Angela's 270 tank thread

Keep at Angela... it will be worth all your hard work.

Have you though of maybe making a platform otu of PVC for the rock so you dont burn up so much rock that will just be burried. Make a platform just to give you the height on the back then stack as you normally would on the front to cover any PVC legs....

What kind of epoxy are you using? is it to glue the rocks together? Does it work? the "Two Little Fishies" epoxy i have SUCKS!
 
I wish I had of used some big PVC under the sand in hindsite because I have a ton of rock just burried. I went with a pretty deep sand bed to help get the sand dwellers up closer to the light as possiable.

I use tons of aquamend 2 part from home depo. Same as yours I think as far as texture. The trick is you have to really work it in a crack or something and hold it where you want it till it sets up which can be 10 mins or better with your arm killing you underwater. But it allows you to make cool spans in your rockwork.
 
The water is still so cloudy I am aquascaping blind :(. I even washed the sand and they say not to wash it to keep the tiny particals in there. Man it washed some foamy nasty out and it would have taken weeks to clear up.
I added the top 1-2 inches of my old sand yesterday so hopefully it will help settle all the cloudy particals out. I rinsed the old sand well with water from the 80 and I must say it was NASTY. DSB's are definetly septic tanks! But I like the look of them. I was afraid I may have rinsed out but I saw lots of little spag. worms and critters out in the sand last night.
 
What are you doing to clear it up? It took almost a week for the 120 to clear up with three bags of southdown and some crushed coral. I used a HOB with a micron filter along with filterfloss in the sump just upstream from the return pump. I didn't think the filter floss would really do anything since the particulate is so small, but I pulled it several times and replaced and it always dripped white... I still have some of the foam in the sump stuck to walls.
 
Did you wash your sand before putting it in gflat?

Im about to dump a ton of sand in the tank, they say dont wash (and I really dont want to :p), but I'd rather spend a little time washing like Angela then getting a horrible mess that takes weeks to clean up.
 
I washed the crushed coral, but not the Southdown. Southdown is so small that if you rinse it, you'll be left with very little:D. The foam comes from the Southdown, but I can live with it. With store bought sand (larger sized like the sugar sized, etc.), I always washed.
 
Angela,
sounds like your tank upgtade is going really well. Can't wait to see pic's.
I have a 75 gal and one day hope to have a big tank. I have the room I just want to be successful at the 75 gal first since this is my first tank.
keep us posted.
 
Here is an odd question:

150 is sitting on the stand. If I put sand in, then dribble the rodi water in, then mix the salt water..... is the water going to move through the sand bed enough to mix well?
 
I washed the SD in a big rubbermaid tub (40 gallon) I used the hose and rinced,stirred well and dumped the goopy water off like 5 times till it was realativly clear. I didn't seem to have much sand in the grass IMO. They say to leave the "dust" in but I also washed out some hunks of nasty grey clay. I feel the SD is small enouph without the dusty stuff left in to goop up the water.
Mine cleared up pretty well in 3 days. I added the top layer of my old sand over the new and it helped get the bacteria going all over it to weight it down so it doesn't sand storm as bad. Bed at 3:30 AM last night again but 95% of coral is in place. This is the third day without light so I am running my PC fixtures over the tank for a few hours just to give them hope that there food source is comming. Hopefully lights will be up and running tonight. I need a nap right now though!!
 
Angela -

Thanks for the idea of hooking the RO/DI straight to the tank. I filled 2 32 gallon trash cans with water. Then laziness kicked in. Flash forward one hour, with 100 feet of 1/4" tubing draped from the garage to the back room taped to random door frames throughout the house to discourage curious kitties.

My wife is gonna flip when she wakes up :p (she works night shift at the hospital).
 
:lol: Thats funny! Yea, you can run as much length as you need to!
Well, small flood tonight. I forgot I hadn't hooked up a return under the tank for the sump return in one of the overflows. I was not sure wether I would use 2 seperate pumps or one and split the return yet so I had one not connected yet. When I fired up the sump to watch my handywork in progress I was very unpleasently surprised to the sound of a flood. The main problem is I still am waiting on some lockline to get here to cap the returns permantly. I have the one I was using to get my water from the sump to the tank temporarily glued up with PVC is why I never thought of the other return in limbo just being a open tube with no plug in the bottom!! I broke down tonight and mixed up about 40 gallons of SW from the tap to finnally have enouph water to get the sump and overflows working. My poor RO is wore out and barely working.
All 4 of my power strips got seriously flooded and tripped both GFCIs. Hope they are not ruined :(.
 
OK very sad news now. I have my sump/overflows going. They still need a little tweeking as they are "flushing" a little and need more air I think. But with the increased flow and some makeshift lights going I noticed some of my favorite corals are dying. The tissue is just slouphing off my ORA green serisomethings :( and my hydrophra thingy. My biggest milli is not looking so hot and my huge green cap is loosing tissue as well. It looks like most of my favorite things are gonners!
I don't know what would have affected them all so adversly. They were in a huge rubbermaid with flow from a power head since Wed. and was put in the big tank late Thursday night. The PH dipped a little low in the rubbermaid is the only param out of whack but the tank is setting on 8 right now.
I wonder if a temp difference could cause such wide spread losses? The rubbermaid holding them was conciderably warmer with a small heater than the tank since my heaters in the sump were not being used yet. And for some reason all my hairy mushrooms which I have litterally chopped into 4 and 5's from one shroom at a time are all mealting really nasty. They are all but bullet proof I thought. I am afraid they are fouling the water so I added a big bag of carbon.
I guess its just wait and see what makes it now. I should have waited till the next day to add corals and let the temps be better matched but I got in a hurry and we all know only bad things happen fast in this hobby :(.
 
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Hate to hear that Angela. I have lost things to temp differences and not acclimating long enough when changing from one of my non chilled tanks to the main display. Let me know what you lose and if I have it, you will too;).
 
Thanks Gary! You need to go to bed! As do I. I just can't do things during the day with the 3 kidds under foot so I just went ahead and started dumping it all in last night late. Late at night is the only time I can be productive.
Well, I hear the baby up so I guess my bed time will just have to wait! She thinks its play time around 3-4 the last few nights :(.
 
That's cause momma is playing at 3-4 each night:). I was up late last night. My decrepit old bag of bones is kicking me now...
 
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