Blacjacks tanks

Originally Posted by skinz78

Looking good Chris I wish I had a fish room....

I can't wait to have the room set up properly. We looked carefully when buying a house. For the money we were able to borrow, we had very slim picking's. But, knowing that we would have to put alot of work into what we bought, we made sure, that we bought something with potential.

You would have loved my fish room if I got to build my house. It was going to be as big as a standard bedroom here, with a massive viewing room. The viewing room was going to be 7m x 5m from memory. Ah it sucks, but that's life. The irony is, it would have cost me less money to build a house that was 50 squares, instead of renovating this house, 28 squares

Originally Posted by Barbara

Hey blacjack...once again the updates are great! you've done a really nice job with the renovations so far and I'm really digging the color choices in the kitchen....BTW - does anyone actually live in that kitchen? I've never seen a more spotless shiny space before! (is that your doing or your wife's? ) Soooooooo happy to hear that you are going to be creative with the build out of hiding the system etc....it's more work but you'll be so much more satisfied with the results (and so will your wife! )...and your "best frag" is absolutely precious! Definitely a frag to be proud of! Oh yeah...and your tank looks good too! so what's next? do show us!

Thanks Barb. The bloke's are not fond of the colour, but they haven't clicked onto it yet. Ir's a very modern thing, and I like the idea of making the kitchen the feature Alot of people comment on the kitchen, something not seen often here The colour is black tulip, and to be honest, my wife thought I wouldn't agree to the colour. It was a big gamble, but worth it in the end. The quality for price doesn't equal out, but it's there now. I just wish we used a better kitchen builder. I've dealt with this guy before, when he worked for another company, and loved his work, but now it's a bit lazy. The splash back tiles were a steal, the supplier doubled up our order by mistake which helped pay for the little feature tiles. They were $10 each, so $220 worth of tiles in that one band

As for the clean kitchen, yeah my wife is responsible for that. She has a compulsive disorder which we're working on. I like clean, but if I leave something out of place, she'll put it where she want's it. The up side though, I can make a mess, since we are renovating, and she'll clean up after me. Amanda does alot of the dirty or crappy jobs, which I really appreciate, as it allow's me to keep moving with other things. She's grouting all the tile's as we go for example, just another job I don't have to do.

When I do look at doing the fish tank room, I'll take lot's of pictures, and explain what I'm thinking for some feed back. I'm up for different idea's, as I will overlook something for sure. It's a project I'm looking forward to.

I love the new frag, she's easier to look after, even though she requires abit of maintenance The heat's been a bit of an issue, so we're trying to stay home more, and stay in the air conditioning.

What's next, phew I've tiled our upstairs toilet, but was not happy with some of the floor tiles, I had alot of problems. Since the toillet hasn't been used in 18 month's, the plumbing's dry. so it stinks I don't like working in the stench I've also done the floor in our ensuite, which need's to be grouted, and have been working on the wall tiles. I stripped the bathrooms over a year ago, and forgot to check and straighten the walls what a nightmare. But we are slowly getting there. When I get time, I'll take some pics. Amanda took the memory card out of my camera to get some pictures developed, and didn't tell me. SO I took heap's of pic's of my tank, and guess what oh well.

ahhhh...the joys of renovation! sounds like you got a great counterpart with Amanda so I'm sure that helps to ease the frustration! will enjoy seeing the pics when you get a chance! keep up the good work!

Thnx Barb, yeah she's great. Without her, I doubt I'd be this far along. She helps push me, but not in a bad way. This is our 2nd and final renovation. We don't plan on moving or doing anymore works, we're sick of it. I've got tommorrow off, so I hope to get more done, and if I think of it, I'll take some pictures then.

I'm doing feature tiles in our ensuite, so it will be interesting to see how they come out. The main tiles are straight, but due to the size of the feature tiles, I can't keep them straight. I hope it look alright, but as I say to Amanda, it's part of the feature

Not reef related, but here's the sample of carpet we will be using. It's not cheap, but there's no point in taking shortcuts now,



I'm missing some pictures, so I'll have a look for them later. I've got some to update as well.

Carpet looks good Chris.

LOVE the carpet blacjack! the pattern will help hide dirt etc while still looking modern! very good choice! and it looks like it's indoor/outdoor...is that correct? also I'm sure it has stainmaster guard so it should help with spills etc...is that true too?

Hey Blackjack how's the tanks coming? Any updates?

Sorry guy's I've been busy, and forgotten about this thread I'm supposed to be on holidays, 4 weeks, but due to a useless site manager, the job I've been helping out on, has run way over time. Problem with that is, he's taking his holiday's and won't come back to work, so I got called in to finish the job. I reckon I'll get 1 week off, broken up over the 4 week period.

The tanks going well, I still need to find time to take a few pic's though. I've had a few issues with my skimmer, it runs well for a week, and then has a day on steriods. This has really messed up the system, but that's life. I've shortened the airline 1/3 it's length, and the air pull is clearly better. So hopefully I'll get it tuned in again and get some good skimmate. I'm keeping the water level down to help, but previously it's fluctuated alot recently.

I've added a phosphate reactor, but I'm running carbon in it. My return pump is to strong, so I had a line T off back into the sump. I've modified it, and now it runs my reactor. I've set a bag of phosguard at the skimmer's return, so I can have some phosphate media in the system. I'm going to buy a cheap gravel cleaner and modify it to take the phosphate media. I'll put this on the return from the reactor. When I get it done, I'll post pic's to explain it better. Since I've added this, and got the skimmer to settle down things look good.

A mate came around yesterday, so I took advantage of it, and we got the front pane glass siliconed into my plywood tank. I've got to repair a couple of spots in the resin, then it'll be ready for a water test. I still have a little bit of silicone work to do, but this is on the back burner again, as I'm pressed for time.

Carpet is due on the 18th of this month which my missus is really happy about. But with me working, it's just put more pressure on me to get things done. I have 1 room left that needs major work, and getting help is near impossible. I have 2 windows to replace, and they are heavy. Once that's done, I'll be right. I just have to fix up the built in wardrobe (walls are terrible) and I'm almost finished. We've been quoted on the remaining carpet today, and it's been ordered. So we're looking at $5500 for carpet oh well, we like it, and nothings cheap anymore.

I still have to work on the stair case, but that's a seperate part, and it won't stop us moving upstairs. I'll try for some pictures on the weekend, as after work, I'm just to busy, and plain tired. It's a 2hr drive 1 way to get to work, and 30min's of that road is damn rough.

holy moly!!! you DO have a lot going on blacjack! I'm glad though that you took the time to post your current situation ... now we won't be bothering you for updates as frequently we can cut 'ya a bit of a break for the time-being! though we would LOVE to see pics as you proceed with your projects we're all suckers for the pics!

Hey BJ , christ mate ,that kitchen looks great !!

Can you come down to Vic and fix mine up please

Originally Posted by Barbara

holy moly!!! you DO have a lot going on blacjack! I'm glad though that you took the time to post your current situation ... now we won't be bothering you for updates as frequently we can cut 'ya a bit of a break for the time-being! though we would LOVE to see pics as you proceed with your projects we're all suckers for the pics!

I'm trying to keep up My computer crashes or is just plane slow somedays, so I'm not always online. I'll upload some pic's later, I need to take some up to date ones. We pulled the last 2 windows out tonight after work, and got them tarped up. Now it's raining oh well.

Originally Posted by Thinkin Reef

Hey BJ , christ mate ,that kitchen looks great !!

Can you come down to Vic and fix mine up please

Cheers Andrew, your one of the few blokes I know that like it. Most blokes don't like the colour, but we do.

I'd love to get away, so a trip would be nice. Just need to get my place finished, get time off work

Thanks for the update BJ. You will get it all done, just take your time and do what you can. Looking forward to the new pics.

I just wish the house was built properly, it would have saved me many hours, and alot of frustraion

too bad you can't detect a lot of that during inspection ... very frustrating indeed!

Being a builder you've got a fair idea as to problems, but some of the crap I'm seeing just blows me away. I can't believe the council passed the frame to be honest. Things happen due to shrinkage, and there's not much you can do about that (at the time the house was built) Now we have better materials to use. BUT to fix mistakes like the way these guys did is just plain stupid. I'll post some pics a bit later.

I took a few quick pictures of what I've been doing reno wise.

Here's the built-in wardrobe I've been working on. I couldn't believe how bad this wall was. So far I've built the wall out 1/2 inch so far, and it's still not straight. The top of the wall is though



I'm going to make this side the hanging side, so I don't have to fit shelves to it

This is in the ensuite, the feature tiles were a real PITA to lay. Amanda came up with a great idea, which made them easier in the bathroom



Our $700+ toilet the seat takes about 30 seconds to close when set on it's way. It's an anti-slam seat This will make cleaning around the toilet easier.



After I put the cavity slider door unit in, I was at a trade night, and saw that there was a new and better unit on the market but at least I got the latest hardware these locks are soooooo much better to fit and use.



Here's the bathroom, this is the shower area with the same feature tile



We're hoping to have the shower screen's measured up tommorrow.

New bath, with feature tile over the top. I still have to silicone around the edges, then I can remove the tap.



I didn't take any photo's of the floor I'm not really happy with how the floor came up, but the main toilet's the worst. There was too much fall in the floor, and the tiles weren't the quality I expected. They were all different sizes, which is to be expected, but the variation was too much.

Here's the main toilet, my plumber did the ole 100mm trick (4") and set the water point too high. It's a tradie thing now I have to re-sheet the section, and re-tile it.



Here's the part I was talking about before about the poor frame,





That corner post is 90x90mm. That's less than 4" square. There was an additional stud to hold the window head up, but the builder stuffed up the frame and window opening size. Instead of cutting out studs, and putting in 2 new window heads, they cut the studs in the corner out to make it work. This should have never been passed by council. Sucks that happens all the time, the inspectors can be dumb.

Here's one of Amelia asleep in her high chair. She's supporting her own weight quite well now. Must have been having a bad dream though

Hey Bj , the bath room it looks great mate
Also i like the crapper "fancy looking thing

And the bubs........ well she looks great as always

I'm hoping for some help here, I've contacted Luke at reef filtration about my problem, as he know's his stuff, plus I bought this skimmer of him

This is a CNC Marine 400a, and it's a beast of a skimmer. I've been running it for a while, and had no issues, but of late, everyweek it's overflow the collection cup. I was lucky today, I got home from work in time to stop it from messing up my tank.



This is what I found today when I came home, it's mostly just water, but has some gunk in it, which has been ending up back in my tank, the tape is to indicate the normal water level I run this skimmer at.



You can see how close it was to overflowing. I don't use the drain, unless I'm deliberately draining the cup. I can't hook up my osmolator, as I'm worried adding to much freshwater into my system.

And of course the problem. The water comes out of the collar, even though it's on tight, and has the O ring that is supplied with the skimmer. When I came home, I dropped the water level in the skimmer before I took the picture. The water was overflowing the body, out of the collar,



I'm at a loss as what to do. I've got a couple of options. I'm mucking around with a different skimmer, that I may be able to use. But I want to get this skimmer working properly, as it's a damn good skimmer, and it would be a waste for it to sit in the cupboard. I don't want to run the water level low just to oxygenate the water.

Any help is much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Thinkin Reef

Hey Bj , the bath room it looks great mate
Also i like the crapper "fancy looking thing

And the bubs........ well she looks great as always

Thanks mate, yeah the crapper is fancy, but the missus likes it, as it will be easier to clean around.

Yeah Millie's doing great, I just wish I wasn't so busy/tired so as to spend more time with her.

That sucks about the skimmer BJ i hope you get that fixed ASAP !

Originally Posted by blacjack

Thanks mate, yeah the crapper is fancy, but the missus likes it, as it will be easier to clean around.

Yeah Millie's doing great, I just wish I wasn't so busy/tired so as to spend more time with her.

True the crapper looks kind of easy to clean "heh i might even invest in a couple myself, as we need new ones "

At this point in time Bj, i am thinking she sleeps more than anything , is that right ?

Cheers mate

Andrew

The pump is a laguna maxflo 9000 (9000ltrs/hr) so that's why I need to fix the problem lol

The toilets are great, and are water effecient.

As for bub's, she sleeps alot, but we do get some interaction with her. She likes to stay up late, it's nothing for her to want to play at 11pm.