600 gallon tank finally here!!!
- Thread starter Wet Whiskers
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aquahunter;3590068; said:
Fortunately, I doubt there will be any gravel vacuuming necessary on my part. Since there will be nothing but a bunch of giant, hoovering bulldozers in there, things will get stirred up so much that it shouldn't be an issue at all. I have never needed to do it in the 180 gallon where these catfish currently are. They get mouthfuls of the small gravel and end up filtering through it. They end up dropping gravel all over each other, and the shovelnose catfish end up wearing on top of their heads for a while. So, while I'd like to go to pool filter sand for them, I am concerned that they're gonna stir it up so much that it will all end up in the sump and eventually into the pump.
As for water changes, they will eventually be happening on an auto timer. Its all part of the system we bought from R1, but we need to hook it up. Till then, it drains at a throw of a level, and then will be filled from the mini water tower we built in the garage. (I think you can see the blue 55 gallon barrels for it in some of the photos in the beginning of the tread.) This is where we store our R/O water. We mix it with tap (and of course prime and acid or buffers) to get the pH, temperature and hardness correct before we change the water. We usually just use a barrel and pump on the floor, but, if we have any problems with ammonia and need to do a huge water change, we'll be able to use the top barrels and gravity for the big tank.
The biggest physical effort is going to be cleaning any algae off the sides. If I start to get tired of this, I just think about JohnPTC's tank and the massive algae magnet and workout that it takes to clean his acrylic.
The 600 in the end will actually be less maintenance than my overstocked 180/100 gallon system. The filtration can barely keep up with these growing monsters. Water changes were getting absolutely ridiculous until we added an FX5 to the system. Those things are awesome!
OMG!!! The tank is FINALLY up on its stand! 
Now back to plumbing it so we can fill it up and move in some fishies!!!! Whoo Hoo! More photos tomorrow. For now, I just want to keep moving.
Now back to plumbing it so we can fill it up and move in some fishies!!!! Whoo Hoo! More photos tomorrow. For now, I just want to keep moving.
Egon;3604286; said:Damn, that stand looks strong! Can't wait for more pics
It better be strong. The calculations said that this thing approaches 6,000 lbs. When full minus the stand, sump, filtration, etc.
. We have taken a lot of pictures the entire way along.
Getting the tank up on the stand:
Finger and back savers!
Shop crane was brought over just in case:
My new army arrives:
Ripping off ancient technology... we used the pvc pipes to help us roll the tank to the other side and position it, but did not put most of the weight of the tank on the pipes.
One last check of the suction cups:
And... GO!
This is where I had my one freak out moment. The pipes all rolled to the center of the tank when we finished positioning it over the stand, and the guys thought they could just let the tank hold its own weight balancing like a teeter totter on the pipes. This is a very loud group, so I knew instant full yelling was absolutely necessary. I probably seemed like a totally crazy person, but nothing good was going to come out of that kind of pressure of the 3 pieces of 3/4" pvc pipes that were left.
Me inspecting the alignment.
Just for size comparison, I'm 5'6" and I'm not up against the back of the tank.
Finger and back savers!
Shop crane was brought over just in case:
My new army arrives:
Ripping off ancient technology... we used the pvc pipes to help us roll the tank to the other side and position it, but did not put most of the weight of the tank on the pipes.
One last check of the suction cups:
And... GO!
This is where I had my one freak out moment. The pipes all rolled to the center of the tank when we finished positioning it over the stand, and the guys thought they could just let the tank hold its own weight balancing like a teeter totter on the pipes. This is a very loud group, so I knew instant full yelling was absolutely necessary. I probably seemed like a totally crazy person, but nothing good was going to come out of that kind of pressure of the 3 pieces of 3/4" pvc pipes that were left.
Me inspecting the alignment.
Just for size comparison, I'm 5'6" and I'm not up against the back of the tank.
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