Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)

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To the Rock..... I did not clean my 300#s of live rock. Like you, I posted here with the question and I got many different answers, even some who told me to clean it with muriatic acid. I thought wow, all that good mother nature on there and I am going to kill it.:hmm1:

My plan of attack was to look in the big holes with a flash light for any larger hitch hikers but I never found any. When I place the rock in my tank, I used several different traps to try and catch critters. I had some luck with some parasites and such but I did not catch all of them. I can say that I have all kinds of funny life in my tank along with some stars, a baby urchin, some sorts of very small jelly fish and pods... There have been downsides!


I have a Yellow Tang that has two parasites on it. I have been unable to catch the YT so far and I fear that I may ultimately have to tear down some of the tank.

I did the rock with the understanding that I may have to fight some battles but I am glad I did what I did. We go so far to recreate that perfect reef but yet we nuke rock. :sad1:

IMHO, I think if you are willing to have some livestock die and you are willing to fight the battle, why would you remove such diversity from your rock. It's a gamble and I think it's your choice.
 
t kish said:
Following from just down the road in Stoney Creek , what an amazing start.
Best of luck with your build , your making Canadians proud :thumbsup:.

Tim K
Click to expand...

Thanks Tim, we have a long way to go to catch up to the standards set in Thailand!!

The truth is I hope this is a win for Reef Central to strengthen our community. We ought to be building a monument to Chingchai and David as they were responsible for giving me the courage to try this through the exposure at RC.

Melting pot philosophy eh? How Canadian of me!!!

Peter
 
bhammer said:
To the Rock..... I did not clean my 300#s of live rock. Like you, I posted here with the question and I got many different answers, even some who told me to clean it with muriatic acid. I thought wow, all that good mother nature on there and I am going to kill it.:hmm1:

My plan of attack was to look in the big holes with a flash light for any larger hitch hikers but I never found any. When I place the rock in my tank, I used several different traps to try and catch critters. I had some luck with some parasites and such but I did not catch all of them. I can say that I have all kinds of funny life in my tank along with some stars, a baby urchin, some sorts of very small jelly fish and pods... There have been downsides!


I have a Yellow Tang that has two parasites on it. I have been unable to catch the YT so far and I fear that I may ultimately have to tear down some of the tank.

I did the rock with the understanding that I may have to fight some battles but I am glad I did what I did. We go so far to recreate that perfect reef but yet we nuke rock. :sad1:

IMHO, I think if you are willing to have some livestock die and you are willing to fight the battle, why would you remove such diversity from your rock. It's a gamble and I think it's your choice.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience. It certainly is consistent with the general feedback I have been getting. I know there are other points of view out there and I do NOT want to divert this thread into a debating forum at all costs. I just want to know what's possible and the associated risks. Then its my choice, my responsibility and my consequence from that point on.

I should mention that you have raised another point that is central for me but I don't have the time to elaborate on it at the moment but I will return to it later and that is the expectations we have for the ideal and what constitutes success in this domain.

Peter

Peter
 
nineball said:
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Click to expand...

You are welcome. That is the great thing about these forums.

It certainly is consistent with the general feedback I have been getting. I know there are other points of view out there and I do NOT want to divert this thread into a debating forum at all costs. I just want to know what's possible and the associated risks. Then its my choice, my responsibility and my consequence from that point on.
Click to expand...

That was the way I handled it as well. I look for feedback and then make an informed decsion based on the feedback received. that's all we can do right. :)


I should mention that you have raised another point that is central for me but I don't have the time to elaborate on it at the moment but I will return to it later and that is the expectations we have for the ideal and what constitutes success in this domain.
Click to expand...

Yes, I'd start another thread for that one. :dance:
 
i am also a fan of not dipping live rock. the only problem that can occur is introduction of unwant macro organisms, ie aptasia or crabs. one way around this problem would be to buy a big unreefsafe wrasse and butterfly and let it loose on the rock for a few weeks after the cycle. otherwise i would say before you put the rock in the big tank put it somewhere you can keep an eye on it for a few weeks to see what is crawling around. with my next tank i will be doing a mix of dry rock and live rock from several locales to get a good mix of flora and fauna, but i am not putting it in the tank until a month or so of quarantine. i know all of this is alot easier said than done, but getting rid of any pests from a reef the size of yours would be a nightmare, go slow and be careful. btw i hope you have someone to do the edging on that garden, i hate trying to keep the grass out of my beds. keep up the nice work and thanks for all the posts
 
Chapter One ---- The History

Chapter One ---- The History

Anyone following this thread from the beginning knows that the opening chapter was the Tank Arrival. That's a highlight for most of us and appears to represent a significant milestone in every build.

However as most of us know the real beginning starts with a dream against a backdrop of hard cold reality.......for many of us thats an unfinished basement, a soon to be remodeled room, or at best the re-designation of an existing space from one purpose to another. In my case it was a decision to renovate an unfinished basement of close to four thousand sq ft.

One of the two things that I knew it would have was a pool table because my best friend was the only person to win the World Professional snooker championship from outside the British Isles in over eighty years. He still is. And if you are from the UK and over 40 years of age you probably knew where you were the day he had the worlds first perfect game in competitive play that was televised by the BBC Live. So the custom pool table was a key feature in the new environment.

The second element was to be an aquarium. To be honest, the initial thought was to have something considerably more modest than the current blueprint calls for. It was Chingchai's fault. I was doing research on the various options to consider and a niece had recommended that I spend some time on Reef Central. I somehow ended up on the large tank forum and fell into an early build from Thailand almost from the beginning. I got hooked (no pun intended) right from the outset. Here was someone transforming a garage into a dream suite with a set of graphics that was second to none in the spirit of what could be and an apparent determination to produce the real thing without compromise.

He had several advantages over me starting with the fact that he had already built a system that had achieved a tank of the month status previously. At the time I landed on his thread I didn't even know what TOTM meant! He had discipline, tons and tons of discipline and he had standards.....boy did he have standards. It was so much more than simply arranging enough funds although I won't hide the need for sufficient resources if you start out on a journey of this type. As his dream became real mine grew.......and grew.....and grew.

I introduced my architect to Ching's thread as an indication of the standard I wanted to achieve. The result of that initiative was that the tank became the signature for the entire Reno if not the entire house. It was to be a 30 ft long L shaped tank until we discovered that the two thousand mile overland trip from ATM in Las Vegas to Oakville would have required a police escort for a wide load and so the final measurement came in at 24ft with the short side at 8 feet and the long side at 16 ft.

I had decided not to try and duplicate Chingchai's deep and high cube nor would I turn to David Saxby's fabulous landscape. It was then that I came up with the idea for the Four Grand Masters. Why not create a suite of island formations that would try and capture the design essence of the most influential aquarists in the world. So there's the basic design goal and the associated challenge.

I also learned from Ching that the fish room, which is a misnomer of sorts, could contain in itself, display tanks and features that would bring the underlying support systems we are all so proud of out of the closet and into the actual experience of a well managed environment. This I learned is not solely dependent on having a full tank of money as much as exceptional discipline and the right design philosophy from the beginning. If I'm right this hobby will evolve from an obsession on the display tank itself to an integrated and complete ecosystem that is comprehensively experienced by both the casual observer as well as the serious hobbyist. So another design goal is clear then, the support infrastructure will be as much a part of the experience as the display tank itself. This is truly going to require some hard planning at the detail level because as we all know so well marine environment support is messy, smelly and noisy. Repeat the last three two syllable words a number of times because overcoming this challenge in a relevant way for most folks needs to accomplish this with more discipline than money.

In fairness, as you will see, I got tremendous support from my architect with forward planning on a number of issues to go along way to realizing success in a meaningful way. I also had the advantage of a fresh start with the removal of every impediment in the basement except the concrete floor (which in fact was slightly modified but I haven't told my wife yet!!!). I told her the water table had to be adjusted to help balance the aquifer for her gardens!!!!!!

OK two things before I take a break from this monotonous monologue. First I will try and dig up as many before photos so that no one accuses me of having too easy a time of it. So even with the dirty laundry, (please ask the kids to leave the room) I will attempt to take you back to the beginning with some photographs before I continue writing anymore. :reading:
Second I may fall back a bit in responding to questions as the process of putting the pics into this thing is very very labour intensive so even if it takes a bit I will get back to you as soon as I can............:spin3:
 
agreed on rock just cure and watch for un wanted critters ie bad crabs shrimp and snails. the comment from the other thread about the club soda was in refrence to ridding a pest shrimp or crab from a hole in the rock. if you do notice any stow aways that you dont want to put in the tank and cant catch them that is when you dip an individual rock in fresh/hypo (low salinity) say 1.015-1.017, not high this allows most bacteria and other desirables to surrive while any unwanted inverts will scurry out of the rock to look for better water conditions. if that dosent send them running then people have said the club soda spot application will do the trick, usually has a neg result on critter so if you were hoping to place it in a species nano display its possible you wont be able to.
 
Posidion said:
agreed on rock just cure and watch for un wanted critters ie bad crabs shrimp and snails. the comment from the other thread about the club soda was in refrence to ridding a pest shrimp or crab from a hole in the rock. if you do notice any stow aways that you dont want to put in the tank and cant catch them that is when you dip an individual rock in fresh/hypo (low salinity) say 1.015-1.017, not high this allows most bacteria and other desirables to surrive while any unwanted inverts will scurry out of the rock to look for better water conditions. if that dosent send them running then people have said the club soda spot application will do the trick, usually has a neg result on critter so if you were hoping to place it in a species nano display its possible you wont be able to.
Click to expand...

Thanks allot for that, it makes tremendous sense. I really appreciate the coaching. now I'm off to hunt for pictures......

Peter
 
What a fantastic build! I look forward to seeing this huge, 100% display system come to life!

In a system this size, Qting your incoming live rock is well worth the effort. It'll be quite a job inspecting, scrubbing, or dipping that much incoming rock. I am not into that in the small volumes of rock I've dealt with. Dealing with unwanted hitch hikers in this big tank wouldn't any fun either. It would be much less tiresome to QT/cure the rock in batches as it arrives. You're gonna need a bunch of rock for this huge tank!
 
Wow, your friend is Cliff Thorburn. Right?
I still remembered the reaction of him when he did 147.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vh2NOS9HH-w&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vh2NOS9HH-w&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

It would be great if I can have a chance to play pool with you guys.

Look forward to seeing your tank progression.

All the best,
 
Stark reality or an archetecs dream?

The decision is to make the aquarium a part of this that belongs........
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how to get there from here.....
0_0_aea4dd1c0f775071bfd084e91f2d1dd2_1


Of course this has to go .......

0_0_a7813db15def3b616b2c0ac6973606ed_1


A bit of paint, couple of buckets, a hose and voila
The fish room !!!

0_0_9792ca2509038962e8dc0cc3193f2763_1


perhaps an extension chord or two??

0_0_531e26c4ef5ad1810b5c3d67f7491300_1


If the furnace is gone maybe we can get rid of this duct work as well......

0_0_7a8a00dc13e77fc3fe5d5973d627a4e4_1
 
chingchai said:
Wow, your friend is Cliff Thorburn. Right?
I still remembered the reaction of him when he did 147.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vh2NOS9HH-w&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vh2NOS9HH-w&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

It would be great if I can have a chance to play pool with you guys.

Look forward to seeing your tank progression.

All the best,
Click to expand...

Very good Chingchai, yes its Cliff Thorburn and some day I will bring all of us together for some of the best wine any of us will have ever had!
 
Wow, I don't know what else to say. Thank you for the detail and the "story behind the story" My guess is that this will be one of the most interesting threads I have read. I certainly respect your opinion on the research. I am a person of modest means, and my 29 gal build is all I can afford to build, and upkeep in the forseable future. To go larger would be irresponsible. So I have been researching and learning for a few years, I know it will pay off. I am in constant awe of builds like this and look forward to seeing this one come together as well as understand your theory and decision making process. Two side notes, I was in Oakville on business a few years ago, and it was in a beautiful area in a very pretty country. Secondly, congrats on the gold medal! Even though I was pulling for the US, as a long time Redwings fan it was not hard to enjoy seeing Steve Yzerman and Ken Holland enjoying their success! Looking forward to the rest of your story
Matt
 
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