daves 185 build

It isn't a good place for carbon. Carbon stops working after a few days when all the pores are clogged up with bacteria and stuff. Contrary to popular opinions, a mesh bag in a high flow area is by far the best. If you don't mind disconnecting it and cleaning it every few days it doesn't matter of course. If you are anything like me however ....cough... :)

If you are not using filter socks an hob filter does the same job as a canister/sock while saving your pod population and is much easier to clean up (and near free too!). Hang a floss pad from it and put a lamp over that and you have a very well working ghetto algae scrubber too! :)

You look a little handier than I am though so you might not need ghetto solutions.
 
nynick said:
It isn't a good place for carbon. Carbon stops working after a few days when all the pores are clogged up with bacteria and stuff. Contrary to popular opinions, a mesh bag in a high flow area is by far the best. If you don't mind disconnecting it and cleaning it every few days it doesn't matter of course. If you are anything like me however ....cough... :)

If you are not using filter socks an hob filter does the same job as a canister/sock while saving your pod population and is much easier to clean up (and near free too!). Hang a floss pad from it and put a lamp over that and you have a very well working ghetto algae scrubber too! :)

You look a little handier than I am though so you might not need ghetto solutions.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of the mesh bags.........
being that I would be prefiltering my closed loop this is why I was thinking of placing it in the canister and not having to run another canister / reactor filled with carbon

I will have filter socks on the DT drain to sump area.....
maybe this is where I will put the mesh bag instead

thanks for the advise
 
i didn't use anything as this is uv and aquarium safe foam

I thought about using epoxy and putting sand on it while it was wet but I will let mother nature take her coarse with the coralline algee
 
good morning boys and girls, I know its been a few days since my last post on the tank build and all but I have been very busy little man and all. Moved all of the kids out of the house..... 8), bought the wife a very nice 2005 Chrysler Pacifica with 24K..... :be happy:, and finally got the big tank moved to where I want it in the basement so I can stat doing my corals and all. Started filling her up 2 days ago.....

WATER TEST....................

found 2 leaks, 1 bulkhead in the return from sump and 1 pin hole in the closed loop pipe connection
loosened bulkhead fitting and it seemed to stop, will keep a eye on this for the next few days

will be running the 72 hour test to see if the tank splits or leaks produce themselves
then I will add my salt and get it ready to start the cycle process

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/576/t110.jpg

finally finished filling the tank and sumps last night

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8020/67q6.jpg

now to wait for the fog to clear and all so I can fix the sand in the bottom and clean off the walls
 
well the tank is clearing up nicely, stayed up until 1230 this morning and plumed the water change pipe to the drain, found out I was short a union so it was a real pain to get this up but I did it, will have to get another union this week and cut it in next weekend. Now that I can start seeing more of the bottom I am going to have to get about 40lbs. of 1-2 mm reef sand to get the 3-4" base that I desire. I did make it out to the CORA show yesterday and had a long talk with a guy that is making reef rock from the Toledo area and I got his wheels turning on making some branching rock so we will see where this ends up, but while in Columbus I ended up at Reef Systems and bought the 2 pieces of rock that I wanted back in june, really over priced on the rock but he is the only one who had what I wanted to make the display stand out.
 
well after a few days of the tank running it has cleared up a lot, I only waited 24 hrs and added salt to the mix, being in a hurry to try and get the tank to clear up, which if this is the only time that I rush something then I am glad I did it. Heres some updated pics of the display


this is a shot of the tank straight on

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/9296/fyjs.jpg


the next 2 pictures are of the tank looking at the side views

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/7019/vd4e.jpg

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/1693/lv8m.jpg




this last pic is of my sump area, the red light that is on next to the black box is for my algae scrubber, a DIY project I did a while ago. The acrylic tank on top of the 2x4 bracing is for my macro algae to grow in the center chamber, rubble rock in the first chamber for filtration. The lights on in the sump area will run for 18 hours on and 6 hours off

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4752/ndqq.jpg



salinity is at 1.023 at the moment with 4 extra gallons of water in the sump, which will evaporate in about 3 days, auto top off is already been working in the sump and I noticed that I go through about 1 gallon per day, which is great for me. Now to let the tank run for 10 days then go get a dozen green chromis to put in the display tank and start the 8 week cycle
 
in case anyone was wondering about why I did the arch from rock to rock......

on this forum group their is a guy in Canada, Peter, who did a 1300 gallon tank in his fish room in his basement and he modeled this arch for the four fathers that inspired him, after reading his 400+ pages of the build, mr. Wilson and peter were a big inspiration to me as well, along with others that are overseas, Chingchai from Thailand, as well but I thought this would be a way of saying thanks to a real gentleman that I have never meet but inspired me to strive to my goals

if the admins allow I would like to post the links, its in 2 parts as its so big:

part 1 ---- http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1811725

part 2 ---- http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2096730
 
You probably don't want to do a cycle with fish - especially chromis. Chromis will eventually become a single fish as they pick off the weakest one. You can cycle the tank with straight ammonia or a shrimp for better results without being cruel to the fish and subjecting them to high ammonia/nitrites.
 
There are a couple of threads about cycling it this way.

Basically you add a little bit of real ammonia. Not the lemon stuff.

After the bacteria starts to bloom it will eat the ammonia. Once it is cycled nicely it should be able to handle an ammonia load quickly.

Search for 'cycling with ammonia' here in the forums.

Much easier to have a controlled amount, compared to how much a fish puts out.
 
worm5406 said:
There are a couple of threads about cycling it this way.

Basically you add a little bit of real ammonia. Not the lemon stuff.

After the bacteria starts to bloom it will eat the ammonia. Once it is cycled nicely it should be able to handle an ammonia load quickly.

Search for 'cycling with ammonia' here in the forums.

Much easier to have a controlled amount, compared to how much a fish puts out.
Click to expand...

this is good info, still researching this type of cycle, but real ammonia is where I am lost and I am sure by later tonight I will be overwhelmed with info as my brain gets fried



ok, I understand that all this rock in the tank is dead, sand is dead, and I am trying to cycle the tank.

NO HURRY CYCLE.

So, does anyone else wish to voice their cycling program, if it was you how would you cycle????

heres a idea I am having, besides looking into the ammonia cycle, I'm thinking of getting 6 medium size raw shrimp from Kroger and dumping them in the tank to get it started, am I correct in doing this??????
 
That is the same method I used.

Quick simple and easy.

I used 3 in a 180. I also butterflied them and cut into pieces to allow the quicker breakdown.
 
The ammonia is the stuff you can buy at the supermarket and grocery store. It has to be the unscented kind - some have lemon or other scents added. I believe it's 5%.

I've cycled a tank using this method. There's a few good threads on doing it that way - how much to dose per system gallon, etc. I've also done the shrimp thing. Both methods work. Basically you're adding fuel for bacteria to populate in the tank. The source really doesn't matter. This part of the process isn't rocket science so no need to fry your brain in doing this :) You're just starting the biological engine.
 
now to start the next phase in the build

I need to figure out how to control the humidity in the facility.......I know by a dehumidifier ........... :laugh:

but on a serious note, I need to figure out how to work and control the moisture issue that will come up, I need to figure out a humidity stat, fan and outside air, someone mentioned this to me awhile back and I lost my notes.

any ideas, how do you control your humidity???
 
well tonight was a very good night,

I got tired of the roar of the water fall so I removed the slotted intake pipe in the overflow box and made a durso stand pipe, sorry no pics of this
but it is so much quieter

then I decided to make a lid for the overflow box to keep the splatter and spray in the tank where it belongs, another job well done, I even put little feet on the underside of the cover so it cant get knocked off by accident, yes I have a cat.......

but the best thing about tonight was this DIY project

4acq.jpg


can you guess what it is and its use????????

I decided to fire up the skimmer to see how much water it was going to draw from the tank and all and also see how much I am going to have to adjust, I have my work cut out for me, but it sounded like a afterburner from a F-14 TOMCAT...........no joke
so I went and raided the wife and her give me one of her blood pressure medicine bottles, cleaned it very good and drilled a 3/8" hole for the skimmer hose and a 1/4" hole for the short piece of air tubing for the intake of fresh air. I kicked the skimmer back on and now it is so quiet

so, before anything starts to go wrong I am going to spend some quality time with the wifey and talk shop for a bit to see about adding a few more tanks to the collection I will be running shortly
 
uhhh... ohhh... she may need more than blood pressure medicine then....

Like a ring on her finger.
 
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