I dumped 5 gallons of vinegar into my 155 bowfront, BUILD THREAD

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I'm finally to the stages of being able to put together a build thread. I've been collecting the equipment I need to put together a tank for the last 2 years or so, starting with things that would make keeping my nano easier. A ro-di unit and moving up from there.

The tank is full of tap water right now doing a leak test, It was a used tank and the guy who had it before me must have had some amazing coralline growth because I started out with two white overflows. I thought about trying to scrape it off or use a scratch pad with vinegar, but laziness kicked in and I wanted to soak it. I ended up pouring 5 gallons of vinegar in to do a "leak test/cleaning" I also decided to throw in some dry rock that I had in hopes to get it as clean as possible and avoid putting much junk in the tank when it's setup.

here's some pics of filling the tank and it full and soaking



Here is my sump and future fuge and below that eventually a frag tank, still have some plumbing to do to get the fuge online. Have to fix one end that got broken taking it out of the stand to put it in the basement and drill a new hole to drain into the sump.

[maxima k2]

Is your tank going to have cable TV? How does that bungee cord float behind the tank?

JK l
Looks like a start, good luck with the set up.

[Jova]

At the point you are currently at, I would definately definately definately examine the tank meticulously for scratches, since it's a used tank. Right now, I'm disgusted by the numerous scratches in the glass of my tank, which I got used. If I would have known that the tank was as scratched up as it is, I never would have set it up. Just my 2 cents... but looking forward to keeping up on your build thread... good luck!

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I check very well for scratches before i bought it and there are 2 about 2 inches up where a mag float picked up some sand other than that it seems it was well taken care of, but I'll bet his fish didn't have cable TV! lol

[fishysteve]

That should be a nice tank when it's all setup. The sump shelving unit looks a little flimsy though. You may want to reinforce it with some cross braces.

[crvz]

Looks like a good start! Do you have any stocking or hardware wishlists? Or is it just a chose as you go?

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Originally posted by fishysteve
That should be a nice tank when it's all setup. The sump shelving unit looks a little flimsy though. You may want to reinforce it with some cross braces.

The shelf is rated to hold 500lbs per shelf, so I dunno, I was standing on the bottom one jumping to test it when I put it together I'll slowly fill the tank on the shelf and make sure I think it's sturdy, If I'm unsure I have it against a wall and will just run some screws into the studs on that wall.

On second thought i may just go ahead and do that anyway, better safe than sorry. Thanks

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Originally posted by crvz
Looks like a good start! Do you have any stocking or hardware wishlists? Or is it just a chose as you go?

Actually I have most of my equipment ready and waiting.

The list for that is

3x400w halides
b/k mini 200 skimmer
Iwaki md100 return pump
2x tunze streams for flow
koralin 6002 calcium reactor
tunze wave box
2x phosban 150 reactors

some of the equipment I got with the tank when I bought it, the calcium reactor, tunze's. Some I've slowly purchased when I had the money or found a good deal. I've also traded some equipment that I got with the tank when I bought it for the wave box, Iwaki pump, and other equipment.

The only piece of equipment I can think of that I would like to get still is an aqua controller of some sort and I think I'll wait on that for a little while, there's nothing that needs constant monitoring yet.

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My stocking list is flexible, I keep seeing fish i like and changing my mind, so far my list is as follows:

Fish i already have
Black clown
royal gramma
Flame Angel (in QT)

Want/ will have

Blue spot Jawfish
trio of flasher or fairy wrasses
mandarin
A blenny of some sort
coral beauty angel
Pair or trio of firefish
Black or picasso clown

want/ possiblilites

powder brown tang
powder blue tang
yellow belly hippo tang
purple tang
achilles tang
fox face
shrimp goby pair
engineer goby

Just for the record I will not be putting all of these fish in my tank, it's just what i like and am looking at considering. I every intention of only putting one tang in my tank, but my wife seems to think that is not enough, so she'll win that arguement.

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This is the QT tank that is setup and going, This way when the tank is ready for fish, there will be fish QT'd and ready for the tank

The qt tank is a 58 gallon tank setup with live rock and sand, I will be taking out any sick fish and moving them to a hospital tank if they need any treatments. I decided to go with live rock and sand because this will be a semi-permanent home for the fish that will be living in it for a while and one of those fish i hope to be a blue-spot jawfish, and would like him to be able to build a burrow and not be stressed.

Currently residing in the tank is a flame angel

When I put the sand in the qt it was used sand and it made a giant mess so I decided to try out my skimmer and pull the crap out of the tank, this was after i had already dumped the cup twice and the tank was starting to clear



This is how the Qt looks and the flame angel that lives in it.