.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7672.jpg

So the original plan was to copy Dez's tank frame idea, it was perfect except for the fact that my tank is longer and we don't have an Ikea here (but mail order is fun, you should try it with a kitchen sometime!). However, my husband announced that he couldn't do the dowels so he wanted to use hinges to provide access. Of course that didn't work either because you can't lever up the pointy parts of the frame (they get really tight before they start to flip upwards). So we ended up having to make a couple of cutouts:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7670.jpg

And the lid now louvers up via 4 hinges that allow the lid to be raised 170 degrees. Of course it weighs a ton so it doesn't stay up on its own. I gotta find a big stick somewhere.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...o/IMG_7674.jpg

So ya, thats about all that got done. Now I just need to get the light rack built and I can move stuff over :D

Looking good, need to do something about the kinky hose on the wavy, and I would cover it to slow down algae growth, big difference with the panelling and trim. How are you making out with the light rack?

I'm not sure I am seeing this right. So you cut the corners off your frame? Why not mount a few full extension drawer slides vertically so the top frame piece slides up and out of your way?

Yeah that kinky hose was just temporary to get the tank going. I'm going to replace it, likely with a piece of the same hose, unkinky and covered in electrical tape. Cuz thats how we roll here :razz:

My light rack builder is MIA, hopefully he emails me in the next few days or I'm gonna have to find me a pro-fessional.

To keep up the canopy door, you could try one/two of those small gas shocks that hold up your hood on your car or canopy for your truck etc.
Princess auto has them as surplus and cheap

Yeah apparently that wasn't an option. Unless its something I can buy ready made by myself, I just get what I get. This is what I got.

I really like the colours on the panels and trim. Very nice. You should be able to find some kind of heavy duty hinge to hold up the canopy lid. I don't like the stick idea: too easy to knock it loose and have the lid come crashing down on you or the tank.

Nice progress Christy. Just wondering on the same lines as Brett, are the corners that were cut out screwed and glued back in then, or are they gonna be permanently missing. Your husband didn't have to use dowels, he could've just used some nails.

I bet you're glad you have front access though right?

Aww that looks so good, i am going to get my tank soo, i ordered a 180 gallon with external baffels and a sump, can't wait to get some tips and tricks from ya , love it you did such a nice job!

Josh

The corners were cut out and are removeable. I have to remove them before I flip the lid up. Its really not a huge deal just annoying. The frame is painted dark enough (and the room has crappy lighting) so you don't really notice it.

I had suggested that we square off the edges in a more contemporary design having the top overlap only one of the sides and rest on the other (bloody hard to explain). IMO it would have looked better and been more functional but oh well, like I said, I get what I get.


Yeah the front access is nice, I wouldn't have gone this route if I couldn't have access to the front, the tank would have stuck out into the room in that case.

You explained it well. I know exactly what you mean because I was going to do the same thing without mitres on the corners, just flat. I sort of illustrated it at the beginning of my tank journal. But I got what I got as well seeing that Ikea made it :biggrin:

Looking forward to seeing this reef grow!

Oh you put the missing pieces back later. See that's no biggie at all. Just a really quick extra step =) Frame looks really nice!