My new 210 is home

[edgerat]

Ok so this is going to be an ongoing thread to keep everyone updated as I build up my new 210 All-Glass tank. The tank is home right now after a little blood was spilled from my forearms and I think I have a small hernia now as well. The stand should be done with powdercoat by the middle of next week. The stand and tank together will probably weigh about 1000lbs by themselves without any water in it.. The MRC reef sump(36x18x18) with refugium and the MRC MR-2 skimmer as well as my Sequence Dart return pump and Gen-x pcx 40 skimmer pump are on their way to me thanks to Reef Exotics and Anthony. The lights(6x96w PC's) are on their way as well as all the plumbing. New Year's weekend is going to be the big weekend to get everything into the tank and ready to roll. I am using the sand out of my 72(130 or so lbs) plus some more dead sand and I am getting the carib-sea reef bones for my rockwork. Outside of this my biggest task is going to be my fish list and getting it all figured out. Since I am without my main puter I cant photochop up some pics to post because the one pic of the tank I have from the move in is too big to upload on here.
Isaac

 

[Stang69]

Ill help hows that?




Jeff

 

[mkpaulson]

Congratulations on your new tank! can't wait to see the progress in setting it up, I feel your pain on carrying that bad boy brings back memories on setting up my 210.

 

[edgerat]

yeah it is plenty heavy, the stand is built out of steel and it looks like it going to weigh about a 1000lbs all by itself without anything on it... I do love overbuilding stuff..... makes me want to go down to HD and buy some friggin 4x4's and a chainsaw

 

[LakeEd]

Edgerat,

CONGRATS!!!!! I know the "Itch" you're probably feeling right now as well. *Grinz*

Isn't it awesome!

Keep us posted!

 

[edgerat]

ok, so the tank is unwrapped and I cleaned the inside of the tank from all the sticker gunk using a razor blade and some water. I assembled all my returns and durso's. I got my Sequence Dart(return pump) and my PCX-40(skimmer pump) as well as my sump light today. Hopefully my lights will be here tomorrow and my rock will be here by the end of the week. I got 150lbs of carib-sea reef bones and a refractometer from customaquatics. I ordered my starboard last night and it will probably be here on monday I am guessing. The skimmer(mr-2) and sump should be here today on the UPS truck. I am not certain when the stand will be done but I am hoping it will be done by Thursday so I can get all of this up on the stand and then brace the floor, not sure if I need to or not, and get all my plumbing dry-fit. One thing I am running into is, should I buy Tunze streams or do 2 or 3 sea-swirls?? The tank is going to FOWBR for awhile until I can sell the 72 bowfront and pay for either streams or a closed loop setup and my MH's. I like that I can place the streams lower in the tank without having to use any kind of funky nozzle to redirect the flow like on a sea-swirl. But if I do two 1" sea swirls with a nother Dart or something like that I could save some money and get quite a bit of flow out of it.
If anyone has any pics or drawings of how to setup an external skimmer like a MR-2 I would really appreciate it! I have never setup and external skimmer before I havent the first clue.
Isaac

 

[edgerat]

UPDATE:

I have been placed under the trance of MOJO.... hahahaha so, the initial planning of the tank has not gone well. The sump is too small(see for sale section) the pump is too big(anyone need a DART?) and my stand is taking way too long to build. So, the grand plan to get the whole thing on the stand and plumbed this weekend went in the crapper. The girlfriend wants to sell all of it just to get the house clean and I am fighting with her to keep her in line
Isaac

 

[wrightme43]

Here is a nice trick I learned when in the navy, it works on wives to. It is called the smile and nod. Just smile at her and nod, and nod and smile. Sooner or later they go away and let you do what you want. LOL congrats on the big tank, its going to be cool. Steve

 

[edgerat]

UPDATE: rock arrived, looks like crap, going back. Sold the sump and the return pump and have a new PCX-100 sitting here and two eductors headed this way for the returns that are plumbed in the tank. Stand still isnt done but I am going down tomorrow to buy 70ft of 1x2 tubing and we should have the stand done this weekend, its going to be built in two pieces each 3 feet long so that two adults can move the stand into position in the house. BIG CHANGES may be on the horizon as I am thinking a shorter more "cubey" tank might be more my style. We are also thinking about modifying the house and the tank room to better suit what we are planning on doing. So, hopefully I will be able to get on the sump design and build this weekend and get the stand tacked together this weekend and then finish welded on monday night then ground down and ready for powdercoat later next week, that is if we stay with this tank... if not it will be a little while before another update.

 

[edgerat]

Against All Odds this tank is being built!!! hahaha here is the stand as it sits last night. Some changes might be in the future but I wanted to update ya'lls anywhos.

 

[edgerat]

stands done just gotta cut the ply and foam for the cushion on the top

 

[bradreef]

looks good. What did you end up doing for movement in the tank.

 

[edgerat]

still not sure yet "cheap safe and easy" way is to bite the bullet and buy two 6100 streams. The more difficult but higher flow option is to drill the tank for a CLS. RF user "Finn" is local to me here in Oly and he is supposed to have a tank drilled by a local company so I am going to wait and hear what he has to say about his experience with them. My three Lumenarc 3 reflectors should be here tomorrow along with their bulbs 2-400w 20k XM's and 1 400w 10kXM. I am going to order my PFO ballasts in a minute but other than that I am sort of in a holding pattern until the sump is finished and as soon as I make up my mind on the circulation system. Oh and I am still VERY slow on getting the cutting board cut for the overflows because I am chicken and I dont want to F up the board with sloppy cuts

 

[bradreef]

6100's should work awesome. Power bills will look a lot better then with a big pump on a closed loop. closed loops are not an easy option on a big glass tank. I would love to have something like disturbedreefer but That would be starting all over. streams and a spraybar will do fine.

 

[edgerat]

hehe any thoughts on a spray bar? I have two eductors running on a PCX100 out of two outlets but I dont want to run anything up and over the top of the back of the tank so that is limiting any sort of spray bar plumbing for me. I just cant think of a clean way to do it and make it look right and be functional. Plus its another pump sucking KWH's

 

[bradreef]

place a pump under the rocks. The only bad part about that is the cord hanging out. you counld glue it along one of the seams to the overflow. doesn't need to be super big. maybe a mag or quietone. keep that detrius suspended and give the superskimmer something to do.

 

[edgerat]

good idea!

 

[reedman]

Be careful putting pumps where they are not easily serviced. If you can't do it easily, you probably won't clean them at all. Then when they fail you have to either leave them where they died or tear the tank apart to remove them. Just something to think about.

 

[edgerat]

thanks for the tip. I plan on setting up my rockwork so that I can put it together like an erector set and take it apart just as easily. What I am thinking about doing now is running a "fixed flow" stream in the rockwork like Brad suggested and then the two 6100's on each end. Combined with my two eductors flowing approximately 8 times what my return pump puts out that should be lots of flow

 

[edgerat]

man I hate to sound like a puss but I need some encouraging.....the money just doesnt seem to stop flowing out and all I am doing is acruing more cardboard and reef equipment.... my biggest fear is the first month this thing is up and running it is going to cost $300 in power alone!