Pumps and sand came in today. Couldn't believe 312lbs shipping weight only cost $15.00 to ship!!! Bet they lost money on my order. Gonna work on the sump and Max-Jet mod tonight. Hopefully will get the plumbing designed so we can buy PVC tomorrow. Not sure if ScubaDog wanted this to be public knowledge, but he's sharing a glass hole saw with me. THANKS! I should get it in the mail tomorrow. If it's still usable after us rookies get done with it, I'm perfectly willing to pass it on to anyone else that needs it.
Tried to lay things out this evening to determine plumbing and such. A 48" tank isn't good for @%&*. There's not enough room underneath for even a 30" sump and external pump. Gonna have to do the return pump in-sump and I might have room for the CL pump external but only because it can be turned sideways. At least these Eheim pumps are pretty efficient and shouldn't add too much heat to the water.
No problem about the hole saw bit, they last for several holes, and I still have about three more bits that have never been used. I can relate about the space under a four foot tank, I had a 75 set up for a few years. Even with a fourteen foot stand, I still find myslelf running low on room for the sump and various equipment.
My tank is still sitting on my carport with no real timeframe for moving it inside. Will the near-freezing nighttime temperatures hurt it?
We moved our current tank today to make room for the new one. It was in rough shape with lots of algae and high nitrates. The sand bed was very shallow at <1". We decided to just dispose of the old sand and installed a 4" bed using sugar-fine aragonite. Hopefully, this will help with the nitrate problem. I've noticed that the sugar-fine sand has a lot of "dust" that is easily disturbed. The fish kick up a lot without really doing much. Will this settle down after a while? Also, we separated the 4-stripe damsel that been such a pain. Does anyone want him?
The front face of the hood got completed today and joined to the sides along with the rear support. Next up is the top, but that will not come about untill after Thanksgiving.
The hood is now complete. It is made primariliy with panels with the only solid 1" stock on the front face. The door is a panel as well making this a very light hood. The door uses magnetic pulls which I think I will be incorperating on all of my future tank builds. Hinges always tend to rust and the finish tarnishes due to salt creep. I enjoyed the opertunity to work with Joe on this stand and hood incorperating some different techniques than the average off the shelf stock.
We had the auto-top-off water line run today along with a drain line for doing water changes. Also mounted the lights in the canopy. We plan to install the partitions in the sump and test the skimmer this evening. Everything should be ready for tomorrow. Woo Hoo!!
