Soulpatch's build thread (ongoing)

[ReefWreak]

There were concerns about some leaks with seams giving. Those people used other stands then the marineland but still. And yes 200 gallons would be insane to have on the ground.

I love the idea of a deep dimension tank but I would need to be able to walk around it if I did that. Otherwise I think max I would want for depth on a longer tank would be 24 inches.

I probably wouldn't want longer than 24" either, optimally, so maybe just a pass then. You can't go wrong with your original plan.

Also, if you think 200g is bad, that 375 I was talking about? One of the side panels just fell off the tank, soaking the entire house (no basements in FL fortunately!) but he lost some AMAZING coral and fishes. Real nightmare But he persevered because he's an amazing guy. He's the guy who runs Rogger's Reef Food, btw. Probably won RC TOTM at some point or another, but he was a south FL staple and active community member down there.

Edit:
Link to a thread with pics of the 375 that I loved. Here One day... One day...

 

[soulpatch]

Yeah I think I decided to pass. Just hard to wrap your head around passing when a deal like that comes up. The 93 is where I will go. I will probably pick up some equipment this weekend at MACNA. Hopefully Synergy has their overflow in stock at the show and maybe a few other things will find their way home with me...

I want to see the WAV pumps in action and probably talk to some vendors there about some ideas I have in my mind for the next tank.

 

[soulpatch]

Have my spot reserved for MACNA on Sunday. So have to see what all I come home with if anything. Trying to avoid any and all livestock as I have limited room and want funds for new tank. That said I will be on the hunt for powerheads, dosers, auto water change station equipment, return pump, overflow, and a few more odds and ends. If a tank manufactorer is giving deals perhaps I place an order there as well and say screw it for the LFS I ordered my tank from but have yet to get a call about it.

 

[ReefWreak]

How much have you looked at Spectrapure/Litermeter? I really loved the idea of the DOS, but it sounds like people are seeing them crack frequently, and sometimes run out of control in dosing.

 

[soulpatch]

How much have you looked at Spectrapure/Litermeter? I really loved the idea of the DOS, but it sounds like people are seeing them crack frequently, and sometimes run out of control in dosing.

Exactly why I will be looking. I was set on the DOS for the past couple months but after reading more and more about them there are a few too many issues going around. I am a bit concerned about it going awry.

I have heard nothing but great things for the spectrapure so am interested to see if there is anything at MACNA for me to see in person.

 

[timfederwitz]

Have my spot reserved for MACNA on Sunday. So have to see what all I come home with if anything. Trying to avoid any and all livestock as I have limited room and want funds for new tank. That said I will be on the hunt for powerheads, dosers, auto water change station equipment, return pump, overflow, and a few more odds and ends. If a tank manufactorer is giving deals perhaps I place an order there as well and say screw it for the LFS I ordered my tank from but have yet to get a call about it.

Need to talk to the wife, but I may try to go to MACNA with you. Thinking of bringing one of my sons who is in to fish.

Are you going all day Sunday? And will you be traveling from Downingtown or elsewhere? Thinking we could carpool possibly.

 

[soulpatch]

I will be going down from the beach house but I should be down there all day Sunday. I have a parking reservation for the lot .2 miles from the venue via the parking panda deal MACNA is running. We could try to arrange a time or I could wait for you (or vice versa) if you reserved for the same lot. That way we can enter together and go over things at the stands. If like when reef and I went to reefapalooza I learned a lot from some of the questions he was asking and vice versa. Some of the equipment I am looking at for the next tank might spur some thoughts for you and I am sure questions you hve there on livestock or equipment will nudge me to think about other things.

Cabo will be there too so we can meet up with him and meander around. I will stay till the end though as I plan on putting in for some of the raffle items. Then afterwards might go out for a drink and some food if you and Cabo are willing.

Thankfully your tank is not up and running and mine is currently in limbo till the next is up so neither of us will have corals to worry about. That means more drink and reef talk time...

 

[timfederwitz]

I will be going down from the beach house but I should be down there all day Sunday. I have a parking reservation for the lot .2 miles from the venue via the parking panda deal MACNA is running. We could try to arrange a time or I could wait for you (or vice versa) if you reserved for the same lot. That way we can enter together and go over things at the stands. If like when reef and I went to reefapalooza I learned a lot from some of the questions he was asking and vice versa. Some of the equipment I am looking at for the next tank might spur some thoughts for you and I am sure questions you hve there on livestock or equipment will nudge me to think about other things.

Cabo will be there too so we can meet up with him and meander around. I will stay till the end though as I plan on putting in for some of the raffle items. Then afterwards might go out for a drink and some food if you and Cabo are willing.

Thankfully your tank is not up and running and mine is currently in limbo till the next is up so neither of us will have corals to worry about. That means more drink and reef talk time...

Wife "sort of" agreed to me going. Of course, since you are coming over Tuesday to help me with the rock, it means I have to work even harder the other days to make the house "presentable". ;-)

Not sure if I will bring my son though. It's a long drive and long day.

 

[soulpatch]

I dont take my wife or kid to the swaps or shows since they are not as into it and get bored which ruins my time.

As for your house dont worry about it. I am sure it is better then mine. We have been spending every weekend at the beach so the house has gone to shambles the past few months. Almost fall though which is when we get everything back in order and the honey do list gets worked on again.

If you are going to go to MACNA make sure you order your parking now and use the discount code as it is only 16 bucks and you can get close to the site. Otherwise you are somewhat at the mercy of DC parking.

 

[timfederwitz]

I dont take my wife or kid to the swaps or shows since they are not as into it and get bored which ruins my time.

As for your house dont worry about it. I am sure it is better then mine. We have been spending every weekend at the beach so the house has gone to shambles the past few months. Almost fall though which is when we get everything back in order and the honey do list gets worked on again.

If you are going to go to MACNA make sure you order your parking now and use the discount code as it is only 16 bucks and you can get close to the site. Otherwise you are somewhat at the mercy of DC parking.

That's what I was thinking about the kid. He would like it for an hour or two and then get bored.

On the parking, I'm having trouble finding what you are talking about, but I am trying to do it from my iPhone.

 

[soulpatch]

https://www.parkingpanda.com/washin...2015&end=9/6/2015&startTime=0700&endTime=1200

and use promo code macna20 to get 20% off

 

[timfederwitz]

You da man! Locked in.

 

[soulpatch]

Well my other tank apparently came in. I will go to pick it up later this week after opening the box to ensure that the seams look good. Hopefully will be able to do a test fill this week to put some pressure on the seams to test for the silicone bubbling people have been dealing with.

Also when opening the box I need to ensure that the silicone job is not as nasty as the one we saw at MACNA. That tank looked like something I would put together as it was very sloppy in the applicaton of the silicone.

 

[ReefWreak]

Well my other tank apparently came in. I will go to pick it up later this week after opening the box to ensure that the seams look good. Hopefully will be able to do a test fill this week to put some pressure on the seams to test for the silicone bubbling people have been dealing with.

Also when opening the box I need to ensure that the silicone job is not as nasty as the one we saw at MACNA. That tank looked like something I would put together as it was very sloppy in the applicaton of the silicone.

Good luck! I can't believe some of these stories of tanks recently being sent back (or not being sent back!) because of bad silicone-ing. How hard could it be, they've been doing the same damn thing for 20+ years...

 

[soulpatch]

It has been discussed that those areas might be a clamp point whereas with the trimmed tanks they dont have to clamp in that area. Since this is frameless and Marineland doesnt do too many of them they are struggling. We shall see.

The one I saw at MACNA had small bubbles in the top of the seams but there was gobs of silicone that I wouldn't worry about it but it looked terrible.


I do have a request for a quote from reef savvy as well. Sure it will cost me more then the marineland tank in shipping alone but the quality is MUCH higher. Just not sure I could wait 6+ months for the tank....

 

[ReefWreak]

It has been discussed that those areas might be a clamp point whereas with the trimmed tanks they dont have to clamp in that area. Since this is frameless and Marineland doesnt do too many of them they are struggling. We shall see.

The one I saw at MACNA had small bubbles in the top of the seams but there was gobs of silicone that I wouldn't worry about it but it looked terrible.


I do have a request for a quote from reef savvy as well. Sure it will cost me more then the marineland tank in shipping alone but the quality is MUCH higher. Just not sure I could wait 6+ months for the tank....

Yea, Felix has been making really nice high quality tanks in south FL for at least 10 years. If you do want to explore that route, it would definitely be worth perusing the FMAS subsection on ReefCentral, as many of the guys there have RS tanks, or even post on the FMAS facebook group. I guess there's a lot of feedback nationally now on his tanks, but if you want to hear how they go long term, he's been doing it a lot longer in FL than nationally.

 

[soulpatch]

Yeah I am aware and seeing them in person at MACNA was sweet. Its just the massive bump in price that goes along with that. The marineland tank comes in around 344. His 48x24 tank I looked at this weekend was coming in around 1800 I believe. 3200 with stand.

Even if I add his overflow (which I will) to the marineland I come in just shy of 600. Add in another 500 for stand and I am at 1100 which is almost a third of the RS setup. I like them a lot but not sure i like them that much...plus the wait time...

 

[soulpatch]

Another tank that I have refused due to bubbling in the silicone and one piece not being perfectly flush in the corner. Sure it was only off a couple mm but I could feel the ridge and dont like that. I shoudl see mini bubbles in every seam either so I refused this tank.

They are going to call Marineland and ask what should be done as well as order me in 2 more tanks so we can compare. It is frustrating since the reef ready versions had perfect seams but I do not want drilled. Even though I could cut out the overflow and close off the drilled portions I shouldn't have to.

So I put in a request from Reef Savvy to see what they say about the tank. I know it will cost a LOT more and I also know it will take 6 months BUT at the same time I know when I got it it would be perfect. I am slightly leaning that way at this point if Marineland can't get their crap together.

I would have to figure out a way to convince the wife that I was scheduled to spend 600 on a small cube (tank and overflow) and decided to double/triple that to go with a Reef Savvy (and probably more as I have no idea what their shipping costs would be)

Then the brain starts to wonder well if going custom why not go a hair bigger and go say 36x36x24.

This whole thing is a PITA...

 

[soulpatch]

UGH I know I said I was done with my current tank stock wise but I stopped into my LFS and walked out with a few things.

New crab

New acan that needs to color in some more but is already pretty hot looking:

And some utter chaos that are still closed so no pics at this moment. The two pics above were taken at the LFS today with his underwater camera under my kessil that he is borrowing. lol

 

[timfederwitz]

That's a porcelain crab, right? How big?