Huge score? Anyone familiar with Innovation Marine aquariums?

[ThePlummer]

Haven't posted any updates in quite a while. We had a disaster.

I use a external 1 gal. container to catch skimmate. I installed a sensor on the container to turn off the skimmer, if it gets full. Late one night, I heard the alarm sound, and it shut off the skimmer, as it's supposed to, I figured it would be fine till morning for me to tend to.

Unbeknownst to me, we had a power outage during the night, which reset the overflow sensor, and since the jug was already full, it didn't detect that the jug was full, it just started the skimmer again. By the next morning, we had about 15 gallons of water spilled on the floor.

This caused the subfloor to sag on one end of the aquarium as the stand was pushing through the floor. So, we decided to break move all the livestock to a 40 breeder, and drain the tank to take weight off the failing floor.

We decided at that time to upgrade to a Innovative Marine APS stand for the SR 120. Checked regularly for the next year, only to be met with 'out of stock'. I eventually called Innovative Marine, and they were happy to take a order for me, but that I'd have to pay for it now, and it would be delivered sometime last January.

January came and went, called again and they updated that we should have it some time in February... Got notification the last week of Feb. that it would be arriving and I'd be getting a call from Fed Ex about delivery coordination. Then a snow/ice storm hit... delayed delivery by another week.

Well, it's here now, floors fixed, and to my surprise, the floor joists are on 24" centers, and I had missed the critical joist by a mere 2", which meant that all the weight of the aquarium and stand was riding on 3 joists.

Gonna be updating again, as this is nearly a brand new, upgraded build.

 

[ThePlummer]

First question I have for the group: I had currently been using a 48" Fluval light under the cabinet. It was bright enough, but every time I stuck my head in the cabinet, my head would cause a shadow right where I needed to work, which made the light virtually worthless.

What are you guys doing for adequate lighting under cabinet? I'm thinking LED for sure, maybe even the neon type. Any particular brands work better than others? Cabinet is black inside, so the brighter the light the better.

Also, ideas on mounting position. My thoughts are a rope light that encircles the entire cabinet, front, back, and both sides, rather than a single strip down the middle, because of the shadow issue I had before.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ThePlummer]

One thing I forgot to ask about. I'm not too keen on drilling holes in this new stand for mounting hardware and such. I had problems with the old wooden stand as is was coated with vinyl and nothing I've found adhesive wise would actually stick.

Anyone know what kind of adhesive would bond to the new anodized aluminum APS stand, so I don't go through this ordeal again?

 

[ThePlummer]

Update...
Disaster struck Sunday night into Monday morning.
I woke up to a terrible noise coming from the aquarium. In a daze, I couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on in the aquarium. I walked around to the back of the aquarium, only to step in lots of water.

Finally figured out that the back left silicone seam had failed on the aquarium, and water was squirting out the side, hitting the refrigerator. Mad dash to catch all the fish first, & transfer them to the 40 breeder. Then on to draining the tank below the leak line, while my room mate grabbed the shop vac.

1 1/2 hours later, we felt like we got enough of the mess cleaned up to go back to bed. What a mess. Carpet is still pretty wet, but I think it'll be alright over time. Turned on the furnace & air conditioner back & forth to act like a dehumidifier to dry the house out as quickly as possible. That seems like it's working.

Contacted Innovative Marine, as I've noticed that they are currently having a 50% off sale. A new sr-120 tank & stand is roughly only $2100. Good time to upgrade to a new one. I asked if it was possible to get just a tank, without the AIO system installed, and no stand. There answer was a flat NO. It only comes as listed on the website. I'm guessing these things are made outside the US & they can't take any custom orders.

So, My next option is to possibly rebuild this one, as I've got over $1000.00 in a new stand. Anyone have any experience in disassembling a Innovative Marine large tank and redoing it? I'm leaning to taking it to a professional, but moving the thing is going to be very difficult, so maybe (with good advice), I can do it myself... But.... I don't want this to ever happen again, so I'm a bit apprehensive about diy route.

Please help!!!