A Saga: Nikki's 120 gallon

[Dr B]

Nikki,
Sounds good.

Yea my house didnt smell when I had my rock curing inside. It did the initial night, but that was it.

So do you plan to do a nice big waterchange to get rid of any organics that might be floating around prior to adding livestock? And if you do, how long after the waterchange do you plan to wait b4 livestock?

I dunno if your that much of a science dork =D I ended up checking my water params about 3 times a day and did lots of water changes to keep my ammonia/nitrates under control. I wanted to save as much life as possible. I dont think my ammonia ever hit 7.5 =D. What a waste of water eh? heeh.

 

[Scooterman]

This answered many questions, tie wraps & epoxy, on the tie wraps, did you use the ones made of all plastic or the commercial ones with steel inside?

 

[NaH2O]

Yes I do plan on doing a big waterchange right at the end. I considered trying to preserve any life, but after the first night and the cess pool the rock was in - if anything survived that....it will make it through this cycle. The first night I had the rock in about 60 gallons of water in a tank in the basement....no skimmer and only 2 powerheads for 170 pounds of rock. Needless to say, it was gross. The skimmer worked like crazy after it was in the main tank.

how long after the waterchange do you plan to wait b4 livestock?

LOL - when money allows! Hopefully soon after - I think once the cycle is over, I'll be all set for introduction of a janitorial crew. Then, I'll see how the tank is doing and go from there.


Scott - I used the plastic ones. I had 2 sizes - really really long ones, and small ones. All in the color black. They really worked well. It took some creativity in some instances

Here is a shot of what my skimmer did overnight the first night it was run. This is about 10 hours of work.

 

[Scooterman]

Hey, save that, looks like it would make some Yummy Soup! LOL

 

[strat]

hey nikki, just an idea... i plan on using this method for my aquascaping. get a dremel or drill and make 2 inch deep holes in the rock. then buy (home depot) the acrylic rods used on mini blinds to tilt the blades and cut them into 4 inch lengths. insert into hole on bottom rock and then slide top rock onto the rod... hope that makes sense but it sounds like a great method to me, especially with the vulnerable BB (rockslides) take care, and btw its lookin great

strat

 

[MtnDewMan]

Excellent Nikki ... your tank is awesome. I am glad you are having fun with it.

 

[NaH2O]

Thanks again everyone! Strat - I considered using acrylic dowels, and we had the drill ready to use....but thought the way we had everything secured it would be fine. I'm not excited about draining the tank in order to make new holes in the rocks, but I guess I will have to if I can't get these pieces tied down. Hmmm....maybe a bad batch of epoxy to go along with the bad batch of glue.

 

[Curtswearing]

Wow!!! That's skimmate if I ever saw it. Looks like a great skimmer.

I'm bummed about the epoxy.

 

[Scooterman]

Seems like your having some bad luck with glues these days, I think the ties will work fine, sorry you have to re-drain it again though.

 

[Gina]

Wow Nikki! The long wait is finally coming to an end! I am so excited for you!! Sorry the epoxy didn't work. We used plumbers epoxy from Home Depot to secure some of our corals and it work like a gem! Really hard to pry the corals off once they were on. I know it will be a PITA to redrain your tank if you have to drill holes in the rock but, in the long run you will be happy that you did it knowing your rock is secure!

Everything looks great! Maybe, if you took a side shot of the tank we could get a better idea of the ledges that Curt talked about?

Anyway, looking forward to seeing you progress with things! Have fun!!

 

[NaH2O]

Eeeek! I'm not going to drain the tank unless it is absolutely necessary. I was able to secure the pieces with some creative use of zip ties. I think it will be fine (as long as the coralline covers them...grrrr).

Gina, I'll post a picture from the side as the water clears. The pictures haven't been coming out very well. Once the lights are on + clear water the photo will come out a lot better.

 

[clownnrnd]

Hi Nikki,
i was planning to build a stand similar to yours and was wondering what the dimensions of the tubing was? Would you change anything if you were to do it again? Thank you for your time.
See Ya

 

[NaH2O]

The stand's frame is constructed of A500 Structural Steel - dimension of steel: 3" X 1.5" X 11 Ga (120 wall). The reasons we chose A500 was because we wanted something easy to weld, it was cheaper than square tubing, and it was cheaper than 60 wall. The dimensions of the frame itself: 48" long X 24" deep X 36" high

The engineering calculations of the stand show it can handle the stress of 2892 pounds per square inch....with a Factor of Safety = 24. When the weight was considered for figuring the stress, all of the rock, water, sand (yes I had considered a DSB - even have all the Southdown to prove it), inhabitants, canopy, everything was taken into consideration - it is safe to say this is pretty darn accurate. This frame is extremely level, and probably slight overkill...lol Also, the frame was constructed with a glass tank in mind (extra weight).

The frame was then painted with Marine Topside. Tabs were also welded on for the finished wood to attach.

The things we would do differently - hmmm....I believe it was mentioned that it would have been nice to be 26 inches deep for more play room. I haven't noticed a need....yet. The other thing is we had the tabs welded every 10 inches or so (for wood to attach), and it wasn't necessary. We weren't sure how the doors were going to come together, so placed a tab right in the middle of the front. This was in case we needed to have another piece of wood put there. Well, the tab was unnecessary, and I've whacked my head on that thing more times than I care to.....so it will be cut off very soon. I love this frame, and I am so comfortable with it. We had some tornados last night, and before we went to the basement - we laughed at the stand being the perfect place to sit under. We also thought while in the basement to stay under where the tank is....the floor has been reinforced, the strong steel frame - it would probably hold up the house. LOL.

 

[Scooterman]

Yep, when you think most people who build a wood stand, just make it as strong as they can LOL!
Being that I work at a place that fabricates huge compressors, production vessels, I bet I could scrape up a few pieces to make me a frame, I'll have to check into it when I decide what size tank I'll be making, looking at yours helps.

 

[CarlaW]

I was about this far from getting a metal stand built when my rentor came up with this thing. I thnk the next attempt will be metal tho, just for the fact that there seemes to be a ton more room underneath, from nikkis pics

 

[Scooterman]

LOL, that may have the same structural capacity as Nikki's it is huge!

 

[NaH2O]

WOW, Charlie!!

I believe it was Mike that suggested on my next tank - I can just weld another frame like what I have....and then weld the 2 together. LOL - already planning for that. The good news is I have the room!

 

[CarlaW]

Nikki,
If you took a look underneath my tank, and then took a look under yours, the room that you have beats mine all to ......
Looking back, I probably should have gone higher than 30", but I',m not that tall, and it seemed good at the time!!?? I'm definitly impress with the way yours turned out
Are the tywraps holding up? How far underneath the water did you have to dive to get things together?

 

[NaH2O]

Are the tywraps holding up? How far underneath the water did you have to dive to get things together?

I did go back yesterday and secure some more pieces. There is one left I want to secure, and I'll get to it today when I blast off the rocks again. I did a little creative work with the zip ties and added another piece of rock to the mix. This was so I could zip tie 3 pieces together ---> attachment points start and finish are on one huge rock. I'll look forward to the ties getting covered in coralline....you can't see them that much, but I know where they are and it bugs me....grrrr.

How far underneath? Well, I was drenched. Reaching across to the outputs on the bottom was pretty much a swim. I did manage to reach the bottom in front without too much trouble.

 

[SueT]

Hey Nikki, great start to a wonderful new reef. I love my 120g tank and since I've been back to working in it I see how much I missed having it as FO.

Great pics...Hope ya made it without much trouble weather wise.