120g mixed reef build - virgin reefer (pics/long)

[Tilian]

Hey RC!! Welcome to by first reef build!

I've been working on research and planning for this for several months now and I'm finally at a stage when I'm ready to start buying stuff! In fact, I made my first purchase last weekend at the Denver ReefStock show! (more later) I'm new to reefkeeping so I'd really appreciate all the feedback I can get... both positive and negative. I'll put some specific questions below in bold that I'd really love to get input on.

So here's the plan...

I'm building a 120g (48"x24"x24") mixed reef. I plan on starting out with mostly LPS and Softies for the first 6 months or so and then ease into clams, anems, and a bit of SPS. I'm on a pretty fixed, but reasonable budget (around $5k) which based on my plan, is tapped out right now. So, let's start with the component lists first...

Parts List
Tank: 120g Perfecto (48X24X24) with matching stand... going open top. Will be setting up a BeanAnimal external overflow. I'll be drilling and building the overflows myself. As for internal flow, I'll go with two Koralia Magnum 7s. I'll plan on upgrading to MP40s in the year to come.

Sump: 40g breeder that I'll split into skimmer, return, and Refugium (with Miracle Mud) sections. I'll be using a Reeflow BlowHole 1450 for the return pump. 1 1/2" drain plumbing and 1" return plumbing. I'll tee off the return to a manifold to power a pair of BRS single reactors for carbon and GFO. For the skimmer, I'll be using the Reef Octopus Diablo xs 225 - small footprint but still good performance. I'll also keep a couple of 250w Jager heaters in the sump as well.

Controller: Neptune APEX full system with breakout box. I'm a computer nerd at heart so this is a mandatory item for me. :idea:

Lights: a RapidLED 90g dimmable kit controlled by APEX. This kit has the following LED and color combinations: 18 Cool White Cree XP-G, 20 Royal Blue Cree XT-E, 6 Violet UV, 2 Red Cree XP-E, 2 Green Cree XP-E.

ATO: DIY with parts from AutoTopOff.com "“ 3 float switches monitored by APEX breakout box. Aqualifter pump will dose Kalk from the ATO reservoir. Eventually I'll replace (or suppliment) the Kalk with the BRS 2-part system but I want to wait until I can spring for dosing pumps.

Water: BRS 75gpd Chloramines Plus kit. Will be setting up a water station in the garage using two 55g food-grade barrels (the blue ones) plumbed up to a Panworld Blueline 30HD pump. I haven't finalized the plumbing design yet but I want to plumb a 50' RV water hose to use for water changes. Will start with Instant Ocean mix and then later move to Reef Crystals once I get more coral. Will also be getting a BRS Refractometer.

Dry Rock and Sand: 100lbs of dry rock and 120lbs of sand from ReefRocks.net. Heard nothing but good things about these guys and the sand is free with my rock purchase"¦ just need to pay $45 shipping for the sand. Rock is just $2/lb shipped and it's gotten very good reviews. Initially I was thinking I would not need to cure the rock since I was goign to cycle the tank from scratch. As I later found out though, I'll still need to cure it to get rid of the PO4. Need more research here still but sounds like I should get started with that right away.

Live Rock: I'm struggling here a bit. I really want to get the Primo Deco rock from LiveRockNReef.com (http://www.liverocknreef.com/liverock/index.php?l=product_detail&p=7926). It looks amazing and I'm really wanting all the life, both good and a little bad if necessary, to kick the tank off right. It's pricy though"¦ my alternative is 50lbs of mixed live rock from Saltwaterfish.com. It's certainly cheaper but doesn't look anywhere close to the deco rock.

Test Kits: API Saltwater master kit for the cycle (NH3, NO2, NO3), Red Sea reef foundations kit (Ca, Alk, Mg), and Red Sea Algae control kit (NO3, PO4).

The Design
So guys, here are some drawings of the design I have planned. Note that any blue pipe will be SpaFlex so I may be able to remove some fittings"¦ the flexible pvc is just a PITA to draw in Sketchup. I'll explain some of the features as I go.

So the pic below is the view of the back of the tank. You can see the external overflow box there with the three BeanAnimal standpipes. The external overflow box measures 8"x5"x20". The middle pipe is the emergency drain. It's 1.5" below the edge of the external overflow box. The left pipe is the open channel which is placed 6" above the bottom of the box (at the weir). The far right pipe is the full siphon pipe which is 3.5" above the bottom of the box. All the drain plumbing is 1 ½" schd 40 PVC.

So here's my first specific question"¦ I replaced the sanitary Ts in the original BeanAnimal design with two 90s to save space. Bean had mentioned that he only used the Ts so he could clean the pipes. Also, in his internal overflow box, he didn't glue the street 90s he used. Now, since this design has all the fittings inside an external overflow box, I don't think I have to actually glue them into the bulkheads do I? If not, then I'll have access to clean everything without the Ts.

As for the return plumbing, from the top of the tank returns down to the 2nd wye (just above the pump) is all 1" pvc. I debated on going with ¾ but since I'm using 1.5" from the pump to the internal manifold, I thought going to ¾ might be too small to fast. Not sure. The ball valve just below the left side return will be used to balance the flow between the two sides. I plan on reducing down to ¾" lockline fittings (with siphon hole) inside the tank. Also note that the blue pipe that connects the right hand return to the rest of the plumbing will be flexible PVC that I should be able to snake behind my drains without any extraneous fittings.

Here are a couple pics of the overflow plan. The external overflow will be ¼" glass at 8"x5"x20". I'll drill two 2.32" holes in the tank (same size hole as 1.5" bulkhead requires).

Then on the inside I'm doing something a bit different"¦ In a lot of the pics I've seen of external overflow tanks, I'm always able to see the outline of the silicone and glass joint of the external overflow. Now I know that it will eventually get overgrown with coralline and maybe I have a bit of OCD going on but it annoys me. So I'm planning on covering the entire inside back panel of the tank with 1/8 black acrylic. I'll cut a window out of that to allow water to flow through the two holes in then tank. And then I'll weld an internal weir onto the top of the 1/8" back plate. The internal weir measures 47 3/8"x1.5"x4.25". This should give me a clean look from the front of the tank and since I'm mounting the internal weir to the acrylic back plate it should be plenty strong. I'd just be siliconeing (sp?) the entire 47"X24" back plate to the back of the tank interior. Aside from overkill complaints"¦ any concerns about this approach?

The next pic is the front view. Here you can see the manifold that I set up teeing off the 1.5" return. The manifold reduces down to 1" ball valves. The right hand one will be used to adjust my refugium flow. The next two will reduce down to ½" JG fittings to power Carbon and GFO reactors. The final one is there for future needs (auto-water change? Maybe).

Note that the pump intake is plumbed into a 1.5" bulkhead in the return section of the pump. Here's another place I could use some verification. My return section is 10.5"x15.5"x9". Is that big enough to be safe? Both in terms of the risk of running the pump dry but also in terms of having enough water for the BeanAnimal siphon to kick in?

I also want to be sure that I've got enough free space in the sump to handle a power outage. So here are the dimensions of the sump sections: Skimmer: 10"x15.5"x9"; Return: 10.5"x15.5"x9"; Fuge: 12"x15.5"x12". As for the open space"¦ as I figure it I've got 3"x15.5"x12" of air above the fuge, 6x15.5x10.5 above the return, 6x15.5x2.75 above the bubble trap, and 6x15.5x10.5 above the skimmer section. So that gives me 2766 cubic inches of space"¦ almost 12 gallons of flood waters before a drop hits the floor. :rollface: Did I calculate that correctly?

Also, my brother, his wife and I got the chance to go to my first Reef convention last weekend"¦ the Denver ReefStock 2013! It was really cool but it sucked to see all those AMAZING frags and not be able to buy any!! I can't wait till next year! It was a lot of fun, met some local reefers and was able to open the wallet a bit for a Reeflo BlowHole 1450.

I didn't realize it but Reeflo is located in Co. Springs just an hour and a half from me. They had a booth and Reefstock and were showing this pump. I was originally planning on using a Mag 12 for the return and then two MJ1200s to power my reactors. But Reeflo offered me this pump for $120. It's $199 online right now. For that price I took a chance. This pump has three speeds you can run at with amazing head pressure tolerance. It's rated for up to 30' of head pressure! So based on my plumbing layout, how much head do you think it will need to fight? The pump is 4'5" below the return. Here are the specs of the pump and a pic of how TINY it is"¦ I guessed I'd be at around 10' of head after powering the reactors? That should get me 1100gph through the sump.

Finally, after all day at Reefstock doing everything I could to keep from buying a zoo frag to put in a fishbowl on my desk"¦ we stopped at petsmart on the way home so I could price check a QT system. Next thing I know, my sister in law walks out of the store with her very own Beta! The BRAT! I've spent months planning and drawing and then all day drooling over stuff at Reefstock and SHE'S the first one to actually get a fish! SHEESH!

LOL"¦ well thanks guys"¦ I'll keep this thread updated as I progress. Will be ordering the tank and stand this week! I'm on my way. Please offer whatever input you can. I could sure use the help!

 

[Tilian]

Curing Dry Rock

Curing Dry Rock

So folks, want to be sure to confirm my understanding of the process of curing dry rock (mainly to remove leached PO4).

I'll be buying 100lbs of dry rock from reefrocks.net. Here's what I was planning on doing for the cure process.

1. Rinse the rock in tapwater to remove dust
2. Place rock in a 55g water drum (or two plumbed together if needed) of saltwater in the garage.
3. Add a heater to keep water at 80 degrees
4. Provide good waterflow. I'll use my BH1450 return pump (on lowest setting of around 700gph)
5. Let it sit for 24hrs and test for PO4 (to get a baseline)
6. Add 5ml of SeaKlear LC solution each day
7. Once PO4 drops below .02ppm, stop dosing SeaKlear
8. Wait 3 days and test for PO4... if the PO4 level is high, return to step 6.
9. If PO4 is low after 3 days without dosing, START MY AQUASCAPING! :jester:

Does this seem right to everyone?

I have a couple questions....
I know it's hard to tell... but using this method what's your best guess as to how long it will need to cure. I'm guessing 4 weeks right now as a rough estimate.

I'm a little confused on the dosing amount and method for the SeaKlear LC product... let's say I'm using 50g or water... is 5ml per day enough? Do I need to drip it over a period of time or can I just dump it in since I'll have good flow?

From what I've been reeding, there should be no need for waterchanges right?

I would imagine that I'm going to cycle the rock while curing it (i.e. kicking off the nitrogen cycle while removing the leached PO4). I'm assuming this will mean that once I actually start the tank, the cycle time will be minimal. Is that a correct assumption?

 

[Tilian]

My first rental payment to Lowes

My first rental payment to Lowes

ok, I'm sorry... there is NO WAY one should walk out of Lowes with a $267 worth of PVC unless one is building a damned house!!! LOL

And if one DOES spend $267 on PVC at Lowes one should NOT think of the 9 things one FORGOT to buy in the 3 blocks it takes to drive home!:headwallblue:

 

[Josh_84]

Sucks buying plumbing, doesn't it? never seems like it's going to cost that much until they ring it all in! Good luck with your build, love how silent my bean setup is! Try to get an actual gate valve to control your full siphon line if you can as ball valves are a pain to adjust! This is my only real regret aside from not doing an external overflow.

 

[jake koppen]

Almost exactly how I built my 125 60" tank over the last year. I'm loving it! Bean animal is so quiet. I throttled the siphon back a little more to feed more into the fuge which makes the w water falling down that line make a little noise but if you hang a long strand of Suran wrap (taped up top) down that line, it will be dead quiet again. Just a tip, enjoy!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Tilian]

Additional Purchases and Water Station Design

Additional Purchases and Water Station Design

Thanks for the comments guys!

Glad to hear you both are happy with the BeanAnimal drains... haven't heard anyone unhappy with the system.

I throttled the siphon back a little more to feed more into the fuge

Thanks Jake... yeah I wanted to feed the fuge with as much raw tank water as possible while still keeping it quiet. I'll supplement with water from the return to keep the flow up. Great tip about the plastic wrap!

Try to get an actual gate valve

Thanks Josh... definitely planning on a gate valve. Already ordered from e-bay.


So, I figure my first step in the timeline will be to get my rock started so I can leach as much PO4 as possible. To do that I'll need RO and Saltwater. I ordered my rock, RODI unit, float valve, salt, refractometer, a handful of uniseals and a float valve. Also picked up a Panworld Blueline HD 30 X pump for the water station.

I was thinking of just mixing the salt manually this first time around but why do the work twice. I'm just going to build my long term mixing station.

So the plan is to use two Rubbermaid Roughneck 54g storage boxes. After doing a bunch of searches in various forums seems like lots of folks use these successfully and at $20/piece it's a good value. I'll be setting this up in the garage so I'll need to pump the water about 40 feet to the tank in the house. I'm be using the Blueline 30HD for that. Got a good deal on Craig's List!

After lots of thought I went ahead and drew up my initial design. I was pretty happy with it and then at about midnight just when I was ready to show you all the plan it hit me... this takes up WAY more floor space than is needed. Here's the initial design.

So I threw out the first 3hrs sketchup drawing and started over with a vertical design. Here's what I came up with. The RODI tank is on top with saltwater below. These first two pics show the front view with the plumbing. This setup will allow me to move any water anywhere I want. The intake of the pump can take either fresh or saltwater. The output of the pump will allow me to push water into the saltwater tank, the RO tank, or to a spigot which I'll hook to a 50' RV water hose.

Here's what the inside of each tank will look like. The lower pipe just ends in a downturned elbow so I can drain the tank to 1/2" or so. The top one extends to the end of the tank and shoots water down for mixing or moving water between the tanks. The RO tank will be fed by the RODI unit with a float valve.

And here's what the frame of the stand looks like. It's all 2x4 pine with a 3/4" plywood top on each shelf. I think this should be plenty sturdy.

Lots of thanks and a major shout out to d2mini for the inspiration for this design. The only change I made to his setup was to add an extra output from the pump back up to the RODI tank. I did this so that if I want to make a double batch of saltwater I can simply open all the valves except the spigot and let it circulate.

Thanks guys, please let me know what you think before I start gluing PVC this weekend! LOL

 

[Tilian]

Question about water station

Question about water station

Hey guys,

I was thinking... any reason I shouldn't drop my plumbing down to 3/4" (from 1" as currently planned) on my water station? The pump has 3/4" input and output. It would save me a few bucks and more importantly it would be smaller... with 1" plumbing, that's a lot of PVC to cram into a relatively small space.

 

[Josh_84]

Can't see it making any difference going with the 3/4" over the 1"

 

[Tilian]

First Big Build Weekend – WATERSTATION

First Big Build Weekend "“ WATERSTATION

BIG UPDATE GUYS! My first real build weekend is done. This weekend my brother and I build the water station. So here's what went down"¦

So, day 1"¦ Friday afternoon.

We started by a trip to Lowes to pick up supplies. Needed to buy ¾" PVC and fittings, the Rubbermaid Roughneck tubs, some John Guest style fittings for the RODI install, and lumber to build the stand. My first mistake started early in the build process"¦ I miss calculated how many 2x4s we'd need which meant a second trip to Lowes later in the day! BAH!

So, we started in on the stand. The two pics below show the stand in progress. In the first, we attached the bottom shelf but not the top yet. In the second picture you can see how we joined the legs. The legs were one long 2X4 on the outside of the leg and then I sandwiched a short leg on the bottom inside of the long leg. Then we did a cross beam and rail on each corner which both rested on that short interior leg. Once that bottom frame was in, we fastened the ¾" plywood shelf, and then added longer interior legs, again sandwiched to the long exterior leg, which went 3.5" short of the top of the long leg. This left enough room to duplicate the rail/cross beam frame procedure above. The final step was to fasten down the top plywood shelf.

Here's a pic of my hero, savior, cheap labor god"¦ my little brother Sean. He and his wife just moved here to Colorado from Arizona so they're still getting use to the colder temps. It was a beautiful 50 degree day this day and he was freezing in the garage! LOL. You can also see in the background the frames we made to support the water bins we'll be using. These frames just keep the sides from bowing out too far.

After all the trips to Lowes, the layout and cutting of all the lumber (All I have is a circular saw"¦ damn I miss my Dad's chop saw!), and all the work taping and screwing all the joints"¦ it was midnight before I finally got a coat of paint on the tops. I decided to only paint the tops but I may end up painting the legs later"¦ I definitely don't like the look of bare legs when they're not tanned and curvy! LOL

So that finishes Friday! We'll pick back up on Saturday morning!

 

[Tilian]

First Big Build Weekend – WATERSTATION – Day 2

First Big Build Weekend "“ WATERSTATION "“ Day 2

So the plan was to get started early in the morning but we both overslept! Too hyped up Friday night to fall asleep!

We got started around 11:30am or so. Saturday was all about plumbing. We started by drilling the bottom hole of each tub to fit the ¾" Uniseals I bought from Bulk Reef Supply. Now, as you'll see"¦ these uniseals are tricky. You need to get a perfectly round smooth hole which is tough on curved surfaces. If I were to do it again, we'd raise the holes up higher to a flatter area of the tub. In this pic we're dry fitting the pump intake section. The pump will be able to take water from either the top RODI tank, or the lower Saltwater tank.

We then drilled and fitted the uniseals for the top holes in the tubs. We then measured and cut all the required pipe to dry fit the rest of the plumbing. Lowes only had 3 of the ¾" true union ball valves so on the lower drain hole of the upper tub, we had to use a standard ball valve and then we put a union in a bit lower on the pipe. One thing we learned is that UNIONS ARE AWESOME! Sure, it's nice to be able to take the pipes apart but even better is the fact that it lets you rotate the fittings while gluing them. This really makes getting all the 45 and 90 degree angles lined up properly. Here's a pic of everything all dry fit together.

So then we began gluing. My sister-in-law took a quick snapshot of my brother and I admiring all the purple drips all over our beautiful white pipe! I hate primer!! We definitely need to work on a better technique when it comes to assembling the display tank plumbing. Any tips on how to prevent the one-eyed, one-horned, ugly purple drip maker from showing all over the place!? As you can see in the pic"¦ my little brother isn't just younger than me"¦ he's also quite clearly littler than me too! That will come into play on Sunday.

So we finished gluing everything up including the hose spigot! It's time to test it with real water! We ran the garden hose in and started filling up the top tank. Here are the two tanks with actual liquid in them!

So after about 5min, the water level raised up high enough to cover the lower drain hole of the top tank. We started out with all the ball valves closed just to test the top tank itself. We noticed a pretty big leak in that bottom uniseal. When we drilled that one, the circle saw didn't come through cleanly so the hole was not perfectly round. So we decided to be safe and take out that top tank and replace it with a third tank I had planned on using for curing my rock. We re-drilled both holes and started it up again. Unfortunately it still had a slow leak! Just a drip a second or so but enough to support the echo of curse words in the garage that afternoon!

Since the leak was slow enough, we decide to go ahead and test the rest of the joints. I opened the bottom valve of the top tank and the bottom valve of the lower tank and let gravity drain that top tank into the bottom one. On the lower holes of each tank, there is a downturned elbow which sucks the water from the indented "œfeet" on each tub. That lets me drain all but about 2 cups of water from each tank.

Once the bottom tank was filled, we saw that there was another fairly slow leak in the bottom tank's lower true-union valve. The Uniseal was fine on that one but the leak was coming from the actual union in the valve itself. So we turned the interior elbow up and added a standpipe to keep the water in the tank and disassembled the valve. The rubber gasket was suspiciously missing!! To quote Adam from Mythbuster's, "œWell THERE'S your problem!"

Fortunately I had an extra union lying around so I scavenged the gasket from it and BOOM, leak was sealed! So we proceeded to walk through all the valves and possible water flow directions and everything worked great! Here's a pic of the Saltwater tub mixing water from the bottom drain back into the top of the lower tank. It's got some pretty good flow!

No more leaks"¦ just the one uniseal giving us problems. We drained out all the water, dried it all well and ended the night by applying a good coat of silicone, inside and out, around that drain. Here's my terrifyingly ugly silicone job.

So that closed out Saturday"¦ we finished things up around 6pm, just in time to start watching the UFC fights! Sunday would be all about the RODI unit.

 

[Tilian]

First Big Build Weekend – WATERSTATION – Day 3

First Big Build Weekend "“ WATERSTATION "“ Day 3

So Saturday night, my brother Sean wasn't sure if he'd be able to come give me a hand on Sunday. He's helping a friend build a new hot rod in time for a big car show in June. So I was going to have to do the RODI unit on my own!

As you can see in the pic from Saturday's work, I'm not the fittest human specimen on the planet! I've been a computer nerd for the last 25 years and have worked in the computer industry for the last 16 years. When you're tied to a desk for work all day and all your hobbies are desk or chair related as well, your muscles tend to rebel a bit when you've had a good physical weekend like this! Needless to say, I was moving pretty slow on Sunday! LOL

By the time I actually got started working it was close to noon again. Just as I was getting going, Sean called and said he was on his way over! The real handyman in the family was back to save my *** again!

So we started by getting the RODI unit on the wall. I moved the sprinkler timer and the power strip over to the side of the grey cabinet and then mounted a piece of scrap plywood to the studs. Then, I hung the RO and DI units to that scrap wood.

Unfortunately the garage doesn't have any water or drains in it so to power the RODI unit I'd have to go through the wall. The garage shares a wall with the kitchen so we decided to run the input and drain lines through the wall, through a cabinet, behind the dishwasher and under the kitchen sink. Simple right!? So here's the cabinet that we'd have to drill through the back wall into the garage. Thank god for "œlittle" brothers! If he hadn't showed up today I still would have tried to drill it, but as my Dad told me I'd have take my cell phone with me so when I got stuck in there I could call someone to pull me out!

So Sean did his best contortionist impression and crawled under there to drill through both walls. He did a great job and we now had a red and black tube running to the kitchen sink!

So next, we had to connect the lines. The drain line went smooth by drilling a ¼" hole just below the sink drain and using the saddle clamp supplied by BRS to run the drain line down the actual drain. If only the input line went as smoothly!

So we used the BRS "œTee" fitting to connect the cold water line to the RODI unit. We shut down the cold water valve under the sink, pulled the flexible copper tubing off and put the RODI Tee in between. Hooked everything back up, opened the valve and turned on the cold water up at the sink. We were getting just a trickle of water. There was almost no pressure.

Since I've never had an RODI unit before, I was worried that this might be normal. I opened the valve on the RODI unit and started flushing it out. Once flushed, it finally started to produce some RODI water but it was very slow. We went back under the sink and realized that the brass shut off valve under the sink had died"¦ it wouldn't open. Apparently these are made to only close once and then never open again! LOL

In my experience, the best plumbing tool it the house is a phone. I'm just not a handy type of guy! Sean took the lead on fixing the copper plumbing and went out to get a new valve at, yes you guessed it, Lowes again. After several attempts, and several leaks, we finally got the new valve in! Here's how it turned out.

We kicked the RODI unit back on and started running the RODI into a bucket. BRS recommends running it for the first hour into a waste bucket anyway to clear all the fines. After fixing the brass valve under the sink, we measured the output from the RODI unit at about 50g per day. Considering the water temperature here is probably below 40 degrees, that's a flow rate I can live with. While it was running I cleaned up the tubing and wires a bit. Here's how it finally turned out.

So I'm finally making good water! Now since it had only been 24hrs since I siliconed that leaky uniseal, I didn't want to start filling that tub yet till it was fully cured. I'll give it one more day before I start that. In the mean time though we had that third tub laying around with the wonky ¾" hole in it that was leaking. Somehow I'd have to close those holes off in order to use that tub to cure my rock.

My final solution was to actually use a couple of 1" uniseals to plumb that tank to my eventual display tank pump. Since a circle saw wouldn't work real will when there is already a ¾" hole in the tank I decided to take a different approach. I drew a circle around the existing hole so that the bottom of the new hole would touch the bottom of the existing hole. Then, I took a Dremmel with a barrel sander on it and filed the hole out to the edge of the circle I drew. This worked surprisingly well and we were able to plumb the tank using 1" PVC to my new pump. I'll use this pump, along with a heater, to keep the water flowing quickly through the rock as it cures.

So here it is, the final view of what we ended up with. It was a long weekend but I think we accomplished a lot. I'm thrilled! Please let me know what you think so far!

 

[Josh_84]

Looks pretty good, personally would have used bulkheads rather than those uniseals. I would not be surprised if they become an ongoing problem with leaks. Also, silicone will not bond well to the plastic tub or uniseals, so I wouldn't count on that being a good fix unfortunately. Are going to seal the tubs since they are inside the garage?

 

[worm5406]

Colorado... cold... How well are those going to do in the cold?

 

[Coddigtion]

Looks nice, is your garage heated? Are you heating the tanks?

 

[Tilian]

Garage is insulated, but not heated. I will be heating the tanks. I was also going to get a clip on spotlight on a thermostat which would turn on when the temp dipped below 35 or so. We really don't get that many days where it will be below 30 in the insulated garage. Going to give it a shot anyway.

 

[worm5406]

Nice!

 

[fullerfab]

nice job

 

[KeithB]

Nice thread so far. Will be starting my own build in a little bit and I'm getting a lot from this!

 

[Tilian]

Rocks getting wet!

Rocks getting wet!

Quick update guys...

Was pretty cold this weekend... got 8 inches of snow and it's going to drop to 5 degrees tonight. Didn't spend a lot of time in the garage as a result but did finally get my rocks wet!

So first, just because I couldn't wait anylonger, I decided to throw all my rock on a table and do a test aquascape. Again, this is 100lbs of dry rock from ReefRocks.net. It looks great! I'll also be getting 50lbs of live rock from either Live Rock | Florida Saltwater Live Rock - LiveRocknReef.com or Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock. I haven't made up my mind yet.

So here was my initial thought of the dry rock layout I want. This layout is about 16 inches high, 44 inches long and 20 inches deep. When I set it up for real, I'll probably try to make it closer to 40 inches long and a bit higher. I know I won't be able to duplicate this again but I just wanted a general idea of what 100lbs of rock would look like. My general concept was going to be three "columns" connected by arches with the right column higher than the center which is higher than the left. That's not how this turned out so I'll try to steal some height from the left side and add it to the right when setting it up for real.

Here was the first dry run from a few angles.

Then, we just took them down and placed them into a 54g Rubbermade Roghneck tub with two powerheads and a 250w heater set for 81 degrees.

I'll let this soak for a couple days then test phosphates. I tested the pure saltwater and it didn't register any phospates at all. If I see rising phosphates leaching from the rock after a couple days, I'll start dosing the SeaKlear phosphate remover. I'll also add a couple of frozen shrimp as well to get the nitrogen cycle kicked off.

So, next step is to set up the quarantine tank and buy the actual display tank and get some exact measurements so I can order my glass and acrylic. I probably won't be able to pick up the DT until Saturday. Getting excited now!

 

[bikeboss11]

Great design man... I am tagging along for this build