rEd86's 700g office tank.

[atlantiscoral]

Looking good Ed!

 

[rEd86]

OK, so I have been out for the past week, attending a woodworking workshop. (my other passion) I took a cabinet making class and built a bed side table. I improved my skills and now know everything I need in order to skin the tank stand and make a nice hood. Here is the final product from the week:

This started as rough oak lumber which I had to surface and cut to dimensions. Then I created the frame and used cabinet grade plywood to create the cabinet box and top. Raised panel door, router cut dove tail drawer, along with trim on the base finished it off.

I will probably get some pictures of the tank as it is in the next day or two but that will be it for a few weeks. I am heading out on vacation on Thursday so I don't think I will get any of the stand done before I leave.

I also have 600+ lbs of sand I am ordering so I don't want to do much aquascaping until that's in, which will likely be in about two weeks.

--Ed

 

[melev]

Nice job, Ed. What color will you stain it?

 

[rEd86]

Thanks Marc. I am not sure yet - whatever my wife says...

I get to choose with the office stand/hood. I am either going with a dark stain or actually paint it black to match the office furniture. I have a month or so before I need to decide so I will think about it over vacation.

--Ed

 

[rEd86]

As promised - here are a few pictures of the tank. Keep in mind that there is a lot of work left to be done but I am going on vacation so I didn't want to start anything that I couldn't finish.

Full tank shot:

Shot from the end:

So here's a rundown on what I have left to do when I return on April 19:

• Load another 600lbs of sand to give me good coverage on the bottom.
• Add the rest of the rock and aquascape, aquascape, aquascape. (I need to hide all the plumbing and give it a more natural look)
• Build black acrylic cover to hide the overflow.
• Build a hood so I can raise the lights up to the proper height.
• Find a used light mover so I can maximize coverage of the lights I have.
• Skin the stand.
• Rearrange the sump room.
• Build a new acrylic skimmer.
• Add some more frags & fish.
• Publish the web cam so everyone can enjoy it. (in beta now)
• Sit back and watch it grow.

Catch everyone in 10 days.

--Ed

 

[melev]

It looks great so far. Thanks for the pictures. What are you going to do with the rest of the reflectors?

Have a safe trip.

 

[rEd86]

Thanks Marc.

“Rest of the reflectors?” How did you know about that?!?

I have three of the LumenBright mini reflectors that came off my old 265g that I am going to sell. (I didn't think the coverage would be enough for this monster tank.) There is a guy in my local fish club that I am trying to convince to trade for some larger fish that he is going to be getting rid of soon. (they have outgrown his tank) If I can't get a deal going with him I am going to end up selling them. (I reused the ballast and bulbs with the larger reflectors.)

I lost some of my SPS when I was out of town last week. A guy came by to check on things and detected some stray voltage in my sump so he pulled out the pumps since one was the culprit. Problem is I think he did more damage to the SPS since the flow was too low.

We drive down to Orlando tomorrow to spend a few days with my parents. Then it's off on a Disney cruise for four days with the kids. A few more days with my parents and then we're back to Cincinnati. It’s not a bad drive â€"œ nothing like the one you took to get to your Mom’s place.

--Ed

 

[rEd86]

BTW Marc, you have posted twice as much in the past month than I have in the TWO years I have been on Reef Central.

That's just sick!

--Ed

 

[melev]

Not that anyone is counting, right? :lol:

I was wondering where the rest were going to go.

 

[biecacka]

ed that is an amazing tank. i love your rockwork so far, great idea. im just north of you in columbus and next time im in cincy id love to swing by if your time permits
corey

 

[rEd86]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14787851#post14787851 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by biecacka
ed that is an amazing tank. i love your rockwork so far, great idea. im just north of you in columbus and next time im in cincy id love to swing by if your time permits
corey

Thanks Corey. The tank is on it's way to being amazing. I've got a long way to go but we're off to a good start.

You're more than welcome to come by any time.

--Ed

 

[Bax]

Very very nice work. The kid shots are awesome.

So close! Can't wait to see it all come together.

 

[rEd86]

OK, so I am finally back from all the travel. I ended up loosing a lot of livestock/corals, which really sucks.

My softies and LPS are doing very well despite all the other problems going on. I haven’t seen this much extension in a while:

I also got 600lbs of sand in the tank so now my deep sand bed is complete. Now I can get back to rebuilding. Here are a couple of full tank shots:

I really like the width of this tank. With 3ft there is a lot to see from the end and nothing is close to the glass on any side, which makes cleaning it much easier.

I played around with the closed loop and got the Oceans Motions working. The pressure from the Hammerhead pump is a little too strong so I need to put a valve between the pump and the OM. I temporarily backed off the valve on the intake and everything worked. It was cool to see the revolutions in action. They should provide some good flow variation to the closed loop that I was looking for.

I received a shipment of cleanup crew and a school of chromis on Wednesday so I am on my way to getting this tank in shape. Despite the losses, I feel I am still ahead since I got such a good deal on the tank. It sucks short-term but I am sure it will be worth everything in another 4-6 months as this tank comes together. Luckily I don’t think I can really upgrade to anything bigger in this space so everything will have time to grow in nicely.

I’ll see about posting some more pictures next week. I took several shots with my macro lens but I didn’t use the tripod and nothing was as crisp as I would have liked it.

Later!

--Ed

 

[melev]

The tank looks really good though. The reflectors are a tad close to the water, but the clarity is nice and the system is ready to grow.

 

[Tonblogna]

That's purty.

 

[rEd86]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14897248#post14897248 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
The tank looks really good though. The reflectors are a tad close to the water, but the clarity is nice and the system is ready to grow.

Thanks. The reflectors are WAY too close to the water. I'm guessing they should be more than 14" higher. I need to build a hood but I am waiting to see if I can get a garden track system so I can move them and get coverage over the whole tank with just three reflectors. I am also thinking about options on supplemental lighting. With last month’s thread of the month I am leaning towards a royal blue LED solution since I would have a lot of flexibility on where the lighting can be placed along the perimeter.

I don’t plan on adding any corals until I get the lighting worked out. It’s probably going to be about two weeks until this happens. Until then I am focusing on the fish and rockwork. (as well as all the other filtration equipment builds)

--Ed

 

[rEd86]

OK, so I was able to finally locate a used track system for the lights on eBay which I purchased this morning. Hopefully I will get it by the end of the week and can begin construction of the hood. Once the lights are the way I like them I will start adding corals again and getting this tank in shape.

--Ed

 

[rEd86]

So a couple of things came in today. The light mover came in that I purchased on eBay:

I also ordered an auxiliary trolley so I can hang more than one light on this system. (I built a light rack that I will suspend between the two devices) I am looking at replacing the motor with a much slower one so that the rack moves so slowly that you don't even notice. I want it to take 20-30 minutes to move across the tank. The motor is manufactured by hurst manufacturing and they have motors with a slower rotation per minute, so we'll see.

I also got the gate valve from Savko so I can safely throttle back my hammerhead pump for the OceansMotions:

I will install the valve tomorrow morning.

--Ed

 

[Plankt0s]

It sure is nice to have plenty of help when it comes to moving a big tank. It looks great good luck with it. That same speedo guy keeps showing up in my tank too...whats up with that?

 

[rEd86]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14929304#post14929304 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by biowerks
It sure is nice to have plenty of help when it comes to moving a big tank. It looks great good luck with it. That same speedo guy keeps showing up in my tank too...whats up with that?

Thanks. I am lucky that I have a great group of friends in the hobby through our local club.

I hope the speedo guy doesn't show up again given what I am about to post...

--Ed