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Unread 12/22/2011, 10:16 AM   #26
erbgo
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you could do a sump you just need to do a box but I have done many tanks without overflows and sumps you just have to be on top of it more you will be fine and I want to do a couple of walls 1 for my 220 to cover the blue overflow and one in my 56g collum yours came out very nice


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Unread 12/22/2011, 10:28 AM   #27
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Following! I Love these corner units!


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Unread 12/22/2011, 10:38 AM   #28
gmate
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I would definitely do it again (the rockwall). It was a good amount of time/work, but worth it. I'd say making the wall, cutting it to size, trimming the back so it was even, and then siliconing it in was probably about 6-10 hours of work. But then with the waiting for the foam to cure, silicon to dry, etc, it was about 4 days process. Total expense, with the rock, was probably about 75 dollars. And the way the rock is situated, it essentially takes away no room from the existing rock structure I would have, so it's all just added filtration and surface area.

There's a lot of limitations on this tank. The sump being that I don't want any additional noise or water volume on this floor of the house. I will be getting a bigger, nicer, house when this lease is up in a year. And hopefully, owning it. Then it's fair game. If I have a worst-case scenario flood, it's not my home and I'd be in deep trouble.

Also, too lazy to drill an overflow on this bad boy.


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Unread 12/22/2011, 11:48 PM   #29
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Having a conversation with the wife and not paying attention while mixing salt in the display = my SG is 1.030 now. Removed and adding more RO/DI as we speak. Oops :P


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Unread 12/23/2011, 12:59 AM   #30
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Ok, so the salinity is a little better. I will fix it to perfect measures tomorrow; It's currently around 1.028 so I'll finalize that tomorrow. Ran out of RO/DI.

Sand went in. Here's some pictures. That's a glare from my computer monitor and lamp, in case you're wondering.







Turned off the powerheads to let the sand settle. AquaC Remora skimmer is a little louder than I'd like. It's not the pump that's loud, its the way the water just SPLASHES in. I can't dampen it. It's in the bedroom and my girlfriend will make me turn off the skimmer on the nights she stays over. That'll be worrysome for me, but hopefully only once or twice a week at most. I moved the powerheads around, and positioning shouldn't be an issue with the rock wall. I'll just have to purchase an extension cord to run the other powerhead.

We'll see how fast the sand settles. If all goes well I'll pick up some seed rock tomorrow. If not it'll wait another day or two.


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Unread 12/23/2011, 08:18 AM   #31
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wife and girlfriend not bad....


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65g seahorse tank 20g sump with a reef octopus skimmer ,tlf 150 reactor, red sea ozone generator controller,cpr hob fuge with light and 2 China led lights one 42x1 w and one 24x3 w. occupied by 4 ecectus seahorses a couple small gobies and cuc.

Current Tank Info: 58g main with 20g sump
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Unread 12/23/2011, 08:59 AM   #32
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One in the same my friend. Somedays she's the wife somedays she's the girlfriend, love her either way


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Unread 12/23/2011, 09:16 AM   #33
mtc1966
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gmate View Post
One in the same my friend. Somedays she's the wife somedays she's the girlfriend, love her either way
and you were on the verge of inspiring me again.


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65g seahorse tank 20g sump with a reef octopus skimmer ,tlf 150 reactor, red sea ozone generator controller,cpr hob fuge with light and 2 China led lights one 42x1 w and one 24x3 w. occupied by 4 ecectus seahorses a couple small gobies and cuc.

Current Tank Info: 58g main with 20g sump
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Unread 12/23/2011, 09:40 AM   #34
BubbaBoBobBrain
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Lol


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Unread 12/23/2011, 09:38 PM   #35
gmate
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So my two powerheads, fluval hagens, have the sweet function of being a powerhead or reversing flow down under and becoming filters. So I cranked those two for an hour and it's already become twice as clear. Within another hour or two we'll be in business.

I'd like to thank Captainfester and his friend, Mike. Mike was kind enough to let me into his home and show me his awesome setup tucked into the basement. His 4 chamber refugium was awesome. The amount of live rock he gave me for what little I paid him was astounding and has a ton of life on it. Visible pods, worms, small dusters, tons of snails, sponges, etc. One piece is more than a 1.5 feet x 1 foot and has to weigh nearly 20lbs - the size of live rock you'd expect to pay 75 dollars for in a LFS with that much life on it. So thanks again guys, I really appreciate the help. It'll be excellent base pieces to my aquascape once I get some smaller pieces.

I'll throw another picture up once the rock goes in. Here's where we're at as of five minutes ago:




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Unread 12/23/2011, 09:49 PM   #36
mtc1966
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yeah i have gotten great rock from Mike . mine was filled with hundreds of tiny brittle stars but they got wiped out during a ridex application for flatworm. wished a few survived but they never reemerged.


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65g seahorse tank 20g sump with a reef octopus skimmer ,tlf 150 reactor, red sea ozone generator controller,cpr hob fuge with light and 2 China led lights one 42x1 w and one 24x3 w. occupied by 4 ecectus seahorses a couple small gobies and cuc.

Current Tank Info: 58g main with 20g sump
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Unread 12/23/2011, 10:48 PM   #37
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Tank cleared up nice within an hour. It'll be even better by bedtime.



The live rock from Mike went in. No particular placement or order, just getting it in there. Upon removing it from the trash bags, I found a few critters. Snails, etc



Found about five bristleworms ranging from two to six inches in length. Grabbed these two contemplating whether or not I wanted to let them in my tank (they are debated to be good or bad, depending on who you are). Well I put them in the little in-tank refugium / captivity thing and they started going at each other. They ball up together, extend their bristles, and go nuts. Probably fighting.


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Unread 12/23/2011, 10:57 PM   #38
mtc1966
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looking good. I was never a fan of bristle worms just freak me out. i had a bunch at one time then cut way back on my feeding they disappeared.


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65g seahorse tank 20g sump with a reef octopus skimmer ,tlf 150 reactor, red sea ozone generator controller,cpr hob fuge with light and 2 China led lights one 42x1 w and one 24x3 w. occupied by 4 ecectus seahorses a couple small gobies and cuc.

Current Tank Info: 58g main with 20g sump
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Unread 12/24/2011, 12:47 AM   #39
gmate
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Seen two of these guys already. Brittle Stars coming out to play and exploring the rock wall.



Snails rummaging out of the big piece of rock and coming to explore as well. There were at least a dozen snails wedged in that rock. What kind of snail is this? Looks like a small turbo if I had to guess.


This is immediately after firing up the pump. I thought the cup was too low, so I wedged it higher. Still collecting foam. It's white, but that'll change.




Overall, I'm very happy with this so far. It's exactly as I wanted it. It's not totally clear yet, but it should be perfect by tomorrow. This is six months of daily reading, learning, asking questions, google'ing my heart out....all culminating into the day my tank is set up and takes life. I'd like to thank CTARS for helping me out this far and RC for being awesome. Goodnight all.


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Last edited by gmate; 12/24/2011 at 12:53 AM.
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Unread 12/24/2011, 09:05 AM   #40
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Woke up this morning to a few ML of green skim in the cup. I'm surprised that there's die off that quick. I'm going to start testing ammonia and nitrites today.


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Unread 12/24/2011, 02:05 PM   #41
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Looking good gmate! I like the rock wall look a lot, are you just going to leave it with the two pieces in the center and then the rock wall, or add more rock?

Ben


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Unread 12/24/2011, 02:18 PM   #42
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Gonna do a lot of rock. Another 55 corner build from another forum with a ton of rock. Imagine this, but with my walls:

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/6748/58bluefar.jpg

And you'll see what I'm envisioning. A few SPS on the wall and top, then mostly caps trees polyps in the middle and some fun stuff on the bottom with low-light low-flow corals. Stocking I'm thinking a Golden Dwarf Moray, mandarin (in a few months), and then the rest is up in the air. My 'fish' want list is very small. I'm in it for the coral. I'll upgrade to LEDs in a few months once money frees up, the T5's will do for now.

EDIT: Rehosted the image so I can link it.


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Last edited by gmate; 12/24/2011 at 02:36 PM.
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Unread 12/24/2011, 02:32 PM   #43
BubbaBoBobBrain
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Now that is a lot of rock, lol. I have a lot of rock in my tank, but not that much, lol


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Unread 12/24/2011, 03:20 PM   #44
gmate
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I'm definitely not a minimalist.

The more rock I put in, the more I fear for the flow in the back corner though. I'm going to have to throw an extra pump in there eventually.


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Unread 12/24/2011, 03:55 PM   #45
ilikelps
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I see what you mean now haha, I like a lot of rock too. I like the way it looks a little more like the actual ocean, rather than a piece of art in you living room

Ben


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Unread 12/25/2011, 12:40 AM   #46
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Disaster averted. Came home today and opened my bedroom door, smelt like fried rubber. Couldn't find the smell, thought a pump was burning out in the DT or something. Turns out the power strip I use (8 socket, built in timer for 4 of the sockets so I can time day lights night lights etc) was getting some wetness from somewhere. Not quite sure, because my powerheads don't break the surface of the water like that and my skimmer cup isn't full enough to cause an issue. And there's no jumping fish...but regardless, there was water on the floor. No tank leaks either. Idk.

Well the unit was fried and was doing little sparks in one of the sockets that had a heater plugged into it. I was probably 12 hours away from an electrical fire had I not caught it.

Now I have to go buy timers for all my lights. Anyone know of a cheap controller that can function my lights and heaters and stuff efficiently, and not too expensive? I'm bad with that stuff, but I'm not home enough and I absolutely MUST have my lights on a timer.


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Unread 12/25/2011, 06:47 AM   #47
BfishLpond78
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I use Brinks timers from walmart...about 10 bucks a pop and havent failed me yet. They have the dial ones and the digital ones...i opted for digital ones.


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Unread 12/26/2011, 04:15 PM   #48
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Evening of the 24th: Rock goes in
Morning the 25th: .25 ammonia
Evening of the 25th: 1.0 ammonia?!

I got readings way faster than I thought I would. So I assume there was a lot of die-off? Well, I tested the ammonia this morning, it was back down to .5. I thought this couldn't be possible, but just for laughs I tested nitrite. 1.0!

Just tested ammonia and nitrite again. Ammonia .25, Nitrite 1.0, no nitrates. I did put, at this point, about 60lbs of fully pre-cycled rock into my tank. But do you think I can hop the cycle that fast? It doesn't seem possible. With all the freshwater tanks I've ever had, the fastest I've had a full cycle was in 10 days. But I was under the impression it was much longer with saltwater.

I was at Puppy Center today (thanks for the great deal on the live rubble rock I got, Joe - that'll finalize my rockwork) and picked up two clowns for 20. Acclimated them over a half hour and then went out to dinner. Came back, they seem active as they were in the store. . Starter fish, they've already eaten frozen and are happily swimming about together. I'm pretty confident with them, surprisingly. I didn't want to rush this, but with the readings I got I figured I'd give it a shot. I even bought a second nitrite kit at PC because I thought my original was giving me false readings. Got the same thing on the new API one. Ammonia just read .25 as well.

I'd really, really, really like to thank Frankyrivera as well. He was kind enough to give me not one, but four frags to start me off! And Frank, they're already showing polyp extension. The hammer is about half out and the yellow polyps on the mushroom branch you gave me are starting to poke out. Also amazed they'd show themselves this fast! I'm so appreciative of what you've given me, thanks again!
Thoughts?


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Last edited by gmate; 12/26/2011 at 04:42 PM.
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Unread 12/26/2011, 04:24 PM   #49
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I thought about it, and I'm going to do some LED's in the back of the tank too. The T5's are fine for a majority of what I'm looking to do, but as you can see from this picture that the light doesn't really penetrate the back of the tank. The way I have to rig the T5's across the tank at an angle (bowfront problems, ugh!) means I'm not getting a fair dispersion.



I'm also going to replace my powerheads with Koralia's. One pointing up and one pointing down, so I can get flow within the rockwork. That's my biggest fear with this tank, that the dead flow behind the rocks in the corner could cause an issue. Anyone here have corner tanks they've experienced that with? I've read about flow issues in other parts of RC with corner tanks, I'd like to be preemptive with the issue.


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Unread 12/27/2011, 12:55 PM   #50
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Success! The Kenya frag this morning when I turned on the lights was nearly touching the rock it was so drooped. Within fifteen minutes it picked up, and it's extended more than yesterday. My mushrooms are in full extension and the hammer is coming out. My clowns are happy as can be and ate out of my hand today, which was fun. Ammonia is at .25, Nitrite at .5, no detectable nitrates. I have a fair amount of snails from the rock I got from Mike (about a dozen) so I'm going to stop in Milford and grab additional CUC. Good stuff!


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