Solar powered aquarium from Italy

[Paolo Piccinell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24ii0xLnoPU

this is my solar power plant...

Pics of drains... I used 2 PVC pipes 2" diameter

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

Light test today... let there be light!

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

Saturday was THE DAY! :hammer::hammer::hammer:

I invited some friends... 18 friends!!!
As you may know, Italians love good food and noisy rooms... so, see pictures and laugh!!!

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

Then... with the bellies properly filled with cheese and salami (and with a pair of good red wine glasses, of course)... we started the serious work.

We dismantled my old ELOS 160 (180gals), moved rocks, corals and fishes and started building the rockwork of the big tank...:deadhorse1::deadhorse1::deadhorse1:

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

First of all, we set all the corals and fishes in a 200gal container with a circulation pump, then cleaned the live rocks (120 Kg overall, indonesian).

We emptied the big tank and started to assemble the rockwork... with some difficulty, as the hierarchy was not clear and everyone had it's own project! :lol::lol::lol:

I eliminated some "counseilors" and started working :fun2::fun2::fun2:

The whole process took 3 hours from beginning to end, then we went to a country restaurant, as the breakfast was a little bit too scarce...

In the afternoon I started to set corals in their final place... it will take some more days as I need to understand water movement and tank own life before settling everything.

Today... I will clean up the terrible mess :rolleye1:

 

[Crazy_Beaver]

This is turning out great!!!!!

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

Left side finished... right side will have to wait two days more...

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

Right side:



Right atoll:



Central atoll:



Clown atoll:





Left side:



Left rockwork:



Right rockwork:



Panoramic:

 

[nuccadoc]

Beautiful!

 

[JACK733]

looking nice!!

 

[leslie hempel]

very lovley..

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

fish update...

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1AsgXZvjZk&feature=player_profilepage

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

My tank has now 4 months and it's doing quite well...

http://postimage.org/image/egxtsptk7/full/


Any suggestion?

 

[Crazy_Beaver]

Tutto perfeto !!!!!!:thumbsup:

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

ευχαριστίες !!

 

[bullitr]

looks great

 

[nuccadoc]

Looks fantastic! Did you set up your DSB as per Dr Shimek's suggestions, i.e, add critters? And also is that cyano on the sand on the right side?

 

[Paolo Piccinell]

Well, it's a bit more complicated.

I had to transfer all my animals from the previous tank, so I did bypass the maturatione period.

I had 50 kg of mature sand from my refugium, filled of critters, worms and bacteria.

I placed 10 cm (4 inches) of sand on the bottom of the new tank, than I placed my old, mature sand in a 1 1/2 inch layer obtaining a 13 cm DSB with mature surface.
I let it settle for three weeks and I added food for the critters... I added a couple of glasses of "old sand" from the tanks of my friends, the best "critters kits" ever!

Then I moved all the rockwork from the old tank to the new, together with old water, corals and fishes... do not try this at home!!!

I did not lost a single animal, but cyanobacteria were one of the consequences of this unusual "method".