180 build from scratch!

[michika]

Originally I thought I wanted to do a wavebox, you were right when you read that. Although all these great things started coming out, and becoming available in Canada, and it let me re-think my plan for wave boxes or surge tanks.

I think I will still go ahead and make a mini mock up model to make sure that I don't have any issues. I'd rather put out $200 on a mini model for the glass, then put out $5K on a tank and find out its too screwed up to use.

 

[maroun.c]

Glas to see you're still so enthousiastic about tanks regardless of the problems you face few weeks ago.
So are you going to build this tank yourself too or will you have it made?

 

[michika]

Build it for sure, or at least everything I can build. Building everything is probably half if not more of the fun. Building is almost as addictive as keeping the tank themselves!

I'm going to build a cardboard replica tonight so that I can take a few photographs to share with everyone. At least that way I might be able to get some critiques on the design and some feedback so I can start moving forwards on this.

Planning this out, even if its only on paper, and in tape and cardboard, helps. While my tank lays fallow, I am keeping myself occupied.

A 2" black tang came up for sale today. I want it, but obviously can't have it. It kills me to know that there is such a beautiful out there and I can't adopt it.

 

[michika]

Our good neighbour just came by and asked us to sign legal paper relinquishing our ownership on some of the land that is between our two properties so that the new owners of his house can have it. The UA prevents me from showing my outrage at this request. Part of our garage and our shed is there. Not to mention its part of our yard and stuff.

Apparently our new neighbours want to tear down the house that is there and put up a new one. However their plans were done up so it goes the full length of the property they bought, plus the 8ft that separates our property line from our house. They are offering no compensation, not that I would agree to something like this.

This guy rings the bell and starts out his speech with, "I just have a couple of papers for you to sign so our buyers can take possession of their house on Friday."

We need a head desk icon.

 

[jnarowe]

:lol: I hope you told him not to ever step foot on your property again. That is some nerve. Better build a fence stat. if they start "using" any part of your property, they might be able to claim rights over it. I can't remember the term for that but it came up in a battle for moving our road. "prescriptive easement" comes to mind but I am not sure if I am remembering that correctly.

"I just have some papers for you to sign"... I would go ballistic.

 

[Chaloupa]

Holy Catherine...that's harsh. As if you'd give up part of your property and especially if it has buildings on it...the nerve of some people!!!

 

[michika]

The guy was so sketchy about letting me see the papers to start with so I knew something was up.

I deal with land leases all the time at work so I knew what I was seeing when he briefly flashed me a copy of the paperwork. He kept trying to tell me it was a lot of crappy legal stuff that didn't matter. I saw a legal land description and immediately knew it wasn't something I was even going to discuss with him, and that was after he asked us to sign that stuff.

There is no way I will sign that. Too bad the new owners, who send the old one to do their dirty work, couldn't even be bothered to get their measurements correctly done. Its their problem. There is no way I am signing that, or saying yes to taking some of my property. We bought it fair and square. Our buildings are all on our side of our property line, so we aren't in the wrong.

Easements scare the crap out of me. Some of the horror stories I have heard at work about them just get my hackles up.

The funny part about this is that there is already a fence between the back halfs of both our properties, and its technically their fence, but it is already on our land. We signed papers when we bought our house with the owner who was here today. Those papers say that upon the time that the fence needs to come down, they need to move it off our property line, and onto their own. They have a maximum time frame of 5 years to complete this. This is supposed to transferable to the new owners.

 

[jnarowe]

sounds like the Good Neighbor is a total a-hole. and what a great way to introduce yourself to the neighborhood! are there still survey sticks up? make sure they have not been moved and put in some pipe if they are just wood.

BTW, who thinks it's a good idea to screw with a roller-derby chick?

 

[michika]

The sad part is that BOTH of our houses are from the 50s. We never saw any survey sticks. We think it was done the beginning of middle of September; which was before we offered on this property. Apparently it took them a long time to get the deal together in the first place.

To answer your second question; probably some guy who has never watched me hit, shove, and booty block other girls out of my way. I apparently look harmless without my derby clothes and make-up.

 

[jnarowe]

kick his butt. that is a much better way to introduce yourself to a neighborhood.

 

[michika]

Lol, he and his family moved out today. Maybe tomorrow there will be a re-match!

So my options are looking like 6ft l x 4ft d x 4ft h, or 13ft l x 3ft d x 2ft t. Hmmmm...

 

[jnarowe]

4' high is not high enough to get into and will be too high to be able to deal with aquascaping and other issues down low.

 

[erics3000]

Why cant you get into a 4 foot high tank?

 

[jnarowe]

just not enough room IMO. It will be too crowded.

 

[michika]

Anything deeper and it will be too much for me. I am only 5'2", so 4ft is already pretty high for me; assuming the tank is on the ground. Kevin on the other hand is 6"4'. I think I am okay without ever having to be in my tank completely. I'll rethink it a bit and see what else I can come up with.

We discussed a complete reno of the basement tonight. We are talking about taking out everything except a few required walls and starting from scratch. We are pretty sure nothing has been done in the basement reno wise since the 60s.

 

[jnarowe]

not a bad idea to start with a clean slate.

If you are gong to get inside the tank, I think you will want more room to swim around. JMO though. The real deal is can you get to an animal that has died and is stuck under a rock?

And that may not be entirely necessary. I knowI have had a couple fish perish (and one sea hare) that I never found.

 

[michika]

That kind of a clean slate though is expensive, and puts the time line back quite a bit. We need to make some big decisions I guess. I wouldn't even be comfortable having the 180g in the basement with renos going on.

 

[jnarowe]

very true. but it's easy enough to set it up in another location and just take your time with the renos. might as well do it right the first time, rather than spend on it two or three times.

 

[erics3000]

I am not that tall neither. A 13 feet by 4 by 4 would be a dream come true for me. Except the electric bill. HAhahaha,

I was reading a thread and a guy was doing some work in his tank room and a tile flew and cracked his tank..

 

[michika]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13640120#post13640120 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erics3000
I was reading a thread and a guy was doing some work in his tank room and a tile flew and cracked his tank..

OMG nightmare right there!

The monthly cost is a bit of a scary thing. The display would be 778g, which is a bit shy of my 1000g goal but I am okay with that. I am thinking that the costs we need to account for are salt, food, electricity, and water. Plus the yearly maintenance costs; new bulbs, equipment upgrades, livestock, replacement sand, drygoods.

I'm a bit crazy about stuff like budgets, so once we finalize a size that we think we want I can go number crazy.