Acrylic Aquarium Manufacturer in the Midwest?

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10309414#post10309414 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ostrow
Hey, you knew that testing it dry!!! YOu can always remove the tank, and re-do the piping

Over my dead body! :lol:

You should hear it now, mounted and drumming trough the stand.

I'll keep it and see how it goes if it works well but noise bothers too much I might move it to the basement. I just did not wanted to make another hole on the floor.

 

[jdieck]

Finally seeing the light.
Here is the latest and how it went pics included:

After removing all corals to the frag tank, refugium and Q tank all the rock was moved to a Tub in the garage with a mag drive pump both borrowed from mhurley (Thanks for the tub Mike and to you Joel for helping with the rock move), Fish and critters were also moved to the frag tank. The only glitch was that the pistol shrimp (Pancho Villa) (RKM cover Nov 2005) got into a hole of a large 30 pound rock so we set up a plastic tub as temporary aquarium with it's own heater, recirculation and filter for the rock (Thanks again Joel)

The following day the help crew arrived to help move the tank, thanks a lot to all the ones that showed up and helped move the tank and pull out some of the electrical that had to be relocated to give room to the switching valve. Again I am very greatful for all the response for help I got.
The use of a ladder like a work stand was very useful, if you do it just one recommendation, remove your belt or turn the buckle to the back, while leaning forward I ended up slightly scratching the tank, something that was easily fixed.

The electrical was moved higher in the stand and I took advantage to make a bit cleaner work out of it.

Then proceeded to install and pipe the switching valve. If I wanted to design the stand dimensions around the valve or the valve dimensions for the stand I could have not done a better job. Basically by chance, after piping the two long elbows there was only 1/4" left on each side between the elbows and the tank sides and aligned very well with the top return bulkheads.
When I ran it dry it was somehow noisy, once water was flowing the noise wen down a lot (think water lubrication) and now is quieter than the new IceCap quieter fans I installed in the hood to replace the old ones.
Finished also the top removable piping for the returns and connected installed the bulkheads and piped the drain.

After testing the piping and fixed a leak in the drain between the flex PVC and rigid connector I filled the tank to about half way.
Proceeded to rinse the rock I was going to reuse and get rid of the Aiptasia. After three passes of chiseling, Muriatic acid and pocking holes I deemed it clean and proceeded to arrange the rock on it's PVC supports.

With that done, I proceeded to pour the sand. I had planned to transfer the sand to smaller bags to make less of a mess when pouring but I was so tired I followed the advise from Joel to just take the 20 pound bags and pour them in one at a time. It worked fairly well.
Notice the pic below that small mound of sand is 20 pounds!

 

[jdieck]

Sandstorm anyone? It took a total of 18 bags of Aragalive. A mix of Fiji pink, Bimini pink (Which are not pink but have different grain size) and special reef. Each bag was drained, submerged and poured in, as expected by the time I finished I could not see anything.

Cleared up after 24 hours with a good canister filter and after several blows to the rock with a powerhead. Connected the return pipes on top but kept the tank isolated from the main for a week as I was expecting an ammonia and nitrates spike with a temporary heater, filter and powerheads.

After a week, no ammonia spike has happened and Nitrates were only 1 ppm so I decided to connect the whole system, made a couple of water changes. and waited another three days. All parameters balanced and stable, ammonia still zero and nitrates at 0.5 ppm. I think keeping the rock well and using the sand with bacteria may have helped basically with no cycle.
The issue, after all that cleaning aiptasia started to pop up again, about 10 small and large ones just came out of the pores so following Carlos advice I got me a Copperband. I was afraid the Tangs will pick on him but I was lucky to get a large Australian one (5 TO 6") from Liveaquaria. It arrived the next day, beautiful animal, very healthy and he was not skinny. I put him alone directly on the main and give him some days to acclimate, the same day he started picking on mysis and the second day he got a handful of frozen bloodworms and live artemia that he devoured. By the fourth day all aiptasia and mini feathers were gone. By then also worms started to show under the sand.

Time to transfer corals and fish. I first transferred the corals and clams, then the clowns, the wrasses and finally first the Chevron (which did not care about the CB), encouraged by that I transferred the Yellow. He tried to flash the copperband which Tang style flashed him back then showed the dorsal spines and that was it. the line as drawn. The transferred the Achilles which was so happy about the additional flow and room that just did not paid attention to the CB and just decided to start playing around darting as usual.

So this what it looks like. Still I am replacing the MH for lower Kelvin to increase the PAR, need to fix one of the actinic PCs that did not turned on and reinstall new mouldings around the aquarium but the worst is over.

I am very happy with the new tank, no distortion at all, I have a lot better view than before.
There were three casualties, the Xenia, the Aiptasia and my pocket till the next one!

 

[ostrow]

Jose, that is a LOT less rock than I expected you to use. Why so little? Where is all the coral going to go?

To my eye you left no gap for separating soft from stoney corals? Did you do that?

 

[jdieck]

Yes I used about one third of what I had before. I did not put back any of the rocks with zooanthids, yellow polyps or GSP. The clavularia, euphylia, torch and ricordeas fit very well, (see last pick). The Hydonophora and the open brain were on the sand by the bridge. I place the clams on the large flat rock that Mike gave me so they would not sit on the sand.
At the end it passed the test after my wife said she liked it a lot better (and me too), the only thing I do not like is the lock lines from the return, I will be fabricating my own a lot shorter. I could not make the lock lines shorter as their turn radius is not tight enough.

 

[menard]

Jose

I like the new look, nice....wait till all realstate fill w/ corals is gonna look even stunning.

Peace

 

[jdieck]

Thanks, I really wanted more swimming space for the Tangs that had grown larger and more space for the corals to grow. May be less corals but I think they will look more natural.

 

[hansnfrans]

Fantastic!!! I love the new aquascaping!

I am glad to hear that you were able to get the livestock back in there so quickly, and without any issues.

Sorry to hear that the aiptasia survived. Hopefully the Copperband will eat both prepared foods AND the aiptasia. I had one that would only eat Rod's Food and didn't touch a single aiptasia in my tank

I am also glad to hear that the Hayward valve quieted-down a bit.

How are you liking the circular flow pattern??

 

[yankeereefer]

The new system looks fantastic - I really like the rockscape!

The best looking part IMO is the relocated electrical boxes

Ryan

 

[ostrow]

Can you snap a pic of the clams? I can't see them.

 

[mhurley]

4 days and all the aiptasia is gone?!?!? :lol:
Classic.

Love the tank bud. I'll stop by maybe next week or over the weekend.

 

[SaraB]

I love the new look of the tank! You really did leave a lot of rock out of this new tank, but it's a very clean look and your Tangs will love the swimming area!

 

[Jeff]

Jose, I just did the same thing in my new 220. I left a lot of room for the 4 tangs to swim and I am glad I did it that way.

Jeff

 

[jdieck]

Hans:
The CB seem to have finished with the aiptasia left in the main and is eating blood worms, I might try rod's for him also.
I like the new flow (gained a bit) although I do not like the look of the lock line nozzles which I hope to replace.

Ryan: Good job, I was so frustrated working in that little space that I really admired your patience in doing so

Joel:
Here you go. They are located at the very end of the aquarium on the three viewing sides.

Mike:
Welcome back. After the cleaning of the rock not many aiptasias were left in the main but the 10 or so that reappeared were taken care by the CB. There is still a lot of it in the rock I put in the fuge and the one that remain in the tub.
BTW, "Tweety" is still in the Q tank . I'm not sure I might have too much of a bio in the main with the three large tangs and the CB to put him there although he could be a good pal for P. Villa.

Sara and Jeff:
Thanks, The open space makes it look less cluttered and cleaner and gives it better depth or view, Tangs seem happy and a lot more active than before.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

Very nice....James does do great work I see.
What do you use to keep those pvc mounts still?

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10410476#post10410476 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by E-A-G-L-E-S
Very nice....James does do great work I see.
What do you use to keep those pvc mounts still?

Yes he did.
The switching valve is supported by two long plastic strap pipe hangers, the 1-1/2" pipe is clamped to the internal sides of the stand using clip pipe support clamps (my favorites) and the vertical 3/4" return pipes are supported by bulkehads on top of the tank. In all it makes for a very strong support which is easy to remove for maintenance.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/7001/cid/1912

 

[Acrylics]

Hi Jose,
Thanks for the update, glad it all worked out as you had planned.
Tank is looking good, love to see more pics as it progresses. I'll stay tuned

Hope all is well,
James

 

[taylor t]

Hi Jose - It's been months since I've read any posts with you on here. (I'm not on here very much) All I can say is WOW!! What a project! Anyway, I live across the street (almost) if you remember, I throw my white and silver xenia in the can every couple weeks, so if you want to replenish your weeds, let me know.

 

[jdieck]

Thanks James, good job.

Taylor; thanks for the offer, I was not going to add the Xenia but I was supposed to keep it for Tony (lactose) who was looking for some Red Sea specimens.

 

[Dag]

Jose,

That's really something. How did you join the rock toget