The building of my 350 G tank

luamada said:
oh that bulb is just a lamp to light the area so my fiance can work on it at night time... we will use a LED light for the sump 24/7 and later will put a light around the front of the cabinet to light it up so we can clean it up but I have not found the light yet... I want a strip light (LED) and will plug it in the second set of plus in the middle of the tank... I have to see as I want to add some fans to the top of the canopy... no idea where to find them yet... I figure I start the cycling while we are working on the other stuff..hehe.. cannot wait to get it going... I keep telling myself patience... patience...hehe not working well with me.. yet..
Click to expand...

If you want to start a brand new cycle without adding any rock or sand from your old tank you can drop in a raw shrimp and let it cook in there. You can find plenty of fans on amazon, just search for 120 mm fan.
 
The water is looking very nasty today ;-( I think it is because it is not circulating... I am hoping to fill it up today enough to run my MP 60 which I will research right now how to run it without the controllers... My kids are complaining of the looks of the water... but it has not started to stink yet... fingers crossed that it does not stink bad .. oh boy...
QUESTION: Should I run socks while I am cycling the tank??
 
Yes Soni I am planing on doing the shrimp... I think I may do 2 large ones since the tank is so large... should I drop it in the sump or in the tank??
 
Drop them in the tank, get that water circulating even if it's with a maxi jet. Do you have a DC return pump you can run on lowest setting?
 
Hi Soni I do not have a DC return pump. Only this one :( I took the power head from my 90 and put it in there for now. I have the MP60 but it is still in the box... hopefully this weekend I will finish with the boards and get them running... the water is looking nasty... i hope it will clear up. I hate to have to make all that water again... I am not sure why it got green (may be the phosphate from the rocks...i guess... I will finish to fill it up today and making the water for the sump now... I guess I will run my skimmer and carbon to try to clear the water up before I get the shrimp in there... I have a small skimmer for my 90 gallons... and will try that one to see if it helps with the water color...
THE pump will be two of this SICCE 5.0 (I hope it is enough)
 
DAY 2- Still making water to finish fill up the tank. Just made another 120 gallons and hoping to be able to use it tonight to complete the tank and sump. The power head added yesterday helped some with the color and it does still look nasty but not as nasty ;-)
 
SAND X MUD - After hours of reading, I decided to go with the Deep sand bed. I am going to the store to buy some Argonite ones since I can get it from the LFS. I figure it would be easier to maintain it and I do not need to change as often as the MM. I hope I am making the right choice... I still do not know if I need to add cheeto while cycling.. so much to learn in such a short time... LOVE THIS HOBBY...
 
looking much better, once it starts flowing through some socks it will clear up, is that RO/DI or just RO, is your TDS reading 0 at the output? and sadly i do not think those Sicce will be enough, they are rated at 1321 gph @ 5 ft of head and it looks like you have 5 ft just under the stand, not to mention any 90 degree elbows and hopefully that is not 3/4" pipe.

look at something like a Waveline DC12000 or any DC controllable pump that can put out at least 3000 GPH, or even one of the Reeflo pumps
 
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The skimmer is this one but it is a small one that I got for my 90 quarantine tank. I want to test it and see if I like Reef Octupus Skimmers ( I think they are the only ones that make a skimmer good for 500G. I am still researching skimmers since I figure I have about 3 month before I will need a big one... BY THE WAY ANY IDEAS ON SKIMMER WILL BE GREAT :-)

 
yes, i have a reef octopus and although it is great i do not like that i cannot get into the bottom of it to clean it. Look at Skimz skimmers
 
Oh OH... I have two of them though... They just got plumbed too ;-( with silicone and glue ;-( I guess I will have to try them for awhile.. what happens if the pump is not strong enough? I will have 2MP60 plus maybe 2 MP40 for circulations :-/
The pump will be just for the water to go to the sump for the refigium and for the socks and skimmer to clean up the waste... How do I know if the water is not good other then the numbers? (PH, amonia,nitrate..etc)
 
if the pump is not strong enough, there will be a little bit or no flow at all from the returns, It looks like you have a TDS meter mounted on the wall, press the button for OUT and it should read 0
 
Day 3 - 8/21/14 - Tank and sump are finally full and running. We had two small leaks on the bulk heads connections and still working on it. I am really concerned with the level of the water.. oddly enough when I use the level it was good, then I put the level on the level of the water and it shows good. I put the level on the cabinet and it shows good but on the floor it does not which is frustrating and scary at the same time. The difference is very small. I would say about 1/8 of inch. The odd thing is that if we level the cabinet and the tank it does not show any difference but when we look at the water at one side and the other side there is a difference. Also the return at one end is lower than the other. I guess we will have to live with it...

 
DAY 3 - also added 4 medium shrimp to the tank to start the cycle... didn't have time to test the water so doing it on day 4... Also fixed the little leaks... not so sure about the socks as the water is not going over it as I thought it would go ;-( we are not so sure about all of it... ALSO the noise on the tank is very annoying.. the pipe that does the return has a small hole under it to avoid the siphon effect and that little hole makes so much noise...
QUESTIONS : should I pull the return pipe higher to make the water level inside it higher? What should be the water level inside the return?

 
FAIOS is fish and other ichty stuff in Oldsmar. Online it was sold out but if your pumps are flowing fine then disregard.
 
I am in Orlando and will be driving past Valrico on the way home. Let me know, i would love to stop in and see what's happening
 
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Hi Soni we will be going fishing this afternoon... when everything is done we will host an open house for the reef central friends.. I will keep you posted... It does not look good yet ;/ But it will be nice..hehe.. Thank you for all your help too
 
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