Taking the Salty Plunge!

[Roskoreef]

about the rock... i think myka is spot on, there is advantages/disadvantages to live vs dry rock.

I used Dry pukani from eli@ fijireefrock.com, now i didnt acid wash or none of that i just rinsed with the hose and did a 24 hr soak in the tank with ro/di water, then a 100% waterchange and fill with saltwater and cycle. what happened, well first 3 mths i lost a bunch of corals, rocks had algae blooms, phosphate levels were higher..now 8 mths in my rock is startingto look like live rock, darker colour lots of coraline algae..

I went with dry rock because the pukani is super light and porous, plus i was feeling cheap and impaitient so i didnt wnt to pay for water weight. Ended up with a few problems..

Good side i was able to aquascape for as long as i wanted to, even tho i rescaped several times...

if i had the money, going back i would have tried to find live pukani rock.

my 2 cents

[Chemi]

Thanks Myka! Yes, it's a standard 55 with only a 12" width sadly. Ideally I'd like a 75 just for the extra floor space. I would like do have a sump Instead, just the noise and extra parts for potential problems is deterring lol! I do have the fittings and bulkheads already, as I was going to drill and plumb my old 90g FW, but I could get it out of the house to get the shop to drill it for me by myself so it never went sumpy. I think more so my problem is the actual action of drilling it. I'm sure it's not tempered, it's super duper heavy and the panes are 3/8" wide. I'm just really nervous about it, if the glass were to break, so would my heart! If I were to drill it, it would be through the back with a modified bean animal; 2 drains instead of 3. And there lies my other problem. Attempting a C2C weir, it would have to be glass rather than acrylic, so there would be no way of adding 'teeth' for safety. Also, the only spare tank I have is a 15Tg and I'm not sure if that would be enough room for a skimmer and such. Heater isn't a problem, I have an hydor inline.

That's what I was thinking too Rosko. I was thinking about picking up a few pieces from Eli just because of the interesting shapes, he shelves and branches.. I think it's going to be kinda hard to get a decent scape with only a 12" width. That's why I was thinking about mixing the dry and live together.

On another note, once I got the tank empty, I gave her a good scrub, and the reseal I have been putting off is definately overdue. Again, something I haven't had the pleasure of doing myself yet. So, 5 blades and 3 hours later, I have stripped the internal seams. That much time and all I got off was the silicone. Jeez, must have been a 1" bead at the bottom! Tomorrow is the acetone wash for the residual bits, tape it up and redo the seams. The trim was broken too, so hopefully I can pick up a replacement in the right size. The original trim didn't have the middle brace.