300g upgrade

[i have crabs]

ok ill start by saying i should have taken more pics and mabey kept better track of what i was doing and mabey even had a real plan before starting this nonesence but if your from the getto you do things getto.

the problem i had was dennis and albert decided to get me hooked on large fish which was fine for about a year while everything was small living in a 130g (72x18x24) it was running on 2 ac110's and a coralife hob skimmer. i bought the tank used and did not notice the scratches untill i filled it up with water but at the time i didnt care. i couldnt find a tank shot but heres a vid of me tring to aclimate some fw goldfish into the tank(didnt go well)
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/?action=view&current=CIMG0099-1.flv

so what i decided to do was build a 300g in my basement once developed,
the tank is 96Lx30wx24t i kept it 24t just so i could reach the bottom without being a pain and i figured the 8' long and 30w would give lots of room to swim.
picking up the tank the day after it rained was the first retarded move since loading a 300g tank into the back of a blazer and then driving it down a hill between the 2 houses so i could slide it right into my basement door. lets just say its a good thing i didnt lay sod befor i got the tank.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/april28001.jpg
its also a good thing the blazer is a 4x4
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/april28003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/april28007.jpg
thats the tank in the house please ignore the junk in the background like i said i was finishing the basement and still am.
notice the euro brace's around the back are not on due to stupid move number 2 but we will talk more about that soon enough.

[i have crabs]

so now that the tank is in the house i needed a stand and a sump so what would a getto reffer do?
steal wood from surrounding work sites of course.
in this pic the stands not quite finished yet but thats where the tank is going and thats the stand
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/april28008.jpg
not bad for $5 worth of screws
as for the sump i didnt want to but a new sump that was the same size as the tank they were in so i had a new tank built 130g(72x18x24)1/2 glass with euro bracing and swaped them into the new tank tith all thier old filters ,lights and rock ect.. this way i had the old 130g with the scratches to turn into a sump and a new 130g to sell once finished all this bull.
here are the fish in the new tank also moved to the basement to stop the wife complaining.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007024.jpg
while moving i loaded the fish into 30g plastic bins,i ended up losing a damperia grouper and a 2 foot snowflake eel while doing this, i believe it was because i had them in with 2 leaflip groupers wich are actually soapfish and have a toxic mucus when stressed,normally i move the leaflips by them selfs but i was not thinking that day.they were in the bin about 1 hour and the eel was dead that night and the damperia lived 2 days but was in bad shap the whole time.
damperia grouper which is actually a Pseudochromis
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/dec62006060.jpg

[i have crabs]

once the old tank was clean and dry i got bow vally to cut me some glass to make it into a sump wich i did my self while learing that im just gonna pay people for this service now on.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/july112007004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/july112007007.jpg
it turned out good but my silicone skills are not good.

so now it took a good 2 months untill i could trick some friends to come over and get some suction cups borrowed but i got the tank and the sump put in the stand.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007025.jpg
so what do i see? oh im to stupid to measure where the bulk heads fit so if you look the bulk head would hit the 2x6. luckly that 2x6 wasnt really doing much thie any way so i just chisled the one edge so i could slip in the bulkhead.
to make myself feel better i went and bought 2 euro reef 250rs skimmers. one for this tank and one for my reef tank.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007012.jpg

[michika]

Looks good so far.

I highly enjoyed your mud tracks!

[i have crabs]

plumbing for the drain
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007032.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007033.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007034.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007035.jpg
how i have it set up is that 1 drain in each overflow is ran through the 1.5 union valve and the 2 standpipes are hooked together for back up if a drain clogs or something.
then all 3 returnd are run to bulkheads in a lid on the left side keeping the sump closed off and very quiet.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug122007008.jpg

[i have crabs]

now the return is run over the back into 1" bulk heads in the eurobrace. problem with that is either i didnt think of a very large euro brace blocking off my overflows of wendle didnt think of building a bug enough overflow for a guy with massive pipes to stick his hand into while 80% is covered by eurobracing. either way i dont care if its a problem ill just rebuild again sofar not a big deal.
return plumbing
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug52007036.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug122007006.jpg
once i had everything hooked up and filled with water i was having a problem with the water only going into the left side overflow and not any going into the right, befor putting the tank on the stand i checked if it was level and i thought it was but mabey i was playing to much saintsrow on xbox that day or mabey it was my 4' level on a 8 foot stand either way i wasnt draining 300g of water and moving the tank.

what i did was cut up some eggcrate
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug122007021.jpg
and siliconed it to the overflow
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug122007024.jpg
you cant tell its thier and when the water flows over it goes in both over flow at the same time and hasnt been a problem since.


here a skimmer running in a garbage can of dirty water for a week before putting it in the tank.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug122007030.jpg


after that i slowly started adding fish once cycled with floss and sponges from other tanks i own.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/aug192007007.jpg
right now thier are the 2 leaflip groupers,the large blackspot grouper a large panther grouper,a large red snapper and a yellow tang. ive had problems adding other fish once the snapper and black grouper settled in the run the show and have killed or close to killed a few new fish i tried to add so i think im stuck these fish for a while unless i go through some major steps to get more fish added without aggresion issues

now im just waiting for my fish buget to increase so i can add some good lights and some vortec powerheads.
and mabey get off my rear and finish the outside of the stand oneday

[Delphinus]

Sheeesh, some ghetto. What's worse than ghetto? Cuz that's what I would be. This is a very nice start.

No seriously if you call this "ghetto" one more time then someone needs to smack you :p

Very very nice BTW!

[Zylumn]

Is there a getto in Calgary???? Hey this was too funny but really nice job. It sounded similar to my last build just plus a whole bunch of gallons.

Kevin

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Looks great!

Hey, I've worked in the ghetto...and I don't think you could find much laying around...except maybe used needles and hoodrats blitzed on E :wink:

[Skimmer Juice]

Looks great corn dog. Your snapper is way to big.

[albert_dao]

Too small. Your yellow tang needs at least 1500 gallons of water. Please remove it.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

hee hee

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Mmmmmmmm, Snapper & Groupers. Yum. :razz:

That is soooo NOT "ghetto".

Anthony

[skylord]

Mmmmmmmm, Snapper & Groupers. Yum. :razz:

That is soooo NOT "ghetto".

Anthony

Anthony...you cant be eating his pets!

Scott

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Pets?

Oh, I thought it was the fresh seafood tank at Floata Chinese Seafood Restaurant. Sorry, my bad:redface: :lol:

[i have crabs]

if people feed fish everyone is happy. if fish feed people only people are happy so i decided ill feed fish.
as far as the tang goes i would never buy one with such an undersized tank its just that i rescued it from a mexican circus and i didnt know anyone with a 1500g tank that was empty at the time.