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New Wife, New Life, and The tank I've always wanted! - Part 1
I've always wanted a saltwater tank. I've only ever been allowed to have freshwater tanks, but I've got a new Wife that has liked my old freshwater tanks and when I brought up the topic of getting rid of those tanks and building a saltwater setup she was all for it.
Last year I started building my tank, and refugium/sump. This year I got to build the stand and started buying what I needed to get the tank wet when I got everything purchased. It'd be a long process since I have a lazy ex-wife that can't work fulltime cause it'd take away from her tv time. :tape2: I used photobucket to hold the photos so I wouldn't use disk space here as there is a lot of pictures. I'm posting everything that has come together since I first started last September. Here I purchased a 13"x48" piece of tempered glass for the bottom of my 55 gallon display tank. I picked up some 1x2 oak I was going to make into my own trim but couldn't get it level and square so I ordered black trim for it and was told that was the size of the bottom was 13x48 which is wrong so I had to put all the glass aside and start over. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t..._01-build1.jpg We had large item garbage pickup near the shop and my boss told me if I wanted a big aquarium there was one around the corner. So I took a quick trip to the corner and loaded a broken 35 gallon tank and put it in the back of my car. The bottom and sides where broken. After work that night I pulled it all apart and threw out all the glass and cut new pieces for the tank. I figured it would make a good tank for my refugium/sump. Here's the build of it. Getting ready to cut all the pieces. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...readytocut.jpg Measure Once.... http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-measuring.jpg Cut Once... http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...04-cutting.jpg Sanding the sharp edges off the pieces of glass. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ffingedges.jpg Pieces cut cleaned and dried off. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t..._06-allcut.jpg Sump is together and ready to put the dividers and baffles in after I clean the dust from the tank sitting at the shop for 2 weeks. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...eaningsump.jpg First divider is installed. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...eceofglass.jpg Inlet, DSB, and left baffles done. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...afflesdone.jpg Return, right baffles and skimmer section are in place. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nishedsump.jpg Refugium/Sump is finished, dried and home. The acrylic on top was to build an overflow with but decided to drill the tank instead. I did build the overflow and it worked...after I fixed all the leaks in it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...p-Refugium.jpg All the pieces are cut for the display tank and I'm getting ready to drill the overflow in the back of the tank. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...owveryslow.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...lloverflow.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...verflowcut.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...upitsahole.jpg The ABS fitting fits in the hole. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ittingfits.jpg Here's all the pieces laid out for the display tank and ready to put it together. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...alllaidout.jpg One of my bosses, Terry, holding the pieces while I take pictures and tape the pieces together. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ingitforme.jpg Me putting the back on while Terry learns how to use a cell phone to take pictures. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...inginplace.jpg Ok, enough pictures...can you hand me the tape please. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...mesometape.jpg All put together and ready to be caulked. Back view. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-completed.jpg All put together and ready to be caulked. Front view. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...uttogether.jpg All caulked and drying. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ulkingline.jpg I wanted 55 gallons of water in the tank so I made it taller than a normal 55 gallon. 22 1/4" high. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t..._24-height.jpg Standard length. 48 1/4". http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t..._25-length.jpg Standard width. 12 1/2". http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...h_26-width.jpg Sump/Refugium getting filled for a leak test. Had a leak in one of the baffles and as long as there was a few inches of water the bottom didn't leak. I drained it, dried it, resealed it and it held water for 3 days. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...7-leaktest.jpg Display tank being leak tested. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...eaktesting.jpg No leaks in the display tank. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nkLeakTest.jpg |
New Wife, New Life, and The tank I always wanted! - Part 3
Let's fast forward a year and here's me making the stand.
Here's the bottom put together. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...uttogether.jpg Bottom and top finished. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...optogether.jpg Sides are out on. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ngthesides.jpg Supports aded to the sides. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...tlesupport.jpg All supports on. Frame of the stand is done and it only took one Timmie's. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...oneTimmies.jpg One thing about building a stand without any plans, you make mistakes in measurement and have to modify on the fly. Here's me modifying the stand. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...iginalplan.jpg I'm saying the floor isn't level....so I'm adding shims to the stand to level it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...orleveling.jpg I'm putting 1/4" floor underlay for a undercoating on the stand. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ofunderlay.jpg I've worked for years in tobacco in my younger years and loved the smell of curing tobacco, and thought of lots of uses for the slates so I called a farmer friend of mine that doesn't grow anymore and got a couple bundles of slates to use over the underlay. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...hedproduct.jpg I have the door marked out and ready to cut. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...smarkedout.jpg Here's a better view of it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...tocutdoors.jpg Doors are almost cut out. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...mostcutout.jpg Time to paint the back of the display tank black while I wait for my kids to come home and help me finish cutting the doors out. I had to clean a years worth of dust off the tank so the paint will stick. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...epforpaint.jpg Taped and papered...time to paint. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...edforpaint.jpg After one coat of paint, here's what it looks like. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...backoftank.jpg I thought I should see if everything fits on/in the stand before I carried on. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...t-finished.jpg Everything fits. Refugium is a little tight but it fit. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...adytoplumb.jpg I was going to wait to plumb the tank til I had the stand finished but my oldest son has his first girlfriend and doesn't like to come home and help his Dad. I scratched the back of the tank when I tried carrying it from the garage to the basement by myself. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-Plumbing1.jpg Here's the scratches. I have a little paint left to cover them up. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-Scratches.jpg Plumbing is all dry fitted. My memory isn't what it use to be. I thought the the ABS fitting was 1 1/2" but it was 1 1/4" so I have to wait til next week to get a reducer. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-plumbing7.jpg Here's my refugium/Sump plumbed and in place. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-plumbing2.jpg I've labeled it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...eas-labled.jpg Plumbing is glued and finished. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...mbingGlued.jpg The tank is in place. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...andinplace.jpg Here's the doors trimmed out and almost finished. Just need to wait for the lumber store to get the handles in that match the hinges. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...trimmedout.jpg I didn't like that you could see the black trim on the tank so I added some trim to the stand to hide it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...cktanktrim.jpg I did the same to the side. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...matchfront.jpg Let's open the doors and have a look. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...hdoorsopen.jpg |
New Wife, New Life, and The tank I've always wanted! - Part 4
My Wife went to the lumber yard to pick up something didn't have a clue what she was getting. That's why I love and married her! An egg crate for the rock to sit on.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...rLRtositon.jpg No egg crate. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-Layer1cut.jpg First layer down. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-Layer1cut.jpg Double layered to raise the rock over the trim. I hate trim but don't trust my building skills. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...blelayered.jpg The mess from cutting it. Good thing I have a shop vac look a like. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...heeggcrate.jpg I don't know if this counts towards my build but I was looking on Kijiji for some live rock cheap and I came across this setup for $200. Yes you read it right. $200. I had to call and make sure it wasn't a type-o but it was $200. Only problem was she was ahving someone come that night to look at it. Thinking it was going to be gone that night, I called the next morning to see if she still had it. My luck has never been so good as it has since I met my Wife, the guy never showed up. 2 days later it was sitting on basement floor. Being so close to Christmas I had to wait over a hour for my wife to come home to ask her if I could buy it. It was covered in algae as she had quit taking care of it. Since I'm going to use everything for my build except the tank, hob filter, and gravel, I'm going to post it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...fromkijiji.jpg The next pictures are what I purchased for $200. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup1.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup2.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup3.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup4.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup5.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup6.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup8.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withsetup9.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ithsetup10.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ithsetup11.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ithsetup12.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ithsetup13.jpg Here's a word listing of everything I bought. Here's a list of everything I purchased last night. 2 5gal pails with lids (1 labeled fresh & 1 labeled dirty) Mag-Float Glass cleaner Koralia 3 Power head - 850GPH 500g Kent Marine Supperbuffer -dKH 1/2 a 50 gallon bag Instant Ocean sea salt Black Diamond Premium Active Carbon 1.87L minus an inch from the top Emperor 280 Filter System w/ 4 active carbons Vibra-Flo 1 Air Pump Maxi-Jet Powerhead (In pieces so not sure the size or if it works) SeaClone 100 Protein Skimmer + 3 filters (extra pump) Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium 7 1/2" container never opened Aquarium Systems sea test 45 - 50 lbs LR 55 Gallon Tank 4' 2 tube T5 light with 4 extra tubes T8 bulb that I have no use for 7 snails 3 hermit crabs 1 black and white clown 1 Red Spotted hawkfish AquaClear 70 Fliter with 2 carbons 2" freshwater coloured gravel on the bottom of the tank All the water. (except for what ended up all over my Mom's Jimmy) Sorry Mom! Here's it covered in algae that I had to clean up. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...algaeoffLR.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...cleanalgae.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...lcleanedup.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...eantherock.jpg My Wife and I really liked this guy so I did some research and we bought him. A 'Purple' Urchin. Too bad it's pink. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...rpleUrchin.jpg I need to purchase a return pump, sand and plumb it and a little more Live Rock and I can move everything to my build. |
New Wife, New Life, and The tank I've always wanted! - Part 5
This weekend has been a busy one. Thursday I picked up my new return pump and plumbing for it.
New pump; http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...80-NewPump.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...81-1000GPH.jpg Here's the plumbing finished. (friday night) http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nFinished1.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nFinished2.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nFinished3.jpg I bought a new Maxi-Jet 1200 to add more flow. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...xi-Jet1200.jpg I needed to cover my overflow with something to keep the live stock in the tank so I took a piece of pet proof screen from work and fastened it in place with a wire tie. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...onoverflow.jpg Refuguim/Sump is full of water and getting ready to put live rock, cheato, and heaters in it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ugiumReady.jpg Say goodbye to the old tank. Saturday it is getting drained & moved. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...BeforeMove.jpg Here's my wife, Kim, helping me wash the substrate. Smile Honey!! http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...gsubstrate.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...SmileHoney.jpg She did a good job cleaning it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-Substrate.jpg Starting the move. I forgot to make a stand for my skimmer so I hung it using string. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...mmerhanger.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...withstring.jpg Here's a pic of the mess Kim has been begging me to clean up, and the last picture of the old tank. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ndoldsetup.jpg While taking the LR out, I came across 4 new majanos anemones. Grrr! http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nosanemone.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nosanemone.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nosanemone.jpg I was told there was 50 lbs of LR with the old setup, but there was 41 lbs. I put half a pound in the refugium. I took 7 snails, 3 blue legged hermit crabs, my urchin, hawkfish & maroon clown to the babysitter for him to watch til my tank's temperature stablizes. The water transfer begins. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...pingbegins.jpg Half full....or half empty. Not sure which. Half done sounds good. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...lfwaythere.jpg Time to put the rock back in and Aquascape it. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...quascaping.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...2-Finished.jpg Return pump is running and adjusting the flows. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ustingflow.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...glooksgood.jpg Finished except for adding livestock back in. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...5-Finished.jpg Here's a short video of my Aquascaping. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFML6inUoy8 |
nice job! looks great!
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Cool! Good job! Interesting watching you guys build your tanks from scratch. You put alot of work in to this. That skimmer is more of a water mover than anything. You should be able to get a good used one for a reasonable price on this site.
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Water conditions as of 11:41pm
GH - 180 KH - 80 pH - 8.5 NO2 - 0 NO3 - 0 Saltity - 26 ppt Temp - 80F |
Looks like things are coming together nicely! That spot where you have the screen over the overflow, keep an eye on that, looks like a pretty tight weave and I see that getting clogged pretty easy. If it proves to be a problem down the road you could consider some gutter guard, the holes are more like 1/4" so less prone to clogging (although not immune to clogging).
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and the wire ty as well on the screen...no one want to see rust..lol
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Picked up my livestock today from the babysitter along with a little bit of rubble lr, and some cheato.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLozJ2qRvm0 <- 24 Megs |
WOW! It's been a month since my last update and a lot has happened since then. Christmas Eve I picked up 4 Nerites Snails for my sump. It's looking kinda gross in there.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...itesSnails.jpg I also picked up a Blastomussa Wellsi and was given a badly frag'd Zoa for free. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ussaWellsi.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...wGreenZoas.jpg Ariel came down with a nice case of ICH and I had to setup a hospital tank for the fish. It's a 10gal. Only thing I could find cheap. Never thought of a rubber maid container. I did throw a couple of ugly pieces of LR in there that I'll never use again. I was going to put them in my refugium. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...spitalTank.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...esHospital.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-ArielsIch.jpg Ever since there weren't any fish in the tank I decided it would be a good time to remove everything from the tank and give it a good cleaning and to glue my frags down. Feb 24th will be 8 weeks and I can put the fish back in my DT. All the LR has been removed. Only CUC is still in the tank. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...isplayTank.jpg The CUC has all been caught. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...03/131-CUC.jpg The tank has been rescaped. I removed a lot of sponges that were taking over the rocks and also scrapped off the last of the manjos anenomies. I glued down my 3 frags. I also put the CUC back in the tank. I did notice I needed a few more snails, and hermit crabs. I'm waiting on a Emerald crab that seems to be taking forever to come in. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...NewScaping.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-GreenZoas.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ussaWellsi.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...BrownPalys.jpg A couple days after I got the tank all cleaned up, I had my first fatality. Ariel died from ICH! It was a sad day as my wife lost a fish, and I literally flushed $80 down the toilet. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...6-RIPAriel.jpg R.I.P. Ariel. More to come in the next post. |
I thought for sure my Emerald crab came in. But it's not. I have no idea what kind it is but I bought it anyways. Looked kinda like a porcelain crab. If any one knows what it is, please let me know.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...CrabbieJoe.jpg Since I've been bored outta my mind with nothing to look at in my DT, I decided I needed some more colour in my tank. I was sick of looking at green and brown. So I began looking online for Coral retailers close to me. I found 2. Frag-a-lot, and Coral Crazy. Since I was going to be home for a week inbetween Christmas and New Years I thought I'd take a drive to these places and see what they had. I sent a message to each from their contacts page on their website. Coral Crazy got back to me in less than a hour saying they were just starting out and if I wanted anything to check out Marine Authority, unless I could wait til the 26th of Jan. I wanted my wife, Kim, to go with me so I thought I'd wait and see what Frag-a-lot had. I sent them another message a couple of days later via the contacts page, and to this date still haven't heard anything from them. Coral Crazy on the other hand I feel like we are family. We were emailing each other almost everyday. I was going to go up on there tomorrow, but they were going to pick up an order in Toronto on the 22nd so they offered to meet me at Timmie's off the 401. Here's what I ordered; 1-Eagle Eye Zoa Frag 1-Red Zoa Frag 1-Blue Paly Frag 1-Green Stripped Mushroom 1-Orange Ric 1-Pink Ric Here's what I got for $90 taxes included! 3 Eagle Eye Zoa Frags (for the price of 1) & Pink Ric that's ready to split. They gave me 3 Eagle Eyes because the one I picked wasn't looking too good and wanted to make sure I had one that lived. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...andPinkRic.jpg Red Zoa Frag. Bigger then what was listed. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...41-RedZoas.jpg Blue Paly Frag with some zoas mixed in with them (same price) and the Green stripped mushroom http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...edMushroon.jpg Last but not least my Orange Ric. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...-OrangeRic.jpg I stopped on my way home to show off my corals to Lyle and my Emerald crab finally showed up. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...aldCrabEmm.jpg Let the acclimation begin and end. Ready to start glueing frags. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...oncomplete.jpg Here is everything 20 minutes after I got them all glued down and finished a water change. Going left to right in the tank. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...eRicPlaced.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ZoasPlaced.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ZoasPlaced.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...ZoasPlaced.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...roomPlaced.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...alysPlaced.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...kRicPlaced.jpg And here's Emm eating as soon as she hit the bottom of the tank. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...glikecrazy.jpg I sat down watching Emm until she went and hid in the rocks and I got this great picture of a hermit crab that had just changed his shell. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...lmetTooBig.jpg Angie & Jim at Coral Crazy didn't have to worry about those Eagle eyes dying. After a week in my tank, everything they sold me is doing very well. The pink Ric is so close to spliting it isn't funny. They are great people to deal with and very helpful. I would recommend them to anyone! You can find them at www.coralcrazy.com Tell them Barry sent you if you want. I did notice one morning while I was looking for Crabbie Joe that some how I picked up a feather duster worm. (before my order from Coral Crazy) It's added 2 new rings for it's tube in the past 3 weeks. Hope the space it's growing in isn't too small for it. I can't get a good picture of it cause it takes 3 hands. 2 for the camera and 1 for the flashlight. LOL! |
Freshly frag'd Frog Spawn. $30 if it lives. Just waiting 1 more week to make sure it survives fraging.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t.../frogspawn.jpg Not being able to buy fish for another month is sure fun. I don't think I would be adding all these corals as I'd be spending my money on fish instead. |
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Week old Frags
Here's the frags I pick up from http://www.coralcrazy.com a week ago.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...sFrag1Week.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...Frag11week.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...Frag21week.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...Frag31week.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...hroom1Week.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...geric1week.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...nkRic1Week.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...aFrag1Week.jpg |
Dude i cant wait to c ur fragz grow out, and btw ur blasto is tooooooooo sick.
Cheers, Ian |
Ian,
Thanks Dude! |
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