130 Inches of Pleasure (500 Gallon display)
- Thread starter Easttuth
- Start date
Water evacuation in case of leak? Couple holes in the baseboards leading to the garage IMO, and leak detectors. IF a seam fails, the water won't go under the tank area it'll go all over the floor. Maybe a SMALL lip/separation under the entry door to the room that may force water out the holes to the garage (in a catastrophe situation)
Easttuth
New member
Sorry for the long absence. I'd like to tell you I lost my Reef Central password or that I misread the paperwork and thought it said to leave the tank empty for 2 years for curing, but neither are true. Since the last update we decided to move from the house I built the fish room in and where the tank was originally delivered. I moved the tank to the new house, but we purchased a foreclosure and I knew I needed to redo the flooring in the room the tank was going in so I delayed the tank progress.
In the mean time I had to get my tank fix so I bought a 300dd and put it in my grocery store. Had typical ups and down, at one point I got what Dr. Fishman called "Super Ich". I quarantined all the fish before going in the tank, but at one point I ordered a pair of small crosshatch triggers and decided not to QT them. I think I was scared they would die, I knew it was wrong, but I made the executive decision. Everything was fine for 6 months or so then my Black Tang, Sohal Tang, Crosshatch pair, 2 Fowler Tangs, etc. all came down with a disease that no local fish store could identify. No treatments worked and everything died over the course of 45 days or so.
So I let the tank sit without any livestock for 3 months to hopefully starve out the ich. On Black Friday of this year I went to the local fish store, bought a healthy amount of fish, went through a QT period, and put them into the tank. Everything was doing fine, getting along, eating extremely well and life was back to normal, until Christmas day. The store was closed so I popped in to feed the tank late afternoon. Everything looked normal, I fed them and left. I got a call at 6am the next day that the "tank is leaking". We all know this could mean a million things to someone that doesn't know fish tanks. But I could hear it in her voice, this wasn't a drip, the tank was LEAKING. I ran up to the store and this was a leak I hadn't experienced before. It took me a few minutes to figure out what happened, the bottom seam gave out. The tank was leaking from the bottom! I immediately called my LFS and they came out to help and grab the livestock. If you are ever near St. Cloud, FL, go see Steven at Reefer's Direct. Great guy and has helped a ton through this process.
So the bright side of the 300dd dumping 270 gallons onto my store floor was it gave me a perfect reason to use the 500g "130 inches of pleasure" tank! I called Exotic to ask about how the hell I was going to move the tank without them. Lucky for me they needed to get away for a day and had some tanks to deliver in my area. I live in Mt Dora and it's a nice little town to walk around and doing some antique shopping. They came up on Dec 30th and I was back in business. They brought the hydraulic dollys up and we brought the 500 from my house to the store. If you haven't used these hydraulic lifts to move a tank before, you should. Absolutely no lifting, easy to go up or down a few stairs, and will move big boy tanks.
I'm moving fast this time. I won't have a fish room, but I've got plenty of room next to the tank to have water change system, external skimmer, algae scrubber, etc. I've already picked up new rock for this tank, pictures coming. I'm building the platform for the bottom of the stand in the next few days. I'm working on the lights, probably using 2 ATI 48" with Reefbrites. Still plan on using 2 hammerhead pumps for returns, closed loop, 6-10 SeaSwirls, I've had the sump for almost 3 years now, purchased from World Wide Corals. They ordered it for one of their set ups but it had a small crack in a baffle, so they sold it to me. I also bought the Bubble King external skimmer they were using on their 10ft tank they have in the main showroom. I figure if it's good enough for them its good enough for this dummy. I'll be doing colored PVC for the plumbing, orange and blue (I'm a gator).
Pictures and updates coming soon. If for some reason you actually read this post and got to this point, I promise update after update, with pictures (because I like post with pictures). I'm excited to be done with the 300 that gave me too many problems and I'm pumped to finally get my 500 wet. I feel confident that the curing period is complete.
In the mean time I had to get my tank fix so I bought a 300dd and put it in my grocery store. Had typical ups and down, at one point I got what Dr. Fishman called "Super Ich". I quarantined all the fish before going in the tank, but at one point I ordered a pair of small crosshatch triggers and decided not to QT them. I think I was scared they would die, I knew it was wrong, but I made the executive decision. Everything was fine for 6 months or so then my Black Tang, Sohal Tang, Crosshatch pair, 2 Fowler Tangs, etc. all came down with a disease that no local fish store could identify. No treatments worked and everything died over the course of 45 days or so.
So I let the tank sit without any livestock for 3 months to hopefully starve out the ich. On Black Friday of this year I went to the local fish store, bought a healthy amount of fish, went through a QT period, and put them into the tank. Everything was doing fine, getting along, eating extremely well and life was back to normal, until Christmas day. The store was closed so I popped in to feed the tank late afternoon. Everything looked normal, I fed them and left. I got a call at 6am the next day that the "tank is leaking". We all know this could mean a million things to someone that doesn't know fish tanks. But I could hear it in her voice, this wasn't a drip, the tank was LEAKING. I ran up to the store and this was a leak I hadn't experienced before. It took me a few minutes to figure out what happened, the bottom seam gave out. The tank was leaking from the bottom! I immediately called my LFS and they came out to help and grab the livestock. If you are ever near St. Cloud, FL, go see Steven at Reefer's Direct. Great guy and has helped a ton through this process.
So the bright side of the 300dd dumping 270 gallons onto my store floor was it gave me a perfect reason to use the 500g "130 inches of pleasure" tank! I called Exotic to ask about how the hell I was going to move the tank without them. Lucky for me they needed to get away for a day and had some tanks to deliver in my area. I live in Mt Dora and it's a nice little town to walk around and doing some antique shopping. They came up on Dec 30th and I was back in business. They brought the hydraulic dollys up and we brought the 500 from my house to the store. If you haven't used these hydraulic lifts to move a tank before, you should. Absolutely no lifting, easy to go up or down a few stairs, and will move big boy tanks.
I'm moving fast this time. I won't have a fish room, but I've got plenty of room next to the tank to have water change system, external skimmer, algae scrubber, etc. I've already picked up new rock for this tank, pictures coming. I'm building the platform for the bottom of the stand in the next few days. I'm working on the lights, probably using 2 ATI 48" with Reefbrites. Still plan on using 2 hammerhead pumps for returns, closed loop, 6-10 SeaSwirls, I've had the sump for almost 3 years now, purchased from World Wide Corals. They ordered it for one of their set ups but it had a small crack in a baffle, so they sold it to me. I also bought the Bubble King external skimmer they were using on their 10ft tank they have in the main showroom. I figure if it's good enough for them its good enough for this dummy. I'll be doing colored PVC for the plumbing, orange and blue (I'm a gator).
Pictures and updates coming soon. If for some reason you actually read this post and got to this point, I promise update after update, with pictures (because I like post with pictures). I'm excited to be done with the 300 that gave me too many problems and I'm pumped to finally get my 500 wet. I feel confident that the curing period is complete.
Easttuth
New member
A friend went with me to Reefers Direct to cherry pick their liverock stash. They keep a few hundred pounds in the store for customers to see but I was given free reign to go look through the storage bay and get anything I wanted.
We got right at 300lbs of Haitian rock. And yes, that's the same Prius that did the first rock trip. I wasn't happy with the character of that rock so I decided to go a different direction this time.
Here is one of the pallets the rock was on. It comes with about 50-75lbs per box. We went through every box.
Taped out the tank on the ground and build some random structures to gauge how much rock we would need.
Rock in the Prius again! Ignore my second chin...
We got right at 300lbs of Haitian rock. And yes, that's the same Prius that did the first rock trip. I wasn't happy with the character of that rock so I decided to go a different direction this time.
Here is one of the pallets the rock was on. It comes with about 50-75lbs per box. We went through every box.
Taped out the tank on the ground and build some random structures to gauge how much rock we would need.
Rock in the Prius again! Ignore my second chin...
Easttuth
New member
I started to cook the rock so I could get it cycling to avoid moving as much organic matter as possible from the ocean to the tank. I did a quick soak which took off the majority but it needed a second batch to get 99% off the rock. I've got it sitting in a bin now with a few pumps running through a filter sock to grab anything I missed.
Easttuth
New member
I spent way too much time thinking about the platform I wanted to use for the bottom of the stand. I started off wanting to stay away from plywood, even though it would be the cheapest, easiest method. I kicked around PVC sheets, Starboard, etc. but all had downfalls. I found myself back at plywood painted with a heavy paint that's meant to be water proof. Corners were all sealed well and it fit in snug. It's not as pretty as PVC or starboard, but just as functional in my mind.
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