Maroun 150g Build Thread

[maroun.c]

tank was cleaned from remains of the sand before refilling it with it's water. Rocks without corals were keptin containers with powerheads to take them to the 150 and start the aquascaping. Replaced the corals and fish in the tank, waiting for the 150 to be finished and ready to transport them. I filled the 80 to less than 3/4 high as the silicon tear loked a bit worse. Hopefully it'll still hold a bit more so that the 150 is finished.
Will post pics of progress on the 150 as soon as I finsih editing and uploading the pics.

 

[marineaddict]

I just watned to say I spent the last 1/2 hour reading this thread... it is awesome!!! The tank is really looking nice and the view from you house are amazing! Well done!!! I can't wait to read more and more.... this is why I love build threads!! You learn so much!!!

btw - very cute kids!!!

 

[melev]

As for rinsing the sand, your method seems pretty labor intensive. When I rinse it, I put 5" - 6" of sand in a bucket, pointed a garden hose in there at full strength and swirled it around and around and around letting the bucket overflow as I did this. Every few minutes I poured off all excess water, swirling the bucket some to make the detritus collect on the top of the sand and pour out. You will lose a little bit of sand (not much) in the process, and get it very clean without taking forever.

To remove bristleworm needles in the future, soak the area in white vinegar for 5 minutes. It will dissolve them.

 

[michika]

Your progress is so impressive. I like the way you've skinned everything, the grain in the wood is just beautiful!

 

[maroun.c]

I just watned to say I spent the last 1/2 hour reading this thread... it is awesome!!! The tank is really looking nice and the view from you house are amazing! Well done!!! I can't wait to read more and more.... this is why I love build threads!! You learn so much!!!

Thanks for yoru compliments. I love buld threads too and benefited from them a lot, this is why I try to keep a very detailed one for others to benefit from.

btw - very cute kids!!!

Thanks

 

[maroun.c]

Melev
This is exactly what I did after reading yuor description on how tocleanthe sand from your website. It is indeed much easier to move the sand to clean it with a hose at full power of water as it disperses the sand particles and you don't need any effort to move the hose in the sand. However the amount of detritus trapped in my sand bed was beyond what I imagined. which is why I decided to boild it and put it in the sun and rinse it a few more times. In addition tot he detritus collecting on top of the water I had very dark brown water each for more than 7-8 rinses.

To remove bristleworm needles in the future, soak the area in white vinegar for 5 minutes. It will dissolve them.

Now you tell me?
This piece of info should be a sticky on the 1st page of the forum.

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for yor compliments Catherine.
How is your build progressing? Need to check your thread as It's been a while I didn't.

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12504133#post12504133 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maroun.c
However the amount of detritus trapped in my sand bed was beyond what I imagined. which is why I decided to boild it and put it in the sun and rinse it a few more times. In addition tot he detritus collecting on top of the water I had very dark brown water each for more than 7-8 rinses.



Now you tell me?
This piece of info should be a sticky on the 1st page of the forum.

Yep, it's disgusting alright. Glad you got it cleaned up.

That secret is just between you and me. Don't tell anyone... shhhh. :strooper:

 

[michika]

Its coming along, this weekend is a tank dedicated weekend, we'll be doing the water test today or tomorrow once we are sure the floor is ready for the weight.

That sand just sounds gross, but like Marc said, glad you got it cleaned!

 

[maroun.c]

Ok further updates from what I did on the tank last week:

Got the used rinsed coral sand and the 2 buckets of new coral sand home,

Drained the tank in 3 barrels I had and some smaller containers.

My intention was to leave some water in the tank and pour the sand however I noticed that the glass on the inside had a layer of alga buildup and decided to take all the water out and clean the tank from the inside with a sponge and rinse it and take all that dirty remianing water out before putting the sand and water back in.

So when all that was finished I poured the old sand at the LT side of the tank from the back as the newer sand looked a bit whiter and I didn't want to have color variations in the sand.

Old sand

All the sand in and you can see the difference in colour which is more visible in reality. Anyway I guess it will all look the same after few months but anyway that part with old sand is in the back and I finally covered it with a layer of new sand.

 

[maroun.c]

when this was done I started pumping the water back to the pumps partition of the tank as I thought this would cause the least stirring of the sand to avoid a sand storm.

 

[maroun.c]

There was a very minimal sand storm that appeared till the water reached the first draining hole fromt eh pumps partition as water was splashing from the height of 2-3 inches but nothing significant. When water exceeded hat level everything settled down immediately and immediately after filling the tank visibility was very good. By next morning water had cleared up completely

 

[maroun.c]

My father helped me with a couple of final coates of Varnish for the canopy

And I had a sheet of glass sanded from both sides made so I inserted it in the overflow in front of the pipes to help hide them till coraline alga builds up on the glass to hide them better or better yet till GSP or Zoos grows on the overflow and hides everything completely.

Canopy was drilled for the halides fixtures and for fans. also the bacl of the canopy and stand were fixed. (Don't remind me it's black the guy making it messed up in te color but anyway it does not show so for now I'll keep it till I have enough free time to have it replaced)

I will have 3 large fans in the top one blowing air in and two out with two smaller fans in the bacl one blowing in one out. Ppumps on the left are blowing in and the ones on the right blow out this way I believe I will have a regular flow of air going from the left side of the room towards the right side where the window is. I will also have 2 large fans and two small ones in the stand below the tank as I will have a 75 W MH over my frag tank (maybe a 150 it doesn't heat things aup a lot) and I'm hoping those fans will allow me to run the tank without a chiller.
the smaller pumps will run in winter days too to minimize humidity in the stand and canopy, in summer days I believe I'll schedule them to run with the actinics and the larger ones to run with the halides or maybe from morning to late evening will decide on this when tank is running.

 

[maroun.c]

Transported some o fthe LR and put it in my frag tank where I have a DSB this way it'll seed the new sand. I will also top it with 1-2 inch more sand that will come from the refugium of my 80 G when it's broken down.

Rest of the rocks from holding tanks was transported to the 150 and I'm grouping them as Base rock, Large and Small LR to facilitate aquascaping. One problem is than my RBTA is atached to a very large piece of base rock in my refugium so I'm trying to detach it from it to put the rock in my 150 and do the aquascaping before getting the anemone back. That anemone has been atached to that rock for 7-8 years so it's very hard to detach it without injuring it.

First two Live critters after moving the rocks

 

[maroun.c]

I was able to run my water circluation between the tank and the lower compartiment that was running for the last 1-2 weeks. and this went smoothly, no sever sounds or fluctuating water levels however 2-3 incevenient things that I will try to explain to get some advice on them.

First thing I noticed is that my water level in the tank rose higher than the middle of the screen on the overflow box to start dripping in the overflow. This caused the water level to be a bit higher than I wanted. Don't know if this will make more frequent for fish to jump in the overflow box. I can always add a acrilic sheet along the screen from its top to minimize accidents.
here are pics of it and hopefully it'll be clear:

This happened with my Ocean Runner 2500 (675 GPH Running as return from Sump) When I added both my 2500 and 3500 (675 and 950) The level rose a bit more but did not exceed the height of the screen, still this indicates that increasing my flow to the sump will be restricted in the future unless I change my screen or brake some of the pieces to facilitate waterflow? any advice on what I should do? for the time being I'm running my 2500 and after cleaing the teeth from some silicone that was on them especially on the edges I have around 1/2 cm above the water level is this an aceptable water level or not?

 

[maroun.c]

This si the water level with the two pumps running together:

 

[maroun.c]

This is the level of water with my 2500 running alone sprry mislabeled the overvflow Sump:

Second thing I'm sturggling with is that I keep getting a lot of air bubles to the bubble tower. Most of them are taken care of by the bubble tower and the rest by the bubble trap and I don't have any microbubbles in thetank however they cause a bit of sound (not really too much but annoying) in addition to causing a salt spay source over the long run. these airbubles don't disappear with any setting of the airflow from the durso. I hear an increasing amount of air gurgling into the tube the more I open the airflow but the bubles don't disappear unless I completely close the airflow and in that case water level in teh overflow goes up and then drops continusously causing fluhing sounds. My waterflow is constantly a bit higher than the elbow as in the pics even with the 2 pumps running together. I can clause the watervalves on teh drain pipes to around 40-50 percent without anychange. Closing them more causes the water level to raise and when it goes close to the airflow control I have no airbubbles. but that is a very high level and I'm afraid that any block to one tube might rapidly cause a flod as there is room for pressure to build up due to increasing water level. does the fact of being able to close the watervlavle that much with no effect mean that I should be running a more pwerfull pump? should you close the valves to decrease airbubbles or do you run your dursos with an open valve? Chrimunn had mentioned that water should hardly reach the elbow level in my case it is just a bit higher than the elbow. Does that mean I sould take out my airflow control (the slits in the thread of the Durso) and instead drill a hole Pictures in previous pages) or should I just run my setup with the bubles going out with the water as they are not that noisy and not making it back into the tank anyway?
Setup has been running for 5-6 days so I don't think it's a matter of allowing slime to build up on the pipes.
Thanks for anyinfo as this is delaying me a lot and I'm not able to find any solution to it.
Pics to better explain things:

Constant water level with closing water vlaves up to 50percent:

This leads to these airbubbles (not very noisy but annoying)

Closing waterlevels to this amount has no effect:

Playing with the air contro has no effect even if I take the top off or screw it down unless its completely clsoed in that case water level starts to fluctuate and gives lots of sounds.

 

[michika]

Lots of progress for you too I see! For your overflow, I guess you either have to cut the teeth longer, or like you said, make the holes wider. Do you have a preference of one or the other?

 

[maroun.c]

Closing water valves till water rises this high:

Leads to no bubbles at all:

But As I said I'm not comfortable with water this high as the simplest blockage will leave space for the water to rise to create more pressure for the second drain to work and in that case it will quicky flood.
Sorry lots of pics and words but it's a bit hard to explain. Any explanation on how you run your setups and pics on waterlevel on thedurso and what I should to for mine would be great.

 

[maroun.c]

Catherine
Yes it was a busy week. Stil have to finish my electrical setup, lighting, and closed loop and will be ready to move my fisha nd coral to the 150.

I don't think cutting the eeth longer is a possibility for me as this was a ready made screen. I don'thave the tools to work with acrilic to cut a longer screen. But that still can be done
Making the holes wider is still an option. I'm mostly considering gluing a piece of acrilic from the top of the screen to the brace next to it this way fish will not be able jump in the overflow anymore.