Sarah's new 60 gallon!

wontonflip said:
Yay!! New tank! Congrats! Can't wait to see it all set up! This hobby's all about give and take....I gave my hubby a mancave, he got to build me a tank stand. I bought him new tools, and he helped me drill the holes leading to the sump room :D And now, I've encouraged him to take home broken electronics to tinker with, with the hope that one day, I'll get my DIY'd led's :D IMHO, your hubby made out like a bandit with that Hamburger Helper!!
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Haha, gotta love the marital tradeoffs/manipulations! Getting DIY leds would be an awesome accomplishment, I'm impressed if you can finagle that, I'm going to have to take lessons from you. Right now I'm happy with getting a screen for the top built and since the tank is a point of contention in the house instead of asking outright I went the sneaky route; "hey, some of these fish jump I guess, so I need some sort of lid for this thing." He didn't say anything and he didn't look up from the t.v. So I gently prodded, "YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYIN'? They jump out." My sweet tone got his attention and he looked at the tank and shrugged, "maybe a piece of plexiglass." I pursed my lips, pretending to consider it. "hmmm, needs to get air into it still." I waited a beat, playing dumb. Finally he said, "A screen? Would a screen work?" I nodded vigorously, "what a GREAT idea. Hmmm, but you probably couldn't build a screen that would fit on the tank though huh?" He said, defensively, "of COURSE I could." Then I just stared at him, cause I had him where I wanted him. And he put down the remote and went to Home Depot. So now he's happily hammering away in the garage.
I always find it best to let them think it's their own idea. And if you can call into question their ability they will 9 times out of 10 fall over themselves to prove that you were wrong to doubt them.
 
i hope this isnt too late, but make sure he didnt get mildew resistant screening, if that stuff gets in your tank it can have disastrous consequences. I would also avoid metal screening so that it wont rust
 
little_fish said:
i hope this isnt too late, but make sure he didnt get mildew resistant screening, if that stuff gets in your tank it can have disastrous consequences. I would also avoid metal screening so that it wont rust
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Yeesh, good to know, I will check asap, thanks so much for telling me! And if it is the mildew stuff, then I'll get it re-done. I don't know that I'm going to have to do if he has to tear it apart and start anew, chicken helper ;)?
That's why I love this forum! Post a rambling story full of nonsense, get a nugget of wisdom in return.
 
You ever feel like nothing is going right?
So the screen he got is mildew resistent. Glad for the warning, so I will not use it. I'll do some looking around and find something else free of chemicals and metals.
My lights showed up, but the ebay seller didn't include the transformer and plug. He says he did and I am not going to call anyone a liar....Luckily I called the manufacturer and they are sending me one, no charge. So hopefully that will show soon and I can make sure the lights work.
I didn't rinse my sand, because I am an idiot, and now, there is a fine layer of dust on my nice black sand all the time and when I move some sand to try to put a rock in the water is all dusty for 2 days.
I epoxyed the heck outta my dry rocks, spent countless hours at the kitchen counter (and scratched the heck out of it too) and, the stupid stuff isn't holding, no matter how long it "cures". So I took a few deep breaths, calmly threw the epoxy container against the wall, and got some zip ties. I spent last night zip tying rocks, put the structure in the water and it's all wobbly. No good. It was fine on the counter. Whatever. I yanked it out, dripped water everywhere, cut the stupid zip ties, slapped the darn rocks back on the counter and went and got a beer. Meanwhile I SHOULD be training cause I have the Columbus marathon in exactly 1 month but INSTEAD I am messing around with a salt water tank that is driving me nuts. What a nice, relaxing hobby. Har Har.
Just wanted to vent. I feel better now.
 
Hahaha...sometimes we have to laugh to keep from crying. Take a break from the tank for a day, and come back to it refreshed another day. I'm sorry to hear about all the misfortunes you're having, but it'll get better. :)
 
Sarah, good to hear about the new tank!
The dust will settle out in time, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. For the rocks, you might want to think about drilling them and using acrylic rods to hold them more firmly in place! This article may help.

Don't worry, everything will come together! It's always a learning experience.
 
Thanks for the encouragement guys, I keep thinking, I'll appreciate it more b/c of all the effort put into it. Or at least I hope so!
UPS just delivered my octopus HOB skimmer and that looks like some fun to assemble. I work with some engineers so I opened the box and put the directions tantilizingly on top and set it on my desk with the hope that one of them will take pity on me. Throwing the $5 Waterweld Expoxy at the wall is one thing, throwing the $185 skimmer is another.
 
SarahSmile said:
Thanks for the encouragement guys, I keep thinking, I'll appreciate it more b/c of all the effort put into it. Or at least I hope so!
UPS just delivered my octopus HOB skimmer and that looks like some fun to assemble. I work with some engineers so I opened the box and put the directions tantilizingly on top and set it on my desk with the hope that one of them will take pity on me. Throwing the $5 Waterweld Expoxy at the wall is one thing, throwing the $185 skimmer is another.
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LOL, yea ive heard those octo's come with the shittest directions EVER. Weird coz ive heard they are the best skimmers. Which one did u get?
 
Sucess. One of the guys grabbed the box of crap off my desk and made it into a skimmer and put it in my car. Now, we'll see about getting it running...
Oh Dana, the directions were hilarious, it was one page with lots of pictures showing lots of little parts. After it was assembled I said to the guy, wow, thanks, I don't think I could have done that and he just said, Nope, you couldn't have. He wasn't sure what to do with the sponge so I'll do some googling tonight.
I got the BH 2000. It's a monstrosity.
 
lol, well that was nice of him! Im thinking of getting the 1000 soon here. Let us know how loud it is once its broken in, ill be interested.
 
Glad you had a chance to upgrade. I think the Marineland LED's may let you keep some of the lower light softies, but not much besides that.

Have fun with the upgrade, and when you get frustrated with a project for the tank, just take a day off and not think about it - that's helped me.

My latest project is figuring out a better way to hide all the darn electrical wires hanging off the sides of the tank and the AI LED's hanging over it
 
SarahSmile said:
You ever feel like nothing is going right?
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Hmm, let's see...

I got a tank on craigslist. I found it was a little over priced, but oh well.

The plumbing was really lamely put together so I re-did it. It was my first plumbing job ever. I though the primer was glue so I just put that on. It fell apart.

I tested the pump that the tank included. It was broken...

I got a t5 light on ebay and got it to find the bulbs broken and the cover kinda bent. I contacted the guys and he said it was insured with UPS so he contacted him and I had to send them the light so they could investigate. They didn't except the claim and the guy ended up refunding me.

I got a new pump and filled up the tank to test. The junky overflow box that came with it was emptying like crazy. So the people here recommended that I take the elbow out. I got a dremel connection that turned out wasn't for plastic. So I sawed the overflow box pipe out so I could unscrew it. I got it out and when I was unscrewing it it broke... So I got it fixed and removed the elbow then tried the tank again. It was still emptying so I put a valve on the output line and that fixed it.

And in my eel tank I've had two nitrate spikes out of nowhere when they would go above 60 ppm.


So now, after all these hardships everything's going pretty well. So just keep going. :D


You can get reef safe screening here: Clear 1/4" Screen Netting 6.5' x 2.5' - English
 
Thanks for the screen link Sir Alex.
And thanks for your story, I winced a lot during it! LOTS o' sucky equipment problems there. Sounds beyond frustrating. I guess we just have to go with whatever doesn't kill us/our fish makes us stronger??
Here's the dry rock that's frustrating me. How do people get amazing rockscapes? I don't get it.
 

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SarahSmile said:
Here's the dry rock that's frustrating me. How do people get amazing rockscapes? I don't get it.
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I think it's going to be hard aquascaping with those because they seem kinda small and oddly shaped...

I still recommend looking at marcorocks.com. They have nice large oval shaped rocks.
 
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