GoToSleep's 700g Build Thread (& complete remodel)

Well, come on then....what's taking so long?? You got the water now....let's get busy!

j/k!

 

more pics please

 

You're darned skippy it would. We're all anxious, we all want pics, we all want a reef fully developed NOW! However; as discussed early on in this thread--lack of planning in any aspect is going to spell disaster in a system this size.

I'm breathing in and out slowly. Patience. Slowly. Patience. Slowly. Patience. Etc. This is rough. . . .

 

I have all you guys beat!! My wakeboarding season starts early March all the way through November, then I snowboard from December all the way to the beginning of wakeboarding season. A couple years ago, I hit the lake sometime around Christmas!!

Many people can't do this, but every April before the resorts close, I spend the whole day snowboarding then hit the lake for a wake session before it gets dark.. Gotta love living in Vegas!!

 

Sparky,

It's crazy how many steps there are to putting this thing together. I still have some plastering and painting to finish up above the tank and I hope to get this done before putting (too much) rock in the tank. I have been busy though... My canopy weighs over 100 lbs and that's before the lights are mounted. It sits over 7' off the floor so getting it on and off the tank definately isn't a one man job. I have pretty good access through the front of the tank but there are bound to be times when I need even more access hence my little project yesterday.

40" track actuator mounted on a base to help position it over the drop ceiling.



The far end with a pully to guide the vinyl coated wire. We positioned the notched block of wood around the pulley to help keep it stable while it is under load.



The near end with the motor housing. This device is 12 v DC but the wireless remote that I got came with a 120 v AC to 12 v DC transformer so I was able to just plug it into the wall.

 

a view of the wire attached to the top of the canopy.

 

The canopy in the lowered position. Normally there will be more slack in the wire and it will rest on the top of the canopy and not be as noticable.



The canopy in the raised position. You can see the little bit of painting that I still have left to do. I want to do a bit more tweaking on this but I'm already quite pleased that it gets the job done.



I'm planning on cutting a 2"x10" to the right length to lay across the top of the tank so that I can lay on that and have good access to work in the upper 30" of the tank. I'm still trying to figure out a way to stretch my arms that last 18" .

 

Someone in Richmond should have a rack you can use to stretch your body a bit. Not sure if you can get 18 inches out of it

 

I originally planned to build up all of my corals from frags but I confess that the desire for instant gratification does have me checking out some larger specimens.

I also wondered if I will be able to cheat on my cycle a little bit Here's why... I won't have an initial spike from live rock die off since I'm starting with dry rock. With over 700 gal of water I should have plenty of dilution for even 20" of fish. Just something to think about. (please no flaming, I didn't say that I'm actually going to do this--I've planned/worked on things for over a year now. A few more weeks won't kill me or any fish)

 

nice planning gotosleep, tank looks amazing! cant wait to see stuff swimming around in it!