Murdoch's 160G Tank Build

doch · #1 07-12-2011, 10:05 PM

You might be onto something here Dez. Fortunately for me, I found out that Rona in Fort Mac has PVC fittings. Wish I would have known that before running around the entire city on Sunday! hahaha

doch · #2 07-13-2011, 04:33 AM

Well... the stand is built The old tank is temporarily relocated to the bathroom The new tank is on the stand. The waveboxes are tucked neatly into their new holes. The lights are on top of the tank (and going to fit PERFECTLY)..... and the RO water is trickling (that might be overstating the matter) into the tank. I'm BEAT. Movie time. I'll see about pics tomorrow.

doch · #3 07-14-2011, 02:06 AM

PICS! First one's a test... the new tank in transport:

doch · #4 07-14-2011, 02:17 AM

SUCCESS!!!! WAHOO!

Here's the progress so far:

Kindly excuse the half arsed stand... the stucture is complete, pretty will come once me and my wife decide on a design.

top view of the back side:

The lights... you know, in case you haven't seen tek lights before! lol

The gear and piping which all make my basement look like a war zone.

Side view of the wave box... needs a little tweaking. Unfortunately that tweaking may involve 2 new motors. Damn.

And the last pic of the old tank (after the move into the bathroom). Unfortunately, this is not at it's prime. I'll see what I can do about getting a good shot of it when it looked nice.

doch · #5 07-14-2011, 02:24 AM

So, the plan as it stands is to let the tank get up to temp (or as close as it will come to it by the time I go to bed tonight) and put all of the rock that I have been cooking for the last 3.5-4 months in there. I'll likely also put some, if not all of the dry marco rock that I picked up in there. Tomorrow the temp should be good so I'll put in a few of the rocks from the 55. As long as it has no coral attached (maybe some tester zoas) I figure it can go in. Once that's done I'll get on 'operation plumbing'. and bring the piping over to where the stand will be in the fish room. Let that sit for a bit, then go and learn how to weld on my brand new 1940's buzz box donated by my sister. That sounds like a good days worth of work... hopefully by Thursday morning I'm ready for the last bit of plumbing, and I can transfer everything else over.

Dez · #6 07-14-2011, 03:36 AM

Finally, pics. Looks good. I would take the foam ring off of the wave box so that you never have to take them out to clean. I've only had to take mine out I think 2 or 3 times in almost 2 years - due to snail climbing in. If you take the foam ring off, you get less resistance also, making it a tad more efficient.

doch · #7 07-14-2011, 03:40 AM

Thanks buddy! And once again, thanks for the tips.

doch · #8 07-16-2011, 03:18 AM

FINALLY the plumbing is done! I now have all of my livestock in thhe new tank, and the old 55 is tucked neatly in the bottom of that stand. Encountered a new little problem though... the IN 250 that I bought will not fit under the frag tank as is. GAH!!! I'll have to do a little thinking on this one. Also... one of my wave boxes is no longer working. It's just on full time (doesn't pulse). No good.

Anyways... here's a few pics. Don't mind the aqua scaping.... that's for tomorrow.

doch · #9 07-16-2011, 03:19 AM

BTW... WOW! Is this ever a lot of work!! I didn't think it was going to be this labour intensive!! lol

doch · #10 07-17-2011, 03:28 PM

Haha! No, not yet. Basement has been in pretty rough shape, and no time for foos lately. I actually found an unopened bottle of lube with the spare handles though!