[karl]

Well as you have read, i have had some up's and down's with this upgrade, cracking a tank and what not but i am finally making some progress well sort of lol

right where do i start

well i wanted an upgrade due to the current tank being a bow front really didnt give me much room for aquascaping also was starting to annoy me with the way it magnafies everything

so went out and bought a nice big 5ftx30x30 which on putting it in the back of the car got a crack in the front pannel much to my annoiance got on the phone to jason and he said it might be cheaper to buy a new tank than get the glass replaced and turns out he was correct lol @ £137 for the glass sort of put me in a bit of a dilema and it was time to make a decision about what to do

after speaking to a few people about it, it seems that the genral concesis was that the tank may be a bit too big for me at this stage and it would probably be a better option to go for a smaller one which i think is a fair point tbh.

so we start the build well i settled on a juwel rio 400 60x20x24

this is going to be drilled once jason has got back off his holiday in 2 weeks but have made a start already on the stand and the sump

the problem i had was the sump was 1/2" too big for the stand to take so i took it on myself to modify the stand to fit the sump

all in bits



then redrilled the holes in the base pannel to allow the sides to be flush with the edge of the stand







the refited the rear pannel back on



then i had to redrill the top section and then fitted the top on







then it was time to see if the sump fitted and wouldnt restrict the door hinges



then it was time to fit the light unit in place (this is a temp unit but the wires will probably stay



time to refit the doors



now this is what it will look like when finished but it isnt quite yet lol







what needs doing is a frame to be inplace to take the weight of the tank in the middle as i didnt have any 2x3 planks i settled to finish it off latter in the week when i have finished with the sump.

am thinking i need to have the feet replaced with ajustable ones just to make sure it is level (any ideas where to get some and what ones are better than the rest for this sort of thing)

the light unit is high at the mo as i needed to be able to get under it so when the tank is here it will be put right

thinking of having the side of the tank drilled for the weir so i can get to the pipe work if needed also i have noticed the rear weirs are very noticeable where as a side one isnt as much and means i dont get to look at the weirs all the time lol

any ideas/input is very much welcome and will be getting a different halide unit soon so will update the pics when i do

will keep this upto date as when i add or make changes

[ben]

comming on nice. im glad you said you will be strengthening the cabinet. that tank will be VERY heavy when full

[karl]

well i got back to my diy


here is my bits to strengthen the stand and also a large reflector taken from a set of lights in the take-away which we took down



well the first job was to get the reflector in place so at least this went well lol



fitted a 30w t8 just to give the cheato some light






well i wanted somthing a little different with the sump i wanted a little area where i can see what is going on in their not 100% what i am doing but might think about a little rock area with some critters or a small ammount of soft corals, maybe some fish but as i said not 100% i will be having a small dsb/mmb one side and a small dsb/mmb the other side for copepods even thought about keeping some dragonets in this bit.









what do you think about this idea ???

[ben]

if you have the light on 12h cycle then you could keep livestock in it

[Social D]

Nice start! I wouldnt keep that dead coral it will attract bubble algae and bryopsis if they ever enter the tank

[karl]

was told to keep it for the calcium reactor if i was ever to get one

[Social D]

Yeh you could smash it up and use it

[karl]

a bit more done today finished off the sump and checked to see if all equipment fitted where i needed it to fit











so the sump was wet tested (hence the hose pipe lol) and everything worked as it should do

then it was time to make the sump permanent

this is what i have umed and r'ed over for a day or so do i want the sump to come out with the tank ontop or not

went with the not idea lol

bottom part of the frame was put in place then the hole lot was srewed down and wont move uless unscrewed









well their you go just have to finish the power supply to the tank next and then it will be waiting time for the tank which is 10 days away (i hope lol)

got away with a cut finger and a sliced thumb so all fun :-

[ben]

comming on very nicely

[dylan]

glad things are going well

[karl]

well not too sure about the aquascape was looking to have a free swimming area one side with a few rocks dotted about will have to have a play with it

will be paiting it today just got to make a desission on what colour tangs are alot happier as well which is good

i dont think the last tank had as much water in the tank as it was advatized as i had to make arround 250ltrs of fresh yesterday to make the tank full lol

i have raised the halides up high as the corals havnt seen it on yet so dont want to over power them

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

Keep The updates coming m8 ,rock work looks ok m8 and once the corals have been placed you see it all come together

Nice one m8


jas

[karl]

well here it is under the halides i have added a blue back ground while i wait till i can come up with a better one so i can see the sockets lol

[pete1234]

looking good . blue background makes a hell of a difference.

I agree with jas, aquascaping looks fine, by the time theres some lovely corals on the rockwork it will look great

[karl]

suppose it is about time i updated this thread lol

well here is the tank with its new rock layout



and here are some of the inhabitants













now this is my male anthia but his colours dont show up so well in the first pic and the second pic is a little out of focus





and a side veiw with the blue removed



and my new tank mates











as you can see i still have a little issue with algea on the back of the tank but it is starting to die off thankfully

all pics are taken with the blue will add more when the main lights pop on

[karl]

and here it is with the main lights on

[dylan]

lookin nice all fish look nice and fat

[chriss]

A nice collection of fish, but your tank looks 'empty', I think a few big softies would go down nicely, a few big toaders perhaps!


Chris