Finally got a tank. 60g Solana

[apollothesun]

hey Trike, if you dont have any corals yet, im sure the feather dusters will be okay for now. saltwater changes will supplement them enough. instant ocean salt has high calcium and a little alkalinity.
i would cook the rock while you get your tank equipment all together. cooking rock is in a thread here somewhere. use the search tab. maybe run a phosphate reactor along side to suck up any phosphate thats in the rock.

 

[apollothesun]

is the water from the tank entering the skimmer first?

 

[Trike]

sounds good. There are some zoas and one of the rocks has a monti encrusting on it. I also noticed a couple aiptasia, one about the size of a thumb. The feather duster that abandoned his tube, died. He started to grow some fuzz on him. I took it out of the water.

The water from the tank enters the skimmer chamber first. I decided to almost eliminate the last baffle where the return pump is. I'm going to reduce the height down to about 3.5" and use eggcrate to raise the height.

 

[Trike]

Went to lowes yesterday hoping to find some 1/4" glass sheets. no luck. I also couldn't find the "Great Stuff Pond foam" insulation can. I found the waterfall can, but man they wanted like $12 bucks for it.

I'll need to hunt a little more to find some of this stuff.

I started shaping the eggcrate and got my skimmer yesterday.

 

[mfinn]

I'd leave the last baffle in. It will help created two things. One it will help create a area where detritus will gather, where it can be vaccumed out before it goes back to the main tank, and then it will be one more spot to stop micro bubbles from your skimmer and drain pipe.
Eggcrate won't stop cheato from going into and clogging your return pump.

 

[Trike]

That's a good suggestion finn and a good point about the detritus. I'll keep the final 9.5" baffle there.

Anybody know where to get 1/4" glass panels? lowes didn't have any, they didn't even have 1/8" panels. A place I called in tacoma wanted ~$15 for a 10"x10" panel.

 

[iroll253]

I would add another bubble trap before your return. So one baffle that makes the water go down left of the closest one to the return. You can also us a screen netting on your sump baffle like in my thread to keep chateo in that chamber. Just remember if you use the netting it will raise your water line almost and inch.

 

[Trike]

I originally wanted to add another bubble trap at the return, but I decided against it because the fuge section is already pretty small at ~7" long. Adding another baffle or two will make the fuge ~6" or so.

 

[mfinn]

I would add another bubble trap before your return. So one baffle that makes the water go down left of the closest one to the return.

I was going to say that also, but I figured I'd work on one first.:lol:

 

[mfinn]

Anybody know where to get 1/4" glass panels? lowes didn't have any, they didn't even have 1/8" panels. A place I called in tacoma wanted ~$15 for a 10"x10" panel.

Try Home Depot. They use to have a area where they sold glass, and they use to cut it for you.

 

[jrgilles]

I had the same problem putting the fuge into the sump. Ended up moving it out to a separate tank to get more room in the sump. Could use a rubbermaid container and drill in an overflow or something to do it cheap. This also will let you increase the fuge size a bit.

rob

 

[Trike]

I was going to say that also, but I figured I'd work on one first.:lol:

I understand. Unfortunately, I think that's going to be a compromise of a small sump. I'd like to get as much fuge area as possible, I'll have to sacrifice adding another bubble trap. Can't be any worse than an empty tank. Wonder why current didn't baffle it.

I'll give home depot a try for the 1/4" glass

 

[Trike]

I had the same problem putting the fuge into the sump. Ended up moving it out to a separate tank to get more room in the sump. Could use a rubbermaid container and drill in an overflow or something to do it cheap. This also will let you increase the fuge size a bit.

rob

I may end up having to do that later down the road. Stand space is at a premium right now. At moment I just want to get the tank up and running.

 

[Trike]

I bit the bullet last night and ordered a MP40W ES. Bing Cashback and ebay bucks brought it down to about 380ish.

I'm hoping I can get away with one. I really want to place it on the back wall. But I'm worried that the center overflow might block too much of the flow. I really don't want to put it on the side mainly for appearance reasons and potentially more noise.

 

[jgalvin]

congrats, i've yet to read abouit someone unhappy with the MP40. I'm very certain you'll be able to find room on the back wall and the power is configurable.

I bit the bullet last night and ordered a MP40W ES. Bing Cashback and ebay bucks brought it down to about 380ish.

I'm hoping I can get away with one. I really want to place it on the back wall. But I'm worried that the center overflow might block too much of the flow. I really don't want to put it on the side mainly for appearance reasons and potentially more noise.

 

[Trike]

I think I'm going to place the MP40 on the side, to make sure I get as much flow as possible. the Center overflow box just sticks out too much and will probably cause dead spots on the otherside

 

[Trike]

Here are some pics. I got the tank in place to see what it looks like.

I mocked up some baffles just to give me an idea of how much room i'll have. Not much fuge room at all, but still better than nothing. I may have to go the external fuge route later down the road. I have a friend that works at tap plastics, I'm going to ask him to get me some 1/4" acrylic sheets to use as baffles.

Some eggcrate that I bended. This is where I realized I messed up my measurements on my template for the depth of the overflow box. I had measured everything else twice except that. I'll have to get another eggcrate and try again.

My template, I have the back panels on hinges that let me bend the sides easier.

 

[Trike]

I'm going to look for a bottle of Aiptasia X at blue sierra tonight, and try killing off the aiptasia that I see. I turned off the light that was over the tub of live rock. Hoping to starve the hair and bubble algae that's on there. Even though there are some corals on the rocks. Figure I better try and start out my first tank right and "cook" it till I have the tank fully ready.

 

[apollothesun]

you can try to chisel the rock with a hammer where the corals are and place them in the bin with light. unfortunately, sometimes when you strike a rock with a hammer, it never seems to break the way you want it too. if the coral is worth saving, this maybe an option for you.

 

[roblou]

Hi Trike: hey, that eggcrate you're bending is for a foam rockwall on the back of your tank, right? If so, it might be easier to just cut the eggcrate in separate pieces, and then use zipties to fasten them together. By the time you add the foam, it all firms up and becomes quite rigid.

Also, from my experience, you will probably want to leave about 1/4" gap on the left & right sides so that it's not too big after you add the foam/sand, etc. Looking at your pics, it looks like it's a pretty tight fit as is with just eggcrate.

And, not sure if you're already planning on this, but on the front section that covers your overflow, I would recommend cutting the eggcrate down to just below your overflow teeth, so the rockwall doesn't impede the flow of water to your overflow...

Finally, your work so far is looking real good! Should be very nice once you have it up & running.

HTH & Good luck,

Rob