**Brian and Stacy's Reef Experience**

[brikeibur]

So I have a pic or two of the 90g tank from last night....we were not able to put the additional water in last night, so we won't be able to 'filter' it until tonight. I cleaned up the light, but i will need to use some acrylic cleaner/scratch remover on the bottom of the light, as I think that the scratches are probably cutting down on some of the output.

And then I managed to snap a shot of the royal gramma, Maggie, while she was out after we fed. She is really not shy, but Squishy (our largest clown) is a real bully, so after a few seconds of her being out he will chase her until she hides, then she'll come back out and the cycle begins again!!

(sorry the quality on the pics again....still too lazy to go grab my good camera)

Thanks all.

Stacy

 

[brikeibur]

Ok, so here are some pics of the 90g Tenecor tank this afternoon. We were able to add more water into the tank during lunch today, so it finally is reaching the overflow and running through the sponges in the back, so hopefully it will be pretty clear by tomorrow.

It is looking at lot clearer than it was yesterday!

And here is the tank with the actinics only:

Here are a few pics of some of the items we got with the tank (the liverock and some livestock):

A couple of mushrooms:

Some of the rocks we got (they are coverd in the sand's 'dust' so we are going to have to shake them off and dirty the water yet again....we really should have cleaned the sand before we put it in):

And here is a pic of one of the many hermits we adopted with the tank and an aptasia...oh yay....

And finally, here are some pics of red bubble algae (used to have this all in our 24g tank, it is cool, but then pooty tang (our yellow tang) went to town on it and cleared it ALL out!!):

We are supposed to be working on the 76g stand and canopy on Wednesday, so I'll take some more photos for you guys. I am hoping to get a lot done, maybe even finish up the canopy so I can start staining, but we'll see.

Alright guys, I am going to bed for the night!!

Pleasant dreams all!!

Stacy

 

[astiesi]

The 90g was a great find and it doesn't look like its going anywhere.....time to look for more LR for the 76g.

 

[brikeibur]

OH don't say that!!

Nah, you're right though, I really am having a hard time convincing myself that we need to sell it, so we'll see..... LOL.

 

[brikeibur]

So we will be working on the stand and canopy this afternoon!!

Hopefully we will get it mostly completed, but we will still have to stain/paint it.

I will try and take some pics so I get them up here....

 

[brikeibur]

I have an update on my stand and canopy!!!

Here are some pics:

So we did a few things the other day. First, we braced the door for the stand, and cut out notches so it would fit snugly against the front vertical brace of the stand:

Then we made sure it was a fit of course...

We were also able to cut out the bottom of our canopy:

We still have to do our holes for the fans on the canopy, and then it will be staining/painting time!! As for the stand, we still have to hinge the door and make sure the top or sitting surface looks ok in order so see if we will have to add another piece of wood in order to bevel the edges. We'll see, it's a slow progression, but it is a progression none the less!!!

 

[nstiesi]

Cool canopy....I love DIY stuff!

 

[plecosword]

cool! nice mushrooms too!

 

[lcstorc]

Great job

 

[brikeibur]

Thanks guys!

We did some more work on it over the weekend...we are soooo close!! I am getting more and more excited each day...woohoo!

I'll try to get some pics up later on, thanks for all the kind words!

 

[brikeibur]

Sorry for the long delay.

We have been sooo busy lately, but I have finally got some more updates for the 76g tank and stand!!

Ok, so after cutting out braces for the door, we noticed that we had a bit of a bow problem with the sides of the stand so we had to tacked it down:

We then hung the doors and made sure they closed well with the new braces attached, so far so good:

Next we cut out some holes in the back of the canopy to mount the fans:

 

[brikeibur]

Ok, so the next step after the door and fans was to PAINT....we're getting closer!!!

Here's after the first coat of paint (we opted for paint because we had to place quite a few screws on the exterior of the stand and canopy in order to tack the sides and reinforce certain areas, and we just could not get a good putty mix that would match the stain we had originally opted for):

A quick test 'look-see' to check out how it's going to look:

And finally after a second coat of paint we put the handle on and the magnets on the inside to help keep the door closed snug. We also placed a padded liner on the top of the stand to add a little cushion for the tank:

 

[brikeibur]

Ok, so all that work brought us to the moment of truth.... to TEST IT ALL!!!

We cleaned up the tank and started preparing it for the test run:

Next we added a small cushion of silicon to the base of our sump to sit our return pump on, this way it won't vibrate and be as noisy:

We took our final piece of pipe, where our tank water will dump into the sump, and added a cap and cut slits and drilled holes in the pipe. This way the water will not gush out into the sump, but will flow through the holes and slits more quietly:

We put the sump in the stand (and if you remember me stating earlier in this build, that the stand was built around the sump..LOL, well you really get to see that here...it is a perfect, tight, but perfect fit):

After putting together all our piping, we opted for our test run. We didn't glue anything together yet, we just wanted to make sure all was working well and we had no major leaks that the glue wouldn't fix.

We now began adding some water!!

We went ahead and added some water to the overflow (yes we are impatient!):

And eventually...the tank was full, and our sump was doing perfectly and we had NO leaks...it was a truly magical moment! I think Brian may have actually shed a tear!!!

We even brought in a back-up leak sniffer-outer, but he came up empty as well:

So F I N A L L Y we are nearing the end of our building and are about to be able to move to the 'fill 'er up' stage!!! WOHOOO!!!

We placed our lights in the canopy, just to plan out the placement. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to mount some of them (one of the T5's we ordered is flippin' out so we have to send it back or wait for them to send a new one...so that's a drag, BUT we are trying to not to let it slow us down too much).

We still have to mount the lights now we know how they will go, and put the handle and magnets on the canopy door. I think tomorrow though, in order to move things along, we are going to go ahead and try to at least set the tank up in the house and put some water and rocks in it so it can begin cycling...but we'll see how that goes.

I'm so excited!! Hope you guys enjoyed the pics and I'll try and get some more up for you guys soon. I got several pics from the 24g tank that I took, so I'll try and get an update on here pretty soon, but for now I'm off to bed all!!

Later!!

 

[BigAl07]

It's looking GREAT!

BUMMER about the light but that happens. Better now than in 3 weeks right?

I do have one idea/suggestion/concern . . . The "slitted pipe" for the sump drain. I can see where it could become a restriction if not properly and often cared for. Also go ahead and plan for snails to get lodged in there and for "limpets" to breed and live inside of it. Every inch of my pipe/hose has limpets attached to it. Just make sure it's easy to access and clean/change.

looks GREAT

 

[brikeibur]

It's looking GREAT!

BUMMER about the light but that happens. Better now than in 3 weeks right?

I do have one idea/suggestion/concern . . . The "slitted pipe" for the sump drain. I can see where it could become a restriction if not properly and often cared for. Also go ahead and plan for snails to get lodged in there and for "limpets" to breed and live inside of it. Every inch of my pipe/hose has limpets attached to it. Just make sure it's easy to access and clean/change.

looks GREAT

Yeah that does suck about the light, but you're absolutely right...I would have been ticked if we had mounted it and set it all up, THEN it started acting up!

For the slitted pipe, I do see your point. It has already crossed my mind that we may need to make the slits and such a little larger, they are fairly open now, but I don't think a little bigger would make it any noisier, so we may open those up a bit more.

Do you think that would be sufficient or do you have any suggestions on how we should address that? Since this is going to be in our living room where we will be watching the tube, I just don't want it to sound like a waterfall going down in there ya know! LOL!

The pipe is going to sit on top of a filter which we will replace once a week if not more, then under the filter will be some dense chunks of live rock. The water will then flow to our middle chamber where we will have some Chaeto, then to the skimmer and return pump chamber. The overflow on the tank will also have a piece of plastic over it to prevent snails and fish from falling/crawling in, so only the really really small snails will fit in there to get in the pipes and such, but I know they will manage it all the same.

Thanks for your kind words Al, and as usual I accept and appreciate all advice and suggestions, so everyone please keep your concerns and stuff coming...the more problems we avoid now the better!

:hug1:

Stacy

 

[brikeibur]

Well we are going to buy some more sand this afternoon, not a bunch, because we have all the sand that came in the 90G, but it is really large grain, it's crushed coral actually, and not finely crushed.

So...I prefer smaller grain sand, so we are going to go buy probably 40 lbs and put some of the other on the bottom with the fine grain on top, for a better appearance.

I'll have to take some pics for you this afternoon, because we are going to put in the water and the sand tonight...so we have to for sure decide where it is going in our living room (which has been a major discussion between Brian and I - we just can't agree on the same spot!!).

So....wish us luck (for sanity's sake)!!

Stacy

 

[astiesi]

I'm looking forward to seeing the tank with water in it! Good Luck!

 

[brikeibur]

I'm looking forward to seeing the tank with water in it! Good Luck!

Thanks Astiesi, so am I!!

We were hoping to have some water in last night, but after moving the furniture around NUMEROUS times, we sort of ran out of time. I think we tried every combination under the sun trying to find a spot we both agreed on, but our living room is really small so everything looks so crowded. We finally settled on one spot, late last night, but it could be because we were tired of moving furniture! LOL. It is also causing us to have to get rid of our foot stool for the one of our lounging chairs, as the setup just doesn't allow room for it...so I am still somewhat disturbed about that. It's ok though, only another year or two and we plan to buy a larger house (if all goes as planned)!! :fingerx:

I spent a couple of hours probing through the LR we got in the 90g killing Aiptasia with AiptasiaX trying to get the rock ready to be moved over to the 76g (you know that almost becomes addicting....every time I would put the little syringe down thinking I had got them all I couldn't help but do another search and find another little bunch of those buggers that needed zapping - and then I would of course spot some bristle worms so it would then turn into an "Aiptasia-zapping-bristle-worm-exterminating-killing-spree")! Fun times. :grind:


OH...we also picked up 50 lbs more of live sand....I just don't too much care for the crushed coral, I prefer smaller sand. The large chunks on the sand bed seems to take away from the rock and what's growing on them, makes it just look too busy.

 

[plecosword]

ive been keeping up btw haha

 

[brikeibur]

ive been keeping up btw haha

Nice to have you tagging along with me here Pleco!! Hopefully you won't get to see any "uh-oh's" during this build! :grind: