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T.I.B.E.T (The Incredibly Big Expensive Tank)

Sand and Rock!

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6 Comments
by
michika
, 10-10-2012 at 10:18 AM (1589 Views)
Sometimes I like to put rock in my glass boxes.






And play with plumbing
[/QUOTE]

Started adding my base sand to the tank and beginning to play around with 100lbs of new dry rock I have. My old rock is cooking away for now while I decide if I want more new rock or to keep the old. I probably re-arrange the rockwork twice a night, and so far I'm getting closer to what feels "right", but I'm not quite there yet. Some of the ideas I'd previously thought would look great in the tank just look horrible. I'm glad I'm spending all this hands on time now rather then when its all wet.

We've been busy painting and sealing exposed wood, and seams. I've totally underestimated the amount of paint/material I've needed constantly and consistently. I figured the sliding panel that the RO/DI is fixed to would only need 2-3 coats of Kilz, it needed more like 6. Unfortunately for Tibet, she's the last on the list for cash and so in keeping with my household goal of taking on no debt for our reno or tank, sometimes it delays things.

Items I still need;
-2x Hammerhead pumps one for in-use, one for backup
-1x 4-way Ocean Motions
-Lightbulbs - T5s and MHs for now while I work on the eventual LED setup
-Wetmount side for a Vortech MP40
-Replacement skimmer pump for an Octopus skimmer (this is REALLY REALLY hard to find in Canada)
-Misc. wood to re-frame out the front of the tank (again)
-HRV and components (Ordered, arriving in 2 weeks)
-Sugar sand

Theoretically we could turn Tibet on in about 2-3 weeks, but we're not ready. The rest of the basement needs to be scrubbed down to remove drywall dust and other particulates. The tank area has been kept quite clean and I've kept poly over the top to protect it, but this is probably my last chance to really clean a few areas without some super high-level concern about contaminating the tank. The above list pretty much rounds out everything major I still need.

I'm also going to cop to having K put in the front/display side framing and then me making him take it down because I found a gas top rangetop at a 'can't say no price', and so I needed him to run a gas line for me.

Not much left to do now but clean, paint, and paint some more.

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Categories
‎ Tank Entry , ‎ DIY projects

Comments

  1. Midnight's Avatar
    I can't believe the kilz didn't do the job in two coats, what were you painting over? Have you tried finding a replacement pump on coralvue's website, I am sure they can ship to Canada?
  2. michika's Avatar
    It was just plywood, a length that was left over from an older project actually. The wood just kept sucking the paint in over and over. You'd put your coats on, it'd look great, it'd dry, and then you'd start to see some of the crazy absorption. Some wood got 5 coats, some got 6 over about two weeks. I've never previously used Kilz on wood, just on drywall, so I'm really not sure if this is normal or not, but it does kind of fall in line with what I saw when I re-finished my kitchen this summer.

    I'll get in touch with Coralvue and maybe they can point me to someone who can ship north of the border. Thanks!
  3. cruelle's Avatar
    If you can't get Coralvue to send it north of the border try http://premiumaquatics.com/store/merchant.mvc they have a wide range of pumps and that is how I replaced my pump about a week ago.
  4. melev's Avatar
    What kind of sand is that?
  5. michika's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by melev
    What kind of sand is that?
    It's a corse aragonite sand. It took forever to rinse and clean.
  6. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Kilz makes a primer they recommend using on bare wood to seal it before the final color coat.