Placing live rock...

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AW2EOD

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I'm going to start setting up my new 150gal. tank in the next few days. It is the tall version of the 150gal. and the dimensions are 4ft. long, 2 1/2ft. front to back, and 3 ft. tall.

Since the tank is so tall, I dont want to just have live rock placed at the bottom of the tank, and then have a huge open area to the top of the tank.

Does anyone know of anyway to attach live rock...well...any kind of rock, actually (lava, etc...that can become live) to the side of the tank or maybe building a shelving unit inside the tank?

Help me come up with some ideas, guys.:D
 
We used a masonry drill bit to put holes in our rocks and used 3-4 in. pieces of thin PVC tubes to hold them together. I know you can also use some sort of aquarium safe glue to hold pieces together, also, I think it's silicone, but I'm not certain.
 
Silicone glue needs to be dry to set but since you are using dry lava rock I bet it would work well since they use it to put aquariums together. Also there is underwater epoxy that claims to be good for holding rock together. I have no experience with either so you should probably get someone else's advice. Nice deal you got on the tank!
 
There are lots of ways to do it.
-Drill the rocks and use cable ties to hold them together.
-Build a frame out of PVC or acrylic and attach the rock to it (especially nice for arches).
-Glue acrylic shelves to the walls with silicone.

Sprung and Delbeek's Coral Reef Aquarium vol 1 goes into a lot of detail about this. It would be worth borrowing if you can.

Remember to have a friend hold your feet when you're arranging stuff on the bottom :D
 
Originally posted by mogurnda
Remember to have a friend hold your feet when you're arranging stuff on the bottom :D
Click to expand...

That ain't no joke. I have a 150g FW tank with those same dimensions. I've had it for about 3 yrs and complain everytime I have to do something in the bottom of the tank. At the same time though I love this tank. I guess it is a love - hate relationship. :D
 
Yeah...once I get everything placed in the bottom, all of the inhabitants better be happy because it's not going to get moved again. lol

The tank is still empty...sitting on the stand, and I already have to get one of my bar stools to stand on to reach the bottom of the tank.

I've been sitting and thinking about this all day...and the answer is probably right in front of my face. What's the easiest way I can get everything, water included, transfered to the 150 from the 55? As far as I can see...this is my problem...

I can get the water, rock, sand, etc into the 150. But, what then? I'll obviously have to put the shark and tang into containers during this process. But, I'm still going to have to fill the tank with another 100gal. of water. The only thing that I can think of is to get a couple of 30gal. trashcans, put the water from the 55 into them and once it's empty, transfer the sand to the 150 (I want the sand in the bottom before I fill the 150). But, once I get the water into the 55, what can I use to mix the rest of the 100 gal. with salt?? I've been racking my brain about this all day.

Will it hurt the fish if I put 100gal. of newly mixed saltwater into the 150 with the water from the 55?

HELP!!!
 
If you don't have your heart set on live rock I believe they make a very realistic fiberglass reef casting that would fit your tank. I had one in a 55gal long ago.... I prefer live rock these days, but it is an alternative if you're interested. Good luck!
 
Ben,

Honestly, from looking at the Agrocrete website, I'd rather spend more money and buy live rock. That stuff looks hard, and really time consuming. My day job as a private security guard and night job as a rock climbing instructor doesnt leave much time for trying to mix up that stuff. But then again...it may be that I'm just too lazy to try it. lol

I think what I'll do is put in the 55+ lbs. of live rock from my 55gal into the 150. Add 30lbs of so of lava rock and then an additional 10lbs of live rock per month till I get as much as I want.

Does anyone still have some ideas about how to transfer everything and also add the 100gal. of extra water?
 
With what we spend on live rock buying a few extra garbage cans for water mixing and livestock holding seems a good idea. For temporary storage they needn't even be food safe- a 30 gallon costs like $5, so get several.
Will it hurt the fish if I put 100gal. of newly mixed saltwater into the 150 with the water from the 55?
Click to expand...
"Newly" mixed water isn't a good idea IMO- it needs to have mixed for at least 24 hours. Garbage cans.

When you put the fish (and their "old" water) in a garbage can on moving day leave enough room in each one so that you can slowly add some new (premixed!) water to acclimate. It will take you some time to move sand/rock etc so every half hour just add more new water to each can.
This way when they do go into the new tank they will have already been acclimated to the water.
 
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