A New Reefing Chapter Begins

[class="Apple-style-span"]I got a call from Tim at Iowa Pet Foods on Tuesday and he said the tank was on the truck for Wednesday delivery.  I didn't want to get my hopes up too high since I have had to wait longer than I expected due to a couple snags along the way.  But on Wednesday afternoon, [/class]
I received a picture via text from Tim and it was a picture of my tank!  I couldn't believe it but my tank was finally here!  
Tim figured it out and it was one day shy of being two months from the time I ordered it.  I would like to thank Tim for the excellent communication throughout the entire waiting period.  He fought an uphill battle with Marineland to get information and kept me up to date.








I had some friends lined up to help me with the move so we went and got it last night after I got off work.  I would like to than JJ(double-j), Tim(Foo) and Ben(good friend) for all their help last night.  It would not have been impossible without their help.  The tank move went surprisingly smooth.  JJ was able to back his truck up through the fence gate and all the way to the patio door in the basement.  We lifted the tank off the truck and onto the concrete pad.  Then we put the tank on its side and Tim muscled it through the door.  Once inside, we were able to slide it on the carpet all the way back into the fish room.  We then lined the tank up and lifted it up onto the stand.  So all in all, it couldn't have gone better except maybe having some magic sliders on hand would've made things easier.








Text pic from Tim







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[class="Apple-style-span"]Anyway I am sure everyone is tired about hearing about the tank move.  Onto the pics! /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif  We were pretty busy moving stuff so my wife only got to take a few pics.[/class]


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[class="Apple-style-span"]Getting ready to lift up and onto the stand[/class]

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[class="Apple-style-span"]Just about there![/class]


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[class="Apple-style-span"]The tank is finally in![/class]


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[class="Apple-style-span"]A view from the back.  The holes on top of the stand lined up perfectly for the bulkheads.  I was happy to not have to take the tank off to cut a bigger hole![/class]


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[class="Apple-style-span"]After the tank was in place, I decided to try out the lighting to see how the colors would blend in together between the XM 20Ks and the AI sol blues.  Here are various pictures of the lighting.  To be honest, the three AI modules did a really good job of lighting the tank considering how far apart they are spaced.[/class]


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[class="Apple-style-span"]Here's a picture with the MH and LEDs on.  You can see it is a little brighter but for an additional 800w, it should be a whole lot brighter!  I don't have a picture of it but with just the MH on, it is pretty dim compared to the LEDs.  Anyway this will be the setup I am going with for now.  I hope it works well and provide good growth and coloration to the corals! [/class]



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Jim, what's so special about plumbing pictures? I thought you guys wanted to see tank pics?

 

Come on over Bud! I am home today and all weekend! I also agree with you, no TOTM or anything like that. I just want to enjoy my tank! /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

 

Jeff has seen it first hand with his brother in-law winning it and then getting out!

 

I don't have a big update to give but I am slowly making progress!  My wife worked over the weekend so I had to watch our little one and didn't have much time to physically work on the tank.  I have been trying to plan some things out though.  I've been beating my head against the wall on how to trim out the front of the tank due to the height of the stand and the size of the opening in the wall.  Without an actual tank to measure, I had to do all these things in advance prior to the tank arriving.  The top of the tank doesn't show any trim but the bottom shows about 1 1/4" of trim.  But to get everything to look the same was going to be near impossible.








I had some time on Monday and went to Menards to look at various trim pieces to see what would work.  Initially I thought I was going to have to buy a strip of wood that was 1 1/2" thick and notch the back out using a table saw so I could push the wood trim up against the tank trim to make it sit flush.  
That's when I stumbled upon this PVC trim that was already in white and it was used for outside corners.  The profile is in the shape of an L so it was perfect for what I wanted to accomplish.  Since it was PVC, it had some flexibility to it so I cut the pieces really tight and it held up really well on its own.  I also decided to silicone the PVC trim to the wood trim for a seamless look.  I did have to cut one of the trim pieces down to size to use as a base for the bottom piece because the tank trim was taller than the PVC trim I had.  But in all, I am really happy it turned out so well because I thought I was going to have to do a lot of trimming to make all the pieces fit right if the tank wasn't sitting vertically or even from side to side.  Below are some pics.








Here's an example.  This is the bottom left hand corner of the front of the tank before the trim was installed.  As you can see, the tank trim on the bottom is so much wider than the rest of the tank.













For the top, the tank trim is completely covered and I wanted it this way for the simple reason that I do not want the water line showing from the front.













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[class="Apple-style-span"]Since I have the trim done, I can now move onto the plumbing.  I am hoping to have it done sometime this weekend.  But for now, this is what I have to work with! /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/biggrin.gif[/class]


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Things are starting to progress but it's still isn't as fast as I would like it to be!  I have about 95% of the plumbing done but I am still waiting on a couple more fittings to come in today before I have it all buttoned up.  Last night I leak tested the tank and the sump.  It held up just fine without any leaks so I drained it and getting it ready for RO water.  I figure with the current temperature, my RO/DI can make about 55-60gpd.  My total water volume is about 420 gallons so it's going to take me at least a week to fill it up!  I wish I would have thought about this last week so I would have water ready to go for it. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/angry.gif
Here are some pics of the water filling up.  Not very exciting but at least I am updating my thread with pics!





Here it is full of water.  Now that the tank is full of water, the intensity of the AIs have dropped a bunch and I can see where the light penetration is.
Here's the tank again sitting empty and ready for RO water.