320g build/journey/experiment :-)

[thincat]

Sorry for your troubles.

[Mitchell0605]

So your tank cracked?

[Smitty]

Originally Posted by Mitchell0605

So your tank cracked?

It was the sump under the tank

[Greenmaster]

Just the seal on the bottom blew... (of the sump) but the floor is too uneven so I'm just going to try and use Rubbermaid totes for now. There isn't enough clearance to build any sort of support for the tank... plus now I can put a second tank in my house .

[Deep Seven]

Originally Posted by Greenmaster

Just the seal on the bottom blew... (of the sump) but the floor is too uneven so I'm just going to try and use Rubbermaid totes for now. There isn't enough clearance to build any sort of support for the tank... plus now I can put a second tank in my house .

I think we have a verifiable diagnosis of MTS (multiple tank syndrome) in the beginning stages. I don't believe there are any treatments to help you. Your only chance at curing yourself is to run out of money. Good luck!:p

[gibbin94]

well it could have been your display so thank god for that.

[Mitchell0605]

I thought he meant the display! I was going nuts here!

[Hinds04]

thats no good

[Greenmaster]

Sorry I took so long had some leak issues with my LED cooling so I needed to get that fixed before I took pictures. Well here they are.

15 Yellow 20 White and 25 blue.





A view of them mounted.


FTS with the lights on.


A couple of pics of my new Rubbermaid sump...

[Etunes]

Not sure what to say about the lighting as i like the look but i am curious (as i want to try it on my 20). Can you put pics up of just 1 color light on the tank? Looks great by the way. Those bottom plastic makeshift sump looks iffy though. looks like its gonna bust.

[Deep Seven]

It looks flimsy in the middle because he cut the support rim off to give him more room to fasten them together with bulkheads. He's doubled them up for extra strength. The outside edges look sturdy, I think he should be fine.

[Etunes]

aaaa.. i see.

[Greenmaster]

Originally Posted by Etunes

Not sure what to say about the lighting as i like the look but i am curious (as i want to try it on my 20). Can you put pics up of just 1 color light on the tank? Looks great by the way. Those bottom plastic makeshift sump looks iffy though. looks like its gonna bust.

I'll show the lights one color at a time once I get some time... I've got work to do before then... The reason that the totes look flimsy is because of the way the bulkheads hold them together... I'm not that good at cutting the holes so the plastic has to move to fit... Holds water and those walls won't move... after setting it up I tried to straiten it but that's how it's going to stay.

On a side note my tank electrocuted me for the first time... I got home and was putting some stuff in my tank... my arm was grounded on the aluminum as my hand touched the water... made me jump... I almost fell off the ladder lol. Didn't take me long to find it... I only had two things not plugged into the GFI socket... a couple of heaters (that I installed today) ... and one was cracked... it's in the garbage now

[thincat]

Be careful and watch what you are doing. This is a fantastic build and one of the few that I am following. I love it so far. Great work on your part.

[Greenmaster]

Originally Posted by thincat

Be careful and watch what you are doing. This is a fantastic build and one of the few that I am following. I love it so far. Great work on your part.

Thanks I apriciate that you take the time to follow my thread

I may not have any real updates for a week or more as I am working for 12 days strait starting tomorrow... But I'll try to continue to answer questions and comments.

[mdaniel2882]

Originally Posted by Hinds04

wow they are starting early these days. Thats almost as impressive as the fact that a 3 yo can keep interest in 1000 pages of words that mean nothing to them. I can barely understand most of this.

nope...he helps me with water changes and has seen the pictures of this tank. I have a 120 in another room just waiting until i can afford to set it up and he keeps asking if we can put the fishes in there "they will like it more better with more room" he is all about it. we look at liveaquaria all the time and he is done with "nemo" he wants a sohal tang.

[mdaniel2882]

Originally Posted by Etunes

Not sure what to say about the lighting as i like the look but i am curious (as i want to try it on my 20). Can you put pics up of just 1 color light on the tank? Looks great by the way. Those bottom plastic makeshift sump looks iffy though. looks like its gonna bust.

Actually probably the best way to do a low rent sump. those tubs are cast so they are not going to leak. if you can stand how they look it is the best way to do a sump. different size tubs for the different chambers. it is actually pretty good.

[Greenmaster]

Basically my tank tried to kill me a week or so ago... got electrocuted... luckily it was only my arm and didn't ark across my chest, if it had I would have probably gone to the ER or morgue. Then just this last Saturday my dad comes home (he's been gone for over a month) He's in the basement cleaning up and he plugs back in one of his things... but to do that he unplugs an extension cord. The cord was powering my water pump for the cooling of my LED's... So I get home from work and I reach up to test the temperature of my pipes (to make sure that it is dissipating well and not starting to warm up.) and of course my pump is off, so I burn my hand pretty bad... I unplug my LED's. 50% are burnt out, after they cooled some came back on... but I'm sure my whole set-up of 60 LED's has greatly shortened it's life. So I take the lights down replace the 21 that are not working and put it back up... while I am plugging my LED's back into the power bar I slip and get a valve in the eye. Now it looks like I lost a fight, right around my eye is a little cut up and all black and blue. Also I didn't let my rocks cure long enough in the ocean... (3 weeks wasn't enough) so my PH is a little high... I'll have to continue to work it down till I have stabilized it. I was in such a rush in setting up I forgot to check the rock to see if it was done leaching prior to putting it in my tank. It looks like maybe no fish till... Christmas? I hope I don't have to wait that long but I need to step back and learn some things from this... like; I need a controller for my LED's with a thermometer to tell them to shut off past a certain temp, people were not kidding when they said "The only thing that happens quickly in a reef tank is failure." I will continue to answer questions and such but I'm guessing between 2-6 weeks for my rock to finish leaching... so I won't be able to do anything until then... so I just have to wait it out.

[Smitty]

I'm sorry to hear about these little set backs but the good thing is that you're learning all this now, without loosing any stock. It is a PITA and sounds like literally quite painful, but things could have been much worse if happened even 2 months from now after you had fish.

Hang in there!

[Greenmaster]

It's all good. If everything went smooth I wouldn't appreciate the tank as much when it's set up. It's like climbing a mountain... if you can drive up it. When you get to the top and go to the lookout you would say "that looks nice", but if you spend 3 days hiking up to the top and have invested time and energy you go "WOW! That looks amazing, what an achievement."