The Reef-A-Palooza tank goes to middle school

[MaD_ReefeR]

Seems you've had an adventure with this prize. I was there that Sunday when the tank was raffled and the gentleman announced that he was donating it to a school. Glad to see things are starting to get rolling after a rocky start. Can't wait to see how things progress.

 

[reefiniteasy]

I can’t wait to get home from work today. UPS delivered 4 goodies today. Also, what should I do about a heater in this tank? Two 200 watt heaters? I love the Eheim Thermocontrol-E heaters.

 

[reefiniteasy]

So excited for this tank to happen. More goodies arrived today. Big shout out to my parents for the RODI, my mother in-law for the skimmer and Kessil for the lights.

 

[reefiniteasy]

And we are on hold again. After speaking to the Spectrum rep last Tuesday and being told that the tank is set to be delivered to WWC on Wednesday, I was informed today that the tank never shipped. what the heck! The worst part is I am the one who keeps making first contact. If I didn’t message him this morning would anything have been said to me? It’s at the point where I’m thinking about returning all the donations and just giving up on this thing.

 

[Vinman]

And we are on hold again. After speaking to the Spectrum rep last Tuesday and being told that the tank is set to be delivered to WWC on Wednesday, I was informed today that the tank never shipped. what the heck! The worst part is I am the one who keeps making first contact. If I didn’t message him this morning would anything have been said to me? It’s at the point where I’m thinking about returning all the donations and just giving up on this thing.

Patience my friend

 

[reefiniteasy]

The tank is here. Going on vacation to the beach this week and then I’ll begin setting the tank up at the school. Also, on Wednesday I have to go to the Spears warehouse here in Orlando to pick up all the plumbing. They are hooking us up with everything we need, schedule 80 pipe, unions, valves, gate valves, check valves, everything. I am so excited.

 

[CoralB]

The tank is here. Going on vacation to the beach this week and then I’ll begin setting the tank up at the school. Also, on Wednesday I have to go to the Spears warehouse here in Orlando to pick up all the plumbing. They are hooking us up with everything we need, schedule 80 pipe, unions, valves, gate valves, check valves, everything. I am so excited.

Wow !!! What a hassle this has been for you . But the kids are going to be estatic!!! . Must send pics throughout the build please!

 

[reefiniteasy]

Just picked up the plumbing from Spears. One more thing to check off the list.

 

[reefiniteasy]

So I brought the stand and canopy, plumbing, skimmer, and stand in to school on Monday. Trying to figure out what to do for a sump. I was going to use the IceCap 30 sump but the 16” width is too wide for the stand. There are vertical supports in the stand that narrow the width to about 14”. So back to the drawing board. But I have exciting news. The tank will be powered by Sicce. Sicce hooked us up with a Syncra SDC 6.0 and an XStream SDC powerhead. This tank is going to be ******. I cannot move the tank in until the district electrician changes an outlet to a gfci. Then I’ll move the tank in and paint the back. Practicing now on my personal quarantine tank. It’s taken 4 coats of craft acrylic paint to coat the back of my 10 gallon. I can only imagine how long it’ll take me to do the 90 gallon. We will see. One step at a time.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Alright, just inspected the new 90 gallon. Everything looks great except for the upper 4 inches of one seam. I’m still going to use it, but there is no winning with these Marineland tanks. I would never buy one of these tanks.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Have to wait a little longer, the school district has to install a doorstop into the floor so a door next to the tank can’t smash the tank when it opens. But in the meantime the sump has arrived. I picked up a Trigger Systems Sapphire 34 sump from the blemished section on their website. At $310 it’s such a great deal. The sumps have full warranty but have some sort of cosmetic blemish. Haven’t been able to find it yet as I’m off my feet for a couple weeks after just having ankle surgery. I also bought one of their Ruby ATO reservoirs for $90.

If anyone is looking for an ATO AND sump and doesn’t want to spend a fortune, I highly recommend the blemished section of Trigger’s website.

I also decided that I will mount the a360x lights to the canopy using Loc-Line. Found a great YouTube video from Sam Parker showing how to do that.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Step by step we are making progress. Tank and stand are in place now that the office has been painted. I painted a couple of coats of Kilz in the stand and now I’m going to use Baer Exterior Hi-Gloss Enamel in white.

 

[Zach B]

Step by step we are making progress. Tank and stand are in place now that the office has been painted. I painted a couple of coats of Kilz in the stand and now I’m going to use Baer Exterior Hi-Gloss Enamel in white.

Looks great

 

[ilyad]

Oh man, the kids will love this. I know when I was little, anywhere I would find a tank (mostly waiting areas) I would stare in amazement the whole time. Its also great to see all the different companies pitching in to get all the gear. Taking notes on who do deal with in the future.

 

[reefiniteasy]

The stand has been waterproofed. 2 coats of Kilz primer and 2 coats of Baer exterior white enamel paint. Finally moved in the sump and ato reservoir. Now to start plumbing.

 

[Eric R.]

Following! Yay for school tanks.

 

[reefiniteasy]

just dry fitting equipment. Have to plumb the tank next.

 

[fishface NJ]

So glad this is still going forward! BTW what a beautiful sump.

 

[reefiniteasy]

So glad this is still going forward! BTW what a beautiful sump.

The sump was a donation from my mother in-law. Trigger has a blemished section on the website where everything is considerably cheaper. I still can’t find the blemish. The sump was $310.

It’s going to be fun!

 

[slythy]

Looks great, hopefully you can get Apex or Hydros on the tank so you can monitor it during the weekends and summer/winter breaks