Christys 180gallon build

FINALLY!

So I've had this tank for almost a year now, drove out to Red Deer, Alberta to get it last December, then put it in storage for awhile, then moved it to the new house where its been sitting on the floor. I've also collected a few other tanks for sump and such, along the way all hanging out in the basement. Its pretty busy down there. Finally today my husband decided it was time to get started (plus I mentioned that I was thinking about asking my Dad to come over and help me do it, nothing spurs a guy on like telling them you'll get your Dad to do it :razz.

So heres where the tank will be going, its going to be in wall with the display part here:



And the backside of that wall, yup its loadbearing and I'm seeing this is likely going to slow us down as my husband, Matt, is rather leery of approaching this part:



A strategically placed shelf hid the fact that two of the posts were almost cut cleanly through, lucky they had the idea to just slap on a piece of wood to help out



It was just wood paneling so it came off pretty easy except for one chunk and the heating ducts were removed. Its amazing how poorly some work is done in houses. Some parts were screwed together, some not. And no duct tape was used (Mike Holmes would be appalled! :wink.



After that it was fun times with electrical so being massively electrically uninclined, I tackled the tank. It had a painted on background that I've decided I don't want. I'd rather see through the tank and then I can affix a removable background so I can see in the tank when I'm working on it from the back as well as the front.

Tank before:


Tank after:


Thats a lot of paint!


Then everything came to a grinding halt Saturday as the F word was muttered repeatedly and progressively louder. Turns out it was the result of this:



As you can see, it clearly doesn't fit the box. Well duh, anyone could see that before you hooked all the wires to it. I think we'll blame that on Matt coming down with a cold.

Sunday arrived and Matt was feeling better so we forged on!

Ok so we got the teleposts up to support the ceiling while we ripped out the guts of the load bearing wall. (my husband loves making faces for the camera)



Backside of the wall (the actual fish room)



Matt had a good ole time with the sledgehammer :razz:




Open sesame!



Shoring up the studs



Getting the header in



Tada!!! And the ceiling didn't even fall in! :razz:



Now we can get to work on the good part!

Very nice!!! Looking forward to seeing it in place!!! DEMOLITION GOOD

tank build

hey christy that easy to demolished not like our house is more difficult to demolish cause they are build out from lime stone and concrete so your husband wouldn't making that faces i can assure you but nice work

Nice Job Christy, Keep it up.

wow....those pics bring me back 6 years when chris knocked out our main wall (LR, DR and kitchen) to put in our tank ... lot's of F words...lots of crying...some screaming... ....but ALL worth it in the end!

Looking great Christy, to get them wires to fit just turn the power off to that circut and take a hammer with a rubberized handle and gently push the wires in using the hammer handle. It works like a charm most of the time.

Nice work with the wall, I always wondered how one tears down a load bearing wall. Now I know.

Nice job. I am looking forward to seeing more pics of this as you go along.

Christy

Did you take the tank cross brases out??

Originally Posted by billrob71

Christy

Did you take the tank cross brases out??

The tank is eurobraced

So this was yesterdays effort, I was at work while my husband was toiling on the stand






Wheeee!!!!!


And the tank had some major black trim on it, almost an inch and a half high. Decided I didn't want that taking away from the tank, and I didn't want to have to hide it either, so I went to town on it and ripped it off

Originally Posted by christyf5

The tank is eurobraced

Yeah just wasn't sure if you did it or it was made that way.

Stand looks GREAT!!! Thats how mine is .

Looks better without the trim!!!

Looking good so far on the build out of the stand, Keep it up!

Originally Posted by billrob71

Yeah just wasn't sure if you did it or it was made that way.

Stand looks GREAT!!! Thats how mine is .

Looks better without the trim!!!

oh ok, yeah it came that way. I try not to mess with the tank and leave that to the professionals. Except for the trim part, I was assured by several that it wasn't structural

Looking Fantastic

I agree it looks much better without the trim. You going to work on it tomorrow too?

We did some more on it tonight, no pics as its too bloody dark down there. I'll post some in the AM.

Matts work is pretty much done, other than hoisting the tank onto the stand. Before that though, I need to get a bulkhead for it (I think) and the stand needs to be drilled to accomodate the bulkhead. And I have to buy all the plumbing and get the sump drilled to accomodate the Dart pump. Then we're good to go!

I also need to do a test run on the tank, theres a very large number of scratches on it that were not in the original plan. I bought the tank used and was told "theres just one scratch and you really have to look for it". Yeah well it turns out that maybe while they were running the tank it just had the one scratch but they certainly weren't concerned about being careful while taking the rocks out, there are scratches, DEEP scratches all over the friggin place. Anyway, currently I'm looking at perhaps turning the tank around so that the overflow is at the front (surprisingly there are less scratches on the back glass), and then just covering up that with drywall (would also hide the wavebox if I put that just behind it). Only sucky part is that I only get about five and a half feet of viewing instead of the full 6. I have wanted 6 feet for so long, I'm just not really ready to give up even 6 inches.

Coming along great Christy.

Sucks about the scratches. Ive never used anything like this and i hear it is a long process but this is something you might want to look into http://www.gtglass.com/site/scratch_removal.html

This does work. I know that they use this on old antique car glass that cant be replaced.