200G Forever And A Day Build Thread
- Thread starter Walter White
- Start date
Walter White;30982 said:
Ok I have no idea what Twerking is let alone Twonking but I'm weird and am often easily amused.
So anyway, way back in March of 2010 I joined this club with the idea and hope that I was going to set up a really sweet 120 gallon mixed Reef.
I had just sold my pride and Joy Audi S4 that had spent 6 years building into my dream car. I was definitely looking for a new hobby and a friend of mine I had met in the local Audi club had recently set up a really nice 300g bowfront that was all plumed to the basement and what not. I was so impressed I never knew people took this hobby so far as to drill holes in their floor and run pluming all over the place. I had always wanted a saltwater tank when I was a kid but my parents would have never sprung that kind of money on such a hobby and I guess I had just kind of forgotten all about it.
I knew almost immediately this was something I wanted to do. I realized I had probably stumbled upon my dream hobby, the hobby I would like stick to for the rest of my life. I have had lots of hobbies in the past from robotics, to cars, guns, to RC, High fidelity, car audio, and purley mechanical watches. Each hobby I took to the furthest extreme I could only to lose interest after about 5 years or so. Still love watches though!
This was the way for me. So many cool aspects of this hobby. You can almost make it anything you want from engineering to Art and almost everything else in between. Who could ever get bored with this?
So I'm getting off track, here I am 4 years ago I had done allot of research already. I had read every book I could find cover to cover, about 10 in total including the Julian Spring/Delbeek books. I was more than ready to get started and I was ready to go pretty big, or so I thought. I found a pretty Nice 120G starphire Glass Cages tank on CL up in boulder with a HUGE overflow in the back Center. I didn't think I liked the look of the overflow but I was excited and the over all Dimensions were what I was looking for. I started a build thread right here which is long gone now and I got that 120 all built into the wall with the most over the top ridiculous fake rock wall to cover that ugly overflow. It was plumbed and ready for water but then one day shortly there after I met a fellow reefer by the name of Mike Drumm which some of you know here by "mdrumm". I was buying a Calcium Reactor from him and we ended up getting along pretty well. He offered to take me to see some truly mind blowing tanks around Denver. I mean the kind of thing that's is truly inspirational in this hobby. I knew then that the 120 with the overly gigantic overflow was just not going to cut it and I would be really sorry some day if I didnt scrap the whole thing and start over.
So here I am 4 years later. Where is this bad *** tank I wanted??? Well life got in the way and my build that I started 4 years ago has never been completed. The biggest reasons where financial but more than anything I realized even with all the books I read and all the the things I thought I knew going into the hobby I had only begun to make a tiny scratch in the surface. Mike suggested I start small and learn with some real hands on experience and start meeting people and building connections before starting again. So I set up a 28g nano cube and learn I did! What I learned is the setup I had put together was NOTHING like what I would have done now with what I know now. LOL
I also figured out what kind of tank I really wanted. Nothing but SPS oh and a separate 60G nem/softy cube.
So now that I have had too much wine and spent the last 10 minutes talking to myself I suppose its time to start my official build thread here with the intention of finally finishing the build I started 4 years ago. Even though much of my build is already complete I will be starting it from the beginning in order to document the whole process.
The Tank:
Custom Miracles ~200G starphire.
Dimensions are 50”L x 34”W x 25”T
The Sump:
~125G glass drilled
Located in a separate equipment room that is one floor down and 24’ over on the opposite side of the house.
This is where the tank will sit and what I envision it will look with the wall removed and the trim work all finished:
This is where the equipment and sump will be located and the layout I have planned:
So anyway, way back in March of 2010 I joined this club with the idea and hope that I was going to set up a really sweet 120 gallon mixed Reef.
I had just sold my pride and Joy Audi S4 that had spent 6 years building into my dream car. I was definitely looking for a new hobby and a friend of mine I had met in the local Audi club had recently set up a really nice 300g bowfront that was all plumed to the basement and what not. I was so impressed I never knew people took this hobby so far as to drill holes in their floor and run pluming all over the place. I had always wanted a saltwater tank when I was a kid but my parents would have never sprung that kind of money on such a hobby and I guess I had just kind of forgotten all about it.
I knew almost immediately this was something I wanted to do. I realized I had probably stumbled upon my dream hobby, the hobby I would like stick to for the rest of my life. I have had lots of hobbies in the past from robotics, to cars, guns, to RC, High fidelity, car audio, and purley mechanical watches. Each hobby I took to the furthest extreme I could only to lose interest after about 5 years or so. Still love watches though!
This was the way for me. So many cool aspects of this hobby. You can almost make it anything you want from engineering to Art and almost everything else in between. Who could ever get bored with this?
So I'm getting off track, here I am 4 years ago I had done allot of research already. I had read every book I could find cover to cover, about 10 in total including the Julian Spring/Delbeek books. I was more than ready to get started and I was ready to go pretty big, or so I thought. I found a pretty Nice 120G starphire Glass Cages tank on CL up in boulder with a HUGE overflow in the back Center. I didn't think I liked the look of the overflow but I was excited and the over all Dimensions were what I was looking for. I started a build thread right here which is long gone now and I got that 120 all built into the wall with the most over the top ridiculous fake rock wall to cover that ugly overflow. It was plumbed and ready for water but then one day shortly there after I met a fellow reefer by the name of Mike Drumm which some of you know here by "mdrumm". I was buying a Calcium Reactor from him and we ended up getting along pretty well. He offered to take me to see some truly mind blowing tanks around Denver. I mean the kind of thing that's is truly inspirational in this hobby. I knew then that the 120 with the overly gigantic overflow was just not going to cut it and I would be really sorry some day if I didnt scrap the whole thing and start over.
So here I am 4 years later. Where is this bad *** tank I wanted??? Well life got in the way and my build that I started 4 years ago has never been completed. The biggest reasons where financial but more than anything I realized even with all the books I read and all the the things I thought I knew going into the hobby I had only begun to make a tiny scratch in the surface. Mike suggested I start small and learn with some real hands on experience and start meeting people and building connections before starting again. So I set up a 28g nano cube and learn I did! What I learned is the setup I had put together was NOTHING like what I would have done now with what I know now. LOL
I also figured out what kind of tank I really wanted. Nothing but SPS oh and a separate 60G nem/softy cube.
So now that I have had too much wine and spent the last 10 minutes talking to myself I suppose its time to start my official build thread here with the intention of finally finishing the build I started 4 years ago. Even though much of my build is already complete I will be starting it from the beginning in order to document the whole process.The Tank:
Custom Miracles ~200G starphire.
Dimensions are 50”L x 34”W x 25”T
The Sump:
~125G glass drilled
Located in a separate equipment room that is one floor down and 24’ over on the opposite side of the house.
This is where the tank will sit and what I envision it will look with the wall removed and the trim work all finished:
This is where the equipment and sump will be located and the layout I have planned:
Stocking plans are pretty much just sps. Everything I have is being grown our from mere nubs so yeah it still looks pretty bare, but everything is growing well and coloring up really nice! My goal is not to have hundreds of frags that turn into alot of mini colonies then become over crowded. I am trying to carefully select some choice pieces and shoot for really large colonies. At this point Im only going to add about 4-5 more small frags then call it good. So its gonna look bare for a long time but the end goal should be good.
Here are a few quick and dirty point and shoot pics. I have the DSLR packed away but if I have time ill break it out this week and see if I can get some better shots.
Here are a few quick and dirty point and shoot pics. I have the DSLR packed away but if I have time ill break it out this week and see if I can get some better shots.
