JessyCat77's 150g Custom Candyshop

[Jessy.]

And so it begins... the merging of "Tales of the Bedroom 90 " with the new custom 150 in Temecula, CA.

I'm moving my tank and up to Temecula and upgrading to a 150 in the process.

Tank:
Custom build by Charlie @ www.fishtankfactory.com
Glass (not drilled) 48"L x 30"W x 24"H
Rimless, 1/2" regular glass, Polished edges

Stand aka "The Beast":
Built by Dave @ Mitchell Construction (davocean)
49"L x 31"W x 31"H
2x4 construction to be faced later. This thing is a tank (as in the army kind with a big gun...the run over you and squish you like a bug kind) A++++ on the construction. As Dave so perfectly put it, "Glued, Screwed, and Tattooed."

All Equipment will be transferred from the 90.

And the story begins...
I called Charlie and got a great quote from him for the tank. Literally 1/2 the cost Leemar wanted. So I ordered and gave him a deadline of the 26th of June which was only about two weeks from the day I called him. There was a chance it would have gotten done much earlier but he had jury duty, but I give him an A+ on communication through the whole build. He kept me up to date on when to expect it the whole time. I specifically ordered the tank just as it is. I wanted it without the trim at the top and polished on the edges. I couldn't afford Eurobracing, and I don't mind a center brace at all, so I ordered it with 18" openings so my equipment could fit in the openings perfectly and HOB. In then end, I picked up the tank on the 25th. I drove up to Alhembra, CA to the factory and got a pretty cool tour of the whole place up there. I'd highly recommend them for a stand or a tank. Really solid operation they have going on up there.

6/25/08 I drop off the tank in Temecula on the way down to SD.

6/26/08 Davocean begins work on the stand at his place and I go pick up 160lbs of sand and a big ol' bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. (Pics of the stand build from dave coming soon)

Dave finishes the stand about 5pm (Rome wasn't built in a day, but my "Beast" of a stand sure was) and we load it into my RAV4 ("Tonka") along with 8 empty jugs of water, 160lbs of sand, and a big ole bucket of salt. That truck has never failed me in fitting an enormous amount of stuff in it and still be able to close the back door.

We drive up to Temecula and my parents assist us with getting the tank in place in the final resting place, the new family room.

I make a run to the closest LFS Deep Sea Creatures on the 79 and fill up 50 gals of RO/DI water. Must give huge props to this store for having an AWESOME design and layout. I talked to the owner and I guess the store design was a design final for some student. It paid off. Nicest LFS I've ever been in. The livestock was sorely lacking, but that can always be fixed later. I'll have to go back and get pictures later.

Went back home, mixed up the first 50gals with Instant Ocean salt since that is what my animals are a custom to now, and put the sand to settle in that water overnight with a powerhead for circulation.


















After a long day of work, I thought Dave at least deserved a beer or two and a burger... we ate way too much but had a nice wrap up to a hard day of work.




I'll be back tomorrow with another 50gals of water to mix and some LR and a skimmer.... the big move with the livestock is going to be Saturday.

Thanks MUST go out to:
Jon & Kai for moving my "non reef" stuff on Sunday
Jasper for babysitting my acans.
Paul for babysitting my ric garden.
Dave for building me my stand and helping me with the manual labor of the set up.
Jess for helping me with all the hunting down of sand and stuff
and of course my parents for letting my little beasties rest in their family room for a year or so til I can get my living arrangements to something permanent.

More to come...

[crab0000]

Can't wait to see what it looks like when you get everything moved over! Congrats on the new tank!

[kar93]

Congrats on the new tank, Hope all goes well.

[sanababit]

grrrreat thread jess, congrats on the new tank, i am following this thread...

sanababit

[melev]

I see how it is - once the tank is full, then you stand in the picture to get the credit.

Congrats on getting a lot done. Don't rest until Sunday.

[davocean]

Nice looking tank!
And that carpenter, what a handsome, intelligent looking,and obviously super skilled dude!LOL

[Mykel Obvious]

Nice!! Can't wait to see it full

[Jessy.]

6/27/08

Had to pick up 80 more lbs of sand and 50 more gals of water..


Such a long day...and this time it was only me at the house











so of course there was about a 4 gal spill because I was too tired to lift the jug properly, and then I slipped and fell...its been a loooooong day.

I had to take measures to clear up the tank for the new inhabitants tomorrow. So in goes the filter sock I stole from Jess (thanks jess ) and my skimmer...

WHICH I BROKE!!!!!! UGH can anything else go wrong?!

OH WAIT YES it can!!

My rainsford goby decided to hitchhike in the rock I transferred and I found him dead in the bottom of the bucket. WAAAAAAAAAAAA...

[melev]

It'll get better - casualties of the move happen.

[Jessy.]

Jon and Dave playing "catch the wrasse" because he buried himself in the sandbed


Ed doin the dry goods movin




Kai and Jon getting the tank ready to haul off





Russ showed up with this awesome big bag to wrap the coral bin in....SOOOO glad he did because 90% of the water in that bin ended up in the bag and only trickled out into my car. I drove 1 hour with my corals in no water.






I had to rip out the carpet in my truck to dry it out... saltwater in a car is not good.





My not so genius idea to move my corals. Kai did a good job sectioning them off though







My new remora pro with pre-filter box and mag 3 pump. Fixed the old one with weld-on





Right when I tossed everything in. It went in a big pile overnight...






And the next morning, I did a little bit of aquascaping to just get the corals off one another





I'm thinking of making this visible from two sides. The left panel and the front. So i'm going to stack the rocks in the back right like a mountain and bring it out to a peninsula on the left.

[davocean]

Coming together nice Jessy, can't wait to see all your cool acans and stuff in after things settle.

[Jessy.]

Originally posted by davocean
Coming together nice Jessy, can't wait to see all your cool acans and stuff in after things settle.

Me too I think i'm going to go pick up my ric garden this week. Oh BTW gimme a call I have your trash can and we need to make a trip down to Tim's. LMK when you're available.

[Jessy.]

So I went to the tank today, bought a 10 lb rock at the LFS and finished off the rockwork.. I wasn't intending to leave it like this, but it grew on me. Really liking the swim space. So I finally got the corals off the sand bed and up on the rock...nothing is permanent at this point.. except the stag. I like it there..



The left side of my tank, in progress of becoming a "viewable" side as well



From the front





Wide angle so you can see my stand and lights

[InsaneClownFish]

I like the rockwork. Looks like it could be a reef drop off.

[sanababit]

coming along nicely jess, did you have any casualties?.....

[melev]

Very nice. I'd like to suggest you put a black background on the tank to hide the filtration gear. You can use window tint and vaseline to apply it, squeegeeing out the air bubbles.

[Jessy.]

Originally posted by melev
Very nice. I'd like to suggest you put a black background on the tank to hide the filtration gear. You can use window tint and vaseline to apply it, squeegeeing out the air bubbles.

yeah i have some, but i asked my family what they liked and they preferred the clear... go figure. It's at their house so unless it starts to bother me, i'll keep it as is

[melev]

They don't know better. It's your tank - make it awesome.

[Mykel Obvious]

Originally posted by melev
They don't know better. It's your tank - make it awesome.

+1

The colors just POP on a black background IMO

[kes_reef]

congrats! looks like all that hard work paid off. Love the colors!

[JJ21]

any reason why you didn't have the tank drilled so you could have a sump ect?


looks great though

[Mikeeee]

Everything is looking real nice.. but i too am wondering why not drilled?

[davocean]

Looking good Jess, I like the rockwork.

[sk8rreefgeek]

Just some sugg: I would've painted the stand along with sealant. Definitely would've set up a sump. Maybe have the tank running smoothly for at least a week before the transfers.
Obviously, you were pressed for time, that's understandable.
Being in a hurry and reef-keeping just don't mix
But it looks like most of the stuff made it thru ok, it looks nice

I'm 50/50 on the background, I like mine black, but I have to clean it about once every 3 weeks or so to keep it nice. A background will make it look much smaller (with the sump you could have a skimmer/heater down there, you can always get an overflow)

[GSMguy]

looks really good but i also have a suggestion, you are using around 140w of electricity 24/7 for those skimmers and the mag5s add lots of heat, If you decide to go with a sump and since electricity in california is so expensive i bet you could get a skimmer and a return pump in and still come in under 80w