Dez' Tank Journal
 

Hi guys....it's been about 4 years since I've been active on the board. I guess I'm pretty old school by now and trying to learn all the latest stuff. I used to have about 600 gallons of salt water aquariums in my condo....but we moved March 1, 05 and before that I sold everything and all my tanks and livestock kept some equipment because I was going to set up a tank right away in my new house. I still have a whole box of new VHO bulbs (I hear those are super old school now) I've kept some live rock in the basement of my new house and the live rock is still in salt water running (and has been running for the last 4 years without a water change...ugh). Doubt that the rock is live any more.

During this time, we've developed the basement and had to move the stupid temporary rock tank a few times while developing the basement. We got our builders to beef up a wall and there was a custom opening in the wall to fit our 150 gallon 5 x 2 x 2 tank. I have a hole pre - drilled in the floor inside the wall to run my sump in the basement.

My wife has recently told me that I have to sell the tank (that has been sitting in my garage for the last 4 years) or to set it up. Or that if I sell the tank, I could buy another Mini (I drive an old school Mini now and want another for my summer car). I have chosen to set it up.

The main reason that I haven't set it up is that 2 months after we moved, we had a baby boy, and then 14 months after we had a baby girl. Life gets busy with kids and to me, my family is more important than a fish tank.

However, now I find myself taking the kids to the fish store all the time and they want to buy fish but we don't have a tank. They love the coral and all the livestock in aquariums. We take them to the Vancouver aquarium once or twice a year. So Now I figure it's a good time to set up the tank so that my kids can be involved with me and make it a hobby together.

Today I started drilling my tank. I will post pics in the next posting....

Cheers and I welcome suggestions as I am super old school now in the hobby.

Dez

PS - this might be a super slow tank build but hopefully I'll get it done before Delphinus :)

Here is the picture of the opening while the house is being built. One side is a den, and the other side is the living room. 2 side viewable tank.

Is there another way to have the picture directly in the post other than uploading it onto a website with a url? I don't have a website and I don't upload my pictures onto the web.

This would make my tank journal easier.

Thanks.

wow thats an old pic the house was not even done! lol
if you need a hand lifting that tank into place let me know.
and i am sure you will be done before tony!

Here are some pictures of the tank drilling. There is going to be an external overflow box at the end of the tank with a built in wavebox on the outside. I also started drilling the middle bracing of the tank (got 3 done until my drill battery died). I'm going to cut out a large hole (rectangular with rounded corners) so that more light can enter the tank.

I've thought about just ripping all that bracing out and eurobracing it but I hate ripping tanks apart and that way I don't have to buy extra glass to make the eurobracing.

I bought this tank used off of a canreef member (can't remember who) about 5 years ago. We bought it before we built our house and it had a corner overflow in it but I ripped it out. It was dirt cheap, I think I paid $200 or $300 for the tank.

I was going to use the corner overflow but decided against it after figuring out how to cut an oval shaped hole at the end of a tank for an external one.

Anyway here are the pics. Sorry, all pictures are taken with my cell phone camera because that's what I have handy. Later I'll start using a real camera when I'm getting close to having water or livestock in my tank.

That is my 3 year year old son helping spray with water while I drill :). This was taken about an hour ago.

I know you right? You used to have a different name on Canreef.....hmmm are you Ed?

yes now lets get building!

Holy cow Dez,

I didn't actually think you were serious this time around! :lol::lol: We should call Rich, Russ and Ryan out and have the old gang get together again!

nice to see you back,

Planning anything that I still figure is the greatest fuge
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/das75/ref-1.jpg

From a photobucket account then just copy the IMG Code link

Hey Mark!!! Why do you have a picture of one of my old tanks? For those who don't know, that was one of my many tanks in my old condo with a viewable refugium. I miss that tank. DIY stand, Canopy etc.....

What tanks are you running now?

Okay, I'm signing up for photobucket now....let's try this. This is a beckett skimmer I built back in the day....I hear those are pretty old school power hogs now too... In the background was a calcium reactor that I built.


http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237677269

I had those holes drilled 15 mins after I called you man! Now for the last hole. Any comments anyone on a closed loop with returns (say 3 of them) through the bottom of the tank. Anybody have closed loops through the bottom now and regret it? Anybody have leaks? What would you do different? etc...

I'm thinking about doing a closed loop through the bottom, but am unsure at this point. I'll have lots of room under the tank as the sump will be in the basement.

Comments will be appreciated.

You can edit the size of your pictures on Photobucket. edit images - resize

I wouldnt drill the bottom for a closed loop - a bit what if factor.

Besides, closed loops are old school too. :mrgreen:

(Maybe not.)

Good luck with the build.

Well well well - Hello Dez good to see you are back.I remember that tank, it gave me the insperation for my 150. I seem to remember a 180 that was by your front door also. Good luck with your build, I'm sure it wont take you long to get up to speed with things. :biggrin1:

Yeah.....the 180 was my wife's favourite tank. Hopefully this build will be done by next winter :). It's good to be back.....it'll be better to have a running tank though.

Forget where I grabbed that picture of yours from but kept it as a build plan. I've put it up a few times and always with a comment like "fantastic idea".

I've got a 145g but how my stand is then with the basement sump, never was able to copy your idea.

Here is a picture of the opening looking from the den. The tank will stick out 17" on this side and I'll have to build a stand/canopy. You'll be able to see this from the sidewalk in front of my house because I have a 5 x 6 window right in front. You should be able to look through the tank all the way into my backyard.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237680584

Here is a picture of the opening looking from the living room. The idea is to have it look like a picture frame from this side (it will be flush with the wall with access for feeding and aquascaping)...the top part of the picture frame will flip up.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237680746

Here is a picture of my rock tank that has been sitting my basement for the last 4 years getting moved around a couple of times while developing my basement. This was the first time that I've been in this room for probably a month. I don't go in there at all because there's an auto top off. I'm thinking about using it as a frag tank hooked into my system. But it's kind of long. Look at all that salt creep....sick! And my rusty old Hamilton light fixture with halides and vho's. I haven't had light on this tank in years....it's just decorative now :).

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237680774

The picture of the tank with the viewable refugium is ust what I've been looking for, for inspiration. I hope you don't mind but I've saved it now as well. Good luck with the new build. Excellent little helper you've got there.

You are welcome to use the idea.....My stand was just a skin as well. That whole front panel came right off and the side panel came off and each "door" looking panel came right off as well. I used magnets. I just checked out your tank build and it looks awesome. You aren't even too far ..... just off of the Henday. I have a friend that has a tank in Sherwood Park. Maybe we'll meet soon.

What an idea, to hold the doors on with magnets :clap2: Excellent idea. Probably one of the things that has been holding me back on finishing the cabinet is the doors. Thank you.

Ya, I sorta copied that too.:redface: :mrgreen:

Welcome back Dez long time no see :mrgreen:

This is what I have so far for my tank. I'm not sure of holes in the bottom for a closed loop yet. I'm debating putting an external overflow on the other side for a hidden stream. The compartment beside my overflow box is for an external wavebox. Any suggestions would be welcome.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237786382

Here is a picture of what the actual tank is going to look like. The reason there's that big brace in the middle is because that is what is existing already. I'm going to cut out that middle part of the brace so that I get more light getting into the tank. I might drill a couple of holes for returns, or closed loop on the other end of the tank and a couple on the bottom.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237825837

Wow dez....long time no see....

I have been out of the aquarium scene for a bit too.....had a few major overflows and the boss said no more tanks :D

well we are in a new house now and I am trying to convince her that a small pico reef down on my bench would be totaly safe....

I will be following your build to see what you come up with...your tanks always seem to have a unique tweak here or there that I like to file away for future considerations.

Joel

BTW I work with a friend of yours....Darnell

Darnell just lives down the street from me. We are over there lots and his family is over here lots as well. He is one smart guy. Are you still in Sherwood Park?

yep...still in the park

Wow...I never thought I'd see the day that you showed back up here! WB Dez!

http://canreef.com/vbulletin/images/icons/icon10.gif
I think I officially have to have water in a tank to be officially back. Right now I have to commit before my wife changes her mind. It's good to be back, and hopefully I'll be in the market for livestock before next winter!

I would have taken the Mini (provided it wasn't a Clubman), and found a way to make a tank work too. I love Minis!

Seeing that I already have a Mini and that another mini takes up less room to store than a fish tank, I opted to go with the fish tank. I'm still working on getting permission for another Mini though. :)

its going to be a nice setup! keep the pics coming!

Here is a bit of a conceptual drawing as to what the picture frame side of the tank will look like. The top panel of the picture frame will be hinged so that I can feed/aquascape/access from this side.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237913131


Here is what the tank will look like from top view. I'm not sure what to do with the stand/canopy yet. Most likely the stand will come 8" past the tank on both sides to cover the overflow box and also cover plumbing so that I can run plumbing up the tank opposite side of the overflow. So it will now become a 2 side viewable tank. My wife thought that having the stand semetrical on both sides would look better. This gives me more options anyway.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237913383

Here's another view from my Den side. As you can see, 7" of the tank is actually resting on the wall itself. So only 17" of the tank will stick out into the Den side.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1237913610

There's a little bit more progress on my tank. Thanks to a fellow Canreef member, I traded some 1/4" glass for 3/8" scrap glass so that I can make my overflow box. Maybe that will happen this weekend, the glass needs to be cleaned thoroughly though.

Harvey came over tonight and sprayed water for me while I cut the center brace of my tank. I'm quite pleased with the results, it needs some sanding and it should be pretty. Thanks Harv.

Here are the pictures of final product. Yeah, now we can have more light penetration into the tank.

I am now debating whether to take all the trim off of the whole tank or to leave it on. Any suggestions? The advantage of taking all the black plastic trim off is that my moulding can be flush to the tank itself and the canopy can be flush to the tank. What do you think?

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238033972

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238034051

What type of bit did you use to cut out your brace?

I used a regular glass hole saw for the corners and a grinder for the straight edges with a diamond blade. Did the same for my overflow slot.

Nice, I was curious myself how you cut the overflow. Did you use a continuous rim diamond blade?

I'm not sure if it was "continuous". It was smooth, $9.99 from Home Depot and it was for tile/marble. I just picked the thinnest one there was. I wasn't too concerned because worst case scenario, I break the brace and have to rip all the trim and other bracing off and Eurobrace it. But that would have been really time consuming and costly. I was worried about possible vibration while cutting though, but I had it supported quite well underneath with a cardboard box.

How long did it take the cut the overflow and the brace like that?

The brace only took me about 20 mins last night (holes were drilled already).

The overflow took about 5 mins. It goes really quick. I wore safetly glasses, full long sleeves with my neck covered (I forgot to wear gloves....but I was okay). I recommend wearing gloves. I wore gloves when I did my overflow.

I wish I could of used some sort of guide though because I did everything free hand. Oh well, the brace is never seen anyway...

Some people think that it was super risky of me cutting that brace, but I still think it's got tons of strength to it....what do you think?