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