Bubbletip2's 200 Gallon system

[bubbletip2]

I know this is not customary, but I felt it was necessary to finally plug in my tank build into Reef Central. I started planning this tank in June of 2007. I finally got it plumbed on August 19,2007 a little over a year from now.

I recently purchased a Reeflo Orca 200 protein skimmer, a set of 2 T5 retros, and 3 new mini LumenBrights with 250w dimmable ballasts that will be running 12K Reeflux bulbs. Because of the big change I decided to continue this tank build here on RC as it is kind of a rebuild in a way.

The tank is an Oceanic 156g 5ft long x 2ft wide x 25" tall with a 37g sump currently so I am technically running about 180 gallons right now. The plan is to plumb in my 30g cube which should bring me over 200 gallons. I questioned whether I should add the thread here or in the SPS keepers forum. I figured this tank belongs here. It is not the monstrosity of some of the tanks on this forum but it will do.

I will be pulling old posts from another Reefkeeping forum from when I started the tank so I will have a ton of posts here over the next couple weeks to get caught up to where I am in the tank build now. I am going to just cut and paste most of the posts so you will see that these were made a year ago up until I stopped posting in November 2007. I will post the dates of the original posts at the top of these upcoming posts.

Well I hope you enjoy the thread. I can be a little longwinded so feel free to skim the thread I will promise a lot of nice pics...

 

[bubbletip2]

9/14/07

A little over a year ago I took down my 65g reef tank. I downgraded to a 30g cube to house the first two marine fish I had ever kept, my two captive bred clownfish(update clowns are now over 13 years old). Due to space reasons - girlfriend was not as into the tanks at the time - I concentrated on this 30g cube that has been going a bit more than a year. It is now a thriving reef tank of its own and my clowns could not be happier.

"update: I took the 30g cube down about three months after starting the new tank. Wanted to focus on one tank... moved everything over to the new tank"

I caught the bug again and started looking around for my dream tank. I stopped into one of my favorite LFS's just north of my work - Sho Tank Aquariums. Matt had an unfinished 120g All-glass tank set into a beautiful custom stand and canopy that were actually connected. It looked really cool. I took a picture and brought it home to my girlfriend(update: just got married last June) and she wanted it just as much as me. I was totally shocked and we decided to go up to see Matt the next day. I wanted a Starphire front so we asked on the price of a 120g Oceanic and found it was the same price as the 156g Oceanic. So that's what we decided on - our new 156g Aquarium.

 

[bubbletip2]

9/15/07

It took about 3 weeks to get the tank in and then we waited another 4 weeks for the stand and canopy. In the process, I started planning out the tank and how everything would work from circulation to lighting and of course, the choice of inhabitants.

When researching lighting I came across a thread where a fellow reefkeeper displayed his tank under 5 metal halide bulbs - 500g 10ft aquarium. That thread soon turned into this:Tank of the Month - September 2007 - Reefkeeping.com:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/totm/index.php

I loved this set up because it was an example of a reef tank that functioned with one lighting scheme. I PM'd Mike and he asked me to call immediately. He convinced me that after viewing the Coralvue 12K Reeflux bulbs I would have found my perfect 50/50 Metal Halide bulb. He asked me if I wanted to come over and of course, how could I pass up the opportunity. I was in awe of his tank from the first second I saw it. I was immediatelty drawn to the natural look of single MH bulbs creating a view that reminded me of "swimming in the ocean on a sunny day."

I took about 250 photographs of Mike's tank that day and from there I visited several more times to take additional pictures for the TOTM article as well as just rapping about reefkeeping. It is amazing who you may meet in this hobby. All by chance in looking for the perfect bulb for me. The reason I mention this series of events involves how my mind changed about planning for the new 156g reef. I had an extra Icecap 660 ballast so I was convinced I was going with VHO's and 10K bulbs. Not anymore. The design for the stand increased from 30" to 36" to allow for a larger skimmer and the canopy was raised from 12" to 20" to compensate for 400w bulbs instead of 250w bulbs. The last couple months has been a hell of a ride. Most importantly I have a new reefkeeping buddy that I can rely on for sound advice. I have always felt that having one or two reef geeks in close contact is best to reference the flood of information we are exposed to every day.

 

[bubbletip2]

9/15/07

Finally the stand and canopy were close to finished. Matt was particularly busy and did not have the time to sand and stain everything prior to a key weekend that Mike was available to help me plumb the tank. It all worked out after two whole days of sanding and staining the stand so we can get this little baby plumbed. Here is the end result of the stain job. I used the Minwax Polyshades - Honey Pine(2 coats) along with 3 coats of polyurethane.

And here is the stand and tank in its final resting place. It was one of the heaviest tanks I had lifted to date with just two guys. It slides into the stand instead of on top. I really liked this design. Makes for a cleaner look. While lifting it to slide in the stand, Mike had jerked a bit and the tank was on its way down. :wavehand: Luckily my knees broke the fall and all was well except my knees of course.

Well, here we are finally ready to plumb on Sunday - August 19, 2007. Enjoy everyone - the journey begins...

 

[bubbletip2]

Drilling

Drilling

9/15/07

So, the day started out with drilling the sump. I have never drilled acrylic - only glass - so Mike to the rescue. He used a hole saw - drilled a pilot hole - and used olive oil to lubricate. Pretty cool.

He drilled 4 holes total - Hole #1 - 2" hole for a 2" bulkhead for the Reeflo Dart pump on the return side. This was the toughest hole to drill apparantly. The bigger the hole to drill I guess greatens susceptabiltiy to crack the sump. The drill wanted to jump often. Olive Oil helped and was only used for this big hole. Whew - sump in tact:thumbsup: Nice job Mike! I can tell drilling the other holes were secondary as we had one shot to get the 2" bulkhead in as only one sump in the house. It was definitely a relief and the drilling continued. You can see the 2" bulkhead fastened to the sump in this shot:

(ESHOPPS - 37 gallon capacity - Reef Sump)
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Hole #2 - 3/4 inch bulkhead - possible chiller in the future on the return side
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Hole #3 - 3/4 inch bulkhead - used for an external pump - I will be plumbing a refugium or a frag tank - have not decided yet - still planning it out.

You will notice a bit more than 3ft on the right side of the tank for a 24-26" custom cube or 45 tall cube refugium. I wish I could have done it all it once but money talks and everything has gone towards the main display. I may just end up plumbing the 30g cube in, but I know it would be better off as an ongoing quarantine tank. More to come here...

You can see Hole #3 and hole #2 connected to a ball valve here:

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Hole #4 was a surprise - the intention was to use the mag 7 as the feed pump for the skimmer "inside" the sump. I figured why not, so the hole was drilled for another 3/4 bulkhead right where the drain lines come in. Problem is the pump after glueing was going to hang off the back of the stand by the length of the pump. I jerry rigged 3 pieces of 2 x4 that set the mag 7 up right where it needs to be.

Easy enough. The skimmer called for about 350gph to operate optimally. Using a mag 7 - the flow needed to come down and putting it in the sump would have meant heavily restricting the pump with a ball valve. I still have a ball valve on but have it kept wide open. In the sump a mag 5 would have been best to keep the flow down feeding this particular skimmer. Skimmer running well. More to come later...So some flexible Spa Flex PVC was line against the back of the stand with horseshoe clamps reducing flow just enough for the skimmer to do its thing. I would say about 4-5 ft head loss - have not measured it yet. The flexible PVC Mike uses is excellent - bendable but sturdy providing a much cleaner set up than I have seen with most rigid PVC setups - more to come here as well...

So there you have the four holes. Mike did an excellent job on the holes and made it look too easy. All we had left to do is plumb it...

 

[bubbletip2]

Plumbing the Dart...

Plumbing the Dart...

9/15/07

I originally planned on a Panworld 150 for the return. After realizing the amount of watts this pump produced(1100gph - 180w & I am sure just as many amps as the Dart), I enquired about the possibility of putting a Reeflo Dart(3600gph - 160w & 1.4 amp max.) as the return. There are 1" drains so the increased gph they are able to manage was made possible by expanding one of the drains to 1.5" into the sump.

I had the Dart cranked down for the first few weeks and am now able to keep the Dart almost all the way open. This has created a ton more flow than I had expected. I knew I would have powerheads inside the tank so the return pump was meant to be supplementary. Now the returns are a whole circulation system on their own. This is where I trust the experts. The Dart is rated much higher than the Panworld 150, but was made possible on these 1" drains with Mike's experience.

So there you have it, a high rated pump on a return. You may ask if there is a refugium down below and there is "one", just not customary to what people typically keep - macroalgae. My goal was to free up space in the aquarium and place about 30lbs of live rock in the sump. I can still manage another ten pounds in there. This is where hooking up a macroalgae or seagrass refugium will come in later in the empty space to the right side of the display.

Here is a side view of the dart. We came in 2" from the bulkhead to get full flow. The union Mike used is much shorter than the average 2" union. This helped get the dart in the stand with some breathing room.

Here is a top down view with the two ball valves for future equipment. I really like this approach as you can turn the water off right at the sump. The main reason for going in the sump is to leave room for external plumbing and equipment. It would not have been possible to put in a 2" ball valve for taking off the Dart. Simply, the sump must be drained below the Dart before servicing the pump. An extra step yeah, but no problem as we got this to work.

Here is a good view of the return section of the sump. Later a curved 45 degree bend is put in for the Dart aimed down for the intake on the Dart. The Dart comes off at the 1.5" union and shut off by a 1.5" ball valve.

Here is the dart partially plumbed. You can see a 1" ball valve after being reduced from 1.5". This Oceanic tank had four 1" holes drilled on the bottom of the overflow boxes which allowed us to come back into the tank at 1" instead of 3/4", as would have been if we used the cheap 3/4" bulkheads given with the overflow kits. The ball valve cranks down the closest return so the flow would balance out with the left side return. You can see the 1" drain increased to 1.5" at the top of the sump on the left hand side. The Mag 7 is right where the drains come in for the skimmer feed. You will also ntoice the open sump perfect for 30-40lbs of live rock. Again this will be an SPS Dominant reef and the fish will have there room to do their thing as well. I want the biological from plenty of live rock but also wanted to open up the display for the fish to swim. I guess you can technically call this a refugium. Just not your typical one.

The stand is about 62" inside the 2x4's so the sump(36" long) and the skimmer(22" needed) left little breathing room. The skimmer is also 30" tall and the floor to the stand was put in afterwards to fit all of this under a five foot tank. The skimmer had to get in to make this work.

 

[bubbletip2]

The Skimmer

The Skimmer

Initially I was thinking of doing a custom 48" sump/refugium which would also house an insump skimmer. Wanting enough room for live rock in the sump, I needed everything to be external so that live rock could be placed there. Mike suggested an open sump for live rock and a recirculating skimmer to be plumbed externally. The Octopus DNW-200 Recirculating Skimmer

Specs:- 7.8" Diameter - 29.64" Tall - Footprint 9" x 21"

I know ratings don't always realistically display the threshold for effective operation. This skimmer was rated to 400 gallons. This system is currently at approximately 180 gallons. I wanted a skimmer that would skim hard to allow for a larger bioload. I always manage to reintroduce trace minerals regularly through weekly water changes, ESV B-Ionic 2 part & Magnesium, and Ecosystems Reef Solution. I have been using this method for the last 12 years and have been pretty successful doing so. I have a skimmer rated for 125 gallons for my 30g cube as well.

This is a fabulous skimmer. Well constructed, tight fittings, and a skimmer cup that comes off without having to lift it up out of a tube. I only have two inches to the bottom of the tank so if it needed to be lifted, I was out of luck.

update 8/2008: I just purchased a Reeflo Orca 200 that will be plumbed in the next couple weeks. The DNW-200 served its purpose and will act as a back up skimmer or one for a different system . I felt the need to upgrade as I have not spent enough money on my tank lately Also, I have a heavy bioload now with approximately 25 fish(10 chromis) so a more efficient skimmer will definitely be helpful in this regard. I have been feeding 3-4 times a day lately mostly for the chromis so I needed a more efficient skimmer.

Here is another shot of the mag 7 feeding the skimmer:

update 8/2008: This pump will most likely become the feed for the 30g cube that will be plumbed into the main display.

This shot shows you the end of the spa flex connected to a ball valve to turn down the skimmer feed if need be. You can also see the ball valve on the closest return to balance the flow.

 

[bubbletip2]

9/16/07

Answer to a question regarding head loss on the feed pump for the skimmer:

The skimmer asks for 1.5 - 2x tank volume - figure 180 gallon system - so 350gph is probably optimal. I am at a bit more than that with the head loss which is why I left the option to turn down the feed if need be. It seemed to me that putting the mag 7 right where the drains come in would be best for effective skimming. If we went with a mag 5, I definitely would not have enough gph with the head loss. Just for reference - their is an additional pump on this recirculating skimmer connected at the base of the skimmer to create the bubbles. The mag 7 is simply just to feed the skimmer water from the sump.

 

[bubbletip2]

9/16/07

Quote:Originally Posted by Russel P

"Beautiful sump you have going! Flexible PVC is new on me, I'm setting up a big tank too -gotta track down that. Can't wait to see how this progresses!"

Hey Russel P.,

Thanks for the complement. It was a pretty tough decision deciding upon whether I would do a sump/refugium or not. I guess knowing I was going to use a Dart for a return helped make the decision. Adding a refugium in the sump would have way too much flow through it to be of any use. I am estimatign at least 2000gph going through the sump. Besides, my main reason for the sump is to keep rock out of the tank as well as a place to grow copepods and amphipods. The removal of nitrate will come later when a refugium is set up next to the tank. I am figuring the live rock inthe sump can act as a nutrient export as well. The bioload will be so low for a while that I am not concerned. My 30g cube has been going a year now and my nitrate tests 0 and without a refugium. I feed twice a day as well. The skimmer is over rated which I feel helps to keep the nitrate so low. I will see if I can get some info. on the flexible PVC. Mike brought it over to use. He does all of his tanks this way I will go into more depth on the spa flex in the next section...

 

[bubbletip2]

I could not edit my original post so I am posting the correct dimensions of the tank:

The tank dimensions are 60.5" long x 25" wide x 24.5" tall - I really contemplated going with a 30" tall tank. My arms are long enough to do any necessary maintenace with ease at 24.5".

 

[bubbletip2]

9/19/07

I have always believed as Skimmer technology got better and better that "heavy" skimming is a good way to keep water conditions optimal. Currently on my 30g cube I am using a skimmer rated at 125g. Now I am sure that figure is based on a medium load aquarium of 125g. Skimmers are typically rated this way so to estimate - this skimmer can probably handle a heavy load in 75g of water tops. That would mean I am still skimming very hard for the system in place.

It is important to mention that I have not run a refugium in the past year on this cube and my nitrates always test out at 0. I have two different nitrate test kits(API and Salifert) to compare. So basically the biological system in this cube can handle a couple feedings a day and still maintain 0 nitrate. Again, I like to skim hard. The biggest concern most people have with oversizing protein skimmers is the reduction of trace elements throughout the system. Again, I have only known B-Ionic, reef solution and regular water changes(weekly). I know by the regular introduction of trace elements, that heavy skimming does not effect the system. I should add that I run carbon 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Yes again, I realize they strip trace elements, hence the regular supplementary additions to the system. Reason for running carbon(changed regularly) is to allow for water clarity that is so high that light can easily penetrate and reach the corals optimally.

After talking to Mike Leonard(9/07 TOTM winner) for several days, we both realized our philosophies on reefkeeping were quite similar. We both believe in heavy skimming and heavy feeding(slowly increased over time of course) of the system(read TOTM article with the section on feeding to get the picture). For so many years reefkeepers have been told to lighten the load or your coral will suffer. Hogwash! Corals thrive when we can mimic what our oceans have to offer as much as possible. I am not saying more is better. I am saying that more feeding of the system built up over time is a good way to build a balanced ecosystem with high biodiversity. So on to the important stuff - what skimmer to choose.

I was really considering a becket style skimmer as I thought I was going to need to place the skimmer in sump. I am pleased to say that we were able to get this skimmer:

Octopus DNW-200 Recirculating Protein Skimmer.

http://www.coralvue.com/RecirculatingSkimmers.html

I wanted the skimmer outside of the sump so that I can free up some space for live rock. This is what I wanted but thought was not possible under a 5ft tank. We were able to create a very manageable system with plenty of room for maintenance.

This skimmer is rated for 400 gallons so this skimmer should do well for this 180g system soon to be 200 - 225g system. The skimmer operates with two pumps, Mag 7(see previous posts) and an Octopus 3000 neeedle wheel pump. It has been very efficient so far and was extremely easy to set up. The most plug and play skimmer I have ever used. I spent a week doing a vinegar wash which consisted of running the skimmer offline with a gallon of vinegar and filled up with water. This certainly helped get some of the oils out of the acrylic, but it still took the skimmer 2 weeks to break in after the cycle started. The lid comes off the neck without lifting it which was key to fitting it under the stand. You can tell why we needed 36" under the tank while raising the floor to accomodate this skimmer. All in all I am very pleased with the skimmer. I am sure it will get plenty of use.

 

[JRaquatics]

Finally. About time. Time to get everyone caught up with almost a years worth of photos. WARNING......This is going to be a long thread with the lengths of your Jim's posts.

 

[bubbletip2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13092230#post13092230 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JRaquatics
Finally. About time. Time to get everyone caught up with almost a years worth of photos. WARNING......This is going to be a long thread with the lengths of your Jim's posts.

Real funny Jeremy. And yes there are definitely some windmill posts coming. I needed a place for all the pics. Not sure if the other forum will last so I wanted to have it here on RC. Should have done this from the start. Oh well. Lesson learned.

 

[JRaquatics]

You were just trying to hide it on us.

 

[bubbletip2]

9/20/07

Originally Posted by wildeone:
"Jim, Great looking setup, first time I looked at your journal. I like how clean it is, you have put alot of thought into it. Looks like you may have the same issue I have, just a single duplex outlet. I made up my mind that when i do mine, I am going to make something custom for power. I have way too much reliance on multi-outlet strips!Awsome, can't wait to see more!"

Thanks Wildone,

I had a fellow reekeeper/electrician come out to put in an extra 20 amp circuit. So the outlet is split with a 20 amp and a 15 amp. About 3 amps is used on the 15 amp circuit potentially with other outlets in the house. I will have just enough power for this set up and a refugium or frag tank plumbed into the main display. There is no way I can do 2-400w bulbs if I did not have at least one dedicated circuit. He only charged $180 for 6 hours of work. Pretty cool! I did give him a bunch of frags. I was going to give them to him regardless of the price though. Glad you like the set up. I am almost done with my spiels on planning out this system.

 

[bubbletip2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13092272#post13092272 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JRaquatics
You were just trying to hide it on us.

Hey if I posted it hear on RC and it crashed in 3 months then I would have no where to hide. LOL!

 

[bubbletip2]

Plumbing

Plumbing

9/22/07

Plumbing the tank went pretty smoothly. Mike used a special flexible PVC that I have to say is absolutely fantastic. It is not your typical flexible that you buy at Home Depot. It bends a great deal more but is sturdy enough not to create and creases in the tubing. The amount of head loss saved is significant considering the amount of elbows and 45's that were avoided due to the use of the spaflex.

At Menards you can buy these horseshoe clamps that really helped to create a clean set up allowing for maximum workability under the tank. The Spaflex was easily tacked to the stand to get it out of the way. I will never use strictly rigid PVC again - the spaflex made for a much more manageable system.

Here is a couple links I found to purchase some for future tank builds. It is a bit more expensive than rigid but well worth it. I am sure there are other places to purchase it - do a search and I am sure you will find other options.

http://flexpvc.com/

http://www.savko.com/portal/flexibletubing.asp

You also need a different PVC glue than you typically buy because the spaflex likes to push itself back out. You must hold it in place with force for a minute or two to make sure it stays in place. The PVC glue is in a baby blue container made by the same brand as the typical stuff you buy at Home Depot although you can't find it at Home Depot. It is a bit more expensive as well. It says WELDON PVC 795 on the front of the container.

update: here is a link to what it looks like:

http://www.ipscorp.com/weldon/pvcspecialtycements.html

Here is a shot of the left side of the sump showing you how everything is tucked away - notice the horse shoe clamps as well. I have no PVC right over the sump allowing for easy siphoning and clean up.

In this next shot(already seen) you can see everything tucked away so that the pvc was not a factor in fitting the skimmer into place

After getting the system started it was obvious that the Dart was too strong(turned it way down) and the sump was creating a ton of noise. I only had one sock at the time that came with the sump and it really did not do the greatest job of keeping the detritus out of the sump. I purchased several socks so I can have some for back up. I also teed off the the one dangling drain to help vent it more to reduce the gurgling noise. The socks have eliminated all microbubbles in the display and is about as quiet as any sump I have ever heard. I also rigged a 200 micron bag on the skimmer return filled with purigen - there are two phosban reactors on the back side of the sump one filled with Phosban and the other with carbon. I have to say this tank after being cycled is crystal clear I am sure the carbon and purigen are responsible. Notice about 30lbs of live rock in the sump - I threw in all the small pieces I did not want in the display tank - more on this later. I know the socks are dirty - just took the pic this am and will be doing a water change momentarily.

The Dart has 2 returns that are teed off with pseudo locline giving me 4 jets to strategically place in the aquarium. I love this approach as they can be adjusted however I see fit - and did I mention how powerful these things are? Here is a shot of the whole system while being filled with water - this was a happy day for sure

 

[bubbletip2]

Live Rock - Cycling pt 1

Live Rock - Cycling pt 1

9/29/07

I have heard of many successful ways of cycling a new tank and curing live rock. People have cycled tanks by:

1. Adding fish to the tank - I feel this is cruel to the fish no matter how hardy the species especially prior to the first two weeks the system has started cycling.

2. Adding table shrimp or something to decompose in the tank - I have never tried this method although I am sure it gets the system going.

3. Actually urinating in the tank - I know it is hard to believe, but I recently heard a guy say this is what he does. Personally, I would not want to begin the life of any ecosystem by desecrating it in such a rude manner. I can imagine their is quite a bit of ammonia in our urine, but please people I think we have other options.

4. and finally adding uncured live rock for the cycle - this is the only method I have tried and I am definitely not changing my ways. If it aint broke, no need to fix it. I know people have reasons to cure their rock outside of their system, but I feel their is so many benefits to curing the rock inside of the display tank that I don't want to trouble myself with setting up another system just for the live rock. It is not that I have not done this before, but the bad experience I had caused me to never do it again. First off, most people will use an inadequate container in regards to the total water volume possible which creates enormously high ammonia levels. I am not a bioligist, but can imagine that all that is left alive inside the pores of the rock would certainly not be able to survive ammonia spikes that are undetectable by test kits. All of that good stuff that is the reason we choose to use live rock in the first place needs to be in the display tank in my opinion. I was taught to start out a system this way twelve years ago by Jason(left Chicago to become a marine biologist 12 years ago - introduced me to reefkeeping) and man did I have a lot of life when the lights went off - w/o a refugium mind you. I can remember coming home in the middle of the night(I was young once too) and turning on the room lights and seeing swarms of buggers all over the tank. It was like marine locusts had swooped in and taken over the tank. I can safely say that the quality of the live rock was definitely responsible. Jason cured his live rock for sale in a 200g tub connected to a 150g refugium(12 years ago - a man before his time). When I took a piece of rock out of this tub my arm was crawling with little buggers to the point where I had to drop the rock. To this day I have never seen a tank with swarms like this or live rock of this quality. Now, I can understand if people have had bad experiences with pests that come in on rock that after this experience they don't ever want to risk getting this into their system. Fair enough but again if you know how to get a hold of quality live rock from reputable people the benefits of uncured live rock for a display tank far outweighs the risks in opinion. Meeting people in this hobby can be very helpful especially when they have connections. Mike was generous enough to call me in some quality Pompeii live rock and Pompeii fused branch that so far has paralleled the quality I received from Jason.

Here is a shot of the three 50lb boxes I got from Mike - The uncured live rock I purchased from Jason 12 years ago came in the exact same kind of box - I have not seen boxes like this in all of these years.

Here are some shots of the rock that came in each box:

Mike had them cherry pick out very large pieces - I got several 12" pieces and a couple that were more than 14 inches. Wow was this rock porous - tons of holes. I have to say one thing is for sure, I have never gotten rock that smelled like the ocean right out of the box - No joke - this rock did not smell like decaying rock what so ever. Very cool! I can certainly remember thanking Mike several times. So we finally got the rock to start the system - I decided to go a little less than 1lb per gallon to free up space in the display for particular fish. In the next part I will go into my live rock cleaning routine and the rest of cycling the tank...

 

[bubbletip2]

9/30/07

On this other forum I had a fellow reefkeeper question my feelings about live rock and the bacterial cycle. He quoted this:

"I think you underestimate bactera to some degree my friend, its been around since the dawn of time & will be around till the end of time, namely because adaptation for survival. Even it a particular strain succumbs, another rises in its place. although the levels we experience, even though they may appear high, its not like they are sitting in pure ammonia! ( if i cracked open a bottle & let it sit for a week, i think even then you'd fine a strain of bacteria in that bottle)I say this like you have a slush puppy smile that needs wiping, prob the biggest note to remember- one's toxin is anothers bounty. They use these raw elements to reproduce.nice rock bud,if your going to do it, do it big!i guess your on a rice diet till next pay day now..lol"

While I agree with what he said and have heard this from others, I replied with this:

I was awake during 3rd grade biology and do understand that bacteria will stay alive no matter what we do to it. And I did mean undetectable as far as the ammonia reading so green it almost looks black and you can't tell if it is at 7.5 or higher. I did get some bad rock and unfortunately used a rubbermaid to cycle it. Good thing it was only 25lbs of rock. It was literally off the charts - must have been half baked or sitting on the docks in the live rock sale pile or something. That was not what I was referring to. The talk of hitchhikers is constant with reefkeepers. Some good and some bad. People are most worried about the bad - understandable. What I was referring to is all the good little creatures that comes with live rock. Eggs will exist in rock and if it has not been sitting on the docks baking in the sun for a week in the islands the chance of getting some of these good microcrustaceans is much higher.

Again, I do not bake rocks to kill everything that may be lurking and I don't like the idea of raising ammonia to the point of doing the same. We talk about identifying hitchikers because they may be desired by other reefkeepers or beneficial to our systems, but we still decide that sticking rock in the oven or raising ammonia levels so high that they cannot survive is a good idea. Kind of contradictory don't you think? I was going to wait until the next part but will add here that my ammonia never went over .5 (and only for two days - tested daily) throughout the whole cycle Curing rock in a 180 gallon system really helps to keep the ammonia down. Most reefkeepers have been told if your ammonia goes above this point you should do a water change - in a 40-50g tub that would mean changing 40-50 gallons of water. Ouch if you have to or should have done that 4-10 times while curing the rock. Again, I can poop in a tank to get the "bacteria" cycle going but I can't get all of the "good" stuff by killing everything in the live rock that can't handle big ammonia spikes, leaving the rock in the sun, or baking it. I didn't pay $3/lb(most people are spending $4-$6 for ultra premium) to kill everything that came with it. Again, if you know where your live rock is coming from your chances are better of not having to worry - I do realize most people don't have that luxury. I was on Ramen noodles for a few weeks Rock was purchased almost six weeks ago. LOL!

 

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additional live rock pics...

additional live rock pics...

10/1/07

Here are some additional live rock pics taken by Sam(wife) Pretty nice shots she took. I really like that they give a different perspective of the size of the rock to my arms and hands. Nice work, Sam!

This is a sweet piece of rock - it was bright green. This was uncured rock mind you direct from the islands. I never smelt decaying rock out of the box or when the tank cycled. I know the rock will bleach the green coraline and it already has but it is nice to know what was growing on it before putting it into the system. I find the same coraline algae tends to come back to life.

This is a particularly nice piece of rock because of all the beautiful 1" to 2" holes that pass all the way through it. This rock is now placed in the center of the display perfect for effective filtration for water to pass through. When rinsing this rock out, the water clearly passes through many holes as the water came out the other end. Pretty sweet piece...

This is a nice piece of that Pompeii Fused branch. This is the top piece for a pillar I made for the right side of the display.

Here is another shot of the green crusted piece.

And here is another shot of the large piece with many holes. The purple coraline has all held up pretty well so far. Again nice to know what was growing on it before it fades away.

Yep! and thats me about as geeky as ever with my little led head lamp and painting the Chicago Bears all over me - so much for the Super Bowl contenders. Head lamps like this are great for looking inside the rock when initially searching for critters. No need to hold a flashlight and the rock. You can have both hands on the live rock with light wherever you want it.