Dez' Tank Journal

[Dez]

Originally Posted by lastlight

I almost bought that mirror a few years ago. I recall it being at least $200. I know exactly how good that frame must look. I dig!

Got it for $107 . I dig too! I don't think I could have done a better job it I did the woodwork myself.

[Dez]

This isn't really a tank update, but near the beginning of this tank build I mentioned that my wife said that I have to pick between the tank and another mini (car), so I picked the tank. A few months later and voila - I have both. I love my wife



And my 2 cars together -



Enjoy.

[kien]

I see that the new mini has coloured up nicely. What sort of lighting are you using for it? Any additives?

K.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by kien

I see that the new mini has coloured up nicely. What sort of lighting are you using for it? Any additives?

K.

Ha ha, actually I'm still acclimating the new mini. We'll have to see how she turns out after the mechanical inspection for insurance.

[Dez]

Well, a little bit more progress today. I went to a friend's place and picked up some sand that was in his tank for over 10 years. He had about a 5" sand bed and he was redoing his tank because all of his sps corals had grown to the surface so he had to harvest out the skeleton base of the rock and lower all the sps to halfway down his tank again. He decided to cut the sand bed in half to about 2-3" because deep sand beds are sort of a thing of the past. So I got all his old sand. It's been sitting spread out a bit in his back yard for a couple of weeks already. I took it home and my whole family helped me wash it out. I quad rinsed it a bit at a time with the water that was in my tank. I am done my water testing so I watered my lawn/garden/filled my rainbarrel, watered house plants and rinsed the sand with my leak/system tank water (I drained it because I am using RO/DI water).

Here are a couple of pics of the washing. You can see in the pictures how dirty the water is.



While we were doing this, my son out of the blue says "Man, this is dirty business". We thought it was hilarious.



I also got the hardware and mounted my other 2 lights.

View from cabinet side:


View from picture frame side:


With only the middle 150watt on (I still have to wire the 250 watt pendants to the ballast):


And finally a view from OUTSIDE my house. I have a 5' x 6' window at my front porch of my house. So it'll be quite a view from the street.



Thanks for looking.

[Skimmerking]

Looks great Dez I'm going to have to come visit you. When I pop up there

[mseepman]

Looking good...did you have all three lights on in the picture from outside?

[Dez]

Originally Posted by mseepman

Looking good...did you have all three lights on in the picture from outside?

No, I only have the 150Watt on. I still have to wire the 250's to the ballasts sometime. Pretty bright hey? I'm quite excited as I live on a corner lot so I'll be able to see the tank everyday as I drive in from the street.

[Leah]

"Dirty business" that is truly the best way to describe salt tanks.........kids really figure it
out before we do, hehe! My daughter prefers to leave when I tear tanks apart, huh !!!!
Your kids are adorable. Can't wait for water though

[Dez]

Originally Posted by Leah

"Dirty business" that is truly the best way to describe salt tanks.........kids really figure it
out before we do, hehe! My daughter prefers to leave when I tear tanks apart, huh !!!!
Your kids are adorable. Can't wait for water though

Thanks Leah,

Water is filling as we speak. It'll probably take 4 - 5 days (using RO/DI) to fill. Then I have to salt it and heat it. It's coming along quicker than I expected though. I might wire the other 2 lights to the ballast today and maybe put the pond liner under the tank....ahhhhhhh, so much to do.