My 90 (The Rebuild again)

I'm 99.9% sure no one on the U.S. market carries anything even close to those. I can find them in Asia (duh) and the U.K. That would be very generous of you Steve, we'll have to work something out.

Thank you for the compliment! I think it'll be wet by the 10th of March. *crosses fingers*

Thanks for the compliment! Actually it's a children's clothing store that sells on consignment and in this economy I don't think business could be better. I hope to just spark interest in the oceans and maybe the hobby by putting this tank in the store. I tried to get the bio lab at the high school to put one in there, mostly at my expense but was flat out told there's no need to teach marine biology in depth at our school.
I'm actually working a deal with a local reefer who has seen the canopy. He wants a stand and canopy for a 210 acrylic he just picked up last month.

 

The stand and 29 gallon sump

Before I get into the stand, etc. I want to share a pic of the how the tank looks after cleaning and polishing the front glass. It's still sitting on the floor because I got worried it would get broke being lifted onto and off the stand everyday.

So while I was at "work" I went to work on finally cleaning the stand up and getting the baffles into the 29 gallon Aqueon that will be the sump/fuge. While I was washing the grime, junk and spider-webs out of the inside of the stand I notice the center brace was warped and beginning to crack. I needed to take it out to get the sump in anyway so I figured I'd just "rebuild" it.
First baffle taped in and ready for good straight edged beads

Second baffle in and taped up the same way

Sump in the stand

Dirty, yucky stand (yeah, that's a pair of kids socks )

Knockin out the the center brace

Rebuilt brace. I used a 2X4, cut the old brace to fit between the top and bottom rails of the stand and screwed it to the 2X4.

 

AAAAGGGGHHH!!!

Since this weekend I've had small but very irritating set backs with this build. First the fan shorted with no returns on electrical parts. That turned out partially good because they sold me another fan at cost + shipping.
Today I finally got my mag-drive out to get it cleaned up since I'm so close to getting the water in.
First I discovered that the hand written tag on the cord which says it's a mag-9.5 is totally incorrect, it's a mag 12-b. A little more flow than I need but I can work with it.
So I get the screws off the face and pull...at an angle and hard! Snapped the impeller shaft right off at the tip, behind the cap! :-[
So now I get to spend $29 bucks to have a new one sent + I have to get it off of flea-bay because I definitely ain't paying $14 to have an online vendor ship me one UPS after giving them $22-23 for the assembly. Sorry had to vent.

 

Got some money yesterday and was able to get the rest of the supplies for the aquascape last night. I made a good chunk o' change and thought I would have enough to get this build wet by the middle of next week but since I had to order the new impeller assembly it leaves me exactly $15.11 short of getting the VHO's and the flex pvc. LOL It's frustrating actually because the deal between my wife and I was "this build is funded through coral sales only" and she won't budge. So now I have to cut some xenia, pull some gsp, trim a toadstool and wait for them to attach and then find a buyer.
Anyway, at least the aquascape will be done and pics will be up by Sat. night.

 

After a HUGE mess and a lot of swearing the scape is 75% done and looks awesome if I do say so myself ;D

 

The aqua-scape

Here's some shots of the aquascape so far. I'm eating supper right now and will go back to add more resin and sand before the night's over.

First off let me say that this isn't the "traditional" foam/rock work you see. I did it all in the tank so it's permanent and there's no changing it. That is a drawback for sure but what was major more important to me was NOT chancing any detritus or crap between my wall and glass. I didn't have to worry about flow or silicone and got straight to work. When I'm done it's done and no more worries.
There's a shelf that runs the length of the tank and over the face of the over-flow. The over-flow itself is completely covered with rocks, shelves and pockets. There is an off-center arch that fingers into 3 smaller arches, all of them end along rock wall. The wall runs from the over-flow to 3" short of the right end of the tank, in a semi-arch and is 3-4" high. There will be a mini dsb behind it.
The foreground substrate will be 1.5" deep. Both beds will be sugar sand capped with CaribSea Reeflor.
There is about 60 lbs. rock from John (reefcleaners.org) in the build. I started with 100 and am guessing that I have 40 leftover.
Here's the pics

The supplies


starting out


Random angles taken after the first batch of resin ran empty and the loose stuff was tipped off.

 

The scape is done and the tank is back on the stand with the sand added. Here's a few pics.





the overflow box

 

Very cool. I built a few of these for my cichlid tanks. Thought about it in saltwater, but never tried. Looks Great!

 

Thanks! This is my first ever attempt. I don't think it came out half bad. A friend of mine did this and I can't believe how quickly his entire scape purpled up! It was less than 6 months for sure. The coralline would grow on the foam as fast as it would his pumps. I hope I get the same results, I have 4 or 5 colors to seed with growing in my 46.

 

Very cool! Is the tank heavy?