The Georgetown project

Sold the 60g and went with a 40g rimless with ATi sunpower. Really liked the way this tank was setup.

P9238234.jpg


full_tank_side.jpg


Here is that same blasto colony from 2008

blastos.jpg


tank_new_light.jpg
 
Just fyi...if you plan on using those T5 bulbs, ATI has a new bulb out that has purple plus, blue plus and aquablue special all in one bulb. Supposedly created the same spectrum of lights. Its called Coral Plus

Yeah, a friend recommended that but SOS didn't carry it yet, so I'll have to go with it next order.
 
My new light fixture should be delivered on tuesday. Now I need to get my old tank broken down on Monday and moved out of the office. Going to be a busy day.
 
Started to break down my old tank and move the contents into a temp container.

I took out all the rock and set it outside. I'll throw it in a tub with bleach and let it soak for a few days. I'll probably power wash it at some point and then run a bunch of lanthanum chloride in it to try and get all the bound phosphates out of the rock. I only want to keep a few of the rocks, so after that I'll start cooking/curing the rock along with the ceramic rock.
 
Got the light last night and unpacked it. It is a beast, 55 lbs of MH/T5 sexiness.

70f29826.jpg


b3a5aed3.jpg


I got the old rails taken down and am waiting till I can get some suction cups so that I can move the old tank out of the way and into the garage before I can proceed any further.

f4bedf0c.jpg


Here is the temp setup for now until I can get the new tank in place (hopefully next week because after that I'm back working)

878f9a90.jpg
 
Had a bit of a set back the past few days. My son brought home the worst viral infection known to man. And guess who got the brunt of it? Not my wife, but me. So I'm starting to feel better, but it may be before this weekend before I can get anything else done on the tank.
 
Here is the new ATO/fuge

cfddfd18.jpg


It had an overflow at one time, but I'm not sure what happened to it.

3fcc0212.jpg


I figured I could either split the tank in half and put the ATO in one side, and a fuge in the other, or just make it a large ATO or a large fuge.

It also has a blue acrylic panel attached to one side, it is not covering up a hole, it is just there.

92bd200e.jpg


Got the BRS reactor mounted as well and I went by HD today and got most of my plumbing. Waiting on UPS to bring valves and the bulkheads.

f80d4047.jpg
 
And here is the mockup of the sump. Most of this equipment was from my old tank.

5e02884d.jpg


I will add the ATO/fuge tank above the 2 part containers on a stand. I need to build the stand and plywood floor this week.

c1321b39.jpg


Any thoughts on how to keep the steel stand from rusting on my light colored tile? My old stand had feet but still rusted when I spilled SW. And don't say, don't spill SW, cause I know it will happen.
 
Here is the box that the t5s plug into. This way there is only 1 T5 cord coming from the fixture.

77c789da.jpg


Proposed rock work. We will see how this ends up, but I don't want much rock as in my last tank I could never keep the detritus from finding it's way underneath the stacked rock. I may not stack any rock, but just put a few large pieces on the PVC bottom.

058869e0.jpg
 
Been a busy week. I started to repaint the stand with rustoleum because the red was coming off in spots and I don't want rust stains on my tile. I found a rug that I will put under the stand as well.

I got a great suggestion from Rich (entropy) about how to hang the light. I went to HD and picked up a pair of ceiling fan hangers. These should hold the light perfectly as the ceiling joists run parallel to the tank instead of perpendicular like I originally wanted.

1bbf0ea3.jpg


I have an electrician coming out today to install another 15 amp circuit for the tank. With the new light fixture, I was a little afraid of putting everything on one circuit, so I'll run the lights off this single 15 amp circuit and the rest of the tank off the other circuit in the room.

I have my rock bleached and now soaking in RO water. My plan is to flush it with LaCl a couple of times to get all the remaining PO4 out of the rock and then add it to the tank along with my biopellets and SW to get the bacteria population up and running.

Look mom, no more aiptasia:

6f6fa624.jpg
 
Got the lights unwrapped and the bulbs installed. The fixture is so sweet and comes apart pretty easy for bulb replacement. I will have to take it down though each time I want to change the bulbs though, since it is pretty heavy and I wouldn't want the tank to sway or move.

59c5d3be.jpg


8d6e99c7.jpg


44abad79.jpg


Hopefully tonight I'll be able to get a picture of the light over the tank.

I ended up opening up my lumatek ballasts and adding some extra cable to the ballast and terminated it into an outlet that I will mount under the tank. This will allow me to put plugs on the fixture and disconnect the fixture from the ballasts later down the road. The lumatek ballasts are very nice on the inside. They are coated with a water proof resin and it is a mess to try and remove.

e285a7f4.jpg
 
Got the light up and fired. It is nice and bright. The fixture is 7" off the top of the tank or about 9" off the water. I may raise it up a little, but it is such a hassle to do with only 1 person that I doubt I will until my wife gets home or I talk someone else into helping me.

Bulb combo is nice, but I crossed a wire on my outlet so I couldn't get the 2nd MH to fire, but that will be fixed shortly.

51733afe.jpg


Not a groan from the ceiling while hanging it, unlike what came out of me. 55lbs is pretty heavy especially over 4' of length.

c5162f8d.jpg


79b72b7d.jpg


I also moved the tank over slightly since my fixture was slightly askew to the right.

f131ecb0.jpg
 
Back
Top