Alex K's 175 Bowfront Setup Thread

[AlexKilpatrick]

Sheesh. You guys must have a lot more time on your hands than I do. I would post another pic of it sitting there full of tapwater, but I think that would be kind of boring.

Right now, the plumbing is done, so I have to vacuum up all the sand and gunk at the bottom, in preparation for my bare-bottom. Then, I have to re-sand and paint the canopy. After that I have to install the lights. Next, I fill it with RO/DI water and salt. After all that is done, I can actually test my skimmer.

That is about a month's worth of work to me. Once all that is done I can start curing live rock, which will probably be another 2 months.

Pretty boring, I know. :(

[::pete::]

Pictures of the aquascaping are always nice and how you fixed the canopy ;) .

[NaCl_H2O]

Take it slow & do it right - ignore all these clowns (me too) pushing you for progress & pictures :-D

[AlexKilpatrick]

My latest work was getting some HDPE from Austin Plastic Supply. It was actually cheaper than I expected at $50 for 2 sheets that are 2'x3'. The wouldn't cut to my pattern made out of newspaper, so I am going to have to cut it myself. It was really difficult making a pattern for the bow part, and I am still not happy with it. The only way I can make it is from working on the inside of the tank. I can't trace anything to get the pattern. What I really need is a long piece of semi-rigid plastic that I can bend to match the bow, and have it keep it's shape. If you knoe of somehting like that, let me know. I haven't seen anythng like that anywhere.

I haven't been able to do any painting on the canopy because it has been raining everytime I have time to work. :-(

It looks like my setup is going to stall for a little longer than I planned. I found out I have to go to Jordan at the end of the month, and I don't want to leave a brand new setup for my wife to deal with while I am out of the country.

[AlexKilpatrick]

Well, I got a good deal on some live rock from Tim Marvin, so I was forced to set everything up. It took 3 days for my poor RO/DI unit to fill up the tank, and for the last 20 gallons or so I had to remove the RO membrane just to get done on time.

I dumped in pretty much an entire bucket of Oceanic salt in order to get my salinity up. And then when I added 150 lbs of live rock, I had to take 15 gallons back out.

Pete is going to build me a new canopy, so I just slapped my lights in as a temporary measure for the next few weeks. There is no actinic, so it is a little yellow (10K light)

Anyhow, here is is, in the ugly stage. There are a couple of huge flat pate rocks there.

[::pete::]

It coming together ... ;)

[NaCl_H2O]

Looking good! I see you scrapped off the "little extras" Alex left for you on the front glass :roll

[cpreefguy]

lol...but you still have the 'ole alex wolf aquascaping :lol