monkiboy's 265g build thread

[monkiboy]

so i'm going to fill her up today to let her settle for a few days then will relevel the stand. just under weight of the tank alone, there has been some slight settling and not having this thing perfectly level while filled will be accomplished.



so, my question is this. initially i was going to fill her up with fresh then try to find use for the water somehow but thats a lot of water and i dont know what i'd do with it or how i would store it for use and i'd feel like crap wasting it.



would i be better off filling it with RO/DI so that i can at least use that for the tank and just add salt afterwards?



so the hurdle being that the tank is going to weight a heck of a lot more (~2100lbs) to adjust the stand to level with her mostly filled but i'm sure with two jacks i can make quick work of the extra weight.

 

[monkiboy]

AND SO IT BEGINS!!

 

[monkiboy]

holy cow i almost have a 1/10 of my tank fullllllll!!!!! why am i so excited?!!!?

 

[monkiboy]

she's filling up fast!

 

[monkiboy]

neighbors typically love the sound of table saws in the late night hours, right?



got some work done late tonight. build a box frame for the external overflow. carefully taped up my glass for some nice clean lines.


the dow 795 require you remove the tape about five minutes after application. any more than that it is just too tacky and gets very stringy and messy.



the pups that were a good entertainment break were more tired than i apparently and passed out in the middle of the process.


slightly annoying was losing three pencils during the night. resorted to using a sharpie that i clipped to my shirt. how does that happen?


then put the 795 along the edges that were touching and on the inside seam. will allow to dry/cure and then mount to tank and do outside seams for giggles maybe.

time for bed, finally. got an early morning tomorrow!

 

[monkiboy]

my first piece of custom-made ceramic rock has been made and shipped. eager to see how it arrives and lives up to my expectations!

 

[monkiboy]

external overflow box came out clean and really nice. so far i'm really happy with the dow 795 sealant. it takes a while to fully cure (7-14 days) but is tack free in 1/2 hour so easily workable and then leave in place to dry/cure accordingly.

we mounted the box to the back of the tank and made some templates for some supporting legs. one on each end that reach to the stand. then i have 3 4"x4" 3/4" glass triangles that i will mount to support the external overflow as well. definitely overboard but i do not want any surprises.

i also sealed the outside of the overflow box with the same 795. i am letting that dry a bit before getting the overflow tank installed which should be today presuming i have enough time.

 

[monkiboy]

my first rock structure has arrived!



the box looked flawless - thank you fedex! it was a 36" cube which seems like a really large box for a significantly smaller structure but once opened you realize why.

the box was stuffed with expanding foam that one sprays during packaging within plastic bags which fill all the voids in the box safely securing the item from movement and damage.

and once out of it's foam cocoon i noticed no damages even to some of the thinner branching sections or base - fantastic!

i feel good about the process, shipping, and the final product that i will be ordering a few more pieces. having this piece in the tank, i realize it's not as tall as i need for my aquascape so i'm going to get a slightly taller piece and some more in between sizes then figure out how it will all go together. exciting stuff seeing rock in the tank, though!

 

[monkiboy]

external overflow box went up last night!



taped up -

set to dry and cure -

now to wait for a few days and then i will install the glass triangle bracing. then remove the stand pieces and redgard them and reinstall. then...PLUMBING!

 

[monkiboy]

redgard the opening above the tank...

 

[monkiboy]

decided to paint the back of the tank. i used plasti-dip for ease of removal.

the one pup was no help...

i really didn't like how it looked. it was uneven, black was just so...black. i need a different shade/color/idea/something. so off it went...



thankfully plasti-dip comes off much easier than it goes on. pulled it all off in less than a minute, haha.

thinking of going with a charcoal or grey/smoke vinyl or something along those lines...any ideas? maybe instead get some thin kydex sheets and silicone to back of tank? or inside of tank standing in place? with the textured side to the front?



need ideas - help por favor!

 

[monkiboy]

inally found a swell deal on a frag tank for the fish room. new to me frag tank -

old macro and live rock tank set up in fish room:

out it goes for cleaning and breaking down the old stand:

all out:

new stand construction for frag tank and macro/live rock tanks:

c'est fini:

tomorrow i'll redgard it up, drill some holes for the overflow drains, get it plumbed in hopes the existing bulkheads aren't leaking and won't require replacement and get this system flowing in anticipating of plumbing of the 265 in very soon (but won't be integrating the 265 until it is completely cycled).

 

[monkiboy]

not yet. still waiting on the rockscape from cerameco. probably will be a couple weeks on it.

also, waiting to figure out the backing of this thing so i can do plumbing. thinking of something like this:

OR

inspiration at the moment:

 

[monkiboy]

my buddy dave of nanoboxreef is doing BIG things. we got to talking about my build and next thing you know we are discussing accent colors for my new fixture, haha.

all of his fixtures nowadays are upgradable to the new coralux storm or storm x controllers. so he's going to hook me up with the storm x and i'm going to see about putting together a review of it and the fixture with photos and video since it's relatively new to the scene.

this will be the largest fixture he built and i got a lot of excitement from dave of the opportunity to build it for me. unbeknownst to him, i might be even more excited to give it a go. i had six d120s and three IT2060s set to go (wasn't sure what i wanted to use given the new apex control options) but found happy homes pretty quickly for the evergrows and just couldn't pass up this opportunity dave offered up.

he had planned to stay a couple days this weekend for install and tinkering but life happened and now we are looking at the end of the month. this actually works better so hopefully i can get some more work done, get my cerameco structures in, and my cycle going before he shows up.

the fixture will be 72" long. it will have multiple banks for dimming to create a true dusk/dawn and sunrise/sunset from one side of the fixture to the other. will have UV, blue, royal blue, cyan, warm whites and neutral whites. the LEDs are Rebel ES and SEMILED for the violets/UV.

the finishing colors are stolen from my monster subaru, shocker green and matte black. this all will be wired up to the coralux storm x controller. it will also have four t5 80w bulbs as well on the front and rear of the fixture on custom brackets with individual reflectors. the housing is a custom-milled 3" wide housing (an inch shorter than the standard 4" he has been using until now).

that's all the details i can recall for now. i'll be sure to post up more as they come available. here are some pictures in the mean time of dave's fine work!

 

[monkiboy]

picked up 15 feet of shower pan liner - operation water contain and drain begins!

 

[monkiboy]

ust realized that anything other than black is not going to work for my background.



the dow 795 is black. my external overflow is taller by about eight inches than my internal overflow there those eight inches of black seam are going to show through, unfortunately.



i could do a frosted with black and grey accents like i just had planned until recently and try to fade the hard black seam lines into the background as shadows but it will drive me nuts.



those black hard seam lines just won't look right looking at the tank from the front.



so...black i guess it is unless i do something on the inside of the tank like with kydex sheets but the two braces up top make that kind of unlikely as the union gap between the pieces inside wouldn't look right either.



so i'm just going to use black and grey light coats and see what i can come up with for creating depth with a light from above.

 

[monkiboy]

got an updated shot of my LED housing. so svelte and sexy.

was contemplating change the color scheme by clearing the raw unfinished metal and going to black accents instead. i really like the look. or maybe stick with my original idea.

 

[monkiboy]

decided to go ahead and skip the previous color scheme and instead go with something a bit more industrial and went with the unfinished metal with the clear matte powdercoat on then black accents and endcaps and kevlar sheathing instead of the shocker green! this is going to be awesome!

dan from avast sent me an updated photo of my new skimmer being built. i shipped two diablo DC5500s to him for fitting up to the skimmer body. looking good so far, and a skimming monster, too! will have a swabbie installed, as well!

 

[monkiboy]

ordered up two diablo dc10500s this morning and already shipped! couldn't find them anywhere in stock then my luck turned around and mine are scheduled for arrival monday - let's get some plumbing done!



QTY Product Shipped Date


(2) "Diablo DC 10500 Variable Speed Water Pump" 21-Aug-2013

had a pretty rough day but tried to get some stuff done ...

sound blocking/damping insulation, vapor barrier, and drywall up under the stand

cleaned up the rear pane and alcohol swiped -

decided to try some "black out" privacy window film - not fun AT ALL. incredibly difficult trying to do it in one piece with the cut out for the external overflow and little room to work with on the left and the material sticking to itself and then working all the bubbles out afterwards.

shower liner time -

replaced bulkheads on refugium and frag tanks and reinstalled on stand. then had to resetup the entire sump system for the upstairs tank again. i just made it a nice water change and drained and refilled everything once done with the shower pan liner.

next is to install sheet PVC all around on the walls from the bottom 4' up which will lay on top of the shower pan liner and completely cover the wall under the stand as well to protect the drywall there from sump salt creep/splashing/etc and add added sound dampening (albeit minimal).

 

[monkiboy]

organizing plumbing fittings...hopefully i have one or two too many and don't need to order more. i think i have my bases covered

yay skimmer!