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Jimroth's Big Ol' Tank

jimroth

jimroth

Well, it's been a nice break, especially during the recent power outages.
Finally got my ecotech return pump, that took forever. Spent a month in Florida, went diving in the keys.
The plumbing thing has finally been figured out, though it's not all glued in yet.
Temps in the garage went way below freezing. My kalk reactor got ruined just sitting there when it froze.
My old rock spent the winter getting snowed on and freezing.
I am making progress again, probably be all full of coral by MACNA!
 
jimroth

jimroth

JRWOHLER said:
Did you do any specific dives...:worthless
Click to expand...
Diving conditions were poor for the Keys, a little rough and bad viz for FL. We had to go far afield to get to calm water. We did hit the dive site called the aquarium and a couple other cool sites. They cancelled our (deeper) wreck dive and our night dive. Headed to Hawaii later this year so good diving ahaad! I have pics but I guess I would have to upload them here, my old photo hosting site wants money to share pics!
 
jimroth

jimroth

Moving along at breakneck speed (for me)!
--I finished the plumbing. I had to re-do the drains three times to get it right. Had problems with leaking bulkheads and unions.
--Plumbed in a new DC pump for my skimmer. It's controllable by a little remote or theoretically by the Neptune Apex. I think a controllable feed pump is a big plus for a skimmer. The new pump let me arrange my skimmer differently.
--Updated firmware for my Apex and my ReefLink controllers.
--I installed a custom cut piece of StarBoard into the bottom with silicone. Before I installed it, I drilled a lot of 1/4" holes which fit the 1/4" acrylic rods I purchased, in
case I want to do that kind of thing. Zero substrate this time.
--The old rock from my reef was pickled in a barrel of saltwater last summer and left to rot out. The smell was fantastic. I then soaked it. It seems pretty sterile but I hope its not toxic. Anyway, I've done a new aquascape with that and some very nice dry branch rock a club member donated. The one thing I haven't done is to fasten some of the lest stable rockwork with epoxy putty or something.
--I have a new much bigger sump. I think it's a 60G? Odd size tank. The new DC pumps mean no bulkheads. The return line now has a check valve, so the inlet is below the waterline and no draining the tank in power failures.
--Changed all the cartridges on the RO unit.

I still must hook back up all the electrics, and set up new float switches for the ATO. But I'm making saltwater.

Not happy with all the return plumbing, I may need to rearrange while it's still easy.

Still going to add some "traditional" live rock, I want the microlife it holds.

Making 250G of RO water and salting it is a fairly big task! But I'll be sort-or running again soon.
 
Trio91

Trio91

Administrator
Staff member
Moderator
jimroth said:
Moving along at breakneck speed (for me)!
--I finished the plumbing. I had to re-do the drains three times to get it right. Had problems with leaking bulkheads and unions.
--Plumbed in a new DC pump for my skimmer. It's controllable by a little remote or theoretically by the Neptune Apex. I think a controllable feed pump is a big plus for a skimmer. The new pump let me arrange my skimmer differently.
--Updated firmware for my Apex and my ReefLink controllers.
--I installed a custom cut piece of StarBoard into the bottom with silicone. Before I installed it, I drilled a lot of 1/4" holes which fit the 1/4" acrylic rods I purchased, in
case I want to do that kind of thing. Zero substrate this time.
--The old rock from my reef was pickled in a barrel of saltwater last summer and left to rot out. The smell was fantastic. I then soaked it. It seems pretty sterile but I hope its not toxic. Anyway, I've done a new aquascape with that and some very nice dry branch rock a club member donated. The one thing I haven't done is to fasten some of the lest stable rockwork with epoxy putty or something.
--I have a new much bigger sump. I think it's a 60G? Odd size tank. The new DC pumps mean no bulkheads. The return line now has a check valve, so the inlet is below the waterline and no draining the tank in power failures.
--Changed all the cartridges on the RO unit.

I still must hook back up all the electrics, and set up new float switches for the ATO. But I'm making saltwater.

Not happy with all the return plumbing, I may need to rearrange while it's still easy.

Still going to add some "traditional" live rock, I want the microlife it holds.

Making 250G of RO water and salting it is a fairly big task! But I'll be sort-or running again soon.
Click to expand...
Progress pix?
 
jimroth

jimroth

My 30G Biocube pistol shrimp tank has been pretty sad for a while too. The white fluorescent ballast blew out so there's been nothing but blue actinics for months. Plus the last aurora goby died a long time ago, making it a crustacean-only tank. My friend turned me on to the availability of a new LED version of the top which has a timer built in. I got that, and it's pretty great. Access is a lot worse, there's only a small door for feeding since the whole lid is supposed to hinge up on the new version of the cube. But the whole thing weighs a LOT less, that helps. Yesterday I picked up a little yellow watchman goby from A/O . It's amazing to me how these guys use instinct to move right in. He scoped out the burrow situation, and by this morning he picked a shrimp (The tiger, he's bigger) and had set up housekeeping. The shrimp is more active than he has been in months, moving lots of gravel around and making new tunnels. I feel like I need to find a goby for the other shrimp now, poor SOB!
 
jimroth

jimroth

9d62fcbd5c0510ec64121982b48ade05.jpg


Here’s my aquascape


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
jimroth

jimroth

Here are some more aquascape shots, top down and from the end. I got the good idea from someone to go in and drill a bunch of 1/4" holes in the rock. I used a fancy Bosch concrete bit with my hammer drill. It's way easier to do this now then when the tank is full of water! I really like the brach rock, it give a lot of possibilities.
I did some securing of the more wobbly pieces with aqua-stik type epoxy. The whole thing sits on a piece of black StarBoard I had cut. $100+ !!|
My big fear is that there's a lot of dead organic material in the rock which will turn the water into some hellish version of fish soup. I know the old rock has a lot of dead vermetid snails, they stink if you crush them. Should be interesting.
 
jimroth

jimroth

First saltwater hit the tank yesterday. Making more SW now! Trying to source some liverock. TBS would be $350 minimum with shipping. Also exploring FL Keys LR and Haitian LR. Yes, you can buy Haitian LR.
 
jimroth

jimroth

System is full of salt Water and it is circulating to the sump. I realized that with all that dead live rock in there I would have to have the skimmer going on it or there would be no way to remove the pollution. Everything is looking good now having controllable pumps for the skimmer and return gives you a lot of adjustability.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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