FIRST Tank Build!!! ~35gal Bowfront --Picture Intense--

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 12:14 AM

Alright, so here goes.

My name is Jim. I have always loved saltwater tanks ever since my dad had one while I was a kid. NOW, I can finally start my own. I got a great deal on an entire setup from dwilly.

Thanks again to him for helping me get started in this wonderful hobby. He helped me out like no one can believe!

Here is the break down of the equipment.

~35 gallon acrylic bowfront tank. (with stand)
Excalibur protein skimmer (with maxijet 1200)
koralia 2
10 lb sand
20 lb live sand
15 lb dead rock (base rock)
17.15 lb fiji live rock

10 gal QT that will be setup when I do my first water change

This guy wont flip for some reason?

This guy too....sorry for the head tilters....

Stock List
Pair of clowns
Sailfin blenny
Fire fish or gramma or dottyback
Cherub or coral beauty or flame angelfish
clean up crew (nass. snails, turbos, few hermits)

Right now, My tank is cycling with the live rock and live sand.

Water parameters
SG - 1.0235

Temp - 82 F (with temp fluctuations ONLY up to 83 F. The temp jumped up one degree and came back down in 24 hours. I think thats ok.

)

Ammonia - quick dip strips - its cycling....

Nitrites - quick dip strips - its cycling....

Nitrates - quick dip strips - its cycling....

PH - Not entirely sure? test is funny with colors. (#1) If i hold it into the light I get a light purple.... (#2) hold it on the card with the light not going through the test tube....ph is like...8.1 ish. See pictures please. I think its ok though.

(#1)

(#2)

General Info - My tank has been cycling with live rock for around 26 hours. I will test the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates tomorrow to get a feel for when this stuff will be done with cycling.

Question 1 - It seems as if the coraline algae has lost some of its color? is that just because its in water or is it dying? Maybe sand dust? It used to be really green/pink/purple and covered with stuff but now its more muted grey colors of what they used to be... thoughts?

Question 2 - My protein skimmer seems to be adjusting its skimming ability on whether there is a bioload or not. Lets say I churn up the sand a bit, the skimmer pulls it out and i get a nice thick frothy bubble formation at the top. When the tank is clear...the bubbles dont even hit the collection cup. Is this normal?

Its getting late So i will put up another post about the first and second days of the build/setup tomorrow. stay tuned!

Crox99 · 06/05/2008, 05:03 AM

Q1 - How long was the LR outside the water? Aslo are you keeping your lights on?

Q2 - perfectly normal. if there is nothing to pull out of the water the skimmer doesn't produce much foam.

kzickovich · 06/05/2008, 06:31 AM

when you get going you may want more water movement then just one K2 depending on what kind of coral if any you plan to keep.

Nano Chris · 06/05/2008, 08:31 AM

Id suggest upgrading the skimmer to a better one, i don't think the one you have now will be good enough.

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 11:36 AM

Yay my pictures finally flipped like photobucket said they would! Sorry for the confusing captions...

croxx99 - The live rock was outside of water for about....2 hours. It was in a styro container with a damp newspaper covering it. I left the box unopened until I was putting the stuff in the tank. I figured that would be alright. No, I am not running my full light cycle. I just have my actinics on pretty much at night (between 6-11pm) and full day lights when I am checking things out (15 mins or so).

kzickovich - I am really thinking of a unique way of keeping the flow going in my tank. Ill discuss that later. I have a built in sump behind the display tank so I have a return pump with that K2. Ill post more pictures when I get a chance.

Criminal#58369 - I like the skimmer actually. Dwilly gave me 2 other protein skimmers that I might try out if this one doesnt do it. We'll see, right now the skimmer is doing a GREAT job at skimming.....and it would make sense if you saw my ammonia and nitrates....

I just did some water tests....here are the results.

Total ammonia - +5.0 mg/L (tetra test) lights on

nitrate - ~100 mg/L (tetra test) lights on ....... 20mg/L (Aquarium pharmaceuticals) lights off ....... which one to believe?

PH - 7.8ish (aquarium pharmeceuticals) Color is easier to tell now in daylight....

SG - 1.02325 YEAH!

Temp - 84.........yikes...I might have to try and cool this sucka down. (no lights running but lemme take another look after I turn on my fans and such. Ill post on the temp in a bit...)

Should my nitrates be so high with me just cycling the tank? It seems normal to me to have all of the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates to be going through the roof but im not sure. (inexperience really...)

Built in sump

Return pump area after bubble trap

Ill post more when I get back after doing some chores and maybe pick up a new test kit....

Jim

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 02:34 PM

Alright, so here is what I did on day one of the cleaning phase for my tank!

Since it was early in the morning and I didnt wanna wake everyone up with the sounds of me hauling my tank around, I played with my light fixture. Everything works great and seems to be in very good shape. I got two sets of bulbs with the tank. One set is 50/50's of 65W Compact florescents. The other set is one actinic and the other full spectrum day bulb. I went with the second set. This way I could have a nicer transition with timers and such.

So I took the thing apart and checked everything out. A little dusty but overall in great shape. I saw the fan on the one side though and it was FAR to dinky for my taste. SO, I dug through my computer components and found a larger fan.

When I first got it.

Its bright!

yay for two colors!

So, I did a little snip snip and retrofitted the more powerful fan on it....

Old fan...

NEW Fan!

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 02:40 PM

THANKFULLY, the fan JUST fit inside the housing....no mods there....THANK god.

The only thing I had to do was bend back some of the reflector to fit the fan in.....no biggie....took 5 mins and you dont even see it.

Unfortunately, after I screwed it all in and tried to fit my splash guard in.....there was contact. the acrylic cover that I wanted on there didnt fit with the new fan....so out came the hack saw and a hammer.....oye...

Before the fun...

After the fun....

NOW, this acrylic sheet is THINNNNNN....so i had to take my time to get that sucker to not crack in ways I cringe about. But it went alright.

YAY it fits!

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 02:46 PM

And now its onto the tank equipment. Unfortunately the ceramic shaft to the koralia 2 is broken. Ill have to retrofit something to make it work at full steam but since its magnetic....the thing works great right now. I had to clean it when I cleaned the tank...

So i took all of my equipment outside for the usual tests. Does it work? can it hold water? etc. etc...

Everything seemed to be doing great and after THREE HOURS of cleaning the bottom and corners of the tank....everything looked pristine!!!! Dwilly was not a big fan of sand beds so he kept it bare bottom. Coraline algae had made its way onto lots of the bottom and corners. I didnt mind. It just meant I was able to spend more time with my tank.......yay

CLEAN!!!!!!!

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 02:52 PM

And here you are!!!! the wonderfully clean tank!

After everything was all nice and shiny, it was time for salt and live rock. hehehehehehehehehehe...

SO, here we go to the LFS!!! I went to living sea aquarium off of devon. (right down the street for me..) I bought oceanic salt mix for 200gals for 70 bucks. glass thermometer for 3 bucks. 20 lbs of live sand for 40 bucks. 17.15 lbs of live rock for 4.99 a lb.!!!

The best part about the live rock was that they JUST got 500 lbs of rock in THAT day. I was the FIRST one to have a pick at it and I got some NICE pieces. VERY large but very light. Its from fiji and they buy it from cali. Here are the pics.

I also had about 15 pounds of dead rock from dwilly that he was willing to give up. I also had about 13 pounds of sand from him as well.

AngeloM3 · 06/05/2008, 02:55 PM

Sweet looking bow! What kind of corals and livestock do you plan on keeping?

Couple things....
coraline dying in the cycle is completely normal... dont worry because months down the road you'll have TO MUCH coraline.

FWIW... my luck in the past with that brand of test kit is that they are very hard to read and very innacurate

I agree that you'll probably need a better skimmer.... again this all depends on your bioload. Also the water level in the skimmer level i think is way to high.... it might reduce its skimming efficiency.

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 03:17 PM

Thanks for the post angelo. Well its good to know that my coraline algae will survive. I REALLY like how rock looks with it on there and I picked three pieces each dominated by a different color....green, purple, and pink/red/orange.

I find that my skimmer really reacts well to the specific bioload in the tank. When I see it skimming away I do some tests and sure enough things are going crazy in there. (within reason of course....) Remember the skimmer has a maxijet 1200 powering it so i feel its really has a nice turnover rate compared to my return pump.

As for my live stock I have that all the way up on the first post. Im looking at

Pair of clowns
Sailfin blenny
Fire fish or gramma or dottyback
Cherub or coral beauty or flame angelfish
clean up crew (nass. snails, turbos, few hermits)

As for corals....Id really like some frogspawn. Thats pretty much it though. I havent decided or searched for anything other than that. We'll see.

Im waiting on photobucket to upload more pics...once I do that...ill post some more.

Anyone know of some good test kits? I trust the tetra as it has been recommended to me by many. Anyone got some good brands?

Jim

AngeloM3 · 06/05/2008, 03:35 PM

Sweet... the skimmer SHOULD be able to handle that bioload... can't say for sure.
The best test kits out there are Salifert... but they do run kinda expensive. You don't NEED to get new test kit... all I did with that test kit is when they finally read 0... test for another week just to be on the safe side.

With those kind of lights you'll be able to get away with have some softie corals..... check out: frogspawn, hammer coral, bubble coral, mushrooms, ricordias, zoanthids, xenia and leaters.

If you want your clowns to use the frogspawn as their host... add that coral first and then just wait until they start using it as their host before you add any other corals.

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 03:52 PM

sounds like a great idea. I had no idea what kind of corals I could have with my PC lighting. I have 130 watts combined so Its about 4 watts per gallon (display side).

Hehehehe....now that the pictures have been uploaded...on with the thread!

So I filled up the tank with water and then popped in the salt. I overshot the SG at first. It was 1.026 which is a little too high. With the temp it was at its actually 1.028 sooooo....WAY too salty.

after getting the salinity right and then tested for ph and such....things were looking good. SO, I put in my first piece of ROCK!!!

And then MORE

This is the first version of the aquascaping that we had and it looked pretty descent. The fun part is that I accounted for the sand and used the dead rock as base rock. The left side of the tank held up GREAT. The right side was harder because the piece of live rock that I had looked like a dinosaur skull.......hehehehe

Then after I was happy with the aquascaping...I put in the mixture of pink fiji sand and live sand. YAY....

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 04:06 PM

The fun part is that whoever is reading this still doesnt know what my aquascape looks like at this point....hehehehe......

SO....I took the SG again and liked it....

And then my sweetie fell asleep....she was tired. OF course....I stayed up and looked at my tank with the widest eyes ive ever had. I swear to god this is better than every christmas ive ever had.....

ALRIGHT...

SOO....here is the tank that has cleared up and here is the aquascape with sand and all.
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TA DAAA!!

My skimmer is going to town!

Oye....and thats where I am at right now.

Capt_Cully · 06/05/2008, 04:13 PM

That's a great little set up! Nice going!

IAmTheWalrus · 06/05/2008, 04:16 PM

I like it, I'm a big fan of archways. Will you be adding more LR in the future?

AngeloM3 · 06/05/2008, 04:20 PM

Capt_Cully = best avatar EVER!

khanb31 · 06/05/2008, 04:26 PM

Capt- Thanks! It is my first time with this so Its all new to me. Im trying my darndest.

IAmTheWalrus - I dont know about adding more live rock. Im kind of on a budget and so far i have spent ~382$ on the ENTIRE setup. Everything I have has cost me under 400$ and I think thats a big bonus. I do have two more small pieces of dead rock that I might use but I might reaquascape. I have some ideas for a better cliff/hole type thingy. Ill try it later. I might as well mess with it while its still cycling.

I know my mom and dad have some dead coral around the house so I might use one of those. However I really need remind everyone that I have about 12 pounds of dead rock underneath and supporting each piece of live rock. This gave me a chance to mess with the sand bed in a few places. Mainly the rear of the tank and by the small cave on the left. I wanted to make sure this tank was as friendly as possible to a dwarf angelfish. The angelfish will be the last addition and i know that they need a lot of hiding space.

Ill mess with the aquascaping again tonight and then post some more pics.

AngeloM3 · 06/05/2008, 04:49 PM

Just remember you want to add all your base rock (dead stuff) during the cycle... if you add it months down the road when you have fish and corals in there... it's going to give you another cycle and you don't want that when fish and corals are in there.

JayB1224 · 06/05/2008, 06:43 PM

Ahhhh I remember my first tank. Just looking into the tank for hours waiting to see the first signs of life. Im getting all giddy just typing about it. I love starting tanks from scratch. Just wait till you see the first little pod run across a rock!

Jerry W · 06/05/2008, 07:01 PM

Looks very nice. If I can suggest purchasing a good refractomoeter and ditch the plastic swing arm hydrometer. You have invested in some nice equipment so don't skimp on your salinity measuring device.

khanb31 · 06/06/2008, 12:38 AM

AngeloM3 - hmmm....Im a little curious on the base rock suggestion. Why would dead rock throw another cycle? It doesnt have any life on it.....I wouldnt be surprised if it helped with the PH buffer.....buuut. Im curious.. Its not like Im going to add any more rocks after I get fish....(was never planning on it), BUT.....hmmmmm

JerryW - Yeah Im actually going to be looking online for some more equipment. Things like another pump for my return line...which will act as ALL of my water movement source. I like clean tanks so ill have only an over flow and two little pipes sticking into the water. Anyone have a refractometer lying around for a good price?

Any more suggestions on what brand to trust for test kits?

Any suggestions on good submersible pumps?

khanb31 · 06/06/2008, 01:15 AM

ALRIGHT, SO, I just played with not only the rock work....but more importantly...the sand scape. hmmmm...I JUST realized that the sand is just as, if not AS important as the rocks you get. You wanna talk about an entirely new feel for a tank? play with the DSB....mmmhmmm.

I just spent the past 20 minutes in the sand and I honestly feel like its a brand new tank. (redundant....i know....3 days and I think i know the tank? geez...im too attached...)

Ill get some more pics up when the dust settles. After that Im sure people will really start playing with their own sand beds. OH...and THANK GOD for base rock! If i didnt put all of that base rock underneath all of my live rock I would be in a world of hurt as far as creativity goes. I have not only holes near the middle of the tank but one underneath my largest piece of live rock!

Like I said...when it clears up ill get some more pics up.

OH...and the questions in the last post still stand....

Anyone got a refractometer lying around for a good price?

Any more suggestions on what brand to trust for test kits?

Any suggestions on good submersible pumps?

kau_cinta_ku · 06/06/2008, 01:32 AM

trust the API test kit, they may be cheap but are actually reliable. also they measure in PPM not MG/L.

also do not use the return pump for all of your flow. your return pump should only be pushing around 3-5 x turn over in that tank, the rest of your flow should come from powerheads, or a closed loop. and because you want a clean look then the closed loop is your best bet.

khanb31 · 06/06/2008, 11:26 AM

Hmm...well i guess i must have some old kits? all of them have mg/L on the charts. I got them with the tank....and I dont know how old the tank is....

Also, My return pump is REALLY dinky....its only rated for 40 gallons per hour. SO, im going to go get myself a new return pump and see how I like the flow from there. The problem im having with a closed loop is that on my tank I have a lip and a bridge covering half of the tank and I dont exactly want to drill it yet.....I have other ideas on how to get around all of that.

Ill make up some diagrams and then post em.

06/05/2008, 06:31 AM	#3
kzickovich Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Zion Il Posts: 959	when you get going you may want more water movement then just one K2 depending on what kind of coral if any you plan to keep. __________________ Ken Current Tank Info: 90 Gal mixed reef 55 Gallon basement pump up Sump 25 Gal fuge 2 Mp40 DIY led light fixture Bubble King Mini 200 Gen2 skimmer BRS Duel reactor

06/05/2008, 08:31 AM	#4
Nano Chris Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 2,758	Id suggest upgrading the skimmer to a better one, i don't think the one you have now will be good enough. __________________ Chris ------- 34 Gallon Red Sea Max 130! Setup (Just got back into the hobby) Current Tank Info: 34 Gallon RedSeaMax!

06/05/2008, 02:55 PM	#10
AngeloM3 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Rhode Island Posts: 1,016	Sweet looking bow! What kind of corals and livestock do you plan on keeping? Couple things.... coraline dying in the cycle is completely normal... dont worry because months down the road you'll have TO MUCH coraline. FWIW... my luck in the past with that brand of test kit is that they are very hard to read and very innacurate I agree that you'll probably need a better skimmer.... again this all depends on your bioload. Also the water level in the skimmer level i think is way to high.... it might reduce its skimming efficiency. __________________ "I'm sick of chasing my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where their going and catch up with them later." -Mitch Hedberg R.I.P Last edited by AngeloM3; 06/05/2008 at 03:03 PM.

06/05/2008, 03:35 PM	#12
AngeloM3 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Rhode Island Posts: 1,016	Sweet... the skimmer SHOULD be able to handle that bioload... can't say for sure. The best test kits out there are Salifert... but they do run kinda expensive. You don't NEED to get new test kit... all I did with that test kit is when they finally read 0... test for another week just to be on the safe side. With those kind of lights you'll be able to get away with have some softie corals..... check out: frogspawn, hammer coral, bubble coral, mushrooms, ricordias, zoanthids, xenia and leaters. If you want your clowns to use the frogspawn as their host... add that coral first and then just wait until they start using it as their host before you add any other corals. __________________ "I'm sick of chasing my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where their going and catch up with them later." -Mitch Hedberg R.I.P

06/05/2008, 04:13 PM	#15
Capt_Cully Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Syracuse, NY Posts: 13,574	That's a great little set up! Nice going! __________________ People say cars are a bad investment. Those people don't have reef tanks. Current Tank Info: 120, Radion Gen 2 Pro x 2

06/05/2008, 12:14 AM	#1
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	FIRST Tank Build!!! ~35gal Bowfront --Picture Intense-- Alright, so here goes. My name is Jim. I have always loved saltwater tanks ever since my dad had one while I was a kid. NOW, I can finally start my own. I got a great deal on an entire setup from dwilly. Thanks again to him for helping me get started in this wonderful hobby. He helped me out like no one can believe! Here is the break down of the equipment. ~35 gallon acrylic bowfront tank. (with stand) Excalibur protein skimmer (with maxijet 1200) koralia 2 10 lb sand 20 lb live sand 15 lb dead rock (base rock) 17.15 lb fiji live rock 10 gal QT that will be setup when I do my first water change This guy wont flip for some reason? This guy too....sorry for the head tilters.... Stock List Pair of clowns Sailfin blenny Fire fish or gramma or dottyback Cherub or coral beauty or flame angelfish clean up crew (nass. snails, turbos, few hermits) Right now, My tank is cycling with the live rock and live sand. Water parameters SG - 1.0235 Temp - 82 F (with temp fluctuations ONLY up to 83 F. The temp jumped up one degree and came back down in 24 hours. I think thats ok. ) Ammonia - quick dip strips - its cycling.... Nitrites - quick dip strips - its cycling.... Nitrates - quick dip strips - its cycling.... PH - Not entirely sure? test is funny with colors. (#1) If i hold it into the light I get a light purple.... (#2) hold it on the card with the light not going through the test tube....ph is like...8.1 ish. See pictures please. I think its ok though. (#1) (#2) General Info - My tank has been cycling with live rock for around 26 hours. I will test the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates tomorrow to get a feel for when this stuff will be done with cycling. Question 1 - It seems as if the coraline algae has lost some of its color? is that just because its in water or is it dying? Maybe sand dust? It used to be really green/pink/purple and covered with stuff but now its more muted grey colors of what they used to be... thoughts? Question 2 - My protein skimmer seems to be adjusting its skimming ability on whether there is a bioload or not. Lets say I churn up the sand a bit, the skimmer pulls it out and i get a nice thick frothy bubble formation at the top. When the tank is clear...the bubbles dont even hit the collection cup. Is this normal? Its getting late So i will put up another post about the first and second days of the build/setup tomorrow. stay tuned!

06/05/2008, 05:03 AM	#2
Crox99 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Merrick, NY Posts: 72	Q1 - How long was the LR outside the water? Aslo are you keeping your lights on? Q2 - perfectly normal. if there is nothing to pull out of the water the skimmer doesn't produce much foam.

06/05/2008, 11:36 AM	#5
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	Yay my pictures finally flipped like photobucket said they would! Sorry for the confusing captions... croxx99 - The live rock was outside of water for about....2 hours. It was in a styro container with a damp newspaper covering it. I left the box unopened until I was putting the stuff in the tank. I figured that would be alright. No, I am not running my full light cycle. I just have my actinics on pretty much at night (between 6-11pm) and full day lights when I am checking things out (15 mins or so). kzickovich - I am really thinking of a unique way of keeping the flow going in my tank. Ill discuss that later. I have a built in sump behind the display tank so I have a return pump with that K2. Ill post more pictures when I get a chance. Criminal#58369 - I like the skimmer actually. Dwilly gave me 2 other protein skimmers that I might try out if this one doesnt do it. We'll see, right now the skimmer is doing a GREAT job at skimming.....and it would make sense if you saw my ammonia and nitrates.... I just did some water tests....here are the results. Total ammonia - +5.0 mg/L (tetra test) lights on nitrate - ~100 mg/L (tetra test) lights on ....... 20mg/L (Aquarium pharmaceuticals) lights off ....... which one to believe? PH - 7.8ish (aquarium pharmeceuticals) Color is easier to tell now in daylight.... SG - 1.02325 YEAH! Temp - 84.........yikes...I might have to try and cool this sucka down. (no lights running but lemme take another look after I turn on my fans and such. Ill post on the temp in a bit...) Should my nitrates be so high with me just cycling the tank? It seems normal to me to have all of the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates to be going through the roof but im not sure. (inexperience really...) Built in sump Return pump area after bubble trap Ill post more when I get back after doing some chores and maybe pick up a new test kit.... Jim Last edited by khanb31; 06/05/2008 at 12:21 PM.

06/05/2008, 02:34 PM	#6
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	Alright, so here is what I did on day one of the cleaning phase for my tank! Since it was early in the morning and I didnt wanna wake everyone up with the sounds of me hauling my tank around, I played with my light fixture. Everything works great and seems to be in very good shape. I got two sets of bulbs with the tank. One set is 50/50's of 65W Compact florescents. The other set is one actinic and the other full spectrum day bulb. I went with the second set. This way I could have a nicer transition with timers and such. So I took the thing apart and checked everything out. A little dusty but overall in great shape. I saw the fan on the one side though and it was FAR to dinky for my taste. SO, I dug through my computer components and found a larger fan. When I first got it. Its bright! yay for two colors! So, I did a little snip snip and retrofitted the more powerful fan on it.... Old fan... NEW Fan!

06/05/2008, 02:40 PM	#7
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	THANKFULLY, the fan JUST fit inside the housing....no mods there....THANK god. The only thing I had to do was bend back some of the reflector to fit the fan in.....no biggie....took 5 mins and you dont even see it. Unfortunately, after I screwed it all in and tried to fit my splash guard in.....there was contact. the acrylic cover that I wanted on there didnt fit with the new fan....so out came the hack saw and a hammer.....oye... Before the fun... After the fun.... NOW, this acrylic sheet is THINNNNNN....so i had to take my time to get that sucker to not crack in ways I cringe about. But it went alright. YAY it fits!

06/05/2008, 02:46 PM	#8
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	And now its onto the tank equipment. Unfortunately the ceramic shaft to the koralia 2 is broken. Ill have to retrofit something to make it work at full steam but since its magnetic....the thing works great right now. I had to clean it when I cleaned the tank... So i took all of my equipment outside for the usual tests. Does it work? can it hold water? etc. etc... Everything seemed to be doing great and after THREE HOURS of cleaning the bottom and corners of the tank....everything looked pristine!!!! Dwilly was not a big fan of sand beds so he kept it bare bottom. Coraline algae had made its way onto lots of the bottom and corners. I didnt mind. It just meant I was able to spend more time with my tank.......yay CLEAN!!!!!!!

06/05/2008, 02:52 PM	#9
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	And here you are!!!! the wonderfully clean tank! After everything was all nice and shiny, it was time for salt and live rock. hehehehehehehehehehe... SO, here we go to the LFS!!! I went to living sea aquarium off of devon. (right down the street for me..) I bought oceanic salt mix for 200gals for 70 bucks. glass thermometer for 3 bucks. 20 lbs of live sand for 40 bucks. 17.15 lbs of live rock for 4.99 a lb.!!! The best part about the live rock was that they JUST got 500 lbs of rock in THAT day. I was the FIRST one to have a pick at it and I got some NICE pieces. VERY large but very light. Its from fiji and they buy it from cali. Here are the pics. I also had about 15 pounds of dead rock from dwilly that he was willing to give up. I also had about 13 pounds of sand from him as well.

06/05/2008, 03:17 PM	#11
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	Thanks for the post angelo. Well its good to know that my coraline algae will survive. I REALLY like how rock looks with it on there and I picked three pieces each dominated by a different color....green, purple, and pink/red/orange. I find that my skimmer really reacts well to the specific bioload in the tank. When I see it skimming away I do some tests and sure enough things are going crazy in there. (within reason of course....) Remember the skimmer has a maxijet 1200 powering it so i feel its really has a nice turnover rate compared to my return pump. As for my live stock I have that all the way up on the first post. Im looking at Pair of clowns Sailfin blenny Fire fish or gramma or dottyback Cherub or coral beauty or flame angelfish clean up crew (nass. snails, turbos, few hermits) As for corals....Id really like some frogspawn. Thats pretty much it though. I havent decided or searched for anything other than that. We'll see. Im waiting on photobucket to upload more pics...once I do that...ill post some more. Anyone know of some good test kits? I trust the tetra as it has been recommended to me by many. Anyone got some good brands? Jim

06/05/2008, 03:52 PM	#13
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	sounds like a great idea. I had no idea what kind of corals I could have with my PC lighting. I have 130 watts combined so Its about 4 watts per gallon (display side). Hehehehe....now that the pictures have been uploaded...on with the thread! So I filled up the tank with water and then popped in the salt. I overshot the SG at first. It was 1.026 which is a little too high. With the temp it was at its actually 1.028 sooooo....WAY too salty. after getting the salinity right and then tested for ph and such....things were looking good. SO, I put in my first piece of ROCK!!! And then MORE This is the first version of the aquascaping that we had and it looked pretty descent. The fun part is that I accounted for the sand and used the dead rock as base rock. The left side of the tank held up GREAT. The right side was harder because the piece of live rock that I had looked like a dinosaur skull.......hehehehe Then after I was happy with the aquascaping...I put in the mixture of pink fiji sand and live sand. YAY....

06/05/2008, 04:06 PM	#14
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	The fun part is that whoever is reading this still doesnt know what my aquascape looks like at this point....hehehehe...... SO....I took the SG again and liked it.... And then my sweetie fell asleep....she was tired. OF course....I stayed up and looked at my tank with the widest eyes ive ever had. I swear to god this is better than every christmas ive ever had..... ALRIGHT... SOO....here is the tank that has cleared up and here is the aquascape with sand and all. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TA DAAA!! My skimmer is going to town! Oye....and thats where I am at right now.

06/05/2008, 04:16 PM	#16
IAmTheWalrus Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 9	I like it, I'm a big fan of archways. Will you be adding more LR in the future?

06/05/2008, 04:20 PM	#17
AngeloM3 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Rhode Island Posts: 1,016	Capt_Cully = best avatar EVER! __________________ "I'm sick of chasing my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where their going and catch up with them later." -Mitch Hedberg R.I.P

06/05/2008, 04:26 PM	#18
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	Capt- Thanks! It is my first time with this so Its all new to me. Im trying my darndest. IAmTheWalrus - I dont know about adding more live rock. Im kind of on a budget and so far i have spent ~382$ on the ENTIRE setup. Everything I have has cost me under 400$ and I think thats a big bonus. I do have two more small pieces of dead rock that I might use but I might reaquascape. I have some ideas for a better cliff/hole type thingy. Ill try it later. I might as well mess with it while its still cycling. I know my mom and dad have some dead coral around the house so I might use one of those. However I really need remind everyone that I have about 12 pounds of dead rock underneath and supporting each piece of live rock. This gave me a chance to mess with the sand bed in a few places. Mainly the rear of the tank and by the small cave on the left. I wanted to make sure this tank was as friendly as possible to a dwarf angelfish. The angelfish will be the last addition and i know that they need a lot of hiding space. Ill mess with the aquascaping again tonight and then post some more pics.

06/05/2008, 04:49 PM	#19
AngeloM3 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Rhode Island Posts: 1,016	Just remember you want to add all your base rock (dead stuff) during the cycle... if you add it months down the road when you have fish and corals in there... it's going to give you another cycle and you don't want that when fish and corals are in there. __________________ "I'm sick of chasing my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where their going and catch up with them later." -Mitch Hedberg R.I.P

06/05/2008, 06:43 PM	#20
JayB1224 Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Northern NJ Posts: 342	Ahhhh I remember my first tank. Just looking into the tank for hours waiting to see the first signs of life. Im getting all giddy just typing about it. I love starting tanks from scratch. Just wait till you see the first little pod run across a rock! __________________ Jason Current Tank Info: 75g mixed reef, 30g sump, 2x250w reefoptixIII, Octo Extreme 160 w/PW

06/05/2008, 07:01 PM	#21
Jerry W Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: PA. Posts: 2,873	Looks very nice. If I can suggest purchasing a good refractomoeter and ditch the plastic swing arm hydrometer. You have invested in some nice equipment so don't skimp on your salinity measuring device. __________________ Americans sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. Current Tank Info: 37 gal; pair of mocha clowns, ywg and tiger pistol shrimp

06/06/2008, 12:38 AM	#22
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	AngeloM3 - hmmm....Im a little curious on the base rock suggestion. Why would dead rock throw another cycle? It doesnt have any life on it.....I wouldnt be surprised if it helped with the PH buffer.....buuut. Im curious.. Its not like Im going to add any more rocks after I get fish....(was never planning on it), BUT.....hmmmmm JerryW - Yeah Im actually going to be looking online for some more equipment. Things like another pump for my return line...which will act as ALL of my water movement source. I like clean tanks so ill have only an over flow and two little pipes sticking into the water. Anyone have a refractometer lying around for a good price? Any more suggestions on what brand to trust for test kits? Any suggestions on good submersible pumps? Last edited by khanb31; 06/06/2008 at 01:19 AM.

06/06/2008, 01:15 AM	#23
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	ALRIGHT, SO, I just played with not only the rock work....but more importantly...the sand scape. hmmmm...I JUST realized that the sand is just as, if not AS important as the rocks you get. You wanna talk about an entirely new feel for a tank? play with the DSB....mmmhmmm. I just spent the past 20 minutes in the sand and I honestly feel like its a brand new tank. (redundant....i know....3 days and I think i know the tank? geez...im too attached...) Ill get some more pics up when the dust settles. After that Im sure people will really start playing with their own sand beds. OH...and THANK GOD for base rock! If i didnt put all of that base rock underneath all of my live rock I would be in a world of hurt as far as creativity goes. I have not only holes near the middle of the tank but one underneath my largest piece of live rock! Like I said...when it clears up ill get some more pics up. OH...and the questions in the last post still stand.... Anyone got a refractometer lying around for a good price? Any more suggestions on what brand to trust for test kits? Any suggestions on good submersible pumps?

06/06/2008, 01:32 AM	#24
kau_cinta_ku Moved On Join Date: May 2005 Location: NW Iowa Posts: 8,669	trust the API test kit, they may be cheap but are actually reliable. also they measure in PPM not MG/L. also do not use the return pump for all of your flow. your return pump should only be pushing around 3-5 x turn over in that tank, the rest of your flow should come from powerheads, or a closed loop. and because you want a clean look then the closed loop is your best bet.

06/06/2008, 11:26 AM	#25
khanb31 SLim Jim Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Near Ohare, Des Plaines 60016 Posts: 1,096	Hmm...well i guess i must have some old kits? all of them have mg/L on the charts. I got them with the tank....and I dont know how old the tank is.... Also, My return pump is REALLY dinky....its only rated for 40 gallons per hour. SO, im going to go get myself a new return pump and see how I like the flow from there. The problem im having with a closed loop is that on my tank I have a lip and a bridge covering half of the tank and I dont exactly want to drill it yet.....I have other ideas on how to get around all of that. Ill make up some diagrams and then post em.