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Paul’s 240 Gallon upgrade!

Good luck with the aiptasias. Your video doesn't work and the message states: " Video unavailable. This video has been removed for violating YouTube's Terms of Service"

I think I fixed it. Please let me know if it still doesn’t work


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That's a good sign with the Mueller. I had a similar experience with my Copperband, after the aiptasia were gone it started to get thin so I sold it to someone that had no tangs. You could make a feeding station, it's basically a small container with holes drilled into it that only the Copperband can fit it's snout into. Fill it with mysis and place it in the tank.
 
Another delivery of toys. I won’t keep you in suspense.

A few baby sized drill bits to install float valves
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Float valves themselves
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And! Two of these XF250s
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Not much else is going on. Just waiting on the tank and stand to get finished up. I’ll start on moving the fish and coral temporarily here in the next 2 weeks to make room for the new tank and then finish up the fish room in the basement. Still not sure how to tackle it but I guess the best way is head on.




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I know this has been slow but I’ve been away for the last two weeks. I did get two important updates today. The tank has been shipped and expected to arrive on Wednesday. The other big update. Stand is done and ready for pick up.

I get home on Monday and plan on seriously attacking this. Stay tuned.

Any one around the Vernon area of NJ wanting to help me move this thing??

Paul


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So, I’m coming home tomorrow (Monday) and I have a lot to do. On the flight to Southern California I started to make a list of the things I need to do and decided I was going to take this in bite sized chunks. I’m having a hard time finding some muscle as it seems everyone is going away or working (a lot of my friends are in the same line of work so their away a lot) so this will be a low man power utilization scenario.

Here’s the plan moving forward.

Monday:
I get home late. Going to play some men’s hockey and catching up on lost rest. :)

Tuesday:
- pick up stand from powder coating
- pick up 3-4 dollies and possible a jacking dolly if I’m able to find one
- turn the water off and plumb into the hot water heater to cut back on electric heating in the winter
- attach plywood top to the stand and silicone gaps
- attach plywood top to the new sump stand and plywood backing
- rinse the new live rock soaking in bleach and treat with prime
- throw all equipment into vinegar bath
- begin copper treatment on QT tank

Wednesday
- grab 3 buddies and pick up aquarium
- clean up the pillars supporting the floor above and protect against rust
- paint plywood top
- finish faux beam to place over the new aquarium

Thursday
- move live rock into brute can with power head and heaters to keep bacteria alive.
- move livestock into another brute can
- breakdown the 125g and sump room
- rinse sand and clean the 125
- thorough sump room clean
- Devils game in Newark

Friday
- Paint the back of the new aquarium
- plumb the sump room
- turn 125 gallon tank into sump
- attempt at positioning the aquarium and hopefully have it start getting wet
- work on aqua scape
- finish cleaning equipment

Saturday
- fill aquarium and hopefully make it salty
- add bacteria and media
- finish aquascape
- plumb the top
- work in APEX mounting and wiring

Sunday
- bring sump online
- hopefully moving livestock back into the DT

Monday
- relax
- league game


Agh, seems like a lot of work. We’ll see what I can accomplish and I’ll keep checking the boxes. If you guys see something else I should be doing or shouldn’t be doing. Please let me know.

Guys, DONT BE SHY. I’m off and home all week. Feel free to come over and help, hang out, offer suggestions or just keep me some company.

Paul






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Okay. Let me fill you in on my day.

I slept in. Didn’t let my fiancé sleep because I apparently made sure I slept on every square inch of the bed. I have a decent excuse though. I haven’t been home in two weeks which makes a guy miss his bed! So, I spring out of bed and start going through the check list. I eat breakfast and watch an episode of the Ozark (because I’m a procrastinator) and make my way out the door to pick up the stand. As I reverse out of the driveway and put the car in Drive, my phone rings... I don’t recognize the number so let it go to voicemail. More on this later.

I pull into the powder company and see it!
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On the truck she goes. I pay the man and hop in the truck. My phone vibrates alerting me to a voice mail. “Hmmm” I navigate to my VM and as I hit the play button I read the iphones poor attempt at translating it... ITS HERE!

I go to the shipping companies website and sure as ssshhh.... it’s here! Delivered last night and ready for pick up.
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Off to secaucus! My god was I giddy. I’ll skip the boring stuff and get to it

Where is this ramp?!
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C’mon!!!
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Omg! omg! omg! The tank isn’t that tall lol, I think they built it high to keep anyone from stacking anything.
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It’s in!
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And we’re off!
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This is basically where I am now except the truck is in the garage. Have some buds coming over for “buds” later this week. I plan on painting it tomorrow while it’s on the truck and will move it into the house when I get the help. 532lbs ( not sure if that includes the pallet but I’m assuming it does)

Anyhow, here are more pics of the stand. Again, this is a local guy in Sussex County and did an awesome job. Shoot me a PM if you want his info
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Paul


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diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
532 lb! You better have a lot of beer for your friends after moving that. I can't get over how tall they made the box. Have you looked at the tank yet?
 
532 lb! You better have a lot of beer for your friends after moving that. I can't get over how tall they made the box. Have you looked at the tank yet?

I have! Just a glimpse. I ordered some suction cups that are showing up tomorrow and swung by the store for the beer so gotta keep fingers crosssed. Here’s literally how it sits now
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Well, I’ve been rather silent for about a week but that’s only because I’ve been busy.

Needless to say, I haven’t done as much as I’d like to but here’s a list of progress and I’ll include some pictures where I can.

Stand- I’ve sealed, mounted, and secured 5/8” plywood to the top of the steel frame. I’ve also secured the backing to the back of the frame which was painted with white flex seal. I also started cutting out 2.5” pieces of ply to make a drip tray at the bottom of the tank. I’ll upload pictures later today.

Aquarium- couple of problems here. The builder had made a mistake drilling the over flow holes. They’re 1/2” too high which renders my current overflow useless.
Here’s the tank compared to the template.
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I contacted the over flow maker to see if they could perform some custom work and after explaining what was happening, they said they can accommodate. I then called the aquarium builder and they offered to pay for the over flow.

The second isn’t necessarily a problem as much as a slow down. The aquarium is HEAVY. And I do not want to move it twice. Therefore, it’s still sitting on the pick up in the garage continuing its curing process until the 125 is broken down.

Heating- I tapped into my hot water heater and began plumbing the hot water recirculation loop. Here’s a picture of the circulation pump a long with a motorized ball valve
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And here’s the titanium heat exchanger
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I don’t have a picture on my phone but the entire run has been plumbed and ready for a test.

Fish room:
Not much to update here. The 125 is not quite ready to be broken down so I can’t shut the system down. I did pick up an additional 40b and .two 20 gallon tanks to help with the movement of fish. I’m away for a week with Friday off, so I plan on taking care of some odds and ends then. The QT is almost done with its round of copper and the fish look great. Once they’re done, I will move them into a 20 gallon observation and prepare the two 40bs to temporarily house the current occupants of the DT. This way it’ll give me an opportunity to break down and prepare the 125 to be a sump. I’ll also have some time to rethink my fish room.

Sorry for the slow progress (and lack up pictures)

Paul


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Forgot to mention, if you look through my previous build, the fiancé wanted a beam across the tank and suspend the light from the beam.

Something like this.
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Well, I’ve put some work into and here’s what we got out of it. Let me know what you think.
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Stained
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First coat of polyurethane
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diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Well that stinks what happened to the overflow. Hope when it's all done, we get to see it in person:smile:
 
Well that stinks what happened to the overflow. Hope when it's all done, we get to see it in person:smile:

So, there’s a euro brace on top of the aquarium that’s 1/2” thick. I think what happened is they used the template measuring from the euro brace. THEN installed another pane of glass underneath that 1/2” euro brace to accommodate for some type of top (glass top or mesh). Well, this forces the overflow (template) in this case another 1/2” lower then the original holes. Long story short, the overflow no longer fits. Having said that, the tank builder offered to either re do the tank or pay for the modified overflow. So, no harm there.


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