Finally got a tank. 60g Solana

[Trike]

Roblou,

Thanks, for the suggestions. Yeah it's for a foam rockwall. I stopped trimming it once I realized the mistake. The reason I wanted it one piece instead of cutting it out, is mainly for strength. I might be zip tying some larger base rock pieces to it and want to make sure it wont fall down.

Apollothesun,

That's a good idea, I'll have to look through all the rocks again and see if there's anything really worth saving. My initial thought when I got the rock was, "Cool, Free corals, must keep all of them!" Then on couple of the pieces I noticed some hair algae and green bubble algae. On one of the rocks, there's like 4-5 Aiptasia's, 3 zoo heads, small Acro, and some hair algae. The acro will probably bleach anyways since it's not in ideal conditions inside the tub.

I just want to minimize any potential algae outbreak. I'll be doing the first "Swish/Swoosh" and scrubbing of the rocks tomorrow.

 

[jgalvin]

holy crap i love how your tank is shapping up.

did you already see some aiptasia on the rocks that you bought? I saw my first one in my tank on some rubble rock on a frag i bought last week. i removed that rock and hope it didn't spore out.

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.

 

[roblou]

Trike: yeah, I hear you on wanting to make it strong, definitely nothing wrong with that at all. You'll be amazed at how rigid it becomes once the foam is added between the rock. When I built mine, I was afraid that the eggcrate wouldn't be strong enough to support the weight of the rock I had ziptied to it, especially the ones I placed up high. But, after adding the foam my worries were put to rest.

Here's my tank thread in case it helps you at all, or give you any ideas... http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48818

Rob

 

[Trike]

holy crap i love how your tank is shapping up.

did you already see some aiptasia on the rocks that you bought? I saw my first one in my tank on some rubble rock on a frag i bought last week. i removed that rock and hope it didn't spore out.

Yeah, I see them on two rocks at the moment. one of them I listed above, and another is on a rock with a monti on it. Hopefully it isn't spreading, but I plan on getting some Aiptasia X tonight and injecting them.

 

[Trike]

Nice tank Rob! I just went through the entire thread. I'll be curious to see how you like the LED's.

I have 16 CREE XR-E white stars coming, that I'm going to experiment with.

My only complaint about this tank, is the size of the overflow. It does take up quite a bit of space. So much that I don't think i'm going to place the MP40 on the back wall. I'm probably going to just place it on the left side of the tank. I still might make a cut out on the right side back wall, just in case I decide to add a second one.

 

[roblou]

Nice tank Rob! I just went through the entire thread. I'll be curious to see how you like the LED's.

I have 16 CREE XR-E white stars coming, that I'm going to experiment with.

My only complaint about this tank, is the size of the overflow. It does take up quite a bit of space. So much that I don't think i'm going to place the MP40 on the back wall. I'm probably going to just place it on the left side of the tank. I still might make a cut out on the right side back wall, just in case I decide to add a second one.

Yep, that's exactly what I did, too. I made a 2nd cut out in the rock wall just in case I add a 2nd one (probably will somewhere down the line). At first, I was going to try and make a rockwall "cover" for the hole, but in the end I just placed some rocks in front of the hole to cover it up and now you can hardly tell there's a hole at all.

The actinic LEDs I ordered should be delivered next Tuesday. I'm excited to receive them and I'll certainly post some details about them when I can.

 

[jgalvin]

good luck with the aiptasia.

just a potential idea for you, i have the 34G solana and heard of people having the wood stand warp over a year with the occasionally water spills/drips. Knowing that I put a slab of granite between the tank and the stand to prevent any water from hitting the stand and it looks really nice too. I think i paid $40 for it from "tiles for less" in kirkland. keep up updated on progress!

Yeah, I see them on two rocks at the moment. one of them I listed above, and another is on a rock with a monti on it. Hopefully it isn't spreading, but I plan on getting some Aiptasia X tonight and injecting them.

 

[Trike]

Things are moving along, I got the first baffle glued in. I'm still undecided on having a short or tall section for the last baffle. I like the idea of a short baffle with some eggcrate, so the return pump has more water. A taller baffle would require constant checking to make sure it's topped off and doesn't go below the last baffle. But it will help in collecting detritus though.

I got some Joe's juice and fed it to ~8 aiptasia's that I could see. We'll see how many will come back.

I did my first water change on the Live Rock tub. I had a few buckets setup and "swished" them through to get as much of the loose stuff out. I removed as much of the bubble algae that I could find, and scrubbed the hair algae off the parts that I could find/reach.

A bunch of brittle stars came out of the rockwork into the buckets. I saved all the ones that came out. We'll see if they survive this process.

Man it's hard work. Took me about an hour and half to do 60lbs. I'm glad I did it though. I couldn't believe the amount of stuff that came out. All 3 buckets were cloudy by the time I was done. The main tub was pretty gross. Here's a pic after I drained it.

I found this guy on the side of the tub. I took him off and placed him on a rock.

 

[Trike]

Hrmm.. I'm a little worried now about the Silicone I used to seal the baffle in. I used GE silicone I, as it seemed like it was perfectly safe to use it. After looking at RC, one person mentions that it's not safe and contains petroleum distillates. One person mentioned that he made a call to GE and they said GE I and GE II are the same products.

I may remove it and get something that specifically states safe for aquarium.
I got this at Lowes. Has anybody had any problems using this?

 

[jrgilles]

From what I recall reading, it seemed the stuff from lowes was all fine as long as it didn't contain any algicides/fungicides. Thats just what I recall from the forums. I used some silicone in my sump, which was either the GE I or II from Lowe's, and I haven't seen any adverse effects. SPS, LPS, pods, fish, etc. all seem fine and happy. I'd get some more opinions than just mine on that though, as I'd hate to be responsible for killing off your tank

rob

 

[Trike]

Yeah, on Lowes site, it says the GE1 has mildew resistant, not sure what that means or if it has the mold inhibitors too.

I'm worried that they may have had a formulation change recently that might cause issues.

 

[jrgilles]

if it says mildew resistant, don't use it. means it contains some sort of growth inhibitors

 

[Trike]

I'll have to double check the label on the tube when I get home. I got that info off of Lowes site.

Lowes GE Silicone 1

Under Specs, it says "Mildew Resistent = Yes"

 

[Trike]

I picked up a tube of RTV108 from Grainger last night. When I got home, I read the label on the GE Silicone I tube. It said "Silicone I Window & Doors is compliant for incidental food contact under FDA 21 CFR177.2600 "Rubber articles intended for repeated use.""
It still does mention that it's not to be used below the water line or aquariums.

I freaked out for no reason. Since I had already gotten the RTV108, I took the glued in panel out and re-glued it with RTV108. If anything, I have the peace of mind knowing it's done right. The RTV108 feels like a stronger adhesive as well. I woke up this morning to glue in the other side and when I tugged the baffle a little, there was hardly any "give" to it. With the GE I, I could feel some "give" in the baffle.

 

[apollothesun]

Things are moving along, I got the first baffle glued in. I'm still undecided on having a short or tall section for the last baffle. I like the idea of a short baffle with some eggcrate, so the return pump has more water. A taller baffle would require constant checking to make sure it's topped off and doesn't go below the last baffle. But it will help in collecting detritus though.

I got some Joe's juice and fed it to ~8 aiptasia's that I could see. We'll see how many will come back.

I did my first water change on the Live Rock tub. I had a few buckets setup and "swished" them through to get as much of the loose stuff out. I removed as much of the bubble algae that I could find, and scrubbed the hair algae off the parts that I could find/reach.

A bunch of brittle stars came out of the rockwork into the buckets. I saved all the ones that came out. We'll see if they survive this process.

Man it's hard work. Took me about an hour and half to do 60lbs. I'm glad I did it though. I couldn't believe the amount of stuff that came out. All 3 buckets were cloudy by the time I was done. The main tub was pretty gross. Here's a pic after I drained it.

I found this guy on the side of the tub. I took him off and placed him on a rock.

All the hard work will pay you at the end.
Great pic of the sludge in your tub

 

[Trike]

Thanks Apollothesun, hoping it will pay off.

I got the sump baffled. I'm a little concerned about the noise from the return pump and skimmer. I'll have to judge it once I get the sump into the stand. I fed the return pump into the skimmer chamber to see what the flow would look like. I see a lot of micro bubbles, but i'm also feeding it around 900GPH, hopefully once I plumb everything in, it wont be as bad. The chaeto should help a little too.

Here's some pics of the sump.

 

[blk822822]

Looking great. The micro bubbles may just be from the skimmer, some skimmers do that till they break in.

 

[lvsuckerfish]

what I did on my sump until my skimmer broke in is put the filter sponge blocks in between the first baffles just until the skimmer was broke in take out every couple days and squise them in the skimmer section and replace helped defuse the bubbles for the first couple weeks. then ran like a champ after that.

 

[Trike]

Thanks guys, I'll just let it break in a bit and see how it goes. I currently have it running in a 5 gal bucket mixed with some vinegar.

I'm going to start working on the rock wall this week. Once that's done, everything should be ready to go.

 

[Trike]

I'm still deciding on what to do about kalkwasser and ATO. I want to keep it simple and reliable.

I was thinking of getting a dual switch float from autotopoff.com and hooking it up to a aqualifter pump. I'll have a 5g bucket in the stand with a kalk/RO mix.