The Georgetown project

[Chrisrush]

Next up is to level the tank and fill it with tap water and vinegar to get the tank clean. Then I'll finish up the plumbing, minus the frag tank (waiting on the acrylic for the overflow).

I have all the rocks in RO water but after I put them in the bucket, I realized that pill bugs (rolly polly's) really like dead LR.

Guess I'll have to take the rock back out and spray it off before I rinse it in SW.

 

[Entropy]

That's a lot of pill bugs. Creepy!

 

[Chrisrush]

That's a lot of pill bugs. Creepy!

I know. I couldn't believe it either. I guess they liked the dead material on the old LR.

 

[Chrisrush]

Filled the tank with tap water and vinegar this weekend and let it circulate with a pair of tunze pumps. Seams seemed fine but I need to leave it a little. The plumbing is almost done, I need to build an overflow for the fuge thoug. Shouldn't take but a few minutes to glue it since I got the acrylic cut and ready to go.

 

[Chrisrush]

Got a huge update. Got the tank up and running. I filled up the display a couple of weeks ago and moved the corals from the "tub" to the display. In the last few weeks I have been getting all the plumbing done. Finally was able to turn on the return pump and get the drain going. It's turned way down but that is fine since most of the water movement will be in the display. I have the GFO/Carbon Rx and biopellets up and running as well along with my skimmer. Everything looks like crap in the display but that's what happens when you take all the rock out and bleach it. I have semi-aquascaped the tank but am looking for another couple pieces of LR to finish it out.

 

[Chrisrush]

 

[Chrisrush]

Sump:

Fuge:

Sump (other side):

Ballast and Tunze pucks:

This is why you don't give a 16 month old run of the house:

And yes, the wires and messy and the tank is a little "yellow". A couple of zip ties and some carbon will clear up both of those problems.

 

[Reef264]

This tanks Is Gunna be a Boss.

 

[Chrisrush]

'm thinking about building a new sump and perhaps drilling the back of the tank for a coast to coast overflow and plugging the 2 current holes. I am worried about only running 1 drain and I think the tank could use more turnover from the sump. Any thoughts?

 

[Chrisrush]

Just got in a nice fish order from LiveAquaria.

3 yellow tangs
6 lyretail anthias
3 PJ cardinals (tiny little guys)
1 pygmy angel (to go with my other pygmy.

I have 1 other PJ cardinal, which is bigger than the 3 YTs

I am getting a frag order delivered tomorrow and I hope to place a large order of SPS in the next two weeks.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of pictures tonight, but if not, then this weekend definitely.

 

[Chrisrush]

Picture time:

Zoas:

 

[Chrisrush]

More zoas:

 

[Chrisrush]

SPS:

Milli:

Pinky the bear acro

Different angle:

Ice/fire milli:

Not sure, but real nice.

 

[Chrisrush]

LPS:

Rics:

 

[Chrisrush]

After talking with my wife, I am now going to re-locate the sump/fuge from under the stand into a closet. I talked to my builder and he suggested going through the secondary closet (which I was planning) instead of outside the house.

My question is related to the route to take. Should I drop the lines down to the baseboards and run them along the floor and then up into the sump (cleanest version), or should I go half way down the wall and then horizontal to the sump and drop into the sump from above (most efficient I believe).

On this picture, you can see the baseboards that I would run the pipes along. The 2nd option would be to run the pipes horizontally about 2' up the wall.

 

[Chrisrush]

Got some work done on the pipe work and cleaned out the closet a bit. I'm still searching for a sump and will build the water storage shelves this weekend along with adding a few electrical outlets to the closet and perhaps a bathroom fan. I need to get this cleaned up by the 30th when my wife is having a baby shower at the house and we are out of town next weekend so it's go time. I also placed an order for 15 SPS colonies from Battlecorals so I need to re-aquascape today and try to make some more room in the display.

Trying to clean up this mess:

I drilled the wall for 2 x 1" drains and have 1 more hole to drill for the 1.5" return. I have punched throug the wall from the linen closet into the walk in closet and now I need to run the plumbing and figure out how to hide it once I get into the office. These pipes will be leaved once I connect everything.

One more hole to go:

Unfortunately, after looking at my house plans, we had a drain from the hot water heater that was placed right where I wanted to run my pipes so I opted to detour a bit.

And here is the other side of the walk in closet:

I have measured the current sump / fuge and I think that it will make a nice frag tank and fuge tank on top of my old 120g stand. Underneath will be the sump and to the left will be my water storage "tree".

Here is my old 120g stand and SW water storage container. I have an identical version for FW that sat next to the SW container. In the new stand, the FW container will be below the SW container.

And here is the other side of the closet. On the far left side, is my breaker panel so I'll add a new breaker and install some extra outlets.

 

[Chrisrush]

Got a big SPS shipment this morning. Ordered 15 colonies from Battlecorals.com and apparently Adam forgot how to count, since I ended up with over 20.

All have been dipped and are sitting on the bottom of the tank waiting for me to re-aquascape to figure out where I"m going to put 20 colonies.

Hopefully I'll figure out something before my wife notices the new additions.

 

[Chrisrush]

Recycling guy is going to love me next week.

Adam quadruple bagged everything, so this is around 80 bags

I am also acclimating 3 blue/green chromis and 2 cleaner shrimps. Been a busy day of FED-EX pickups and acclimations.

 

[cubical]

Wow, that SPS shipment must have been like xmas and bday together! Seriously, all those colonies together are like sex to the eyes...

 

[Chrisrush]

Wow, that SPS shipment must have been like xmas and bday together! Seriously, all those colonies together are like sex to the eyes...

Yup, certainly was a good day. Unfortunately, one of my cleaner shrimps was DOA, so I'm a little bummed. I haven't seen the tank yet today, but I'm hopefully that everything made it through the night.