Waking up from the nightmare build: the reboot

[O'l Salty]

Following

 

[vic5hands]

Good Luck. Hope all goes well. Following

 

[jsker]

What should I add? Thinking about retro-ing some T5s

I have read were people are very happy with the hybrid of t5's and Hydra's and to answer your question, good choice.

Very interesting project. Oh thank you for the tour of the kitchen, but I would like to see the stove.

 

[LokiDawg]

I'm all in.

 

[GrouperBait]

i'm sure you're having some fun with this tank, and i mean that sincerely. it's going to be rewarding on an epic scale for all of us when we see what you are able to do with this thing!!
and i second the stylophora. it's so easy to make that look good in any light and flow. a monti setosa may be a nice choice as well for that spot. my seriatopora is picky about flow, and the acros will take up valuable light realestate like someone else mentioned, unless you keep them low and alive..but not thriving.
anyway, looking forward to the next update! have fun!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Holy cow. Re-pack is not always a bad thing though and often ends up in something even more beautiful.
That worm was a nightmare indeed.
The home- the home. Oh, the home looks beautiful. Someday and I mean someday .........................................

I'll Never afford such a home LOL

 

[Temp]

Following

 

[Bob Escher]

A person more sane and less desperate than me would probably reach this point and walk away forever.

Being from Chicago (inside the city limits) if this house is inside I’m amazed but then again seeing what’s going up around my mothers 1920’s house I shouldn’t be surprised

I’m watching this build. Need help would make me visit my mother more. I’m retired and in Milwaukee

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Being from Chicago (inside the city limits) if this house is inside I’m amazed but then again seeing what’s going up around my mothers 1920’s house I shouldn’t be surprised

I’m watching this build. Need help would make me visit my mother more. I’m retired and in Milwaukee

It’s in the North Shore

 

[Bob Escher]

Bristle worms? Nah. They’re generally detritivores. I’ve heard of them chomping on clams before, but I’ve seen plenty of tanks with bristle worms in them that had happy clams.

I’m way old school...I just dump live rock in. In a new tank, I don’t even cure it. I use it to get it cycling. I get some unwanted stuff from time to time, but never to the point of having a problem.

One of my old zoology professors was fond of saying ‘Everything is food for something’, and I apply that philosophy to the stocking of aquariums. Seems to work.

I figured Lake forest Myself

 

[LBReefer]

From the living room side:

You can see the overflow on the right, and dry chamber on the left. The far left panel is clear, but doesn’t face anything and is not used for viewing. The far right panel is clear and butts up against the side of the build-in refrigerator.

My plan here is to cover everything from left to right with 1/8” dark blue opaque acrylic.

Using the depth here and building a couple of primary more vertical rock structures on each point from those boxes, as well as proper light placement and angling, I should be able to highlight what is in front of the blue acrylic without hitting the acrylic with direct light. I’m toying with the idea of cementing some of that plastic two-sided locking tape to the sheets and the aquarium so the sheets can be removed and cleaned if needed.

That should help create a more open water look behind the vert structures, and make the tank look even larger.

I’m probably going to wrap the return line around to the side opposite the overflow. I’ve got 2 IceCap 3k and gyres, and I’m going to add a Maxspect 280 to those. The Maxspect will be ‘built-in’ to the rock wall surrounding the beam box, and the other two will probably be painted dark blue and placed on the dry-chamber and overflow way up by the top.

I hate...hate...seeing equipment/plumbing/cords, so I’m going to make sure these things are out of sight but still accessible.

Any concerns about trying to service the maxspect if it’s “built in”? I’ve been tempted to do the same, but feel like I have a hard enough time working in my tank as is.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Any concerns about trying to service the maxspect if it’s “built in”? I’ve been tempted to do the same, but feel like I have a hard enough time working in my tank as is.

Good question. As with most things I do, it’s going to be a fingers-crossed move.

My plan is to build a shelf that’s enclosed each end to a little more than the width of the gyre on the fabricated wall. To the underneath side, I’m going to mount two plastic c-clamps (often used for PVC and other pipes) that will hold the gyre in place. There will be an opening in the top of the shelf that the power cord can fit through. When I need to maintain it, I can just turn it off and unhook it from the clamps.

My biggest concern is going to be vibrations reverberating through the house, given that this tank butts up against the main structure of the house. Maybe I’ll coat the clamps w/silicone or something to dampen the vibration.

The beauty of gyres is that they draw all of their water from beneath, so you can literally have something right on top of it w/o impeding flow.

As for the other gyres on the opposite side, I’m just going to paint them the same color blue as the tank is being painted. It won’t totally make them disappear, but if they stay at the top, and the light stays off them, we won’t seem them.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Got the coralline off the surfaces and they’re now prepped for buffing. Honestly, I would rather yank my own fingernails off with pliers than buff acrylic...especially this much...but it’s essential to the final composition.

I’m going to attack this using both wet sand paper and polishing wheels. Gag. This is the one part of the project that really is not fun, especially if you’re a rotator cuff. But I guess if Daniel LaRusso could handle it, so can I.

Oh, @jsker ... here ya go:

 

[jsker]

Got the coralline off the surfaces and they’re now prepped for buffing. Honestly, I would rather yank my own fingernails off with pliers than buff acrylic...especially this much...but it’s essential to the final composition.

I’m going to attack this using both wet sand paper and polishing wheels. Gag. This is the one part of the project that really is not fun, especially if you’re a rotator cuff. But I guess if Daniel LaRusso could handle it, so can I.

Oh, @jsker ... here ya go:

Now that is a stove!! Thank you

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Now that is a stove!! Thank you

Yessir! And unlike in a lot of these kinds of houses I’m in, this one gets used A LOT.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Took a bit of a gamble. I usually start with a 1500 grit wet sandpaper. But there were so many rough spots where the coralline anchored into the acrylic, and so many deep scratches, I decided to start with an 800 grain wet paper and did the entire surface area:

I am trusting that I can go over this several times with my 1500 paper and sand it down enough to let the higher grains take over and finish the sanding and polishing.

Little nervous right now.

 

[bsr2430]

Just want to say, I’ve read everything from the last book to this book. Screw this! One question, leave the rust! If everything is thriving, it must be the rust!!!
Seriously, you think the people who installed it would actually think before they built anything.

Dude, I’ve got a 55 gallon reef tank and sometimes I don’t even want to screw with it!

Props to you for doing this and not quitting! Must be getting paid $600-$800 a month

 

[jsker]

Took a bit of a gamble. I usually start with a 1500 grit wet sandpaper. But there were so many rough spots where the coralline anchored into the acrylic, and so many deep scratches, I decided to start with an 800 grain wet paper and did the entire surface area:

I am trusting that I can go over this several times with my 1500 paper and sand it down enough to let the higher grains take over and finish the sanding and polishing.

Little nervous right now.

That would be a little nerve racking. Time to find a car guy that can buff

 

[Hella_Reef]

This looks fun, besides the buffing. Following along.

 

[KenO]

Just a suggestion, I have Sheetrock behind and above my 250 gallon tank. I put on a heavy coat of a rubberized low VOC paint I got from Amazon. Works like a charm.