kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

lastlight · #1 11-13-2009, 09:56 AM

lmao! oh so do i. can you share a link to the store? The more clever shirts I have the less clever I need to be lol.

lorenz0 · #2 11-13-2009, 10:03 AM

http://www.thinkgeek.com/

have fun. i think it took me an hour before i finished looking over this site. have yet to make my first order

kien · #3 11-13-2009, 04:05 PM

I love think geek,I have a bunch of junk from them. I even dressed up the wife and the kids in some of their stuff. There's a picture of my wife with Darth Vader wearing her "I love my geek" t-shirt

P.S. tony if you read this and find that picture, that's Dave!

Lorenzo: Again, if I remember right, you had hardwood floors on that floor. Normally you have to run hardwood floors perpendicular to your joists. Or at least that's what I've been told. So your tank would run parallel to the hardwood floors in this case. I'm no builder but I think it is a rule of thumb, even if there might be exceptions ? I asked quite a few people before proceeding and the general consensus is that 150g is about the max you'd want to comfortably put on the main floor without extra support underneath. But then I know people who have put more than that so I don't know

Coleus · #4 11-13-2009, 04:43 PM

150g plus sump would be like 200g :-) I knows quite a few ppl putting their tank on main floor without doing any extra support to the floor. But i think we should play safe by sistering the floor underneath. Easy to do and give you some peace of mind. A collapse or bend floor will cost thousands to repair :-)

kien · #5 11-13-2009, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coleus

150g plus sump would be like 200g :-) I knows quite a few ppl putting their tank on main floor without doing any extra support to the floor. But i think we should play safe by sistering the floor underneath. Easy to do and give you some peace of mind. A collapse or bend floor will cost thousands to repair :-)

Actually, depends how much stuff is in our DT and sump. My 150g is displaced by about 10 gallons worth of rock maybe? Some would have even more. My 45g sump only holds about 30g worth of water I think? So in total I've estimated roughly 140g worth of water. BUT, then there's the weight of all that other crap like rocks, sand, tank, stand, equipment, etc, so you're far exceeding the weight of 200g worth of water anyway LOL!

Ya, If you're going to put major weight, like I'd say 180+ gallons on your main floor I'd probably look into extra support too. However, this isn't always "easy", especially if your basement is developed already and your tank sits right on top of your home theatre!

Certainly not impossible, just more challenging!

My next upgrade 400 gallons or so will find me relocating the tank into the basement.

kien · #6 12-30-2009, 08:40 AM

I have been hunting this guy for a long long time now. I first caught a glimpse of him in my previous 90 gallon tank. I was sure he was a goner when I worked on the live rock aquascaping for the 150g but sadly no.. At night he would mock me with his beady little red eyes... nah nah nah-nah nah catch me if you can.. As soon as I put my hand in the tank he'd be gone.

Well, his time has finally come! The other day I caught him grazing on a patch of zoanthids and figured, what the heck. This time however I got lucky and was able to sneak up behind him from the other side of the tank. He was so busy having lunch that he didn't see it coming!

Here he is, my Nemesis. He has quadrupled in size since I first saw him eons ago and now resides in the sump. (note to self: Do NOT put any rocks from the sump into the display tank).

kien · #7 12-30-2009, 08:58 AM

I love the performance of Hydor 700. It skims very well and I am quite pleased with it. However, there is one thing that I do absolutely hate about it and that is the fact that you require herculean strength to remove the skimmer cup. It is held in quite tightly by an O-ring. Often times I find myself wiggling, jiggling, twisting, turning, and whatever else I can do to get that darn skimmer cup off. Sometimes I get fed up and just give it good 'ol brute force which unfortunately usually results in the contents of the skimmer cup ending right back into the sump

It was finally time for an intervention. What I ended up doing was removing that darn O-ring completely.

In order to prevent water leaking out of the skimmer cup's neck I employed a gasket instead. The gasket is cut out of that thinish foamy paper that you can get from craft stores like Michaels.

I cut out a ring the exact size of the skimmer neck and seated it on the lip that the skimmer cup rests on.

Lastly, the skimmer cup had a little bit of play in it due to the removal of that O-ring so I needed to shim it a bit with something. After trying various types of tape I finally settled on a strip of electrical tape which made a perfect fit.

The skimmer cup now sits into the main skimmer body quite nicely with a smooth and gentle insertion force.

This has worked out quite well and now I no longer dread cleaning the skimmer cup.