I hope I remember how to do this

dcmartinpc

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Hey Don. Thanks for stopping in.

Sorry, it has been a busy week. Moved the fish out of the QT on Tuesday. They went into the temporary holding tank with the two clowns and the single chromis. Other than losing two of the Talbots right away, all the other fish survived QT this time.

There was a little aggression directed towards the smallest Azure towards the end of the QT process, but that seems to have calmed down now that there are other fish to distract the attention and a few pieces of live rock for a more natural cover than pvc fittings.

How are things coming on your MONSTER build?

Glad to hear the remainder of the fish are settling in well!

Things are slowly progressing on my build. Finishing rock prep, cycling QT and Frag systems, other basic stuff. I will be checking in with the builder this week to get an update. I am hoping a road trip will be necessary relatively soon!

Don
 
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cmaxwell39

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I tried to get an update on the delivery date for the new stand and was told it would probably be another couple of weeks.

While we can’t get the tank set up yet, we did get a new pet today

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We haven’t picked a name yet, but he will definitely be a good distraction while we are waiting on the stand to show up. The wife and I just went and picked him up this morning, and he seems to be adjusting decent so far.
 
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cmaxwell39

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Got a little done.

First got the light mount back from powder coating and hung up.

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And lights hanging from it.

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Still need bulbs so no pics of the lights on.

Finally got screen tops made for the display. Eventually it will house numerous fairy wrasses do these are a necessity.

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Wish I had more to share, but without a stand that is all for now.
 
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cmaxwell39

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Finally got word tonight that the stand is supposed to be delivered to the LFS tomorrow. Hopefully this weekend the tank will finally be sitting in the dining room and I can finish hooking up plumbing, etc.
 
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cmaxwell39

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It’s in... Well at least to the LFS. Now have to figure out how to get the stands swapped out. Should be simple, load it in the back of the truck and go. Of course it is supposed to rain a good portion of the day here.;Brb

Will have to try to figure something out.

Anyway, a couple pics shared by the LFS owner.

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Gablami

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You’re going to do it yourself? I would have thought the LFS would have a truck and the manpower to swap this out for you.

At least it’s Saturday morning and you have all weekend to make it happen. This is awesome, very excited for you. You’ve certainly been remarkably patient through this process, as far as I can tell.
 

JumboShrimp

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I have been looking at Custom Aquariums for a long time, but I did not know you can go through a LFS to order one. Was there any financial advantage (better price) to you doing that? Assuming your total order was $3K (for their free shipping to your curbside), is there a reason you wanted to have to pick it up yourself from your LFS? I’m asking to possibly plan my strategy if I buy one of their tanks. Thanks!
 
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cmaxwell39

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I have been looking at Custom Aquariums for a long time, but I did not know you can go through a LFS to order one. Was there any financial advantage (better price) to you doing that? Assuming your total order was $3K (for their free shipping to your curbside), is there a reason you wanted to have to pick it up yourself from your LFS? I’m asking to possibly plan my strategy if I buy one of their tanks. Thanks!


This is a rebuild of the stand, and the LFS ordered a tank to go with it so they will have a tank/stand to sell. That is why the new stand was delivered there. Easier to swap out a stand than to have to transport a tank and stand. The first setup was delivered to my drive.

There were a couple of reasonsI ordered through a LFS. First of all, I wanted to establish some relationships in the new area I moved to. Secondly, I didn’t get a break on the tank per say, but I bought most of my equipment for this build through him and got a decent discount on the package deal. Plus, other than figuring out what equipment I wanted, I didn’t have to shop around for the best price.
 
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cmaxwell39

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You’re going to do it yourself? I would have thought the LFS would have a truck and the manpower to swap this out for you.

At least it’s Saturday morning and you have all weekend to make it happen. This is awesome, very excited for you. You’ve certainly been remarkably patient through this process, as far as I can tell.

Sorry I missed the question earlier. The LFS was willing to bring it out, but said he is short manpower this weekend so it would have been one evening next week to get it. Call me impatient.o_O
 

Gablami

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Sorry I missed the question earlier. The LFS was willing to bring it out, but said he is short manpower this weekend so it would have been one evening next week to get it. Call me impatient.o_O
Honestly, I would have done the same thing. Simultaneously patient and impatient. Perhaps more accurately, patient when we can’t do anything but be patient, lol.
 
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cmaxwell39

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Long day. My buddy Don @dcmartinpc came down and we traded stands and got most of the plumbing done.

Here are a few teaser pics. Will update more tomorrow when I have a bit more energy.

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Still need to check all bulkheads and unions for tightness, do the lockine on the returns, and a bunch of other stuff, but if all goes well, water may be headed towards the display by end of the day tomorrow.

Thanks again Don,
 

code4

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Awesome! Everything looks great. Now for a photo of the adorable puppy in the tank if you have not added water yet!
 
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cmaxwell39

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I see you hard-plumbed the return lines... do you always go that route?

I normally hard pipe as much as I can. I have used more spa flex on this build than any build I have ever done in the past.

Awesome! Everything looks great. Now for a photo of the adorable puppy in the tank if you have not added water yet!

Thanks for stopping by and the kind words. I did not get a picture of the puppy in the tank. Probably would have been a good idea, but got home from church today and started working on everything right away. More about that in a minute.


I can see why you waited for that stand. It matches the room nicely.

My buddy Don said the same thing. He hadn’t been to the new house yet, and had playfully tried to goad me into just using the white stand, but when he walked in yesterday he almost instantly said that we made the right choice waiting on the stand to be rebuilt. I am extremely happy with how everything turned out.
 
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cmaxwell39

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As I said, I did some more on this today. But first, here is where it ended last night.

View from the dining room:

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View from the kitchen:

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Since I have had saltwater in the sump to let rock cure, I can’t do a traditional freshwater test. Because of the high CO2 in my well water forcing the need for a degassing station, I also don’t really have the option (unless I want to burn through 3 cartridges of DI resin to make the 175 gallons I am going to need to fill this tank) to fill with RO since the pump from the degassing barrel will not push up to the main floor. So I have decided to fill the tank with saltwater in 3 or 4 batches. I had 55 gallons mixed already and 50 gallons of RO handy so the first couple of batches will go pretty quick.

I know there is a risk of having to fix a leak, but honestly, it will give me the ability to monitor different sections of the plumbing/bulkheads at different times. Worst case I might have to drain the tank down a little to seal a bulkhead, but they all go through the back glass up high.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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