Hop's 300 gallon in-wall build

[Hop]

Originally posted by polarbearsd
how much did it cost you to get your whole setup up and running?

I hope you can understand that I really love the reef hobby and I will say that I budget my reef much the same as others budget a new car or possibly other hobbies. I don't really like to say what I have spent, but you can figure the bulk of it out by looking at my equipment choices. Not being afraid and actually enjoying to DIY and construct a lot of stuff helps to keep cost down. I will say that on my last system, I had 5 figures invested. This one I really have not added it up, but I had a lot of help and connections that helped to keep things down. This thing is no where near done and I'm actually afraid to see what I'll have in it a year from now... So I'm not going to start keeping track Plus it gives me plausible deniablity when my wife wants a new car or a boat and she tries to use the tank as leverage

[chris wright]

G'day Hop,

It's good to hear that your job has been sorted out.

I'll have to remember not to keep records of how much I spend for the leverage angle to be invalid Great idea mate

cheers

Chris

[Micki]

Congrats on the job Hop!

Are we supposed to have a budget for our tanks???

[Hop]

Originally posted by chris wright
G'day Hop,

It's good to hear that your job has been sorted out.

I'll have to remember not to keep records of how much I spend for the leverage angle to be invalid Great idea mate

cheers

Chris

Thanks... It was a welcomed promotion And yes, very important to keep deniability!

[Hop]

Originally posted by Micki
Congrats on the job Hop!

Are we supposed to have a budget for our tanks???

Thanks Nicki! And yes, it's one of the few things that keep me from having a really big tank in a tiny cardboard box

[jnarowe]

Are you making fun of me Hop??

[Hop]

Originally posted by jnarowe
Are you making fun of me Hop??

Not that I'm aware of... I usually reserve that right for water related mishaps But I think I'm slowly catching up to you

[melev]

Originally posted by Hop
Thanks Nicki! And yes, it's one of the few things that keep me from having a really big tank in a tiny cardboard box

Typo-Alert. She's Micki, not Nicki.

[Hop]

Originally posted by melev
Typo-Alert. She's Micki, not Nicki.

Stupid letters are right next to each other on my keyboard... Are they like that on everyone elses?

Now it's too public to go back and quietly edit it

Thanks nelev!

[melev]

No problem, Poh.

[Micki]

Originally posted by Hop
Stupid letters are right next to each other on my keyboard... Are they like that on everyone elses?

Mine aren't right next to each other. I think your key board is messed up!

Signed,
Micki...

[Hop]

Originally posted by melev
No problem, Poh.

[Hop]

Originally posted by Micki
Mine aren't right next to each other. I think your key board is messed up!

Signed,
Micki...

My bad... I'm sorry and I'll pry the keys off the keyboard and move them so it doesn't happen again!

Signed,
Poh!

[Micki]

LOL...

[Hop]

And in reef related news... I realized that I had not done a waterchange since the tank was set up. I had added volume twice, but not a true change. So I made up about 40 gallons of water and got that done a little while ago, along with a water change in the quarantine tank.

Then I got sucked into cleaning the wetroom and mopping the floors. I had to build a couple covers to go over the sump in the drain section as I was getting a lot of salt creep/spray that was allowing a significant about of creep outside the sump. Hopefully this will take care of that otherwise I'm going to need to get some more acrylic and build something a little better.

Otherwise I noted that I'm getting about 1/3rd of a gallon of skimmate a day that is tea colored and the smell is starting to get worse, so I think the newness of the tank is over

I was going to order some new critters this week, but the Thanksgiving Holiday will mess with the shipping for my Friday off. Guess I'll drive the hour to the LFS Friday and see what they have.

[Boca Kris]

Amazing & inspiring tank and build! Congrats on everything, including the job! Good luck with the tank, cant wait to see some more pics!!

[Lunchbucket]

Hop - Thanks for the reminder. I'm making water for a water change as I type

Lunchbucket

[Hop]

Originally posted by Boca Kris
Amazing & inspiring tank and build! Congrats on everything, including the job! Good luck with the tank, cant wait to see some more pics!!

Thanks boca Kris I'm sure there will be something picture worthy here soon Right now it would just be the same stuff, but a week later But I'm hoping I can get some new stuff in there next week or so!

[Hop]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
Hop - Thanks for the reminder. I'm making water for a water change as I type

Lunchbucket

No problem, hope yours goes as smooth as mine without the desire to mop floors afterward

If I get out of training early enough tomorrow I'm going to send you that care package, if not I hope to get it done Friday... Still can't find a Christmas Sleigh big enough, so I'll have to pick up one from the UPS elves

[Hop]

Well I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I should do next with the tank...
A set of vortecs...
A Geo kalk reactor...
A Geo Ca reactor... (Not sure I need this yet)
A bunch of corals and critters
-or-
Upgrade the lights to 2 250s...

This is how my night has gone so far



EDIT!!! Or a new macro lens for the camera....

[melev]

Go do a water change. It's way cheaper.

[Hop]

Originally posted by melev
Go do a water change. It's way cheaper.

I did that yesterday I was going to run some tests tonight and ensure my parameters are still stable. So far all has been perfect!

[Lunchbucket]

Originally posted by Hop
No problem, hope yours goes as smooth as mine without the desire to mop floors afterward

If I get out of training early enough tomorrow I'm going to send you that care package, if not I hope to get it done Friday... Still can't find a Christmas Sleigh big enough, so I'll have to pick up one from the UPS elves

That would be a nice x-mas package. Lets just hope it doesn't take till X-mas to get here

Lunchbucket

[bleedingthought]

Originally posted by Hop
Well I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I should do next with the tank...
A set of vortecs...
A Geo kalk reactor...
A Geo Ca reactor... (Not sure I need this yet)
A bunch of corals and critters
-or-
Upgrade the lights to 2 250s...

This is how my night has gone so far



EDIT!!! Or a new macro lens for the camera....

My vote is for 'some corals/critters' and 'upgrade the lights'!

Then:

Kalk reactor;
Vortechs;
Ca reactor;
More corals/critters;
And finally new macro lens to take pictures of it all.

[Hop]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
That would be a nice x-mas package. Lets just hope it doesn't take till X-mas to get here

Lunchbucket

Nah. It will be there sooner