My Seven Footer

"I should have ordered the black, thicker egg crate - like tiggsy used, this HD stuff is cr$p... but I am making it work"

lol I know what you mean!!! its soooo brittle I don't feel like I can trust it to support a 30" high stack of marco even. I'm hoping that the buoyancy of the foam should take some of the load off.

do you happen to know where to get the thicker eggcrate? a bunch of people asked in tiggsys thread but nobody had the answer.

I like how you ran PVC into the base. did that add alot of stability? Did you run those PVC supports all the way to the top?
 
There is a link in the thread I just think someone said you have to purchase a lot to make an order from them.
 
you mean the link to mondernplastics? they have a $100 dollar minimum order.

we also were not able to determine if it actually was thicker or not. does anybody know that for sure? if we know forsure its thicker, I wouldn't mind going in on a group order :D
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11714548#post11714548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RyanBrucks
"I should have ordered the black, thicker egg crate - like tiggsy used, this HD stuff is cr$p... but I am making it work"

lol I know what you mean!!! its soooo brittle I don't feel like I can trust it to support a 30" high stack of marco even. I'm hoping that the buoyancy of the foam should take some of the load off.

do you happen to know where to get the thicker eggcrate? a bunch of people asked in tiggsys thread but nobody had the answer.

I like how you ran PVC into the base. did that add alot of stability? Did you run those PVC supports all the way to the top?
Click to expand...

Right, the HD stuff is not super trustworthy. I doubled it up in key locations and created right angle brackets to help in key areas. The PVC runs all the way up and is zip tied along the back. It swings in to allow me to get the structure into the tank. Getting through the canopy and around the overflow is tricky, even with a eurobraced tank! I also tried to put foam in strategic places to help take the load off the overhang, but, ended up carving that out since it was floating too much. The PVC legs prevent the structure from tipping off the wall. (Since the structures are built like over-hangs). I may also add arches as separate structures to push against these wall structure. Can create some nice swim throughs too. The night-mare would be to have one of these things take off in my tank, powered by a 5000 gph tunze, rolling all around and scratching up my nice new acrylic tank (yikes!).

I only saw that link for american plastics, and I don't know for sure if the stuff is thicker or not. You could do something similar with a pvc grid or something like that.
 
I just headed to ACE hardware to see if they had it. no luck on the eggcrate.

they didn't have epoxy resin, but they DID have fiberglass resin, something I saw mentioned in the other thread as working.


its a big can and then it has a little tube of hardener. anybody know if I need the hardener if its just used to stick argonite and crushed coral? I'm going to try a mix of the two thrown at different angles.
 
Ryan you have to mix the hardner with resin for it to harden. Becarefull if you have not worked with fiberglass or resin. I would put some cardboard underneath wherever you work.

Justin what store did you find it at and in what department?
 
I am using West systems epoxy and hardner. Purchased at West Marine. Seems to work well. ALso, did a great job fixing my wife's porcelin compost container that she broke on the counter.

Cabinet makers are coming out tomorrow to make some modifications on my canopy. The lights won't quite fit. Hopefully, they can keep the saw dust out of the tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11718831#post11718831 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishTruck
I am using West systems epoxy and hardner. Purchased at West Marine. Seems to work well. ALso, did a great job fixing my wife's porcelin compost container that she broke on the counter.

Cabinet makers are coming out tomorrow to make some modifications on my canopy. The lights won't quite fit. Hopefully, they can keep the saw dust out of the tank.
Click to expand...


know exactly how you feel right now. had to call and get my sump dimensions changed last minute , since I forgot to account for the removable leg I added in the center when I initially sized the stand :)
 
Well, the cabinet guys cut the stand for me and did a better job than I would have. They also sealed the lid and got zero dust in the tank! They are coming tomorrow to add the trim to the top which will hide the water line. They took a door to make sure the stain is matched correctly.

So, I dumped in my two big rock creations. There are no lights in the tank, so pics were hard to take. The middle one hides my overflow and two tunze 6100s. The one in the corner has a 6200 in it. I have one more big one, and three or four small ones to make.

IMG_0564.jpg

IMG_0561.jpg

IMG_0560.jpg

IMG_0552.jpg


My water is pretty murky! After I threw the rock in, the foam head blew the lid right off my skimmer! I just added some carbon and will start water changes tomorrow. This is my first time curing rock in a tank.
 
I made some more progress. This weekend... I finally mounted my lights. Wired them three times and mounted them twice until they were working the way that I wanted.

I have two sfiligoi infinity twin pendants. Each has two 400 watt bulbs right next to each other. So, four 400 watt MH and nothing else. These were purchased from Aquarium Obsessed many months ago (seems like ages). Simple!

I did not use the ICE Cap ballasts that came with the set, rather, I used Coralvue dimmable ballasts which I got from Mike at Reef Specialty. The idea here is that I can acclimate corals more easily by simply dimming the lights. There is not a whole lot of room in my canopy to raise and lower the lights.

I also installed them on PVC grab handles. Since my hood is fairly tight, I can easily remove the pendants with one hand for major tank maintenance.

I also added substrate. About 140 lbs. mixed 1-2 mm reef bottom sand from Carib Sea and 120 lbs of a larger grain to hole the stuff down in high current. The plan is a DSB that can hopefully handle the high flow I plan to put in the tank. Here are some pics.

IMG_0746.jpg

IMG_0748.jpg

IMG_0750.jpg

IMG_0751.jpg

IMG_0752.jpg

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IMG_0758.jpg


Right now, I am doing a temp test. The temp has gone from baseline 80.6 to 81.1 in two hours. So far, I am ventillated with just one panasonic fan in the basement.

The tank is so bright I can barely look at it. I have the ballasts at 115% right now to test the heat and ventillation. Will definitely need to run at lower power or wear sunglasses all the time.

Oh yea, I am using reflux 12k bulbs.

I have not bothered to check perameters yet, other than temp, pH, and SG. This week, I will do some testing, get my Ca and Alk up, and hopefully finish the cycle on this rig soon!

Ryan.
 
great work keep it coming! we need a pic once that sand clears up with the lights on :D

I'm really loving the 2tone stain on the stand.

what brand of foam did you use for the rock structures again?
 
Thanks!

I used "great stuff" in the red can for the rock structures.

Tank is clearing slowly. Hopefully will be presentable by tomorrow night!

Ryan.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12001368#post12001368 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by matt & pam
Ryan,
Do you already have a chiller? Is the 80.6 temp with all pumps running?

Matt
Click to expand...

Yes. 80.6 is with all pumps and four tunzes going 100%. The heater is set to keep it between 79 and 80 degrees in the basement sump and it runs about .6 degrees warmer upstairs.

The temp goes up about one degree with the lights on for two hours. Will do some longer tests this week. I also ordered another panasonic fan to vent the hood better. They are silent and only use about 35 watts.

The basement is cold and drafty and in the winter I don't think I will run the chiller. The summer will be a different story. I have a drop-in chiller sitting on a palate in my garage. Have not hooked it up yet. Hopefully, that can wait until May or June.

Ryan.
 
holy crap that looks cool

hows it working out having the powerheads inside the rock islands? is it just the center island? everything look stable so far?
 
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