58gal New Tank Build!! - Page 6

ChrisPrusha · 04-22-2006, 06:57 AM

Looks great...I really like the rockwork!!!

Cuda · 04-23-2006, 02:01 AM

The rock work is looking good. You're on your way now. You've got a great opportunity to score points with your wife if you buy her the new camera

and even better because you'll get to use it and then we all get to benefit from it

Geoff · 04-23-2006, 06:10 AM

looking good!!

try and keep the rockwork as open as possible. you will need be able to siphon out detritus under all of the rocks.

a cloudy tank is expected when just starting up the tank. you actually want all of those really fine particles in they system. these ultra small sand particles will hold the most bacteria per given volume. it usually takes several days for the Southdown milkshake to go away.

i am about to start week 3 of my cycling. all i have used is 2lbs of LR (i have prolly 75lbs of base rock) and a couple of ounces of pure ammonia.

G~

Casey · 04-23-2006, 06:14 AM

It looks great and I like the way you stacked up the rocks,keep on with the pics.

UkrainianReefJunky · 04-24-2006, 06:43 AM

Ok so my neighbor gave me a 40 gal tank!!!! For Free!!!!!

So I decided to make a division in the tank. One half for a refugium and the other for plain RO water for an auto top off. These are pics of the tank and where I'm putting it. I'm gonna make a canopy for it and I think I'm going to reseal it. Don't trust the tank, it was made in 1991. Still not bad for free, no scratches.

So anyway for the division I was thinking acrylic and just caulk it it...this will hold right? (I'm going to use good aquarium caulk)

Geoff · 04-24-2006, 07:27 AM

reseal a tank will not do any good. i would not reseal it until you determin if it leaks or not. resealing will not strengthen the leaky area, it will just make the catastrophe worse when the seam really does go, less warning. if a tank leaks the only real solution is to dismantle it and reseam it.

i would not use sillycone to glue in a divider between differential bodies of water. it works fine in a sump were the water is the same on both sides and if it leaks it really does not matter. sillycone does not stick well to acrylic long term. also the unequal forces on the baffle may be to much when the top off tank is low and the silly refugium is high, could blow out on you.

i would either just use the 40 as a sump or as an auto top of reservoir, i would not have it do double duty.

G~

UkrainianReefJunky · 04-24-2006, 10:58 PM

Oops..

..well I doubt you are, but I hope your wrong G. I already did it before reading your reply. I'm going to do extensive tests on it before actual use. You said "long term" for silicone holding on acrylic, how long and what else could I use? I plan on keep the levels even as best I can, it pretty thick acrylic....I don't know!?!?!?!?!?!?

I thought I had a good idea. Oh well I guess I'll just have to see how it holds up.

I think it came out good either way. Worse case I razor out the acrylic seams and use the whole tank as a auto fill reservoir. Then I'll just buy another one for a refugium. Thanks for letting me know G.

UkrainianReefJunky · 04-25-2006, 06:57 AM

What about fiberglass resin? I heard it sticks to acrylic and silicone. Is that safe to use?

motorslave · 04-25-2006, 09:01 AM

Best bet would be to use a glass divider with silicone. Get the cone in between both pieces of glass. I like the idea, but really think the glass baffle is the best bet.

R

Geoff · 04-25-2006, 09:25 AM

sure using fiberglass is fine. a lot of plywood tanks use fiberglass as thier waterproof sealant. you would need to use fiberglass also, and not just the epoxy. not much would be needed.

sillycone seems to hold to acrylic well for a couple of months. after that any flexing on the acrylic will cause the sillycone to pull away. it is even worse on PVC.

G~

UkrainianReefJunky · 04-25-2006, 08:15 PM

Well I tore the tank apart and started over.....I got fiberglass resin and sandpapered the edges of the acrylic. Putting 2 coats of fiberglass resin and than once cured I will silicone it to the glass tank. I was told this will work by multiple people. I will test the tank as a auto fill with RO water on one side and nothing on the other just to be sure. The auto top off is more important to me now than the refugium.

Back to my display tank, I called Marineland about my overflow and they said my return pump is to weak. They said the Mag Drive 9.5 is the one I want for my setup. There goes more money!!

So I got more pounds of LR yesterday and put that in the tank. It was a really cool piece, I had to get it. I'll post pics later.

UkrainianReefJunky · 04-25-2006, 08:30 PM

I tested my water twice now....First test:
pH- 8.2
Ammonia- .25ppm
Nitrate- 0ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm

Tested today:
pH- 8.2
Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitrate- 5-10ppm (hard to tell colors are so similar)
Nitrite- 0ppm

Doesn't this mean my tank is cycled?!?!?! That bacteria stuff worked pretty good. And I also had added 3 red legged crabs, 3 blue legged crabs, a 4 stripped Damsel, and a Yellow-Tail Damsel (even though I heard they can be mean). Everyone seems to be doing good. They were added on the 22nd. Is there anything I should watch for?

Other items added-----
Iodine
Calcium
Strontium & Molybdenum
Sea Gel in a velcro micron media bag

Anything else I should be adding?

skeety · 04-26-2006, 08:19 AM

Very nice tank set up so far!

As for cycling...it may, or may not be. My advice? You've waited this long...wait it out a little longer. Give it a couple more weeks.

I've learned that the longer you wait to add fish...the better your success with this tank will be.

JMO.

But very nice set up, indeed!!!

motorslave · 04-26-2006, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skeety

Very nice tank set up so far!

As for cycling...it may, or may not be. My advice? You've waited this long...wait it out a little longer. Give it a couple more weeks.

I've learned that the longer you wait to add fish...the better your success with this tank will be.

JMO.

But very nice set up, indeed!!!

right on the money. This is the hardest part. Just sit on your hands and dont touch it!!! I would also be frugal with the addatives at this point. Let the tank do its thing. It will do all that is needed. Adding too many things can get it out of whack. The water has all the lements in it and you dont have anything to use them up at this point. No sense in adding anything that isnt being absorbed in copius amounts. Also dont add anything you cant test for!

R

Geoff · 04-26-2006, 08:49 AM

how long has there been water in the tank?

the tank is not even close to cycling if it has not had water in the tank for at least 2 weeks. all of the bacterial crap is just faking you out. unless the ammonia is there in the first place all of the added bacteria will do nothing but die and create more detritus for you.

if you really wanted to cycle the tank quickly, you should have just dumped a couple of ounces of pure ammoniain in the tank and let it do its thing for the next month with nothing in it.

trust me you are going to hate having those damsels in there.

stop adding anything to the system. there is not reason at all to add anything to your system unless you have money to burn and do not mind doing extra water changes to correct your water levels due to all of the suppliments you are adding.

do you have strontium/iodine/molybdenum test kits? do you know what these levels are suppose to be? why are these even needed in the aquarium?

lets see, so far i am on my 3rd week of cycling. so far i have used 1lb of LR and 2 ounces of ammonia. i now have a few snaild, but this is only because a friend of mine is moving and he needed to get rid of some of them. other than that i would not have anything in there at all.

i generally takes 2-3 months for a tank to cycle. that is not considering all of the algae blooms that will occur over the next year that may make the tank look really bad.

just take your time the longer you wait the better the tank will be in the long run.

G~