Pete's 210 build

[D&KSac]

Lookin great Pete! Love the details of this thread. Oh Darcy your such a trooper K would have told me where to go had i asked her to clean my tank for me. LOL

As for this weekend the only time I have this weekend is Sunday around miday. Son taking me golfing for fathers day in the morning and then dinner with my dad that evening. LMK if your available around then. Our tee time is 9:30 am. Also were just doing 9.

 

[Joes210gal]

Nice to know about the bottom glass. I like that you're giving us details.
You're obviously a perfectionist. That's going to help make this build real interesting. Looking forward to this Pete.

 

[P.Kelly]

Once I finished watching the paint dry, and I've even cleaned up after myself, I was bored and there was nothing good on TV, so I took a trip over to the local big box home improvement center and picked up what I hope is everything I need for my electrical project this weekend.

Shopping list:
- Slim double 20A circuit breaker
- 250' 12/2 wire
- 2 double gang outlet boxes
- 4 20A recepticles
- 2 double gang outlet covers
- cat5 recepticle and cover

Anyway, with the supplies in hand, I peeled back the masking tape and the final product isn't too shabby, as my daughter would say.

I lost track of the number of coats, but this was somewhere in the second spray can.

Almost there

All done, pulling the motorcycle back into the garage.

Now I need to learn how to make an acrylic sump. Maybe I'll try my hand at that this weekend too.

Joe - thanks for the kind words. I'm not a perfectionist, just particular. I figure I might as well document the whole thing, since it will probably be my main tank for a few years to come.

 

[kdblove_99]

I love that paint I have all white plumbing but will be painting it with this paint when the time comes, Oh yeah!

Looking good Pete. Cute Kid! Wife that cleans your tank when its 100 degrees outside=Priceless!

 

[MayorOfWhoVille]

Very good stuff Pete, this is a sweet thread. I will definitely be checking back on this one! The paint job looks nice.

 

[P.Kelly]

June 14, 2008 - Father's Day weekend (I get to do what I want)

June 14, 2008 - Father's Day weekend (I get to do what I want)

June 14 - I stayed up late and got up late

So much for getting an early start. On today's plan is moving the frag tank, chiller and water top-off, testing the location of the stand and running the new electrical circuits.

The frag tank, or stick cemetary as my friends call it.

In all its glory.

More glory, and some majesty for good measure. Too bad my camera, and the guy behind it still sucks.

Getting ready to drain the tank. Better turn of the pump.

Top down view of low tide.

 

[P.Kelly]

Where did it go?

Up close and personal

Tide's coming in.


Alright, the frag tank is moved, the yellow tang has been moved into the main display so he can get used to his new tankmates. I finally caught Peeking, the yellow watchman goby and took him up to Kim. We met at Exotic about 1pm today and I came really close to buying a Sohal while there, but I'm not ready to start the quarantine. Kim, on the other hand, bought one with the cash from the IceCap 660 I bought from her.

That makes 2 IceCap 660s and 2 more to go before I can start the lighting system.

Before I left for Exotic, I made some holes in the wall.

Why use a small saw when you can use a big one?

A vague reminder of the two door knockers from the movie Labyrinth. Yeah, not really, but for some reason I was thinking, "one of these always lies and the other tells the truth"

It's going on 3pm and it's a little hot in the attic, so I'm finishing posting these pictures and then heading back up to run the wiring.

 

[P.Kelly]

The running of wiring is complete. Now I just have to wire the outlets on the inside, and wait for David to come over tomorrow to install the dual 20A breaker. He says I will electricute myself if I do it while the panel is live. He's probably right. If I turn the panel off I can finish it in 10 minutes, but I'll wait for him and his extensive experience electricuting himself!

 

[miracles38]

hey Pete - great thread! I will enjoy watching your progress. Peeking is doing well. He and my other YWG flared gills for awhile and then disappeared down into the burrow. I am hoping they are "getting to know each other" .

The Sohal is beautiful! You might want to rethink and go pick one up.

 

[P.Kelly]

I'm glad Peeking has a good home. I'll let Layla (my daughter) know he/she/it has a good home. Those Sohals are so pretty. I may go back tomorrow and buy myself a nice father's day present. Heck I bought my wife a nice blue sponge for one of our tanks for Mother's day, so this is right in line.

 

[D&KSac]

Just do it. Go buy the Sohal.

Yeah let the Sparky get lit up and electrocuted. Ill give you a call when my round of golf is over today.

 

[P.Kelly]

June 15, 2008 - Father's Day

June 15, 2008 - Father's Day

June 15th, AKA Big Tank Day

I got to spend the morning sleeping in. Getting a cool t-shirt and approval from my wife to buy a Sohal, if I want to. I'm still on the fence about quarantining a 4" Sohal in a 20g tank for 4-6 weeks. I'll try calling Chris to see if he still has the 125g he was giving away.

I figured I'd go back and check my project schedule, to see how far behind I am. As I read through the thread it appears that I am not behind schedule and I haven't responded to a few people, so thanks to all the MARS folks for the warm welcome to LTF, Davey, Jim, Anthony, Jeremey, Mike, Joe and Joe, Rudy, Chris, Josh, and anyone else I missed.

Plans for today:
- Wire the cat5 outlet for my AC III, then test it out.
- Electricute me, or David while connecting the new 20A breakers.
- Check out Exotic again and try not to buy a Sohal.
- Move the chiller on my 92g (backflush it while it is out)
- Re-connect the lighting and DC4HD on my frag tank.

If I get all of that done today, I will be super happy.

Oh, and pictures of un-exciting stuff from last night to prove I'm still making progress and trying to clean-up after myself.

Each double gang box is connected to its own 20A circuit (or will be). I'll have a DC8 on each circuit and try to run half of the tank on each circuit, as to minimize risk of loosing power completely in the event of a "thrown" circuit breaker.

I installed the outlet boxes at 21" off the ground, which is a bit high, but will work for this application. I'm looking at sump construction in the 16-18" height, and the stand will elevate the sump 4.5" off the ground, so plugging into these outlets should be relatively easy.

We've also decided to keep the stand and tank 3.5-4" off the wall, to allow for future vortech placement on the back of the tank. I'll be starting with one on each end of the tank, but I've seend Howie's tank with more powerheads in the middle back. I figure the tank might be a little difficult to move out from the wall once it has water in it.

 

[bayareaquarist]

Put me to work Pete!

 

[P.Kelly]

Matt, you got it. Let me know how that rock ended up looking. Also, I've got tons of stuff to do, and will be free from Thursday on this next week.

David, let me know when you've figured out your doors sizes and we can work on your stand. Thanks again for hooking up the breakers for me. I have power now!!!

And, here is what I got done this afternoon. No where near what I planned, so on the week, I'm a little behind now. I'll have to see if I can make it up on Tuesday night.

I still have to run the cat5 and I'm beat, so that will not happen tonight. The chiller is running, and I need to get more tubing, so that it out tonight, and we never made it to Exotic. But 2 out of 5 is okay, right?

There was some water damage on the stand, which made things a little more difficult.

Here is the stand reinforcement:

Just cut, and not assembled.

Done, and painted.

 

[P.Kelly]

Last post of the night, hopefully pictures of the finished stand bracing, installed when I get home from class tomorrow. But, I finished running and punching down the cat5 cable for the AC3 tonight. I'll test it in the next few days and get the AC3 hooked up to AquaNotes soon. Then I can get the webserver going.

Goodnight everyone. Thanks for tagging along for the ride.

 

[kdblove_99]

Great Work, Pete.

Going to send you a PM

 

[P.Kelly]

If you're following along (thank you), but haven't posted anything, feel free to give me a hello post. It feels nice to know that people are reading. This new tank, being my baby and all.

There won't be any updates until tomorrow night, as I have to go from work to class tonight.

BTW, I am doing research on two topics in my spare time:

1. Prophylactic coral treatment (Interceptor, Lavamisole, Tropic Marin Pro, Flatworm Exit, etc). If anyone has links to good threads on these topics, please let me know.

2. Dosing pumps. I'm looking for input in this thread, but it seems to be a slow RC day. I'm considering the AquaMedic ReefDoser and Spectrapure Litermeter III.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1412688

 

[Rickey]

Following along. Trying to get some new ideas. You sure received a nice setup.

 

[P.Kelly]

Thanks Rickey, hopefully you'll find some of what you're looking for. I'm sure I'll make enough mistakes to offer some learning opportunities.

Also, I couldn't not post a picture today, so here is the updated project schedule:

 

[Bax]

Very cool project!

Good luck with it!