skynoch

lol, it's still not as neat as it should be but a guy gets a little impatient and does a few shortcuts, the rest of my you house can still tell I'm an electrician because all the electrical is half finished. Thanks again for the huge piece of driftwood I went for a swim last night with the rays and started to do a little aquascaping but really needed someone on the outside to tell me how it looked, so it's not exactly what I wanted yet. Spent almost an hour in there moving stuff around and playing with the rays, quite a cool experience. Also put in the air stones but need to find some suction cups to hold them in place. I definitely owe you a couple favours now.

Ya I oouldn't really pass it up at that price. Still need to find a centerpiece. I think we'll need to do a group buy for the driftwood from spencer so we don't have to pay a ton for shipping. I've been looking for a show peice for my 210 for awhile now and spencer is the only place ive seen with the right size. Might be a good idea.

I went with the tiles for really 2 reasons, one being I like he looks of tile and also too add more durability. Between the rays and the sand it might be like sandpaper rubbing on the bottom all the time. You can also purchase a paint that will go over the Zavlar so you can have any color you want. With the tank I first put on 3 coats of zavlar on the entire inside and then used a 1/8 trowel and put on the tiles. The acrylic window I also used zavlar an spread it on the edges with a 1/8 trowel and then bolted on, but I would not use this method again as the zavlar wasn't thick enough to fill all the imperfections, if the tank can be laid front down this method would work great and no bolting would be required. I then did zavlar around the seams like you are going to do. The zavlar takes a little while to get use to it so maybe do some practice pieces first, also make sure your humidity isn't very high and if you can expose it to sunlight it will cure better. oh ya any cloths you have that get zavlar on do not put in the washing machine and dryer as it will heat up in the dryer and come of on the walls....time to get a new dryer. pm me if you have specifics you would like to know and thanks for the kind words :smokey:

Ya I oouldn't really pass it up at that price. Still need to find a centerpiece.

A little better explanation of the mechanical. Very simple filtration. A reeflow hamerhead pump pushing through a 24" sta-rite sand filter with part of the return going to the brute garbage can which is actually a bioreactor. The electric water heater was only brought online for the initial heating as the drip system and pumps provide all the heat needed. The drip system is just a cold and hot water line valaved together and then ran through a sediment and 2 charcoal flters. There is a reeflow barracuda used for just circulation. The over flow and sand filter waste are tied diectly into the house drain lines. Added a new electrical panel for the tank equipment. The pvc junction box has controllers,timers and relays for the lighting,heater and pump. The lighting is 2- 8' 4 tube lamp fixtures with the lamps paired off turning 2 on/off at 4 different time intervals controlled by a timer designed for auto water systems. The heater controller is a johnsen controls model which allows me to set the on off temps very presicely. There is also a omron timer that when a feed pushbuttun is pressed it will shut the circulating pumps off for 10 minutes. The air pump is a podmaster ap-100 model which provides the bioreactor with air and part of the tank airstones also. Still have alot of things I want to do and try but that is what is making this whole project so fun. And now for sme pics!

Thanks. You bet the pearl is the father of your rays and the pic is actually a bad pic of it. It has a very intense black base and gold pattern on it. Thanks Niel the driftwood in there will make alot of difference in they're activity level. lol, I'm not married so that may be the reason I could do this. The bills do add up a bit but it is alot cheaper than running a bunch of small tanks I'm finding and the time I'm saving on maintenance will eventually pay for it. Haven't told my insurance company yet but my insurance broker in town is a friend of mine and he hasn't brought the wraith down on me yet. Good eye about the electrician. I am an electrician that has been lucky enough to work in alot of areas of the trade one being the olfield and another is the maintenance at the local pool so all of this is a littl cheaper and quite similar to my job. Thanks, I'm starting to feel sad that I didn't actully take the time to do a complete picture and walkthrough of the build.

:smokey: Just waiting for yours now. :thumbs: The build time was actually a little over a year but there would be times where nothing would get done for a few months. To actually do the whole thing non-stop would probably take one man/woman 2 weeks of 8 hour days depending on how handy you were. lol it's not the size of the tank it's how you use it. I'm ure there is some planted and coral tank that have taken alot longer to get to there final stage.

lol hey the camera adds 10 pounds, I thought it was my girlfriend that only noticed.

A few tank updates

Some equipment shots. Very simple pool filter for mechanical, bio-reactor for bio,air pump for air stones and biorector, some pumps for circulation, electric heater and controller for heat, drip system, and relay box and timers for lights,pumps and heat.

I picked up the zavlar from greene enviromental in Calgary. thank you No problems with the foundation since the weight is pretty spread out. I wasn't in any hurry to build and just did pieces at a time and at times I woudn't do anything for a month or more so it took over a year to do but could be done in a few long weekends. The cost was around the 10k mark for everything to get it running and the build. It could be done cheaper without tiles, smaller viewing windows and building your own plywood sump. lol, admission is always free Thanks

Your gourami seemed alittle small at first but hit another growth spurt and is looking alot bigger. Now that you keeping all those rays you may need one.lol I'm actually freeing up some time again to start using the equipment and setup the equipment I had to take down earlier. For the water changes I use a drip system with hot/cold water which goes through one sediment and 2 carbon filters, while the drain line from the tank and the pool filter are 1.5" and tie into my existing dain lines. I used acrylic for the front and had some problems sealing with the zavlar due to the front wasn't as striaght as I hoped and the zavlar was't as thick as it needed to fill in the gaps.

I really should have done this awhile ago. I've freed up about half my time on maintenace Thanks more to come for sure lol just a few more rays to go and another year for the juvies and then hopefully I'm done. Snorkel cleaning coming I wish I could have plants with rays but they tend to rip then up and move them around. I gues the lighting bill would be pretty high on a planted tank this size but probably not as high as my ray feeding bill,lol. I think the vet hospital would for sure benefit from one.

Thanks Thanks, I'll be going swimming in the next couple days to do a little cleaning. Hopefully some updates tonight after cleaning the window. Thank you Still needs some aquascaping but it's coming For filtration there is a sta-rite 24" sand filter with about 300 galons an hour on the return side going to a bio-reactor with 5 cuic feet of aquadyne media. There are 2 pumps one 4500 gph just for turnover and the 6500 gph which goes through the filter system. For a heater all I use is the drip system at the moment but there was an initial 3000 w electric water heater hooked in line to get the temp up and to test with. I'll get some picks later thanks Just about fully stocked, so I guess it's time for more pics lol no room togo bigger or I would have. Went swiming once but not with the fish yet Always good to see ya

They are fine on barebottom tanks. It may take the ray awhile to adjust to moving on it but will get the hang of it quickly. To me it takes a big part of the rays activity away as rays will sift through the sand to look for food and it will also help a ray when feeling stressed to bury itself.

Looks good. Nice job with the pictures.

Very impressive pics! Liking the assorment of fish. Any aggression issues with such a big tank?

Wow, your pics look fantastic, you do an amazing job with your photography. All yor fish look great,I may have to give a flagtail a try in my new tank. How long do you have to sit in front of our tank to get those shots.

lol ya it's a basement build which took up a good part of my gym but shold be worth it. I was your avatar for many months.

The tank was first waterproofed with liquid rubber Zavlar painted on and then to apply the tiles I used a 1/8" trowel and the zavlar again.

If I can remember right they are the big floor polishing pads that are green. Basically think of the thin green rectangular pot scrubbing pads that are a nylon type material with no sponge on it. Google the skippy pond filter and you an see what they look like when cut up.