Jman's 310 Upgrade!

[jman930]

Update

fish are in! Used Dr Tim’s and after couple days tank was ready! Also still not lights on the tank. The aquatic life fixtures are a little over 49” fully assembled. Not enough room so I’ll be sending one back to BRS (not even opened) to exchange for the 36” version. I imagine I’ll have lights over the tank by next weekend. I am however very happy with my custom light rack! The fixture will be able to slide out with ease for future bulb replacements. Not sire how to post videos but I’ll for sure get some photos of it in action soon!

here is my current view:


and here is my light rack without the hydras in it:

 

[jrhunter0000]

Love the scape looking good man!

 

[jman930]

Update

with some help the light rack and lights are in! This is my first experience with T5 (always had LED) and I must say they put out more light than I expected. They pretty much drowned out the Hydra 26’s. The hydras are only at 50% though so unless the par is too high (hot spot) I may increase the intensity to even it up. I’ll use my seneye later to see where the par levels are.

 

[jrhunter0000]

Wow. Looks good my friend! Love the blue

 

[york1]

Looks really good

 

[jman930]

Well it’s been almost a year with no update....

I had to tear it all down....because we moved! Interest rates were at all time lows and house prices were sky rocketing so we bought low and sold high! Now we have a lake view and all the room our family will

Huge shout out to Primer Aquatics for moving my tank safely to the new house. If you’ve never worked with the team there they truly are top notch.

So the new house comes with an advantage of a finished basement with a perfect wall for the tank! I’ll post some pictures of the tear down and the new set up soon!

 

[jman930]

Breaking the tank down, moving it, and the temporary “lagoon” the fish have been in since September.

 

[jman930]

So the previous home owner had a weekend warrior built bar down stairs. It wasn’t in top notch shape and our family doesn’t drink enough or entertain enough to warrant the bar so out it went. The bar was 10’ long and my 310 is 8’ long so naturally it will be a perfect place. Not to mention I now have a spot for a modest 10x5 fish room behind it!

 

[jman930]

 

[jman930]

Going to try and make the tank look flush and the tank itself will be the corner of the wall. Putting up sheet rock today so I’ll update more tonight or tomorrow.

 

[jman930]

Ok drywall is up. Just needs tape, mud, sanding and paint lol. Then I can start plumbing!

 

[civics14]

Ok drywall is up. Just needs tape, mud, sanding and paint lol. Then I can start plumbing!

View attachment 39305View attachment 39306
View attachment 39310View attachment 39314View attachment 39316

looks good, but its a shame you're hiding that nice stand inside the fish room.

 

[jman930]

looks good, but its a shame you're hiding that nice stand inside the fish room.

Agreed! I really wanted the built in look so I had to sacrifice the stand. 99% of the reason for even having the stand was for the warranty on the tank. Planet aquariums will only warranty the tank if it’s on their stand. If you build a custom stand I think you only get 90 days or a year warranty I can’t remember.

 

[civics14]

Agreed! I really wanted the built in look so I had to sacrifice the stand. 99% of the reason for even having the stand was for the warranty on the tank. Planet aquariums will only warranty the tank if it’s on their stand. If you build a custom stand I think you only get 90 days or a year warranty I can’t remember.

Oh dang, I had no idea. That’s a bit ridiculous to tie their warranty into buying their stand. Sounds like they are just trying to sell their warranty in their stands.

 

[YoungReefer10g]

this is gonna look stellar! Decent sized fish room too!

 

[jman930]

Mud is done. Should see some paint by the end of the week.

 

[scuba steve]

Oh dang, I had no idea. That’s a bit ridiculous to tie their warranty into buying their stand. Sounds like they are just trying to sell their warranty in their stands.

That's a pretty standard policy for most aquarium manufacturers. The seals in aquariums are highly dependant on having proper support, anything uneven can stress them and cause leaks. Improper support is one of, if not the biggest cause of leaks and they could be liable for damage unrelated to the quality of their product due to circumstances out of their control. Many aquarium builders do offer to extend their warranties upon qualified inspection of the use of another stand such as a built in.

 

[jman930]

Ok long over due update! Everything is painted and all the finishing touches done. I have my sump in the fish room and everything plumbed up.

I have rock and water in the tank too!

one thing different I’ve decided this time….no sand.

I hate having to be strategic about wave maker placement and dial them down. Flow is very important and no one likes the sand moving all over the place!

here are some update pictures:

 

[jman930]

All the fish aren’t in the tank yet. Put some clowns in there to see how they like things. Chemistry of the tank is good and all my live rock was transferred a good 24ish hours before hand. Still have a lot to do. Wave makers are still not in their final spots and cleaned up. Here are some updated pictures of the current state:

 

[jman930]

Update. Fish are in the tank and I now have a lot of tidying up to do. I won’t show the rats nest of power cords and adapters but that’s the next thing on the list.



Don’t currently have a demand for the calc reactor at the moment but I’ll be bringing on my MRC CR-6 online next. Trying to find a good place to set it up and have it be serviceable.
Then I’ll add some coraline to the tank and hopefully see some progress on that the next 4-8 weeks.

also need to get my clean up crew rolling. Question for those that have bare bottom tanks. What’s your go to CuC?