Another new tank..

[psykokid]

Well, like i said in the last post of the acrylic tank thread i found a guy that literally lives about 10 blocks away that was selling a 60 gallon visio tank with built in corner overflow, 30 ish gallon acrylic sump, rio +1700 pump, and all the plumbing and stand for 80 bucks. I offered him 60 and it was a done deal. He was downsizing to a 28gallon nano and didnt have room for a big ball of cheato he had in the sump, the sixline wrasse, a monster peppermint shrimp and some neat looking zoas i didnt have:

they're the ones on the right.

This tank didnt come with a canopy, so i'm going to build one. Drawing up plans as we speak. Just have to figure out the height to make it. I want it tall enough where i dont run into the problem i have now with the metal halides heating up the the water too much. But then again it dont want it too tall where it looks retarded. The tank is 17.5 in tall and 15.5 wide. I'm going to put the lights on a tray on the inside on bearing sliders so that i can pull it in and out for bulb changes with minimal work. Im also thinking about getting double open ended sliders where i can push the lights back if necessary for access to stuff. The devils are in the details.

[pinkorchid]

Sounds like a great find!!

Good luck with the lights  :)

[Learner]

Well done you!! 8)

A bargain eh?

[Bergy]

reefcentral has some pretty good deals.. which is why i am bummed about thier new rules/policy to restic new members from reading the want ads.


it seems REEFNAZI complains about for sale threads/discussions and that it takes time to moderate and all that.. and they wont get involved in buyer/seller disputes, and all that is a down right hassle

BUT


they will leverage that comodity to get people to register and contribute...




thier rule to be able to read and post in the for sale is 90/50


this means that a member has to be a member for more then 90 days, and has to have 50 mesasges submitted...

(to show that they contribute to discussions)

But they go even further.. they state that the 50 messages have to be meaninguful.. they can not be messages like +1  or wtg... or some other blurb


The intent to to contribute, not to build up your message count...


So, now they must have a moderatore otwo foloowing everyone to read what they post to make sure it dont say +1 or a smiliy face

what a waste of time and effort for something they dont like and dont want...



BTU, back on topic...

there are so many folks coming and going  and for sale stuff is everywhere...

my favorite story was about 5 years ago.. jsut as I was getting into the hobby, there was a guy that was getting out...

so, he gave away EVERYTHING


It was a large tank, with EVERYTHING


all kinds of lights, chillers, controlers, corals, fish, stand EVERYTHING


IHe wanted to give it away in one shot.. (I dont blame him)

BUT, I coulet tanke verything, nor was my tank ready for corals at that time...

I begged him to make sure that who  every he gave it to didnt sell it for profit, and the guy could care less..

he jsut wanted out...

Oh well


I have seen other sales kinda like that, but not fully that good...

and I heard that the guy did sell it after he picked it up...

oh well...

[psykokid]

In the time waiting for the canopy to get done (gotta pick up the piano hinge for it tomorrow) i managed to clean up the new tank really good, painted the back and the overflow black, made a standpipe for it, re-cut some hoses and get it all plumbed. Well, i was curious as to how the new standpipe would work so i set everything up and filled the tank to check for leaks and such. All was well, not sure if i like the standpipe though. I think i'm going to try making a durso tomorrow and see how that works for me. I have a hofer gurgle buster in the current HOB overflow but cant say i've ever been too happy with it. Need to go buy some pipe and unions so i can plumb the drain in hard pipe, getting some weird air locks and burps from the flexi hose that its currently plumbed with.

[Just_Greg]

coolness!  got any pix of the plumbing?

there's a trick i wanna try next time we do a Durso.  instead of venting the cap with holes, i know someone who uses a reducer fitting on the top of the TEE with the flats on it.  then he puts the round cap over the hex flats (may need to Dremel it out a little.  since the round hole won't seal against the flats (there's an air gap), it makes the Durso self-venting.  he sez it works really well.

just thought i'd toss that out there...

[psykokid]

Ill give that a shot as it sounds like a really good idea actually. I'm heading over to osh and rockler here in a few min. I'll takea photo of the plumbing when i get back home from running errands. I may be able to get away with just adding a 45 deg elbow to the 1" pipe that comes out of the return. I think the problem I was having last nite was that the air bubbles that were coming out of the return pipe were going back in and creating some backpressure in the drain line. If that doesn't work I'm going to plumb it with hard line.

[Bergy]

im totally confused... i need to see this... pics or an invite to witness this


the air tube is supposed to be 'adjustable' so that you can vary the air to accomidate the size of the pump, the length/height of the durso/drain tube, etc...

self adjusting/regulating, is confusing...

[psykokid]

Yeah, i was staring at the fittings in osh trying to figure out how to make it work and couldnt really come up with anything so i just did the good old fashioned version. They didnt have any street elbows so i had to trim the T and the 90 fittings to make things a bit more compact so it would fit.  I added an 45 deg el to the drain line and perforated the top so that air could escape as it made its way down and that seemed to make it pretty quiet.

[psykokid]

Things are a bit cramped in the garage so some of the pictures are at an odd angle. Once I get the tank inside the house i'll take some better photos of everything.

Durso Stand Pipe:



Stand pipe in overflow:


Drilled acrylic overflow cover:


Return and drain lines:

[Just_Greg]

self adjusting/regulating, is confusing...

like i said...i've never tried it, but there's a pretty sharp guy i know who does it that way, or so he sez (he lives in NZ, so i've never seen his tanx).

Jake,

just out of curiosity, do you always run anti-siphon valves?

i bet you had to bulid your own standpipe...i just place an order with "Renee's House of Standpipes" and i get one handed to me!   

[psykokid]

No, i usually just run a straight hose to keep restrictions on flow down. The tank came with all of the plumbing so i just put it in. Its not something I will rely on since they can and will fail at some point.

and another thing i hate, mfg tank volume labling: My tank is listed as a 60 gallon tank by the MFG. If you do the maths on the mfg's measurements of 48.5x17.5x15.5 it comes out to 56 gallons. Well, that ends up being generous when you measure the actual interior dimensions of the tank which are 14.5x15.5x47.5. So now my "60" gallon tank has a actual water volume of 46 gallons, verified by bucket yesterday when i was draining the fresh water from the tank i was using for testing. What a crock of shite.

Meh, the new factor will keep me entertained for at least 6 months before I start looking for something bigger :)

[Just_Greg]

i know whatcha mean...there are plenty of NC12's out there that really only hold 8 gals and change...mfr's always want things to sound better, so they fudge it.  why not be honest?

[psykokid]

well, i'm getting antsy from sitting on this tank for almost a month.  Getting things prepped for the move. Talked to the wife about rigging something up to use my current canopy over the new tank till i get the new canopy done. She said as long as it wasn't too ghetto fabulous and only a temporary solution. Basically going to pick up some 1x4's and make a frame to go around the new tanks  trim, add a cleat around the inside of the frame to rest on the tank's top edge, put a couple of boards across the middle to support the old canopy on the cleats and notch them so it fits level. Brace the corners and bam.. done deal .

Been rinsing some dead sand that i've gotten from a few people. Its amazing how much water you have to run through there before the stuff starts coming out clear. Its already to go, for the most part. Its a mix of a bunch of different stuff. Debating on drilling my current sump and then connecting it to the main sump with a bulkhead and using it as a fuge. Thinking of running a T off the return with a ball valve to regulate flow to the fuge.

Not too keen on having to move the nem either since its attached to 3 different rocks. Going to freeze some RO water and make RO cubes so i can use that to massage its foot and make it release.

There's a couple of rocks that i'm going to have to figure out what to do with since they are covered in appies. And i dont want to transfer them over to the new tank.

I think i'm going to try and drill a couple of pieces of rock and make some sort of structure, connecting them with acrylic rods and epoxy. I just have to find a local source of acrylic rods.

[Bergy]

jake jake jake... havent you figured out that if you need stuff, where to get it???

I am pretty sure i still ahve some acrylic rod left over.. if not, the place in in el monte... paragon plastics, if i recall correctly...

either way... let me know...