Planning

Have been really lazy in updating this blog but here goes:

I have had an aquarium built with dimensions looking like 48x24x18 inches. The tank was made by a custom glass dealer who has alot of experience with tank building. I initially wanted wanted a shallow rimless tank but to do this i would need very thick glass which would put the tank outside my budget. In the end i went with these dimensions and had to live with two braces in the middle of the tank running from the middle of the overflow. It's not what i pictured but I will make it work. Along with the tank i also had a 50 gallon sump built. When designing the system I was very confused and as a result i ended up with a wet-dry filter instead of a refugium. Later on I will customize this to suit my needs. Overall I am very happy with the build quality of my tanks.

I have also aquaired all my bulkhead fittings from www.glass-holes.com along with some fancy loc line fittings and plan to install these to increase flow entering the aquarium. My wife also bought me a 6 stage Reverse Osmosis system so that i will have the extra clean water that is required to start my tank. In my possession from my last tank i have a Tek 36 inch system with 4 t5's. Later on I will need to upgrade this system but for now i hope to incorporate it into this system. I also possess a Tradewinds Inline 1/4 hp chiller which is much needed in the caribbean in order to maintain a constant temperature for the coral to live.

Currently the only things I am missing to start my aquarium are a tank stand (which i plan on doing myself) and my new house which should be ready at the end of this month (maybe thats why I've been so lazy in updating this blog...

Anyway I plan to design my tank stand using google sketchup and use a model which i found in this informative thread on reefcentral. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=14306359#post14306359.

By the way reefcentral has now become my new addiction and I am sure when i set up my tank i will have problems with the "go slow let it grow" mindset that i must undertake when i start my tank.