Deleted User 4 Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Dude, that Aquaroche pillar scape looks pretty nice. But then again, I agree you should go with new scape and new BRS rocks for a new look on a new tank. New on new is always the best in my opinion. Also, I'm sure you can come up with a better scape than the Aquaroche pillar in your new elos mini haha. Can't wait to see what you do.....what kind of Brs rocks you trying to order? Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I like it! Although, the rock in the back with the zoas kind of detracts from the tower. Link to comment
DaveFason Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Excited Adam. Your are now tempting me to pull the trigger, I need a change! -Dave Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 Excited Adam. Your are now tempting me to pull the trigger, I need a change! -Dave DO IT!!! -------------------------- So all the various parts and pieces arrived yesterday afternoon and luckily I was able to snag some time to unbox everything, stare at it in amazement, and grab a couple of quick pictures. After getting things setup in what I thought was going to be the place for the tank, my wife and I decided that it would actually look a lot better in another room. Of course that room isn't painted yet so that will be my "to do" for this evening so I can set it in place and get it going Super busy at work but I did want to get a couple of pictures up and give you my first impressions. Having only had it in hand for less than 24 hours, here are my thoughts - Quality - You can tell by the seams, the crystal clear front pane, and the overall fit and finish of the stand, sump, and overflow that this thing was made by hand and with some real attention to detail. Not that I was expecting anything less Setup - Although it has been fairly straight-forward to set up, I see that ELOS joins a long list of other companies that doesn't quite grasp the concept of instrutions. What was included was pretty lame to be honest. Customer Support - I've been chatting with Jesse (out of their California office) on and off for a week now about shipping and earlier today about how to set things up. He has been super responsive, a huge help, and although I'm sure he's answered each question a 1,000 times, he really took the time to explain things. Always great knowing that a company stands behind and supports their product. I'm planning on giving everything a good rinse, doing a quick leak check, and then hopefully getting this stinking room painted so I can put it in it's place and start to piece things together. A big thanks to "Lawnman" who has been great at answering my questions about modifying the sump setup. When I have more time, I'll post some more information about what I plan to change so that I can run the EShopps skimmer. Here are some quick pics of the fine fine lady Let the fun begin...... -Adam Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Dude.....soo sickk!! Now I really can't wait to get mine........By the way, the room looks painted haha. Also, the elos logo is embedded permanently onto the glass right? Can we get some more pictures of the tank please......I want to see some more ahaha.It's that freaking nice... Link to comment
xcom Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Oh hello! Another Elos MINI owner!!! Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Oh hello! Another Elos MINI owner!!! Boy you seem bored!!! Gave you a better temptation on your thread!! Check it. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Dude.....soo sickk!! Now I really can't wait to get mine........By the way, the room looks painted haha.Also, the elos logo is embedded permanently onto the glass right? Can we get some more pictures of the tank please......I want to see some more ahaha.It's that freaking nice... I know man. It's honestly a work of art empty so I'm so excited to get it in place and started. Should be awesome once I get it all figured out, up and running, and filled with coral Yeah, unfortunately that's the living room and it's not the room that it's going in. Got the room all taped off last night so it's time to get crackin' with the brush and room. Ah the joys of home ownership...haha. More pictures are definitely in order. Getting ready to give it a good hose down and polish so hopefully I'll have some more pictures to post in later tonight or in the morning. And yes, the ELOS logo is permanently etched into the front panel....looks pretty bada$$ to me Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Dude! It's like the only tank brand that has a stitched in logo....not even ada tanks have it.....freaking sweet....... Can't wait to get mine. By the way, why wouldn't you want to put the elos mini in the living room??? Don't you want the visiting guests to stare at the beauty of it??? Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 A really quick update before a busy work day gets started. I spent the better part of Friday getting the room where the tank is going painted, getting the tank/sump/stand cleaned up, and generally learning the ins and outs of the sump and general tank setup. Having a tank with an overflow and sump is brand new to me so I wanted to make sure that I boned up on the basics Then I spent way too much time messing around with a pipe bender and thinking about a way to hang the Ryujin fixture. After about 3 attempts I finally got it right and I'm actually really happy with the way it turned out. The rest of the weekend was spent making water, leveling the stand/tank and starting to fill it all up. Right now, the tank is just about full and I plan on topping it the rest of the way off during lunch and firing up the return pump and skimmer. All was pretty cloudy yesterday so after it's done filling and I add a few rocks, hopefully I can grab some pictures. I have a bunch of pictures on my memory card of the tank, sump redesign, and the tank in it's final spot. If this 4 hour meeting wraps up early, hopefully I can get some posted. Reading text is only so much fun for so long. Really excited to have this bad boy finally going. Excited to get it all squared away and then move my clown and coral over. -Adam Link to comment
metrokat Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Following! ELOS are gorgeous tanks, can't wait to see your build. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 Following! ELOS are gorgeous tanks, can't wait to see your build. Glad to have you following along. It's been nothing but talk until this point so hopefully things will get a little more lively now that the tank is wet and fully running. I have a slew of pictures to post and some explanation to go along with each so I'll just post a couple right now. Last "Clean" Shots of the Tank. Really like the overflow on this tank. Although I like the edge to edge overflows as well, this one is nice and sleek and really is about as unobtrusive as possible. Still can't get over the low-iron front pane. You can literally look from the top all the way through to the stand and it's Vodka clear. Although I actually moved it to the other wall so it doesn't get blasted by too much natural light, you get an idea of the color of the room and how well the tank fits. Love the modern feel Got it filled the rest of the way during lunch and fired up the return. It sounds a little like I have a toilet running in the front of the house but I imagine that will quiet down once everything slimes up and gets broken in. Pics of the sump (with diagram) and skimmer coming soon. -Adam Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Hmmm unfortunately, the pictures you've just posted, can't be seen....please fix? Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 Hmmm unfortunately, the pictures you've just posted, can't be seen....please fix? Give it a try now..... Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Thanks man. Dude, looks sooo clean and perfect. Talk about the flawless hand craftsmanship there, I really love it. Is it in the living room now? Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 Thanks man. Dude, looks sooo clean and perfect. Talk about the perfect hand craftsmanship there, I really love it. Is it in the living room now? Completely agree with you. It's actually in the "formal" living room that's in the front of our house. The room will eventually become a nice sitting room...right now it just has two nice chairs and my tank. I told my wife that I don't think we have to add anything else to the room Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Completely agree with you. It's actually in the "formal" living room that's in the front of our house. The room will eventually become a nice sitting room...right now it just has two nice chairs and my tank. I told my wife that I don't think we have to add anything else to the room Dude, omg!!! This is like my perspective of my dreamhouse as well!!!. Dude, I seriously believe we have the same tastes ahah. Like, for my dreamhouse, I'm planning on going very minimal in the house. Black and white walls, hard-wood floors, marble tiles, no carpet ahah, the main furnitures, ELOS mini tank, and nothing else haha. I'm glad you're going minimal on the house as well. Somehow it makes the mind at more ease and peace setting. Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 I really love your wall colors and hard-wood floors....it's very similar to my room ahaha. I also chose that same exact color for my room, where you have your elos mini placed at. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Thanks man. It's a good thing my wife has a keen eye for interior design Without turning this into an episode of HGTV, I'll just say that I like modern design with more of a comfort feel. Although I like minimal design for certain things (kitchen for instance), I'm not one for a really stark feel in places like the living room, etc. Gotta keep it clean but homey feeling as well...haha. From the way things looked this morning, I should be able to take a few shots this evening since the water has cleared a bit. I haven't finalized my rock work since I only have about 1/2 in there but at least I can get some feedback. I swear designing a base rock structure has always been a challenge for me....just tough to think about how it will look with coral and not just look at the rock itself. On another note, I wanted to explain the modifications that I made to the sump area to accommodate the Eshopps skimmer. Although others have done something similar, there are very few pictures that actually explain things. I'm a visual learner so hopefully others will find this useful. Here's a picture of the sump in which I've noted where various equipment is placed First, I rotated the sump 180 degrees so that the labels are facing the rear of the tank. This places the ATO reservoir on the right and the filter sock and other chambers at the back. There is a slanted baffle that I removed using a straight razor. If you set up the sump as originally manufactured, this is supposed to be a place where microbubbles collect and can dissipate although that's questionable. Cutting this out opens up space for the skimmer and return pump. The drain from the display goes into the filter sock/sponge, then travels through the other chamber where I'm going to have some Chemi-Pure Elite before dumping back into the skimmer area and then back up to the display. Heater and return pump are jammed into the now larger compartment next to the heater. I'm going to break out my old JBJ ATO and put the sensor in the same spot as the skimmer since this remains constant (or should). Hope that's useful. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. Thanks again to Lawnman for the help in getting this setup right the first time. The drain noise has subsided a little but it still sounds like we have a toilet running in the room....hopefully it slimes up and quiets down soon. -Adam Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 This gonna be epic all the way! Following Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 This gonna be epic all the way! Following Thanks Glad to have you following along. Here are a few pictures of the EShopps S-120 skimmer that I've been breaking in for a few days now. Although it's certainly not a Bubble King or one of the higher end cone skimmers, from all that I've read it is a really solid unit that outperforms for it's price. I was sold mainly based on the price, the use of a quality Sicce pump, and the reviews/feedback that I've read. Just from the few days that it's been running, it's nice to have something that truly is plug and play. I find that doesn't happen very often in this hobby. And here it is tucked away in it's new "home" in the sump. It's SO nice not having various equipment hanging off and in the tank. -Adam Link to comment
Deleted User 4 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Wow, very nice job on adjusting the sump and providing the details... Link to comment
TimberC Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I can tell that your tank is going to b epic. I'll make sure to check your thread every now and then to see how this set up unfolds. Link to comment
divecj5 Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Wow, very nice job on adjusting the sump and providing the details... Thanks. Glad you found it useful...hopefully it'll be handy when you get yours eventually Since this is my first tank with a sump, I was really making it a lot more complicated in my head than it is in reality. It helped talking to Jesse at ELOS (who is a great guy) and following the lead of others. I can tell that your tank is going to b epic. I'll make sure to check your thread every now and then to see how this set up unfolds. I hope you're right. This is my 5th tank so hopefully I've learned some things along the way and will finally have a system that I'll be proud of and happy with. Sometimes I'm tempted to go SPS dominant with this one and try and replicate my 20H during it's hay-day. We'll see where things go though. Glad to have you following the build. Super Clean. I like!!! Thanks. I have to say that's been one of my favorite things about this tank so far. Beyond the build quality, everything just fits together like a glove and is super-effective in its simplicity. Heading to the LFS after work to scope out the LR that they got in recently so hopefully I'll have some actual tank pics soon. Need to move the light from my 17g over to this one to really see how it looks. I'm starting to make a little wish list of coral for this tank. Definitely near the top is the ORA Pearlberry. Behind the Hawkins Echinata and Icefire Echinata, it's one of my all time favorites. Really love the delicate branches and subtle coloration. Sometimes I miss my old tanks Link to comment
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