My new 400 G tank

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK a little up date but no pics yet.

I got the tank tore down this weekend. 2 X 55 G trashcans full of LR w/ powerheads running in them. 65G trashcan full of LS. I moved a bunch of rock and LS into a 190 holding tank. about 2" of sand on the bottom and a nice long ridge of LR. I also filled up about 3/4 of the 60 G sump with LR. I moved the fish and corals into the holding tank and they seem to be OK. I had some Amoina yesterday so I'll be keeping and eye on that. I put up a 400W MH light on a light mover for now so that the corals have some light. Now I have to start cleaning and rebuilding everything.

One thing I noticed when I too my skimmer down was that it was filled, both the inside of teh skimmer and the 30G skimmer sump, with a ton, and I lreatley mean a ton, of baby snails. The whole inside of the skimmer and the bottom of teh sump. The bottom was so rough it was werid. All snails on the bottom. I guess I was doing something right in the system.

Also I found some pods growing in the system. Weird in that besides the usual brown ones, I had some that were black and some that were white. And I'm talking a bright pure white or a coal black.

 

[MargaritaMan]

HEY STRANGER!!! Geez, It's been forever since I've been on here! That room looks great. Glad to see some of the Big Boys are lookin' good. Rudy, Green Hornet, and the huge Vlamingi; I miss those guys but not the upkeep. Post some more pics please. Click this link to see what I've been up to and where the money went. http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43770
Still have the 180 and all is well. Rose anemones just keep multiplying.

MM

 

[melev]

Congrats MM!

 

[Snap-on]

MM: Speechless

Ray: Nice work, but no princess. :thumbdown








:lol:

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Hey strangers.

MM, I can't see the photo bucket pic's due to work. I'll have to check them out at home. Damn govt. But from your avatar, looks like you got the blower motor built. Congrats. Also on the magazine.

As for the fish, the Vlamingi, sailfin and rabbit all went to a local here who has a 1100 G tank in his office. I was just running out of room with all of the fish and the fact that I want to put corals in the tank. They were beautiful fish but I needed to thin out the big guys. The two Naso's and the pink tail are staying with me. They seem to be doing fine and will follow me around the tank, waiting for me to feed them a sheet of nori.

Thanks everyone for teh compliments on the room. Yea it took me a year to build it but I did it all by my lonsome. The tank has been moved into the room now and I'm starting in on the plumbing nightmare. I say nightmare as I'm trying to incorporaite a backflush system for the C/L filter system. It should work in a way that I can isolate the filter from the system for cleaning and at teh same time, reverse the flow thru the C/L so that I can flush out anything thats stuck on the intake screens. The main plumbing is done and checked out except for the pump return. I'm hooking up a OM 4 way to that return and just need to plumb it. I'll get some pic's posted when I get the chance.

Take care everyone and MM glad to hear from you again.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK here we go with a update finally. With picturs even.

First off, the tank and stand are now in place in the new room thanks to the help of some MASVC club members and a few good neighbors. Thanks everyone.

Me and my tank.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

My CL returns from a OM 4 way run by a Barracuda pump. This end of the tank will not be viewable. The returns make a nice wave across the water.

This is the other end and returns. They will be coverd by some rocks/sand. The plumbing on the outside will be covered by a small shelf as this end will be viewable. Also the white plumbing you see on the bottom of both pic's is the return from my other CL which is run by a Hammerhead and has my swimming pool canister filter on it to keep the big stuff out.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Access to the back of the tank. I made 2 removable wood pannels to replace the windows that were in the wall. This provides 2 purposes. 1 to block out the sun from the back of the tank and 2 to allow easy access to everything behind the tank.

In this one you can see the far pannel installed along with my swimming pool filter. The filter is all plastic so no big deal that it's outside. I'll eventually make a cover for it to hide it some. Just not enough room inside for it.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

And finally some of my rock work.

The large arch over to the left is all one peice of LR. It weighs about 50 lbs and is about 2 feet long. I'm going to place my monti caps on top to cover it with.

This is the other side. I think I'm going to raise this pedstal some more. I'm still depating on leaving it as an Island or making it a ridge back to the corner. The wife syas Island. It too will be covered with some monti caps as will all of my upper platform I put in.

My next big task is to go collect another 600 G of NSW to fill the system. I had done this before when I ran into some leaks and had to drain it all. But that's another story.

 

[melev]

Good update. The saying "Just add water" comes to mind....

 

[Snap-on]

Holy crap, I thought you dropped off the face of the planet!!! I figured maybe you turned to sex as a new hobby. LMAO Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Everything looks really good bud, really good, nice work, can’t wait to see it filled. Should look awesome!!!

 

[dougie]

Congratulations and Good luck mate.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Thanks. As they say too, "good things come to those that wait". i just didn't think it would take 2 years to do all of this.

As for the water, I had been filling it up from the hose and checking for leaks and all. Thought I had everything fixed. I went and took 3 100 mile round trips to get 600G of NSW to fill the tank with. Took me 2 days. Well, next morning i find the room flooded again for the second time. Wife IS NOT happy at all.

I almost lost the whole project when I flooded the room and her brand new pergo flooring the first time. Even more so when I went to get some replacements and found out the style we bought had been discontinued. So yea, I was in the dog house for a while until I finally found some more flooring. I'm now waiting until I get the tank filled and everything stable before i replace the flooring. Don't want to go thru that again.

The rockwork in the middle of the tank covers my overflow box which also has my intake screens for my 2 closed loops. Figured that was the easiest way to hide them. I did run a flow test with everything on line.

The 4 way makes some nice wave action in the tank, almost too much, so I don't need a surge tank. From the 2 lower returns, I get a upswelling flow that rotates in a clockwise direction. Then the 2 upper ones on the oppisite end open and I get a counter clockwise rotation and a nic elittle wave across the top of the water. The openings are only on one at a time so all the flow from the Barracuda is coming out of a 1 1/2" pipe.

I hope to get water in it this weekend if I get my other pump repaired. I had replaced the bearings in it and apparently got a bad set of bearings. While they were quiteir than the last set, they were still too noisey. When I pulled them out, I found that there was a rough spot in them so I'mm off to the bearing shop to get a replacement.

 

[mflamb]

...A Barracuda flowing through one 1.5 inch pipe...can you surf that wave!!! WOW...great system...looking forward to seeing live activity in it.

 

[Snap-on]

Wow bud, sorry to hear about the prior flood. Explains a lot man. Feel sorry for you, the misses must have put your nuts in a vice over that one. Lucky you still have a tank. That incident must have cost you a diamond tiara and a bag of chips.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Naw, I got off cheap, a 14G custom paint job on her truck.

It was hit and miss for a long time on the tank though. I still get a squeeze every now and then from her to remind me about the little spill.

I never thought that much water could come out of a 1 1/2" hose so fast. I had a input to one of my pumps come out. It just so happened that it was coming from a intake on the bottom of the tank. By the time I got the 2 valves secured to stop the flow, about 75G of water had hit the floor.

It was kind of a good thing as I decided that my plumbing was way to complicated and so I redid it all. I think I'm going to be happier with the new setup.

 

[crescent1]

I'm sorry but, your wife has great hooters.

 

[Snap-on]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8506002#post8506002 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crescent1
I'm sorry but, your wife has great hooters.

:lmao:


Ray: Glad you got the problem solved, sounds like the plumbing is a lot better than before. Good thing your wife was understanding.

 

[Lordhelmet]

here is another thread that i thought just went away. Great update. I hope everything goes ok. I know what it's like to be in the dog house and hope your better half has forgivin you. it makes this hobby so much more fun.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Well the tank is now full of water. I finally got the temp up to around 76 but it took a few days. I moved some of my LR rubble from my holding tank into the sump along with some LS into the sump low flow area. I still have a couple of dribbles from the pipes but hope to have them fixed soon. I'll see in a few days if my fix worked.

The only problem I'm having right now is the amount of noise coming from the pumps. I know one motor has something wrong with it. I've replaced the bearings in the motor but it's still not right. Anyone know of a really wisper quiet pump? I want to just go ahead and bite the bullet and replace all three pumps.

As long as nothing else leaks, I'll be out of the dog house.

The rock work came out looking really good I think. I did raise the right island some more and turned the top rock over so that it's more flat and looks more natural. Plus it gives me a lot more room to glue corals.

I've also noticed that the left half of the tank gets a lot of sunlight. I'm also debating about replacing the center pannel in the back with the windows. When the sun goes down, it gives some nice sun line sinto the whole tank from the back. I may try it one day and post some pic's to see what everyone thinks.