:thumbsup: looks great Troub! You're officially outta the bunker, and prepping for battle
I'll broker a peacekeeping deal with Biggles for the timebeing if possible
First off, awesome progress! I can't believe your wife helps you with the tank :lol:...That itself ensures longevity of the setup/system, more than anything else....
You've changed the scape a bit? The area just in front of the overflow looks a bit off, but I'm guessing the live rock/coral you add will take care of that.
I've still NEVER drilled, too much of a p**** to do it, but you look cool with the safety's
The rest of the plan sounds good, but just remember to take the cycling slow
Haha... yeah, I am out of the bunker now. But in the bunker I was warm and cozy. Now I'm out slogging around crawling through the pits in the line of fire. lol :fun2:
The glass was easy to drill. I would attempt it again without a doubt and have the confidence that it can be done. It was more difficult getting up the nerve to chance it then it was to drill it. But like I said, borrowing the correct drill was an important step.
I didn't really change the scape much from when I originally cemented it all together on the table. But the overflow isn't quite the same shape as the soda boxes I used to sculpt around. I knew I'd have to fidget the pieces around slightly once we got them in the box. So we had to do a light bit of rotating and shifting around to make it all snug inside the tank. The one tower on the left end by the overflow is the least stable of all the towers. Not that it's going to fall apart, just that pushing on the top in one specific direction is a little less stable. So I wanted to make sure it was rotated and wedged securely with the overflow and short rock piece at the base of the overflow.
Other then the minor rotations on those 2 towers flanking the overflow, the only other change(s) were the "random" little small rock pieces. We used to have a little 3-4 inch tall mini arch piece that was going to go in front of the overflow rocks and a 5 inch tall chunk of rock to go in the front left corner. After seeing the space in the tank with the big rocks in there. And the little rotation we put on the towers to snug them up. We decided that the taller 5 inch piece would fill the back left corner behind the tower nicely. And then we slid the short little arch piece from in front of the overflow to the foot of that left tower. Just because we wanted to open up the sand area a bit more and it looked good over there.
Remember, that shorty stack of rocks in front of the overflow has a 2 and 1/4 inch lift on it. We're hoping to get a goby/shrimp pair eventually. I thought with only a 2-2.5 inch sand bed, having the lift on that rock would make a solid roof for things to burrow down under that rock and still keep it stable. We will eventually see if that works out.
Adding the sand bed in definitely changes the look of the rockscape design some. But I knew that would happen. With the sand in there, the rocks feel smaller and a little undersized for the tank. But I'm ok with that for right now. Like you mentioned, once we're farther along and we have fish and some corals starting to fill in on the rocks. I don't think it will feel off anymore. Just need time to let the negative space fill in with corals. I tried to put some fair thought into a design that would give me space to let the corals grow in and still have some open sand / water area around the eventual thriving reef. :dance:
It is awesome that your wife is helping (mine does too, which gives me someone to commiserate with when things don't go quite as expected). Anyway... your set up looks top-notch and it will be an amazing piece in your living room (although one could argue that it should be the ONLY piece in your living room, but we'll leave that for another day)
Hey ifringe, thanks for the complement on the set up. It's really appreciated as I've just been planning and trying to learn as much as possible for the last year. It's definitely not done yet either, I've still got a lot to accomplish and tie in before it's running as intended. I need to run some electrical outlets, set up/plug in the skimmer, uv, heaters, etc. Finish getting the fuge plumbed back in and then fill that up. I've got another 50 or so pounds of sand for the fuge, plus additional dry rock that will be going into the sump/fuge filtration. And we haven't even gotten to getting my Reef Angel set up and lighting yet. Those things can come into play as we move forward and let the tank cycle and establish. But if you've seen the snails pace progress I've been making. These last few weeks have been HUGE and a lot of fun to finally get to. And now we at least have the DT and sump turning over the water to get the cycle going! :celeb3:
And my wife is awesome. It's definitely useful that she's willing to partake and help out! But most of it falls on me and she's more of a second pair of hands to help out and willing to give input to my research and ideas kind of assistant. Although don't kid yourself... when it comes to picking out what goes in the tank... then it's HER tank to put the animals in. :lmao: But I definitely think it's awesome she enjoys it and is willing to help me dabble in the hobby.
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As for the cycling process, don't worry. As with the rest of the build, we will be taking our sweet time. I'll just have to keep the Mrs. at bay from trying to immediately overstock the thank. :deadhorse1:
We got our salinity around 1.020 or so while filling the tank. I'll have to check it again tonight after we finished topping off the last of the RO water this morning to get it full. Obviously looking to slightly up that as we go. But there's still 75 - 85 gallons to mix into the system. And we can bring the salt content up as needed during the cycle and it shouldn't hurt anything, right?
Water temp (without heaters installed yet) was sitting around 79-80 last night and 77 this morning. With no animals in there, as long as we keep it in the 70-80 range for now, that's fine for setting up and cycling the tank, yes?
I'm going to get the protein skimmer running sometime between now and Sunday. I may end up having Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon off work. Maybe lots of time to get some more things done!
Would it be worthwhile to start up the UV unit (which is already plumbed in) during the cycling process? I have some limited plugs available for now until I get the electrical run done. So I may have to pick and choose a few pieces to run until then.
Of course, if I have a long weekend. I'll be finishing up bringing the fuge on line. Maybe cherry pick some live rock to help seed the system and stuff.
Call it out if you see I'm missing things or if there are things I should be doing as I get the tank underway? Since it's my first salt set up and cycle, I'm open to recommendations from experience. Once I get the skimmer going... should I ghost feed a little or anything? Or will the live sand and cherry picked live rock be enough to jump start the cycle and get the system establishing? Right now, I've just got the powerheads in the DT with the return pump running to turn over the water until I can get back to dabbling this weekend.
Things have been slow today for me at the office. Getting towards the end of this project. Hence the giant book I just wrote. I hope all you dedicated reefers enjoy my ramblings today ;-)
Thanks for tuning in and until next time... I leave you with this:
- A FULL TANK OF SALT WATER THAT IS CYCLING!!!! :bounce3: -
