# The slow 112G jungle tank build ...



## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Did a bit more work in the fish room today. It's going under the stairs. There will be just enough room for a 30" cabinet, water change container (hopefully 55G drum) and a small sink.










First thing that needs to be done is to fix some of the bad work the builder did in supporting the stairs. At the same time I'll be making everything square and plumb.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

A few more details ...

I'm planning on going with Tom Barr's non CO2 method as outlined on his site (and probably several other places). I had great success with it in the past so why mess with a good thing.

Here's a picture of my 55G tank that I used to have about 6 or 7 years ago. It used Tom's method and I'm hoping to reproduce this again just on a larger scale.










On the left side the tank had a trunk with some roots. I'm hoping to go with something similar again. The right side in the new tank will be some sort of seiryu rock arrangement.

Here's a picture of the 55G when it was first setup. It's easier to see the trunk and roots in this picture.










That's all for now,
Harry


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## Nestle_ (Jul 4, 2013)

good luck on the new build!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I did some plumbing work today.

There are two main drain stacks close to the future fish room, so I've tied into both of them. One will be used for draining my sump for water changes and the other as the drain for the sink in the fish room. Cause of the layout of things it was easier to split this up instead of tying everything into one drain.

Here's what I started with










And here's what the finished products looked like



















By taking advantage of the existing cleanouts I was able to avoid have to cut the main stacks ... something that was a big no no with my better half [emoji2]. And everything is still to code (more or less [emoji57]).

Thanks,
Harry


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## doughnut (Jul 22, 2010)

This looks like it's gonna be a great build!! I almost had my wife agree to the idea of blowing out a section of a partition wall and setting a 90G in it. Ended up just going with my 55g on the stand that I built. Owell maybe someday :-D


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Things have been going slower than I would have hoped for but I've been making progress. Most of the work since the last update has been to the area surrounding the fishroom. Here's the wall opposite the fishroom:










The moisture barrier against the concrete is all up and the framing is coming along nicely.

I've also run four circuits to the basement from the electrical panel:










One of these circuits will be dedicated for the fishroom and fish tank.

I've also been busy writing a IR Light Controller based on an Arduino Uno board with an Ethernet shield. I'm most likely going to get an Ecoxotic E Series light for the tank so this controller will automate things for me ... too bad these lights don't work with an Apex controller. There's still work left on the controller but I'd say it's probably 75% done. Here's a link to the code in case anyone is curious:

https://github.com/Stonyx/IRLightController

Once I get further with the controller I'll create a sperate thread with more details on it.

I think that about sums up the last little while.

Thanks for reading,
Harry


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Following along here. Tank looks like it's gonna be sweet. Question on the lighting. So this is going to just be a single T5HO and a single T5NO in one fixture? Are you concerned that at 24" depth and 18" front to back, that that'll be a little on the low end of par?


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## Phil Edwards (Jul 18, 2003)

Looking good man! Fish rooms are the best, aren't they?


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Unless you are going to keep cooler water fish,the 200 watt heater may not be enough for 90 gal.Two of the 200 watt or one 400 watt would be my choice.
I like the way this is heading.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

roadmaster said:


> Unless you are going to keep cooler water fish,the 200 watt heater may not be enough for 90 gal.Two of the 200 watt or one 400 watt would be my choice.
> I like the way this is heading.


I used this site to do the actual heat loss calculations:

http://www.kernsanalysis.com/HeaterCalculator.cgi

For the tank and sump combined it came in at a minimum heater requirement of 221W for a temperature differential of 10C or 18F. The heater will provide 200W (I will actually need to get two 100W heaters to fit properly in the sump since these are shorter) and the return pump will provide 110W ... so hopefully I should be fine.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

bpb said:


> Following along here. Tank looks like it's gonna be sweet. Question on the lighting. So this is going to just be a single T5HO and a single T5NO in one fixture? Are you concerned that at 24" depth and 18" front to back, that that'll be a little on the low end of par?


I originally wanted to go for T5 lights from Catalina, however, they removed the lights I was thinking of getting from their site. I emailed them and they can still be ordered but obviously they are being phased out. I'm currently leaning towards getting an Ecoxotic E Series LED light for the tank.

Thanks,
Harry


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## rebelbuck1993 (Sep 3, 2014)

so what pieces of driftwood did you get from TOM??


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## Tvadna (Jan 17, 2013)

If you have a back up in your sewer you will need to remove the piece you added on to the clean out. I see that you tried to add another clean out but the problem is that the Tee at the base of the main stack is not a directional Tee. This means that if you put a snake in the end of the fitting you added it could go up the stack instead of down the line. 

You should have just cut into the stack 2 inches above the existing clean out Tee to tie in. 

Either way, make sure you use a trap to prevent sewer gas entering the room.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Harry Muscle said:


> I used this site to do the actual heat loss calculations:
> 
> http://www.kernsanalysis.com/HeaterCalculator.cgi
> 
> ...


 My 80 gal tank (no sump) uses 400 watt Theo heater and during winter's here in the Midwest,the heater does not cycle on off if I attempt to maintain 78 degree's F it just stay's on all day as seen by the red light when it is in heating cycle.
Perhaps the heater I have, is not as efficient as the 200 watt Eheim, but it has served me well for nearly ten year's so I still employ it.
I have 200 watt Theo heater in 55 gal and it does fine even during winter .
Single digit temp's here in the Midwest are the norm during colder month's, followed by stifling heat/humidity in summer.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I finally got to check out some of the stuff I've been ordering over the last few months (I ship things to a relative's place to save a bundle on shipping costs).

Turns out I received a larger sump (Aqueon Proflex Model 4) than the one I ordered (Aqueon Proflex Model 3). Pleasant surprise ... I'll just have to adjust the space I allotted for the sump in the fishroom.










I also finally got to checkout the driftwood I got from Tom Barr. Here's a picture of some of the nicer pieces arranged together:










I was a bit disappointed with the wood ... as mentioned in one of my previous posts the wood I got wasn't the one I ordered so I'm gonna have to play around more to figure out how to combine the pieces to get the look I'm going for. Also all the manzanita wood that I've ever had before was a lot smoother and slicker [emoji57]. This wood is more weathered and rougher. I believe Tom only collects dead wood which would explain things ... I guess it's better for the environment [emoji3].

Most of the other things were as I expected them. Although the Mag 12 pump got damaged in shipping ... hopefully spare parts can fix it.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I went to visit Miracles Aquariums on Monday and again today. I decided to order the 112G tank instead of the 90G. I also placed an order for a custom maple plywood stand. The new tank dimensions are going to be 60" wide, 18" front to back, and 24" high. I'll be getting three holes drilled in the back, one for the overflow and two for the returns. Here's the hole layout:










I took a bunch of close up pictures of the stand style I'll be getting. I've never been able to find these kind of close-up pictures of their stands before, so here they are for the benefit of anyone else considering a Miracles stand.

Here's the overall stand ... it's the picture supplied by Miracles ... ironically I didn't take one myself of the whole stand. Mine will be a foot longer and have three doors. It will also have a full flat top.










Here's the inside back left corner:










Here's the inside back right corner:










Here's the inside front left corner:










Here's the back of the stand:



















Here's the front with one door open and one closed:










Thanks,
Harry


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## rebelbuck1993 (Sep 3, 2014)

i would have someone build a custom stand for that amount of money and size tank if you plan on keeping it a while that stand will deteriorate for it is made with plywood and mdf boards, once water gets to the wood you are screwed!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

rebelbuck1993 said:


> i would have someone build a custom stand for that amount of money and size tank if you plan on keeping it a while that stand will deteriorate for it is made with plywood and mdf boards, once water gets to the wood you are screwed!


I've looked into that option, however, I'm in Canada and custom cabinetry work here is quite expensive. The plywood stand (no MDF) from Miracles is around the $1000 mark. Anything else custom made that's real wood was being quoted close to $2000. Since plywood does quite well with water (MDF does not but this stand had none), I decided that half the price was worth it.

Thanks,
Harry

P.S. It probably looks like the stand has MDF cause all the plywood edges are veneered.


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## The Dude (Feb 8, 2011)

First that wood looks AMAZING! I really like it. I don't know how your wood working skills are,but why not build the stand? The recent stand I purchased with my new 75 gallon is solid oak. The owner / builder did it himself and he said I has only a couple hundred into it. It's gorgeous. I could likely park my truck on it. $1000 for an MDF stand is obscene


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The Dude said:


> First that wood looks AMAZING! I really like it. I don't know how your wood working skills are,but why not build the stand? The recent stand I purchased with my new 75 gallon is solid oak. The owner / builder did it himself and he said I has only a couple hundred into it. It's gorgeous. I could likely park my truck on it. $1000 for an MDF stand is obscene


I looked into building a stand myself, but i just don't have the time ... I even priced things out and to build a similar stand myself I'd be looking at around $500 just for supplies. So another $500 for labor isn't that bad. I think wood and carpentry labor is just more expensive up here.

BTW, the stand is all plywood, no MDF whatsoever.

Thanks,
Harry

P.S. There's also the point that without one of their stands their warranty is void.


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## rebelbuck1993 (Sep 3, 2014)

even plywood is crap. under the skin on my stand is solid wood yes pine but still stronger and more water resistant than that of plywood. even the edges of the stand you are looking at is plywood which will bow very bad when it gets wet, spend the money for a true wood stand that will fail quickly


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

rebelbuck1993 said:


> even plywood is crap. under the skin on my stand is solid wood yes pine but still stronger and more water resistant than that of plywood. even the edges of the stand you are looking at is plywood which will bow very bad when it gets wet, spend the money for a true wood stand that will fail quickly


To each his own I guess. Plywood is considered quite dimensionally stable, even around water. MDF and particle board is a different story. For the price differences I'm happy with plywood.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Most of the framing in other areas of the basement that I'm working on are now done, so I started adding structural supports for dealing with the weight of a 112G tank. I decided to create a closet in the basement that is right underneath where the tank will be in the living room and use it for providing extra support

The first step is to add extra joists. This might be a bit overkill but I prefer that than the tank ending up in the basement 

I sistered the two end joists and added extra joists in between so that they are now 8" on center.



















Next will come beams to support the joists and then columns to support the beams.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Did more work today ... the two support beams are up.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Your project looks like it is coming along nicely. The basement framing looks like it should have no problems supporting the additional weight. Surprising to hear a custom stand in Canada would be that much money. Although, I should probably keep my mouth shut - probably have that much into my new stand, LOL. Look forward to future updates.


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## exv152 (Jun 8, 2009)

The extra joists and framing are a bit overkill. The floor upstairs will definitely hold a 112g tank no problem, your floor joist are already 2x8 pieces of solid wood, as opposed to particle-board joists which they use nowadays. But better safe than sorry. The tank stand looks really nice!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

exv152 said:


> The extra joists and framing are a bit overkill. The floor upstairs will definitely hold a 112g tank no problem, your floor joist are already 2x8 pieces of solid wood, as opposed to particle-board joists which they use nowadays. But better safe than sorry. The tank stand looks really nice!


I'm pretty sure you are correct, but like you said better safe than sorry. One benefit though from this extra support is that I've removed all of the bounce from the floor where the tank will be, so anyone waking or even jumping near the tank won't cause even a minor ripple. It'll be nice and peaceful for the fish .

Thanks,
Harry


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

> Originally Posted by rebelbuck1993 View Post
> even plywood is crap. under the skin on my stand is solid wood yes pine but still stronger and more water resistant than that of plywood. even the edges of the stand you are looking at is plywood which will bow very bad when it gets wet, spend the money for a true wood stand that will fail quickly





> To each his own I guess. Plywood is considered quite dimensionally stable, even around water. MDF and particle board is a different story. For the price differences I'm happy with plywood.
> 
> Thanks,
> Harry



I'm surprised at all the hate for plywood here. There are so many different types you can't lump them all together. There is a lot of plywood that is much stronger and just as water resistant as pine. Nature makes beautiful wood, but as far as strength and durability, manufactured wood can definitely improve on nature.


That looks like it's going to be quite the fish room. I'm anxious to see the progress!


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Hmmmm, plywood bad. Opps, wish I would have known that LOL. Have a feeling this thing will likely hold 3-4 full tanks stacked 1 on top of the other.









Harry, I really like your idea of additional support under the tank and some of the flooring in front of the tank. I your case, it will almost be like having the tank sitting on a concrete floor which is not a bad thing. Assuming your doing all the work yourself, then you are only out the cost of the materials - not bad.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The columns are starting to go in. Three 2x4s at each corner plus additional support around the closet door opening and the back wall.










I also took a picture of my cutting area in case anyone wants to copy it. It's ABS pipe and fittings that fit together to make a cube that is then covered in thin plastic. Allows me to do so my cutting in the basement (instead of the driveway) and keep the dust from going everywhere.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The structural support for the tank is all done ... I just haven't taken a picture if it yet. Lots of other framing work has also been finished in the basement including the fish room.

I started work in the living room where the plumbing and electrical will be next to the fish tank:










Here's what's inside the wall:










That's all for now.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I've been slowly getting things ready for running the pipes inside the wall. I have added additional supports around where the pipes will exit the wall so that they can be attached better.










I have also added supports to the drain pipe that I'll be running aquarium pipes beside ... didn't want to accidentally damage it.



















Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The pipes went into the wall today. This was probably the hardest part of all the plumbing since I'm working in an existing wall and the only access I have is through the small opening where the electrical will go afterwards. Here's what the living room part looks like:










Here's what we have in the basement:










And here's what's in the wall:



















You might notice that I insulated the pipe a bit. I figure I'll have about 15' of pipe for the round trip from tank to sump and back to the tank, which is a lot of surface area to lose heat.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Looks like some good progress


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Since I've been sick for the last week I haven't really done any physical work on the tank, but I did make progress on the IR light timer I will be using on this tank. Feel free to check out my thread about the controller: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?p=8313561

Thanks,
Harry


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

Lots of good work done here. Kudos to you Harry.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I went to Miracles on Wednesday cause the tank and stand was finally ready and I wanted to check them out before they get delivered ... unfortunately things didn't go so well.

The wrong color background was applied to the back of the tank. Apparently they will have to take the trim of the tank to fix that (the background goes under the trim).

Also there were a handful of issues with the stand. I asked for a bunch of modifications to the standard design. Most of them were done, but they forgot to double up the front supports like I asked. Also it looks like the stand got damaged when it was moved from where their carpenter works to their main warehouse.

Nathan (factory manager and super nice guy) assures me that they'll make everything right, but I still haven't heard back from Derek, the company owner who's call it actually is.

I'm a bit disappointed with Miracles at this point in time. A wooden stand is definitely fixable, but having to take the trim of the tank makes me worry that the silicone might get damaged during the process and cause a leak for me down the road.

An another note, the stand definitely looks nice:










Here's pictures of a big scratch right on the top front trim and one of the corners that got crushed, most likely when they moved the stand:



















Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Finally got over my cold ... took long enough. I've been working on the electrical in the fish room this week. Here's the main panel which will house 6 switched outlets, two always on outlets, low voltage connections for the Apex unit to communicate with hardware in the living room, and a few other odds and ends:










And here's the wiring diagram for this:










I'm also still waiting on Miracles ... not really ready for the tank yet, but still wish I had it already 

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Since not much exciting has been happening lately, I thought I'd share some background info and extra details on this whole build by posting my plethora of notes.

This is my equipment list. A bunch of things have been crossed out as the list progressed.























































Next are my plumbing related notes:



































































































































































Fish room notes:










I've got lots more notes, but I'll save those for another post.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

More notes ...

Various light calculations when I was trying to figure out what kind of lighting to go with for this tank:





































Various heater calculations:























































Calculations for when I was contemplating a DIY stand for the tank:























































Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Another round of notes ... for those really interested in all that went on behind the scenes to make this happen ... slowly.

Electrical notes:























































Light research:



















Glass Holes order:










Miracles Aquarium notes:
































































More notes related to Miracles Aquarium are next ...


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

More notes related to my order with Miracles Aquarium:





































Armpit calculations to determine the ideal stand height:










Return line notes:





































Magnet calculations got attaching things to the glass:



















Shopping list of things needed to connect the living room to the fish room electronically:










More return plumbing notes:










Shopping list for basement plumbing:










Notes about the plumbing that went inside the wall connecting the living room and basement:


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Arduino notes when researching which brand to get for the IR light controller:










Notes related to determining where the holes will go in the aquarium:



























































































Notes from when I looked at the tank and stand in September:



















Congratulations for getting thru all my notes ... hope some of you benefit from all this research.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program ...


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Well, I must say you have a lot more notes than I have from my tank build (and my wife says I have OCD when it comes to my notes, LOL). Woodwork on stands looks great! (other than scratch). Should be very impressive when complete. My 75g is only 18" from light to sub-straight and my Satellite Plus Pro seems to do pretty good with regards to PAR. The BML XB Dutch seems like a very nice fixture - just did not want to wait that long to get it.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Immortal1 said:


> Well, I must say you have a lot more notes than I have from my tank build (and my wife says I have OCD when it comes to my notes, LOL). Woodwork on stands looks great! (other than scratch). Should be very impressive when complete. My 75g is only 18" from light to sub-straight and my Satellite Plus Pro seems to do pretty good with regards to PAR. The BML XB Dutch seems like a very nice fixture - just did not want to wait that long to get it.


Thanks ... I think . I usually have more time than energy, so when there's time but no energy to work, I plan things and write everything down. Didn't realize how much there was until I decided to post it all.

I researched a lot of light fixtures ... this might not be in the notes, but in the end I ended up getting an Ecoxotic E-120 light ... found it on sale which almost never happens so it proved cheaper than the BML and since this will be a low tech tank the extra light from the BML would have been dimmed anyway.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Now that all the notes are posted, time for a status update. I finished the IR Light Controller:



















I also installed the electrical box in the hole in the living room. You can also see in the pic that the plumbing has been finished with one half of the Union join glued in (I'll post a better pic later on).










Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

That IR controller looks very impressive! Did you fab the box or did it come that way?


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Immortal1 said:


> That IR controller looks very impressive! Did you fab the box or did it come that way?


Thanks. There's a link a bunch of posts back to the thread that deals more with the controller if you're interested.

It's surprisingly hard to find a good enclosure for Arduino projects. I got this one from a place called Flux Laser Studio located in the UK. Nice quality.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The electrical outlets went in along with the first set of keystone jacks. This also shows better the union joins that have been attached to the plumbing.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Not that you ever would move out, but I could just imagine the Realtor trying to explain what is in the picture above and how it would be a benefit to the perspective buyer (and of course the Realtor would have no real idea what they are). Will have to try and follow your build as I am curious how it will all turn out (excellent, I assume).


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## alphabeta (Jul 14, 2014)

impressive! keep posting all the details/


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

Even if you did move out, all you really need to do is cut off the unions, cap it, and re-dry wall that area. Electrical outlets are rarely even glanced at a second time.


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## Black Hills Hillbilly (Jul 22, 2015)

You, Sir, are my hero. The wind beneath my Army Aviation Crewmember Wings. I'm going to have one helluva time converting a spare room here in my 1926 plaster & lath everywhere home.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I drove out to Miracles this last Wednesday ... that was disappointing. I thought they wanted me to come in and take a look at the fixes they made to the tank and stand ... turns out they wanted me to come in and discuss what I wanted fixed because the original discussion about two months ago was via email. 

I have to say their quality is definitely nice, but I'm either not a big enough client for them or they are just disorganized.

They had the tank more accessible this time than before so I measured all the holes that they drilled and it returns out that they misread my diagrams and drilled all the holes 3/8" too high. Somewhat aggrevating ... but the only solution would be to build a new tank. The downside with that is that they threw in 1/2" glass as a favor instead of the 3/8" glass that I actually paid for ... pretty sure a new tank wouldn't include that.

Fortunately I measured things and the glass holes overflow I will be using will still fit ... the water level will just be 3/8" higher than I expected. Also the return lines will be a little higher so there won't be as much back siphon into the sump. Unfortunately though this does mean that the bulkheads will hit into the trim ... they realized this and cut the trim a bit around the holes ... I'll just have to do a nicer and more symmetrical job once I finally get the tank. Here's what it looks like:



















Thanks,
Harry


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## cube860 (Oct 3, 2015)

I have no clue whats going on cause I scrolled through all your notes but I want to see more!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

cube860 said:


> I have no clue whats going on cause I scrolled through all your notes but I want to see more!


Thanks ... I think 

I'm pretty sure some of the notes only make sense to me since I know the context around them.

Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

1/2" glass.... wow. I am guessing you will have a few friends available when your new tank arrives 
Good to see you will be able to make the misplaced holes work. 
Still looking forward to the assembled product


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Much much happening lately ... the rest of the electrical in the living room has been completed. That's about it.



















Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I'm heading out to Miracles Aquarium again today. Apparently all the repairs to the stand are complete. Assuming everything checks out fine it should get delivered tomorrow.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Ziggy953 (Feb 1, 2013)

Impressive build so far! 

I can't wait to see how things progress!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Today was another disappointing drive out to Miracles Aquarium (it's over an hour drive for me ... so it's not like they are around the corner).

First, lets start with the good. They did a very nice job fixing the stand issues that I reported the last two times I drive out there. They also said that they will make sure I'm happy or they'll refund my money. And they might even credit me some money to pay for all the gas I've spent going there five times now.

Now for the bad. They once again had damage on the stand, most likely from moving or hitting it in the shop after it came from the carpenter. On its own that's not too bad, but combined with the fact that this is the third time I've driven out there to deal with the stand it's really annoying and doesn't make for a good customer experience.

I've definitely come to the conclusion that if you're obsessive, particular, or anal and you're looking for a company that will deliver "perfection" on the first go around (or even the second), you should definitely look elsewhere. On the other hand if you're just an average Joe looking for a good quality but not necessarily "perfect" tank and stand then definitely give them a try. They are nice to deal with, although quite disorganized based on my experience.

It looks like they'll be aiming to get the tank and stand delivered to me December 28 ... hopefully.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

It's looking like I've got several months to go still until I actually have plants in the tank, but I decided to start preparing. I figure it's going to cost several hundred dollars to fill the tank heavily with plants, so I've started growing some of them emersed. That way hopefully I can start with smaller cheaper portions. Or at the very least scratch the plant growing itch.

Here's what I setup today:




























So far I have some fissidens moss, windolev java fern, and micro anubias. We'll see how this works out.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

It's finally here:










Now let's hope there are no issues once I unbox everything 

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

So far so good with unpacking everything. Here's a quick shot of where the tank is going to end up:










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

My Miracles Aquariums issues seem to continue ... instead if reposting please see this thread for this particular issue.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=980649

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Harry Muscle said:


> My Miracles Aquariums issues seem to continue ... instead if reposting please see this thread for this particular issue.
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=980649
> 
> ...


The solution that I decided to go with was to get strips of wood to go underneath the tank trim and sand the strips down to compensate for the hump.

I keep forgetting to take better pictures while I'm working on this, but here's what I bought to fix the problem:










The strips are teak wood which does great around water and won't require any coat to provide protection. They are just a little over 1/4" tall and a little less than 2" wide.

I'm almost done sanding the pieces to compensate for the hump and a few other minor irregularities in the stand top. There where a few spots that needed filler, so I used water proof wood glue to provide the extra depth where needed.

I've also ordered neoprene rubber strips that will go in between the teak strips and stand top (overkill probably, but I like overkill).

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I've been working on assembling the strips of wood that will go on top of the stand. I just finished gluing in the last piece. It will require a bit of sanding to sit better once the glue dries, but it's almost done.










I've also expanded my grow operation. It now includes Ranunculus Inundatus which is doing great already.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I've been expanding my grow operation a bit more. Here's what it looks like now:










I added a Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red' plant today and some pygmy chain sword (Echinodorus tenellus or Helanthium tenellum):



















Here's what the rest of the containers look like:




























Thanks,
Harry


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## aja31 (May 25, 2013)

Long process, but it looks like it is coming together nicely! I'll be watching this to see how it turns out!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

My plan to use neoprene rubber strips between the strips of teak and the stand didn't work out as expected. The rubber wasn't as "perfect" as I'd like it to be and the glue on back of the rubber was very gunky which added more imperfections to the finished product that it fixed. Fortunately I realized this early on and only had to deal with removing glue residue from one section.

So I've spent the last week or so trying to find a replacement product to use to go between the teak strips and stand. Standard styrofoam is not an option cause I've read that it can retain water and eventually lead to mold issues. The denser foams available at home renovation places turned out to be too dense. I've used flooring under-padding with great success in the past (unfortunately my go to under-padding has been discontinued since). So I took an afternoon and drove around to local flooring places checking out what they have available. I found a pretty good product as Lumber Liquidators that's normally used under luxury vinyl tiles (LVT Underlayment 100 Sq Ft - Tranquility | Lumber Liquidators). It's 100% polyurethane foam and about 1/16" thick. Normally I'd want something thicker, but I've already taken care of the "larger" imperfections with the teak strips. I got a sample and ran some compression tests on it to make sure it won't compress to nothing under the load of the tank (which based on my calculations will be less than 8 PSI ... quite low).

So hopefully tomorrow I'll be getting a roll of this stuff (too bad they don't sell it by the foot) and cutting it to size. That means that hopefully on the weekend the tank will finally end up on the stand.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

The teak seems to be a good/creative solution to the problem. Good luck with the LVT underlayment.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The foam got cut today that will go between the teak strips and the top of the stand. Here's a quick shot of the cutting.










I did the cutting on top of two joined sheets of MDF board and I used double sided tape between the strips and the foam to keep the foam from slipping as I cut around the strips.

Here's what the final product looks like on the stand.










In case anyone is as nerdy about this stuff as I am, here's the specs for the foam I used.










This weekend the tank should finally be on the stand, yay.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Tessa (Dec 8, 2015)

Ahhh... you have the patience of a saint - I would be absolutely barking nuts by now with all the waiting and problems 

Good luck!


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## onlycrimson (Sep 7, 2010)

Great build thread, I hope this all works out for you!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Tessa said:


> Ahhh... you have the patience of a saint - I would be absolutely barking nuts by now with all the waiting and problems
> 
> Good luck!


Thanks. I actually find the build as enjoyable as having the tank ... well almost. So I don't mind things taking so long ... sort of. [emoji1]

Thanks,
Harry


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## noelanr (Jan 28, 2016)

Love this thread

Sent from my ALCATEL ONETOUCH 6050A using Tapatalk


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Here's how you get a 200+ lb tank onto a stand when all your friends have bad backs and you have to do it on your own.

First find something roughly the same height as the stand. In my case this was an old small Ikea dining table. Put a towel on top and pad one edge real well with more towels.










Next lift one edge onto the table, change sides and lift the other edge and slide it onto the table.










Get your stand ready.










Position the table behind the stand.










Slice the tank across from the table onto the stand.










And finally slide the stand into place ... more or less.










And that's how I finally got my tank onto the stand. It's finally starting to look like a tank project. Yay.

Thanks,
Harry


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## onlycrimson (Sep 7, 2010)

Any updates on this build?


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

onlycrimson said:


> Any updates on this build?


I haven't had much time this week to do any more work on the tank unfortunately. Some of the electrical in the basement got done which moves the fish room along, but not much actually tank related.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Not much happened lately other than electrical in and around the fish room in the basement.

I got a really good deal on eBay on a high end brand new hard wired surge protector and power filter (http://www.brickwall.com/collection...20-amp-oem-industrial-surge-protection-module). I'll be installing this on the circuit dedicated for the fish room and tank. I've read a few reports of people's Neptune Apex units frying cause of power surges so hopefully this will prevent that from ever happening.

That's all for now.

Thanks,
Harry


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

I'm enjoying this build, subscribed today. This is my favorite part of any tank journal and your build is pretty cool.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

knm<>< said:


> I'm enjoying this build, subscribed today. This is my favorite part of any tank journal and your build is pretty cool.


Thanks. Glad to know others are enjoying reading this.

Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I've added some Crypt Green Gecko and Crypt Parva to my grow operation:










Very excited about the Green Gecko.

Also some Crypt Affinis, Crypt Wendtii Green and Brown:










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Not much to report lately, however, I did expand my growing operation. Here's what I already had:










And here's the addition. I decided to use one of the lights that will eventually end up over the tank itself. It's an Ecoxotic E-120:










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Things having moving along slowly. I did get some more plants to add to my collection though. Got them at the HDAS auction. Ten plus stems of Styrogene repens:










Some narrow leaf java fern:










Bolbitis fern:










And some Asian water grass:










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Found some Micranthemum "Monte Carlo" locally so it's now part of my growing operation:










Also finally back to working in the basement to get things ready for the fish room. Lots of electrical work happening. Finally wired up the junction box that connects the circuits coming in from the garage circuit breaker to the wiring the basement:










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The circuit for the fish room is finally done (until the drywall goes up and all the fixtures go in). This included the Transit Voltage Surge protection that I installed under the stairs:










This means that soon the plumbing for the fish room sink will start ... and then I'm hiring the rest of the work out cause this is taking forever .

Thanks,
Harry


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

REALLY AWESOME BUILD!!!!!!

You have really thought everything out!!! You were much more patient with the tank builder than I would have been! Also as a Shade Tree Cabinet Builder/Woodworker I would have been LIVID about the stand being unlevel across the top like that!!! IF I was paying a Aquarium Tank and Stand Builder for a custom stand, and they couldn't build me a flat topped stand when I could my confidence in them would be GONE!!! I would expect at least a 50% refund on the stand, if not more, then to take all of those trips to get things right after seeing all of the detailed drawings and notes you gave them and STILL DIDN'T get the holes Drilled at the correct location!!!!! WTF!!!!! 1/2" glass or not, I would have been putting my foot where the good Lord split them! After 20+ years in the Customer Service/Retail Industry I always did my best to get my Customers Products/Orders correct the FIRST TIME, and if I screwed up I would fix it ASAP and make sure it didn't happen again and they were happy and taken care of for MY MISTAKE with a discount or partial refund, even if it wasn't my direct fault! AND THAT IS the way I EXPECT a good quality Business to treat me as well, or they WILL NOT get my business, and I will tell everyone I can NOT to do business with that person/company who does me wrong as long as they are there! ANYWAY sorry about the RANT, but I HATE to see POOR Customer Service/ lack of paying attention to your plans or their work, and YOU are the one stuck having to build the teak spacers to fix it, and your water level will be higher than you wanted. Which could cause tank overflow much quicker if a drain was to slow for some reason, or depending on the type of overflow you use, if a large leaf was to partially block the overflow box, or a fish were to get sucked into the bulkhead of the overflow box itself and slow the drain of water! there is now a higher chance of the tank overfilling!!! It's a slim chance, but I have had it happen before on my 55g saltwater when a fish got sucked into the overflow's "U" tube, slowing the siphon down while the sump pump continued to pump at normal speed, and BAM-O!!! SaltWater all over the floor till the sump pump didn't have anymore "extra" water to pump into the tank!

Anyway HOPEFULLY with your overflow type it should be less prone to problems!!! And I REALLY LIKE the Stand Design you came up with, as well as your use of Teak for your shims!!! Very good Idea!!! You have a FIRST CLASS SETUP 4SURE!!!

Subscribed to see how you finish the 3 most exciting parts of setting up Aquairums! 1. Planing/Building, 2. Aquascaping/Planting the tank, 3. Picking out the Fish, and seeing them in the finished tank!!!

When I used to Service Tanks for my Friend who Owned the BEST LFS in the Waco Area, that was my FAVORITE thing when someone would buy a new setup and we would deliver it and set it up, then service it monthly! 

Have a GREAT TIME Finishing your setup, as we are excited to see it come together!!!

Take Care,
Drew


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Finally started working on the plumbing in the basement. Here's a quick shot of the drain and vent setup that will be used for draining water from the sump during automatic water changes. Also at the top is the water supply box that will supply water for water changes ... it just hasn't been connected yet.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Plumbing is all done, yay. Here's the finished water change supply and drain/vent setup:










And here's the supply and drain rough-in for the fish room sink:










Next is some insulation and vapor barrier work and the rest is being hired out. This project should soon start looking like an aquarium project again 

Thanks,
Harry


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

Dope build, and love the real techie-type tank projects! Nice to see someone doing things properly to ensure everything is as reasonable to maintain as possible, including not having to be sloshing water around in buckets and with a load of siphons and hoses presumably. Could you perhaps explain what the three different pipes you have are, and tell us what the silver valve on the white pipe inside the white box is? I need to figure out what to do about my plumbing for my next build, so that could be helpful if you could.

Bump: Dope build, and love the real techie-type tank projects! Nice to see someone doing things properly to ensure everything is as reasonable to maintain as possible, including not having to be sloshing water around in buckets and with a load of siphons and hoses presumably. Could you perhaps explain what the three different pipes you have are, and tell us what the silver valve on the white pipe inside the white box is? I need to figure out what to do about my plumbing for my next build, so that could be helpful if you could.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Mxx said:


> Dope build, and love the real techie-type tank projects! Nice to see someone doing things properly to ensure everything is as reasonable to maintain as possible, including not having to be sloshing water around in buckets and with a load of siphons and hoses presumably. Could you perhaps explain what the three different pipes you have are, and tell us what the silver valve on the white pipe inside the white box is? I need to figure out what to do about my plumbing for my next build, so that could be helpful if you could.
> 
> Bump: Dope build, and love the real techie-type tank projects! Nice to see someone doing things properly to ensure everything is as reasonable to maintain as possible, including not having to be sloshing water around in buckets and with a load of siphons and hoses presumably. Could you perhaps explain what the three different pipes you have are, and tell us what the silver valve on the white pipe inside the white box is? I need to figure out what to do about my plumbing for my next build, so that could be helpful if you could.


Thanks.

The three pipes you see are ... bottom pipe is the drain for dumping old water. The middle pipe is the vent for the drain. All drains by code need to be vented. Normally you would tie into an existing drain vent somewhere near by, but if you can't do that, like in my situation, you can use an air admittance valve. That's what's going to go in the box where the second pipe connects. It will be covered by a grate.

The top pipe is the cold water supply line that will be connected to a three stage carbon filter designed to remove chloramines and provide clean water for the automated water changes. The valve looks big because there is a water hammer arrested attached to it to prevent water hammering, something that can happen when water flow gets turned on and off by a solenoid.

Hope that helps,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

After way to much time dealing with "life", I'm finally back at work on the tank. Today I spent some time extending the drain pipe to where it will eventually exit the drywall in the fish room.

Here's the drain pipe and return pipe that runs from the living room:










The pipe and elbows I'll be using:










I had to do a couple test fits to get the length just right. It's a very tight fit between the concrete wall and the studs supporting the stairs:










Gluing this in was a bit hard cause of the tight space but things worked out:










Here's the other end, currently supported by tape:










Tomorrow or Monday I'll be putting in this bracket to properly support this end:










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I finished attaching the pipe where it will exit the drywall in the fish room. Next I'm hoping to insulate it a bit to help with heat preservation. After that I'm gonna start working on the tank plumbing (drain, overflow, return, loc-line, etc).










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I'm getting things ready for installing the Glass Holes overflow box and the return lines. One thing that Glass Holes recommends is using a gasket between the box and glass. However the gasket is round which makes keeping the box perpendicular to the glass a bit more difficult so I got the "local gasket shop" to cut one for me that fits the back of the overflow box perfectly.



















It's made of EPDM rubber, like most bulkhead gaskets, and it has a standard 60A hardness.

I also put together the Loc Line return fittings today. Soaked one end in hot water and the other in cold water to ease with the assembly.



















I also prepared the bulkheads for assembly by cleaning them up with some 400 grit sandpaper to make sure all the sealing surfaces are nice and smooth.

Thanks,
Harry


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

Man I love projects like this


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

klibs said:


> Man I love projects like this


Thanks


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I wanted to start playing around with the aquascaping so I set myself up with a bit of a work area and pulled out all the wood and stones I have available.





































Here are a couple driftwood arrangements that I tried out. I'd love some feedback.










Same layout, different angle. I also circled two branches that didn't seem to "go with the flow" of the rest of the wood. I'm thinking of cutting then of, depending on the feedback I get.










Here's a better shot of the piece of wood with those "offending" branches.










Here's another layout I tried, again highlighted the branches I'm thinking of removing.










And here's the same layout from a different angle.










Please feel free to let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Sykith (Dec 6, 2015)

I really like that last layout, I would personally add more rocks around the base of the cluster on the right though. Good luck!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I spent some time today creating these supports that I'm going to attach to the back of the stand. These will have several PVC support brackets attached to them to support the plumbing behind the tank so that the bulkheads aren't carrying any weight.



















They are made out of teak wood so that I don't have to worry about sealing them or them getting wet.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I was back to doing aquascaping stuff yesterday and decided to give my "seiryu" stones the muriatic acid treatment. Here's the before picture of all the rocks I got to work with.










Muriatic acid can be quite dangerous so I took all the recommended precautions.










Although in hindsight I should have used the carbon filters in addition to the particulate filters I had on my mask.

Here's the after shot of the rocks. They look wet but they are actually dry. The muriatic acid changes their look that much.










I soaked the rocks for exactly 3 minutes each to get this effect. I've read of people soaking them for longer but the acid eats away at the rocks so I wanted to err on the short side.

Here are some of the nicer rocks.




























I noticed a few of the rocks were left with these gray patches. Not sure why, maybe I didn't soak them long enough in the acid or maybe it's a different mineral in these patches. Either way they blend in when the rock is wet.










And here's an updated shot of my evolving aquascape idea with the "new" rocks.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I attached the plumbing supports to the back of the stand today. Wiped the teak supports with acetone to remove surface oils and applied 3M Extreme double sided tape.










Applied a bit of pressure while I waited to make sure the bond was good.










Then I cleaned the back of the stand with isopropyl alcohol and applied the supports. I had previously measured exactly where the supports would go and marked the edges with masking tape.



















Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I prepared the plumbing mounting brackets by gluing stainless steel washers to the overly large holes they have for screws.










Then I switched gears to the outlets. I had several joints in the Loc Line sections that were really loose so I got these clamps designed for that exact purpose. Swapped the screws out for stainless steel screws and attached them to the loose joints.



















Lastly I started working on the flex pipe that will be the drain pipe. Did a rough measurement of how long it needs to be, cut and sanded one end to be square, and tried this to see if I can get the memory out of it in one section.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Getting close now....


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

Nice wood, and it's quite difficult to judge the 3D impact of the projecting bits you were looking to cut back, but so far as I could tell from the photos I wouldn't remove those as I thought they flowed quite well with the overall spread and grain of the wood. 

Impressive result following your treatment of the stones as well.

How visible will the locline be by the way? With my next builds my aim is to have zero visible equipment, so I'm planning to run the returns through the substrate and up behind the decor to project their flow towards the surface.

And great attention to detail overall, so best of luck!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I was thinking about all the Seiryu stone I have to work with for the aquascape and the fact that it changes the KH, GH, and pH kept bugging me. So I ran some numbers based on data I found on Tom Barr's forum site.



















If I were to use all 45lbs of the rocks I have I would end up increasing my KH and GH about 1 degree per week. Definitely more than I was expecting when I originally choose these rocks. Since I'm hoping to keep German Rams and generally more difficult fish (which usually means they need softer more acidic water) I've decided to scrap the Seiryu stone and go with Ohko stone instead. Ironically the Ohko stone color will look more natural against the Flourite Dark gravel which has a brown color to it.

Curiously though it's pretty hard to find good examples of aquascapes that use Ohko stone and manzanita driftwood. Seiryu stone with manzanita seems to be more popular. If anyone has seen some nice aquascapes with Ohko and driftwood feel free to share, would love to see it.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I got the overflow box ready today for installation. It's a 700gph Glass Holes box. Nicely made, however, the edges were not flame polished, so I filed the inside edges of the teeth a bit to give it a slightly rounded profile. This should help slightly with keeping the water in contact with the box as it enters it, although not sure by how much since I only did a little bit of filing.

I've also read multiple times that overflows quite down once a biofilm gets established so I decided to help it by roughing up the top inch or two of the inside of the box so that the biofilm can better attach. This will also increase surface tension and/or wetting (not sure technically which term is correct in this case) due to more surface area being exposed which should also help the water cling to the box surface thus reducing noise. Again not sure by how much it will help in reality but I'm pretty sure it won't hurt so why not. Here's a shot of the inside side of the box teeth.










I also measured and put together the drain line today so that everything is ready for installing the overflow box in the tank.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Mxx (Dec 29, 2010)

Interesting about the Seiryu stone raising hardness. The use of a lot of wood or other organics might counteract that slightly, just as is the case with peat moss softening water. I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make however, and it might still raise TDS as a result. Had a quick search, and this website says that Aquasoil resolves the water hardening - Seiryu Stone (Per Kg)
Personally I'll be going with only manzanita and no stone in my next build.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The overflow and drain line got installed today. I was hoping to take pictures throughout the process but it got messy with all the silicone lubricant for all the gaskets and I didn't want to mess up the phone. I used lots of lubricant in part because of the large gasket that's the full size of the box. Also applied lots inside the glass hole around the bulkhead (where some people sometimes use silicone sealant/glue). It seems like most bulkhead leaks are quite slow and having thick non curing silicone lubricant in the way should help prevent any such leaks.

Here's the overflow.










Tightening the bulkhead nut from inside the overflow box was quite the challenge. It's as tight as humanly possible without the use of a wrench.










I should probably also mention that I decided to go with a different bulkhead than the one supplied by Glass Holes. Theirs just seemed to cheap for my taste. I got a Lifegard bulkhead and cut it to the correct length. Definitely better quality bulkhead.

I also decided to smooth out the rough parts of the inside of the overflow a bit ... it was just bugging me. So I used some Novus 2 and elbow grease and made the area more semi smooth instead of rough.

Lastly here's the drain plumbing from behind.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Mxx said:


> Interesting about the Seiryu stone raising hardness. The use of a lot of wood or other organics might counteract that slightly, just as is the case with peat moss softening water. I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make however, and it might still raise TDS as a result. Had a quick search, and this website says that Aquasoil resolves the water hardening - Seiryu Stone (Per Kg)
> Personally I'll be going with only manzanita and no stone in my next build.


The second set of sample data I found on Tom Barr's forum was from a tank that used aquasoil and it still showed a steady increase in hardness. Maybe less than if a different substrate was used, but still too much for my linking.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I worked on getting the supply line ready for installation over the last few days.










And here's the memory removal process.










I also attached the Loc Line pieces to the bulkheads in preparation for the install.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The supply line got installed today along with the Loc Line pieces.














































Turned out better than I had hoped.

Thanks,
Harry


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## fietsenrex (Oct 8, 2014)

This is really a slow build, but not less impressive


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Just read your journal. Nice job detailing out your build. One concern while reading this was your overflow. It looks like just a single pipe that ends in the basement sump. This is going to be really loud. I'm hoping I missed something.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

mot said:


> Just read your journal. Nice job detailing out your build. One concern while reading this was your overflow. It looks like just a single pipe that ends in the basement sump. This is going to be really loud. I'm hoping I missed something.


Thanks.

The one pipe leading to the basement is a bit of a concern for me too. Unfortunately the area that I ran the pipes through didn't really have room for more so creating a siphon based overflow would have required more "construction". The good part is that I've done a decent amount of research on the Glass Holes overflows and as long as you don't run too much flow through them they seem to be fairly quiet. The one I have is designed for 700gph and I'm planning on only pushing about 300gph through it.

At the sump end, you are correct it might be a bit noisy but that's in the basement so I'm not too concerned.

Thanks,
Harry


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## _alex_ (Apr 22, 2016)

The glass-holes boxes work great. They are a bit noisier but have a piece that sets inside them to stop the splashing inside the box. And also come with a lid. Used one on a 90 for a year and pushed about 500gph and wasn't bad at all. 

I'm curious where you got the 2 to 1 pipe connector you used for your return. I haven't read the entire post so if already mentioned I apologize 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

_alex_ said:


> The glass-holes boxes work great. They are a bit noisier but have a piece that sets inside them to stop the splashing inside the box. And also come with a lid. Used one on a 90 for a year and pushed about 500gph and wasn't bad at all.
> 
> I'm curious where you got the 2 to 1 pipe connector you used for your return. I haven't read the entire post so if already mentioned I apologize
> 
> ...


I got it from a pool supply place. It's made by Waterway Plastics and it's part 672-4280.

Thanks,
Harry


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## _alex_ (Apr 22, 2016)

Thanks! And amazing tank build. Looking forward to seeing it with all your plants in it. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Thanks.

I installed some backing in the fish room over the last few days. This way when I attach various equipment to the walls I won't have to use drywall plugs since there will be solid wood to screw into.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I finally got some time today to work a bit on the tank. I worked on a little thingy that the float switch would screw into and then it would fit perfectly in the Eshopps probe holder.

I started by cutting a short piece of 1/2" OD (3/8" ID) acrylic tube and tapping it using a 1/8" NPT tap.










Then I drilled a hole in the side and cut the piece to the correct length.










Here's what it looks like screwed onto the float switch.



















And here's when it's in the probe holder.



















After this was done I ran some tests on the float switch and it turned out that the magnets in the probe holder were interfering with the switch. Fortunately I had several of the probe holders and one of them had the magnetic poles opposite to the one I originally tried. For some reason when the poles are reversed they no longer interfere with the float switch.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The basement including the fish room got drywalled recently. Still needs to be mudded, but things are moving along ... slowly. I'll get pictures up soon. 

I've been also doing some research on exactly which fish and shrimp I want to keep and have been going back and forth on whether to bother with an RO filter as part of the automated water change setup. I've posted more details and questions here if anyone cares to input: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1111138. That post also includes the list of fish and shrimp I'm interested in if anyone's curious.

Thanks, 
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Was wondering how this build was going. Thanks for the update.


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

wow this build is really craft dandy, blood sweat and tears, not to mention manual labor. love it.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The first coat of mud went on the drywall in the fish room. Starting to look like an actual room ... feels so much tighter now though. 




























Great use of "wasted" under the stairs space. 

Thanks, 
Harry


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

hey cool! was harry potter under there????


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Fish room is all painted. Floor tile will be coming next. Things are finally coming together in the fish room ... well almost.




























Thanks,
Harry


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## Xenaph (Dec 9, 2013)

I have a question for you, why you don't choose a bean animal overflow for your system ? It is the quietest and safety system you can have with a overflow system. 

I had a tank with an only 1 hole with an overflow box...and i never slept on my 2 ears at the night because the system take the air at the same place. You dont want lost the syphon or a fish get in.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Xenaph said:


> I have a question for you, why you don't choose a bean animal overflow for your system ? It is the quietest and safety system you can have with a overflow system.
> 
> I had a tank with an only 1 hole with an overflow box...and i never slept on my 2 ears at the night because the system take the air at the same place. You dont want lost the syphon or a fish get in.


Couple reasons actually. As you can tell I like nice neat looking things and when I started planning this (and probably still now) getting an overflow box designed for a bean animal setup cost over $200. While a Glass Holes box like the one I went with is around $60. The worry of a plugged drain and overflowing tank will be solved by a water level sensor that will turn off the pump. There will actually be two such sensors plus an Apex flood sensor.

As for the noise, since my flow requirements are quite low, probably around 300gph, there really shouldn't be any noise from the Glass Holes setup based on other people's reviews. Although to be honest that is my biggest concern at the moment with my setup. I won't know for sure until I actually have water in the tank and can find tune the drain setup.

Lastly I was also limited by the amount of room I had to work with in the wall where the plumbing goes from the living room to the basement. Fitting an additional 2 pipes in there would have been very difficult if not impossible.

Based on research (and not actual experience yet) I think the bean animal setup would have been overkill for me. It's great if you want to push lots of water through the sump, but not needed if you've got lower flow rates. At these lower flow rates it can be just as silent as the bean animal.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

The difference between a bean animal and a herbie is just an extra emergency drain. A return pump float switch is about the same thing IMO.


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## Xenaph (Dec 9, 2013)

1 hole overflow is not herbie.

If i can give you an advice, find a T pipe and use a cap and drill a 1/8 hole and plug a 1/8 od co2 tubing 3" long. 
With the T, your system will take the air at the top and will not make a toilet trap sound.

*Before*









*After*


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The tile is down and the baseboards have been installed and painted. The rest of the basement work is now also done so I can focus on fish stuff only from here on. Here's what the fish room looks like now:



















Next steps will be to install the sink and build and install the cabinets that the sump will sit on.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Just browsed through this whole thread. Nice job and excellent documentation. 

I love big projects like this.

I see you called it "The slow 112G jungle tank build". Since it's been two years since the start, I guess it has lived up to it's billing!!:grin2:

You must be awfully anxious to fill this thing up and get it going. I'm Looking forward to seeing the end result.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Cabinet assembly has begun. These two cabinets are going in the fish room. The larger cabinet will house the quarantine tank and the smaller cabinet will be for storing stuff. On top of these two cabinets will sit the sump.

I'm gluing all the cabinet joints. It's an all plywood cabinet but it's fairly cheap so gluing the joints should help with sturdiness.



















Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The cabinets are coming along. Glueing the joints really helped with making things sturdy. I used Elmer's ProBond Max glue for raw wood to raw wood joints and Elmer's ProBond Advanced for joints where one or both surfaces weren't raw wood. Worked really well. Both glues are water cleanup but are water proof once dry. When attaching the front of the cabinets I needed a glue with gap filling ability so I went with No More Nails ... it's a water cleanup construction adhesive.

Here's a trial fit of the cabinets in the fish room:










I was a little worried about the low surface area of the cabinets for transferring the weight of the large sump that will sit on top so I decided to build some reinforcements:










They will fit on the top and bottom of the cabinets to provide more surface area. They are a little too thin so a nice layer of glue was needed:



















It's not a perfect solution for weight transfer since the loads still have to travel through the 1/2" plywood of the cabinets but at least it reinforces the joints and spreads the load out a bit.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

After a long delay dealing with life I finally had time to put the cabinets in in the fish room.

First I installed a filler piece in behind the cabinets since they​ form an L shape and I want full support everywhere for the large sump that will be sitting on top.










Next I measured out where the bottom of the cabinets will end up.










Then I applied a nice layer of Mono Ultra caulking. Since the cabinets will be sitting on tile and tile is almost never absolutely perfectly level or flat I wanted a layer that would better transfer the load to the tile. Usually this is done with foam or something similar but since this is a permanent installation caulking seemed like a good choice.










And finally in went the cabinets with lots of weight on top to squeeze the caulking.










The countertop is not yet secured but that will be next once everything dries.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Countertop went in today. Very similar process to the cabinet install.




























The countertop has a plywood core instead of the usual particleboard​ to avoid issues with water. I got it cheap but the plywood was a bit warped so a bit more weight was needed and some clamping to get everything perfectly flat.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

effective use of whatever is available to supply "weight". 
Like your recent progress.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The cabinets and countertop are all done.










I also had the chance to install the fish room sink finally. The faucet is from Ikea, cheap but totally adequate for my needs. I installed a Gardena adapter in the faucet so that I can attach the various hose connectors if/when needed.










Lastly, I also installed the brackets that will hold the big blue water filter canisters. There will be two and the will live behind the sink. Not exactly easy to get to but they will only need changing once every year or two.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Over the last week or so I've been spending some time creating a few items I will need for the tank.

First item was a jig to hold an optical water level sensor. I will be using an Eshopps Probe Holder to hold various things. Some of these will be a float switch and an optical sensor. I needed to create something that would allow both the float switch and optical sensor to be at the same triggering height while both being attached to the same probe holder. Here's what I created:



















The tube will fit into the probe holder and the hole will hold the optical sensor. Since I'm not so good at gluing acrylic I decided to give the item a sand blasted look to mask the glue that went were it wasn't supposed to:










I also soldered up some extensions to the float switch and optical sensor:










Lastly, I've been working on creating some sort of shrimp proof cover for my Koralia Nano powerhead. I wasn't originally planning on using it but I think I will need more flow than just the sump and two Maxi Jets will provide. Here's one of the designs I played with:



















I didn't love this one so I'm working on a slightly larger design that should be better able to protect baby shrimp from getting sucked in.

Thanks,
Harry


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## McCarthy (Mar 13, 2017)

I can smell a perfectionist 1 mile against the wind.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

After several prototypes I finally came up with a really good solution for covering the Koralia Nano powerhead. I've documented the steps with lots of pictures in case anyone wants to create one for themselves. All you need is #7 needlepoint plastic canvas, a whole bunch of small zip ties, and the Fluval U3 filter foam.

First cut a rectangle out of the canvas matching the size shown in the picture.










Insert zip ties as shown. Zip them up and trim them.




























Do almost the same to the other side of the canvas rectangle but spacing the zip ties a little differently.



















Fold the rectangle to form a cylinder, overlapping​ by three holes, and add zip ties.



















Cut a square​ piece and then cut it down to a circle.



















Cut another square, cut it down to a circle, and cut out an opening as shown.










Lay the two circles 45 degrees rotated from each other and join them with zip ties.




























Insert the joined circles into the cylinder and push it up against the side with more zip ties.



















Insert the foam into the cylinder.










Push the cylinder over the powerhead and you get this.




























Here's a picture of the exact foam that was used. It's a perfect fit with no cutting required.










Lastly when inserting the powerhead make sure the powerhead opening lines up with the cylinder opening.










This should work for all the Koralia Nano powerheads since they are all the same size. Enjoy.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Opare (Sep 9, 2015)

Wow that's some neat handywork, and it turned out real nice. With zip ties anything is possible! I noticed your cutting of the circles was very exact. Good job.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I'm finally back working on the tank again and it looks like Photo Bucket has decided to break all my images. So here's a link to the actual Photo Bucket album with all the images posted thought-out this thread: http://s1055.photobucket.com/user/HarryMuscle/library/112G Jungle Tank Journal

Also in case Google ever decides to mess things up, here's a link to some of the images that are hosted on Google Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/JD6FFTR8btgsSPmV7

Thanks,
Harry


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Have you gotten it up and running yet? The build is pretty awesome. You're extremely skilled


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The Dude1 said:


> Have you gotten it up and running yet? The build is pretty awesome. You're extremely skilled


Thanks ... still working on the tank, slowly.

Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I ran the various wires behind the tank and into the stand finally. Had to create this triple extension cord setup since none of the pump cords were long enough:










Here's it mounted in the stand:



















Here's a quick shot of the wire setup:



















I'm currently working on the light mount and wiring and once that is done the tank finally moves into place permanently and the focus shifts to the fish room.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Finally finished the electrical in the fish room. Here's the GFCI box that distributes electricity to the rest of the fish room. It's amazing how cramped it can be and still be to code:










And here's the rest of the switches, outlets, and communication ports:










All done:










Also did some work on the lights mount over the tank. Got a pair of Gieseman brackets cheap on eBay. Only problem was that there were no studs were I needed them so I took some of the white oak flooring I used for other stuff before, cut it to size, stained it, urethaned it, and attached the brackets to it. Here's the whole thing getting attached to the wall behind the tank and also with one of the lights mounted temporarily:



















Also started putting up the controls for the lights on the side of the stand:



















Thank for following,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I had some time to organize all of the cables in the stand and finish wiring everything up in the living room:



















Also connected the unions using a liberal amount of lubricant for the o-rings:










So the tank is finally pushed back into place:










Now all the attention turns to the fish room.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I spent some time over the last week or two finishing up some of the plumbing in the basement behind one of the the fish room walls (that's still accessible). This is the return (sump back to tank) plumbing that was installed, secured, and insulated:




























I also assembled the automated ball valve and gate valve that I will be using. They are both stainless steel. The gate valve will be used for fine flow adjustments. The automated ball valve takes 90 seconds to open fully and 15 to close fully when power is removed. I got it cheap on eBay and this basically gives me a slow start for the AC pump I'm using (the only feature of DC pumps I really wanted). It also prevents too much water from siphoning back into the sump when the power goes out. It's a pretty neat little automated valve. Glad I found it.










Here's how the valves are mounted:



















Lastly, I have decided to change the driftwood that I will be using in the tank. My original driftwood came from Tom Barr and was collected once it was already dead. I have decided instead to go with fresher sandblasted manzanita which should last longer in the tank and also has less of the twig like look. Here's the shipment that I got from manzanita.com:










Thanks,
Harry

P.S. I've also gone back and fixed all of the Photobucket images from this year in this thread. I'm now hosting the images myself so I don't run into this issue with another provider in the future. I'm defaulting to full 1080p size for images. Please let me know if you guys consider these too large.


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## Shaggy2061 (Oct 17, 2017)

Harry Muscle said:


> P.S. I've also gone back and fixed all of the Photobucket images from this year in this thread. I'm now hosting the images myself so I don't run into this issue with another provider in the future. I'm defaulting to full 1080p size for images. Please let me know if you guys consider these too large.


TO be Frank I like larger pictures.! You can see more details.


Now to be myself I agree with Frank!


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

Checking in to see how it goes...


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## slipfinger (Jun 8, 2016)

Impressive build, meticulous eye for detail and unbelievable patience!

I see you started some emersed plants back in early 16, these plants still around? 

Do you have a planned scape yet, with a planting list?


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

slipfinger said:


> Impressive build, meticulous eye for detail and unbelievable patience!
> 
> I see you started some emersed plants back in early 16, these plants still around?
> 
> Do you have a planned scape yet, with a planting list?


Thanks. Sometimes it's more about circumstances than patience but at least things are progressing.

Some of the emersed plants are still doing ok, others though didn't fare so well. Unfortunately they ended up being neglected a bit too much when life happened. It's one of the reasons why I'll be automating much of the tank so that it can look after itself for periods of time when I can't.

I haven't finalized an aquascape but I'm definitely leaning towards a stump look located in the back left corner of the tank with roots spreading out towards the right. As for plants I like the jungle look and feel, partly because it's easier to maintain and allows me to try as many plants as I'd like to grow. However this being a pretty large tank I might do more of a triangle layout where there's lots of plants around the stump on the left but more open space on the right.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Turns out I made a measuring mistake in where the bracket for the valves was supposed to go ... or maybe it was a mistake in measuring the plumbing connecting the valves to the hole in the wall, either way, it required requisitioning which unfortunately resulted in damage to the drywall and paint. That's now all fixed. I also changed the way the valves get attached to the bracket. I created this little piece from wood that slides onto the bracket. This way if I had made any other measuring mistake I could just fix things by changing the thickness of this piece:










The sump also went onto the stand finally. I used the same foam under it that I used under the display tank. Unfortunately it looks like the sump isn't perfectly flat bottomed and/or the countertop top isn't perfectly flat. Here's a picture of the slight gap that exists under the sump on the front left corner:










Putting a straight edge against the spot shows that most of the problem probably lies with the sump and not the countertop:










I posted these pictures to a couple reef forums since they deal with sumps a lot more often and it seems that the general consensus is that for an acrylic sump this shouldn't be a issue at all. Feel free to share your option also.

Not having to fix the slight gap means that this project has finally gotten wet. I filled up the sump to make sure everything is leak free and can handle the weight:



















This last picture also shows how one of the inlet pipe "thingies" is really crooked ... another reason why I think its more the sumps fault for the gap and not as much the countertops ... although I think the countertop is ever so slightly out too.

Thanks,
Harry


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

Darn - but real life happenings. Fix and go forward still looks good and no leaks?!!! Hooray!


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I have water in the tank ... finally.

But before that I installed the return pump in the sump and finished the plumbing connecting everything together.


















Next came adding water to the tank itself. I decided to just pump it from the sump in the basement to make things easier.


















Running the whole plumbing setup for the first time turned out to be louder than expected. So I started experimenting with various ways to quiet things down. I ended up trying various reverse durso configurations.










My original design seemed to be the best with just a slight change needed.

I tackled a lot of the noise by inserting 3 5/8" OD vinyl tubes into the 1.5" PVC drain pipe. Took a lot of trial and error to find exactly where they should begin and end for the best results and even which size tubing and how many to use.










Finally I quieted the pump down by building a stand for it. For some reason the Mag 12 pump I have seemed to make significantly less noise when it's tilted. The stand is made from white oak which rots very slowly and it's held together by super glue and stainless steel screws.


























I also added a turned down elbow to the pump to allow it to work in less water just in case.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Immortal1 said:


> Getting close now....


Linn I just had to LOL..........you posted this over a year ago!!

It's been a long time coming, but glad to see water in this tank! I really love all the DIY, and the whole thread is a great read...........but when you titled this slow build......man you were not kidding!!:grin2:


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## The Bungulo (Aug 28, 2017)

This started two years ago and now you finally have water in the tank! How are the emersed plants doing?


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

Celebration ROAR!!!! Hooray! Congratulations!


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## The Bungulo (Aug 28, 2017)

anything new happening?


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## BeeBop (Nov 4, 2017)

I am more than impressed. This has been an enjoyable and educational journey to this point. Well done!


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## klibs (May 1, 2014)

YES

this is exactly what I want to do when I own a house


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The Bungulo said:


> anything new happening?


A bit. I've been running the plumbing for the last week or so just to make sure nothing goes wrong. Had one minor leak between the auto shut off valve and the gate valve. Had to take things apart and retighten. Slowed the leak down but didn't fully stop it. I'm pretty sure the threads on these stainless steel valves are to blame as they came from eBay. So I've used a bit of Magic Wrap which stopped the leak and I'll address it again in the future, maybe.

I've also been waiting for inspiration to strike regarding the aquascaping. I've been playing around with a few ideas and sketching them. I'll post some of my sketches a little later.

While waiting for the inspiration I installed the giant filters behind the sink.










These will filter the water for the automated water change setup.

And I started playing with ideas on how to mount the Neptune Apex and related components.














































I ended up going with the last layout.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I've been working on the aquascape for the tank. I started a new thread for it to get more eyes involved. Feel free to take a look.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1215978

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

I've got the wood portion of the scape all figured out and put together. The main trunk piece is about 9 pieces of manzanita held together with a combination of stainless steel screws and tinted marine epoxy covered in saw dust. Came out pretty good I think. I've started working on attaching the trunk to a sheet of 1/2" PVC that will be covered with gravel to force the piece to sink. Here's an above shot of the final trunk configuration:










I'll try to get better pics later.

It's getting attached to the PVC board with a combination of marine epoxy (after prepping the PVC for better adhesion) and PVC pipe clamps. Since the PVC pipe clamps are themselves made of PVC I chemical welded the clamps onto the PVC sheets to provide a good mechanical anchor for the wood.










I need to finish adding some epoxy to a few of the roots but first I wanted to make sure that I could still fit the piece into the tank with the PVC sheet attached. Turns out I couldn't. So I did some progressive trimming to figure out what needed to change to get it to fit.










I ended up trimming two of the corners of the sheet and the trunk by a 1/4" to get it to finally fit under the middle support.










Thanks,
Harry


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

That is pretty neat how the top is out and branches peeking over.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

AutumnSky said:


> That is pretty neat how the top is out and branches peeking over.


Actually that's it not being able to fit in the tank. But that would have been a cool idea too.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Nigel95 (Mar 5, 2017)

Nice concept


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

Harry Muscle said:


> Actually that's it not being able to fit in the tank. But that would have been a cool idea too.
> 
> Thanks,
> Harry


That's funny, yes, in context I can see that now! So much for looking at pics on a little phone screen!

Saw the cut off pieces at the base but didn't notice the top and bottom at the same time in the same pic!

Well, it would look good the way I said too if you ever want to walk it out to the wild side! I imagined it was to be integrated into a rocky hill scape. Good imagination, hahaha! Not so ideal with the top on though!


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## someoldguy (Feb 26, 2014)

Using the pvc clamps and adhesive to bond the wood to the base is a great idea .


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The hardscape is starting to take shape. Feel free to share your opinions on this scape:



















Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Here's the latest progress on the scaping:



















I still need to add more gravel in the back.

Some of the rocks are held up by scrap PVC pieces to get them just right:










Thanks,
Harry


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

I have been trying to figure out how I'm going to build the stumps for my 150... this is awesome.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Hardscape is now all done.










Next come plants, lots and lots of plants ... this will be a jungle tank after all.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

The plants from my very neglected grow operation are now in the tank. More to come soon.










Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Work continues in the fish room. I drilled the overflow hole in my Aqueon Proflex sump yesterday. Took about 45 minutes but it came out great. Used a forstner bit and went nice and slow to make sure I didn't melt or crack the acrylic.










I also had an order of plants arrive today from thewetleaf.ca. Beautiful plants and nice portions. Here they are soaking overnight in a 1.5tbsp/gallon solution of alum:










Here's my plant list so far:

Aridarum minima
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Bucephalandra Velvet
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire'

Plus already planted in the tank:

African Fern (most likely Bolbitis heudelotii)
Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Microsorum pteropus var. 'Narrow'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Ranunculus inundatus
Staurogyne repens

Thanks,
Harry


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## ipkiss (Aug 9, 2011)

It's happening.. it's happening!!! Finally, the planting stage! I know you've warned us about the loooong slow build. I've appreciated the painstaking detail that you've undertaken to make everything just perfect, but, man, since you posted in the ecoxotic threads and brought my attention to your project, every time I see this journal surface on the forum, I always had hope that it was finally planting day! :grin2:


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## astex (Aug 13, 2009)

What is the red plant showed in the picture above, and what does the alum do?


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

astex said:


> What is the red plant showed in the picture above, and what does the alum do?


The big red plant is the Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire'. Fairly rare but looks really nice.

The alum is used to kill algae, snails, and their eggs. There's a couple different dips that can be done but alum seemed like the best from what I've read.

Thanks,
Harry


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## irie (Jan 9, 2018)

stoked to see how this one turns out!


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## agrasyuk (Jan 5, 2018)

just reread the entire thread, what an epic build. I think the overflow and sump noise was the biggest factor of me abandoning that setup and going with HOBs for filtration. good that you got it dialed to your liking. 


Harry Muscle said:


> The plants from my very neglected grow operation are now in the tank. More to come soon.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Harry


I must have missed this, how did your earlier grow operation fared through the 2 years ?


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## astex (Aug 13, 2009)

I'll have to add the St. elmo's to my list of swords to acquire, it looks great. Thanks for the info on alum as well, may have to try that before my next set up.



Harry Muscle said:


> The big red plant is the Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire'. Fairly rare but looks really nice.
> 
> The alum is used to kill algae, snails, and their eggs. There's a couple different dips that can be done but alum seemed like the best from what I've read.
> 
> ...


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Added a few more plants today, in particular several species of bucephalandra:



















The five species that I added are:

Buce Brownie Blue
Buce Brownie Metallica
‎Buce Brownie Phantom
‎Buce Brownie Purple
‎Buce Kir Royale

So my plant list currently stands at:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Aridarum minima
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire'
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
Microsorum pteropus var. 'Narrow'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Ranunculus inundatus
Staurogyne repens

Thanks,
Harry


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

Looks great and a huge plant list going there. Good plants, lots of color and shapes and sizes, it is going to be stunning.

Been following along for EVER, happy to see how it is looking. The DW looks special even if it isn't coming back out of the top of the tank .


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## iamaloner (Jul 10, 2017)

Been following this epic build since 2016 on gtaaquaria lol 
It's been worth the wait 

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Added more Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite' and Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov' today:










Plants seen to be doing ok though not great I would say. The swords especially seem to be struggling. I think they were grown submerged before I got them which is uncommon. Hopefully they are simply transitioning to emerged growth and not actually dying:










The narrow leaf Java Fern is also struggling a bit mainly due to some fungal growth ... hard to find a balance between enough moisture for the plants but not enough for fungal growth.

Thanks,
Harry


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## The Bungulo (Aug 28, 2017)

Maybe you should fill the tank? start cycling?


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## Cento (Apr 7, 2010)

The Bungulo said:


> Maybe you should fill the tank? start cycling?




I second that.... [emoji6]


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## iamaloner (Jul 10, 2017)

Whose taking bets? He floods the tank around July I'd say 

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Nearly 3 years and still no water... March of '19 is looking like a better bet for me lol! It's going to be incredible when it is done, but then everything will have transition to submerged.


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## Green Amy (Apr 15, 2016)

I only started following this build a few weeks ago and I can't wait to see the aquarium filled with plants and fish happily swimming. I only hope I can actually get the images to load when you finally have it to that point rather than these silly broken image symbols I get half the time when trying to view.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Lots has happened in the last little bit with the tank. It's officially wet, and not just as a water test. The dry start method was becoming a pain. Trying to maintain a balance between not too wet so as to not have mold growing and not too dry so the plants don't wither was proving more work than I wanted to deal with. So I cut the dry start method short and filled the tank:










Unfortunately some of the plants took a bit of a hit during the DSM. The Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire' lost all of its leafs and might be dead ... we'll see if it springs to life submerged. The Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica') did the same but new leafs are already sprouting. I think both of these were grown submerged when I got them so a dry start didn't sit well with them. Also some of the Windelov Java Fern and Anubias suffered some leaf losses but the rhizomes are fine so replacement leafs should be coming in soon. Unfortunately the Narrow Leaf Java Fern didn't survive, not even the rhizome ... it was tiny though so I'm not surprised.

So my plant list currently stands at:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Aridarum minima
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire' ?
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Ranunculus inundatus
Staurogyne repens

Since the tank needs lots more plant mass than it currently has I wanted to get an algae crew in as soon as possible. Only problem was that I have to deal with Chloramines in my water. So after neutralizing the chlorine I was left with about 2ppm of ammonia. So I've been doing daily doses of Seachem Stability to help with the cycle and also Seachem Prime to neutralize the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate until the cycle is fully established. This has allowed me to start stocking the tank right away. So far I've got a dozen amano shrimp and they are doing great. Apparently they are supposed to be farm raised which is interesting.

As expected the driftwood is covered in fungus but that should go away soon...ish.

I also finished the overflow plumbing for the sump in preparation for the auto water change setup:










Lastly, before filling the tank I noticed some of the epoxy separating from the driftwood ... most likely due to the wood expanding with all the moisture present. Hopefully this won't pose any problems in the future:










Thanks,
Harry


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## Cento (Apr 7, 2010)

Harry Muscle said:


> Lots has happened in the last little bit with the tank. It's officially wet, and not just as a water test. The dry start method was becoming a pain. Trying to maintain a balance between not to wet so as to not have mold growing and not to dry so the plants don't wither was proving more work than I wanted to deal with. So I cut the dry start method short and filled the tank.
> 
> Unfortunately some of the plants took a bit of a hit during the DSM. The Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire' lost all of its leafs and might be dead ... we'll see if it springs to life submerged. The Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica') did the same but new leafs are already sprouting. I think both of these were grown submerged when I got them so a dry start didn't sit well with them. Also some of the Windelov Java Fern and Anubias suffered some leaf losses but the rhizomes are fine so replacement leafs should be coming in soon. Unfortunately the Narrow Leaf Java Fern didn't survive, not even the rhizome ... it was tiny though so I'm not surprised.
> 
> ...




Sooo many people just lost huge amounts of money on lost bets on when you’d flood the tank... 🤣

But seriously, looking forward to seeing the tank now! It’s going to be exciting..

I see your flora list - did you make a fauna list?


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

This is absolutely amazing.

For those that don't understand, go to page 1 of this thread and check the date.

Incredible.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes from here.


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

YAY!!!!!!!

What is all the ammonia coming from? Ferts, does your tap water actually have that much ammonia? Maybe need a filter system to get it out of there before going into the tank.

The tank is looking great and still really love the DW design, worth an additional mention on how attractive it is.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Cento said:


> Sooo many people just lost huge amounts of money on lost bets on when you’d flood the tank... 🤣
> 
> But seriously, looking forward to seeing the tank now! It’s going to be exciting..
> 
> ...


So true ... thought I'd throw everyone off.

I'll have to start a fauna list too, good idea.

Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Greggz said:


> This is absolutely amazing.
> 
> For those that don't understand, go to page 1 of this thread and check the date.
> 
> ...


Three years almost to the day ... when I called it the slow built I really meant it 

Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Did some plant shopping today. Got the following plants to add to my list:

Vallisneria americana var. asiatica
Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis
Eleocharis montevidensis
Bolbitis heudelotii

I also added some more fauna today, so here's the full list of inhabitants right now:

12 Caridina multidentate
24 Clithon corona
6 Otocinclus

That's amano shrimp, horned nerite snails, and otto cats.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

AutumnSky said:


> YAY!!!!!!!
> 
> What is all the ammonia coming from? Ferts, does your tap water actually have that much ammonia? Maybe need a filter system to get it out of there before going into the tank.
> 
> The tank is looking great and still really love the DW design, worth an additional mention on how attractive it is.


It's coming from the chloramine. It's basically chlorine combined with ammonia. The chlorine can be neutralized permanently with something like Prime but the ammonia only gets temporarily neutralized by Prime for about 24-48hrs so I'm dosing it daily until my bacteria take care of the ammonia.

The ammonia is definitely higher than I would have expected but we've had warmer than usual weather so I'm guessing they are using more than usual amounts of chloramine.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Current full tank shot:










Dealing with what looks to be a bacterial bloom ... looking forward to the water clearing up.

Thanks,
Harry


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

You can try some Seachem Purigen to help with particulate/ organic matter. Could help for that part anyway. 
Seachem - Purigen

Sorry about the bloom. Be careful not to dose way too much Prime. Do decent pwc.

Also Hagen Aqua Clear Ammonia Remover, chips or similar could help your plight.


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## Tank Stand (Jan 24, 2018)

Can you take closer pictures of the java fern please?

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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

AutumnSky said:


> You can try some Seachem Purigen to help with particulate/ organic matter. Could help for that part anyway.
> Seachem - Purigen
> 
> Sorry about the bloom. Be careful not to dose way too much Prime. Do decent pwc.
> ...


Thanks. I'm actually already using Purigen to deal with the tannins from all the wood. As for the Prime, I've read several posts by Seachem themselves that you can safely dose it every 24-48 hours during the cycle. So far things seem ok with that approach.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Added two more plants today (Helanthium tenellum and Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko') so the list of plants now is:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Aridarum minima
Bolbitis heudelotii
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko'
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire' ?
Eleocharis montevidensis
Helanthium tenellum
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Ranunculus inundatus
Staurogyne repens
Vallisneria americana var. asiatica
Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis

And I also added 8 threadfin rainbowfish plus one lonely (what looks to be) Gertrude's rainbowfish that somehow ended up with the threadfins. Fortunately though he's actually schooling with the threadfins. So the animal list now is:

12 Caridina multidentate
24 Clithon corona
8 Iriatherina werneri
6 Otocinclus
1 Pseudomugil gertrudae

Still dosing Prime daily but the cycle is progressing nicely. Ammonia is down to 0.25ppm and nitrite is starting to appear (0.25ppm). No nitrates yet though.

Thanks,
Harry


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## Cento (Apr 7, 2010)

Harry Muscle said:


> Added two more plants today (Helanthium tenellum and Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko') so the list of plants now is:
> 
> Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
> Aridarum minima
> ...




I TOTALLY picture a school of 50 of this, and a school of 50 of that, with maybe a shoaling group of 50 down there.....

oohh.. the fun!!!! [emoji16][emoji226][emoji226][emoji226]


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Looks like the cycle is done but I'll confirm with another set of tests tomorrow.

I also added a few more plant species (Fissidens nobilis moss, Hygrophila pinnatifida, Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine', and a Salvinia species ... most likely auriculata). However I did lose the Echinodorus 'St. Elmos Fire' and Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'.

So my plant list currently is:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Aridarum minima
Bolbitis heudelotii
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko'
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Eleocharis montevidensis
Fissidens nobilis
Helanthium tenellum
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Ranunculus inundatus
Salvinia auriculata
Staurogyne repens
Vallisneria americana var. asiatica
Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis

I also got some more critters ... first one of my amano shrimp decided to go on an adventure outside of the tank so I got a replacement for him. I also got 2 more threadfin rainbowfish, and 4 more otto cats, however one of the otto cats didn't make it and I think I'm going to lose a second one that's not eating.

Also the rainbowfish I got originally with the threadfins which at first I thought was a Gertrude's rainbowfish actually turns out to be a Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon'.

So my livestock list currently is:

12 Caridina multidentate
24 Clithon corona
10 Iriatherina werneri
9 Otocinclus
1 Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon'

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Here's today's full tank shot:










I added a Madagascar lace plant that had been growing ridiculously fast. It's got a flower shoot after only being in the tank about a week.

Also added mini pellia that was growing on a forgotten and neglected piece of driftwood in the basement in about a 1/4" of water.

Also added a bit of Cyperus helferi.

So my plant list currently is:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Aponogeton madagascariensis var. madagascariensis
Aridarum minima
Bolbitis heudelotii
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko'
Cyperus helferi
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Eleocharis montevidensis
Fissidens nobilis
Helanthium tenellum
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Ranunculus inundatus
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Salvinia auriculata
Staurogyne repens
Vallisneria americana var. asiatica
Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis

I've also been dealing with some deficiencies that most likely are calcium related but we'll see how that goes.

I also added a red racer Nerite snail that I transitioned from full salt water at the pet store to full freshwater at home. Interesting experiment that went perfectly. Here's the snail a few days ago:










And I also added 10 forktail blue eyed rainbowfish and 4 lineolated hillstream loaches. And two of my ottos and two of my threadfin rainbowfish seem to have disappeared without a trace.

So my livestock list currently is:

12 Caridina multidentate
24 Clithon corona
8 Iriatherina werneri
7 Otocinclus
10 Pseudomugil furcatus
1 Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon'
4 Sewellia lineolata
1 Vittina waigiensis

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Latest full tank shot:










The Madagascar lace plant flower in full bloom:










Added an octopus plant which most likely is Isoetes lacustris. Also added several Cryptocoryne usteriana plants.

So my plant list currently is:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Aponogeton madagascariensis var. madagascariensis
Aridarum minima
Bolbitis heudelotii
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Cryptocoryne usteriana
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko'
Cyperus helferi
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Eleocharis montevidensis
Fissidens nobilis
Helanthium tenellum
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Isoetes lacustris
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Ranunculus inundatus
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Salvinia minima
Staurogyne repens
Vallisneria americana var. asiatica
Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis

Only new life stock are 16 golden back yellow shrimp:










And the hillstream loaches are finally no longer constantly hiding:










So my livestock list currently is:

12 Caridina multidentate
24 Clithon corona
8 Iriatherina werneri
16 Neocaridina davidi var. yellow
6 Otocinclus
10 Pseudomugil furcatus
1 Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon'
4 Sewellia lineolata
1 Vittina waigiensis

Thanks,
Harry


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## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Looking good Harry!


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Nice work, coming along quickly now. 

Looking forward to seeing how it fills in.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Awesome fauna and flora selection! This is going to be an incredible tank!


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## DanPlanted (Jun 15, 2015)

Awesome tank.


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

No new pictures at the moment but I added two corydoras habrosus that one of the local stores had left behind in one of their tanks ... hoping to find friends for them soon. Also added three yellow tiger endler hybrids. And added some needle leaf java fern too.

So the lists are:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Aponogeton madagascariensis var. madagascariensis
Aridarum minima
Bolbitis heudelotii
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Cryptocoryne usteriana
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko'
Cyperus helferi
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Eleocharis montevidensis
Fissidens nobilis
Helanthium tenellum
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Isoetes lacustris
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Microsorum pteropus 'Needle'
Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine'
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Ranunculus inundatus
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Salvinia minima
Staurogyne repens
Vallisneria americana var. asiatica
Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis

And:

12 Caridina multidentate
24 Clithon corona
2 Corydoras habrosus
8 Iriatherina werneri
15 Neocaridina davidi var. yellow
4 Otocinclus
3 Poecilia wingei var. 'Yellow Tiger'
10 Pseudomugil furcatus
1 Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon'
4 Sewellia lineolata
4 Vittina waigiensis

Thanks,
Harry


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

Here's the latest full tank shot:










I was able to get my hands on some rare plants that I added in today. They are:

Anubias Pinto
Crepidomanes sp. Calicut
Microsorum sp. Durin Besar
Microsorum sp. India
Microsorum 'Thunder Leaf'
‎Red Root Floater
Syngonanthus Rio ***** Giant

I also got the following mosses but they aren't in the tank yet:

Cameroon Moss
Taiwan or Christmas Moss (still need to ID it)
Vesicularia Thai Moss

And I sourced some Echinodorus St. Elmo's Fire again. It was grown emersed so it doesn't have the purple leafs yet but those should come soon hopefully.

Unfortunately the Hygrophila pinnatifida didn't like my tank and died off ... I'm still working on getting the dosing right I think.

So my plant list currently is:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite'
Anubias barteri var. nana 'Pinto'
Aponogeton madagascariensis var. madagascariensis
Aridarum minima
Bolbitis heudelotii
Bucephalandra Brownie Blue
Bucephalandra Brownie Metallica
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
‎Bucephalandra Brownie Purple
Bucephalandra Brownie Satan
‎Bucephalandra Kir Royale
Bucephalandra Velvet
Crepidomanes sp. Calicut
Cryptocoryne usteriana
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Gecko'
Cyperus helferi
Echinodorus parviflorus 'Rosette Sword' (aka 'Tropica')
Eleocharis montevidensis
Fissidens nobilis
Helanthium tenellum
Isoetes lacustris
Lagenandra meeboldii 'Red'
Microsorum pteropus 'Needle'
Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine'
Microsorum pteropus 'Thunder Leaf'
‎Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Microsorum sp. Durin Besar
Microsorum sp. India
Phyllanthus fluitans
Ranunculus inundatus
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Salvinia minima
Staurogyne repens
Syngonanthus Rio ***** Giant
Vallisneria americana var. asiatica
Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis

And in case anyone is wondering my current dosing schedule is:

On Wednesday and on Saturday or Sunday:
3/4 tsp. of Seachem Equilibrium
1/2 tsp. of K2SO4
1/4 tsp. of KNO3
1/8 tsp. of KH2PO4
5ml of Seachem Flourish
2.5ml of Seachem Iron

Lastly I added a baby yellow rabbit snail and a young orange rabbit snail to the tank.

So my lifestock lists currently is:

12 Caridina multidentate
24 Clithon corona
2 Corydoras habrosus
8 Iriatherina werneri
15 Neocaridina davidi var. yellow
4 Otocinclus
3 Poecilia wingei var. 'yellow tiger'
10 Pseudomugil furcatus
1 Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon'
4 Sewellia lineolata
1 Tylomelania sp. 'orange'
1 Tylomelania sp. 'yellow'
4 Vittina waigiensis

Thanks,
Harry


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

Some great new plants on the list.

As for the A. Pinto, it needs good lighting for the spots to grow on it. Mine got shaded by moss and grew all green for a long time, then switched the tank and it is back to new growth with spots again.

How are you liking the tank finally?


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## DanPlanted (Jun 15, 2015)

Any updates?


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

DanPlanted said:


> Any updates?


Lots ... just been busy with life ... I'll try to post soon, including pics of the baby loaches ... so exciting.

Harry


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## iamaloner (Jul 10, 2017)

Do a quick fts - update us hungry peeps. 

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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

Yes, just was wondering how it is doing?!


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

I'd like to see some updates too, but it's been 2 1/2 years since he's posted. His build makes my Fish Nook look like a piece of cake.


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## AutumnSky (May 19, 2012)

What happened to the tank build Harry???


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