abcha0s' 300G Ultimate Reef

abcha0s · #1 10-13-2010, 05:18 AM

Thanks for the comments and feed back!! - It's was nice to hear from you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lobsterboy

nice Brad, cant wait to see what you do with the scape.

Thanks John. Seeing what you've done with your tank has been inspiring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

Really neat idea with the peg system. Can't imagine how long that must have taken you...wow! I think I'd give the peg leg thing a try one day but maybe forgo the slots due to laziness.

So what do you have planned for rock->rock stacking? Are you also drilling and pegging those?

I do plan to drill the rock where necessary, and to use acrylic rod within the rock structure to create overhangs and other such structures. I really can't say exactly what it will look like, which is percisely why I wanted a system that was flexible. I figure once I start stacking the rock it will become clear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMikey

I find the peg idea to be really intriguing. My only concern might be that once you put the substrate in (your plan if I read your build right) the sand will fill in the peg holes. Subsequently, I would think that this fill-in would make it really difficult to move the aquascaped pegs after-the-fact (as the sand would presumably fill in the holes). Have you given any thought to this?

Other than that little problem, I think this is a wicked idea for aquariums. It keeps the rock stable and protects the bottom from scratches. So long as algae and things cant slip underneath I could see people implementing this into their builds.

You are right about the substrate. Once the sand goes in, the whole peg system becomes fixed. I figure I will have to vacuum out the holes as I am working with the rock to get rid of any lose particles that break off. In any event, I will take the time necessary to get it right the first time.

- Brad

TheMikey · #2 10-13-2010, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abcha0s

Once the sand goes in, the whole peg system becomes fixed. I figure I will have to vacuum out the holes as I am working with the rock to get rid of any lose particles that break off. In any event, I will take the time necessary to get it right the first time.

With that in mind though, you might only have a few pegs drilled into even the largest of your rocks. You seem to have enough pegs drilled in that, even with only a few minutes of substrate vacuuming (depending on the depth of your sand bed), you should have enough sand off to adjust your rocks. It might not be as tedious as suggested, but we'll have to see.

Looking forward to the rest of the updates!

andestang · #3 10-13-2010, 07:05 PM

Things are looking really good so far Brad ! I like the the two return pumps mostly if one should fail you still have one for some sort of flow. Also if I was to buy rock again I would most definitely use dry, I bought a piece of live rock awhile back and is now causing much grief which I'll explain on another post. Look forward to the aquascaping. Keep up the good work

abcha0s · #4 10-14-2010, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andestang

Things are looking really good so far Brad ! I like the the two return pumps mostly if one should fail you still have one for some sort of flow. Also if I was to buy rock again I would most definitely use dry, I bought a piece of live rock awhile back and is now causing much grief which I'll explain on another post. Look forward to the aquascaping. Keep up the good work

Thanks Mike. Redundancy was important to me because I once had a return pump fail while I was away on vacation. Not a lot of fun. However, I really like the Eheim pumps and the only way I could get the flow I wanted was to use two of them. It also allows me to service one pump without having to issolate the sump. There's really lots of benefits.

lastlight · #5 10-14-2010, 03:43 PM

I'd never had a 1262 before and found the 3/8" fittings on the smaller models frustrating. Another great thing about those pumps is you can use standard 3/4" threaded adapters from the hardware store.

chris88 · #6 10-14-2010, 10:10 PM

I always use a mix of live and dry rock, but it think having a good amount of live rock is needed to seed the tank.

abcha0s · #7 10-15-2010, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris88

I always use a mix of live and dry rock, but it think having a good amount of live rock is needed to seed the tank.

You raise a good question. How much live rock do you need to seed dry rock and what rock to buy?

It would defeat the purpose to buy live rock for seeding and then to introduce unwanted hitch hikers to the tank (bubble algea, aptasia, etc.)

I wonder if anyone with a clean tank would be willing to put some of my dry rock into their tank to seed it? Even smallish pieces should work?

TheMikey · #8 10-15-2010, 03:07 PM

It would probably be easier to buy a small piece of LR from a clean established tank to seed your new rock.

Rbacchiega · #9 10-15-2010, 03:51 PM

we currently have about 60lbs dry rock in the display tank of our 75....and 3 lbs cured live rock from an established tank. It seems to be doing the trick...I threw in some scallop and saw an ammonia spike, but levels have gone back to normal. I imagine as long as you slowly add bio load to the tank, a minimal ammount of actual "live" rock would be needed. When I ordered from Marco rocks, they said all that was needed to seed the rockwork was a cup of establish sand or a few lbs of good rock from a fellow reefer etc.