280+ Gallon Shark Tank

[skinsncanes]

Protein skimmer is here!

Though wifey says I'm never allowed to open one of Jeff from life reefs boxes in the house haha. I'm gonna try opening it I'm a garbage bag

[skinsncanes]

Everyone - Make this post a sticky. This is a lesson on how to open life reef products. I'll first repost how I opened the filter, then the new improved way to open the skimmer!!

The wrong way....





The right way!!

[THEREALTROUT]

Following this build.

[speedo2wet]

In regards to your water changing set up. It sounds like a separate tank from your main set up. Just a thought and I've seen this done before. If you left the second barrel in line with your tank and filtration system then when your ready for a water change you just turn a bypass valve leaving the 20gallon tank shut off from the system. Then you can drain it, refill with RO water, add salt and place it back inline. Pretty heinous idea if you ask me.

[skinsncanes]

Hi everyone, well I have good news and bad news. I went to pick up my tank, again, from glasscages. They, again, did not make it correctly. This blows my mind because I have them full 3d models, blue prints, lengthy phone calls and emails confirming everything, etc.

I do have the tank, the driver told me 'you always get the built Friday tanks' and said it was pretty normal to have them built wrong. but twice! The other person picking up also did not get a tank the way they requested.

Looking at the tank closely, I feel like they just took my old one apart, and switched the starfire so it was on the right side. It looks like it was taken apart and put back together becasue theres gouges all over the corners of the glass. It almost looks like they use some sort of fixture or device to move the tanks and it holds them clamped down, and it chews into the glass.

At this point its in its spot, and its heavy so its not going anywhere. Im going to have to pay seperately to have some sort of custom lids fabricated. The point of my custom was was to have larger bracing so my upper walls didnt block the lids. and I guess now instead of my beautiful corner tank I have to add wood molding on the corners to cover the very visible chewed up edges.

The worst part is they arent even responding to my emails anymore about it.Ill be pursuring other avenues to deal with them...

Ill post pics later

[skinsncanes]

As a seperate post from my venting about glasscages...

Ive finished all the dry wall and spakle in the basement.

Everything primed.

Three coats on the ceiling (as a side note, I redid the ceiling with a high end paint thats scrubable. I killed a spider in the corner of the original ceiling and you cant clean it. Normally you dont need to clean your ceiling but for an extra 20 bucks a gallon, for two gallons, id rather be able to wipe my ceiling and not have to repaint every nick, chalk mark from teh pool table etc. im very happy with it. I leveled the floor and it splatters everywhere when mixing, just a quick wipe and its back to perfect white)

I leveled my HORRENDOUS basement floor. 28 bags of self level but it needed it, looks great now.

Last night I cut in all the paint.

Sunday im putting all the lights up, and installing the bar cabinets.

I ordered a custom black walnut bar top, very excited about this.

so soon ill be hooking up the tank. I have to get a different beer fridge to put the beer under the tank, and the fish stuff next to it.

again, pics later.

[skinsncanes]

Originally Posted by speedo2wet

In regards to your water changing set up. It sounds like a separate tank from your main set up. Just a thought and I've seen this done before. If you left the second barrel in line with your tank and filtration system then when your ready for a water change you just turn a bypass valve leaving the 20gallon tank shut off from the system. Then you can drain it, refill with RO water, add salt and place it back inline. Pretty heinous idea if you ask me.

hm, that does make a lot of sense. and i was looking for a better place to put the heater so its not in the tank with the sharks. Great idea!

[adddo]

Cool build! Bummer about the tank, you should demand e partial refund..

[speedo2wet]

Haven't seen an update in a while. Wondered what's been going on with the tank.

[Captainsreef]

I would go with a larger tank for these animals. I wrote an article about keeping sharks & have extensive experience at it. I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link to my article, but it can be found at captainsaquarium dot com. Cheers!

[skinsncanes]

Originally Posted by Captainsreef

I would go with a larger tank for these animals. I wrote an article about keeping sharks & have extensive experience at it. I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link to my article, but it can be found at captainsaquarium dot com. Cheers!

Can you paste the link? I tried looking at your site but I couldnt find the article. Thanks!

[skinsncanes]

Originally Posted by speedo2wet

Haven't seen an update in a while. Wondered what's been going on with the tank.

Well...the long story short is that glasscages is the biggest piece of **** retailer I have ever dealt with. I paid to have full blue prints made for my tank and they still didnt make it right. The tank came damaged and still not made to the print. It looks like they took the original tank apart, clamped it with something that digs into the glass, and put it back together without making it properely.

I've been in disputes with them with my credit card company. They somehow decided that they didnt have to respond to emails anymore once they sent it bad twice so I am disputing it.

DONT BUY ANYTHING FROM GLASS GAGES

The driver said their tanks are wrong all the time. I have several friends that run aquarium businesses and they say they also look bad but they usually hold water, just dotn expect them to do anything custom properely.

[skinsncanes]

In the meantime....

I'm working on finishing the rest of my basement. My black walnut bar top came yesterday and I put it in. Its amazing!! My 12 beer taps are coming this week too. And I have two beers in the femeter now, and am about to make a apricot cider. Im only saying that becuase I'll have all 12 kegs full for the bar grand opening

I'm going on my honeymoon in a few weeks and the hope was to have the tank running before that. I wanted it to be able to start to cycle and to begin to turn the rock i have into live rock. At this point I doubt that happens. I'm waiting to see how my dispute with the credit card company turns out so I have the money to get a new tank or something.

I'm also getting the rest of the basement finished. I have the floors to put in this weekend. Its all painted. Im pretty pumped aboout how the man caves turning out!

[skinsncanes]

Well I'm back from my honeymoon. My buddy got me tank made while I was fine that fits in my opening. I'd like to finally get all my equipment hooked up but I have a few questions:

Do you need to wash or clean sand and rocks before they go in? My rocks aren't live Rick yet they're old corals from a quarry I think.

Do I put the sand and rock formation in first then add the rodi water?

I did a lot of scuba diving the last few weeks so I'm excited to have my own little reef.

Maybe this weekend I'll do e plumbing to get my sink in and setup the rodi. I don't have it figured out yet how I'll do the auto top off but I can start filling the tank.

[iced98lx]

Rinse the sand if you can, it will save you time later and a few filter socks- search here for the technique but it's just done in a 5 gallon bucket to get the crud that will flush out out. Rinse off the rocks since they're dry anyway- I'd do a short RO/DI soak, maybe overnight or more while you make water into the tank?

If you're going to mix your initial fill in the tank (meaning, fill with RO/DI then add salt) don't add sand or rock until it's done filling and mixed as saltwater to avoid precipitation and partial mixing.

Basically, fill the tank with water, mix salt with 1+ power heads to proper levels, add rock, add sand, let the cycle begin!

[dave.m]

+1 on the rinsing of the sand. Make sure it is aragonite sand, not silica sand.

Rock from a terrestrial source can be full of all sorts of pollutants. It is better to use reef rock, whether dead or alive. If you don't know where your rock came from you might want to set it up in a plastic garbage pail in salt water and test for nitrates and phosphates. No sense polluting your display tank.

Dave.M

[skinsncanes]

Originally Posted by dave.m

+1 on the rinsing of the sand. Make sure it is aragonite sand, not silica sand.

Rock from a terrestrial source can be full of all sorts of pollutants. It is better to use reef rock, whether dead or alive. If you don't know where your rock came from you might want to set it up in a plastic garbage pail in salt water and test for nitrates and phosphates. No sense polluting your display tank.

Dave.M

im pretty sure the sand is 'natural' sand. by that i just mean its crushed corals and stuff like real beach sand. and the rock is still corals and was reef rock im just thinking it was harvested from an area where the ocean isnt there anymore and not pulled from the ocean.

[skinsncanes]

Originally Posted by skinsncanes

Here's a pic of a sample reef rock. Can anyone identify region or comment on it? It seems pretty porous. I was hoping for some pieces w swim through or caves. These more like giant pieces of coral. I might buy a few choice pieces as a base.[

IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/14/ugedygaz.jpg[/IMG]



And a pic of some sand, a fine crushed coral

this post had pics of the sand and coral

[iced98lx]

Originally Posted by skinsncanes

this post had pics of the sand and coral

Looks good from what I can see. Can always use a screw driver/Chisel and a hammer to make a few shapes you want. Still suggest a short soak, but I'm sometimes over cautious.

[skinsncanes]

I completely forgot about mixing the salt for the initial fill. maybe ill get my top off system done first so i can mix it in other containers then pump it in. So much to do...

My granite comes for the bar in two weeks and the custom sink I ordered that will look like a drip tray for the beer with a built in rinser.

I have to then install some other cabinets that sit on the granite.

Do the stonework around the tank and bar.

I got four tvs yesterday that need to go up.

I have three beers that need to be kegged and put on tap.

The plumbing for the fish tank will take me a while. i have piles of filters, pumps, protein skimmers, etc and itll be my first time hooking it all up.

Just so much stuff!

[dave.m]

Just don't start sampling those kegs too soon.



Dave.M

[skinsncanes]

That doesn't look too much different then the beer lines I setup!