LR lifting question.

[Doug1]

I have made eggcrate racks to hold up the LR 1/2 pvc and eggcrate could be used creativly for supports, adding some holes or nozzles and hookin the return, or better a closed loop could be good for increasing circulation in the rock stack

[SPC]

One idea that I read about is to glue crushed coral and such to the PVC in order to make it blend in better.
Steve

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Geoff
Brain Fart: what is GSP?

Green Star Polyps, unless you have little overhang, the GSP won't get enough light to cover the pvc (unfortunately from personal exp)

Originally posted by Geoff
hey Tom what did you do in your tank?

This is a pic of one of the first steps in the new 180, about mid-July this year. I use 4" pvc pipe cu to the depth of the sand bed plus 1cm and drill 5cm holes all around the diameter with a hole saw. Easier to drill the holes first in a length of pvc pipe, then use a chop saw to cut the pieces to length. I ended up using a small diameter sanding drum on a drill to clean up the PVC scrap.

After thinking about all the posts where folks have DSB issues with anaerobic (black sulfide reduction) areas, I realise that almost NONE of my sandbed comes into direct contact with the large pieces of LR. I place tennisball sized rock around the bottom or "sticks" of LR rubble to hide the PVC, and once the pipe has been in the tank for a few months, it gets a purple coating of Coralline if there is enough light striking any visible portions of the support. I have since added all the sand (13 to 15 cm) and placed the rock

[tdwyatt]

sorry for the size of the jpeg... Full tank shot (excuse the mess) mid july 03

[JPerkins]

Hard to explain, wish I had taken a picture.

I took 1/2" pvc and made a support with holes drilled in it to circulate the water under the rocks. I then placed eggcrate on top of the pvc to support the rock.

I painted the eggcrate and pvc with oateys purple pvc primer (it looks better than white and will probably cover with coralline faster).

The GSP (green star polyps) will grow on the eggcrate, not the pvc as the eggcrate covers the pvc except for the portion coming from the top of the tank (water return) to the bottom.

I'm hoping the gsp cover the eggcrate (i know they will given time).

[JPerkins]

It actually looks like tdwyatts except the pvc goes all the way to the floor AND I have 4 pieces of pvc going 2/3 of the way to the front of the tank along the bottom and holes drilled in the pvc to create cross-currents under the rocks.

Like I said, it does a good job of rolling turds to the front heh.

[tdwyatt]

heh, looking for related pix I found this in the desk drawer

[tdwyatt]

and for those of you that think that the rubbermaids don't make great sumps with external pumps...

[cyberchef]

I made eggcrate cubes that were the same size as the depth of the SB and placed them down to support the LR.

[SPC]

Originally posted by tdwyatt
and for those of you that think that the rubbermaids don't make great sumps with external pumps...

Tight wad
Steve

[CAT]

I had the same kind of set-up with my old FOwLR. I used 2" wide pvc tubes that I jammed into the sand plus about 1-3 inches above the sand. I placed the l.r. on top of the pvc. Worked ok but I think the 3 or 4" pvc like Tom's would be a lot steadier.

Holes in the pvc are good -- I had to tear the rockwork apart when I realized that blue-legs weren't disappearing on me, they had fallen into the tubes and couldn't climb out... Definitely need the holes