Barely made the club but time for my 180 upgrade (Warning: Progress may be slow)

[60G]

nice start cant wait to see how it turns out

[nightOwl]

SPotter - I wish it was that easy. I still have to finish Christmas shopping...lol. And I think inventory is being taken of my new boxes as they arrive. I hope I don't get my basement privileges revoked with my slow progress...lol.

muttley000 and 60G - Welcome to the madness. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Framing - Update

Here is the after picture from last night. I may go ahead and extend the wall all the way. I am not sure how big my frag tank will be, but it will be located along the new framing.

Update

I did not get much done tonight. I had to rearrange a few things in the basement for the upcoming tank move. I am supposed to pick up glass suction cups tomorrow or Thursday night. I have lined up some help to move the tank to the stand this coming Thursday. Tonight I checked the seems and I may need to reseal them. I will post to the forum tomorrow once I get some pictures. I also have to fix one of the supports on the stand. I purchased a new 4x4 beam and need to cut it to size. The current one has too much of a gap in it for my taste. Before I removed the brace it had shims wedged in the gap. If you look closely at the picture you can see the small gap between the center brace.

I tried to cut two of the pieces of the sump tonight but for some reason I was not getting the clean cuts like last night. They were clean, but looks like I was clipping the ends. WeldOn 16 will be my friend. Bigger pieces of acrylic are more challenging even with my table extension.

[nightOwl]

Partial Shipment from Black Friday Sales - Update

So yesterday I rushed home and what it was like Christmas again. The Reef Tank gnome left another package. This time it was huge red box! I have never paid this much for a skimmer so I did not really know what to expect. I have only purchased two three skimmers since joining the hobby. One new TurboFloater 1000, for my 90 gallon and two used AquaC skimmers. The used 180 I use on my 90 and a 120 model I never used. I don't really think I was prepared for the size of this monster. Once again I would like to give big props to the Shawn over at Salty Critter. The did not have any in stock so he had this drop shipped straight from CoralVue!



Pieces out the box


All put togehter - notice the HTC Evo for size reference

Tank Stand Repair

So like I mentioned the stand's center brace had a gap that was really bothering me. The gap was over an quarter of an inch. Last night I repaired the center support in preparation for putting the tank on the stand later today. I stopped by the rental place yesterday before work and I am glad I did. They only had one suction cup to rent which would have been of little use. I will stop by before work today and pick up a few for tonight's move.

Gap between support

Missellaneous

I ordered some hinges, an edge scraper, and a couple of Plasticators With 25 Gauge Needles today. When that arrives in I can start to assemble the top-off water reservoir.

I also took some pictures of the tank seams. I think I may need to reseal them based on how much of the silicone is missing. Any thoughts?

[SPotter]

Come on man.....get some water in that tank!!!

[nightOwl]

SPotter - After seeing the size of the skimmer I am starting to get excited about getting water in the tank! This thing should skim like there is no tomorrow. The collection cup is massive! My only concern is the seams. I am going to post a note shortly on whether or not I should reseal.

[nightOwl]

Tank Stank Repair - Update

My center brace repair

Tank - Update

Today I had my neighbor and a co-worker come over and help me lift the tank to the stand. I rented the suction cups but as it turns out I did not need them and they were not rated for more than 120lbs. Rather than risk the cups releasing while we had the tank in the air we just lifted the tank up and got it on the stand. Once on the stand it was easy to slide into place. Once in place I found out my nice pretty viewing area is not completely square . You have to be right up on it to see that it is slightly skewed but its looking good none the less. I took some pictures of the seams and posted then in the DIY Forum and it was recommended that I reseal the seams. So its off to home depot this weekend to pick up Acetone and some RTV-108 Momentive silicone.

Tank in place

[SPotter]

And here I was all set to take a road trip to help you move that beast...lol.

[jpsika08]

Tank is coming along great! congrats

[nightOwl]

SPotter - You should have seen how nervous I was last night when we first lifted the tank off the floor. Your brain immediately says "This thing is heavy! Put it down now!"...LOL. Once on the stand it was smooth sailing.

jpsika08 - Thanks!

Home Depot does not carry RTV-108 Momentive silicone so it looks like I have to find a Grainger branch and pick up a few this evening. Depending on how the weekend goes I hope to start priming the room now the tank is off the floor. If I can get some silicone I will begin to clean the tank and cut away the old silicone.

[Bamm Bamm]

looking good I wish I had a basement!!!

[nightOwl]

Bamm Bamm - Well come to the madness.

Partial Shipment from Black Friday Sales - Update

My second Tunze arrived from my Black Friday sales. I was finally able to put all the items together for a family picture. Thanks again to Shawn over at Salty Critter!

Second Tunze - This one has the Tunze Stream 2 Silence Clamp Holder. I have to talk to Shawn about when the other clamp will arrive.


The twins!


The Family - Tunze's , Apex, SRO3000INT, and miscellaneous

Tank Reseal Underway

I made a trip Grainger on last Friday (12/10) and picked up some silicone for my tank resealing. This stuff is not cheap but based on all the threads I have read is the best stuff out there. I also made a trip to WallyWorld aka Walmart for Acetone, #0000 fine wool, lent free cloths, and razors. I have removed all four corners and now feel I should do the whole inside since I have read old silicone does not stick to new silicone, so I want to be safer than sorry. Resealing a tank is a pain in the a#$ if you have not done that before! It takes a long time to remove all the silicone and get it nice and clean. YouTube is full of some good videos so if anyone is looking for good vids check out YouTube.

Top-off Water Reservoir - Update

I have just about finished the the assembly of the container. The only thing left is the top of the container. Which I have gluing as I type this. Once that is done I will attach my hinges and the rest of the lid. Hopefully tomorrow I will complete that task.

Top of reservoir

[SPotter]

The Family - Tunze's , Apex, SRO3000INT, and miscellaneous

[/INDENT]
I can see the family resemblance! It looks like you have a very happy and well adjusted family

[Dwerbs]

I always like doubling tank size. Problem is it is never quite BIG enough.

[nightOwl]

SPotter - I can't wait till I see how everyone works together with their "assigned chores" then we will really see how happy the family is...LOL.

Dwerbs - Welcome to my build. This is my third upgrade so I am hoping this is it for a while. First was the 55g, then the 90g + 20g frag tank plus a standalone 65g, and now the 180g. Doubling in size is such a great thing!

Progress - Minimal

Not to much progress to report on tonight. I finished the top off reservoir with the exception of needing to router around the sides with trim bit. I also removed some more old silicone from the tank. Removing silicone is like telling a kid to eat vegetables, they don't want to do it and neither do I. It's a long and tedious process and I have not even gotten to the acetone or fine steel wool part.

I looked at my current tank for a while today and realized I have really been neglecting it. I performed a water change, refilled the top off water, changed out the carbon and GFO, trimmed back the cheto, and gave the skimmer a vinegar bath.

[SPotter]

Where have you gone? I wish you would do more work on me so I can get filled with water and cost you more money

[caliking]

Off to a great start. I can't wait to see it complete.

[nightOwl]

SPotter - You speak 'Tank' so fluently...LOL.

caliking - Welcome to the fun.

I am finally back from vacation so I will be back to working on the tank next week. I plan on finishing up the removal of silicone and at least starting to seal the bottom.

[SPotter]

It's my checkbook that speaks fluent "fish tank" and I think my wife is taking lessons so she can figure out how much I'm spending!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nightOwl]

SPotter - My bank account speaks it fluently as well. It is a language I wish it had never learned.

Well its been a long time since a decent update but I have a few updates. The holidays are over and there are no more bowl games so I can go back to making progress.

Tank Reseal - Complete

I was able to complete the tank reseal tonight.

I used painters tape to make my seams consistent and it works pretty good. This is the tank all tapped up before the silicone reseal.


I used two tubes of silicone in the process.


If you have not used this product before there are two things to keep in mind.

1. It seems to skin pretty fast
2. The fumes will give you a headache

Now I wait for 72 hours or so and then start the water leak test on the tank. Followed by redoing the aquascape.

Top-off Water Reservoir - Complete

Third time is the charm for acrylic and me. The first two times I had very small leaks. Tonight I can safely say no more leaks. The container has held water with no leaks for the past 3 days so I figure it's complete.

Screen Covers for tank - In Progress

I began the construction of the tank screen covers for the fish I will have down the road. My fish list has a few jumpers so I decided to start on the screen covers while I was procrastinating resealing the tank. The only thing left is to order the netting from BRS. Below are the two screen covers. I made two instead of one big one so I could work in the tank if needed and no have the full top exposed.

The Family - New Children Added

I added a few new children to the family. With the new lights I want to know what PAR I am getting in the tank. For my existing tank I know where my high intensity areas are as well as my lower PAR areas. I figure it will take a little getting use to MH so I brought a MW700 Lux Light Meter w/ Waterproof Probe.


Back when I did research on the Apex Curt from Neptune recommended two EB4 for my set up so I order them as well.


The other child arrives on Thursday. It will be an EB8.

[SPotter]

Very nice....now lets see water already!!!

[nightOwl]

SPotter - I now have about 72 hours to wait. I am hoping that by Sunday I will begin filling with fresh water to see if there are any leaks. I am hoping that will go well.

[nightOwl]

Not much going on while I wait for the silicone to dry. I played around the aquascape and added some more zip ties so I will be able to transfer the rock work to the tank without many changes. My table saw add on did not go so well so I have to figure out a way to cut the acrylic for the sump.

Aquascape/Rockwork Support - Update

While waiting for the silicone to dry I decided to go ahead and drill the PVC spacers that will be used to keep the rockwork from falling once I get my blue spotted jawfish. I drilled holes in the PVC to keep the areas in the PVC from getting too stagnant.

Before


After

The Family - New Children Added - Update

The UPS man delivered the last of my children for a while. The EB8 that I had ordered with my EB4's arrived today. I think that will be it for a while for the Apex components. With the tank being closer to having water in it I need to decide where I will be mounting the EB4's and EB8's.

Frag Tank - Purchased

One of the things I always wanted with my last three tanks was a dedicated frag tank. Having one this go around will not only allow me to have more frags, but increases my total water volume. That makes it a win win or at least that is how I rationalize it . Petco is running their yearly $1 per gallon so I picked up a 40 Gallon Breeder. I have to look through my spare parts for a bulkhead.

[SPotter]

What kind of tax deduction do you get for these "kids"?

[nightOwl]

SPotter,
It will be a many months before the return on investment is shown from these new "kids"...LOL. Until then I just see them running up my electric and water bill for a while. Although just looking at them now brings a smile to my face. The existing "kids" are feeling so neglected . With the new frag tank the MP10's will get to go over and get some work for sure. I may even upgrade them to the wireless option and let the Apex control them as well.

[nightOwl]

So it has been a while waiting for the silicone to dry in the tank. Apparently my idea of curing is not what it feels like to touch.

Sump – Sump Construction Underway

I will try and get pictures of the sump this weekend. I only have four sides and I want to take a picture of the whole thing. So far peeling the paper backing off has been a PITA. I am not sure if it’s due the age of the acrylic, brand, or that the basement is cool. Either way it sucks! It takes so long to complete and it does not come off in big chunks. The biggest piece I have removed at one time is a 6” x 14” piece. Anyway enough of that rant. Hopefully this weekend I will peel some more backing off and glue it down. I decided to use the router method instead of trying to cut the size for the bottom.

Tank – Tank Leak Test Underway

The tank has finally seen water and I must say even though there might be a slight gap at the top, it is going to look nice in the wall. I ran into a minor issue and found out I need to buy new bulkheads as the washer on one of the bulkheads was leaking. It’s almost as if the hole is not the right size for the bulkhead. There is so much of a gap around the bulk head and the hole it goes through. The current bulkheads are 1” and I think I might buy 1 ½” bulkheads and see if they fit. The way they are now they “size up” to 1 ½” then back down to the 1” bulkhead then back to 1 ½” to the 2” pipe. The previous owner cut the pvc pipe off so the bulkheads have about ¾” of pipe sticking out where they exit the tank. I don’t know if there is a way to salvage the bulkhead by removing the old PVC but I will look into my options. If I could it would save me some time and money as the existing plumbing runs into a 2” pipe that I hope I can reuse.

I also picked up some foam board to use on the sides. I plan on painting it black to keep the light from the basement from being visible in the tank. I have to cut the pieces down to size and use velco to attach them to the side. I will call them tank blinders sorta like the harness blinders they have for horses...lol.

Before – If you look closely you can see the water hose



After – If you look closely you can see a gap at the top. The gap is a little bit below the height of the overflows. If you look closely you can see both of them near the top.