CyclistMT's 150 Gal Plywood and Glass Build Log

[Macimage]

First, thank you for such a funny thread!! Especially, Katie Coral!

How much do you estimate the tank weighs? Is it lighter than a comparably sized 150 gallon glass tank? I would like to go bigger on the next tank (400+), but I don't want to deal with all the weight and having 8 big guys over to move it in. My current 225 is acrylic with a starfire front and that worked out nicely, but I like your idea for my next one.

Joyce

 

[CyclistMT]

Thanks for the compliment Joyce!

Yes, the tank is much lighter then a comparably sized glass tank. I was able to use 3/8" glass since the plywood is taking the bulk of the pressure. To make a similar sized tank of glass it would take at least 1/2" which would really increase the weight.

I was able to handle getting the tank on an off of saw horses myself. I did have a friend help me get it downstairs and onto its stand but that was more because of the bulk of it then the weight.

 

[Macimage]

Excellent! I've been wondering about how to handle my next bigger in wall tank when we move. I didn't want to deal with the weight of a glass tank, the earthquake problems with the inability of a glass tank to flex and lack of ability to drill holes myself were all negatives. I thought I might have to get another acrylic/glass combo tank, but this sounds even better.

Thanks!
Joyce

 

[mg426]

Nice job !!!

 

[chris wright]

Sorry to hear about your losses mate.
The mimic tang is nice though and sounds as you are getting the parameters stable. Looking forward to see the progress of your tank

Cheers

Chris

 

[CyclistMT]

Thanks mg and Chris!

I do have more progress to report but I'm waiting to get a picture before I make a post. Hopefully in the next couple of days.

 

[CyclistMT]

WOW! I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything since last November! A couple of buddies of mine sucked me back into an MMO game we used to play and I guess that’s been consuming a lot of my online time. So here’s a belated Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Easter to all of you that celebrate such things.

The tank is progressing and I have lots of updates. It looks like the one year anniversary of the tank has come and gone and it’s still holding together. I guess I did OK building this thing. So first things first, I promised to tell you about my fish saga. Tobi is still alive but found his way to the sump several more times. He has been banished to my son’s 10 gal which is slowly turning into a nano reef. A few months ago I fell in love with blue jaw triggers and thought I’d have to wait until my next tank to consider them.

-Why do we always start thinking about the next tank that’s going to be bigger, better, and more expensive before the current tank is even fully stocked? You don’t do that? O, well, I guess it’s just me then. I know, it’s a sickness. -

Anywho… since my tang is a bit of a snit and the YWG wasn’t making able to hang in the tank anymore, I decided to give blue jaw triggers a try. Of course I had to have a pair and here they are! Slim and Nikki.

I also had plans for a sunburst anthias so when I saw one at my LFS I snatched it up right away.

I’ve been busy on the coral front too. I’ve had quite a few acquisitions since November. Mostly smaller pieces or frags but they’ll grow out. Here’s some shots.

Favites I picked up from my LFS.

ORA pink birds nest from my LFS. It's starting to color up nicely.

ORA green birds nest I got at the same time.

Purple Neospongoides I think. Got this for a steal from my LFS as it wasn't doing so well there. This is one of three small peices that I have.

Purple tipped acro I got from my LFS. It was putting down a base on the rock I glued it to within a week.

Conitinued in next post...

 

[CyclistMT]

Another rescue and sweet deal from my LFS. Green clove polyps.

This is one of my favorites. I also picked this up from the LFS. Green and purple cup coral. It's hard to get a good picture of the color you see in person. The second picture with it partially closed shows some of the color better.

Just picked this up from, you guessed it, my LFS this weekend. Kind of a yellowish/green acro. I'm excited to see how it evolves in my tank.

I got a Fiji yellow leather at the same time. I guess I was into yellow this weekend.

I got a few frags from Fraggle Reef this week too. I can't wait to see these color up and grow out a bit!

Green with purple polyp Pocillopora

Green base orange Digi with green/purple polyps birdnest to the left.

Continued in next post...

 

[CyclistMT]

Also from Fraggle Reef...

Purple candy cane.

Neon pink Milli with a mystery bonus frag to the lower left of it. I think it may be Pocillopora.

Another mystry bonus frag. I'm not really sure what this is yet. Any guesses?

Fraggle Reef also had a beautiful blue Oulophyllia I picked up and a golden purple Crocea although the colors look different in my tank then on the web site. Of course my picture isn't top down either. It's still gorgeous.

And finally I was able to get a better picture of my hairy mushrooms. Yes, the tips are really this purple.

Continued in next post...

 

[CyclistMT]

Remember this?

Umm, yeah. Now it looks like this…

I was just sitting there one day thinking to myself, “It wouldn’t be too hard to make that right side a bit more open”. <sigh> As many of you know, that ten minute slight rearrangement of rocks turned into a couple of hours that never really looked as good as it did before. So, I started over. I’m not sure I really like the new aquascape as much as the old one but I’ve learned my lesson... again. I’m not going to touch it anymore (at least until that little voice in my head says, “Go on, you know you wanna move just that “one” rock”).

In other news, I have removed the surge buckets and the OM Super Squirt from my system. I was getting frustrated with the salt creep and the constant tinkering (moving parts you know) with the buckets. But they did move the water really well. The OM motor developed a very annoying grinding noise. Of course they replaced it but it took them a while to source new motors and I just couldn’t stand the noise anymore. So, I took it off, reworked my closed loop and found that I have just as good of flow with out it.

I guess that’s it for now. I think this deluge of posts makes up for my absence. I hope you’re enjoying the ride so far. I know I am!

Random tank pics.

 

[CyclistMT]

Ok, so I know it's been like FOREVER since I posted about the tank and the hordes of people (ok, for the one foul smelling guy at the library) that have been following this build probably thought it just withered away and died. Ironically, this post is more to bring closure to the thread then an update. Thankfully, no, the tank didn't die but it is no more. First, let's bring the tank's history up to date.

I had change the aquascape again because I never really did like the way it was the last I left it. More fish and corals had been added and the tank was really starting to come into its own. These pics are from August 08.

If you look closely in the picture above, you'll see the dreaded flatworms. It was about this time when I first discovered them. It was late summer and tank nutrients were probably kinda high due to some minimal neglect because well"¦.it was summer and I was spending less time inside looking at the tank. I know, bad excuse but it happens sometimes. Anyway, I started trying to siphon these out with water changes but it just wasn't enough. I was going to have to chemically treat them. I happened across this thread"¦

Total System Levasole Planaria Kill Recipe

This was the method I decided to employ. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the room to keep a lot of make up water on hand in case things when horribly wrong. Consequently I delayed putting this plan into action until I could really be focused and watch everything really carefully. So that probably led to a larger population of flat worms then I would have liked to deal with.

Anyway, whether I didn't get the dose exactly right or the flatworm toxins were too much, I ended up doing a water change with the water I did have on hand within 3 hours of initial dosage. Long story short, I did end up losing a couple of fish and a couple of corals. All in all, it could have been worse. The good news is the flatworms were completely eliminated. I never have seen any sign of them since then.

Fast forward to January 09. The economy was in the tank (no pun intended). I work in the financial sector and at that time, trust in financial institutions was at an all time low (thankfully I work for one of the most stable of these companies and it has been one of the strongest through this mess). There was a new President in the White House. And the wife and I decided to stimulate the economy all by ourselves by buying a new house. Smart huh? Well, I never did claim to be very intelligent.

Well, you can imagine the whirlwind our life became trying to get our current house ready to be on the market and finding a new one. Finishing all the "œhoney do's" I put off for the past 17 years took most of February. I even took a week's vacation during the month to finish them. By March the house was on the market and we were cleaning it twice a week to keep it in tip top shape for showing. Needless to say the reef tank got algae cleaned off the glass and that was about it for a few weeks. Thankfully it had kind of reached that autopilot phase of stability so I got away with it for a bit.

The entire time I was dreading what would need to be done with the tank once we finally sold the house. Would the new owners want it, want all the animals? Or would I have to tear it out and seal up the wall. Around June 09 we got a solid offer on the house and started the process of moving. Fortunately they did want the tank so I wouldn't have to take it out and close up the wall but they didn't want the animals in it.

I didn't have anywhere I could really house all the animals during the move process so I ended up getting a 29 gal bio cube and keeping the ones I got really attached to and taking the rest of them to the LFS.

So, that's where it's at now. The plywood tank is still in service so at least I did something right to build it but for now I'm reduced to a 29 gal bio cube. I don't have any pictures of that yet and maybe I'll just start a different thread for that. Seeing as how often I updated this thread I don't think any of you should hold you breath. :sad2:

I do have plans in the works for a"¦wait for it"¦bigger and better plywood tank! It will be a while though as now I have a whole new set of "œhoney do's" with a new house. Go figure"¦

So this is not "œgoodbye", just a "œsee ya later" and "œcatch you in other threads". Or to paraphrase Douglas Adams"¦

So long, and thanks for all the fish"¦..advice. :fish1:

 

[CyclistMT]

Random fish and coral pics from the tank.

 

[crvz]

Well I appreciate the closure, if nobody else does. We also sold our house and are buying a new one in a few weeks, even during all this financial mess, so I can relate. I decided to eliminate our tank before we put ours on the market, though, and I've been mostly tankless for a number of months. Any plans on an upgrade from the biocube?

 

[CyclistMT]

Hey crvz! I saw were planning a move as well and have been lurking in your new thread a bit.

I do plan on upgrading from the bio cube but I probably won't get to it for a while. I've been tossing around some ideas and thought I might go with a big cube but I've tentatively settled on 60x48x24 (300 gal). If I do that I'll be able to join you in the Large Tank forum. :beer:

 

[crvz]

That would be a fun setup. Another DIY build if you do go that route?

 

[CyclistMT]

Yep, it's just too cost effective to do plywood. I plan on 3 viewing windows in the new tank so I will have more cost into glass but I'm positive it will still be hundreds of dollars cheaper then an all glass tank. Not to mention the ease of drilling holes.