Joe's Wet Dream, A 550 Gallon Work In Progress

[JPG@CFI]

Joe,

CFI would like to thank you for being a gracious host. The caviar and fine champagne were definitely appreciated. Thank you so much. You would not believe how much it helps an install team drive to the finish line. We will be looking forward to the next time we are there.

Jason Gregory
CFI

 

[Jobiwan]

Thank you Jason, Meeting you has been one of my great pleasures, I hope to see you and LaDonna often in the future. I'm even looking forward to seeing Eric Dustin ( of VERALTE AQUATICS) down the road, but I guess there is no accounting for taste....

 

[mmkeeper]

Joe I would recommend that you get some enzyme bacteria that you can flush down your toilet a couple of days after a water change. It will replace anything that you killed in the septic. Just a little recharge. Cheap insurance.

 

[Jobiwan]

I appreciate the suggestion, but I have to say that I put Septic additives up on the same pedestal with all my Marc Weiss products, and you know what they say about cheap insurance "You get what you pay for". All kidding aside, please check this out with your neighborhood microbiologist that the salt will be no problem, if you don't believe him/her I will refer you to the Jan 2006 Issue of Septic Tank Illustrated's feature article, "The Chlorine Bleach Your Family Uses For Its Laundry Is a Hell of a Lot Deadlier Than a Trifling 100 gallons of Salt Water to Your Septic Fauna". When my septic backs up I will wish I had listened to you, but if there were no danger would we really be alive???

 

[krisfal]

Now now now, if I put out everything last night would you still respect me today??? Of course not, but I shall try to get a few pictures of the tank with water posted later today, it never occurred to me that anyone would be interested in rocks and water when they could be looking at miles of PVC.

Sure I will respect you and while looking at the plumbing is good Let's get to the payoff . . . a tank full of water:lol:

 

[Jobiwan]

I can no longer live with the guilt, or with the constant accusations that am a "tease", I have been hoarding that most special moment, the moment that we suddenly become aware that this experience we call life has been worth all the trials and tribulations, I'm speaking of course of that incredible moment when one throws down his/her video camera and rushes out of the delivery room (I used his/her to be politically correct, after all we could have been talking about Dick Cheney's daughter), just to go see that first dribble that leads to an explosion of life. That's right, we are talking about the filling of a reef tank. Without any further ado please enjoy these photos of the construction of the rockwork and the filling of my tank, I hope you like the shots of the water coming out of the CL's, cuz I got a million of 'em. Thanks to Eric Dustin of VERALTE AQUATICS and to Jason Gregory of CLEAR FABRICATIONS, what you are about to see would not exist without them.
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Now be on the alert for photos of actual water as the tank actually begins to fill.
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Not a great Pic with the water on the sides of the tank, but this shows the top level closed loop outlets, the basic flow patern in place now (they are hella adjustable). Onward!
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[Jobiwan]

And More Water....

And the flood continues.....

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This is my favorite shot, It really shows off the talent of Eric Dustin (of VERALTE AQUATICS), this is a shot looking straight on from the front, looking along the longest axis of 6 feet from front to back, or in other words looking down the longest part of the tank, note the way the front to back view has three levels/ridges, multiple tunnels everywhere, awesome texture, (from a photographer of very questionable talent...).
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Check out the water movement on the surface here, this is with only 1 of the 3 Hammerheads running 4 of the outlets on the tank bottom...
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All for now, best regards, Joe

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

Looks good. How much LR did you add? Do you plan on adding more? Have you decided what type of tank this is going to be? (ie, FOWLR, Reef only, Reef and Fish??). I like the use of the ties, (I used them on my setup too)

From the looks of the LR, I would think you would not have much cycling time (if any).

I wish I had the ability to cure my LR like you do, but I am at the point where I can begin to think to add some bigger fish. I was at a disadvantage that all my LR was in storage for 6 months and I had to start over from scratch (basically base rock). However, I am glad that I didnt sell my LR when I moved from NC as this would have been a major cost to replace.

Now you know what the next question is going to be??

Where's the corals?? LOL

 

[jedimike]

What an accomplishment! All that planning has finally paid off. Now put some fish and corals in there and sit back and enjoy.

Septic - I wouldn't be worried about salt in the septic... however, the increased load on your system may saturate your drain field, especially if you also have the waste from the RO/DI also going into the septic. That's A LOT of water. Much more than your typically family load. I know this because I had to stop putting my RO/DI waste water into my septic. The drain field couldn't handle all the extra water.

 

[brady816]

thanks for the pics and the fish list. Its going to look very nice for sure cant wait for more updates..

 

[krisfal]

Worth the wait-Looks great!

 

[Jobiwan]

Hey Kirk, I do want a bit more live rock, just a seamount somewhere that will rise up within 6 inches or so of the surface to break up the upper half of the tank a little, I can't figure out where to put it without screwing things up, so I'll rely on Eric's guidance for that. I'm gonna leave the beach at the front, I like the open space you can build into a larger tank without compromising on the amount of habitat. I started with 1000 pounds of live rock, 850 of that was tanked for 4 months, the cycling time should be minimal, but I won't rush things. I did pick up 150 pounds of uncured Tonga Branch and Fusion 2 weeks ago, it's minimally cured and still has some die off to come I should think, perhaps it will have a bit more life in it that the extensively cured stuff, but we shall see, it will be an interesting experiment to see how the 2 week tanked stuff compares to the 4 month tanked stuff in a few months. So far 500 to 600 hundred pounds of rock have been used, so I have another 400 to 500 still being tanked, at most I'll use another 200 pounds, possibly less. As far as the type of tank, this whole salt water thing looks like a lot of work, so I'm leaning towards African Cichlids, although with the size available it would make a great indoor Koi pond, but I'm still thinking about that... I've been using the ties for years, the one trick with them is to be sure you get the UV resistant ones, the cheap imports will become quite brittle after a few years of reef lighting, there's always a bit of UV that gets through...

 

[Jobiwan]

Thanks for the complements guys, hopefully my careful stewardship won't lead to a tank of death. As far as the septic I'm not too worried about the top off RO unit loading it up, as it will be operating at relatively short intervals, but I can see where the H2O change unit could cause problem, every time I fill the vat there will be 400 gallons+ of waste water in a 24 hour period, I'll rethink that, good point Jedimike, thanks for the tip...

 

[Scooterman]

Looks wet Joe

 

[veralteaquatics]

Joe, glad you like the rock. Funny though that it's only about 25 peices in there that made up the 500 or so lbs. It's nice to see the water all clear!!! I cant wait till the next time I'm over and can really enjoy how it turned out in person...Have fun and try to get some sleep...Turn those lights off and go to bed, OK?

talk to you soon
Eric

 

[Scooterman]

That's some big rocks in there Joe, congrats to the guys that helped put this all together, the planning & design shows. That is a lot of progress fast but that was to be expected when you have all of your chips in order, great job!
Guess I need to catch up & get back to you with questions

 

[Jobiwan]

Fuge's

Just got my fuge's going, the DSB side is about 55 gallons, I used 200 pounds of Seachem Meridian Oolitic Sand and mixed in a bucket of Walt Smiths Fiji Mud hoping this will provide a few more nutrients for the seagrass I will be adding in a few months when the bed matures a bit, the chaeto will go then, the chaeto did a great job of innoculating the system with pods, worms, brittle stars etc. The rubble came from the live rock I've been tanking for 4 months, primarily Marshall Island and Fiji Totoka, the volume of the rubble chamber is 20 gallons. Sorry about the ugly hose in the photo, it's just a jury rigged setup for a week or two until the MD-7 and spray bar are in place.

Following that are a couple of photos of the LR, it has had an explosion of some kind of slimy brownish-tan algae, the fact that I left the lights on 24 hours the first three days contributed to this I'm sure. I'm lighting it now with 2 250w HQI's. Nitrates still at 0, between the large volume of water and well cured rock I don't expect to see any, I threw a pinch of flake in the fuge last night, don't want the pods to starve...
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[NC2WA]

Sweet !!!

Joe,

Sounds like you are having fun. Alot more fun than I will be having in about 30 mins. (Going to dentist to get 3 crowns).

 

[Scooterman]

Sure didn't waste time getting that bloom huh? LOL
Looking good!

 

[Jobiwan]

I think I have defective rock

Have fun Kirk, with any luck the decay will be deep enough to get you a root canal for dessert:lol:

That Bloom started to show up in less than 24 hours, after sitting out in the cold for 4 months a little heat and light did it. Of course, keeping the lights on 24 hours for the first three days didn't help slow it down, I thought I could go through the algae cycles faster, but Eric convinced me of the error of my ways and I am turning off the lights at night now....I am upset that I don't have any luxurious coralline yet, it has been nearly 5 days since I filled the tank, I knew I shouldn't have bought that Chinese live rock.....