New tank, early stages, filling RO/DI water

[Ratfish]

So I got some of the bugs out of my system, resolved some issues so I can continue on with the set up of my 90gal aquarium.

I set up my new RO/DI, pre-ran it, and now its running great at about 65psi, 6gal in about an hour.

The hard part is still filling the tank and wondering how to set up live rock, if any. I have put together some dry rock arrangements, easy enough, but how should I put live rock in? Can I put live rock in without the tank cycling? or should I wait? Also what are some good ways to assemble and glue live rock together if its still wet. I am familiar with the acrylic rod technique, but are there other ways with safe glues or silicones?

With all my containers I still only have 32gal to store. It will take about 4 fills of all my containers to get the tank filled. So I am wondering if I should get all the water in there before any live rock? I plan on having sand in there too. It's 'live sand' so I wonder how long it can go without current and heat?
It will still be a few days to get all the water in the tank plus about 30 gal in the sump. wow this is a process.

That's where I am at right now.

 

[Krish]

So I got some of the bugs out of my system, resolved some issues so I can continue on with the set up of my 90gal aquarium.

I set up my new RO/DI, pre-ran it, and now its running great at about 65psi, 6gal in about an hour.

The hard part is still filling the tank and wondering how to set up live rock, if any. I have put together some dry rock arrangements, easy enough, but how should I put live rock in? Can I put live rock in without the tank cycling? or should I wait? Also what are some good ways to assemble and glue live rock together if its still wet. I am familiar with the acrylic rod technique, but are there other ways with safe glues or silicones?

With all my containers I still only have 32gal to store. It will take about 4 fills of all my containers to get the tank filled. So I am wondering if I should get all the water in there before any live rock? I plan on having sand in there too. It's 'live sand' so I wonder how long it can go without current and heat?
It will still be a few days to get all the water in the tank plus about 30 gal in the sump. wow this is a process.

That's where I am at right now.

One thing you don't want to do is fill the tank and then put in the rock afterwards. Just think of what happens when you have a glass full of water and you dump some ice cubes in. . I'd wIt though until you have enough water to setup the tank and then throw everything in together and let it cycle (if you plan on cycling the rock in the tank). I've never used any technique other than stacking and balancing my rocks on any of my tanks and never had am issue with rocks tumbling and I ran high flow bare bottom tanks (one at over 100x turnover rate and the rocks stood firm. If you keep the rocks moist then you can mess with assembling them in the tank without water. In essence, liverock is shipped just wrapped in wet newspaper etc and not submerged so this is how I do my rockwork. Empty tank, get the moist rocks, assemble them and once happy, fill it up.

Other than acrylic rods, I know some people use zip ties to secure rocks together.
Just a few thoughts. Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ratfish]

Yeah, don't really need a Eureka moment with my rocks... I only need another 30lbs of rock to make about 90lbs.

Thanks for info... I wiped out a rubbermade container, no soap of course, but it only holds twelve gal, safely. Measured salinity in 12gal tub at 1.022 so it looks like I am mixing correctly. I will dig up a few other containers, clean them to store water so I will have the right amount.

Maybe by the end of the week I will be cycling! That's the general plan, so process when someone is busy with a lot of other things in life, but its getting there.

 

[seattlereef]

If your just getting the tank setup I would run some plain tap water through the system to clean out any PVC filing, misc resedue and as a leak test. Then drain the whole thing and fill with your RO + Salt water. I went 100% base rock so I put the sand and rock in first then added RO then added salt until I reached my params. Also took about a day or two to get it up to temp.

 

[Ratfish]

Got two leaks. Disassembled and left to dry. I will fix tonight. The leaks were at my threaded joints going into the ball valve that controls my return pump, no leaks from my slip joints. One bulk head fitting leaked but easy fix.

Other than that the system looks very operational. I filled water into my sump baffle with return pump, return pump filled overflow in tank and my inlet to sump, sucked water once it got to level and maintained water level. Pretty proud since it is all scratch built. If anything I will need to control my inlet to sump with ball valve. I would rather have my return pump wide open with no back pressure from ball valves and control from inlet to sump valve.

I think I have enough posts on this forum to post pictures so I may have some soon.

Question on the leaks: I believe I used too little teflon tape. How many wraps and in what direction? How much torque should I apply for firm fit?
Note: there are no o-rings involved with leak. These are at simple 3/4" threaded pvc connectors going into a threaded ball valve.

 

[Webos]

2 wraps and counter clockwise.

 

[TheKraken]

Question on the leaks: I believe I used too little teflon tape. How many wraps and in what direction? How much torque should I apply for firm fit?
Note: there are no o-rings involved with leak. These are at simple 3/4" threaded pvc connectors going into a threaded ball valve.

I have a Teflon "plumber's putty" I like to use on threads. Potable water safe and no leaks.

 

[Fracks]

I seem to recall when I set up my tank long ago, that I just dumped RO water to fill to 2/3 and threw the salt in until it was the right salinity. I let it sit with a pump and heater for a while before putting things in. Then again, I switched from a sand bottom to a bare bottom tank at that time.

 

[jrgilles]

One thing I wish I did before setting up my tank....

At TAP plastic, you can buy 4' acrylic rods very cheap. I wish I drilled some holes through my rock and inserted some rods to hold it together.

I have since bought the rods, but way bigger PITA to take corals off the rocks, etc. so I can take them out to drill holes in them to insert the rods.

just a thought