New Tank

[zenn]

Probably not a financially feasible option, but could you drill a well on your property to find if that water is more pure?

My parents live in a rural Montana. There is a water delivery service that delivers semi-purified (totally ok to drink) water to them evey few months. They use a sistern to store it. That might be another option if you could find such a service.

 

[tom obrecht]

Zenn Yes the cost of a new well would be very costly indeed. I had that option brought up in conversation one day. Not only very costly (in the neighborhood of 10 grand) it is no guarantee that the water will be better. Simply a gamble.

I do have good news however. The water company came out a few days ago and installed a different di and carbon filter on the ro unit they installed. As of right now I am making water with 0 tds!! The tank is about half full as I write this and hope to get the system filled, add salt, sand and some live rock in by this time next week. We will see how it goes but it looks as if the hurdle has been cleared! I'll try and get some pics up when I have something new to show.

 

[huskerreef]

WOOOHOOO!!!

 

[tom obrecht]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9500453#post9500453 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by huskerreef
WOOOHOOO!!!

I want to thank everyone who not only tried to help me find a solution but also those who encouraged me to not give up hope! Thanks to all my great friends!!!

 

[garvin90]

Took you darn long enough!

So when do I put in your special order of live rock and sand?

What are you going to use to cycle the tank(if anything)?

 

[sullyfish]

great news tom. cant wait to see the pics

 

[tom obrecht]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9502461#post9502461 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by garvin90
Took you darn long enough!

So when do I put in your special order of live rock and sand?

What are you going to use to cycle the tank(if anything)?

Ray...perhaps if you were located a bit closer to me (say 9 1/2 hours) I would consider getting some rock from you!

I hope to get some at least partially cured rock from some of the LFS here if I can find some that looks decent. I'm looking to cycle the tank with rock before adding any fish. I'm not one to cycle the tank with fish if that is what you are refering to. Too tough to get the fish back out when finish.

I do have an idea of some of the fish I want in the tank and none would make it through the cycle stage so I'll have to wait.

 

[garvin90]

Since you said this will be a sps tank, will you be doing any coral habitating(is that even a word??) fish? Perhaps like the striped species of cardinals or the coral gobies?

 

[tom obrecht]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9509918#post9509918 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by garvin90
Since you said this will be a sps tank, will you be doing any coral habitating(is that even a word??) fish? Perhaps like the striped species of cardinals or the coral gobies?

Perhaps down the road. Depends alot on how successful I am with sps. I tried sps a number of years ago with limited success and thus the reason of going all softies last time around. I hope with the knowledge out there and many more aquacultered sps species now available it will be abit easier.

I think the main objective with this tank will be color. I don't know if I can get the color out of corals like I have seen with some of the sps tanks here on RC but the wife thinks it would be very cool to go for it...so I'm going to give it a try. After all I've been through I feel it would be a huge success if I can keep live rock alive!!

I hope to keep a variety of different fish. Perhaps a couple of tangs, a few so called "reef safe" butterflies, and of course a few species of anthias. After my last system I hope I can keep the fish load fairly low for I want to try and keep the nutrient load low for the health of the corals.

As for an update, the main tank is just about full and then all that is left is the sumps . With in the next couple of days I should be able to add salt and start picking out rock. I'll get some new pics up as soon as I get something new to show!

 

[Travis]

The setup is looking great Tom. What a hurdle you had to overcome with your water. Glad something was finally figured out. Do you have plans for quarantining fish/corals? IME, there are a small number of things that make sps corals difficult, as long as the tank is setup with the proper equipment. That would be pests (red bugs, AEFW's, monti-eating nudis, etc.) and stability (salinity, temp, alk).

 

[lvpd186]

Tom, thats great news! I'm glad you didn't give in. I can't wait to see some tank pics with water (plus to hear how your closed loop system and water flow setup works out).

 

[zenn]

I think it's really strange that the water is that heavy in WI. My grandparents live in Watertown which is about 50miles west of Milwaukee, and they have really really pure drinking water (or at least when I was younger they did).

I bet you feel a million times happier now that you've found a way to purify the water. It was very wise of you to make sure you had good water instead of just going ahead with using the poluted water. Now you won't have to worry about nuisance algae and will feel 10x better about going forward.

Best of luck with the rest of the setup!

 

[tom obrecht]

Yes, it has been challenging and I hope things settle down now as the process continues. The system is full of water and the salt has been added. The substrate arrived today and I hope to add that tonight and tomoorw. Friday I hope to get some live rock added to start the cycling process. After I get some rock in I will post some pictures.

lvpd...so far the plumbing seems to look promising. In hindsight I might have used a smaller gph pump from the sump to the return and some how plumbed the Sea Swirls through the closed loops. Like any system there are always a few unknowns. Doing a system of this size has posed some issues that were unseen. Plumbing and water mov't being a few of those. In time I will see how my planning works and I hope it will be successful. At this point I'm needing some ego boosting and need to get something in the tank. I hope to get some fairly well cured rock and get some livestock soon.

 

[huskerreef]

"At this point I'm needing some ego boosting"

Did you forget you were Tank of The Month May 2006?

As far as fish I would stick to the smaller more colorful varieties, like some of the reef safe wrasses, anthias etc. that way you can get the movement of a lot of fish with a lower bioload. Did I mention I just added 2- Helfrichi Firefish that are my new favorites, very colorful. Can't wait to see water and rock.

 

[tom obrecht]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9555443#post9555443 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by huskerreef
Can't wait to see water and rock.

I hope to get some pics up this weekend. Won't look like much with only a few rocks, but a major accomplishment IMO!

 

[tom obrecht]

Well I made it...that is I made it to the point of water and rock. At one point I didn't think it was going to happen...but I'm glad it did!

Here are some updated pics. Not a whole lot to look at yet but it is slowly getting there. So far I have about 225 lbs of rock in there just to give you an idea of how big a space I'm working with. Tried something different with the rock and wonder people's thoughts on it so far? I will be adding more as time goes on.

Here's the ro/di unit that finally got my 1200 plus tds reading down to zero.

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Here are a few shots of the rocks.

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[bohlke]

Looks nice, I like the lighting options on towers of LR. Its amazing how a tank that big can make 225lbs of rock look small How are the rocks attached?

 

[tom obrecht]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9599680#post9599680 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bohlke
How are the rocks attached?

Thanks. Yes, another thing to remember when starting a large system...more of everything including rock!

I took all the rock out and stacked them together in a way I thought looked appealing. Then I took a long 1/4" drill bit and drilled the rock pieces and took 1/4" fiberglass rod and slid it int he hole. Works pretty slick if I can say so myself.

 

[bohlke]

Are you worried about fiberglass breaking off and getting into the tank? I am sure its a bit more rigid than pvc

 

[tom obrecht]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9599845#post9599845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bohlke
Are you worried about fiberglass breaking off and getting into the tank? I am sure its a bit more rigid than pvc

Actually it looks like acyrlic rod and needs to be cut with a hacksaw. It's very rigid and worked great. Unless it splinters it should be fine.