Also, @TriggerFinger may have heard the griping more lol. Forgot our our PM about setting up returns over the back.
As promised, a pic of the 180 all back together. She still has not figured out what to put on the shelf, but she will get there. She is watching the 10th doctor at the moment lol.
The sign on the stand is what she got me a while ago. “Today, I will be happier than a seagull with a French fry”
Totally fine. I think I got ya beat 10 fold with repetitive plumbing questions
Ok. Tank still not all the way clear, but outside was hit with 2k and it removed the scratches. I then hit it with Novus 2 and my buffer. Novus 1 was done by hand. Once the tank clears, it will be clear lol.
Not bad for half a days worth of work. Even added updates during that time.
@JCOLE no video, as I could not figure out how to set anything up to hold my phone lol. I did just order a stand for it on Amazon, so I can make one when I do the 50g frag tank I have sitting in the garage. I will fill it with water, just so that it shows what to do. I will end up doing the final polish with no water, as it is not setup lol. But that should be easy to walk through and easy to record.
The final product. Just waiting for water to clear and have dumped skimmers 2 times since last posting about them lol.
And this is why I did it.
Sitting at my desk, I can look to the left and have a nice view of the tank. The view was horrible and now I see this. All the way to the back wall and the tank still has dust from moving the sand out of the way floating about. Once the front is done and the cloudyness clears, I may actually enjoy the view again.
Wow you were busy, looks great! And to think I talked about doing something yesterdayOK, so I forgot the pre-pics.
Imagine this. The 61" aquatic life fixture installed using 4 of the wall mount adjustable arms that they sell. Not the nice clean looking ones, but the old style with the round rods that stick out from the wall plates about 16". Then you have 3 hydra 32s in it. One with a shade installed and 2 with DIY prism for some better blending of the light.
OK, now that you have that. I will change subjects. @Crabby48 knows how long I have been meaning to do this lol. I moved the supprts for my returns to where the thing is actually somewhat level and you cannot see as much of it. The "tee" was very noticeable and now it is not.
OK, back on track here. I mounted the lights to the shelf after I went all draw happy to get the lights exactly where I wanted them with the shades installed. I then figured out how far in from the side and how far in from the front of the lights the mounting holes were. From there I made a template that allowed me to mark the board to where the front edge of the shade met the front edge of the shelf. The shelf is not as deep as the tank, as I want to still be able to move rock or add rocks, if needed.
Once the template was correct, traced onto the shelf, the screw holes marked, I drilled holes the exact size as the 10/32 bolts. After that, I used a counter sink bit to where the head of the bolt was recessed. From there, I attached the lights with jam nuts at the shelf and the light.
I then routed all of the cabling for the lights onto the shelf. I used some zip tie feet that are proably 10 or so years old. Maybe older, as I have been out of the field for that long lol. I still has come short wood screws from that time also. They are special order screws used to mount boxes under registers in retail stores. Short enough to not bust through the cheap crap they use for the fixtures, but long enough to bite.
Once all that was done, the shelf brackets were mounted and then the shelf.
The view from the couch no longer blinds anyone. I also removed the prism sheets, as the lights are at 10.5" from the water and with 2 gyres, 2 mp40s and 2 mp10s, the water moves just fine and there is no need to blend the light at that height. Only reason they were so low previously was due to the T5 blinding everyone. T5 not needed at this time, as rock structure is almost dead center of tank and not growing SPS on sand or behind rocks lol.
Par is still 150-180 on sand, 200-260 mid rocks and 250-400 up top. Lights are only at 65%, so still room to move them up if needed. Luckily tank has been without T5s for over a month and lights ramping up over that same time. They still have to get to 75% peak, but that will not happen until end of next week.
Either way, crap ton done today. Still have to move the biocube contents to the nem tank, but Damian is home for easter and has a task for me. He is having a ton of friends over and wants wood for a bonfire. So off to the woods I go to cut some ones laying for a year up.
I will snag a full tank, stand and shelf pic once wife gets the shelf how she wants it and I put the stand back together. Until then, have fun. I am off to be a lumberjack lol.
I even got the biocube moved to the nem tank. Just no pics yet. Those will be up soon.Wow you were busy, looks great! And to think I talked about doing something yesterday
Slow down, your making the rest of us look bad
I don’t do Easter, but yes it is funny. Minions rock!!!!!
Im spamming this gif everywhere today I think. I love it!
