Dry Rock...where to get them?

Hi Guys,

quick update, Got the SeaKlear at R&S Pool (thanks Tigé21v).

I also ordered the Dry Sand from Marcorock apparently the best price I could get! And here's my new question...Wouldn't sand contain also high levels of PO4? and what's the suggestion to rinse them ?

thanks in advance
Marcos
 
The fastest way to clean dry sand is to use some 5gal buckets and put about 1-2" of sand in the bucket and start filling with a blast of the water hose. No need to fill much beyond half way before dumping. Repeat process until the water starts to become clear (no need it getting it clear as a large amount of the cloudiness will be micro bubbles). Then pour into the "clean sand bucket", start process all over till your done. :headwally:
You will most likely wish you had spent the extra $$ on "live" sand by the time you're done. :lol:

Prob the easiest way one could do this project is if you could find an old swimming pool sand filter and just let water run through it till it was all clear.
 
Live sand is suppose to contain living beneficial bacteria, helping to get a jump on your tank cycle.
I've rinsed sand in a 4" pvc tube (about 1 1/2-2' tall, with one end capped ). Put a garden hose in the tube all the way to the bottom, fill 3/4 full with sand, and turn on the water (slowly). Once the sand is fluidized, move the hose up and down a little. Does a fairly quick job of flushing all the dust, cuz it forces it all to flow out the top. But be warned, at this time of year, washing any amount of sand with water coming out of a garden hose or your cold water tap gets old really fast.:lmao:
Once rinsed, you can soak the sand in RO water for 3-4 days, changing the water daily. If there's phosphates in the sand, they will leach out into the water.
 
Tigé21v said:
Live sand is suppose to contain living beneficial bacteria, helping to get a jump on your tank cycle.
I've rinsed sand in a 4" pvc tube (about 1 1/2-2' tall, with one end capped ). Put a garden hose in the tube all the way to the bottom, fill 3/4 full with sand, and turn on the water (slowly). Once the sand is fluidized, move the hose up and down a little. Does a fairly quick job of flushing all the dust, cuz it forces it all to flow out the top. But be warned, at this time of year, washing any amount of sand with water coming out of a garden hose or your cold water tap gets old really fast.:lmao:
Once rinsed, you can soak the sand in RO water for 3-4 days, changing the water daily. If there's phosphates in the sand, they will leach out into the water.
Click to expand...

Now that is a good idea. :beer:
Could probably go with 6" PVC to slow down the water currents exiting the pipe. This is basically how I was thinking of using the pool sand filter.
Of course this would still be a slight challenge for finer grades of sand, but hey, this has got to be less work than my bucket method.:lmao:

Olival....The major benefit of "live" sand is not so much it's claimed live bacteria, but that fact that it's already rinsed off and free of most dusts.
I am told however that there are brands of dry sand that is fairly dust free.
 
Hi guys...yesterday I got my first couple of clownfishes. They are on the QT. I also pulled the trigger on a couple of Chinese LEDs from Twilight groups (since they can make even vampire sparkle)...ok bad Joke :-p
 
I might be wrong...I saw a white dot in the lateral middle portion of the fish...it disappeared...reading the sticky about ICH, it might be as part of the regular cycle of the parasite...in a preventive manner, as I'm not sure...I'm lowering the salinity on the QT for the next 4 weeks.
 
I might be wrong...I saw a white dot in the lateral middle portion of the fish...it disappeared...reading the sticky about ICH, it might be as part of the regular cycle of the parasite...in a preventive manner, as I'm not sure...I'm lowering the salinity on the QT for the next 4 weeks.
 
Hi guys...latest news on my tank...
last couple of days of the year, with my Wife's brothers in my house for the hollidays, I manage to finish all that I have to do in order to start cycling.
- Received and Installed my Chinese 120W LEDs
- Rinsed sand indoors (wife was thrilled about it)
- Got a couple of brutes @ HD and drained the water in the containers.
- Adjusted position and leveled the tank (this is where the BiLaws helped)
- Egg crate, Rocks, Sand, Water back and all started to run
- arranged cabling inside the stand
- Repositioned the Filter Socks, Heaters.
- Adjusted Pump flexible tubes to a better position.
- Installed a temporary solution for ATO system (tube that comes from Filter to a float switch in the Sump. That I plan to have a safer method later on but as it is I have a 20 gal threshold in case things go wrong.
- Last of all...configured the timers on the light fixtures...I have 1 channel for whites, 1 channel for Blues that are manually dimmable and 1 channel for Moon lights (on/off)

Last readings I got are:
- Temp -79,8
- Salinity - 1.016 (working to get that back to 1.025)
- Ammonia - 0,15
- Nitrite - 0,2
- Nitrate - 10 (that's in peak write now I assume)
- PH4 - 3 days ago was 0,11 I will test it all again on Friday

and last thing is a Pic of the tank as it is....
IMG_0713.jpg
 
Awesome job!

Just make sure that you do a power cut off test so that if you were to Lose power siphon action doesn't flood yourself and make a huge mess
 
Awesome job!

Just make sure that you do a power cut off test so that if you were to Lose power siphon action doesn't flood yourself and make a huge mess
 
ebacon said:
Awesome job!

Just make sure that you do a power cut off test so that if you were to Lose power siphon action doesn't flood yourself and make a huge mess
Click to expand...

Thanks ebacon.
I did quite a lot of those tests already, I do believe that I have good threshold, really. I was supper worried about that.
 
I always hated the regular stands that come with the tanks but that thing looks awesome in white. Great job on refinishing it and also on the whole setup. Looks really nice!

Do you have a link to the lights you are using? They look really nice and clean.
 
I placed my order with Twilightgroups and was with contact with a person called Jone Chen.
The fixtures are the common 55x 3w LEDs. It has 3 channels, Whites, Blues that are dimmable and moon lights (on/off only) that are hooked to the timmers (you actually have 9 timer channels that reapeat themselves or are empty)

Ordered a couple of 120W with the following config:
10pcs blue(460nm),
15pcs blue(470nm),
24pcs(14000k),
2pcspurple 420nm,
2pcs yellow(585nm),
2pcs red(660nm)

not sure if this is the best or worst setup, but I was looking for lights in a budget to get my system started and I heard this is a common one. I've ordered the bare bone version with manual dimming. and all in all I got $333.70 (including 2 Pcs + Shipping + 4% for Paypall).

I was kept updated where the manufacturing process was including pictures of the the WIP, and Jone was really helpful. Last but not least, I got them delivered by FEDEX 1 day prior to the scheduled date and they arrived in perfect order.

I could have gone with internal dimming control (allows sunset etc...) but that would be 130 USD more, which I preferred not to do in exchange of future scale up capability with 2 more modules....although I read several people on the lighting forum saying the 2 120w will do, I'm ready to scale up. And as I have an APEX controller, I might consider some sort of DYI in the dimming knobs to replace them by the Controller module.

For my tank, if I would go with a decent T5, I wouldn't pay less than 400, with half of the features and customizations capability that I have. Not to mention the fact that would be around 150 to 200 year for bulbs replacement. Granted that I cannot attest for the lights output or PAR quality specially with nothing on the tank apart from the rock and sand...but they look right to me!
 
I placed my order with Twilightgroups and was with contact with a person called Jone Chen.
The fixtures are the common 55x 3w LEDs. It has 3 channels, Whites, Blues that are dimmable and moon lights (on/off only) that are hooked to the timmers (you actually have 9 timer channels that reapeat themselves or are empty)

Ordered a couple of 120W with the following config:
10pcs blue(460nm),
15pcs blue(470nm),
24pcs(14000k),
2pcspurple 420nm,
2pcs yellow(585nm),
2pcs red(660nm)

not sure if this is the best or worst setup, but I was looking for lights in a budget to get my system started and I heard this is a common one. I've ordered the bare bone version with manual dimming. and all in all I got $333.70 (including 2 Pcs + Shipping + 4% for Paypall).

I was kept updated where the manufacturing process was including pictures of the the WIP, and Jone was really helpful. Last but not least, I got them delivered by FEDEX 1 day prior to the scheduled date and they arrived in perfect order.

I could have gone with internal dimming control (allows sunset etc...) but that would be 130 USD more, which I preferred not to do in exchange of future scale up capability with 2 more modules....although I read several people on the lighting forum saying the 2 120w will do, I'm ready to scale up. And as I have an APEX controller, I might consider some sort of DYI in the dimming knobs to replace them by the Controller module.

For my tank, if I would go with a decent T5, I wouldn't pay less than 400, with half of the features and customizations capability that I have. Not to mention the fact that would be around 150 to 200 year for bulbs replacement. Granted that I cannot attest for the lights output or PAR quality specially with nothing on the tank apart from the rock and sand...but they look right to me!
 
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