When Michael (majicmike) and Austin (xjmav) came over to deal with the horrible disaster that was my 125 'system', for lack of a better word, they built something incredible. The 55gal fuge under the tank that I couldn't get to became a 150gal horse trough sump in the basement fish room. Easy to get to, and quiet. Electrical nightmare became neat and tidy collection of zip tied cords and outlets that were labelled.
"A bigger tank would look great right there," they said.
"You should get a reef ready tank," they said.
"It would be so easy to do," they said.
"You know you want it," they said.
"I'm not upgrading," I said.
"No way," I said.
"Too much work," I said.
"Are you crazy?" I said.
SO, I'm upgrading...
The horse trough sump reproduces asexually, I discovered. Mine popped out a new one almost overnight. Michael bought a 2nd Reeflo Hammerhead pump as a backup, you know, just in case. Reactors sprouted on the wall. My skimmer apparently took steroids, because it's enormous now. Shelly (rlklassy) helped us paint the fish room, because that nasty, messy patchwork of old white, creme, and sky blue did NOT fit the fancy system that Michael is creating down there. There's still one corner to paint, behind the salt mixing barrel & the RO storage barrel, but that'll happen today, probably. I got 3 new AI Sol Blues to replace my existing MH and CFL fixture (hooray for a lower electrical bill). I got the tank, stand and a few tubs of misc gear from a guy on Craigslist. The tank is a standard 180 footprint, painted black on the sides and overflow corners. Martin (martinsreef) helped us resilicone the front corners of it with black silicone. The stand is a very sturdy 2x4 stand that will get reskinned.
One of the tanks I almost bought had a foam rock wall background. I had no idea such a thing was possible, so I jumped on the interwebs and watched educational videos by nerdy guys on how to build it. I got that most of the way done last night, and will finish it today.
Anyhow, I'll zip it and post pics now for you photo addicts. Hopefully Michael will chip in with the techy details for those of you interested in that sort of thing.
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"A bigger tank would look great right there," they said.
"You should get a reef ready tank," they said.
"It would be so easy to do," they said.
"You know you want it," they said.
"I'm not upgrading," I said.
"No way," I said.
"Too much work," I said.
"Are you crazy?" I said.
SO, I'm upgrading...
The horse trough sump reproduces asexually, I discovered. Mine popped out a new one almost overnight. Michael bought a 2nd Reeflo Hammerhead pump as a backup, you know, just in case. Reactors sprouted on the wall. My skimmer apparently took steroids, because it's enormous now. Shelly (rlklassy) helped us paint the fish room, because that nasty, messy patchwork of old white, creme, and sky blue did NOT fit the fancy system that Michael is creating down there. There's still one corner to paint, behind the salt mixing barrel & the RO storage barrel, but that'll happen today, probably. I got 3 new AI Sol Blues to replace my existing MH and CFL fixture (hooray for a lower electrical bill). I got the tank, stand and a few tubs of misc gear from a guy on Craigslist. The tank is a standard 180 footprint, painted black on the sides and overflow corners. Martin (martinsreef) helped us resilicone the front corners of it with black silicone. The stand is a very sturdy 2x4 stand that will get reskinned.
One of the tanks I almost bought had a foam rock wall background. I had no idea such a thing was possible, so I jumped on the interwebs and watched educational videos by nerdy guys on how to build it. I got that most of the way done last night, and will finish it today.
Anyhow, I'll zip it and post pics now for you photo addicts. Hopefully Michael will chip in with the techy details for those of you interested in that sort of thing.
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