110g High System Setup Adventure - 8 days turned into 28

[freshisbetter]

[FONT=&quot]New System Details (Pictures below):[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Aquarium - New 110g high glass Deep Blue brand with corner overflow[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Sump - New 40g standard glass Marineland brand [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Stand & Canopy - Custom built at 42" high in 2002 for a 75g system[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Return Pump - New Sicce brand Syncra Silent 5.0 pump[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Circulation Pump - 6 month old Coralife CP1300[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Biomedia - 3 filled media chambers from 2 old Eheim ecco and 1 Fluval 305 external canister filters[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Lighting - 9 month old Wavepoint brand 216w T5 48" fixture [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Background - Designs by Nature Abyss background
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• [FONT=&quot]Hydroponics Tray – Recently purchased used Botanicare brand pre-drilled grow out trays[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]No matter how many times I have setup previous aquariums, the impulse decisions and lack of a real plan or patience on this installation hopefully provides some humor and lessons learned for others. This all started on April 7th, 2011.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Background Story[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In the spring of 2008, I broke down a thriving low tech 120g soft coral aquarium system. Due to several work re-locations, it has been three years since I have had a chance to setup a full aquarium system. I apologize for the poor quality camera phone shots from 2008.
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[FONT=&quot]New System Goal[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]House two Motoro ray pups (temporarily) and one 6.5" Green Terror fish while integrating into a small home indoor hydroponic vegetable system. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The major constraint with my new system is weight limitations of the floor on the older townhome I am living in. Original re-finished wood flooring is great to look at, but not always great for larger aquarium systems.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Pictures of the previously existing 90g system, stand, and integrated hydroponics are below.

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[FONT=&quot]Retrofit of Existing Aquarium Stand:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Installation of 2 x 4 vertical and horizontal support studs began after receiving a borrowed circular saw on 4/7/11. This was much more difficult than I expected. The stand was supporting an operating 90 gallon tank so I was forced to work through the relatively small front cabinet doors as I had no access to the rear of the stand. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]To ensure the new supports were bearing the weight of the aquarium, I cut the studs to a length that required hammering the studs into place with significant effort. I probably used 2-3 times the number of studs needed due to the difficulty of measuring and cutting an exact fit within the cabinet. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Lesson # 1 – It is much more efficient to retrofit an existing stand when it is not supporting a running aquarium.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I used Gorilla brand wood glue and some angle brackets and wood screws. The glue and screws were probably unnecessary but a good precaution as the dry fit of the new supports could not be moved. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]After the glue dried, I took the opportunity to prime and paint the interior of the stand. The stand had never been treated previously and at 8 years old, showed visible signs of previous water and aquarium chemical spills. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Shutdown and Trade-in of Existing 90g Tank: [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Shutdown started on the afternoon of Sunday April, 18th. It took about two days to shut down the existing 90g tank that housed two Motoro ray pups and one Green Terror. I meticulously cleaned the CPR hang-on overflow and tank to maximize trade in value towards the new tank.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot] I tried to align the shutdown of the existing tank with the delivery of the new tank so the fish had to remain in the 20g hospital tank for as little time as possible. This 20g was definitely over stocked but I tried to alleviate issues by running two old Eheim ecco and one Fluval 305 canister filters on the 20g tank along with significant water changes.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The ORIGINAL plan was to have the old tank shutdown and new tank fully operational within an 8 day period (3 weekend days and five weekday evenings).[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Delivery of New 110g Tank[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The tank was delivered as promised by a LFS on Thursday evening of that week. Once the tank was delivered and placed on the stand by the LFS owners, the tank has never came off the stand. My girlfriend and I positioned the stand and tank within the room on Thursday evening. With the tank bottom at 42” high on top of the stand, it was impossible for me by myself to do anything more than lift one end of the 30 inch high aquarium throughout the entire install process.
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[FONT=&quot]Setup of the New Tank[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Starting on 4/22, I started the plumbing and tank setup work by lifting the overflow end of the tank and having my girlfriend slide a 22”w x 4”h x .75”thick piece of wood under the very edge of the aquarium. This gave me about 3.5” to work with between the overflow holes on the aquarium and the top of the stand while I measured for the new holes to be cut in the aquarium stand. Cutting the new holes would not have been that difficult but I chose to use hand saws I owned rather than trying to borrow a power tool and the new tank stand was already sitting on top of the stand with only a 3-4” gap between the aquarium and stand for me to work with. Red markings on the picture below indicate the location for the new holes. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Recommendation #2 – Always consider using power tools, a job is never as easy and quick as planned when using manual tools. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Recommendation #3 – Wait until friends are available to move the aquarium off the stand before cutting new overflow holes into the stand. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Plumbing the new Tank [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The new tank has 1” and .75” corner overflow holes. After reading this forum over the past few months, I decided on using a modified version of the “Herbie” method with regards to the plumbing of the overflow. As indicated in the picture below, I originally planned on using a ball valve for the 1” main out flow but decided to wait to cut it in later if I thought it was necessary after the system was up and running for a while. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The picture below does not show the .75” no kink tubing that I ran through the PVC that takes water from the pump located in the sump to the tank. I also added a flow accelerator at the end of the run inside the aquarium.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]1st attempt at bulkhead installation - The bulkheads that came with the Deep Blue overflow kit leaked upon installation. I installed the bulkheads and filled the overflow full with water. The bulkheads were visibly leaking where they meet aquarium glass within a few minutes. In my opinion, the gasket was of lesser quality than other bulkheads I have installed or purchased. I have since run into the local market Deep Blue rep at a LFS who provided me store credit dollars after I provided my feedback on the poor quality of the Deep Blue provided bulkheads. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]2nd attempt at bulkhead installation - The LFS provided me free replacement bulkheads (brand unsure but of visibly higher quality) and guidance that I use silicone when installing the bulkheads. I have never previously used silicone for bulkheads but thought it was worth a try on my 2nd attempt at bulkhead installation. After draining the tank to install the 2nd set of bulkheads, I installed the new bulkheads using silicone and waited 48 hours to fill the tank. Upon filling the tank, no signs of leakage appeared but after 24 hours of running the system, the .75” bulkhead was leaking. I don’t believe that the Marineland brand aquarium silicone was the culprit but I will never personally use silicone when installing bulkheads again. So there I was, draining the tank for the 2nd time in less than a week. Little did I know how difficult it would be to remove silicone from a 30” corner overflow. I have average size wrists and hands but getting a scraper down a 30” overflow is probably the worst aquarium related task I have ever had to perform. Again, sorry for the poor picture quality below of the bulkheads with silicone. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Recommendation # 4 – Don’t use Silicone unless you have identified a plan to remove the silicone if needed. Consider the time and effort needed to remove the silicone when deciding whether silicone is appropriate for your application.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]3rd attempt at bulkhead installation – After finally clearing all the silicone from the glass, I stopped and took some time to figure out what I can do differently to get the bulkheads installed successfully. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The first thing I did was decide to enlarge the holes in the stand. Maybe there was a contact between bulkheads and wood of the stand when the tank was full which was not visible when the tank was empty. I miserably went back to my various hand saws (My Leatherman Knife saw blade worked best) and expanded the cutout in the stand. You can see the clear lack of neatness in the cuts as I had to cut up from inside of the stand but I was successful in expanding the holes as you can see in the picture below when contrasted to the picture of the bulkheads above. The 2nd bulkhead picture was taken from the side so the holes appear to not be clear of the wood but the holes are clear of the wood when looking down from directly above. Also included in the picture is some Gorilla wood glue I laid down to seal the edge I had just cut. I had lots of extra glue to use. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The 2nd thing I did was read the MFK forums to see what other people were experiencing in terms of bulkhead success and failures. For my setup I felt that I personally should avoid silicone and was probably over-tightening (I only hand tighten) the bulkheads on the first two attempts. After considering schedule 80 bulkheads, I purchased another set of bulkheads (again supplied by Royal Pet). I decided on using PVC cement on the slip fitting for the .75” bulkhead and purchased a dual threaded 1” bulkhead and headed off to Home Depot for the up-fit accessories. After cautiously hand tightening the 3rd set of bulkheads with no silicone, I filled the tank on May 14th and let it sit for two days. While waiting, I was resizing my sump plumbing for the final cuts. On May 16th, the tank was fully operational with no leaks. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]More updates and pictures to come shortly. [/FONT]

 

[Inglorious]

I know all too well the frustrations that come with working on a 110 tall while on a tall stand, best of luck to you and treat yourself to a nice step stool (you'll be needing it)