crabs new 24" cube

[i have crabs]

i while ago the wife gave the tanks the boot down to the basement except a 29g biocube which ive had for a few years, anyway since i can only have 1 tank on the main floor of the house i decided to replace it with a 24" cube and make it a sps only(mabey ill let some clams in though).
im starting this thread a bit earlier than i thought but id like some input on equipment and livestock.
as of right now i have the tank which is a starfire 24" cube with a internal overflow, 2 drains and 1 return all 3/4" bulkheads,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/oct192008005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/oct192008006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/oct192008009.jpg

not too exciting yet but i know id get linched if i didnt have some pics

[i have crabs]

next step is getting a stand and canopy built, if their is someone good in the Calgary area that can build something nice im thinking oak or maybe maple with black or some dark stain, since its gonna be in the living room its gotta be nicer that im able to build,im not thinking my super sweet 2x4 special is gonna cut it.

for lighting im still very up in the air so the options i was goin over where

option 1- 8-10 ho t5's wich would give me lots of color options,not bad cost wise and not to bad for heat, these would be retrofits so the canopy would have to stay on

option 2- a mh/t5 fixture with a 250w and 4 t5s mabey a giesemann or aquaphoton not overly picky on brand but has to be nice incase i dont keep the canopy on the tank

option 3 lumen max 3 250w with 4-6 t5's

option 4 2x lumen max 3's either 150w or 250w's and 2-4 t5's im worried about heat with 2 mh's in a canopy though.

option 5 - solaris i-5, costs the most but gives a lot of options for day cycles and the ability to turn down the power when adding new corals and no heat issues

[Marlin65]

Nice tank my vote is for option #2
Love that Starphire look.:biggrin:

[fishytime]

Nice tank my vote is for option #2
Love that Starphire look.:biggrin:

Oooooh nice tank man. With the tank being upstairs, unless you have central air or plan on a chiller I would opt for option 1 or option 5. As far as the tank stand goes....see my signature:biggrin:

[i have crabs]

ill send you a pm about the stand forshure,
ive never had a tank with a canopy so im a bit unshure if im gonna like it or not and if i mount t5's in thier im stuck keeping the canopy on the tank but i am happy with the 8 bulb tek i have on my other tank so im kinda leaning towards t5's cause the price vs. the solaris which would be about double.

might as well get some opinions on skimmers and return pumps while where at it, the return pump has to be quiet.. very quiet so does the skimmer, the tank is abou 60g and the sump will be mabey in the 30g range i think some thing in the 700-100gph range will work fine, id like a red dragon but might buy something cheeper to start off with and switch it later, the tank is only gonna have 3-5 fish so fairly small bio load but i might try out the blue coral method which will add alot of extra nutrients so i want a good skimmer that is quiet

[karazy]

just wondering where you got this made?

[i have crabs]

cant remember his name but the guy who builds tanks for golds. i wanted polished edges and a black overflow but things never seem to turnout exactly how they should for some reason

[Delphinus]

Those are some mighty nice floors ... I know what my wife would do to me if I spilled SW on a floor like that. :lol: (I'm banished to the basement too ever since we moved into our new place.)

Anyhow nice tank setup, should be a fun build. :)

[JDigital]

next step is getting a stand and canopy built, if their is someone good in the Calgary area that can build something nice im thinking oak or maybe maple with black or some dark stain, since its gonna be in the living room its gotta be nicer that im able to build,im not thinking my super sweet 2x4 special is gonna cut it.

for lighting im still very up in the air so the options i was goin over where

option 1- 8-10 ho t5's wich would give me lots of color options,not bad cost wise and not to bad for heat, these would be retrofits so the canopy would have to stay on

option 2- a mh/t5 fixture with a 250w and 4 t5s mabey a giesemann or aquaphoton not overly picky on brand but has to be nice incase i dont keep the canopy on the tank

option 3 lumen max 3 250w with 4-6 t5's

option 4 2x lumen max 3's either 150w or 250w's and 2-4 t5's im worried about heat with 2 mh's in a canopy though.

option 5 - solaris i-5, costs the most but gives a lot of options for day cycles and the ability to turn down the power when adding new corals and no heat issues


I say opt. 5.. :mrgreen: Looks like a sweet tank..

[i have crabs]

well i finally have something to update.
1. got the stand which turned out great thanks to kevin and doug
2. sold the biocube that was in the space where this tank is going
3. bought basically all the equipment
even though the stuff has been bought im now stuck waiting for the sump which ended up being 19"wide by 20" long and 18"tall and is the biggest i could fit fairly simple design (i think so anyway) and im also waiting on the return pump which is gonna be a red dragon 4.5 so hopefully in the next couple of weeks the stuff will show up and i can get it cycling

for lights i went with 2x 24" 4 bulb tek lights im hoping this wasnt a mistake but i cant test the par numbers untill i get it running to know for shure, i skipped on the solaris because where the fans are located on the side and also the tank is 24" wide and thier has been some unhappy people with how the spread of light goes to straight down.at least with the t5's the entire tank is covered in lights except the 3 inches between the 2 fixtures

bought a vortec for flow, ive been very happy with the 2 in my other tank since the 2nd generation has come out and it eliminates any wires in the tank

for the skimmer i went with a bubble king 160, i could have gone with a 180 also but the 160 was in stock and the price was already high enough as it was and i think the 160 will do quite nicely

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/DSC_0005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/DSC_0004.jpg

[Keri]

That's a beautiful stand!

[Skimmerking]

looks great man , what are you going to put in there any ways

[Rbacchiega]

+1

btw the 6 foot tank I bought off you way back in the day is looking stellar as my threadfin tank

[i have crabs]

That's a beautiful stand!

im shure red coral would love to build you one just like it, the wife picked the stain and it did turn out nice so im likely gonna get 2 6foot stands built for the next project

Rbacchiega- im glad you like the tank its almost a standard 130g but getting the small eurobrace and the black silicone gives it a bit more class than just a regular tank

the plans for the tank is all sps with maybe a few clams
my fish list so far is
1 blue spot jawfish
1 mystery wrasse
possibly a flame angel im iffy on this one due to their behavour around corals and clams
maybe a blenny of some kind since they make me laugh
maybe 1 or 2 orchid dottybacks

[Boomboy]

wow how did i miss this thread earlier. tank looks great, makes me want to get the sapphire tank now. i hope those bulkheads can handle the flow you tend on putting through the tank. i guess you have the vortech to create lots.

[i have crabs]

i hope those bulkheads can handle the flow you tend on putting through the tank. i guess you have the vortech to create lots.

ill be running about 700gph through the tank and the rest into a small fuge in the sump, i don't think ill have any issues, ive usually used 1" bulkheads on most tanks with about 1200gph or more and no problems, ill be relying on the vortec for the actual flow in the tank and if i think their is a need i could always add a second one

[fishytime]

Are you going to stuff two teks in that canopy? Thats a kick-ass list of equipment, this should be a killer tank. Looking forward to water.

[i have crabs]

Are you going to stuff two teks in that canopy? .

yes thats exactly what i plan on

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/DSC_0012.jpg



after putting in bulbs im not all that impressed with the par numbers and im a bit unshure if the teks are gonna be stayin which really sucks since even though i got them for good prices if i sell them now brand new ill probably loose a bunch and have to spend a bunch more on something else.

[Rbacchiega]

huzah. Looking great.

Why don't you just try different bulbs? Saying that, what are you running in the units right now?

[fishytime]

:lol: I cant believe there was enough room in the canopy for two tek units. I kept it as narrow as I could and worried that I may have screwed you for retrofits....guess not.With eight bulbs to play with you shouldnt have any problem finding the color you like.

[fishytime]

[QUOTE=i have crabs;372478
after putting in bulbs im not all that impressed with the par numbers and im a bit unshure if the teks are gonna be stayin which really sucks since even though i got them for good prices if i sell them now brand new ill probably loose a bunch and have to spend a bunch more on something else.[/QUOTE]

The units are too far off the water? We could rig something up to drop the units down in the canopy? The 12" tall thang was to accommodate the mh pendant or whatever the original plan was.

[i have crabs]

right now thier about 10" from where the water line will be and ill drop them down quite a bit when the water goes in, on my 48" light the par goes up about 50 points from the highest to lowest point on the legs, right now thier is 1x22k 2x10k and 5xfiji's but ill be changing 1 or 2 of the fijis to 10k or something else

[i have crabs]

went and picked up the sump and thankfull it fit through th back of the stand without a problem since i made it as big as possible,
its 19"x20" and 18" tall,
the 2 holes are for the drains then they pour into the skimmer area which pours into the return pump area, the space in the right back corner is a small fuge which will have water pumped through the bulkhead and overflow back into the return pump area
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/024.jpg

thankfully the skimmer fit also since i didnt leave much extra room and i ordered the sump before buying the skimmer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/026.jpg

[i have crabs]

ill be finishing the plumbing over the next few days i hope but for now im gonna try to cover the back pain of glass and overflow with rocks,
i went and bought a cut off disk for a hand grinder i have.id rather use a big chop saw but i dont have one and im not gonna go buy one unless i have too
first step was trying to cut a rock in half without losing my fingers, for my test run i cut up a reef rock which is fairly solid but still didnt go all that bad, wasnt much fun but i was shure not to wear any safty equipment or proper tools so that helped im shure
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/038.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/039.jpg

the black crud washed right off no prob

i have some extra glass lids so im trying to attach the pieces so i can find out if this is even going to work or not, first piece i glued with mr.sticky which is a epoxy type glue
the second piece i used deltec epoxy and i had another flat piece that i tried to silicone
so im not gonna touch it till morning and hopefully one of the 3 will work like majic
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/040.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/041.jpg

[mtlmatt]

Hey guys,
I'm kind of new to the whole saltwater world and I have a few questions about a new frag tank I'm starting. I recently bought a current USA 24" 4 t5ho (24 watt each) (140$), a remora maxi jet 1200 (120$) 2 power heads and a heater, all in a custom tank
(24'x16'x18,) (180$). A friend of mine has a 140g saltwater tank and I'm going to use his water the next time he does a water change. I wanted to know if I would need more filtration, lighting, ECT. I would also like it if someone can give me some ideas on how to set up the tank and the egg crate. Thanks alot and I'm sure I will have more questions to come.

[i have crabs]

Hey guys,
I'm kind of new to the whole saltwater world and I have a few questions about a new frag tank I'm starting. I recently bought a current USA 24" 4 t5ho (24 watt each) (140$), a remora maxi jet 1200 (120$) 2 power heads and a heater, all in a custom tank
(24'x16'x18,) (180$). A friend of mine has a 140g saltwater tank and I'm going to use his water the next time he does a water change. I wanted to know if I would need more filtration, lighting, ECT. I would also like it if someone can give me some ideas on how to set up the tank and the egg crate. Thanks alot and I'm sure I will have more questions to come.

probably wouldnt be a bad idea to start your own thread wher people can help you better,
i dont think using his water is gonna do much for you but mabey some of his filter material will help yours cycle faster and also mabey get some pictures so we can see what your working with.

[i have crabs]

well thier was no way a could wait another 12 hours to the everything cure properly so i went and riped off 2 of the 3 rocks,
to be fair the mr sticky busted off but the glue definatly wasnt cured in the middle and probably would have been alot harder if i waited longer.
the dd epoxy rock i could barely bust off but it finally came off the rock(rock was quite smooth) it was very hard to get off though
finally the silicone rock i couldn't even get off twisted quite a but but wouldn't crack lose,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/002.jpg
since sillicone is a fraction of the price and seemed to hold quite well im happy enough with the results to risk my fingers and saw a bunch of rocks in half.
now i just have to go find some good candidates and probably a few more cutting disks

[Boomboy]

this is a really good idea, i was going to have a wall of rock on my back overflow, didnt think of this but now i will try it. you should kinda make it bigger on the bottom and gradually bring it in so that you could put corals on it also.

[rattler]

Hey crabs!

Maybe do a long test on the silicone in water. I remember looking at Piecies pets big tank not that long ago and over 60% of the rocks that they siliconed together were falling off. These rocks were attached to them selves, as well as to the glass. With this much work going in to this system it would be horrendous to have something fail and need to be re-set up.

Just a thought

Cheers!
Geoff

[i have crabs]

i thought the tank in picies was all made from foam and isnt even real rock,
i wanna cut a piece of regular live rock in half and see how solid the inside is compared to the reef rock if its solid with lots of holes i think it will hold well but if its crumbly like some of the less dense rock is then i think the rock its self might break apart while the silicone holds,
i think ill silicone all 3 back onto the glass and stick it in a bucket of water for a few days or a week maybe and we'll see how that goes i guess, im just getting ancy about getting water in the tank and its hard to hold out even though i know i should, maybe albert wont ship my pump in a timely manner and ill be forced to take my time

[Canadian]

Just tagging along for ideas as I plan a similar tank.

[i have crabs]

finally figure out a good way to do these rocks. the silicone worked ok but after a few days in water i was able to pull it off which left a bunch of rock crumbs in the silicone so i tried putting a thin layer of epoxy on the rock then i siliconed the rock to the glass,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/028.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/029.jpg

if anyone here thinks they have strong enough fingers to pull this apart now id like to see it and might even give you a prize, im quite shure you will be goin home with sore fingers though,
now i have to go buy some rocks that i can cut in half without to much problems,

[i have crabs]

also i dont suppose minus 30 is a good time to ship red dragon pumps,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/001-1.jpg
i talked to albert and hes sending me a new bracket likity split

[Delphinus]

Ouch. Glad to hear it will be taken care of though! :)

[i have crabs]

other than the problem with shipping it seems like a sweet pump and im glad i spoiled myself sofar.

[fishytime]

Spoiled indeed.:mrgreen: Gonna be the caddie'o'cubes for sure.

[kipsix]

finally figure out a good way to do these rocks. the silicone worked ok but after a few days in water i was able to pull it off which left a bunch of rock crumbs in the silicone so i tried putting a thin layer of epoxy on the rock then i siliconed the rock to the glass

A bunch of people on RC have rock-walled their tanks. A bunch used egg-crate and similar structure to start with. Nice thing is you can take it out when you want to change it up without having to scrape your aquarium sides.

this guy did a nice 5.5Gal.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1375191&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[i have crabs]

i thought about making it removable but with a vortech on the back wall i want it to be on the glass,
the guy with the 5g spent a whole lot more time than im planning with this i just dont want a big glass wall at the back of the tank covered in crud all the time, at least if its rocks im hoping it wont look so annoying plus this will help stacking rocks giving a bit of grip on the back wall instead of just glass, ive been waiting for some black acrylic to cover the overflow but i think if the rocks are fairly tight together it wont realy mater if the overflow is covered once all the cracks between the rocks get a bit of coralline it should fill in alright,
i guess im gonna have to buy a few good sized chunks of rock now also, it always hurts buying big rocks,spending 2-3hundered and having 3-4 rocks really bites

[i have crabs]

first of all pump parts showed up a while ago and once the pump sits on the rubber pads i cant see how this pump could possibly make a sound,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/001-2.jpg

finished putting the rock wall up finally, cutting the rock and letting it dry out so i could epoxy it was one of the worst smells ive ever had the pleasure of smelling in my house, it wasnt all that bad to do but added up quick, about $100-125 in rock $60 in epoxy and $30 in silicone(still have half a tube though) i could have saved on the epoxy by not coating the whole back of the rock and just putting it in a few area's but i wanted it to be best as possible,im shure 25lbs of stinking dead rock should start a cycle real good
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/011.jpg

i also changed out the eggcrate on the overflow to black and instead of a full glass top im gonna try the front half eggcrate for a bit of ventilation unless the light seems really cut down from it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/012.jpg

im gonna finish some plumbing tonight or tommorow and hopefully have water in the next day or 2, i already have 100g of heated and mixed water ready to go

[i have crabs]

on the rock wall i left an oval hole for the vortech so i can move it up or down a bit, the space on the overflow is for a future nanostream or korillia pump if needed and i also left space on the sides for the magnet to clean the glass

[JDigital]

That looks awesome! :mrgreen:

[fishytime]

Looks like it worked out pretty good man. Water soon?

[i have crabs]

hopefully today, its already mixed and waiting just need a chunk of 3/4" hose

[Boomboy]

nice job on the back rock wall, also smart planning ahead.

[lastlight]

When the coralline algae gets a grip of all the spaces inbetween that is going to kick serious butt. I am so tempted to try this but it still terrifies me. Looking forward to seeing this one age a little.

Did you change bulbs and get some more par out of those t5s? Seems by adding glass and eggcrate it could only be worse?

[i have crabs]

the test rock i did i couldnt even get it off with a razorblade, im not worried at all,plumbing is all done and water will be in it tonight for shure,not that anything else will be though, i have 1 big rock i have to kill some aptasia on then ill put that in but then im back on the waiting list for a while

[i have crabs]

pics with some water, i filled it up a few days ago, no big problems but the tank is a bit uneven which is a pain cause if i want to fix it i need to drain the whole tank im shure so i can slide something either under the tank or under the stand.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/002-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/003.jpg

im super happy i did the rockwall even if it was a bunch of work i really looks good in person and when the tank is full of rocks it should help blend everything in nicely

im a bit annoyed with the sump, i ordered it before i had all the stuff so the chamber for the skimmer and return are a bit small and with the bigger than expected red dragon return and plumbing it quite crammed, biggest issue is the skimmer, without a stand it sits right at the line for the water limit but dont really work so i made a eggcrate stand to lift it up a bit, the skimmer's running ok but its louder than i hopedfor kind of a constant humming and a slight air sucking sound, its the humming thats the issue,im not shure if thier is an ideal hight the skimmer should sit in the water but id like to figure it out before making a glass stand for it, on the eggcrate the skimmer sits a bit slanted cause the rummer feet on the bottom.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/004.jpg

[fishytime]

Ive said it before and I will say it again....Its alive......alive. Looks good bud. How much water do you think all that epoxy displaces:mrgreen:

[bignose]

Wow your tank is really looking great. Looks like the rock wall hides wires when your looking in the tank..

[Rbacchiega]

Happy with the Vortech so far?

[i have crabs]

i have 2 on my other tank and am very happy,this one is making a slight noise but i havnt tried to hard to quiet it up, i did have a nice wave goin but the splashing into the overflow was too much to lisen to all day

[i have crabs]

i was doing some tests on the other tanks last night so i checked for nitrate in the cube and over 25ppm has built up since last sunday, so i guess i was right that rottin sand and dried live rock would kick up a cycle in a hurry,i havnt even bothered to take a few scoops of sand live sand from another tank yet but i should probably get on it,ill maybe wait another week and do a huge waterchange which will give me a chance to try and slip a shim under the tank and even it out a bit

[lastlight]

I had a nightmare of a time getting replacement parts for my RD2000 and finally a whole new pump. Even with a supposedly working pump the skimmer can be heard when turned on with my stand doors shut and only the Dart Gold (pretty quiet) running. It's certainly not SILENT as so many say and there is a slight hum. I think the word is abused by many...it's much quieter than my old ASM was but for the coin and promises I felt a tad let down.

Still lovin' those rocks on the wall.

[i have crabs]

i thought it was the return pump making the humm but when you unplug the skimmer the tank is dead silent, like i said the air intake is quiet, very quiet compared to my 2 euroreef's but the humm is a bit annoying due to the tank being in the living room and thats why i spent the money on a high end skimmer

[lastlight]

Feel your pain =) Overall my system is pretty quiet. Certainly tolerable whereas my old one took some getting used to. I may add some sound foam to some areas on my stand interior.

[Canadian]

I wonder if there's a difference in the noise between the generation 1 (what you have) and generation 2 BK 160? I don't know where you got your skimmer but the gen. 2 skimmers have been out for a while so I'm assuming whoever the retailer was had old stock kicking around.

I'm getting a BK 160 as well but I'm trying to make sure I get a gen. 2 model. I've heard mixed reviews on the gen. 2 "upgrades" so who knows if there even is much of a difference. For comparison, here's a picture of a gen. 2 BK 160. One of the differences you should notice right away is that the air silencer is now incorporated into the output as opposed to being 2 pieces in the gen. 1. Also, the air tube on the gen. 2 is a larger diameter than it is on the gen.1:

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u75/jlwright75/bubbleking160/P1000139.jpg

[i have crabs]

i didnt know that they had some changes untill after i got it, its the same pump though and thats where my issue is, im shure its gonna skim just fine and ill have to just get used to the slight noise.
saying that, who knows if i went with something else thier could be even more noise

[Canadian]

Is that you on RC who has their LFS replacing the impeller to see if that changes the noise which everyone else is saying is abnormal?

[i have crabs]

nope not me, i kinda doubt the noise is abnormal, it just seems like thats how it is,
anyway,i hooked up the extra phosban reactor i had with a mix of carbon and gfo from bulkreefsupply, sunday i had a big explosion of diatoms so i cut down th lights to 2 bulbs for a while, the vortec has ben running at about 1/2 speed for now so i turned it up and all the sand from the front of the tank is ending up at the back of the tank now so i hope this will not be so bad when i have more rocks in thier cause a 2" bare bottom strip at the front will really pee me off, im gonna try and go get some acrylic rod for the rockwork in the next week and hopefully a can afford a few hundred bucks worth of rock so i do some work on that

[Canadian]

I don't know how noisy you're finding your skimmer is but the general consensus in this thread is that the skimmer should be virtually silent:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1571129

[i have crabs]

Happy with the Vortech so far?

changed my mind to no, works great creates nice flow but being in my living room whenever the tv is off or at night and in the morning all you can hear is the damb motor speeding up and down and it was making me a bit crazy.
so i broke down today and bought a tunze 6105 and a single controller, sorry doug couldnt justify another trip up thier.

[i have crabs]

some other updates in the last week or two, i did a 50% waterchange and slipped a strip of carpet under the one side to level it out better, i put a 1way valve on the return just for safety, when the power is off the sump gets kinda full and i just want to feel a bit safer.
ive dumped around 80lbs of rock in their. i gave up on making achways once i put a few of the biger chunks at the bottom they took up alot of space and im happy with how it looks,

im also thinking about changing the tek's for a aquaphoton 250w with 4xt5's having the lights cramed in the hood are a bit annoying so far.

i sent albert a message about the skimmer and he said it should be super quiet also and if i wanted he waould talk me through messin with it, but the thing has shut up all of a sudden or i just got used to it cause im not hearing the humm from the skimmer all week, i do have to make a stand out of glass for it still, the eggcrate one is no good, the skimmer has been pulling out some gunk every couple days and ive had it skimming kinda wet so its just a tea color for now but looks promising

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/010.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/008.jpg

[i have crabs]

i guess redcoral gave me a free gift for buying rock today, thankfully he decided to sit at the front of the tank instead of in the rocks,he is now in my qt tank
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/011-1.jpg

[digital-audiophile]

That's too bad the vortech isn't working out in that tank, It just gives such a nice clean look without any cords.

[i have crabs]

That's too bad the vortech isn't working out in that tank, It just gives such a nice clean look without any cords.

that was the whole point, kinda annoyed but the tank needs to be as silent as possible and with the tank where it is the vortech was not workin, the tunze isnt silent either but its better.

[Rbacchiega]

you know, every time I start swinging one way for a power head for the 50 gallon, a post like that pops up and then I want to go in a different direction....*sigh*

[i have crabs]

i have 2 on my other tank and never noticed a sound cause everything else covers it up and the motors are tucked behind the tank, on the cube it wasnt really tucked away in a corner or anything and the sound was driving me nuts, we arnt talking a huge noise but when its the only noise it was quite obvious, i was getting a real nice wave which is what i wanted but the splashing water in the overflow and the pump speeding up and stoping was a killer.
im not overly upset with having an extra vortec for the 300g though.
im really liking the flow coming from the tunze though too bad they dont have some cheeper controllable sizes, the ability to aim the power head is nice too

[digital-audiophile]

Just as yourself, with the vortechs on the basement tank they are not a huge issue for noise, but I can see in your living room right beside the couch the "whir" of the vortech especially on pulse mode could get very old fast.

I'm sure your groupers will enjoy the extra flow :)

[Rbacchiega]

no vortech for the bedroom tank then!

+1 with the groupers. Everytime I see one in the LFS I almost buy it. Then I think of the one in your tank.

[i have crabs]

update's this week,
i made a glass stand for the skimmer and finally got rid of the eggcrate one,the skimmer now sits level and is working great, the first 2 weeks or so i was kinda like what the heck good is this thing then all of a sudden it started pulling out a good 1/4-1/2 a cup per day of juice,its not super dark but i turned it down a bit to see how it does skimming a bit dryer

i bit the bullet and ordered a giesmann infinity fixture with 4xt5's and a 250w halide so hopefully ill get some higher par numbers with that, the numbers are high enough for almost anything i want but not as high as my other tank and thats what i want.

i put a leopard wrasse on hold for the tank but i gotta do something with the mantis in the qt before i can pick it up,ive herd they can be tricky to keep but ill find out soon i guess, tyhe tank is filled with pods and ive noticed 2or 3 flatworms so im a bit ****ed about that but maybe the wrasse will help before i have a real problem,
par numbers
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/feb27t5parreadings.jpg
thats all i can think of right this sec

[fishytime]

If there is a bright side, it is, that it is better to have flatworms now, rather than after the tank is stocked:neutral: Let me know if you need any "exit" I have a stash.

[Delphinus]

No experience with a leopard wrasse but I can tell you that I tried a canary wrasse and he cleared up flatworms in my tank within 2 weeks. I assume it might be a similar story with the leopard, don't know for sure though.

[i have crabs]

im shure ive read somewhere they eat them, so by the time i add the wrass to the tank i should know wether the worms are gonna be a issue or not, i pick up the wrass and a bicolor blennie today so 3 weeks or so in the qt and i can add them,
i also ended up with 8 new sps colonys thanks to sales at redcoral and golds today, one from rc look real brown almost black but i liked the look of it and when i put it in the tank you could see its a dark blue and damb its nice,infact all the stuff i got is lookin real nice so no comlaints except i have no where to put them untill the new light gets here

[Doug]

My leopard ate flatworms. Certainly not enough to help out with the amount I had. Between him and my mandarin, they helped but not enough to rid me of them.

In your case, with only a few, he may help before it becomes worse. I do know several aquarists that have had success with the yellow coris Tony mentioned and six lines but now with the leopard in there, I would not add those.

[i have crabs]

im gonna try a mystery wrasse ansd maybe a manderin,but that wont be for a bit still and hopefull it goes well the tank might be a bit small for a manderin even though i have 70-80lbs of rock.

[i have crabs]

alright finally something to update on,
the giesemann infinity finally showed up, didnt take long to install even though the hanging kit was a bit stupid i thought.its a bit rigged up for now but thats ok.
with the new light on the tank i can now do a nice big waterchange and start adding some corals that are ballancing all over my other tank
the par numbers with the new light put things right where i wanted them, so i didnt waste my money for once so thats a nice change too
the top of the tank not quite under the surface was a par of 1700 right under the 250w, directly under the bulb in the center of the tank was in the 350 range while anywhere not right under the bulb was in the 500-600 range, and the bottom front was getting 250-300, so basicly double and a bit what i was getting with the 8 t5 bulbs
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/004-2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/002-2.jpg


other than that i treated the tank with flatworm exit 3 times 2 of which i used quite a bit more than i should have and i still have flatworms, i only see the odd one on the glass once in a while but their in there.
ive added a bicolor blennie and have a mystery wrasse in the qt for another week or so.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/013.jpg

before i added the blennie i was trying to catch the couple isopods that got in the tank with the rock and i ended up with around 20 of them sucking on a chunk of shrimp i tried to get some pics but thier so small it was hard to get anything clear
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/004-1.jpg

[Tine]

great info, I get my first tank in a couple of weeks, 25g nano. Our son (Snaz) is going to help me set it up. Love the rock on the back wall, would love to do something similar. I will follow this thread with great anticipation.

[i have crabs]

well did something stupid last night, so ill be awaiting someone to hit me with a you know what.
since the tank is now ready for corals the last real step was to do a big waterchange check the levels and start enjoying.
how it actually went was i did the waterchange which ended up being about 20-25g smaller than i thought it was but big enough a bit after i tested the alk at 6dkh i though frig its still that low so i grabed the jugs of 2 part i had and poured about 200-250ml of each about 5 mins abart and in seperate areas.
i came back maybe an hour later and had a snowstorm in the tank... great im an idiot i thought

what i think happened is for the last month ive been dumping a bit of kents coralline excelerator stuff i got at macna so ive been adding calcium but no alkalinity and when i tested the alk at 6 i didnt even test the calcium cause i just assumed it would also be low since i forgot about the coralline stuff. anyway thismorning all my fantastic purple rocks where covered in chalk and my skimmer was filled with chalk and my glass was covered in chalk... yes there was a nice white coating of chalk everwhere and i continue feeling a bit stupid but atleast i now know what it liiks like when calcium precipitates in your tank..

other than that my mystery wrasse has decided he dosent want to eat and has a nice case of pop eye, i noticed it slightly when i got him home last sat but today its worse and im stressing a bit about a $100 fish not eating

[i have crabs]

well ive had the new light for a month now and love it, the 250w bulb is a bit yellow for my liking but not badenough to spend the money for a new one yet i think its a 13k so maybe ill try a 15-18k when im ready.
since getting the new light ive been adding corals a bit at a time, i actually thought i added some pics but i guess not, i was really wanting to not use big blobs of epoxy all over the place but havnt really been able to avoid it so now im just gonna live with it.
i usually always used the deltec epoxy but tried a few other things to see what i liked best,deltec epoxy is a fairly firm product when mixed up and easy to mold arond corals and rocks and still have the strength to hold(if that makes any sense), i tried the twolittlefishies epoxy and found it very soft when mixed almost to the point that you cant hold anything up untill it starts hardning, the part i do like is it hardens very quick compared to the deltec stuff which is nice sometimes even though i tend to waste small chunks cause it would be to hard to use when i would be ready to do another frag or whatever.
i also tried the zeovit speedglue, it was a real pain to figure out the best way of mixing the stuff so it would work but after a few tries i got it down fairly good, the problem i would have is once you get it mixed to a kind of playdough like chunk it would be hard in like 30 seconds so you need to be ready and know exactly what your doing with it, i tended to waste quite a bit of this also since i usually mixed up more than i needed, its kinda a pain to mix it up every time your ready to use some like if your gonna mount 2 or 3 things your probably gonna mix up 2-3 batches. definatly has it place and im glad i bought it, i like the grey cement look alot better than the fake purple expoy look also.

the other day i also noticed another mantis in the tank, not happy about it but thats how it is, i bought a trap from bigals for $20 but since nobody at the factory was smart enough to makeshure it dosent float i havnt tried it yet. i did a getto silicone chunk of glass to the bottom job. and i hope i catch this mantis soon, hes about 2.5-3" i though it was a pistol shrimp and never payed much mind to it untill i seen the little jerk hiding under a coral.

a couple pics for a update
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/147.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/148.jpg


ive had trouble keeping anything in the center due to the strong flow, i put the vortec back in cause the tunze was just too much of a stream in a tank this size, ive tried a few corals and the keep getting dead tips from the flow
ive also decided that i dont have room for a clam so ill be putting in a flame angle and hopefully he can behave with the sps, the bicolour blennie nips the underneath of the mili sometimes but nothing major sofar

[Delphinus]

The flow shape is wider from the Vortech? Odd, I would have thought they were nearly the same shape. That's good to know...

[i have crabs]

vortec is much wider and higher flow its very noticeable the tunze hit the front of the tank like a firehose and went everywhere plus the vortec looks better

[fishytime]

Corey, the little tank looks awesome bud. Was that vortech a 20(Im assuming) or 40?

Tony the output on the vortech is basically the entire outside diameter of the pump, which is about 3". The tunze output is about 1 1/2" assuming Corey had the 6055. So the difference in stream is huge.

[Delphinus]

Oh.. I was assuming a 6100 (which is about 3" IIRC). Anyhow, interesting nonetheless. :)

[i have crabs]

mp40 and a 6105
mp20 are for mixing salt

[fishytime]

:lol:

[i have crabs]

this week i again added more frags &corals to the tank, i set the vortec's night mode just so i dont have to hear the noise of the damb thing while im watching tv at night, it actually makes quite the difference in sound so i think ill live with it,
havnt been able to catch the mantis yet or see him again but ill keep trying, i did catch the bicolor blennie first try, i cought him picking at the sps again to he got evicted down to the basement which kinda sucks cause they are funny fish to watch. so im back down to just 1 fish in the tank again, soon as i catch the mantis ill buy some more but im too scared untill then.
you can see where the blennie has been picking at the corals where its all white and ive actually seen him do it a few times now and it didnt seem like it was gonna stop.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/002-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/003-1.jpg

other than that tanks been fine, i ordered a reefkeeper light #1 so i can get rid of the 2 timers and clean things up a bit, i think this controller will be fine for this tank unless i do some upgrade later on,

[whiteangelbw]

Hi, your rock wall looks awesome. I am wanting to do a rock wall for my seahorse tank. What kind of epoxy and silicone did you use.
Thanks for any help, Angela

[i have crabs]

i mostly used the deltec epoxy just cause thats what was easy to find, i think next time im gonna use the twolittlefishies epoxy cause its alot softer and would spred better on the back of the rocks. for silicone i used the 1200 stuff the use to build tanks with just cause i figured it probably the strongest and forshurly safe in a tank.

i havnt updated anything in a while cause i havnt been doing much in the tank.
still have flatworms even though i dosed a whole bottle of flatworm exit within 12 hours
still have a mantis i cant catch, i have a trap that looks like it would work well but i guess the mantis has to go in it for it to work and he dosent seem to want to do that im thinking i might have to rip out some rocks and that wasnt supposed to happen ever. the rocks were stacked and corals have been mounted all over and to remove the rocks im gonna have to chisle out corals aswell, might have to happen though since im too scared to buy any more livestock for this tank untill it gets resolved


corals seems to be growing but ive had an issue with color the last while, i was thinking potasium since i wasnt dosing it this tank but now im thinking it might be from heat since ive come home to the tank being around 84 degrees a few times now during the day the ac in the house is turned down a bit and alowing the tank to heat up, im gonna get some kind of fan and hook it up to the controller so it stayed around 81 and the most,
im also gonna switch the mh bulb to a more blue spectrum its a 12.5k giesman marine bulb i believe so maybe a 14-18k bulb might look better and help with the color of the corals also.

not all the corals in the tank are mounted cause i havnt decided if some are staying or not but this is how its looked for the last month or 2 now

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/057.jpg

[i have crabs]

i bought a ushio 20k bulb today to replace the 12.5k giesmann that came with the light and im much happier with the color and relieved that its not super blue like i though might happen so thats good,
i did some quick par readings before and after
top left before was 590 and droped to 380
and middle right was 360 and dropped to 250
so approx 35% drop in par which seems a bit high but i expected a drop which im fine with, the new bulb was only an hour or so old so ill test it again in a few days maybe.

[JDigital]

i bought a ushio 20k bulb today to replace the 12.5k giesmann that came with the light and im much happier with the color and relieved that its not super blue like i though might happen so thats good,
i did some quick par readings before and after
top left before was 590 and droped to 380
and middle right was 360 and dropped to 250
so approx 35% drop in par which seems a bit high but i expected a drop which im fine with, the new bulb was only an hour or so old so ill test it again in a few days maybe.

I had the same worry when I bought my Ushio 20ks... but ended up liking alot more than the 14k...

Tank looks awesome!

[i have crabs]

I had the same worry when I bought my Ushio 20ks... but ended up liking alot more than the 14k...

Tank looks awesome!

thanks,

im not shure why im still surprised when things dont go as planned with this tank but at least i was less surprised this time.
anyway yesterday i put the ushio bulb in, i had a bit of trouble with it going deep enough to click in, a small chunk of the case porcelain maybe broke off and nolonger stoped it from going in far enough whell the bulb lit up and worked all day but this morning it wouldnt start it just made some noise and flickered a bit so after a bit of fooling around i took down the light again and pulled the bulb out which i must have broke pushing in just not enough that it didnt work yesterday the glass holding the prongs broke off, i also broke the original bulb the same way trying to get it out which was kinda a ****er since it was only a couple months old,
so obviously it was my fault i broke the bulb and not a warranty issue, i ended up getting a no name brand 20k bulb which was brand new so i figured id try it untill i feel like spending more money, im not shure where this bulb is from but the color looks identical to the 20k ushio 20k as far as i can tell without being able to compare them side by side, so i figured id better test the numbers and see how much of a drop this time.
i got 550 top left and 345 middle right which is more like a 10% drop compared to the 35% loss with the ushio bulb so things mite be better off this way, if the numbers dropp off in the next month or two ill change it out for a 20k giesmann bulb since i think the clips are a bit deeper than regular and hopfully i wont have issues with the clips again cause id rather not break a couple bulbs every time i want to change them

[Ian]

Wow nice tank. Keep this thread going I am learning a bunch:clap2:

[lastlight]

I almost wish that back wall DIDN'T look so kickass now that it's all purple and sexy. I'm considering your method now especially since my painted overflow still looks like crap after all the care I took in siliconing a new pane over my black paint. Water somehow got in!

Also be great never having to scrape the back glass. Anyways the look of your back wall impresses the hell out of me and I see you've mounted some corals to it now too. Do you think a mitre saw could cut rock like you've done?

[i have crabs]

I almost wish that back wall DIDN'T look so kickass now that it's all purple and sexy. I'm considering your method now especially since my painted overflow still looks like crap after all the care I took in siliconing a new pane over my black paint. Water somehow got in!

Also be great never having to scrape the back glass. Anyways the look of your back wall impresses the hell out of me and I see you've mounted some corals to it now too. Do you think a mitre saw could cut rock like you've done?

thanks, im really happy with how it worked out, the pics dont do it much justice either, and its gettin more purple all the time.
i actuall havnt mounted anything on the back, theres just been some type of macro growin in the tank and thers patches all over.
the saw i used was a 8"miter with a masonry blade, it was a real pain with that small of a blade but it cut fine,i now have a 14" chop saw that im gonna use when i do my 300g in the next couple months, im probably gonna order a bunch of rock from bulkreefsupply instead of using live rock again though,

[lastlight]

Yeah I'm upping my dry rock order from 100 to 150 lbs and I'll see where that takes me. I think dry rock and silicone alone would work. What do you think?

[i have crabs]

ok ive been really slackin on the updates so i guess i should,
basically the mantis wrecked my tank, i helped but im blaming him,
i hadnt seen the dam mantis for a long time even though im always lookin and i was startin to think maybe hes dead or somethin, so i was at golds and saw some peppermint shrimp and thought ok if the shrimp lives the mantis has to be a gonner, well soon as the peppermint floated from the top of the tank down to the closes coral guess who shows up for dinner, boom gone about 3-5 seconds in the tank, i was a bit ****ed but how mad could i really be,
so after stewing about this at work all the next day i though whatever im gonna pull that rock out and get that sob and if i have to ill rip out every rock, guess what... ya i ripped out every rock,did a little fresh water dipping, did a little coral smashing too. no mantis
so the next day i loaded up on soda water,kalkwasser,hot water ect.. ripped out every rock again,basicly did some bad stuff to some good rock and guess what... no mantis
however i did get to practice restacking rock in a cloudy tank which dosent go well when every rock is 10-15 lbs ea and covered on corals ya ya i know never touch the rock..
well 90% of the coral got broken off the rocks during this and some were out of water for a while so i wasnt expecting good things when i got home, the tank was still quite cloudy, corals wernt looking good, and the rocks didnt even come close to fitting back in the tank, i did some waterchanges, move as many corals down into my other reef which was already packed without another 10 corals and a bunch of frags, i was so mad at this point that i just left the tank for close to a week,
i was really thinking about selling the dam thing or putting it in a closet for a while but once i quit being so mad i feel better,i tried to get the rocks back to where they were but even with pictures i couldnt do it, so there almost the same but i took out 1 10lbs rock that i couldnt get to fit anywhere so the tanks not so full but im ok with how it looks,
just tonight i moved a couple corals back into the tank, i havnt remounted any but i set them in there to make shure everything goes ok,
i also bought another pepermint shrink and put him in a bottle with holes in the lid, i was tryin to see if i could catch the mantis watching him but no luck, the shrimp escaped through a hole in the lid on day 3 and was spotted in the tank at night still alive after a couple days so thats a good sign,

was that long enough for ya, ill get some pics up soon

[i have crabs]

Yeah I'm upping my dry rock order from 100 to 150 lbs and I'll see where that takes me. I think dry rock and silicone alone would work. What do you think?

on the test ones i did it held ok but after a day in water i riped it off, the crumbs from the rock were still stuck to the sillicone but it wasnt holding enough that i was ok with it,
i totaly covered the back of the rocks with a layer of epoxy but i dont think they need that much on them, around the edges or where the rock will make contact would be fine im shure
i also went up fairly high and i keep having hermits dropping into the overflow, kinda annoying, maybe i should build them a ladder

[lastlight]

Like I so often have during this build...changed my mind.

I think as far as keeping my clean look and mostly just playing it safe, a rock wall is out. I'd love to cover up my ugly overflow but might just have to create a nice large ledge that extends in front of it to distract the eye some.

Reading about your ordeal made me ****ed off...i can't imagine what you felt and how you're still in the game after that! Your last pic you posted looked awesome btw.

[i have crabs]

well i figure this little ordeal set me back about 6 months or so which is basicly the life of the tank since corals were added, i really expected a big cycle when i seen how cloudy the water was, i didnt have a amonia test kit so i didnt bother but i did a couple waterchanges and everything seemed to calm down during the week i was ignoring the tank due to my anger,
at least i know my sandbed is doing some work, after a day or two a big black ring showed up halfway down the sandbed due to the whole biological thing that im not about to type out a book over, i still havnt but ill probably give a little mix to a few areas over a few areas to release anything in there just to be safe but im shure its nothing to be concerned with.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/030.jpg

this is the last pic i had before i trashed everything,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/005-2.jpg

and where i am now, the corals are not mounted, i just placed them in there, they seem good but the milli isnt back to 100% yet.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/001-4.jpg

i was having trouble with the colors browning/darkening up and im not shure what i needed to do to fix it,dont really matter now but im shure ill have to deal with it again,

i added a couple more fish a bit ago also, a tomini tang, coral beauty and the mystery wrasse is still in there and doing well, dont give me greef about the tang hes small and i have lots of other tanks for him, hes in there to eat some algae which he has been doing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/013-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/020-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/027-1.jpg

[Myka]

Sucks to hear about the losses. :(

The SPS could have been darkening up from having nutrients a bit high. Try cutting back on dosing any foods, and try to polish the water up nice and clean.

[i have crabs]

when i built the sump i think i over complicated things tryin to make shure i had options and i have been kinda annoyed workin with such a small cramed sump area so originally it was split into 4 areas,first the drain flowed into the top left which i had seperated from the bottom left so i could fill with live rock rubble or chunks, the bottom left is for the skimmer, the right top was a small fuge that the return pump supplyed water too and the bottom right was where the return pump sat.. if that made any sense
anyway i decided to pull out the baffles seperating to left side to have more to hide the brs reactor that i run carbon/gfo in, after about 2.5 hours getting the skimmer out and tryin to cut out a baffle the glass exploded in my hands gining me about 50 very nice cuts to my hand, some were fairly bad but i wasnt done so i got to keep workin in the salt water for another hour or so which was lots of fun but it least its finally handled. on the right hand side im gonna remove that baffle also and not run the fuge so i can have the room to add a kalk reactor, adding the 2 part was really getting to me and i couldnt believe how much i was using so i hope a kalk reactor will cut down the work a bit, i dont have a auto top up so is it possible to just run them with a powerhead with the reactor releasing x amount of drops per second?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/024.jpg

[i have crabs]

since im posting heres the reason you really should wash out your frozen foods

frozen mysis
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/002-4.jpg

and the fertilizer most people add to there tank daily.... what's causing my cyano?...i changed my bulbs....i increased my flow....i turned out my lights for 3 days.....
maybe quit adding fertilizer for your algae and cyano. sorry i had to rant a bit
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/003-2.jpg

[i have crabs]

Sucks to hear about the losses. :(

The SPS could have been darkening up from having nutrients a bit high. Try cutting back on dosing any foods, and try to polish the water up nice and clean.

tank never showed any nitrates and im fairly careful with over feeding, i did lack a bit on water changes

[lastlight]

Wow that's nasty. It's little things like rinsing food that can help out with algae I'm sure. I used to just melt it up and toss it in. The algae LOVED me.

You really need to stop posting shots of that rock wall man. I change my mind about something new for the tank EVERY day and who knows you may sway me yet. Thankfully my build is close to done so there is less laying awake at night and changing my mind than there used to be =)

love the tank man. bring it back to it's former glory!

[lastlight]

Updates?

[lastlight]

Let's try this again...

Crabs...I wanna be inspired man. Don't make a grown, sorta overweight guy beg.

[Greenmaster]

Still no updates?