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tallguy64

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Mar 19, 2008
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Hey all so after all me researching and what not, i am actualy gona start pieceing together my tank, So i picked up a very nice 47gallon acrylic tank, a few minor scratches that i can buff out. So i want to do a live sand/jaubert as my primary filter since i going for a more open look. So i need to find some egg crate anyone know of a good place to get some?
 
I think home depot has it back where they keep the ceiling tiles for dropped ceilings
 
right on ye i went in there (home depot) and they are like What?! Egg crate.. im like ye... got feed up after the guy told me that i would find it in a fabric stor e or some thing like that and just walked off.... about 5 min later i found it. Ran into the same guy again and was like OHHH that egg crate... i laughed and walked away. I <3 Stupid People.
 
So do you plan on putting any live rock in the tank?? Also, what type of setup are you going for?? Fish only? Corals??? :)
 
Yup, going to put some live rock in there... a little cave setup on the right side with a wall on the left side of the tank, kind of like the edge of a reef, have a nice little sketch if my scanner wasn’t a piece of junk I would scan it in =)

As for life in the tank... going to build up slow. But so far im thinking a few leather coral, maybe a hard if my light setup (which I have yet to build) will support. A anemone to go with the clown fish of coarse =) ummm... a goby or two, the main fish I want to have in my tank is either a Lion fish (dwarf zebra) or a puffer fish, leaning toward the lion fish just have to find a really small guy so that the other fish will have a chance to grow before he tries to eat them =P Also have heard puffers can be pains in the but not only eating other fish but they are messy eaters.

Um also a crab or two... and a shrimp... Have a whole list some where around this place just cant seem to find it... have species and everything, my one day off im not doing anything in the way of cleaning =P

PS I can’t remeber what post I read it on this site but no... Im not going to be feeding the lion fish out of my hand....
 
can detritus get trapped in the egg crate causing a nutrient spike?

Not unless it can make its way though about 3 1/2 to 4 inches of sand. The principle of a jaburt system is to have three layers. From the bottom up, first being 1 inch of open dead water, two inches of anaerobic sand followed by 2 inches of aerobic sand.

What this does is turns protein in to nitrate, then to nitrite, and finally to free nitrogen gas. Read many posts on this and you can run it with as little as three inches of sand. so basically I have the egg crate with a layer of a dense filter followed by 1.5 of silica sand (used because of its unlikely hood to create a stone slab, follow by a layer of screen material, finally a 1.5 layer of live sand and crushed coral. the second screen is just ment to prevent any kind of filter fish from getting into the anaerobic sand that needs to remain low in oxygen in order to turn nitrate into nitrite.

And with the use of live rock this system is supposed to rock. Basically in short it is a very large biological filter that is self sufficient. I am also still using a protein skimmer to remove as much as possible before it has to be broke down, but live sand in this type of setup is be shown to handle decomp of dead fish with out any negative effects on the tank. So I figure why not. Only draw back is the tank will weight about 120 lbs with only sand in there lmao
 
Hello;

Well, newer or recent tests with the deep sand bed systems with plenum indicate the open area under the plenum can cause a build up of deadly hydrogen sulfide gas and also in areas where there is not sufficient critters to keep the area from stagnating.

I use a deep sand bed on one side of my tank just without a plenum. And I started it with live sand --- it is full of worms.

These findings are mostly on systems that are years old with these problems.

I do notice gas bubbles in the substrate next to the glass --- HS or NO2 ?

If it starts burping, I'll start to worry!

Enjoy!
 
Actualy, from what i under stand on, this is that the plenum is actualy supposed to help prevent the bubles simply because that the area that is anoxic or really close to it, is in a thinner area then that of a deep sand bed.

One of the big keys is to use several creatures to disrupt the upper layer of the sand bed.
 
Actualy, from what i under stand on, this is that the plenum is actualy supposed to help prevent the bubles simply because that the area that is anoxic or really close to it, is in a thinner area then that of a deep sand bed.

One of the big keys is to use several creatures to disrupt the upper layer of the sand bed.

Not really it does have issues just like any other deep sand bed. The Jaubert system does work but is short term in small aquariums. Dr. Jaubert did have good success for a number of years in the Monaco aquarium but the plenum was removed due to typical sand bed issues.

Don
 
As for life in the tank... going to build up slow. But so far im thinking a few leather coral, maybe a hard if my light setup (which I have yet to build) will support. A anemone to go with the clown fish of coarse =) ummm... a goby or two, the main fish I want to have in my tank is either a Lion fish (dwarf zebra) or a puffer fish, leaning toward the lion fish just have to find a really small guy so that the other fish will have a chance to grow before he tries to eat them =P Also have heard puffers can be pains in the but not only eating other fish but they are messy eaters.

Puffers and Lion Fish are not reef safe so that would kick the whole coral idea out the window. You also said maybe a hard coral if your light will support it....I would add the anenome to that list as well. They require alot of light. Incase nobody else mentions it you may want to rethink that list.
 
Lion Fish are not reef safe

K first of all, Puffers are out of the picture for me =) cute yes, my tank no.

Im just wondering why you are saying lion fish are not reef safe? Becuase they have the ability to eat their tank mates? I do know they have a tendencey to perch if you will, and causeing stress on corals that they perch on. But i am jsut curious to your reasoning of this chadmace?

I do believe that i will have more then enough light for a anonome with 4 96watt PC bulbs above my 45 gallon tank, though porbably not enough for hard coral thats the reason i drew the line between the two =)
 

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