mdrobc1213
New member
Hi. Okay new here but not totally new to the hobby as I got into SW tanks in 2008 with my 1st tank a 55g from PetSmart and then a 75g Aqueon from there. Wow times flies when you're having fun...anyway since I am an AD military guy I tend to use those frequent moves (we call them PCS=permanent changes of station) to upgrade my tanks..so this time when I got orders I broke down and sold my old 150g back to my LFS and upgraded to a 210g! Wanted to go 300g or more but no way it would fit in the basement of our rental house! 
Without a dedicated basement entryway...210g had to go down the stairs and that was about all we could do with the 210g.
Anyway this time I decided to go with a custom designed stand and forgo the LFS black wooden Aqueon 210 ones avail to me. Thanks to a search of RC and some additional research was able to get a design to Maytech.com and get an aluminium t-slot stand built to my specs and design parameters and delivered in 1 week after placing the order. Great job guys..every easy to work with and the free CAD software was essential in my stand design. Got stand up in about 2 nights after work and 1/4 sanded plywood stained with black Urethane from Home Depot finished it off nicely. Was able to cut a bottom and top board to the stand and added another for my controllers to be mounted also. Have additional spare wood for shelves for my dosers and other items. Overall plan is to frame it out with either finished plywood or maybe aluminum panels that will hang in the slots to cover the open panel areas. Great design though as it really gives me access into the stand and equipment which the LFS wooden ones never did. You just put items in there and it was hell to work or get on them before in previous ones.
So got things up and stand leveled. Sand and dry rock/prior live 3 mos ago into tank and situated. Used Aquamaxx ReefWelder which I found online and must say it puts epoxy and previous stuff I've used to shame. Prior to this used Reef Cement which was always a pain to mix correctly and often dried too quickly and you could never use wet/underwater or stick epoxy which didn't hold great and fell apart. This stuff is great! Used the mixed beads (purple and white) which one heated up with hot boiling water melt and become mold-able allowing you got make any seal/bond you want just like epoxy. Like that they can be reused by just putting back into hot water and waiting till the bonds break and it becomes mold-able again...happened a few times when I made mistakes in the aquascape or rocks didn't hold together right. Tank is now up/filled and spent pre-labor day weekend wiring all my Neptune controllers and testing the pumps/lines. Have 1-2 small union leaks which I am troubleshooting (help appreciated...what do you do when a brand new union leaks at the union?) since this is my 1st hard PVC plumbing job. However overall tank looks pretty good and other than the now strong desire to switch my lighting set up (have 3 AI Hydra 26s but really think a Ecotech Radion XR-30 Pro setup w/Reeflink would go a long way to tying in all my controllers at one place-one program)...jury out on that one.
Anyway still work to do always and fish to add. Initial water tests promising as I rapid cycled the tank using 1 Bottle of Seed, 1/2 bottle of BrightWell Aquatics Biofilter and now am adding Stability daily. Current readings are ph 8.0, Nitrate=20, Nitrite 0.2, NH3-0.0 temp 77.8, salinity=1.024-25. Initial fish are doing okay...some have been in QT since June while other new additions went straight to DT! However when adding fish for the 1st 3 mos at least I have a practice of dosing Metroplex every 2 days for the duration of new stocking to prevent illness. Worked well with my last start up after a serious Urenema and Velvet outbreak wiped out my tank in Sept 2016 and found that daily medicine during the initial stocking along with judicious QT of certain disease "prone" fishes worked. Not every fish made it but about 90% did fine and QT actually added to the stress of certain species. My QT are 20g and 10g tanks with no sand/filter sponges/thermometer. So fingers crossed...but by all means interested in comments and advice as you guys have some really nice tanks on here...tons of experience.
Cheers...Rob
Without a dedicated basement entryway...210g had to go down the stairs and that was about all we could do with the 210g.Anyway this time I decided to go with a custom designed stand and forgo the LFS black wooden Aqueon 210 ones avail to me. Thanks to a search of RC and some additional research was able to get a design to Maytech.com and get an aluminium t-slot stand built to my specs and design parameters and delivered in 1 week after placing the order. Great job guys..every easy to work with and the free CAD software was essential in my stand design. Got stand up in about 2 nights after work and 1/4 sanded plywood stained with black Urethane from Home Depot finished it off nicely. Was able to cut a bottom and top board to the stand and added another for my controllers to be mounted also. Have additional spare wood for shelves for my dosers and other items. Overall plan is to frame it out with either finished plywood or maybe aluminum panels that will hang in the slots to cover the open panel areas. Great design though as it really gives me access into the stand and equipment which the LFS wooden ones never did. You just put items in there and it was hell to work or get on them before in previous ones.
So got things up and stand leveled. Sand and dry rock/prior live 3 mos ago into tank and situated. Used Aquamaxx ReefWelder which I found online and must say it puts epoxy and previous stuff I've used to shame. Prior to this used Reef Cement which was always a pain to mix correctly and often dried too quickly and you could never use wet/underwater or stick epoxy which didn't hold great and fell apart. This stuff is great! Used the mixed beads (purple and white) which one heated up with hot boiling water melt and become mold-able allowing you got make any seal/bond you want just like epoxy. Like that they can be reused by just putting back into hot water and waiting till the bonds break and it becomes mold-able again...happened a few times when I made mistakes in the aquascape or rocks didn't hold together right. Tank is now up/filled and spent pre-labor day weekend wiring all my Neptune controllers and testing the pumps/lines. Have 1-2 small union leaks which I am troubleshooting (help appreciated...what do you do when a brand new union leaks at the union?) since this is my 1st hard PVC plumbing job. However overall tank looks pretty good and other than the now strong desire to switch my lighting set up (have 3 AI Hydra 26s but really think a Ecotech Radion XR-30 Pro setup w/Reeflink would go a long way to tying in all my controllers at one place-one program)...jury out on that one.
Anyway still work to do always and fish to add. Initial water tests promising as I rapid cycled the tank using 1 Bottle of Seed, 1/2 bottle of BrightWell Aquatics Biofilter and now am adding Stability daily. Current readings are ph 8.0, Nitrate=20, Nitrite 0.2, NH3-0.0 temp 77.8, salinity=1.024-25. Initial fish are doing okay...some have been in QT since June while other new additions went straight to DT! However when adding fish for the 1st 3 mos at least I have a practice of dosing Metroplex every 2 days for the duration of new stocking to prevent illness. Worked well with my last start up after a serious Urenema and Velvet outbreak wiped out my tank in Sept 2016 and found that daily medicine during the initial stocking along with judicious QT of certain disease "prone" fishes worked. Not every fish made it but about 90% did fine and QT actually added to the stress of certain species. My QT are 20g and 10g tanks with no sand/filter sponges/thermometer. So fingers crossed...but by all means interested in comments and advice as you guys have some really nice tanks on here...tons of experience.
Cheers...Rob
