Chappys 90 (...just got real!)

Ok, this has been a looong time coming but I think its finally time to start a real thread for my tank.
the back story is long and boring, and there arent enough pics to make it the slightest bit interesting so i'll get try and skip to the good parts.

this is my new tank 5 mins ago filling with water!

It has been filled once before, for a couple of days, but the cabinet door on the left started to scrape. I'm told that although the wood might be happy to bow, the glass probably wouldnt be as forgiving. so very reluctantly (because my patience is still in training), i drained it .

a long holiday (where I picked up some BRS reactors!) and a couple weeks later, i've added 2 more beams underneath for strength.

its about half full right now and hasnt moved at all, touch wood

didnt remember to get a pic of it finished but this gives you an idea of whats going on at the back


underneath is something like this right now

the aquamedic turbofloater blue1000 was bought a few years ago now but has only seen a couple months use. It probably wouldnt be my first choice if I were buying one today, but will see how it goes. am sure it will cope for a while at least
The smaller, raised tank was going to be a gravity fed RDSB/fuge, but now I plan on running biopellets in one of the reactors so am not sure its essential :-/ maybe it can be a frag or isolation tank
Was also planning on running GFO & carbon tho so might need another reactor for one of them as i dont want to run both in one unit. Will wait and see on that too, maybe carbon in a filter sock to start with.
still have to plumb the reactors in anway.

I have about 90lbs of LR that I started getting a piece a week in April. Its been in a big dark bucket the last ~6 weeks so i look forward to being able to put a light back over it, even if its only a double T5.


I figure I have enough equipment to start out as FOWLR and start adding corals after a lighting upgrade and adding a chiller.
At this stage I'm thinking a RapidLED kit for the lights, but thats for later.

Also still have to do up a frame for the top of the tank and screens to keep the fish in, and do something to fill the gap between the back of the tank and the wall. Wont be anything extravagant but I dont really like it as is.

Thats where I'm at for now, so if you'll excuse me, I have some reactors to plumb! ;D

any suggestions welcomed!
thanks for looking

 

wow, I love that stand, very beautiful, it looks like your off to a great start.

 

Great looking set up, beautiful stand

 

thanks, i'm pretty happy with how the stand turned out, just wish it was a bit more solid lol.

water is a couple inches from the top this morning and the door is again scraping just a little.
Its nowhere near as bad it was the first time and I think i've done about all I can to strenthen it so think i'm just going to risk it. I'm confident its just settling and will be fine in the long run. (If it does end up cracking down the road I might need to come back and edit this post!)
Planning on adding salt tonight and starting to finally aquascape tomorrow!

 

You could get a car jack like the one used for Jeeps to lift up the center and place a post to keep it from sagging.

 

Might be able to squeeze a very thin post between the doors and sump, but would be something like 12mm thick (about 1/2"?), fixing it might be interesting too.
Will try the hardware store tonight and see what I can find, I suppose it cant hurt to be a little bit safer.
...I'm starting to think this build is cursed lol

 

Have got a piece of 65mm x 12mm oak to wedge in as a middle support. Thanks for the nudge 2in10, I'm sure I will sleep a little better once its in lol. Just sealing it now but I dont think anything is going to go wrong before it dries. It wedges in so well that I dont think its going to need any real fasteners, one less thing to rust. The door opened perfectly when test fitting it so I'm sure its doing its job. There are a couple of packers for the door handle bolts that clash tho so will either be finding shorter bolts or new handles.
have started adding salt anyway this time (seachem reefsalt). accidently added a bit too much and was sitting around 1.036 this morning replacing 20 gal with ro/di has fixed that little issue.
So, the tank is pretty much full to just below the weir right now. If I get a chance tomorrow I will wedge the new middle leg back in, put the substrate in, fill the sump with water from my bucket o rocks and add the rock. Have added some seachem stability to get the new tank going before it welcomes the old rock. Have also told my LFS that all is going to go perfectly and I'll be in to pick up a midas blenny on the weekend...:-/ anyone more experienced know the odds of things actually going that way?

 

its late.
its messy.
theres still alot left to do...
but ITS ALIVE!! ;D;D;D

 

Oh nice sand storm!
I have a question, how do you split the drain having the bean animal? There is no issue?

 

Thanks! Good news is, I had to wake up about 6 hours later and it had almost all cleared
Thats a fantastic question tho, and to be honest I havent had a chance to find out yet. Will let you know when i do tho. Am considering running biopellets so may forgo the dsb/fuge until i know how they go.
I also look forward to learning how to properly tune a beananimal and achieve a silent overflow :-/