The Worlds Fastest Tank Build... (New Photos 1.26.2010)
 

Jan 26: New photos added to page 7, been a while since ive taken any, busy being a daddy!

Dec 2: No more bryopsis! New Photos added to bottom of thread!

Oct 10: Changed lights last week, new photos added last page

Ok so some of you may have read my thread a couple nightt ago about the bottom brace letting go, and leaning the tank problem. So without further ado, i give you the world fastsest tank build... maybe.

Here are a few pics of the old 90 with the trim cracking.

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My Saturday started with a desparate phone call to my LFS. At this point ive only had 3 hours of sleep.

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I have to say the LFS owner in Saskatoon went ABOVE and BEYOND for me. He came in from building his house just to give me a hand. The only tank he had in stock that was reef ready was a 120gal 48X24X24 with a right side center overflow. So off i went 100KM into the city to pick up this tank and everything i needed. I got into the city by 4:30pm. Picked up the tank, then had to go and get everything i needed to build a stand. Luckily my two brother in laws were with me as i have never built a stand.

We got back into Rosetown by about 10:30pm and got to work on the stand by 11:00 pm in my cold unheated garage.

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We based the stand off the one for my LFS' display tank. 2X6 Boxes with 2X4 risers.

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Of course working in the col and REALLY late into the night we had to set up a coffe bar on the work bench in my garage.

This picture was taken around 2:00am

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The it was back to work on the stand.

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We decided to put a sheet of OSB on the top of the tank with some foam board on top of that.

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Finally at 4:00am the stand was complete and it was time to load test!

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We then moved the stand into the house and too a quick breather and got back to work draining the old tank.

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I was really grasping at straws for anywhere we could keep the old water from the tank. so this process of removing everything took about 3 hours. All in all ive lost one fish to a rock falling in his hold tank. It was my recently purchased blue cheek trigger.

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This is just a quick shot of inspecting the new tank.

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So by about 8:00am We had the old tank drained and moved out with the new tank sitting in its new home.
We had to shim the tank stand as my floor as a slight slope to it, this was a frustrating hour of getting everything supported. I ended up using an extra panel of 8mm laminate i had kicking around.


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I decided to turf all my old sand and go with one 40lbs bag of aragonite rinsed thoroughly. It was just enough to skim the bottom of the tank and i quite like it.

by 9:00 we were setting up all the plumbing for the overflow. This was frustrating as apparantly home depot no longer sells pvc under 4" We had to make so with what i had lie around and the few connectors my LFS gave me the day before when picked up the tank.

By 1:00pm we pretty much had the tank refilled and everything moved back into the tank.

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The Rock-Work is just pretty puch thrown together as we were getting REALLY burned out at this point. Though i really do like the cave on the side.

At 2:30 my brother in law and i passed out on the couch for a few hours and woke at 8:00pm tonight to a nice clear tank. all that was left to do was plug the skimmer in and go to sleep...

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So there you have it everyone a 24hr tank build!!

Wow! That's awesome. And it looks good too!

WOW...it does look good...lucky you there is a very very happy ending..... AND a bigger tank! Nice work guys!

looks good, nice

Congrats on the happy ending! We were following along and worried the whole way!

I was very happy that is ended well. I can tank one fish loss over a whole reef. W are pretty pleased with the way it all turned out! Thanks for the compliments!!

It's amazing the support that members of thie site gove eachother. Thanks for the support!

nice (and quick)

Excellent!! now go back to bed.

Great job on the build.... looks like a lot of thought went into it....:biggrin:

WOW the tank looks great. But kinda a cheaky way to get an upgrade LOL

I don't think I would have had the forsight to document it so well Great job

J

A round of applause. Amazing how the thought of 90 gallons of water on the floor can motivate:mrgreen: Great job guys.

Way to gi't er done!

Amazing what can be done when we are really motivated.

Looks nice, I'm sure you will be very happy with the new tank!

Hmm..
"Honey the tank is in imminent danger of collapse and flooding your floors. I feel the best course of action would be to buy a newer, bigger tank. Today."

I see what you did there!

Did you ever find out why the stand and tank rim were cracking??

Now that's the sort of overbuilt stand I love! Nice work on pulling off an upgrade while you're at it. I can't get over how nice the rockwork looks for such a mad rush.

And about HD and pvc...I noticed here in Calgary at the Shawnessy location that they only have 4" and the stuff with holes in it. I had to go to Rona for pvc.

LOL, at least I wasn't the only one to think that...

Looks great. Too bad about the Trigger but, as you've already said, one is better than all.

Lets see...the last night I pulled an all nighter there was big signs, bright lights and black jack...maybe I should try one when I get motivated to build the new setup.


Again...Well done!

How come the stand is not painted? Run out of time?

Looks good I now know the secret of getting a bigger tank :biggrin:

Its not painted because i picked up a cabinet making grade sheet of plywood to stain and skin the stand, im also going to build a new canopy with the same skin as well. I think that project ill take a little time on.

It was kinda cheeky but in all honesty i made sure the wife was ok with it, what with the baby coming in July and what not. Ecentially i just made sure she new well what would happen and then let her make the decision. :lol:

It was her idea to document it, she took most of the picture of us putting it all back together!

We really arent to sure. Im inclined to believe it was the trim letting go causing the tank to lean causing the stand to list. I know this because even with the tank leaning hard the stand was still level both ways. Im going to email the manufacture of the tank because its supposed to have a 5 year warranty on it. We will see how that goes :lol:

Yea we really put alot into that stand, i wasnt going to have the same thing happen. It was funny moving the old AGA stand out, it was WAY lighter than the new one. As for the PVC all HD had was the 4" with hold as well... weird.

Thanks alot, and all i have to say LONG night, i dont even think i was up that long for my bachelor part.... ugh im still tired!! But all in all its was a great time! Not exactly the circumstances i would have liked to do an upgrade, but in the end its all the same :lol:

Time to upgrade that signature mate. "120 Gallon - Fastest Build in the West"

Wow thats just awesome! I mean sucky that you had to do it but man, awesome that you could! Talk about dedicated! And the tank looks great after all that. Nice work!! :mrgreen:

LOL Done and done, thanks for that!!:lol:

Great Job! Great looking tank!

Hell it seems to take me longer than that to make up some salt water and do a water change!!!!

Brad

Typically me to lol, i had my ro unit just punching away to get this transfer done. By the time i ran out of old water and new water i had the level in the tank about 1 inch from the overflow. Then had to wait 3 hours for the rest to ro/di :lol:

So......how are things looking?

That's awesome!! I was scoping out that tank last time I was at Bayside...I guess I don't have to think about it anymore!! :lol:

Your stand is made from a small forest :shocked!: but I guess no more chances right? :wink:

Looks good, I bet you always wanted a 120 anyway.

If they replace the old tank does that mean your wife lets you keep both?!

Glad you were able to save the day. Good luck with the new tank.

:wink:Sor far so good, i still need to rearrange some of the rock work but i seems everything is doing alright. I take some more pictures maybe tonight. My powder brown tang appears to have gotten a big case of the ich. Other than that everyone is doing alright!


Yeah i noticed it the last few times i was there as well, never thought i'd end up needing it though!!


Yeah Steve, my wife gets scared pretty easy so we built the stand like a tank, and she told me, "next time this happens you are done! So we built it like a tank! The last upgrade i did was under similar circumstances, when we were moving into this house the last thing to get moved was my old 33gal, when we were lifting it off the stand the drain elbow got caught and caused the bottom pain to crack. So NONE of my ugrades have been a slow and easy process! And say who doesn't want an upgrade :wink:


LOL i wish!! I have to make up the money for buying the new tank somehow! This was a VERY unexpected purchase, and with our first baby coming in July, im sure we will need the money!


Thanks Greg, this just means more room for SPS frags and another reef roadtrip to see you again in the future :wink:

Acting like a typical "Powder" tang.

nice tank man, i see your lighting is plain and simple just hang the pendants and a way you go its easier that way too.


love the rock work too....to bad you didnt have the tank like an island thou. viewed from 3 sides

Well rstar it was a long night and on behaf of me and your other brother in'law, were just glad to help out, theres nothing like getting a phone call at 8am saying "MY TANK IS LEANING, AND I NEED HELP". Well i helped you place the 90 gal in there its only fitting that i took it out..lol I just wonder is james going to get the reefers bug like i did two years ago? Its looking great and i'm glad i was able to help. By the way... no more phone calls like that, i'm having bad dreams about my 75 bowfront lol.

BoYd'O

LOL thats my old canopy from the 90gal. I have all the stuff to build a new canopy that fits this tank just havent gotten around to it yet! Having the tank be a peninsula whould have been ideal however my living room does not allow the space for it.

How are all the corals doing? Any bleaching? Did you get a cycle at all?

The Corals are all doing great, i haven't had any bleaching or browning, still as colorful as they ever were. Ive never seen my clams do any better than they are now and my anemone is "happy as a clam". That being said this has been a devistating week for my fish. My PB Tang broke out in a massive ich infection. With a death a birth and a wedding in my family this past week i wasnt able to help him in time. He died and the ich spread like the plague, my lamrcks died, and yellow tang died, my blenny died, my goby died and one clown fish died. Its been a terribly sad week. The only fish i have left are a clown, a sixline wrasse and a damsel! :sad: The worst part about it is that i had to pull the rock work to get the tang and blenny out, they were both alive but too far gone. I had to have my brother in law come by and euthanize the fish for me. Ill post some pics tonight of the new rockwork and coral placement.