ericwithac
Active Member
Where to start...
Well, my Fiance and I had this old 50G tank lying around in our basement. We had some freshwater fish in it when we lived in our apartment (back in the day). We had cleaned everything out of it (except for the substrate) and had hidden it in a dark corner of our basement. When we moved into our house we bout a 60G Cube tank for our Discus to live in. (And apparently it "flowed" better with our living room than our longer 50G tank, or so I was "told").
Anyway, I have been in the process of setting up my "Man Cave" for a few weeks now. I have my flight simulator setup. PS4 with a 40" TV (also hooked up to my flight sim computer) a mini fridge for delectable beers and the like, and a big couch to hangout/play video games on with friends. It took a few days of working on my "man dungeon" to realize I had the perfect spot for that 'ol trusty 50G tank we had in the basement!
Now, I am one of the lucky guys out there, of which there a few, whose girlfriends, fiance's, wives, etc. are pretty open to any ideas, and won't bring down the mighty fist of woman-hood against you if you do something without telling them. ie. I bought a 2014 RAM 1500 truck without asking her. Anyhoo, having this knowledge, I decided it would be perfect to setup a saltwater tank. I should probably also do it before she gets home, so its all nice and setup and shes not coming home to chaos.
So, of course I had to dig the tank out and assess how much of a pain in the you know what it was going to be to clean. Surprisingly, it wasn't half bad. About 45 minutes of work and a few solo cups later (for getting all the old substrate out) I had a fairly clean tank. I brought it upstairs and used a mixture of vinegar and water to clean the sides of the tank. I also used the metal scraper on my Flipper to get off old, crusted on gunk. I think in the end, though, the glass aquarium lids/tops, whatever you'd like to call them, where the worst. So much old dried flake food, some salt creep (remember I kept Discus in this tank) and other gunk that required some elbow grease. Eventually, however, I got everything nice and sparkly clean, brought the stand up from downstairs, and gloriously placed the empty, clean tank on-top of the stand.
Now remember, I wanted to have as much as I could setup before my Fiance' got home from work that day. She usually arrives around 530 to me handing her a glass of wine and our two dogs jumping all over her.
So next, I needed to get my sump, overflow box, pump and of course, water, sand and live rock. I picked up a EShopps R-100 Sump w/ Refugium. My good friend Kevin has a 100G Reef Tank and had a good experience with the R-200. I figured I would follow in his footsteps and get the baby brother, the R-100.
I also grabbed a PF-800 overflow box, and a Sicce Syncra Silent 3.0 pump. Of course with that I needed some water tubing and a 90 degree return nozzle. I was also talked into, although It was probably my doing, a eFlux Loop Wave Pump, which I am in love with. I then bought 60 lbs. of Fiji Pink live sand, figuring my fiance' would like the whole "pink" idea, along with about 40 lbs of live-rock.
So, an hour or so, and a big blow to the wallet later, I arrived home, eager as ever, to get my tank up and running. The first thing I new I needed to do was to make a platform on the bottom of my stand for my sump to sit on. As you can see in the first photo, the stand has braces around the sides, but nothing in the middle. I remember having some plywood in the basement, and 15 minutes later, I had created a shelf, completed with 2x4s on the bottom for support. I could now fit the R-100 with no problems on the bottom of my tank...or so I thought.
I started to get everything setup. I took the R-100 Sump out of its box, and slid it under the tank. Took out the HOB Overflow box (PF-800) and got it situated on the back left side of my tank. "Well, this is easy, I thought." If only I knew what the next few hours would bring.
Continuing along, I got the hose rigged up from the overflow into the sump, put the filter & PVC piper into the overflow box, and was please with my progress. Now it was time to get the "pump in the sump" (always liked how that rhymes) and get everything ready to rock. I cut my water tube, attached one side to the Sicce pump in the return compartment of the R-100, and fashioned the other side of the tubing to the return nozzle. Sweet! Time for sand, rock and water, i thought!
I quickly cut open each bag of Fiji Pink sand, all 60 lbs. of it, and made sure it was nice and even all the way through the tank. I then started to play with the live rock. I had some nice shapes I picked up, along with some regular pieces. I played with those for quite awhile, also realizing I will need more at some point, but was happy with my rock formations and was ready to dump some water in. Back to the LFS for some RO! (Having a truck made this quite a bit easier than it would be with a car)
Since I wasn't planning to put any fish in for awhile (I work 4 days on and 4 days off, and this was my last day before work) I was just going to dump the water in, and then put the Red Sea Coral Salt in through the filter sock. Trying to act quickly, which is a poor idea with 5 gallon buckets of water) I managed to spill some on my crotch-al area, and managed to mess up the nice, level and neat sand I had laid out earlier. Oh well! The water was in! Time to get the sump running and and some SALT!
As you can see in the picture above. I got everything running, placed in one of my older heaters to get the process rolling and put the eFlux Wave Pump in to get this tank WAVYYYYY!
Now, here's where the problems started. First of all, I noticed that where my outflow water tubing met my outflow nozzle, I had a small leak. I tried desperately to get the tube higher up on the nozzle to eliminate the leak, to no avail. Eventually, after a quick call to a LFS, we came up with the idea of hose clamps. So, after quick trip to Lowe's for some hose clamps, I had this problem solved!
However, after about an hour, I realized the leak was still there. It was much smaller, but still leaking, no worries, I thought, the salt creep will take care of that! As you can see in the photo above, it sure did!
Meanwhile, on the other side of my tank, I had yet another leak. The collar on the bottom of the overflow box was leaking! I tried to re-tighten, with no luck. It then dawned on my that my buddy Kevin, who I mentioned earlier, had his glued on with silicone. Off to the LFS for some silicone! The LFS hooked up the Silicone, but I needed to wait 24 hours for it to solidify. That was a huge bummer as I had to leave for my 4 days of work that evening. Oh well, I thought. I got most of it up and it's up enough for my fiance' to see it.
I called my fiance', Erin, right before I knew she'd be leaving for work. I asked her how her days was, and if she wouldn't mind picking up some beer and wine to have with our dinner on her way home. She agreed. I thanked her, and right before I got off the phone, I said, "when you get home, please don't kill me." "WHAT DID YOU DO!" she exclaimed. (It's like she knows me or something. "WHAT DID YOU BUY ERIC!" "Well, i really didn't but much of anything, we kind of already had it." "WHAT DO YOU MEAN," she yelled. "Remember that fish tank we had in our apartment, and how it's been sitting in the basement since we bought our house," I quietly uttered. "OH ERIC! OH ERIC! NOT ANOTHER FISH TANK!" "Again, Erin, please don't kill me."
Now, this was all part of my plan, as I knew she would eventually be okay with it, and it was past the point of returning the items I had bought. In a short while she came bursting through the door, dogs jumping all over her with a very unimpressed look on her face. "Do you wanna go see the tank?" I asked. "I need wine first." she said. I poured her a glass of wine and we went down to the basement. She stood their looking at the tank for awhile, not saying anything. I didn't want to be the first one to speak, but eventually, I knew I had to. "What do you think babe?" She looked at me, smiled a bit and said "You drive me crazy, but it's pretty cool, and I love you."
SUCCESS! I WAS IN! THE SALT LIFE! Here I was, finally able to have Saltwater fish tank in my house, and I was unscathed. No beating, scratching and no real yelling at all. My Salt Life journey was well on its way.
...more to come...1/23/19
Well, my Fiance and I had this old 50G tank lying around in our basement. We had some freshwater fish in it when we lived in our apartment (back in the day). We had cleaned everything out of it (except for the substrate) and had hidden it in a dark corner of our basement. When we moved into our house we bout a 60G Cube tank for our Discus to live in. (And apparently it "flowed" better with our living room than our longer 50G tank, or so I was "told").
Anyway, I have been in the process of setting up my "Man Cave" for a few weeks now. I have my flight simulator setup. PS4 with a 40" TV (also hooked up to my flight sim computer) a mini fridge for delectable beers and the like, and a big couch to hangout/play video games on with friends. It took a few days of working on my "man dungeon" to realize I had the perfect spot for that 'ol trusty 50G tank we had in the basement!
Now, I am one of the lucky guys out there, of which there a few, whose girlfriends, fiance's, wives, etc. are pretty open to any ideas, and won't bring down the mighty fist of woman-hood against you if you do something without telling them. ie. I bought a 2014 RAM 1500 truck without asking her. Anyhoo, having this knowledge, I decided it would be perfect to setup a saltwater tank. I should probably also do it before she gets home, so its all nice and setup and shes not coming home to chaos.
So, of course I had to dig the tank out and assess how much of a pain in the you know what it was going to be to clean. Surprisingly, it wasn't half bad. About 45 minutes of work and a few solo cups later (for getting all the old substrate out) I had a fairly clean tank. I brought it upstairs and used a mixture of vinegar and water to clean the sides of the tank. I also used the metal scraper on my Flipper to get off old, crusted on gunk. I think in the end, though, the glass aquarium lids/tops, whatever you'd like to call them, where the worst. So much old dried flake food, some salt creep (remember I kept Discus in this tank) and other gunk that required some elbow grease. Eventually, however, I got everything nice and sparkly clean, brought the stand up from downstairs, and gloriously placed the empty, clean tank on-top of the stand.
Now remember, I wanted to have as much as I could setup before my Fiance' got home from work that day. She usually arrives around 530 to me handing her a glass of wine and our two dogs jumping all over her.
So next, I needed to get my sump, overflow box, pump and of course, water, sand and live rock. I picked up a EShopps R-100 Sump w/ Refugium. My good friend Kevin has a 100G Reef Tank and had a good experience with the R-200. I figured I would follow in his footsteps and get the baby brother, the R-100.
I also grabbed a PF-800 overflow box, and a Sicce Syncra Silent 3.0 pump. Of course with that I needed some water tubing and a 90 degree return nozzle. I was also talked into, although It was probably my doing, a eFlux Loop Wave Pump, which I am in love with. I then bought 60 lbs. of Fiji Pink live sand, figuring my fiance' would like the whole "pink" idea, along with about 40 lbs of live-rock.
So, an hour or so, and a big blow to the wallet later, I arrived home, eager as ever, to get my tank up and running. The first thing I new I needed to do was to make a platform on the bottom of my stand for my sump to sit on. As you can see in the first photo, the stand has braces around the sides, but nothing in the middle. I remember having some plywood in the basement, and 15 minutes later, I had created a shelf, completed with 2x4s on the bottom for support. I could now fit the R-100 with no problems on the bottom of my tank...or so I thought.
I started to get everything setup. I took the R-100 Sump out of its box, and slid it under the tank. Took out the HOB Overflow box (PF-800) and got it situated on the back left side of my tank. "Well, this is easy, I thought." If only I knew what the next few hours would bring.
Continuing along, I got the hose rigged up from the overflow into the sump, put the filter & PVC piper into the overflow box, and was please with my progress. Now it was time to get the "pump in the sump" (always liked how that rhymes) and get everything ready to rock. I cut my water tube, attached one side to the Sicce pump in the return compartment of the R-100, and fashioned the other side of the tubing to the return nozzle. Sweet! Time for sand, rock and water, i thought!
I quickly cut open each bag of Fiji Pink sand, all 60 lbs. of it, and made sure it was nice and even all the way through the tank. I then started to play with the live rock. I had some nice shapes I picked up, along with some regular pieces. I played with those for quite awhile, also realizing I will need more at some point, but was happy with my rock formations and was ready to dump some water in. Back to the LFS for some RO! (Having a truck made this quite a bit easier than it would be with a car)
Since I wasn't planning to put any fish in for awhile (I work 4 days on and 4 days off, and this was my last day before work) I was just going to dump the water in, and then put the Red Sea Coral Salt in through the filter sock. Trying to act quickly, which is a poor idea with 5 gallon buckets of water) I managed to spill some on my crotch-al area, and managed to mess up the nice, level and neat sand I had laid out earlier. Oh well! The water was in! Time to get the sump running and and some SALT!
As you can see in the picture above. I got everything running, placed in one of my older heaters to get the process rolling and put the eFlux Wave Pump in to get this tank WAVYYYYY!
Now, here's where the problems started. First of all, I noticed that where my outflow water tubing met my outflow nozzle, I had a small leak. I tried desperately to get the tube higher up on the nozzle to eliminate the leak, to no avail. Eventually, after a quick call to a LFS, we came up with the idea of hose clamps. So, after quick trip to Lowe's for some hose clamps, I had this problem solved!
However, after about an hour, I realized the leak was still there. It was much smaller, but still leaking, no worries, I thought, the salt creep will take care of that! As you can see in the photo above, it sure did!
Meanwhile, on the other side of my tank, I had yet another leak. The collar on the bottom of the overflow box was leaking! I tried to re-tighten, with no luck. It then dawned on my that my buddy Kevin, who I mentioned earlier, had his glued on with silicone. Off to the LFS for some silicone! The LFS hooked up the Silicone, but I needed to wait 24 hours for it to solidify. That was a huge bummer as I had to leave for my 4 days of work that evening. Oh well, I thought. I got most of it up and it's up enough for my fiance' to see it.
I called my fiance', Erin, right before I knew she'd be leaving for work. I asked her how her days was, and if she wouldn't mind picking up some beer and wine to have with our dinner on her way home. She agreed. I thanked her, and right before I got off the phone, I said, "when you get home, please don't kill me." "WHAT DID YOU DO!" she exclaimed. (It's like she knows me or something. "WHAT DID YOU BUY ERIC!" "Well, i really didn't but much of anything, we kind of already had it." "WHAT DO YOU MEAN," she yelled. "Remember that fish tank we had in our apartment, and how it's been sitting in the basement since we bought our house," I quietly uttered. "OH ERIC! OH ERIC! NOT ANOTHER FISH TANK!" "Again, Erin, please don't kill me."
Now, this was all part of my plan, as I knew she would eventually be okay with it, and it was past the point of returning the items I had bought. In a short while she came bursting through the door, dogs jumping all over her with a very unimpressed look on her face. "Do you wanna go see the tank?" I asked. "I need wine first." she said. I poured her a glass of wine and we went down to the basement. She stood their looking at the tank for awhile, not saying anything. I didn't want to be the first one to speak, but eventually, I knew I had to. "What do you think babe?" She looked at me, smiled a bit and said "You drive me crazy, but it's pretty cool, and I love you."
SUCCESS! I WAS IN! THE SALT LIFE! Here I was, finally able to have Saltwater fish tank in my house, and I was unscathed. No beating, scratching and no real yelling at all. My Salt Life journey was well on its way.
...more to come...1/23/19
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