Epic Overhaul/Builds: 3D Backgrounds 300g-125g-120g

[JK47]

Gonna be interesting to see full tank shots when they are all done.

Going to be ordering my glass for my 300 fridayish. Think they make a 72x32? lol. Then again the background would probably cost as much as my tank total.

Thanks Muni, congrats on the glass! I wish I could come help. Sorry for draggin my feet on BG installs latelly guys.. It's been a tough two weeks in my house I've been trying to tie up 1,000 loose ends on my setups as well. You know how that feels Muni, your a DIY'er..



















I am 80% on the FBF too. (have to uninstall the BG first, I didn't measure the pump, I suck... ) I am going to switch gears to that in just a few minutes so be patient with me please.

Here is my schedule on the BG install so you guys know what I'm working on, I'm not stalling I promise. I have more happening with my setups than BG's so it all has to get done:
Thursday - MFK member Sonny503 and the manager for The Wet Spot coming to visit me!!! I got 100+ more lbs of Lapis Lustre sand coming to wash out. I also have 3 Coralife T5's to fix/mount/buy 2 more timers. Finish FBF.
Friday - Sell/move fish from 300 gallon/get it emptied/dry. Move sand/decor.
Saturday - Traveling/out of town.
Sunday - cut mangrove BG into 6 slices/buy new truck tie down straps to put it back together inside the tank, sprayin foam late that night.
Monday thru Wednesday - install background.

 

[DaveB]

Where'd you get all those reducing barbs?

I need about three dozen of those in various sizes. Spent an hour tonight trying to find one (failed) and then figure out a way to make a proper return from a 2217. It has a stupidly skinny return. I hate it. We ended up just reverting back to my cousin's original duct tape solution (which I was hoping to avoid).

When I was rigging my FX5 to my 120 for temp use I had the same issue, had to buy like 5 pieces of PVC and barbs to basically make my own. Which is not that big a deal, except for the 45 minutes it took three of us to root around through the giant mess of PVC pieces at the Home Depot...

Barbs like yours are much, much better....

 

[JK47]

Where'd you get all those reducing barbs?

I need about three dozen of those in various sizes. Spent an hour tonight trying to find one (failed) and then figure out a way to make a proper return from a 2217. It has a stupidly skinny return. I hate it. We ended up just reverting back to my cousin's original duct tape solution (which I was hoping to avoid).

When I was rigging my FX5 to my 120 for temp use I had the same issue, had to buy like 5 pieces of PVC and barbs to basically make my own. Which is not that big a deal, except for the 45 minutes it took three of us to root around through the giant mess of PVC pieces at the Home Depot...

Barbs like yours are much, much better....

Seriously we drove around forever trying to find those, I know exactly what you mean! I found them at Ace Hardware that about 30 seconds from my house.. They are not a cheap store but these are probably online cheap.

 

[Muni]

DaveB - Try McMaster-carr for the barbs if you don't need them this instant. They probably have them.


And JK47. I feel your pain. Seems 1 thing turns into 20.

You said the manager of "The Wet Spot" was coming by? Lucky bastard. I'd be a happy guy with half of what he has in that shop. My Vampire pleco actually came from them I think. Not sure if he was the supplier my LFS got them from or not though.

 

[JK47]

DaveB - Try McMaster-carr for the barbs if you don't need them this instant. They probably have them.


And JK47. I feel your pain. Seems 1 thing turns into 20.

You said the manager of "The Wet Spot" was coming by? Lucky bastard. I'd be a happy guy with half of what he has in that shop. My Vampire pleco actually came from them I think. Not sure if he was the supplier my LFS got them from or not though.

He keeps my old 10" L240 Leporacanthicus galaxias. That's crazy you brought that up! I miss her. aclockworkorange and I were on a new tank mission today so my buddy was not able to come over after all.

Pics comming shortly

 

[aclockworkorange]

Wet Spot... No you would not be stoked with what are in those tanks because it becomes boring very quickly and you lose interest in fish keeping as a hobby in 90% of LFS employees I know.
Hence why SOMEBODIES tank is actually at my house.
Let's see some pics Justin.

 

[JK47]

Wet Spot... No you would not be stoked with what are in those tanks because it becomes boring very quickly and you lose interest in fish keeping as a hobby in 90% of LFS employees I know.
Hence why SOMEBODIES tank is actually at my house.
Let's see some pics Justin.

These are the only pics I took today. MFK member sonny503 came over this morning and hooked me up in a major way! Most people don't give you 100+ lbs of your favorite Lapis Lustre sand. Much less offer to drive it over and drop it off... Such a cool guy, thanks so much brother! I am usually the guy to hook everyone else up, that was so cool of you!

Sonny dropped off two tubs that needed a little effort but how cool was it to get set up like that? All I needed to do was filter out the gravel mixed in.



Again, my favorite orange spoon tool thingy's that I use every day on the big tanks..





I used a large, in take net to dump through and catch the large chunks/gravel.





The net thing in action. It worked really well but made the tank super cloudy. Some of the sand was new. It looks allot worse than it is. 1 water change it's almost clear again..



This was all the stuff I filtered out of the sand.



FTS, I have never mixed in unwashed sand before. Wow... Everyone does it once I guess..





The tank is completely clear now. More pics tomorrow.. Obviously the sand is not long term in this tank, I am stashing tons for the 300 gallon later... for the record

 

[Muni]

My trick for clearing up tanks is to let it sit for a few hours then do a water change to get the majority of it out. Like a 80% change.

Then I have Diatom filters that I run on my tanks from time to time. I break out the big boy for tank clean up. Can you say 1 Micron filtering.

 

[Conner]

I was going to say that's a lot of sand for that tank. You'd have like a 8" deep sand bed going there...

 

[Conner]

Where does that sand come from originally (like distributor/retail company)?