Everything in place, but sadly empty

After cleaning the sump and installing it in stand, some of the guys from work helped me move the tank onto the stand. So here it is, looking pretty good.

At the moment I am very slowly filling the tank with RO/DI water. At the rate I can produce it, it will take about 3 days. I'm not going all the way to the top just yet though. I'm going to fill about 125 gallons worth and use that to cure some live rock while I work on the plumbing.

Sump has arrived

The sump has finally arrived! It was packaged really well. It probably took a good 20 minutes to get it all out of the packaging. Once I did the first thing I noticed was the quality of the construction. Very nicely put together, very professional and worth the time and wait.

This weeks progress

Today I stained the canopy. Finally got sick of looking at the bare wood and gave it a good coat of stain. Looks good for a first coat. Not sure if I'll need a sealer on the outside, but I should try to find something for the inside where it can possibly be exposed to water.

Also, I did a lot of work on the moldings in the tank room as well as finishing off some painting. Luckily I was able to find some of the original white paint used in the house so I didn't have to buy anything.

The sump is on it's way from California, albeit slowly. According to the FedEx website it hasn't moved from Bloomington,CA since May 24th. As soon as that gets here, the fun begins.

I was thinking of a way I could cycle the live rock while building the plumbing at the same time. And I think I've got it figured out. If I fill the tank partially with salt water, I can isolate the water used for curing the rock from the water in the overflows. I just have to return the water that would normally be pumped back into the tank back to the overflows and they should be isolated. Once I get everything in place we'll see if I want to do this or just build and test then fill and cure.

Possible slow down due to lack of funds

My car is in need of some major work which is going to cost me a ton of money so I may not have the money to continue with this little project for a while :(

Started painting

After the reef club meeting, I started painting the new tank room. I was thinking of doing the wall the tank will be against and the opposite wall in the 'Paper Bag' color seen here, and it looks pretty good.

So far all I did was some of the bulk painting, none of the detail work. Couldn't do that with a roller. If I decide to stick with the two colors I'll have to do some masking and finish up the details.

The only time critical part though is getting everything behind where the tank will be done. So I have to get the edger and do the top against the ceiling and I have to work on the molding. Other than that, everything else can happen slowly as the tank is brought up to speed.

It's starting to look really good. And the sump is supposed to be shipped tomorrow. So since the tank is cleaned and ready, it could be moved in sometime during this week.

Tank cleaned

This morning I started out by taking some of the old equipment offline and got caught up in the moment and cleaned the whole tank. It was pretty nasty at some points, but a lot of that nastiness is now out in the back yard as lawn fertilizer :)

There's still some of the nasty hair algae stuck on the overflows, but I'm sure the exposure to the air will kill it. And if that doesn't, its in for a rough ride when I add saltwater and start curing the live rock.

After everything was cleaned I removed the old bulkheads in the overflows and found out the replacement ones I bought are too big for the holes. The current holes wont accept heavy duty bulkheads. Time to look for some standard bulkheads.

There was more work I could have done but I had to shower and get to the reef club meeting. I won a plating Montipora which is ironic because I was thinking about buying one anyway. It's only a frag, and not a great one at that, so we'll have to wait and see how it does.

... in with the new.

And here we are with the new laminate floor installed. That certainly was a fun experience. It looks REALLY good. I'm so happy with it. The flooring is by Dupont. Some really good stuff, heavier than any of the Pergo or similar brands that were at Home Depot. Sure it was more expensive, but it was worth it.

I tried to start painting the wall where the tank is going but ended up breaking a screwdriver trying to open the previous paint can. So on my third trip to Home Depot / Lowe's today, I bought another gallon of 'Paper Bag'. The paint guy who mixed the paint for me was wearing a Navy Chief's pin on his apron, so I asked him what he did in the navy. Turns out he's still in and working in Groton. Quite a haul for a weekend job, but he said it's paying for his Master's Degree. Sounds like he's had a fun career serving on some of the Seawolf class attack submarines.

Anyway, tomorrow morning I start painting.

Out with the old...

And here I've torn the carpet out. Hardest part of that job was the carpet strip with all the nails in it and removing it from the concrete. I made quite the mess that's for sure. But it was fun to be a little bit destructive.

Starting room renovation

Well I decided to go with some renovations to the old TV room and place the tank in there. So here's the 'before' shot. Still has carpet, but I did remove the baseboards, should have left them on for the the shot, oh well. Too late now.

Competition in the LED lighting market

Looks like PFO has some competition to it's Solaris line of LED lighting. Aqua Illumination has recently announced their line of LED lighting. I'll be keeping an eye on both.

Weekend update

I received an email from SoCal Creations saything that they should start work on the custom sump on Monday.

In other news, I've started thinking about relocating the 150 from it's current location to the old tv room and turning that into an aquarium / sitting room. Not 100% sure yet, but I like the idea.

I also ordered a bunch of valves from US Plastics and they should be arriving this week.

Before shot

Just for posterity, here is a 'before' shot of the tank as it sits right now. No fish. No salt. Basically no work done to it since I have to drain it all to install the sump and clean it anyway. But I wanted a before shot so that sometime in the far distant future, we'll have something to look back on and say "wow, remember when".

And today i got...

...my new pump, a Velocity T4. Just testing it out here to see how much flow it can put out. Alot!

I also received some new T5 lights and bulbs for temporary use. There's no way that these lights will be enough to grow some of the more light demanding corals, but its a good, cheap start until I can get the lights I really want, a Solaris lighting system.

Catching up

Previous to today, the only new piece of equipment I had was the protein skimmer. I bought a Deltec AP-600 used and in great shape. Can't wait to try it out.

The plan

This is NOT my tank, its a picture I found in the reef central forums that shows what I would like the 150 tank to look like.

I'd like look of the two columns which conveniently hide the overflows too. The open space between the columns is great for swimming room and for placing corals/clams down on the sand bed.

Quick pics

Just a quick pic of the 50 gallon tank taken about a month or so ago. In the meantime, GreenCrab has gotten much bigger thanks to a significant molt and the polyps below him have multiplied a bit. More pictures to come.

Welcome

Just set this blog up today to keep track of the progress of my new 150 gallon reef tank as I set it up. I don't have any pictures or anything to show at the moment, but hopefully soon. The sump is being constructed out in California right now by Socal Creations and hopefully should arrive within the next week or two. After that, I will have the guys from work help me move the tank for cleaning and so I can install the sump. Once that's complete, I'll begin work on the plumbing.