Congrats on such a nice tank. I thought R1 was only joking about the scuba part cuz I didn't think a 600 could fit a person. Now I see how big a 600 really is when he posted the picture. It's like the size of a car. I see a PTC in the making.
600 gallon tank finally here!!!
- Thread starter Wet Whiskers
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tcarswell;3551229; said:
Sorry for the lag guys. I swear we've been working every weekend on it guys, but we've had an unforeseen hold up. We have to have someone rewire the garage so that we can plug everything in without blowing a breaker or causing a fire. We realized we only have one 120V circuit in the garage that we are currently running a 180/100 gal combo on (including 1 pump, 2 powerheads, lights, 900W of heat in the winter, a UV sterilizer, and now an FX5), my washer and dryer (though at least gas still uses energy), all of our overhead lighting, anything we plug in like the shop vac, the pump for our water change system, our garage door, etc. Nothing more can or should be plugged in! We have a 220V circuit that we're going probably going to have split.
Sooo... We currently have the pump plugged into a long outdoor extension cord that runs through our backyard and plugs into an outdoor outlet. Not exactly neat, but we didn't want the biofiltration to die. I've been dumping the used water from our 180/100 gallon combo into the sump for the 600 every 2-3 days so the biofiltration should be pretty much ready for us to move several catfish at once.
The weekend we picked up the tank was crazy, but we needed to reconnect plumbing from when we had to dismantle it (see the pile of pipes in the pics on page one). We tried to keep as much intact as possible, but some stuff did have to get cut. We at least got it put back together to at least keep it running. The next weekend we shortened the pipes to minimize the floor space the filtration took up. The following weekend we started dealing with the issue with the electricity. This last weekend we plumbed it so we could at least backflush the sandfilter, and dump old water. We didn't get and further though between the USC game and my birthday. (For those of you who are bored and/or interested, this is what we did for my birthday: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=279626 To me, it was one of the best birthday gifts ever.)
As for the car, our landlord should be back on the 22nd. Again, he said he'd move it when he got back, but we'll see. My husband, who is usually easy going and not wanting to step on people's toes, has been consistently pushing to have it removed. However, if he doesn't move it within the week that he's home, we realized that we can just setting the tank and stand 3 inches from the car, and we'll have enough space that it will sorta work.
Maybe you should tell your landlord that he should give you a discount on your rent and maybe you guys think he might owe you some backrent for not being able to use your entire garage the whole time you lived there. I bet the car would be moved pretty quickly. Congrat's on your B-day and hope to see your fish in the 600 soon!
We're making progress! The electrical work in garage is done! A good friend of ours is an electrician, and came over on his day off to change/add to/upgrade our electrical system. With 3 different full circuits in the garage now, we're prepped to draw 55 amps! LOL. Hopefully we'll not need that much too often or we'll just go broke! There will be times, though, where we will have huge spikes from 1700 watts of heaters switching on, lights running during the day, turning our extra water pumps on, my washer and dryer going, any power tools we're using for one of our many projects, etc. etc. etc.
So, here are some photos of the progress we've made over the past few weeks in getting the 600 gallon up. Part of the plumbing puzzle...
The Filtration partially set back up:
The filtration after a few lengths of pipe were cut down to make the foot print smaller, and a new section of plumbing was added so it would sit on a flat surface. (Joey you're the only one who will probably really notice the differences, so some of these detail photos are more for you so you can see what's been done until you can make it down to see it in person.) We cut down the length of the pipe running from the sand filter over to the cartridge filter. We had to be careful to not make it so it was so tight we couldn't easily backflush it.
I think in all that, we only ended up replacing one ball valve because it was plumbed so well.
100 gallon sump seeded with some wood, bioballs, and used water from the 180/100 system.
We're having to figure out what to do with the water from water changes and backwashing the sand filter. We're currently just using this flexible hosing to dump all the water, but we hope to be able to recycle some of this water in our back yard.
The electrical work in garage is done! A good friend of ours is an electrician, and came over on his day off to change/add to/upgrade our electrical system. With 3 different full circuits in the garage now, we're prepped to draw 55 amps! LOL. Hopefully we'll not need that much too often or we'll just go broke! There will be times, though, where we will have huge spikes from 1700 watts of heaters switching on, lights running during the day, turning our extra water pumps on, my washer and dryer going, any power tools we're using for one of our many projects, etc. etc. etc. So, here are some photos of the progress we've made over the past few weeks in getting the 600 gallon up. Part of the plumbing puzzle...
The Filtration partially set back up:
The filtration after a few lengths of pipe were cut down to make the foot print smaller, and a new section of plumbing was added so it would sit on a flat surface. (Joey you're the only one who will probably really notice the differences, so some of these detail photos are more for you so you can see what's been done until you can make it down to see it in person.) We cut down the length of the pipe running from the sand filter over to the cartridge filter. We had to be careful to not make it so it was so tight we couldn't easily backflush it.
I think in all that, we only ended up replacing one ball valve because it was plumbed so well.
100 gallon sump seeded with some wood, bioballs, and used water from the 180/100 system.
We're having to figure out what to do with the water from water changes and backwashing the sand filter. We're currently just using this flexible hosing to dump all the water, but we hope to be able to recycle some of this water in our back yard.
tcarswell;3586891; said:
We can't take credit for 90% of the plumbing. R1_Ridah had it all setup so nicely. We added a union, a new ball valve, cut some stuff down for size purposes, and had to make it work for us in its new location. However, it came pre-engineered for us, and we were throughly impressed. (Eric is a total perfectionist when it comes to project stuff, and it met his approval. For anyone who has worked with him, they know that really says something).
Our next big hurdle is getting a crew together to get it on the stand. I currently have 4 guys agreeing to help, and probably a 5th. According to calculations I've found this tank weighs between 600-650 lbs. I'm thinking we will need at least 6 guys to get this done safely. I also would really like to get those giant suction cups to help move it.
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