drummereef
Team RC
drummereef's 180g in-wall build
- Thread starter drummereef
- Start date
drummereef
Team RC
WHOOPS! That's what I have left over... Sorry. :lol2: There is approximately 82 lbs in the display. But you have to account for the original dry weight, not wet. I think the Key Largo rock gains about 30% extra water weight, from what I remember Marco (Marc) saying. So the actual weight would be roughly 106 lbs of rock in the display.
My bad, sorry.
drummereef
Team RC
I'm pretty excited too.
I know I'll be transferring my yellow tang from my 40g. Shhh, don't tell anyone he was in there. :crazy1: It was a bad decision from years ago (before I knew better) but he's literally one of the fattest tangs I've seen so I think he's pretty happy. Other thank that I'd like to have a few anthias and possibly chromis if they might school in the tank. It's going to be a coral dominated tank so I'd like to stay relatively light on the fish load but I would like a few smaller fish. I originally had my heart set on a sailfin tang but I don't want the fish to look out of scale with the reef... one of my pet peeves. 
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drummereef
Team RC
UPDATE:
The display and overflows are officially FULL! Last in line is the sump. By my calculations the sump should be full of water sometime this evening. :lol: Added enough salt to make up 100g last night and was a little light. I'll add the rest tonight to get the salinity up to 35ppt. Temp is holding steady right now around 76 degrees but trying to get those last couple degrees up. Everything looks solid so far.
The display and overflows are officially FULL! Last in line is the sump. By my calculations the sump should be full of water sometime this evening. :lol: Added enough salt to make up 100g last night and was a little light. I'll add the rest tonight to get the salinity up to 35ppt. Temp is holding steady right now around 76 degrees but trying to get those last couple degrees up. Everything looks solid so far.
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fuzzyfred101
New member
Just read the hole thread ha, excited to see pics with the whole thing up man....are you going to have more sps, mixed, or softy tank?
drummereef
Team RC
Definitely SPS dominated. Might have a couple clams and sand dwellers too but all SPS on the rock.
drummereef
Team RC
UPDATE:
Sump is almost full so I started up the return pump. Everything looks good. There were a couple of minor leaks but got those taken care of. So far I've added the 200g box of IO salt but the salinity is still a little low. Need to pick up another bucket tomorrow. As I'm adding salt I'm trying to figure total running gallons of the system while I can. Something I didn't do with my 40g I wished I had.
On another note... I'm thinking about starting the cycle with a piece of raw cocktail shrimp. Anyone opposed to that?
I'm also going to get a tiny bit of live sand, possibly from the LFS, to seed the tank but it will be a couple days before I can get over there. That's why I was wanting to get it moving with the shrimp.
Thoughts?
Sump is almost full so I started up the return pump. Everything looks good. There were a couple of minor leaks but got those taken care of. So far I've added the 200g box of IO salt but the salinity is still a little low. Need to pick up another bucket tomorrow. As I'm adding salt I'm trying to figure total running gallons of the system while I can. Something I didn't do with my 40g I wished I had.
On another note... I'm thinking about starting the cycle with a piece of raw cocktail shrimp. Anyone opposed to that?
I'm also going to get a tiny bit of live sand, possibly from the LFS, to seed the tank but it will be a couple days before I can get over there. That's why I was wanting to get it moving with the shrimp. Thoughts?
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UPDATE:
Sump is almost full so I started up the return pump. Everything looks good. There were a couple of minor leaks but got those taken care of. So far I've added the 200g box of IO salt but the salinity is still a little low. Need to pick up another bucket tomorrow. As I'm adding salt I'm trying to figure total running gallons of the system while I can. Something I didn't do with my 40g I wished I had.
On another note... I'm thinking about starting the cycle with a piece of raw cocktail shrimp. Anyone opposed to that?
Thoughts?
I started my cycle with my a fresh raw piece of shrimp, just put it in a high flow area. Another option is to just let your live rock start the cycle.
UPDATE:
On another note... I'm thinking about starting the cycle with a piece of raw cocktail shrimp. Anyone opposed to that?
Thoughts?
Brett,
I found that it took far less the cycle my new build when I put online. I was a bit nervous too and only had hours not days to switch the two tanks over. I simply cycled 120 lbs of dry rock in saltwater brute drum, used LiveSand, some old pieces of rock from existing tank and about 25% of the old water. It is my own opinion, but I think the cycling thing is a tad overrated. Maybe for fresh water Chiclid tanks where tap water is used, etc.
As mentioned, I did not have the luxury of time and did the transition in 6-hours. I only lost one fish and no sps. I think you will be in good shape to slowly start adding some coral and hardy fish from your 40-gl setup at the end of the week imo.
HTH
crvz
Team RC
When using live rock which has been shipped from far places, or been brewing in those nasty vats at the LFS, a cycle is not over-rated. When there's a good amount of death and decay on the rock, you're going to have elevated ammonia for a time.
In this case, though, I may agree. When using base rock, there's nothing that will rot, so you're unlikely to have a true cycle. I would NOT bother adding any dead shrimp (why introduce decay when that's what you're trying to avoid in the first place?), simply start seeding the tank to allow bacteria to colonize (grab some rubble from your other tank, or LFS sand), then start adding livestock SLOWLY. You've got to take your time when adding livestock to allow the bacteria colonies to properly adjust to the new bioload. After a couple months, you'll be in great shape.
If you add livestock too quickly, I've read that bacteria will reproduce very rapidly, get to the point of not having enough food source, much of it will die off, and then your tank has inadequate denitrifying bacteria to handle the bioload, at which point you may notice elevated ammonia levels (and serious issues with coral/fish). By adding livestock slowly, while some of this still happens, it is not to the affect that you would cause problems. Make sense?
drummereef
Team RC
Thanks for your input KrisC.
Thanks tegee.
I don't have the luxury of using any live rock/sand from my old tank unfortunately. To many pests I don't want to introduce. Totally makes sense and I agree about the decay factor. I don't want to add any unnecessary nutrients to the tank, especially from the get-go when there's nothing but the skimmer to rid those nutrients. It won't be until probably Friday until I can get some sand from the LFS. I'm really not wanting to transfer anything but the tang from my 40g because of the pest issue in there, that's why I was leaning towards getting sand from the LFS.
Marc (from Marco Rocks) suggests using a "bacteria in a bottle" like Seachem's Stability or equivalent. Do you think that would help populate the beneficial bacteria or be a waste of money?
crvz
Team RC
I dunno if it would be a waste of money, but maybe not the best allocation of funds. 
You may be just as well off getting a small piece of rock from your other tank, but if you're worried about cross contamination, maybe it's worth the couple bucks to buy the Seachem product.
which brings up the topic... what kind of QT setup are you going to employee? Have you mentioned that yet?
You may be just as well off getting a small piece of rock from your other tank, but if you're worried about cross contamination, maybe it's worth the couple bucks to buy the Seachem product.which brings up the topic... what kind of QT setup are you going to employee? Have you mentioned that yet?
drummereef
Team RC
I dunno if it would be a waste of money, but maybe not the best allocation of funds.
which brings up the topic... what kind of QT setup are you going to employee? Have you mentioned that yet?
:lol: Yeah, my 40g is too high risk to transfer anything but fish at this point. The rock in there is literally from over 10 years ago. The hobby was much different then and we didn't know a lot about pests when I bought the rock. Needless to say my 40 has a major hydroid and spionid worm issue. It's a functioning tank but I wouldn't think of transferring anything but fish from it.
All the coral will be sold to my LFS for store credit. As for a QT setup I have a 10g tank that would work but I might go by a 20 or 29g so I have a more versatile setup. I'll just use the foam from an Aquaclear HOB filter and seed it from the sump. I have a leftover heater that will work too. Am I forgetting anything?
crvz
Team RC
:lol: Yeah, my 40g is too high risk to transfer anything but fish at this point. The rock in there is literally from over 10 years ago. The hobby was much different then and we didn't know a lot about pests when I bought the rock. Needless to say my 40 has a major hydroid and spionid worm issue. It's a functioning tank but I wouldn't think of transferring anything but fish from it.
As for a QT setup I have a 10g tank that would work but I might go by a 20 or 29g so I have a more versatile setup. I'll just use the foam from an Aquaclear HOB filter and seed it from the sump. I have a leftover heater that will work too. Am I forgetting anything?
Probably not. So that's for fish only, or would you use it for corals as well? It may be a bit small for tangs or other larger fish. I've found they're as likely to be lost from inadequate QT size as from pests/disease. that's something I'm excited about once I get a new display tank running... the 120 gallon stock tank I built will be run independently from the main display, effectively making it a QT (though I'll grow out coral there as well).
drummereef
Team RC
It would mainly be for coral and possibly any rock I bring home from the LFS for seeding the tank. I agree it's too small for tangs and the like. I'll do a thorough cleaning of my 40g when I tear it down and use that for a proper QT for fish. Wow, it's gonna take a lot of vinegar! :lol:
Your QT setup does sound exciting. That a great idea.
Off topic a bit - might be a silly question but would the live sand from the LFS benefit/seed the tank if I leave it in a plastic cup (open top) and set it in the bottom of the tank? As to not actually dump it in the tank or mix it in the existing sand? Question is, would the bacteria find it's way into the water column and populate the rock/sand without actually adding it to the system? That way I can remove the cup and sand after a week or so?
scaryperson27
New member
I would do your idea in addition to adding a bacteria booster like Brightwell Microbacter7
drummereef
Team RC
OK, after much deliberation I've come up with a plan for cycling the tank... I went ahead and bought a couple pounds of cultured live sand from Premium Aquatics to seed the tank. I will lightly feed the tank with a bit of mysis shrimp to feed the bacteria along the way until I can safely add a small cleanup crew to keep the process going. I think this is the best route and probably the safest in the long run.
I went ahead and bought a couple pounds of cultured live sand from Premium Aquatics to seed the tank. I will lightly feed the tank with a bit of mysis shrimp to feed the bacteria along the way until I can safely add a small cleanup crew to keep the process going. I think this is the best route and probably the safest in the long run.
drummereef
Team RC
Sand will be here tomorrow so I plan on adding it then. Considering putting it in a small plastic or glass container (open top) and setting it in the tank or better yet, sump. That way I can remove it later as the tank cycles. Do you think I'll get the same results rather than mixing it in the existing sand? If it's just bacteria I'm getting from it I don't see why it would be necessary to actually "add" it to the tank.
