My 210g money pit

P

Ptt

I have been wanting to upgrade from my 75g to a larger tank for a while now, but the thought of transporting a big tank is scary. So when Kraig (kraigrrr) posted up his tank for sale and also offered to delivered it, I made the jump. Thank you Kraig and his kids for delivering the tank on Monday (4/25).

I made the mistake of leaving the tank/stand on two furniture dollies. Now I have no way of taking the dollies out without finding a few people to help. I should have ask Kraig to leave the tank directly on the tarp.

The tank is a 210 gallon with dimensions 84"x24"x24".

Here is the tank delivered.
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Here is the tank after a little cleaning. The difference in wood color is because one was taken when there was still natural day light and one is with incandescent lighting.
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Here is the giant canopy. The canopy is actually taller than the tank. I need to find a way to modify it to make it shorter.
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Here is my current 75 gallons.
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List of top action items:
1. Fill the tank with water to make sure there is no leaks before I spend anymore time on it.
2. Need to reseal an 80gallon tank (48x20x20) to be used as a sump. I bought the tank from craigslist on Sunday. I was told the tank doesn't leak, but after bringing it home I found out there is pretty big leak on the bottom. Texted the seller and his reply was "The money is gone. You could have tested it while you were here. Sorry but this isn't walmart. No returns."
3. Paint inside of stand with a few coat of white paint.
4. Do the plumbing for the drain and return lines.
5. Modify the canopy so that it is shorter.
 
Lol gotta love craigslist. I have more bad stories than good. My wife cringes at the mention of it.

Good luck with the build!!
 
Just send me a PM or call when you're ready to move it. I should be able to help most evenings or the weekends.
 
I could come by and help during the weekend most likely, just shoot me a pm and let me know.

If my house had sold before that tank sold, I would have bought it, love the dimensions on it and the house we want to buy has a perfect spot for it! Good luck with the build, I loved your 75g when I came by and got a few corals from you
 
Texted means you have his phone number... having his phone number means you can sign him up for all sorts of txt message lists and call lists. :)
 
The thought had crossed my mind, but couldn't bring myself to do it. haha

Thanks Bill and Joe. I might need your help sometime this weekend to get the dollies out.
 
Had 7 friends over last night and took out the dollies. Haven't fill it with water yet, because we ended up playing poker afterward. Feel kinda bad taking their poker money. haha

Will fill up the tank tonight to do a test.
Also bought a Reef Octopus Extreme XS200 skimmer. It is much bigger in person.
 
After doing the vinegar bath on the Octopus skimmer make sure you have it in the right water height in the sump. It really makes a difference and will help on preventing an overflow. I learned the hard way and now it sits on a stand and is in only 6 inches of water.
 
@Ptt wrote:
Had 7 friends over last night and took out the dollies. Haven't fill it with water yet said:
glad you got it unloaded! I'm sorry Bill and I weren't able to coordinate to come by and help out.

Anxious to see how it turns out when you get it running! If you have any SPS frags you need to part with, let me know [smilie=wink.gif]
Click to expand...
 
I have been super busy with work. Finally have some time to work on the tank.

I resealed the 80 gallons and put in the baffles last week. Leak test it and seems to hold water just fine.
The skimmer/drain section is on the right and is 14" high. The return is in the middle and is 10" high. The refugium/drain is on the left and is also 10" high. Since the skimmer section is 14" high, my skimmer will need to be on a stand. Anybody know anything sold in store that can be used as skimmer stand?

The baffles are glass bought from Lowes. The scrap box just happen to have a few big pieces that can be cut to the size I need. Each piece only cost $2 for a total of $12. They are 2.5mm so they are a little thin. During normal operation, they are fine, but when one chamber is full and the next chamber is empty, the glass does bow.

I also painted the inside of the stand today with white Valspar Kitchen and Bath Enamel. I can still see the wood underneath so I might put on another coat of paint.

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Window pane glass will break. You want 1/4" or thicker glass for baffles.
 
Another option is to double or triple stack thin pieces together with silicon sandwiched between them. You have to be really careful also with the thin pieces cutting you when working in the sump.

Cheers,
 
The progress has been slow so far since I have been waiting for the Tropic Eden Reeflakes sand to be in stock. The sand finally become available so I ordered on Wednesday and it was delivered by today (Friday). Super quick shipping.

Plumbing completed and was doing a fresh water leak test.
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Right side with showing plumbing. My friend is building me a skimmer stand. The skimmer section is about 4-5" higher than the return section so there is some waterfall noise. I'm using eggcrate to break the waterfall. The loudest noise is coming from the skimmer silencer, though.
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I did ended up painting two coat inside the stand. The stand is lined with pond liner. The pond liner was 7'x10'. I cut it in half so it is 3.5'x10'.
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BRS dry rock curing in the trash can.
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120 lbs of Tropic Eden Reeflakes. I'm still contemplating if I should put more in since I still have 60 lbs left. I think I want the sand to be about 1". I don't like deep sand bed, because the sand up against the glass can be unsightly with all the tube worms and bacteria.
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Very nice!! Glad to read about the skimmer stand because I was going to point out it would never work at that depth. ;)


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If my Skimmer stand doesnt fit for Bill, i will have a 12.75x11x2.75 acrylic melev stand for $10 :)

Looking good so far btw! If you need a hand with anything let me know, i am close and will work for SPS frags ;)
 
Joe, thanks for the offer, but my friend already built me one. It is 6" tall since my skimmer section is 15" high.
Marc, I mentioned about the skimmer stand specifically so you wouldn't comment about it. :)
Bill, the sand is nice. Glad i waited for it. Didn't have to rinse the sand.

I did a 40% (40 gallon) water change today and put the old water in the new tank. The plan is to do a water change every few days.
 
(This is the pregnant wife who got a hold of his sign-on cause "someone" is using her laptop to post stuff)
To husband: ehh....you are right about "money pit"
To everyone: look for future post on a 75 gallon tank in the sell/buy forum
To self: hahaha....
 
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