Well, the tank is running. I have a leaky bulkhead that I might have to replace. Tightening it doesn't seem to get that last bit of seepage. I haven't installed the half-round to the weir to make the gap smaller yet, but so far no fish have gone over anyway. I might leave it, but the water level in the tank is 1 1/2" from the eurobracing which is way further than I was hoping for. No need for eurobracing if the water level is that low.
It's been a long time since I weighed rock before putting it into the tank, so this time I weighed it all piece by piece so I have an accurate number. Interestingly, I only used rock that was already in the 50-gallon tank, so I didn't have to add any of the rock that I acid washed. So I have about 100 lbs I can sell. Ha! All the rock that I used in the new tank is all branch rock, so it's super light - only 28 lbs in the tank!
I did all the plumbing using grey SCH80 pipe and fittings. I was short one bushing fitting for the return pump, so I did it in white (I have tons of white pipe and fittings). I have a new Eheim Compact 3000 return pump on the way right now anyway, so I'll redo the return plumbing when I install that pump. I am adding a tee into it with ball valves for my water changes anyway.
My original plan was to run the tank bare bottom. I was expecting the tank to show up with a clear bottom pane which I was going to paint white, but it showed up with black vinyl on it and then the tank was built onto particle board. So the tank has a black bottom. I'm not sure I'm keen on the black bottom, so I washed some sand to put in the tank, but now I'm kinda diggin' the black look (no reflection). So I'm going to hold off on the sand for now. I'll have to add a little tray of sand/rubble for my pistol shrimp though. Poor guy doesn't know what to do with himself. I'll get a little black acrylic box made for him - or maybe I'll just cut down one of those coral viewers. Or maybe I'll get Concept to build me a little polished tray.
I still have to get the light hanger installed, it's on some SWEET unpainted 2x4s right now. I have to get the screen lid installed too. I have a friend with a 3D printer and he's printing me up some custom-fit round corners to fit into the eurobracing. They even have a lip on them to hold the screen in place so it will fit flush to the surface of the eurobracing with no tabs to hold it in place.
There's a bunch of corals in the tank that still need to find a home. The only fluff I'm keeping are the rainbow brain, the Space Invader Pectina, a few select Zoas. Even most of the current SPS are going to find their way out of the tank (the birdnest, the tricolor, and the Pocci).
During the tank transfer I remove some fish too. I have left a breeding pair of beautiful Onyx Perculas, a big old Pajama Cardinal, and a Royal Gramma. I had a breeding pair of red Firefish too, but during the tank transfer one jumped out and I didn't notice in time to save it. I decided to re-home the remaining red Firefish and will replace them with Purple Firefish I think, maybe Helfrich's.
The dimensions of the display portion ended up being 36 x 20 x 21" so it is no longer 69 gallons, BUT if you include the back chamber, remove the glass displacement of the entire tank, then the actual tank volume is 69.7 gallons. So I'm still calling it 69-gallons. The sump has another roughly 14 gallons in it taking glass displacement into consideration, so the whole system has about 73 gallons of water, minus rock displacement, so pretty close to 70 gallons of actual water volume.
