asylumdown's in-wall 275
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Excellent tank build so far and a gorgeous house!asylumdown
New member
A new toy!
I filled the sump with R/O water because I'm impatient. It took 28 hours.
This is a terrible pic, but I also cut plexi strips and siliconed them in all around the top rim of the tank. This is to a) stop water the splashes on the euro-bracing getting under the framing for the doors and running down the front glass of the tank, and b) to prevent any possible chance that a jumping fish could get trapped within the cavity created by the frame.
And today I picked up 320 pounds of Caribsea seafloor special grade sand. Should give me between 2-3 inches of sand on the bottom of the tank.
I'm picking up my skimmer and a couple hundred pounds of Marco rock from Red Coral tonight!
I filled the sump with R/O water because I'm impatient. It took 28 hours.
This is a terrible pic, but I also cut plexi strips and siliconed them in all around the top rim of the tank. This is to a) stop water the splashes on the euro-bracing getting under the framing for the doors and running down the front glass of the tank, and b) to prevent any possible chance that a jumping fish could get trapped within the cavity created by the frame.
And today I picked up 320 pounds of Caribsea seafloor special grade sand. Should give me between 2-3 inches of sand on the bottom of the tank.
I'm picking up my skimmer and a couple hundred pounds of Marco rock from Red Coral tonight!
asylumdown
New member
On Friday night I picked up my skimmer, and 200 pounds of marco rock. After a slight misadventure with my R/O unit (the high pressure switch got stuck, then I accidentally re-assembled it wrong and put about 20 gallons of de-ionized R/O waste water in to my tank. oops.), I started to fill the thing for real, but had no way to affix my float switch to the inside of the tank with enough confidence to leave it running while I left town for the weekend, so that's for tonight/tomorrow.
I would love some feedback on the rock work. I didn't have the tools or the patience to do any fancy drilling of the rock, so what you see is simply rocks that are resting on top of one another. I hate the 'pile o' rocks' look, so I really tried to avoid that, while creating at least two major cavities that can't be seen from either side of the tank for a larger fish to sleep in (they're against the overflow boxes), and a relatively open structure, with a central 'canyon' down the middle. I'm not 100% sold on it, so any input would be appreciated. The plan is to eventually add about 50 pounds of real live rock from Walt Smith, that my LFS is going to order directly for me so that it goes straight from the ocean, in to my hands. I figure this will slightly reduce my chances of picking up aiptasia or other pests from a distributor's holding tank. Looking at my rock now, I'll likely end up removing some of the Marco rock rather than just adding 50 more pounds, as it's already a little cluttered for my taste.
Dining room side FTS
Dining room north side
DR south side
I'm not as happy with the office side, but also keep in mind that without real lights on, the shadowing from the room makes the office side look WAY more like a 'pile o' rocks' than it does in real life.
Office side FTS
Office north side
Office south side
And how it looked when I packed it in on Friday night:
I would love some feedback on the rock work. I didn't have the tools or the patience to do any fancy drilling of the rock, so what you see is simply rocks that are resting on top of one another. I hate the 'pile o' rocks' look, so I really tried to avoid that, while creating at least two major cavities that can't be seen from either side of the tank for a larger fish to sleep in (they're against the overflow boxes), and a relatively open structure, with a central 'canyon' down the middle. I'm not 100% sold on it, so any input would be appreciated. The plan is to eventually add about 50 pounds of real live rock from Walt Smith, that my LFS is going to order directly for me so that it goes straight from the ocean, in to my hands. I figure this will slightly reduce my chances of picking up aiptasia or other pests from a distributor's holding tank. Looking at my rock now, I'll likely end up removing some of the Marco rock rather than just adding 50 more pounds, as it's already a little cluttered for my taste.
Dining room side FTS
Dining room north side
DR south side
I'm not as happy with the office side, but also keep in mind that without real lights on, the shadowing from the room makes the office side look WAY more like a 'pile o' rocks' than it does in real life.
Office side FTS
Office north side
Office south side
And how it looked when I packed it in on Friday night:
asylumdown
New member
Tank has been filled, and I added salt this week! I hadn't rinsed the sand, so the water has been pretty milky the past few days. I didn't have the stand for my skimmer put together, plus I wanted to start the cycle without the skimmer running, so I've let that be for now.
Here's the tank as it looks from my desk right now:
After adding the salt and making sure the specific gravity was stable, I added 250 ml of Dr. Tim's 1 and only nitrifying bacteria. I've seen mixed reviews on the stuff and didn't expect it to be a magic bullet, but since I'm starting with a 100% dead tank I hoped that at least it would speed things up.
My readings so far (measured by el-cheape API test kits):
April 6th - Added pure ammonium chloride and the whole bottle of Dr. Tim's, and put 10 cooked cocktail shrimp in a mesh bag in the sump.
Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.1 ppm (i'm assuming it's leaching from the rock and sand)
April 7th - I added a bit more of the ammonium chloride in the morning
Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: Between 0 and 0.25 on the API kit, but definitely some
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: not tested
April 8th - the cocktail shrimp are really starting to stink. I've started running the ceiling fan to evacuate the smell from the cabinet
Ammonia: Between 2 and 4ppm, I'm gonna say 3
Nitrite: between 0.25 and 0.50ppm
Nitrate: between 0 and 5ppm, but closer to 0
Phosphate: Not tested
I don't have very many reagent packages for my hanna checker, so I'll probably not test phosphate again until the cycle is complete.
So far, I can't say that the Dr. Tim's 'skipped' the cycle, but in 48 hours I'm definitely seeing a pretty rapid spike in Nitrite, and in tanks that I've cycled without additives in the past that normally takes at least a week, so it seems to be speeding it up some.
I used the shop at school to cut and drill lengths of PVC so I could make the stand for my skimmer and set it up late last night. I was going to wait longer, but I really want it to pull the cloudiness from my sand.
The lights are scheduled for arrival in Calgary tomorrow!
Here's the tank as it looks from my desk right now:
After adding the salt and making sure the specific gravity was stable, I added 250 ml of Dr. Tim's 1 and only nitrifying bacteria. I've seen mixed reviews on the stuff and didn't expect it to be a magic bullet, but since I'm starting with a 100% dead tank I hoped that at least it would speed things up.
My readings so far (measured by el-cheape API test kits):
April 6th - Added pure ammonium chloride and the whole bottle of Dr. Tim's, and put 10 cooked cocktail shrimp in a mesh bag in the sump.
Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.1 ppm (i'm assuming it's leaching from the rock and sand)
April 7th - I added a bit more of the ammonium chloride in the morning
Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: Between 0 and 0.25 on the API kit, but definitely some
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: not tested
April 8th - the cocktail shrimp are really starting to stink. I've started running the ceiling fan to evacuate the smell from the cabinet
Ammonia: Between 2 and 4ppm, I'm gonna say 3
Nitrite: between 0.25 and 0.50ppm
Nitrate: between 0 and 5ppm, but closer to 0
Phosphate: Not tested
I don't have very many reagent packages for my hanna checker, so I'll probably not test phosphate again until the cycle is complete.
So far, I can't say that the Dr. Tim's 'skipped' the cycle, but in 48 hours I'm definitely seeing a pretty rapid spike in Nitrite, and in tanks that I've cycled without additives in the past that normally takes at least a week, so it seems to be speeding it up some.
I used the shop at school to cut and drill lengths of PVC so I could make the stand for my skimmer and set it up late last night. I was going to wait longer, but I really want it to pull the cloudiness from my sand.
The lights are scheduled for arrival in Calgary tomorrow!
Last edited:
asylumdown
New member
Thanks man, it's coming together, slowly ( really slowly )
Did the early morning readings:
Ammonia: 2ppm
Nitrite: 1ppm
Nitrate: still between 0 and 5 on the API test, but definitely darker than yesterday
I also emptied the skimmer cup this morning. It was mostly full with a thick milky liquid, so it's doing it's job removing the silt in the water. The Deltec comes with a pre-attached hose with a valve for a remote skimmate cup, and it's close enough to the drain that I can empty the cup without taking the collection cup off, which is convenient.
The only problem I'm having with it is that this skimmer is outrageously loud, borderline unacceptably so.
asylumdown
New member
Got some new toys:
Spent some time figuring out how to hang them, came up with the ugliest but functional solution. Thankfully they're in a cabinet, so it only ever needed to be functional
iPhones have a hard as time getting pictures of these lights
The cycle is nearing completion - no more ammonia, and Nitrite started falling a couple of days ago. I added more shrimp to keep things going.
Spent some time figuring out how to hang them, came up with the ugliest but functional solution. Thankfully they're in a cabinet, so it only ever needed to be functional
iPhones have a hard as time getting pictures of these lights
The cycle is nearing completion - no more ammonia, and Nitrite started falling a couple of days ago. I added more shrimp to keep things going.
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