Petland's New Display

[SkinnY T120]

Those of you familiar with the Petland in Iowa City will know what I'm talking about when I say our display is in need of a facelift. It was built for the store when it opened years ago as a freshwater stingray tank. Approximately 4 years ago our in-house fish nut Andy made the conversion to salt. It had numerous inhabitants, none more popular than our Blue Spot Rays that we raised from babies for a year and a half until we found them new homes (one went with Hung at SOM). We are now in the process of the fore-mentioned facelift and I felt we should document it along the way. Feel free to tag along or stop in and see it with your own eyes.

Here are some pics of the tank originally. It was not drilled but had an overflow box incase we were to drill it. Until now we've been running AquaClear Filters (nice filters but not for this tank).

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[lil gramps]

Jeff, I'll tag along with this one but I am gonna need more pics than this. Did u guys drill it already?

 

[SkinnY T120]

ahha yea i've got more pictures to go on. we're going with a center overflow. pics will be up tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

[SlukBunWalla]

Pictures NOW.

We're so beyond those pics, man.

 

[lil gramps]

adam, whats up man. Long time, no see!!!

 

[SkinnY T120]

fine i'll bombard this thing with pictures tomorrow. do you open all your christmas gifts at once? this hobby involves waiting (or at least telling people you wait when really none of us do).

 

[jmadison]

Where yo' pigs?!

 

[SkinnY T120]

alright here we go in rapid progression!


andy re-wiring and lowering the 175w metal halides

andy drilling out the stand for the new central overflow and return

finishing up the new seals

new HOLES! the bigger is for the 1.5" drain the other is a 1" return

the piping

the pipes with the koralia pumps being wired through

 

[SkinnY T120]

andy and adam (slukbun) checking out the plumbing

the new marineland sump (awesome!) getting ready for the trial run

the first trial run went well

filling it up

the sump taking on water

our excitement is growing

its just a matter of time now

this is where we are today. there a couple kinks to be worked out, such as shattering the fuge and a couple leaky pvc seals here and there. i plan on keeping this gowing as we fill it with coral. the plan is to have this stocked with large ORA colonies and we may have some stuff from a local guy who shall remain nameless for now.

 

[waverz]

Looking good guys, next time I'm down that way I'll pop in and check it out.

 

[taavis]

nice work. I too will haft to come down and check it out in person. Keep the pics coming .

 

[aaron1987]

Can't wait to see it filled with coral

 

[SkinnY T120]

I have a couple more pics to post soon but we're waiting on our new bulbs. As for the coral, it'll be a while. The rock, sand, water etc is all cultured and cycled so as soon as we get through a couple blooms and spikes we'll be ready to load it with colonies. Until then...

 

[jmadison]

I saw some algea in it today! Yay, that means it's working, HAHA! I shoulda saved that lrg. kenya tree I tossed. Woulda made a nice mother colony for our high end Kenya tree operation we're gonna run :rolleye1:

 

[SkinnY T120]

way to spoil the surprise.

 

[ransomed4ever]

Just wondering while you're rejuvinating the aquatic section if you guys are able to steal a little more room from the other areas of the store. My parents live in southern Iowa, and I usualy stop by the store on my way through Iowa City, and and the aquatic section is a little claustrophobic to say the least. I'm just your averaged sized guy and can barely fit down most of the aisles.

 

[jmadison]

Ransom-
Unfortunetly no...

Certain movable displayers and such have been moved around a little, but mostly the 'wet' area remains the same(other than the new display in question)

It'd be nice to steal some room from someother dept, but simply put there is no space anywhere to take from. The store is a tight fit and is stocked to the brim as is. It could stand to have atLEAST a %50 increase in sq/footage, but being a leased space, that would require us somehow taking space from the Sushi shop(which maybe we could work out a deal on 'feeder' goldfish HAHA)or taking space from the hair place.

For now, we're just haappy to have a new project that we are 'allowed' to do!

 

[ransomed4ever]

too bad. It still won't keep me from coming by and checking out the new display in person in a few weeks though. Hopefully there will be some life in it by then.

 

[jmadison]

peppermints and blue legs for now. and you'll be happy to know the display is stil in the same location, and some of the displays around it have been tweaked, so its really easy to see and manuver around.

 

[aaron1987]

How's your coral selection in your other tanks currently? Was in town the other weekend and checked it out but was pretty disappointed.