The Rebuild Begins!!!

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by Viv

Geoff, are you building a sump too, or do are you using one you already have?

have not decided yet.

i have an old 20yr old 55 that is in the running, i also have a DIY refugium that was on the back of the 125, back when i thought refugiums were a good idea. right now this one is winning the race. it is a little smaller about 40g, made of acrylic, so it is much easier modified. i am thinking of putting a slanted bottom on the sump. at the low end i am thinking about putting a drain. i am hopeing that the detritus will settle on this side, then it is just a mater of opening up the drain to remove it from the sump. a quick easy water change.

G~

[xtopher]

what is it you don't like about refugiums Geoff?

[Viv]

Here's an interesting idea, its from Dr. Burgess's mini Atlas

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by xtopher

what is it you don't like about refugiums Geoff?

i just feel they are something else that needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. just something else to do maintenance on. i just do not see any benefit in having one. they contradict themselves. why have something that needs to be fed, in order to keep something else from growing, when they all eat pretty much the same thing.

how do you get pods to leave a place they like to be in? why would they want to leave? why do i want pods?

all of my decisions boil down to one simple question: does this really help me keep SPS/clams? for me the answer is no. if i were to keep mandarins the answer would still be no. there would be a seperate system just for growing pods. it would not be plumbed into the main tank. to hard to keep water quality up when one area you want to keep clean, while the other needs to be "dirty".

i feel most of us fall into the i wanta have this and this and this and this and this, but you really can not do that in a reef system. their requirements are to different (now that we know more about their actual requirements).

G~

[Geoff]

Viv- those are settling tanks. i am just not able to fit a true conical one in the space priveded, so i will cheat a little, hopefully it will work.

G~

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by Geoff

had to take it down when i went to Ireland for the past 6 months. i let a buddy of mine keep my clams, but they did not make it, so now i am back to square one on all critters. the good news is that several of the people i have given frags to have sold them so i have some place to start new frags.

this is going to be a SPS system. with a good amount of clams.

yup, I TRIED to get you to leave the clam here...


BTW, get the system up and running and stable, don't worry about specimens; there is enough stuff here to supply you quite well with stonies, I even have a few well-grown specimens of the Porites you gave me several years ago, and maybe you can come down and look at THIS bad boy...



You can see some of the yellow fingers of the specimen I got from you originally just behind the Zoanthids on the left of the photo (blue center Zoas...). The red polyped Montipora digitata came from Chad originally, so you're welcome to a chunk of that too, you just need to make a shopping trip down one day, then we can go back to your place to place them the next.


Still thinking about a shopping trip up to Chad's to meet Mike (Soda), Tim, et.al., and maybe drag Casey and Roger up for the road trip... Then again, this would make your plumbing project a one-day affair!

[Geoff]

Tom-how old is that pic? would these pics happen to be from a new camera? if not i may just have to find you one.

i finished up all of the holes in the mantle and thier corresponding holes in the floor. i was lucky that i did not have to dodge any LVL floor joists.

i am now figuring out how much PVC i need. i am also trying to figure out if i have enough slope for the drain. i think i can get 2' down for the 50' of linear distance. starting scouting for parts also. it looks like i will be visiting both HD and Lowe's. normally i find everything at Lowe's but for the larger sizes they just do not have the selection of fittings that HD does.

only made one minor mistake. i just need to jig saw the hole a little to the right.

G~

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by Geoff

Tom-how old is that pic? would these pics happen to be from a new camera? if not i may just have to find you one.

Unfortunately it is my Olympus OM2 FILM camera, taken about a week ago with a 50mm macro, I stepped on my diopter correction lens for the eyepiece and I have to guess a little bit when focusing...


If you get me one, get me a D50, and although I prefer a D70s, I can make do with the cheaper Nikon...


...so long as you get me a macro lens.

[Potterjg]

I am new to the forum and am very excited to watch the progess of the rebuild. No way would hubby let me drill holes in our hardwood floors to plumb the fish tank. I have to remind him it is going to be a reef tank soon He is a little indifferent. I just keep him around to build things for me anyway. How long do you think it will take you to get it all up and running????
SUS

[three90s&125sump]

I'm gladd I'm not the only one who pisses their wife off and gets into trouble with the projects.

[three90s&125sump]

OH, and by the way Tom, I took this pic with no macro lens and a 250 dollar digicam from target. That sponge is roughly 1" long perhaps you just need to get some glasses.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

Still thinking about a shopping trip up to Chad's to meet Mike (Soda), Tim, et.al., and maybe drag Casey and Roger up for the road trip...

That would be SOOOOOO SWEET! hahaha

You guys are MORE than welcomed anytime!!! Let me know.


And G~ VERY excited to see this thing come along!!! Lookin' great so far!!!

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by Potterjg

I am new to the forum and am very excited to watch the progess of the rebuild. No way would hubby let me drill holes in our hardwood floors to plumb the fish tank. I have to remind him it is going to be a reef tank soon He is a little indifferent. I just keep him around to build things for me anyway. How long do you think it will take you to get it all up and running????
SUS

the weird thing is the firplace was put in after the annoying fake HW floors, can you tell i hate our floor. it is an engineered floor, suuuucks. any little bit of water that gets on it causes it to raise. we both hate it. that is one of our major projects down the road. replace all of the flooring with REAL HW flooring. we had REAL HW flooring at our last place, put down in the 50's, and it withstood all kinds of abuse. water was not a problem. able to mop it fine, the one we have can not even be mopped without raising.

anyhow, the point of all of this, is i am drilling 2.5" holes into our floor.

i measured it out and the equipment will be 44' away from the tank. that is going to be a lot of PVC glueing. gotta love the fumes.

i did a temp test with some PVC in place and the fireplace on. it is very well insulated. i put a temp probe down in there to help. after about an hour the temp inside the fireplace are reached 81. the probe was also resting on the fireplace housing itself. when i removed the test PVC pipes they were still cool, no hot spots, so i am pretty confident i will not have a heat/melting problem with the fireplace. i will do another full test when all of the plumbing is in, but not glued, just to be sure.

how long will this take, do not know. i would like to get it up and running by the end of the month, but i still have a lot of stuff i keep wanting to add, so it just gets more complicated.

i would like to pour some leveling compound up there to flatten things out a bit. i would also like to make some walls up there to keep it cleaner. i am torn on that one though. i like the openness so that things stay cool down there. i may just frame it and call it good. i also need to add a circuit to the area for all of the pumps.

if there are any pics you want me to post to make things clearer let me know. i know it is early on, so not much to see, but just keep it in mind.

G~

[skeety]

Originally Posted by Geoff

if there are any pics you want me to post to make things clearer let me know. i know it is early on, so not much to see, but just keep it in mind.

G~

Post pics of EVERYTHING!!! You can't post too many pics here! YOU know that!

[VWD]

Pictures are always nice!