Habitat - Indoor :: Penelope's New 500 gallon Tank ***the pics begin**

[PridgNYC]

No, I think the coarse sand is a little too coarse, find some pool filter sand. It is only 5 cents a pound and already clean.

[cutepanda86]

Sounds like a photo laden project! lol

[penelope]

Operation sand started...
First, the brackets that hold her doc went 'kerplunk' the other day, so I ditched them altogether.
I went to Home depot, and since I'm lazy and hate cutting pipe, I bought sprinkler risers. They come in 6", 8", 12", 18", and 24" pieces (threaded on both ends) - plus they are dark grey. Cost? a whopping 0.87 for the 8 inch, and 1.21 for the 24 inch -SOLD!
Then I bought some PVC side outlets (one threaded opening and two smooth). Since I don't care about running water through them, I didn't care about a water tight seal, I just connected them with Gorilla glue epoxy and voila! a PVC stand!
The threaded openings make it possible to take it apart and put it together under water (didn't have to fight taking off the canopy).
On to the sand.
Washing it was kind of fun - felt like a kid in the sand box. It seemed to take forever, but I think I got pretty good. So I put in 100lbs. It looks OK, but there are still bare areas.
I have another 100lbs in my trunk. I was debating putting it all in at once so that I only have to go through the cloudiness and settling one time, but the World Series will be on soon. Ergo, I will add the other 100 pounds next weekend.

I think I did things a little backwards - I cleaned the tank and the filters and then put in the sand - only to realize that I'll have to lug the filters out again once all the sand settles and the water clears - oh well.

Oh! Penelope actually wandered around the living room while some of this was going on ; now she is asleep under the TV stand. It's warm and her tank is still settling, so I'll leave her there awhile longer. I'm not sure how clear the water has to be before putting her back in, but the longer I wait the better (I guess).

Oops - she just poked her head out from under the TV. Maybe she wants to watch baseball with me. I just hope she doesn't talk during the whole game -

I'll post pics later

[cutepanda86]

lol Penelope sounds like an awesome turtle. Sounds like the tank is coming along too.

[penelope]

So here is the simple, yet sturdy, platform holder. It doesn't float; it doesn't hog up tank space and I actually kind of like it.
I'm still sticking with those mosaics.
So here are a few pics of how it is put together - do yourself a favor- unlike me - take the price tags off before it goes in the water. It saves ripping them off later (I just wasn't thinking).
You can also see the first batch of sand. It cleared up within a couple hours.

[penelope]

The gal

[cutepanda86]

Oooohhhhh looking sexy! Wow she has some claws. Sheldon would rip me to shreds with those. lol

[penelope]

Oh trust me, she has done her share of hand ripping! Her front claws aren't so bad; it's the rear ones. They are like razors (ouch!) - she usually only starts clawing those babies when she is headed somewhere that she doesn't want to be - like the "vet box" or iodine soaks. I swear she knows!
She can't catch me with the front ones. But after a bout with "grumpy turtle", I spend a week slapping Neosporin on my hand.
Most typically, her rebellion is trying to see how far she can extend her neck to bite me. It's amazing how long those little necks are!

[cutepanda86]

Oh they know. Sheldon can smell the "vet box" coming a mile away. lol

Sheldon has tried to bite but he caught a mouth full of kitchen glove and he doesn't do that to me anymore. Although he does try to get the vet. Yes it is very amazing. Especially when they are motivated. lol

[steve]

Looks very good! What's the top of the platform?

[penelope]

It's the same mosaics (the 12 x 12 connected with webbing) adhered to two 12 x12 glass tank dividers. The spacing between mosaics lets the water run off and the glass makes it heavy enough to just lie it on top unadhered. If it was Plexiglass I would probably have to secure it, but it's not so lucky me!
In other words, same platform; umpteenth stand.
I think I finally got a keeper!
Found some tricks for the sand, but I will add that to the sand thread.

[cutepanda86]

Cool! Glad it worked out.

[jason2713]

dang, I thought my 250gal tank with stand for $400 was a good deal! I dont even know what a 400gallon tank would look like in a side by side comparison of them. It would dwarf mine I'm sure.

[papoopeepoo]

Very impressive! Congratulations, large tanks are a maintenance breeze after the initial setup.