bye bye sand bed, hello rock bed. Opinions?

[psb]

Tagging along.

 

[khaosinc]

Should be putting sand and such in in an hour or so...tank is just about full enough, and salt has been mixing since last night.

 

[khaosinc]

well we started plumbing and filling today....

filling/ adding sand went ok..

The plumbing not so well. I had everything all planned out (LOL) but no... the tape measure lied... I needed 1/4" more to tighten the bulkhead....

after some ranting, swearing, a beer and a smoke, I did the only rational solution to the problem...

the heck with the wall...

easy access...

underneath the stand...

and in to the sump...

I had the cryptic zone light on so I could see what I was doing.... feather dusters anyone...

leak test is tommorrow...........

until then have a cute ferret pic.

 

[khaosinc]

Well, plumbing is tested, bulkheads repeatedly sworn at, but everything looks to be a go. It would be alot clearer if I'd stop screwing around with the sand bed.

Running with 1 powerhead and a canister filter to pull out some of the fine grains. I'll give it a few days before I turn it on to my main system to let it cycle a bit. The sand had been through heck and back. Will be fed by a 600 gph 1262 to let the plants suck out the yuck in the water. Fairly low flow and a DSB once I get the rest out of my main tank

The eggcrate is for the mangroves, currently sitting in a styrofoam box.. lighting is 8 80w giessman freshwater planted tank bulbs. Looks like my old fixture might have a balast out though

no idea who dug that... didn't think I had a pistol or mantis..

some guys survived all the sand bed abuse.

been trying on and off 1/2 the day to Id this guy...

And lastly, my cheato section. will be sunlit, and maybe supplimented. Level will be higher when running on the main system

 

[sandydog]

What did you paint the plywood with? Is that epoxy to waterproof?

 

[khaosinc]

Its just a high gloss external house paint I had kicking around from when I painted my house. Still need to do the inside of it.

 

[khaosinc]

well its up and running on the main system...

I was feeling nice and even caught the coral banded out of the sump where the eel lives...

 

[khaosinc]

and I finally mounted all my frags and got the 'old west saloon' out of the tank...

and a couple new additions.

 

[khaosinc]

and a random FTS.... in 2 parts.. I have got to redo that return line one of these days... drives me nuts everytime I see it in a pic.

 

[SpecialTang]

I love clean white sand, I hate it when it is blown all over the tank. I hope my new closed loop design will resolve this issue.

 

[khaosinc]

I'm actually slowly getting rid of almost all of it and replacing it with rock. I'm hoping that will solve mine.

mostly I hate scratching my tank...

 

[khaosinc]

someday I'm going to figure out the trick to getting cool pics like I always see on these forums.... was trying to get a good shot of the shrimp because I hadn't really seen him in a couple years. always lived in my sumps...

 

[burning2nd]

insert thumbs up here <-----