Obiwanthegoby's Downsize Build

[Jeremy Blaze]

I must have missed it. Who was the builder?

Those 9" end braces are un accepptable to me. They will seriously get in the way of getting your arms in the tank.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

I must have missed it. Who was the builder?

Those 9" end braces are un accepptable to me. They will seriously get in the way of getting your arms in the tank.

Yea, Im not happy with them at all.

Jeremy, :hmm3: I have yet to introduce the tank manufacturer to my thread.

 

[afernandez]

I'm also interested I knowing who it is ..I'm in my planning stages of an upgrade and would love to hear feed back so I won't be the next victim.

I recently heard feed back on a very popular company and it sounds oh just too familiar but just want to confirm.

Thanks again
Btw I want the same type of stand

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Ok. I wasn't sure if you mentioned them or not.

I read your post saying you would NEVER recommend this company to anyone, so I assumed you had mentioned the company name.

 

[joelbegt]

Glad to see it finally came! So when does water hit the tank?

 

[cham]

Sorry to hear your troubles but it's going to be hard to avoid tank makers that we can't identify.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Lots of progress over the week. All the tank plumbing is glued, All of the sump plumbing is fitted.

Overflow plumbing

Sump/Drain plumbing (Needs to be glued)

and.... the biggest news....

WE GOT WATER GOING IN!!!!

 

[joelbegt]

Any more progress this weekend?

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Tons of backwards progress. Mid week last week the tank developed a leak in the overflow. Possibly a bad spot in the overflow seam. I decided i would run the pump on a timer every few hours until I could get to it over the weekend. At this point i also realized during the glueing of the return pump plumbing I had forgot to glue the union and the elbow after it. ( I guess due to going back and forth from interacting with the kids to glueing some more here and there I forgot those two connections.) so anywho I started to glue the union an elbow when I pushed and pulled just enough for the bulk head to begin leaking. So I drained the tank into tubs and garbage cans, and there it sits. Discouraged and ****ed off. I cleaned up the seams yesterday and was going to try and find the place it was leaking as well as reseal all the bulkheads with a healthy dose of silicone...... But decided to do other things instead. I plan to repair the seam and reseal in the next couple of days. I will post pictures once water and rock is back in tank.

On another note I contacted the builder yet again and received crappy feedback. At this time I will have to say don't buy a custom tank from CADlights. Everyone I had talked to had bought a standard system from them and had good things to say about the tank build quality, not so much regarding the equipment. I have said my fill on my tank, and don't want to beat a dead horse. Now I am out a few more bucks for fixing what they didnt get right the first time, buying black silicone, a silicone tool kit and taking up time of mine that I shouldn't be to repair a tank that is les than 2 weeks old. All in all I can not recommend them to anyone at this point after all the headaches I have had.

 

[afernandez]

Wow .... Sorry to hear that. it's not the first time I hear that from that company . It use to be a local company in ny. I would be very upset

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Re siliconed and sealed the over flow leak this weekend. Going to replumb the pump return and overflow to try to quiet the system down and give me the ability to adjust return flow (also to quiet the system more if needed). I will leak test the entire sstem sometime this week and hopefully get saltwater back in next weekend.

 

[Entropy]

Great looking tank. I had the same problem with my overflow leaking, but I decided that the stand pipes I am using are tall enough that they limit the amount of water that will drain. Fortunately the leak is slow enough that if the power stays out that long I will likley lose everything in the tank anyway (now there is a pleasant thought. )

Where did you source the filter sock holder in the sump?

 

[obiwanthegoby]

The sock holder was from BRS.

Hopefully the new seal is good to go. I still have to seal or possibly replumb the pump return as it is leaking from the bulkhead. I may just fill the thing full of silicone.... Wonderful stuff! But I think I am going to rework it all so I can make the standpipe taller and more accesible for venting the durso.

Great looking tank. I had the same problem with my overflow leaking, but I decided that the stand pipes I am using are tall enough that they limit the amount of water that will drain. Fortunately the leak is slow enough that if the power stays out that long I will likley lose everything in the tank anyway (now there is a pleasant thought. )

Where did you source the filter sock holder in the sump?

 

[obiwanthegoby]

More GREAT news....

I had everything in place this morning, going to start putting sand water and rock in. Decided I should leak test the overflow 1 more time and let the plumbing drain off and ensure no leaks there....

this is what I find!!! FREAKIN AWESOME! I am so glad I bought my tank from CAD LIGHTS!... ::sarcasm:: :soap:

So i resealed already, this time I wiped down and resealed the entire overflow. Not a great job but I was ****ed and it shouldnt be visible anywho, black on black, with rocks in front of it.

So Ill be waiting 3 - 8 hours for it to cure before moving forward! :willis:

Hopefully ill post some full and running pics tomorrow.

 

[joelbegt]

Any updates?

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Any updates?

Tank has been up and going with sand and rock since the fiasco with the overflow. I put 6 hermits in a few days ago and they are still crawling roud. I plan to add the first batch of fish within the next week. Most likely a few wrasses and maybe a small harem of lyre tail anthias. Will post hits when I add fish.

 

[REEF SMAC]

Glad to see that you've finally got this build pretty much complete now. With all the issues you've had along the way it's got to be a relief to finally be past all that.

Looking forward to see how you fill it all in now.

 

[Triggerfish]

hey obi..just was looking through my subsribed threads and found yours from 2009 when you were stocking the 400.(yeah been away from board for while.).that was good trying to figure out stocking plan.. i was going to bring that one back up then found this... good luck man..

 

[obiwanthegoby]

I ordered the first batch of fish... it's kinda large, had to hit that minimum order amount.

5 Maldives Lyretail Anthias
1 Grey head wrasse (Halichoeres leucurus)
1 Yellow Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus)
1 Neon Wrasse ((Halichoeres garnoti)

And my start up clean up crew from reefcleaners.org

I've got the brown diatom bloom starting, and added 6 hermits about 10 days ago. All of them still kicking. Added my 'red light' coral from the tub where my tangs are hanging out. (I call it the red light coral, it was a hardy piece of frogspawn from a colony ive been fragging for years. I used it to watch water quality in the holding system) It instantly started extending polyps. All good signs.

The plan is to add the fish from the order and give them a few weeks to settle in as these are the most docile of the fish on the list. the remainder are below:

????? Clownfish Pair (probably skunks or fire)
Tanaka Pygmy wrasse (have to wait till it is available)
Chalk Bass
Orange Spotted Blenny
Harlequin Tuskfish
Tomini Tang
Yellow Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Niger or Red Tail Trigger.

Stocked in that order in phases of 3 - 4 at a time. All of the tangs to be added simultaneously one night.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Some pictures of the final aquascape I took out the 6 Inch PVC connectors and just locked everything in using the rock scape. Plenty of caves and over hangs as well as tiered coral placement. Plenty of open space for fish and for the coral to grow in. Lemme know what you think.