A Low Country Reef Tank....one more final upgrade

SPotter · Jul 14, 2014

So drilling thru the foundation didn't go as well as expected or as I had hoped for yesterday. I only got one hole completely drilled and then another one partially. The drill I was using was old and was losing power.

My fiberglass tanks arrived tonight......

I had added additional support under the tank in the crawl space a couple of months ago and never posted a picture of that....

Fin · Jul 14, 2014

Tagging along on this first rate build. LOVE the tank!

SPotter · Jul 20, 2014

Sunday morning update....

I made a lot of progress this week. Getting thru the cinder block was a lot harder than I thought it would since it was filled with cement. After trying to do it with a hammer drill, mason bits and a chisel...I decided to call a tool rental place and this is what they suggested.....

A 25 lb Bosch chipping hammer

It took me about 3 hours to get to this point with a regular hammer drill

And it only took me 10 minutes with the Bosch to do this.....

What an amazing tool that was and worth the $55 for the rental fee!

I was able to run the pvc lines under the house....all 150ft of it.

I then moved on to plumbing both of my closed loops. I need to make some adjustments to one of them. I used a piece of flex on the outlet that leads to the ball valve and the weight was too much so its leaning now and looks messy.

Finally I drilled the holes in the floor and have a friend coming over today to help me make the connections.

tigerdragon · Jul 20, 2014

Tagging along on this i have a 200 peninsula i want to build thinking bout closed loop sys for it

mwbeach · Jul 20, 2014

Very nice build. Can't wait to see the final product!!

homegrowncoral88 · Jul 20, 2014

When do you plan on having fish in? What kind of reef do you want?

Aquaph8 · Jul 20, 2014

Nice progress man, when all else fails get a bigger hammer drill, haha.

SPotter · Jul 21, 2014

tigerdragon said:
Tagging along on this i have a 200 peninsula i want to build thinking bout closed loop sys for it

I should have the tank filled by the end of the week (hopefully) and the closed loops will be running. Im hoping they work out as I have planned.

mwbeach said:
Very nice build. Can't wait to see the final product!!

Thank you!

homegrowncoral88 said:
When do you plan on having fish in? What kind of reef do you want?

I dont have a set time frame on when fish will go in the tank. All depends on how long it takes to cycle and Im not in a rush for anything. I will be picking up about 350lbs of live rock from reefer in NC that is breaking his system in two weeks.

Aquaph8 said:
Nice progress man, when all else fails get a bigger hammer drill, haha.

Best $55 I ever spent for this hobby!!!

zibba · Jul 21, 2014

Looking good! That's a lot of PVC!!!

SPotter · Jul 22, 2014

zibba said:
Looking good! That's a lot of PVC!!!

Thanks Zibba! definitely a lot of pvc and need to pick up a little more today!

SPotter · Jul 28, 2014

And So It Begins.....

The long wait to fill up! I started filling the tank around 5pm yesterday and at 8 am this morning this where we are at.....

Very happy to say that there are no drips coming from any of the 10 bulkheads or closed loop plumbing so far! I will power up the pumps and flowwolf later on today when I get home from work. I still have a lot of plumbing to do in the fish room and then on to the electronics!

zibba · Jul 28, 2014

Hurry up and wait! Congrats on getting the tank wet.

fishroomlady · Jul 28, 2014

yes, congratulations on getting the tank wet!

SPotter · Jul 28, 2014

Well this quickly turned into "hurry up and drain the tank!"

once the tank got about 2/3 full one of the 2" cl bulkheads started to drip. I tried to tighten it but that didn't help. The longer I tried to fix it the worse the drip got and then became a steady stream. So 20 mins later the tank was empty again! I'll try refilling again on wed. I ordered a pond liner that I am going to put in the stand.

AquaCox · Jul 30, 2014

Where did ya get the fiberglass tanks from?

zibba · Jul 30, 2014

SPotter said:
Well this quickly turned into "hurry up and drain the tank!" once the tank got about 2/3 full one of the 2" cl bulkheads started to drip. I tried to tighten it but that didn't help. The longer I tried to fix it the worse the drip got and then became a steady stream. So 20 mins later the tank was empty again! I'll try refilling again on wed. I ordered a pond liner that I am going to put in the stand.

Ugh, sorry to hear man. Keep us posted.

MJC · Jul 31, 2014

Following

SPotter · Jul 31, 2014

AquaCox said:
Where did ya get the fiberglass tanks from?

I got the tanks from here..... Tanks | Pentair Aquatic Ecosystems

zibba said:
Ugh, sorry to hear man. Keep us posted.

Pretty sure I got it all taken care of. I changed out the strainer for the closed loop today and will try filling it tomorrow night. I also built a couple of drip pans out out of 1x4's and pond liner.