187 Funky Dimension Prbly Gonna Flood Floors Build

[Trio91]

A year can be a long time without a tank and I had to find something to hold myself over. After battling the legality of various green substances I decided to use my green thumb for something else. Leading up to my tank I took up gardening with these results

my wife has been going nuts in the garden this year too, she harvested eggplants, tomatoes, yellow squash radishes and a bunch of leafy greens....luckily she grew a bunch cuz the groundhogs n squirrels have been stealing their share, plus my dog suddenly has a taste for tomatoes so to him its become a self-serve buffet

 

[Trio91]

The Entire Build is on HOLD

First Off Let me Preface this With What I KNOW for FACT.

SCA Used to have their stands build in China. When the tank would ship the stand and the canopy would ship as well. This allowed the teams to A) mass produce the stand and B) Test that the stand works well.
SCA's attention to details are excellent and this shows in the FLAWNESS tank I received.

My Cabinet was built by a custom shop in California due to my tank dimensions being 60 X 30 X 24. A Standard 150 tank stand would not work. (2) Cabinets were shipped from the Custom Shop in California. 1 (Regular 150) and My custom tank.

At first glance and measurement I could only check that the tank was the right size shape and dimensions. I also checked that the stand was the right dimensions as best I could due to the rounded corners. The Canopy Also looked ok but as
I did not plan to use the canopy initially I left it wrapped for its own protection.

After waiting a week for some help to place the tank on the stand we rounded up enough people to do the job. I was immediately heart broken and dropped what I was doing and walked away from the fish tank. I went outside for a long walk and had a few drinks before coming
back home and deciding how I was going to deal with this situation.



The Stand was Too small

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr

As you guys can see once centered on the actual stand the edges hang over the sides of the stand.

It Gets worse

It was discovered also that the structural integrity of the tank may have been compromised by the stupid builder cutting the middle center brace in order to make space for the overflow plumbing

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr

SCA announced that they were making all the tank stands 36" high now which is great. However the builder clearly does not understand aquariums and decided to simply build a BASE elevating the tank stand 3" higher to make 36" Rendering the open
area small as the base raises the sump up very high rendering people unable to place equipment into the sump. My Sump is 18" tall for reference

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr

The Genius builder then decided to reinforce the stand by adding numerous supports inside the stand pushing the sump almost 6" to the front of the stand rendering you unable to REPLACE The braces after putting in the sump.

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr

After going outside and repeatedly firing a mossberg at a target while playing death metal and wondering how much tickets to California are I decided to test the canopy.

What I thought was paint on much of the stand and canopy turned out to be little more than dust. The Canopy is not finished inside at all. Neither is the stand after wiping it down. Either this is marine grade ply or I'm looking at a disaster waiting to happen.

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr


The canopy does not fit. It is 1/2" too small

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr

If the Canopy WERE To fit it would cover approximately 6" or more of the available viewing area

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr

Untitled by Tristian Allicock, on Flickr


The builder has agreed to Refund me the FULL COST of the ENTIRE STAND and CANOPY.

The builder is also not doing any custom stands for any tanks until basically July. We were told online (Facebook) that the builder has secured an ONSITE building facility attached to the Warehouse that they will be doing their own custom woodworking.
I spent the greater part of the last few days contacting various furniture makers in Charlotte, NC - I have not contracted anyone yet but have sent plans to numerous people and have called quite a few of them. I should have something by the weekend or
early next week.

If I am unable to find a builder I will build the tank stand myself using rocketengineers and DIY King Joey's plans online in the upcoming week. I figure it will take me a day to build the frame and maybe 2 days to Skin another 2/3 days to Prime/Seal/Paint.

I am Extremely Bummed about this situation. I have been depressed for days and I'm sorry to the community for not updating.


On a slightly brighter side.

I have decided to build a completely oversized stand to house my tank. I am planning on a Tank stand 9 Feet Wide 30" Deep 36" high. The tank will sit in the center of the stand and the sump directly below it. This will free up Space on either side of the cabinet
that can be isolated from the rest of the stand to house my electronics, controller, calcium reactor and any other items I need. The top of the stand can be used in the future to hold a small frag tank maybe. I will probably use this POS stand I have right now to
build another system in the garage for frags or Fish Only.

i think if it were me, i would've flew to California...i would've lost my $h!t

 

[Trio91]

Well good news is that last night I made my first cuts of the top and bottom rails today i.e. I'll be cutting the legs side and other support. I haven't screwed anything together yet just dry fitting everything

The funny thing was that I had to literally build all of my tools to support my building of the tank lmao. The saw horses alone took like 1 hr for both lmao.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

those are the ones from Harbor Freight?

 

[Trio91]

First coat is on!!!

Tank should be on the stand this weekend !!!!!!

I also ordered my doors they not arriving until next week though.

very nice looks professionally done

 

[asonitez]

Yeah the horses are from Harbor Freight. They are tanks.

I'm going to take some pics and provide an update tonight.

 

[Trio91]

you know, with your over sized stand, your tank looks kinda small now

 

[asonitez]

I looks tiny but its a most definately PATH to a bigger tank. All of my equipment is setup for a larger tank including my lighting system lol. I HAVE been thinking of doing a fish only tank In my garage man cave at which point maybe a tank upgrade would be in the future. Basically a 96 X 30 X 24.

 

[Trio91]

it's looks great btw...whats the green stuff in those reactors on the far right? chaeto?

 

[asonitez]

Oh those were bubble wrap from packaging and shipping. Lol Those now have GFO and Carbon in them.

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

Wow nice build

 

[horseplay]

That's a very nice diy stand! Good job.

 

[looneytunes]

That looks like a professional stand very nice.

what type of tubing are you using for your sump? and how are you attaching it? glue

 

[DEL]

beautiful setup!!!!!!

 

[asonitez]

PT 1

Velvet. That word alone made some of you cringe, start breathing hard and immediately reflect on your time in the hobby.

Its been a while. Lets Recap.

Shortly after adding the fish and running it like that for about a week I started to slowly add corals. I got some great deals and added a few LPS and 2 small caps that were really taking off. One morning I awoke to find that my flame angel had decided to bite the dust. Strange.......but not impossible I mean maybe the shock of a new tank or something.

Then my PBT started exhibiting some strange behavior and I saw what seemed to be a few ich spots. The shock took a full day to realize itself. I had ich. After weeks of copper, and mild hypo, of all the fish, my dead rock, live sand had ich.

The first thing I tried was hypo. Yup.. I pulled inverts my macroalgae and I hypoed my entire display. In all I probably replaced 3/4th of my display volume with RODI. During the lowering stage I had to go out and buy a new refractometer that would measure that low.

The fish seemed to get better after a few days but I started having some unexplained losses. I started researching and that's when It dawned on me that I had ich, and possibly Velvet.

I pulled my diary and started reading of additions that had been made and realized that I had added a few frags of ACANS purchased from the display of a LFS that had a less than stellar reputation for cleanliness. I found the diseased monkeys source and it was not good.

I had a second shipment of fish due in any day to start the qurantine process and now it looked as if I would need to add them + the fish into my qurantine system. 8:30 I ran out to petsmart grabbed 1 20 Breeder and 2 10 Gallon tanks and HOBs. Fortunately I had bio-balls in my sump in the main display and used those in the HOBS for biofiltration. No time to make RODI so I used tap-dechlorinator and mixed up new saltwater.


in 24 hours of waiting for the quarantine tanks to stabilize I lost

PBT
3 Yellow Tangs
1 Royal gamma
1 Blonde Naso
1 Exquisite Wrasse
1 Female Trigger
1 Geometric pygmy hawk
1 Swiss Guard Basslet
1 Bluesided Wrasse
1 Ruby Red Fairy




Everything was pulled out split up and dumped into the new tanks with a 1/2 dose of copper.

I flooded the floor. Only a little bit. RODI filling my wife forgot to check and a little spilled over. No biggie. I thoughtfully had it on the lid so it caught the excess.

The deaths stopped. But then a my doorbell rang and it was the next shipment of fish.

 

[asonitez]

PT 2

It was looking bad. The fish was out in small crowded tanks under medication and stressed. I would loose a few more small fish over the next few days.

I realized If I had any chance of saving them I needed to work hard at it. In the span of a week I drained my display. Then ran it with 1 gallon of bleach and tap water for a week. I bleached everything. Then I drained and refilled it with more tap water adding a bottle of de-chlorinator twice. I wiped down everything pulled all of my plumbing and soaked it in bleach water. I reassembled everything set back up my display and let it dry out for 48 hours. After that I filled it with RODI and ran it for a week. I added back in salt and let that mix for a few more days finally adding my nitrifying bacteria and a small hermit only cleanup crew that had already been quarantined in a offsite refugium.

Currently the fish have been maintaining with heavy feedings and twice a week 80% water changes. I've also systemically removed and dipped all of them every week in safety stop, acraflavine and have been feeding them metro laced food. I know I wiped out the velvet and any other diseases in the display with the bleach and fresh water.

Likewise I changed up my rock work to create numerous caves hiding places and swim throughs. I realized with my first aquascape while aesthetically pleasing to the eye the columns left few places for fish to hide or swim and few caves to sleep due to how the rocks were stacked to ensure stability.

This time around I decided to focus on swimming space, caves and will let the SPS define the aquascape by providing a lot of surface area for them to grow.

I've also been thinking of adding in a few pieces of branch rock as well. There have been no deaths for the last few weeks and while in my mind i'm on the good side of a disaster It could change at any moment. I spend at least 30 minutes each day observing the tank and I've had to move a few fish around to curb aggression.

The display is fully cycled where fish food and the addition of copious amounts of pure ammonia makes almost no difference in the water quality. In a week or so the fish would have been through a month of copper, supplemented with dips and full spectrum antibiotics.

This episode cost me almost 1k in medications, new equipment, fish, replacement fish, salt, and water. It's a lesson learned. A horrible lesson.

 

[asonitez]

The fish in quarantine

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

man sorry to hear about all the trouble. I think at that moment I would had given up and just broke everything down and took a break. I like the new scape.

 

[myrjon]

velvet seems like a very bad thing . seems you have taken care of it with bleach,, this should kill anything bad.. good luck ..

 

[horseplay]

Really like the real reef rocks. Nice aquascape

 

[Trio91]

PT 2

It was looking bad. The fish was out in small crowded tanks under medication and stressed. I would loose a few more small fish over the next few days.

I realized If I had any chance of saving them I needed to work hard at it. In the span of a week I drained my display. Then ran it with 1 gallon of bleach and tap water for a week. I bleached everything. Then I drained and refilled it with more tap water adding a bottle of de-chlorinator twice. I wiped down everything pulled all of my plumbing and soaked it in bleach water. I reassembled everything set back up my display and let it dry out for 48 hours. After that I filled it with RODI and ran it for a week. I added back in salt and let that mix for a few more days finally adding my nitrifying bacteria and a small hermit only cleanup crew that had already been quarantined in a offsite refugium.

Currently the fish have been maintaining with heavy feedings and twice a week 80% water changes. I've also systemically removed and dipped all of them every week in safety stop, acraflavine and have been feeding them metro laced food. I know I wiped out the velvet and any other diseases in the display with the bleach and fresh water.

Likewise I changed up my rock work to create numerous caves hiding places and swim throughs. I realized with my first aquascape while aesthetically pleasing to the eye the columns left few places for fish to hide or swim and few caves to sleep due to how the rocks were stacked to ensure stability.

This time around I decided to focus on swimming space, caves and will let the SPS define the aquascape by providing a lot of surface area for them to grow.

I've also been thinking of adding in a few pieces of branch rock as well. There have been no deaths for the last few weeks and while in my mind i'm on the good side of a disaster It could change at any moment. I spend at least 30 minutes each day observing the tank and I've had to move a few fish around to curb aggression.

The display is fully cycled where fish food and the addition of copious amounts of pure ammonia makes almost no difference in the water quality. In a week or so the fish would have been through a month of copper, supplemented with dips and full spectrum antibiotics.

This episode cost me almost 1k in medications, new equipment, fish, replacement fish, salt, and water. It's a lesson learned. A horrible lesson.

Damn dude, that totally sux....I don't think I would've started up again after all that.