The 175 Bow Front aka (The excuse for Vicki Dating Me)

[AQTCJAK]

Ok as you can tell by the title this was the excuse. Anyway, Vicki belonged to a rogue Reefing Club that I was banned for life from. Subsequently, now that Vicki is dating me, she too is banned for life as well.  Oh wait, let’s go back a little further in time. When I first had contact with Vicki online. She was looking for a 125 with Dual corner OF’s. I had a customer of mine who I had just upgraded his 125 (ironically the exact tank Vicki wanted) to a custom 360 degree View tank. I was going to sell it to her with an oak stand & canopy for $250.00. She thought about it for awhile & then decided she didn’t have the money for it. Well a few months later like around the end of November I had another customer that had a Oceanic 175 Bow front complete minus rock sand & water for sale. It was $1650.00 more than the 125. The tank complete setup was $3600.00, which she offered $1800.00 my customer said $1900.00 less what was in it. So the price tag was $1900.00. I later found out it was a gift for her mother. Well my 12 year old son & I delivered the tank to her getting lost along the way. Time went buy before the installation & planning. During this time Vicki & I came up with some rather unique & interesting Ideas on the plumbing, and started dating.

This chronicle is very photo intensive as you will see. Vicki really likes to take pictures

[caitrina]

It is nice to have someone in your life that shares the same interest, particularly when it involves the reef and you are both addicted. Can't wait to read more and see the pictures.

[AQTCJAK]

Here are some pictures of the Tank Stand & the inside plumbing. I am sure there will be lots & lots of question regarding the outside portion. What I did was take the 1" & 3/4" pre drill holes in the overflow box & made both the drain holes to achieve maximum drainage.

[AQTCJAK]

Set #2

[AQTCJAK]

Set #3. Also I should say that I was doing all of this in any spare time that I had sleep @ this time wasnt an opion for me.

[AQTCJAK]

Originally Posted by caitrina

It is nice to have someone in your life that shares the same interest, particularly when it involves the reef and you are both addicted. Can't wait to read more and see the pictures.

It really is & I am greatful

[AQTCJAK]

A little background info on the tank room & then the sump room. OK, the tank room is below (the tank is below the outside ground level). As you can see from the inside plumbing, I am plumbing it through the wall to the outside. Thus, I have to make the sump sub grade as well; in other words, the sump is lower than the ground. Most everyone know that in the ground is cooler than the outside air. With this in mind, I took advantage of this situation by putting the sump & the return pump in the ground so to speak. The sump is a 36x18x18 tank; The return pump is a Sequence Dart 3600GPH. 2” inlet to the pump & 1 ½” outlet. The skimmer is an Aqua C 180 with a Mag 5, and the UV is a current Pond 40watt with a pond Mag 2. In the first 3 sets of pictures, I split the returns into two 1 ½ returns & two ¾ returns. I utilized check valves & shut off valves to control water flow both for under power incase of a power outage cutting power entirely. Here is where the controversy came in to play on our old reef site: some people think check valves are bad & can cause issues. Over the last 20 years + that I have been in this hobby & setting up very large tanks, every tank I set up has had one - none of which have failed. To me they are a very valuable & essential piece of the system. No one really likes to find their power out & their tank partially on their floor. I am not saying that you must or should use them I am only saying that I do & they have not let me down. On larger tanks, I just can’t imagine going without one. Anyway, as you can tell by my blue drips when doing this portion of the setup, I was tired. Vicki even noticed and razzed me about them, getting a good laugh out of it.

[Melanie]

Nice title! This is going to be fun!

[Dentoid]

Looks like a great build. When did you start this?

[Woodstock]

Awww... great story!

I like the 'underground' sump idea. Do you have any pics of it?

I too use a check valve and am very glad you've had only good experiences with them. Unknowingly, I installed mine horizontally and now it hammers a few times before it closes.

[bluespotjawfish]

Those pictures make my back hurt!

[AQTCJAK]

This project started in January 07 & is still in progress.

Pictures of the outside plumbing are coming I just finished resizing them

My back still hurts I am actually working on making it more automated today but thatis for another section of this thread

Set #1

[AQTCJAK]

Set #4

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Set #5

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Set #6