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melev

The 400g has landed in Fort Worth, Texas

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As you knew, today was the day my new reef tank was to be delivered. By 5 p.m. I had a number of friends waiting with me for the semi truck's arrival. Prior to that, I did get a little more work done. Sheetrock on the ceiling over where the tank would be, at least.





The flooring was cleared out and a couple of spots were whittled dow a bit to get things smoother.



A 3/4" sheet of plywood was cut to size to fit on top of the stand and was painted with flat black exterior paint.



This double stick tape will hold the plywood in place during the tank's placement on the stand.



With the wide opening, we brought in the powdercoated stand that has been waiting on the back porch since September.



The tape was applied to the surface.



The red film was removed and the plywood was adhered to the tape.



As we waited...



At last, around 6:30pm the truck pulled up. Temperature outside was 55 F.



The crate is my tank. The forklift on the back of the truck was somewhat fascinating to us, both how it was offloaded from the truck and how easily it handled the aquarium move to my garage door opening.







The crate was easily disassembled with two cordless drills, removing a couple of hundred screws.











This video is As Is, as I couldn't get it to load into Vegas Pro for some reason.


And the tank is in place. It was pretty heavy, but the eight of us were able to get it on the stand.



The pink foam was re-secured to the walls to keep the cold garage air out of the living room. Now that the tank is in place, it will be easier to get the rest of the fishroom construction completed. Without the tank, it was guesswork for where to put wiring but now it is much easier to get things set up the best way possible.

This is a Marineland 400g custom tank: 84" x 36" x 30" with an external overflow at one end.











Criss-cross euro-bracing reinforces the top perimeter.









A big thank you to everyone that was willing to come out, brave the cold wind and lift this beast with me. I'm very appreciative of your assistance, and could NOT have done it without your help.

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  1. NightShade's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alaska_Phil
    Wait...+55F?! Break out the shorts and cold beer!
    ROFL. . . I agree, I moved from Iowa to Oklahoma and I walk around outside in shorts well below freezing. And you can probably imagine the looks from the locals, sometimes I wonder if they gonna call the funny farm to come pick me up. Then again when I start handing out walmart bingo cards I dont' exactly blame them.
  2. Snakebyt's Avatar
    congrats on getting the new tank in, I know you must be excited, i know i am.. cant wait to see more pics of the progress.. that thing is a beast
  3. mledford's Avatar
    Anywhere south of 70 is cold in Texas brother.
  4. sslater0679's Avatar
    Congrats on getting that huge thing on your stand. I cant wait to see it loaded with fish and coral.
  5. Robb in Austin's Avatar
    Sweet.com!
  6. evoracer's Avatar
    Wow. Very nice. Love the dimensions and false wall overflow.
  7. Blown76mav's Avatar
    is it done yet?


    Congrats on getting the tank in its new hone, now the real fun begins. I'll continue to send my moral support for free, for a limited time. After that its gonna cost ya.
  8. NightShade's Avatar
    lol, is it done yet!!!! wishful thinking

    Oh and by the way congrats on getting it in, I am sure that it's hard to sleep with it sitting there just waiting to be worked on. . . begging to have water. . . longing for plumbing. . .going nuts for lights.
  9. eel-byte's Avatar
    Nice Mark. Looking forward to more progress reports.
  10. bryman's Avatar
    Sweet tank, thanks for documenting for us. Can't wait to see the build and how it turns out!
  11. OneReef's Avatar
    C'mon Marc...... That tank should be fulll of fish and coral by now with lots o' pics taken!
  12. melev's Avatar
    I had to go out of town the very next morning. Here I thought y'all would be happy with the podcast, this blog and the two videos. Turns out I was totally wrong based on your comments. Hehe. More work this week to move things along.
    Updated 11-07-2010 at 03:21 PM by melev
  13. trplxj's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by mledford
    Anywhere south of 70 is cold in Texas brother.
    It always makes me laugh when I hear someone say that it's cold at 50*. I live in a area that can go from 105* in July to -30* in January. Now that's a temp swing.

    Awesome tank Marc, can't wait to see the progress pics. Reading your blog makes me want to convert my freshwater 500 into salt. Maybe someday.
  14. melev's Avatar
    More to come for sure. Yesterday, I wrangled Bobby over here once more to get more electrical done. This is a complicated project because I want to place things in certain spots but not have them in the way. With the tank in place, it is a little easier now, but at the same time it is now in the way.

    Last night, the 265g upright container was brought in the room so the other wall could be framed. Sheetrocking around that vessel will be annoying, but... There are now 6 circuit breakers running to various points in the fishroom, but I've not tried to determine where they all go. For now, this is what I know:

    1) GFCI breaker to the holding tanks
    2) regular breaker to the holding tanks
    3) regular breaker to the window a/c unit / heaters
    4) regular breaker with GFCI outlet leading over to the holding vat & future sink area.
    5) unknown / to be determined
    6) GFCI breaker leading to the new sump area

    With the new wiring, I was able to extricate the aquarium from the livingroom circuit as well as one kitchen circuit. The alarm stuff as well as the irrigation system is no longer in the fishroom.
  15. Midnight's Avatar
    Its been a week, is there still no water......
  16. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Marc
    I would recommend using non-GFI arc-fault breakers for everything. The arc fault breakers will trip if there are an loose or shorted connections generating tiny arcs. And they're required for all residential outlets anyway.

    For Outlets I'd recommend going with a good industrial grade weather resistant GFI for everything in the equipment room. the Weather resistant rating is a new one, and means they're designed to stand up to temperature extremes and humid conditions better. P&S even makes one with rubber seals around the plug slots to help keep moisture out. You may have to go to an electrical supply warehouse instead of Home Depot or Lowes to get them. Expect to pay about $12 each, but that's still much less than a GFI breaker and will give better protection. GFI Breakers are usually rated for equipment protection and trip at 15mA of current leakage, outlets are rated for personel protection and trip at 5mA.
  17. melev's Avatar
    Thanks for the suggestions. I may make some changes in the future, perhaps. However, at this point I'd like to just move forward and get the tank up and running. Changing out some outlets later is easy, as is the breaker.
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