Starting a 180, initial progress

Heh, beware Kurt... I came home a few nights ago to my house with ballast on the floor and noticed a faint hint of chemical burning. Immediately ran upstairs to the tank to find the ballast had charred the carpet it was resting on. Wow. Its propped up on an old computer case now :lol:

Chris, and Chris, Amen on the unions, I have a ton of them on my little 65. The other bonus to unions, is you can first leak test in a garage, back porch, etc, then easily remove your whole plumbing from the tank when it comes time to move it. Makes tank setup a cinch.
 
Mine are on hardwood floor, still possible hazard but better than a rug. Thanks for the note just in case though.
 
LOOKIN' GOOD Chris,can't wait to see it in it's final resting place and full of the stuff from "the tub".keep the pics comin'
 
Thanks all!!

I hate water on the floor!!!! Woke up this AM to about 2" of water in the low end of the basement by the sump (house sump, not tank sump :) ). Looks like the sump pump float stopped working. I've spent most of the morning cleaning up the mess. The bad part is that this part of the basement is the kids play room and I had to clean off a lot of toys.
 
Awesome

Awesome

Hey Chris,

Great Work - can't wait to see water pumping through everything. It's great to actually take the time to do everything the right way.

When I did my 125 I had to move my 90 as well so everything was kinda rushed.

I guess in due time I will some day plumb all the tanks together.

But either way great workmanship on the stand. Simple yet elegant and functional.
 
MOVE IN DAY!!!!!

Today was the day that the tank moved from the garage to the house. The distance was less than 20 feet but it was no simple task. Thanks to some good friends with strong backs, we got the tank off the stand into the house, got the stand into the house and then put the tank on the stand. It's not easy lifting a 350lbs tank to the top of a 42" tall stand.

So without further delay, below are the pictures of the setup in its first few moments into the house.

My daughter immediately climbed into the stand and claimed it as "my house". This shot is from the family room. The stand was designed to match this room. You can see the kitchen in the back ground.
100_0599.jpg


This picture is from the kitchen side looking into the family room. Managed to get my wife in the picture. At this time we do not have any furniture in the family room. The plan is to get the tank in and operational and then decorate around it using a nautical theme.
100_0600.jpg


And it's practically a RC requirement to have a "kid in the tank shot" for all new setups. It was not easy getting her into and out of the tank.
100_0601.jpg


Since the pictures were taken, I've got the lights on top, installed a fan in the stand and started to get some of the plumbing into position. I will be cutting the floor after dinner. WATER SOON!!!!
 
Congrats, I know having it in place must feel good.

What are your plans for getting water from the sump tank to the display? I used the pump from the sump, which was a little messy with water splashing around a bit when the tank was empty.

Let me know if you want some help transporting items upstairs.
 
Time for a little update...

I finally got a chance to install the humistat and vent fan I had previously ordered to help control the basement humidity.

I got the hole cut in the floor and plumbed all but the very ends of the two drains. I would have loved to have also plumbed the return but the pump I bought from someone here on RC didn't ship until later in the week and as my luck would have it, it didn't arrive before the weekend. So, it's on the list for next weekend.

I thought about getting the electric up to the tank but had promised my son's that I would build them a skate ramp with the extra wood from the tank build. Of course once the ramp was done, I also had to take a couple trips down it. :D

After dinner I decided to add the sand for the deep sand bed so that I could start adding water. Unfortunately I discovered that someone had "beefed up" the kids sandbox over the summer and I was now short a LOT of sand. I ran to HD in the Falls and both Lowes and HD in Amherst and as I suspected no one has white play sand. So now I'm kinda stuck and need to figure out what to do.
 
So I made the decision to go with a SSB in the display and a DSB in the fuge. Got that all taken care of last night. Just need to move a couple items back into the fuge.

No pump today. I should mention that I don't like USPS shipping. Seems like lately priority 2-3 days has really been 4-6 days. :( Just hope it arrives before this weekend.

Decided that I needed some progress so I hooked up the RO/DI to a long line and started adding water to the tank at 5:30pm (Eastern). Man it's like watching grass grow. I just want to fill that sucker up!!

Next I'm going to get the electrical under the tank situated. Not sure if that will happen tonight or will be a work in progress over the next couple days.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10938981#post10938981 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
very nice job so far :)
Click to expand...

Thanks!! And more importantly thanks for sharing your wisdom on the DSB in the display.
 
I continue to dislike the USPS. While they did bring my Star rebate check, they didn't bring the pump. :(

For the third time I had minor leaks from the intake and output of the dart pump. I gave up on thread tape and used some Teflon putty. Looks like that did the trick.

After 27 hours the water level is at about 16" from the bottom. I'll let the RODI run over night one more night. I'm thinking I will add some salt tonight just to keep progress moving forward.

I decided to leave the electrical until this weekend because I have a couple ideas in my head and want some time to work them out.

One idea I had was to address how dark it is under the stand. I considered putting in a simple florescent light but then got the idea to use some rope lights, mainly because I have some extra ones in the house. The benefit of the rope light is that I can string it around the inside of the stand top and bottom to get some good light around the pump and other parts. An additional benefit is that the rope lights are for indoor/outdoor use so a little water will not hurt.
 
Rope lights are awesome... I actually use a blue one as my moonlight in the hood... been there for years with no ill effects.
 
Interesting idea on the moonlight Chrsnwk, wonder if the rope lights will dim if on a moon cycle such as the aquacontrollers offer.

Not sure if mine are dimming or not, but not thinking so.
 
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