Slick's Tank Journal(s)

Slick Fork · #1 11-07-2008, 06:52 AM

Almost a year since I updated this... I feel a little guilty

The bad news is, the old tank is gone. We decided that we were ready to spend the money to upgrade to a new tank with a starfire front so AndyL came up and took the old one off of our hands. The new one is being built through Gold's in Calgary and should be ready any day now.

So here's some shots of the prep work we've been doing... the basement got a new coat of paint, unfortunately I didn't think to grab any pictures of the tear down process, but set ups are always more fun anyways. The new tank will be going in roughly the same spot but will be presented a little differently. We're getting the same size in terms of gallons (110 us gallons) but instead of a 60x18 foot print this one will be a 48x24. I wanted the extra depth for the aquascaping possibilities but I think I'll miss the length a little. What we're planning on instead of a recessed in the wall tank, this one will be sort of sticking out halfway.

Here's where we are so far...

This is a shot of the old system when it was freshly installed (just for contrast)

Here's the new stand sitting in it's spot... you can see the old stand and part of the wall in the background. Ripping it out was almost more work then putting it in there was!!

Here's a closeup of the stand. Took a couple of suggestions off of the stand template at reef-central. Way overbuilt but I'll sleep pretty good at night!

Slick Fork · #2 11-07-2008, 07:03 AM

You may be panicking... thinking "SLICK, Where are your critters???" but don't worry, I talked the horses into giving up a water trough

They're all fairly happy in there, only exception is the 2 clown's are upstairs in the 33 gallon with all the coral because they wouldn't leave their stupid rock with mushrooms.

Got the profilux running the water trough and the sump!

Now the sump isn't actually connected to any other water. I've got some rocks and the sand-bed in there as well as a new toy, I just acquired a vertex IN-180 skimmer. The Tunze should be somewhere in the Okanagan by now! Just had the skimmer running for a day and a half but so far so good. Here's a gratuitous FSS (full sump shot) for all you junkies out there!

I can't wait to get the new tank, I've got too many critters spread into too many places. I've got the corals and clowns in a 33 gallon upstairs and none of them are happy up there, I've got all the other fish in the water trough, the sump running and a couple of buckets of LR cooking. Get back to one system to take care of and all will be well.

Heading to town this weekend to see if I can figure out how I want to skin the stand and frame the top canopy. We had been thinking about that ceramic artificial stone you can get at Home Depot but at $100/10sqft, that's a lot of money to do the stand. Maybe a nice hardwood panel.

Cheers

fishytime · #3 11-07-2008, 12:53 PM

Looking good man. One thing though...If you ordered your tank through Golds it will be xmas before you get it. Shudda ordered it through us

j/k. So what is the gallonage of your new box?

Slick Fork · #4 11-07-2008, 03:35 PM

Gonna be 110 gallons total, so same volume as the old one. It'll be 48Lx24Wx22T. I guess I could've gone 2 inches higher and gotten 120 gallons but I've got short arms and found that 24" was just a hair too tall for me to reach the bottom on the last one.

I hope it'll be here soon. They told me 2-3 weeks, Monday will be 3 weeks. I'll buy the next one from you guys just to spread it around a little, how's that sound! I almost never buy hardware locally though, the trouble for me is we have no serious suppliers in Central Alberta so we have to make a trip to the city and HOPE that someone has what we're looking for. Whereas if I order from J&L on Monday they usually have it on my front porch by Wednesday morning. 3 days earlier then I could hope to get to the city. Nowadays even paying for shipping is cheaper then the fuel it takes me to get to Calgary and back. Even warranty stuff gets back to me faster and cheaper then my fuel costs. I'm telling you, the Calgary stores are missing out by not having proper websites that we can order stuff from.

mseepman · #5 11-07-2008, 04:32 PM

Setup is looking good. Always glad to see someone documenting their tank build...gives me more opportunity to figure stuff out before I try it.

Have you stopped the Zeo? You originally were doing a 6 month trial but didn't post for a year.

Slick Fork · #6 11-07-2008, 09:54 PM

I have been having real mixed results with the zeo. In part I think because my Tunze 9010 skimmer wasn't really designed to work with that kind of system. I do like the system and think once I get this set up up and running with the new more aggressive skimmer I will try the zeo out once more.

fishytime · #7 11-07-2008, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slick Fork

I'm telling you, the Calgary stores are missing out by not having proper websites that we can order stuff from.

Patience....I think its in the works.

Slick Fork · #8 11-20-2008, 03:27 AM

I think you might've been right about that Christmas comment Doug, tank is a week and a half later then their most pessimistic estimate (so far) Hopefully it'll be here by this weekend. Good thing I have that 90 gallon horse water trough for the fish. My frag tank however is not looking good at all. I never anticipated It would have to be up and running this long, lost one of my clowns the other day

It sucked cause she was my oldest. She started in the 10 gallon nano with me back in 2006. I guess 3 moves was just too much for her.

On a tank related note, should I be concerned about driving the tank an hour and a half in the back of a pickup in the freezing cold?

I got the stand done, just haven't gotten around to pictures of that yet. It's all Birch and Maple construction and I'm actually quite proud of my first real attempt at Cabinet Carpentry!!

Slick Fork · #9 11-21-2008, 04:43 PM

Ok, I've gotta vent a little. Just talked to Gold's and it's not going to be ready for this weekend. I was told 2-3 weeks, Monday will be 5 weeks. My corals look like sh@t because they weren't supposed to be in the 33 gallon tank with mediocre lighting and filtration this long (I'm actually thankful most of them are still alive) I've lost a clownfish and a Chromis so far but otherwise my fish are stressed but alive in a bright blue water trough.

I don't mind a few days late but this is getting ridiculous. If I had known I was going to have a month and a half to wait for the dang thing... I could've done a few things rather different.