Hi My Name is Chris Armstrong I'm living in Grande Prairie Ab
currently i have a 50g with a 55g sump running for a little over a year
i stumbled upon a 75g tank for sale here in town (which is awesome because there are no LFS here that deal with SW and very few others in the hobby ....as such this poses challenges for me
)
So i bought the 75g tank 4'x18"x22" ...as is which is caked in Coraline Algae ...np i can clean that ....it has three holes in the bottom of the tank and two holes in the overflow box ..... haven't decided how m going to plumb this beast yet but a friend of mine tells me if i do it right it should be pretty sweet ....and i wont need any power heads .... i picked up bulkheads ( from Peavy Mart
) for the 3 bigger holes....2" ...two in the overflow box and one in the center of the bottom of the tank i haven't been able to find the 2 smaller bulkheads 1 3/4" anywhere in town
here is a picture of the tank
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/54 ... 223630.jpgim low on cash and taking my time with this project
i started building my stand ...just out of wood .....6'x18"x38"...
i want it to be a tall stand i dont like looking down at the current tank that i have running now so id like this tank to be higher up ....
here is a picture of the stand so far
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19 ... 91628.jpg/so the new tank will sit on top in the center (ive still got to cut the holes in the wood and im my pink insulation / cussion sheet)
the sump ( currently in use on my 50g tank ) is a standard 55g tank that i added baffles to its 4'x1'x20" it will sit on the left side underneath and than there is the shelves on the right side for chemicals and food and what not and i plan to build a matching canopy for the top to house the lights and the digi thermometer it will sit directly on the top of the tank and be only the same dimensions as the tank minus the height and the front side will be a hatch door that will open up with locking hinges .....subject to change depending on what i can actualy pull off
this is all DIY and im a bit of a noob in that area
I'm currently waiting on funds to buy 3 cupboard doors and than im planing on using laminate for the 3 walls ( we have some nice thick dark stuff that i think will look awesome and it has a built in underlay which will act as a nice sound barrier ) ive bought some nice lighter colored corner trim that i think will bounce off the dark colored laminate and will cover the screws that i use on the edges ...its all just click together stuff and i plan to use glue in the center and screws on the edges to hold it all on .... i think it should work nice ....if i have to i can all ways borrow a brad nailer from a friend and pop a few very small yet long nails here and there for rigidity ....we shall see what happens i guess
so i just bought a new skimmer a SWC 120 (its a BEAST ) its doing such a great job on my 50g .... i used to have a coralife super skimmer that was used before i got it and imo it was junk i was always unpluging salt crystals from the air lines and than finialy i dropped the collection cup one day during a cleaning and well it was a good excuse to get a new skimmer
....we just happened to be in calgary during a camping trip and the guys at big als told me i would be happy with SWC and even showed me the same skimmer running on one of there tanks in the shop ( bigger than the new 75g im planning on running it on so i knew it would do the job )
i have a AI Super blue running on my 50g that i will be using on my new 75g but i will need to add another to do the job properly ...so the new tank wont be up and running until i can afford a second ai unit
so i guess thats it got now ( sorry about my poor spelling ,bad grammar ,improper punctuation and extra lengthy sentences)
ill ad moor as it happenes ...most likley plumbing will be next
so untill than
