Well Here is my New tank build. I posted all of this into the equipment section but I feel better copying it into its rightful spot in the Reef Building section. Now seeming as we've put close to two grand into this upgrade so far, were going to try to slow it down because of family issues and supporting three houses. But anyhow, here is my new thread continued into its rightfull thread.
Oh boy, what a lengthy two days.
First comes first. I had to remove my freshwater setup from the spot we plan to put the new RSM(RedSeaMax250) in. I drained it and transfered 2 fish upstairs(one jumped out of my upstairs tank and died) and I brought one to the fish store. This tank upgrade could have been a lot easier but we ran into a few problems. We had a room with two tanks in it. We would have normaly just moved out our saltwater setup but the RSM was too high to fit where it was because theres a thermostat there. So were swapping the freshwater tank with the saltwater tank and putting the freshwater one where the saltwater one was. Complicating things. Oh well, heres what the spot looked like after i moved everything and *before* I vacumed.
Now this is the old saltwater setup below.
Putting the stand together. That was a pain. Atleast we followed the instructions though
We finished the stand the next morning.
Then we went to the LFS and picked up our better half.
It wasnt peaceful getting the tank onto the stand and leaving 6 inches from the wall, but we managed.
Inside the light, aka starting to insert the bulbs.
Six light. And two built in fans on each side of the hood as you can see in the picture and two other fans located in the back.
Reeses, our chocolate lab. lol.
Putting in the bulbs.
Moonlights.
The fixture rippin.
So after we fixed all that up, we made a trip to home Depot and bought some eggcrate, 1/2 inch pvc pipe, some screen, and pvc connecters. To build a plenum, its a filter you insert under the sand that works like a septic tank.
Just the basics of it. and its placement in the tank.
Cutting the eggcrate to fit over the pvc pipe.
Drilling holes in the pvc pipe to allow the airbubbles to escape. The more holes the better.
Some of our other hobbies
My scuba diving BC. What the hell might as well take pictures of it all if im already in the garage.
After the holes were drilled we threw it back into the tank to see how it looked. We made sure to get all the scraps off of it from drilling.
We used tie wraps to first put the eggcrate on the pvc.
We then coverd the entire fixture with the screen(its plastic screen) and folded the ends in, using *strong* fishing line to keep it together. And put it where we wanted it in our tank.
Then we filled her up with some sand(not livesand).
Top opened, so we can install the goodies in the back
Ripping the light after we set everything up.
Seeming as we already went out to buy eggcrate I decided to make my own magnetic frag shelf. To do this I just cut out a rectangular peice of eggcrate and glued it to a cheap sinking magnet i bought from walmart, aka wally world . As for the plugs, I bought those out of a dr. Foster & Smith catalog but you can buy those at most fish stores or even make your own. You can even use better quality magnets aswell. It would be more stable if i made it with two magnets, one on each side, but I guess I can't turn back now. It came out nice in my opinion though
I will keep post pictures as my tank progresses
Now if only my boss were a member of this forum? Then she wouldn't wonder why im tired at work!
