MitchM tank build

[abcha0s]

Hi Mitch

Interesting posts! - I've been working through some of the same challenges. There are some notes on how I suspended my rock for my new tank in my build thread (post 31). For my 90G I used the large PVC idea and it worked well enough. I have some good pictures of the setup process if you would like to see them.

Originally Posted by MitchM

I'm going to be ordering some detrivore kits from Indiana and Hawaii once the weather warms up in a few months. Before then I don't think they would survive the shipping process.

I am very interested in this as well. From what I could tell, ipsf.com doesn't ship to Canada. It's in their fine print:

"Sorry, we do not ship outside the mainland USA or to any international destination."

Inland Aquatics has shipped to Canada in the past, but it might be a question of what day of the week you call? I think it's far from a sure thing.

Who is in Indiana?

- Brad

[MitchM]

Hi Brad,

Neither Inland Aquatics nor Indo-Pacific will ship to Canada, but they will ship to an address in Sweetgrass, Montana. I can drive down there to pick up the shipment and an LFS here has offered to help me through the permit process.

I'm not expecting many of the actual worms to survive the trip (although I'm told they do) but I am looking to get a fair bit of larvae and eggs in the "mud" I receive.
It's a 4 hour drive from my place, so I'm holding off until the weather is a bit warmer.

[MitchM]

Where have you got those PVC pictures, Brad?

edit...(Got your PM, thanks)

[MitchM]

The tank is in a bit of an extended cycle and maturing period.
We came up against some unexpected vet bills for one of our dogs, so the funds got depleted a bit.

In the meantime I have taken some of the live rock I already have (about 250 lbs) and placed it in the tank with a couple of large LPS corals, a favia and a few euphyllias. I haven't suspended this rock above the sandbed, I am waiting to purchase some larger dry flat ecorocks so I can drill them, give them some legs and use them for the base pieces.
I have the bidirectional tidal flow working with the Profilux controlling 2 separate Dart pumps. It's working well and I'm able to play around with the rock placement and watch how it changes the water flow. I've been able to create areas where the water flow will shoot through a channel quite fast and areas where the water will swirl and food particles can accumulate. Those swirling areas are where I will probably place some larger polyp corals.
The only drawback with the 2 separate pumps is the gurgling when about 40 or 50 gallons of water drain back into the sump.
Oceans Motions is close to finalizing a 4 way set up for me and I am expecting the drain back to be much slower and less volume.
Other than that the whole system is really quiet and the herbie drain setup is working well.

I had bought 2 new 300w titanium heaters that turned out to be defective, one of them the top came right off, flipping a breaker in the night and exposing the copper wires inside to the tank water.
The favia is not doing too bad from the brief electric shock plus copper exposure but the euphyllias are still recovering. They're bleached and retracted.
I guess I'm lucky it didn't fry one of the $250 Profilux powerbars.
I've replaced those heaters with a couple of 500w Jalli titanium heaters.

With the tank covers on, and the sump covered except for a 2' x 2' open top portion, the tank is only evaporating about 2 - 3 cups/day. Pretty happy with that.

The tank's not looking too clean these days, going through the startup diatom and algae blooms. I've gone through 2 Prodibio dosing cycles, not sure if it's making much of a difference yet.
The sandbed is really looking scarce for any life migrating down from the live rock, but this rock did come from basically a FOWLR (with some corals) bare bottom setup, so I didn't really expect a lot of sandbed animals.
I'm looking forward to getting some mud from some suppliers.

[Delphinus]

Would be interested in seeing videos of the flow if you can somehow arrange for that ? I realize video of water moving is probably not the easiest thing to capture since water is all transparentish and stuff.

[golf nut]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

water is all transparentish and stuff.

Can I use this quote

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Would be interested in seeing videos of the flow if you can somehow arrange for that ? I realize video of water moving is probably not the easiest thing to capture since water is all transparentish and stuff.

When the cycle comes out of it's rest period, there are a lot of air bubbles that get pushed around, but other than that I can only spot the odd few particles and follow their path.
Maybe once I start feeding the tank more I can capture the action in a few specific areas.

[MitchM]

After 1 year of letting the sandbed mature and another year of unsuccessfully getting a reliable supply of sandbed critters, I'm changing direction and going with the Zeovit method.

I've removed the sand, changed over the dart pumps to Speedwave.
I bought a few Mitras but wasn't completely happy with the spread. I would probably have to go with 6 units to cover the tank properly.




As luck would have it, the old Aquamedic fixture over my freshwater Amazon tank burnt up (literally) so I put 2 of the Mitras over that.

I purchased 2 4' ATI LED/T5 powermodules and got them up and lit this past weekend. I also purchased 100 lbs of fresh live rock that you can see in the tank now and I'm treating my old 400 lbs of live rock to a bleach then acid water bath over the next few weeks. The old live rock is probably about 15 years old now and full of junk.

[Delphinus]

The spread is definitely better with the ATI's! Although, I have to say I'm impressed if you thought that only 6 Mitras would have worked over a tank with these dimensions. That's no small feat to get coverage of that magnitude..

15 year old rock! I tip my hat to you, sir.

But seriously? Hurry up and put some reef into this tank!

[kien]

1. Holy crap that's a lot of sand!
2. I love the simplicity of your new aqua scape. I would be tempted to leave it as is, add some fish and call it a day :-)
3. See #1 above.