210g Build Thread....

clown-lover said:
Looking Excellent... Loving the tank..

As far as the Live Sand goes get what you can afford.. Where I am from its like $3.00 a lb for Aragonite Sand.. I splurged and did like 80 lbs of the stuff for my 70 gal and then the rest is just regular aragonite. My cycle even with LR took almost 3 1/2 weeks, but then I had to re-cure the LR first to kill off all of the hair algae that was on it..

Then after my cycle had ended I did a large water change.. Added some chopped up shrimp just to see what would happen (to make sure I didn't get a mini cycle) and then went with cleaners..

Again Looking Great so Far.. Good Luck with the Cycle.
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I think when I priced the live sand it was around $1.50 to $2.00/lb....so maybe I'll add more than the original plan of 40lbs.
I assume when you say cleaners, you mean critters to eat the unwanted stuff in my tank?
Out of curiosity, why throw in the chopped up shrimp? Was it to let it decompose and see if the bacteria were doing their job?
Thanks again...I'll post pics when it has water in it.
Robbie
 
Yes it was to see if the bacteria were doing there job.. I have crashed a tank b/4 and want to make sure I am doing this one right.. But thats when I wasn't doing the research that I am now... etc.. etc.. etc..

Just remember to check your readings every once in a while.. While my tank was cycling I checked once a week, maybe twice after I knew it should be getting close. Once it was done I checked before I went shopping, the morning after I added anything and daily after that until I was positive that I wasn't over tasking my bio-load. But I'm just paranoid now because I lost a lot of creatures and was very upset by it. I can kind of get on a crusade at times just because I have been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and am now hopefully burning the darn thing..

If you can get LS that cheap and can afford it, with the size of your tank you could probably get away with a DSB.. I don't know if that is something you have researched or are even interested. There is a good article on this site about DSB and the pro/cons of that implementation.
 
It works!

So it took me close to five hours, but I think it is working. Here is a couple of shots of the tank with water in it finally. The wet/dry filter seems to have stabilized between the tape marks...I have not unhooked the pump and see if it floods. If my calculations are correct there should be a little over 7 gallons of room left in the filter and the tank should only drain about six if anything happens. We'll see. And my wife only had to make one trip to Wal-Mart to buy a one gallon pitcher for aquarium use only...I guess I prepped pretty well.
I added enough salt mix for 164g and my SG is between 1.023 and 1.024.....is this too high? I haven't done any other tests yet...I'm waiting for the temp to climb (it's at about 74F right now). I'm running the Magnum with the micron filter to clear up the water and it seems to be working quite well. Watching the little bits floating in the tank, I seem to be getting decent circulation also.
After the temp comes up to 80 or so, I am going to add my ammonia.
We also put some of our ocean/beach/fish type stuff to decorate the room it's in. We have collected lots o plastic fish over the last couple of years, so they have found a home on the wall. Cheesy, but fun!
Thanks for watching my progress and I'll keep adding to it.
Robbie

tank-fill-1.jpg tank-fill-3.jpg filter-level.jpg
 
Robbie: looks great. Your salt is fine, should be between 1.023 and 1.025. I keep mine at 1.025. Just a question...but looks like you filled it from the garden hose judging by the hose in the window - or did you have an RO/DI filter hooked up, but can't see? You really did prep well, congratulations your hard work has paid off so far!

Also, temps are food between 78-80.

David
 
Very nice!
 
Almondsaz said:
Robbie: looks great. Your salt is fine, should be between 1.023 and 1.025. I keep mine at 1.025. Just a question...but looks like you filled it from the garden hose judging by the hose in the window - or did you have an RO/DI filter hooked up, but can't see? You really did prep well, congratulations your hard work has paid off so far!

Also, temps are food between 78-80.

David
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I did use a garden hose, because our water pressure (well) is not the best and it has the best flow. Please tell me this isn't a huge deal:eek3:! All of our water is filtered the same way (filter just after the pressure tank). I also added hot water from our tap as we went to keep the temp from being in the 55-60 range.
I did have our water tested at my LFS and they said everything was fine. I am probably going to add an RO/DI unit to the huge amount of equipment I already have in the future, but I just can't afford it right now.
I just unhooked my filter pump and the level in my sump only raised about 6"....Woo-Hoo! No catastrophic floods for me! At least not from a power outage......
Thanks!
Robbie
 
Well the big question is that you are coming from a Well, which in which you could have all kinds of other dissolved solids. Did they test for anything other than the basic 4? IE Did they test for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium or any other metals? I know that here locally wells have an issue with arsenic as well.. Not saying your gonna have a problem, but the potential does exist.

Congrats on getting it going though and make sure you test your wet/dry several times.. Its a good thing that you haven't had an overflow yet, but I made a slight miscalc and overflowed mine.. :eek3:
 
Grins said:
Your brother would be proud Robbie.
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Thank you so much...that means a lot. I wish I had a pic or two of what it looked like before.
I hope I can bring it up to it's former glory.
I also have four oceany-type prints that I gave to him along time ago that are going to be hung over the tank.
Robbie
 
Robbie: you did not make a hughe mistake, just means that you might want to do some additional testing to determine what is in the water. You have your canister filter...does it have carbon in it? that will help. THis is not a big deal.

Grins has it right....your brother would be proud and this make the reef you are creating terrific! Thanks for letting us all share in this, just in case you can't tell...you have a lot of people rooting for you and your success. For the record...I always look first to see if you have posted something new each time I log on. Thanks again. David
 
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