New Wife, New Life, and The tank I've always wanted! - Part 1

[Siderjan]

This weekend has been a busy one. Thursday I picked up my new return pump and plumbing for it.

New pump;


Here's the plumbing finished. (friday night)




I bought a new Maxi-Jet 1200 to add more flow.


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.


Refuguim/Sump is full of water and getting ready to put live rock, cheato, and heaters in it.


Say goodbye to the old tank. Saturday it is getting drained & moved.


Here's my wife, Kim, helping me wash the substrate. Smile Honey!!



She did a good job cleaning it.


Starting the move. I forgot to make a stand for my skimmer so I hung it using string.




Here's a pic of the mess Kim has been begging me to clean up, and the last picture of the old tank.


While taking the LR out, I came across 4 new majanos anemones. Grrr!




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.


Half full....or half empty. Not sure which. Half done sounds good.


Time to put the rock back in and Aquascape it.



Return pump is running and adjusting the flows.



Finished except for adding livestock back in.


Here's a short video of my Aquascaping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFML6inUoy8

[Flash]

nice job! looks great!

[Madreefer]

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.

[Siderjan]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

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.

Thank you. I heard that about the skimmer. LOL. Waiting til after christmas to get a better one. It doesn't really fit my sump anyways.

[Siderjan]

Water conditions as of 11:41pm

GH - 180
KH - 80
pH - 8.5
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
Saltity - 26 ppt
Temp - 80F

[Delphinus]

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).

[Siderjan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

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).

Thanks Tony. I was wondering what I was going to use, and that was the best I could come up with on short notice. I thought I had everything thought out til I saw the gapping hole.

[cuz]

and the wire ty as well on the screen...no one want to see rust..lol

[Siderjan]

Originally Posted by bean

nice job! looks great!

Thank you. Can't wait to put my livestock back in it. Need to get my saltity lowered and can't add anymore water. sitting at 26ppt