60x26x24 A.G.E upgrade-

[mc-cro]

I cant believe it, its been almost 2 weeks since the salt water went in. I put a basket of live rock rubble from my sump and a scoop of sand from the frag tank in it about a week ago. so far, not much action as far as pods go. I have been lightly feeding the tank every couple of days, saw a couple of pods and bristleworms in the basket, but none have started to venture out to the rock yet.

The vortechs have been making some interesting ripples in the sand, I am kinda liking it.

I found a place to mount the vortech controllers today too. I had been trying to figure out a place to hide them, yet accessible, and out of reach of tiny fingers.

The side of the overflow box in the center of the tank appears to be that place.

I also grabbed a couple shots of the false panel on the side for access to under the stand.

 

[david00061]

looks real nice... Im subscribed....

 

[Dustin1300]

Subscribed. I love the aquascape and 'rippled' sand. Are you having any sandstorms or not? I am still on the fence on whether I should go BB or SSB in my build I'm planning. Looks so much more natural to have sand in it!~

 

[mc-cro]

I am not having any sandstorms, the ripples are gently created over several days. The ripples were mostly created with the "lagoon" settings on the vortechs, at about 60-70% power. This is with new sand too. Once the sand has a good bacteria film on it, I think I can really crank up the flow. The other thing that is nice is that since it is so deep, even when sand does shift, its not going to blow a hole in the bed all the way to the bottom of the tank.

I am a DSB fan, have been using them for over 10yrs, and subscribe to the theory if they are set up correctly, and maintained, they can last for many years.

I currently have a SSB in my frag tank. It has actually turned out to be more hassle than I thought it would be. The first problem is that a good amount of flow does move the sand around, and leaves big open areas of just glass on the bottom. Thats fine for a frag tank, but I would not want that in my display. Secondly, since its shallow, it gets dirty and should be siphoned regularly. I will be taking it out shortly and going BB in the frag tank.

 

[sam75]

Looking great! Love the look of the tank and stand.

 

[gofor100]

Looks great! I'll be following your thread to see if you can give me any ideas for mine !

-Chad

 

[mc-cro]

thanks for the compliments!!

I am still trying to decide on my lighting. My play is to use the basics of what I already have; 2 250W MH ballast that I have been running for years, and VHO's for actinics.

I am going to build a floating canopy, but having the light shining in our eyes is not going to be acceptable. To help with that, I will want the canopy to be about 4" lower than the lights, creating more of a lampshade effect. I hope this will help with light spillover as well.

However to use the full size LAIII's that I already purchased, the canopy would have to be like 18" tall. That is just entirely too big for the room.

So I am about to pull the trigger on the mini LAIII's, then I can mount the VHO tubes beside the reflectors, instead of under,total height of about 7" and still have a 4" blind below the lights. This will drop the total canopy height down to just under 12".

question is, do you think 2 mini's will provide adequate light? I am planning on having some LPS down on the sand, with the majority of the sps up on the rock bommies.

 

[hatfielj]

Its funny I haven't gotten on reefcentral in months since I've left the hobby, but today I randomly decided to snoop around and I found this thread!

Great job on the build! I'm very happy to see the tank put to good use! The stand you build around it looks excellent. Keep up the great work!

 

[mc-cro]

Thanks man, I am glad you approve of what I have done with it. I am really loving the tank, I dont think I could have spec'ed it out better, its perfect.

So do you still have your nano?

 

[david00061]

looking good!!!!!

 

[hatfielj]

No, unfortunately I decided to get out of the hobby altogether until we move into a bigger place. Hopefully I'll be back up and running in the next few years!

 

[mc-cro]

It has been a while since I have updated this thread, but I have been busy working on the sump.

Previously I had always used a rubbermaid stock tub for a basement sump,I loved the simplicity and durability of it. Plus, if I wanted to mount something, I just drilled a hole in it. That was all good, but the fact that I couldnt see the bottom all that well was really starting to bother me, plus I couldn't clean it that well since it was 100g of water, and it was on the floor so you couldn't siphon or vacuum very easily. It was an all day event to clean the detritus off the bottom.

here is a pic of what it looked like up until about month ago :

and the rest of fish room:

I decided that I wanted a new sump, and this time I wanted to be able to see into it, and I wanted it off the ground some. When I purchased the display tank, the guy also threw in his 75g sump. So I decided I may as well make use of it. I also still had my old table that held my shallow lagoon, well actually my wife had it as a laundry table. So I just cut the legs down and re-purposed it as a sump platform, boy was she surprised.

I had to drill a hole the return pump

Initially I just removed the rubbermaid sump and put the new glass sump and table exactly where it had been. But I had the sump perpendicular to the frag tank, and that was becoming a bit of challenge to get everything where I wanted it. In addition, the drain lines from the display tank were not going to line up the way I was envisioning. SO, I needed to flip everything around 180*

so I tore everything down again, drained the frag tank this time, and painted the shelf while I was at it.

I also built a workbench, its a real pain trying do everything from plumbing to fraggin on the top of a washing machine

I still have to finish cleaning up all the wiring, and set up the Neptune, but thats about it.

what do you guys think?

 

[mc-cro]

So the good news is that the main tank is cycled, and I have it plumbed into the sump with the frag tank now. All I need to do now is complete the light canopy.

the bad news is that the stress from all these changes to the system, were too much for my huge derasa clam and I lost it. I am very depressed about it, I have had that clam for about 8yrs and he was huge, and this entire year long tank upgrade was built around him and because of him. It was a very sad day at the house, the wife even cried when I pulled him out of the tank.

 

[gofor100]

So the good news is that the main tank is cycled, and I have it plumbed into the sump with the frag tank now. All I need to do now is complete the light canopy.

the bad news is that the stress from all these changes to the system, were too much for my huge derasa clam and I lost it. I am very depressed about it, I have had that clam for about 8yrs and he was huge, and this entire year long tank upgrade was built around him and because of him. It was a very sad day at the house, the wife even cried when I pulled him out of the tank.

Geez... you've been busy!!!

So sorry to hear about the clam. One of the only negatives to an upgrade is the possibility of losing stuff.

Things are moving slower than expected with my upgrade (as you probably saw on my thread), but I'm glad to see things are progressing with your build!

Thanks,

Chad

 

[mc-cro]

thanks,but its hard to say things are progressing. I guess in the last month or two it has been moving along, but remember, I purchased this tank the first week of January. It didnt even get water in it until October.

btw, have you gotten your new tank yet? I saw that it was scratched and you sent it back.

The delays in the build have actually been a blessing in disguise in a lot of ways. It has really allowed me to take my time, improve some designs, and build the tank I have always wanted.

Not having the clam as the center piece of tank leaves a huge hole in my already minimal rock structure. I happen to have 1 large piece of very nice rock from my old tank that may fit in that spot nicely. Unfortunately, the rock has been dry for months, so I started curing it the same day the clam died.

 

[gofor100]

thanks,but its hard to say things are progressing. I guess in the last month or two it has been moving along, but remember, I purchased this tank the first week of January. It didnt even get water in it until October.

btw, have you gotten your new tank yet? I saw that it was scratched and you sent it back.

The delays in the build have actually been a blessing in disguise in a lot of ways. It has really allowed me to take my time, improve some designs, and build the tank I have always wanted.

Not having the clam as the center piece of tank leaves a huge hole in my already minimal rock structure. I happen to have 1 large piece of very nice rock from my old tank that may fit in that spot nicely. Unfortunately, the rock has been dry for months, so I started curing it the same day the clam died.

No tank yet... the holiday week last week delayed the pick-up, so I probably won't have it for another 2 weeks (minimum). But like you, I've found the delay may have helped in the long run since I'm able to do other "prep" things before actually filling the tank.

Good luck with the progress!

-Chad

 

[david00061]

2 weeks is not long

 

[Luckedout]

This is a great build so far! I'm sorry about the clam. That was my first thought when I saw your old tank, "Holy crap that's a big clam!'

 

[mc-cro]

Thanks for the compliments.

My canopy should be finished in the next week or so, looks like I may have lights on this before christmas.

been working on trying to set up the APEX controller.... that may take all weekend.

 

[whiteheadfamily]

Just subscribed myself. Awesome build so far. It caught my eye when you said you bought your tank in Jan and got water into it in Oct. I'm in a similar boat with a 125 gal. I bought it in Sep of 2010 and I'm still planning and building it, with no water yet. I just want to make it the best I can and enjoy it once it's going. I'll be posting a build thread shortly while watching yours come together too. Good luck and can't wait to see it grow!!!