336 A.G.E. Peninsula Tank

So yesterday I finally got the returns and the drains all plumbed. I am just waiting on 8x 1in ball valves to come in so I can finish the closed loop. I couldn't resist so I plugged the closed loop holes that I didn't have ball valves for and filled the tank with tap water. I have to say I LOVE 2in Drains, I hate plumbing them but I can push so much flow through them without worry. Next step is to finish plumbing and hook up the RO/DI which looking at my tank is very necessary. The water is very yellow and cloudy which is a mix of dust from the tank and the crappy water here, I put a filter sock on to see how quiet the system is going to be and the water turned the sock yellow. I am also going to start working on the skin tomorrow, looking at my calender its going to be a few weeks before I get it finished, but its going to turn out very nice. So here are some pictures.... O and photo bucket sucks, I edited my pictures so you wouldn't have to turn your head, I relink the pictures and the same ones show up. Annoying.

Half the Ball valves :(
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My FAVORITE Tools of this build, these suckers are worth there weight in gold.
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Just to put my mind at easy I let the return lines back siphon around 4in of water in the tank to the sump. I LOVE this sump. I tried and I tried to get it to put bubbles in the tank and I didn't see a single one.
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Nice surface agitation shot. I really need to get a bounce flash.
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Refugium Overflow
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My other most favorite tool, I put a plastic blade in my miter box and it made my life so much easier, precision cuts with nice ends. The only downside is the mess, I have little plastic shavings all over the place.
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bag151 - do you have a detail drawings of your sump and how it works? Your tank going to be a beautiful build.... :D

Ed
 
Ed I will work on a drawing when I get a moments peace here.

Cweder, I can't wait till it comes in. They are waiting on the custom boxes to ship the skimmer in. Sounded like 2 weeks when I talked to Greg last week.

-Brett
 
Well I finally got the tank full of Salt Water and Rock after 2 1/5 days of filling. The rock is just gently sent in there so I am trying to figure out how I am going to aqua scape the tank. The BM-300 sounds like its going to be delivered in 2 weeks. I will post some pictures later tonight. I also ordered the Aluminum to frame the canopy which will be in next week.
 
Yeah, I have been really busy. All of my weekends have been getting eaten up by random stuff so I haven't gotten the pictures up yet.

I still am trying to figure out the structure for the aquascape so I don't have sand in it yet.

Tonight I am doing a mockup of the hood height using PVC which should give me a good idea of access clearance of the canopy.

The skimmer will be here on MONDAY!! its going to be freaken HUGE. Can't wait there, I will also get the aluminum angle in for the canopy frame which should be together by next weekend. The main thing is to get the aquascape finished so I can put sand in the tank and get it to finish the cycle. It has cycled rock from my previous tank in it and already had snails and starfish running around, the cycle should be fairly quick.

The tank is also cycling in the dark which is a perfect way to prevent unwanted algae in the tank, the tank will be fully bacteria driven initially because you are not feeding algae with light.

I got a quote on the biomatix which Edward (Invincible) has been using but I am just going to upgrade my Aqua Controller Jr. to a III . I can keep my DC8 and purchase an additional unit, the Biomatix is sharp looking, but I would rather spend that money on livestock then a shiny controller, I also wanted an ORP meter which the Biomatix doesn't support. If I really want a fancy interface I can connect it to a server and program a GUI on a remote screen. James informed me that the aqua controller output is just HTML so I will get him to write me a fancy interface.

I have been much more focused on what I am going to do with lighting as of late as well, I have already built most the UV led boards that will go on the tank. I say most because I ran out of UV leds and I am out of blue's, red's, and greens so I am going to make an order from Hong Kong in a week or two. I currently have 3x PFO HQI mini pendants from my previous tank that I was going to replace with 3x luminarc III's and Icecap electronic 400w ballasts. As of recent though I have been looking to purchase 2x luminarc III's with 250w electronic ballasts, keep the PFO pendants and run 10k and 14k bulbs to blend the light. I have also been looking at T5 actinics to replace my VHO's.

There are to many options in this hobby.

-Brett
 
Ok so I got some pictures for you, if you want more click the red house to see my photo bucket. I shot these pretty quick so I didn't get a chance to clean the glass. I should receive my new BM-300 on Monday so I will take a full suite of pics to make everyone happy.

I made a mock up of the canopy this evening out of PVC, I originally made it 24 but I decided to cut it down to an even 20in. This gives me plenty of space to get into the tank. I still might go with the 24 considering I have the vertical space for it. I then zip-tied the 3x 250w MH pendents and the 27x UV actinic LED boards I made, to the PVC frame and suspended it over the tank.

You will have to wait for better pics of the UV only, but I have to say it looks totally SICK!! I wish I had some acro's in there to see how well they are going to phosphores. There are 135 total 400-410nm UV leds over the tank right now and it is insane. The MH's of course overpower the led's but it makes for an awesome dusky/night look. I will add a number of blue led's to complement the UV and maybe a few white. I am also going to wire up a few LED spotlights to accent the table acro's that I plan on keeping.

I also got a few sheets of exterior home insulation and cut them to fit and wedged them in the openings of the stand untill I can get the wood shell finished.

Also the aquascape is far from done, I am kinda liking the wedge look but it needs a good bit of work before it's done and maybe a few more pieces of rock. Using the drains I made a little platform to suspend the large rock, from the side it looks like a simple structure, but when you look length wise down the tank it has a large cavern that will surely be the hangout spot of the tank :) As a side benifit there is a good current formed through the cave that runs below the drains, its slow enough to prevent the sand from being entrained in the current, but its very laminar which gives great circulation in the rest of the tank. O and I love my vortech's.

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MY FAV SHOT :)
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Nope, the PVC is a mock up until the Aluminum comes in for my frame, I was just verifying the clearance. The canopy will be fully enclosed with a wood skin mounted to the aluminum. The skin pieces will be removable as well so I can easily get in and out of the tank if there is a lot of work to be done in the tank.

-Brett
 
There is plenty of space to cover the PVC with rock, I am waiting for the screen's to come in so I just temporarily placed the fulls sections in there.
 
Ed,
I am making the canopy out of Red Oak with a melot stain, I am matching the stain that is on my living room furniture. I am going to buy the stock this afternoon. I will test stain the oak to make sure it can hold the color. I might have to make it out of something like birch or cherry which will take a dark stain better.
-Brett
 
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