The Dream Tank 400 Gallon Display - IN THE WORKS - Input appreciated!!!!
- Thread starter obiwanthegoby
- Start date
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
rock tank: Ph 8.0, Nitrite 0.5 maybe a lttle lower, Nitrate 0. Bought new RO/dI filters today and filing the other 110 gallon tub, will move rock when water is ready. I have 5 days off starting tommorow expecting a lot of progress on the fish room and basement, will post picture soon. Hopefully Ill be filling the tank with RO on monday or tuesday... keeping fingers crossed.
JohnnyBassMan
New member
Good to see everything coming together.
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
NItrite 0, Nitrate ~30, PH 7.8,... Swapped out 100% of the water for fresh saltwater today here are some pics...
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
Live rock removed from dirty water...
Dirty Water...
Clean water...
Dirty Water...
Clean water...
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
Muck left even after I stirred everything up to get rid of it in the water....
Clean Tub....
Layer 1...on top of eggcrate....
Added second egg crate for layer two...
Layer 2....
Full of water and pumps.
I have 2 Tunze 6101 at full blast, a Mag 7, two maxi jet 12 with imperller upgrades as well as the EV120 skimming. One thing i have learned is curing a massive ammount of live rock all at once in a 110 tub is hard to do. If i decide I need more live rock it will be bought in smaller batches and cured in smaller batches to minimize die off.
Oh and I picked up my pump and single unions today....
Clean Tub....
Layer 1...on top of eggcrate....
Added second egg crate for layer two...
Layer 2....
Full of water and pumps.
I have 2 Tunze 6101 at full blast, a Mag 7, two maxi jet 12 with imperller upgrades as well as the EV120 skimming. One thing i have learned is curing a massive ammount of live rock all at once in a 110 tub is hard to do. If i decide I need more live rock it will be bought in smaller batches and cured in smaller batches to minimize die off.
Oh and I picked up my pump and single unions today....
melev
Well-known member
If you have a large trashcan, as you work, move the rock into the trashcan full of new saltwater. Clean out the tub, add saltwater and put the rock back in for the next week.
Keeping it submerged avoids further cycling and die off. If that doesn't matter to you, the trashcan (without saltwater) can just hold the rock temporarily while you clean out the tub.
Keeping it submerged avoids further cycling and die off. If that doesn't matter to you, the trashcan (without saltwater) can just hold the rock temporarily while you clean out the tub.
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
Too busy to take pictures of the messy room facing the tank, but drywall is up need to mud and sand it. Rock is cycled... maybe it isn't... we'll see... Everything has been at 0 since the massive water change, will keep an eye on it for another week and see if there is a change. Rock may have been good and cycled before the water change and the muck and dead mass at the bottom could have been polluting the water??? Never done this before so I'm taking it a step at a time. Plan to leave it in the tub for another week or two anyway, have to get everything in order as far as mudding and sanding the basement walls. Gotta get both the fish room and the room facing done to keep it out of the tank. I know I keep pushing the day back but balancing everything in life is taking it's toll with time 
. Should realistically have skimmer, Salt in the tank and two rooms finished in two weeks. Hope to add Live Rock to the tank and get lights over it the last week of Feb or 1st Week of march. Keeping fingers crossed. Will post pics soon.
. Should realistically have skimmer, Salt in the tank and two rooms finished in two weeks. Hope to add Live Rock to the tank and get lights over it the last week of Feb or 1st Week of march. Keeping fingers crossed. Will post pics soon.obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
NItrates in the rock tank are below twenty ppm still... using dip strips so... not the most accurate.
Picture of the study/music area (room outside of fishroom) awaiting mud and primer... (THIS WEEKEND) then fill the tank....
Picture of the study/music area (room outside of fishroom) awaiting mud and primer... (THIS WEEKEND) then fill the tank....
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
NItrates in the rock tank are below twenty ppm still... using dip strips so... not the most accurate.
Picture of the study/music area (room outside of fishroom) awaiting mud and primer... (THIS WEEKEND) then fill the tank....
Picture of the study/music area (room outside of fishroom) awaiting mud and primer... (THIS WEEKEND) then fill the tank....
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
I have started to drain the tank of the tap water. Live rock is cycled or VERY close and I would like to get it in the tank with a larger volume, more circulation and a BIGGER BETTER skimmer. So shooting for end of next week to have the rock in the tank and circulating. Getting Exited will add pictures as they taken. 
OBI
OBI
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
Ok I will be posting some pictures at the end of the weekend as I will start filling on Sunday. I scoured the internet looking for a 1.5" double wye pvc fitting and they dont exist in anything except for drain style. Any input on using the drain style I have as a fitting for the return line... or would I be better off using a cross with a 45 on each side? I'm going to start doing permenant plumbing Sunday also. Ordered my Reeflo Orca 250 Pro Kit from ReefSpecialty yesterday, and will be ordering my 3 Coral Vue Lumen Bright Large with Dimmable 400W ballasts towards the end of next week... I was informed yesterday Coral Vue is shut down for the rest of this week and up till wednesday in observance of Mardi Gras!!!??? LOL. Ordered a few pieces of 6' extruded acrylic (1/2" and 5/8" from mcmaster today... going to try it out and also try using PVC for the pillars and caves).
Looking forward to the fun next week.
OBI
Looking forward to the fun next week.
OBI
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
It's been a while since I posted so if anyone as actually been following this thread, I apologize. Here are some updated progress pictures from the past week.
The Drywall dust screen
Just a peak
a few of the PVC fitting I used for the rock work, i had to make two more trips to home depot.
Rock work structure
The Drywall dust screen
Just a peak
a few of the PVC fitting I used for the rock work, i had to make two more trips to home depot.
Rock work structure
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
Filling with sand
Water is trickling in, 75 GPD is going to take a while, and my TDS meter is not working so I may have to be a little more proactive on the DI cartridge chain than I could be...
Water is trickling in, 75 GPD is going to take a while, and my TDS meter is not working so I may have to be a little more proactive on the DI cartridge chain than I could be...
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
Here is a picture of the nice Skimmer that Reef Specialty sent me :eek1: , still waiting on the collection cup suppose to ship out this week. WOO WOO!!!
I also placed an order through my LFS guy, for 3- Lumen Bright Larges, with 400 W Coralvue dimmable ballast, and 12K Reeflux Bulbs. Ill also be adding an Ice cap 660 Ballast with 2 6 ft. VHO Super Actintic to the set up.
Waiting on the LFS to give me a price on a GEO 818 Calcium reactor, and the hardware to run it. and also checking into controllers. I don't like the idea of putting all my eggs in one basket, but the idea of being able to log into it form the internet to check on things and control things has its perks when you go on vacation as much as I do. Any suggestion on reliable controllers with net interfaces? Looking at the DA Reefkeeper Elite?
...and I forgot to throw these in... my most helpful daughter who enjoys my hobby as much as I do...
I also placed an order through my LFS guy, for 3- Lumen Bright Larges, with 400 W Coralvue dimmable ballast, and 12K Reeflux Bulbs. Ill also be adding an Ice cap 660 Ballast with 2 6 ft. VHO Super Actintic to the set up.
Waiting on the LFS to give me a price on a GEO 818 Calcium reactor, and the hardware to run it. and also checking into controllers. I don't like the idea of putting all my eggs in one basket, but the idea of being able to log into it form the internet to check on things and control things has its perks when you go on vacation as much as I do. Any suggestion on reliable controllers with net interfaces? Looking at the DA Reefkeeper Elite?
...and I forgot to throw these in... my most helpful daughter who enjoys my hobby as much as I do...
Chris Witort
New member
obiwanthegoby,
I was reading though your thread and saw your concern for the gap between the tank and stand. I had a few comments about the repair. First I saw that you said your aquarium builder told you that the bonding agent he used had a bond strength of 60000 psi. There is no bonding agent with that kind of strength. Weldon 42 which is the strongest bond I know of is 4000 psi after one week, 7000 psi after one week if the tank is annealed for a week at 150 f. I don't know of many places that actually anneal their tanks. I built a stand on a similar scale as yours and had flatness issues also. Making something that large using imperfect materials makes for some irregularities. I cured mine using epoxy, the kind used for tabletops. I made a skirt around the stand from strips of wood (with tape on them for removal) poured the epoxy over the stand let it level and presto perfectly flat stand. I'm sure that the shims you used will help but filled with water there is an incredible amount of pressure on all the seams. Makes me worry a bit.
I was reading though your thread and saw your concern for the gap between the tank and stand. I had a few comments about the repair. First I saw that you said your aquarium builder told you that the bonding agent he used had a bond strength of 60000 psi. There is no bonding agent with that kind of strength. Weldon 42 which is the strongest bond I know of is 4000 psi after one week, 7000 psi after one week if the tank is annealed for a week at 150 f. I don't know of many places that actually anneal their tanks. I built a stand on a similar scale as yours and had flatness issues also. Making something that large using imperfect materials makes for some irregularities. I cured mine using epoxy, the kind used for tabletops. I made a skirt around the stand from strips of wood (with tape on them for removal) poured the epoxy over the stand let it level and presto perfectly flat stand. I'm sure that the shims you used will help but filled with water there is an incredible amount of pressure on all the seams. Makes me worry a bit.
rsaquatica
New member
Chris Witort
60000 was one too many zeros, I told him 6000. Either way the tank is now level and shouldn't be any concern. I do not heat cure joints, however they were poured aprox. 3 months ago, should be cured to the expected strength.
Todd
60000 was one too many zeros, I told him 6000. Either way the tank is now level and shouldn't be any concern. I do not heat cure joints, however they were poured aprox. 3 months ago, should be cured to the expected strength.
Todd
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obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
The typo I made has been corrected, sorry for the misunderstanding. The tank is over half full and everything is fine. Should be full in the next two days and circulating. Hopefully ill add rock on sunday, and start the fuge up mid next week.
obiwanthegoby
Hair Algae cultivator
The typo I made has been corrected, sorry for the misunderstanding. The tank is over half full and everything is fine. Should be full in the next two days and circulating. Hopefully ill add rock on sunday, and start the fuge up mid next week.
