jakaufman

Rik, Sorry to see the devastation but its great that you did so much for it and I'm sure you will have it back up soon. If you ever need help, I do work just down the street! Joe

Ok, so the water is in and the pumps and lights are running! The overflow is scary to start the first time but it all seems to be going fine now.. my only problem appears to be that my return pump is giving me microbubbles. I can't tell exactly how its happening but it may be because the water falls into the final sump chamber where it pumps upward... I will post some pictures this evening on it. One question I have is about my flow... I have 2x Koralia 3s running, plus the return pump and eventually my skimmer as well. The Koralias are rated at like 850gph I think, the pump is 500gph at 0'. Is this sufficient flow or should I look at throwing in a maxijet or two.. I have them sitting around

Ok, I got a new tank to replace the ones which I did not have any trust in (and sold them on craigslist for use as reptile tanks so I didn't lose too much!) I also worked to shim up the tank and get it as even as possible. Here is what it looks like now: I added the shelf rock and tried to do something fairly interesting in the aquascaping. The one thing that bothers me is that one large, beautiful piece of rock cant be as vertical as I want it because it is too wide for my small 55g!! That is why it is tilted a bit forward, but I think that it looks pretty good and that plus the shelf rock leaves many good places to put corals. Last night, the water was about 1/8" off as far as the leveling of the tank. I was planning on getting another shim or something to correct it but after sitting the night and letting the carpet sink in, it seems that it has leveled out as close to perfect as it will be. I am goign away this weekend so I don't want to start up the pumps and everything but I will fill it up a bit more and make enough water to have the system running next week!! woohoo!

Hmm, it does look crooked in that picture but I am not sure that it is as bad as it looks. If it isn't level.. what is the best way to correct it? Also, I will use something to cover the u-tube to slow algal growth. I am not going to drill this right now but definitely will have a drilled tank next upgrade.

My shelf rock came in today! Here are the pictures. 25lbs of it netted out to 4 large pieces which I will try to figure out a good way to use in my aquascape!

Hey Everyone! I have wanted to put together some kind of tank thread even though my setup is nowhere near the quality of most of these. The process has been very slow because I had to move before I could even think about setting things up. I started by buying a tank/stand and various accessories from a WAMAS member back in February and stored it in my tiny 1 bedroom apartment until moving. In early May, I moved into my townhouse in Bethesda but realized there was a ton of work to do on the place before I could set up a tank. After a month of painting, cleaning, organizing, hanging, wiring, et cetera, and with more to do, I finally began to work on the tank. I am beginning with a fairly simple setup: 55 gallon tank, external overflow, 10 gallon sump. I have not used a sump in the past and the stand only fits a 10 gallon tank so it is what I have to go with. Here's the equipment list as of right now: SLS Tek Light 4x54W T5 2x Hydor Koralia 3 Powerheads Ocean Reef +1 RO/DI 2x MaxiJet 900s (if needed) Sen Return Pump (approx 500gph) 40lbs Sand 50lbs Marco Fiji Rock 25lbs Marco Tonga Shelf Rock Reef Octopus 100f Skimmer (coming soon) Here are some pictures of the tank and stand setup: I ordered base rocks from Marco Rocks and am still waiting on half of the order, but what I have gotten are AWESOME! Check out these beautiful pieces of rock: I have shelf rock still coming but probably won't have much space left! I may put it under the sand to make a sturdy base and then some smaller shelf pieces for coral placement. Here is the first aquascaping attempt: And when the sand and water go in: So, at this point it looks like its time to watch the dust settle. If you look carefully at the top center brace you can see how it has separated. I guess its time to drain instead. The brace was pulling about 3/4"... and the tank is glass. So I went out and got a replacement tank but I don't feel comfortable with that one either (see post in general discussion) so I am probably going to go this weekend and buy a new tank. Bummer... but the rock is sweet! I'll try to keep this updated as everything gets going. I mounted my RO/DI system and should take a couple shots of that too. Feedback? Joe

Here are the pictures of the tank. It has been holding water for the past 24hrs. The bow of the glass is 3/16" and has been since I filled it up, it hasn't changed in 24hrs. I looked over the silicon and it doesn't look like its in bad condition, just a bit old. No cracking or any signs that it has been under heat. It looks about the same as my old tank's silicon job... not that well done but not leaking or cracking at all. Looking for some input on setting this up... I guess my only option here besides using the tank is to sell the 2 tanks I have on craigslist and try to buy a new tank, but at this point I was trying to not spend money and just have the rock in it cycling basically. I am saving up for a couple months before doing livestock which is why I wanted it setup but didn't want to replace the tank with a new one.

I will definitely check all the seals and I will try to a picture of the tank tonight (if my internet at home works, I will post it). There is a frame around the top of the tank but just not a center brace. I guess the question is if a tank built for holding water needs the center brace there. The glass is almost twice as thick as the other tank which had the brace which is why I thought it may just be a different brand doing things differently. I am trying to look online for some tanks and see how they are built.

that is crazy! I thought the spider and ants I had found were weird.

You may have seen my post here: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=22475 To make the story short, my center top brace split on my 55g and was probably bowing about 3/4" on a glass tank. I drained it and began to look for options. I did find a tank to replace it but it is a bit different than what I had an I am unsure about it. It has much thicker glass and no center brace. The girl said she had it filled with water for about a month with no problems and was going to use it for fish but it never happened. She also threw in the old strip light and a mesh cover... both of which are for reptiles (the bulbs are probably like t-12s or something and say "Repti-glo" on them). The tank feels very sturdy due to the thick glass but someone on RC mentioned that if it was used for reptiles then the heat can mess with the silicon and cause issues. So.. can I use this tank safely? What should I look for in the silicon to know if there may be problems? The lights aren't spot heat lights like I have seen for reptiles but tubes and I doubt they would get hot enough to cause serious problems but I don't really know. Thanks for the help, Joe

Hmm... I will try to get some pictures after work. Those pictures on the two links are what it looks like but the tubing doesn't fit tightly into the side. I understand that I will drill a hole into the container and tighten the bulkhead on, but the fact the tube is loose would mean that when the float valve moves up and blocks the output, the water will just dribble out the bulkhead and onto the floor :P

Hey Everyone, I have a float valve from thefilterguys.biz on this page: http://thefilterguys.biz/accessories.htm The only similar one I can find elsewhere is here: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.a...roduct_id=12596 Well, I understand the concept but, stupid question, how do I hook my RO/DI output to this securely? The output tube just sits in there loosely and if the float closed it would just drip out the back onto the floor! I am sure it is a simple answer but I just wanted to check to make sure I don't mess anything up! Joe

I did post this in an auction thread but felt it may be good to repost here: I don't know if you guys have heard about a "sniper rule" for auctions, but I remember waay back on some forums we did auctions on there was usually a "15/15 sniper rule" which meant if someone bid within 15 minutes of the end time, it would extend the end 15 minutes and each bid within 15 minutes would continue to extend the ending until someone quit. For example: Auction ends at 8:00pm with a 15/15 sniper rule. Bid comes in at 7:50 New end time becomes 8:05 Higher bid comes at 8:03 New end time becomes 8:18 No more bids. Bidder at 8:03 wins. I think it makes a lot of sense and have seen multiple times where people get very frustrated due to sniping. --If I do any auctions in the future I will likely use this method to avoid any conflicts near the end of the auction. Joe

RO/DI is probably a good idea.. that pillar looks great, I wonder how he put it together so tightly so you can't see the support

very nice looking! i like the pictures of the fragging too garrett.

For my 55g I am working on, I picked up a used SLS Tek system with 4x54w 48" bulbs w/ mounting legs for $225 shipped from a guy on RC. I think it should be plenty of light and will support most SPS corals or clams. I haven't gotten it set up completely so I can't say from experience that all the corals and clams will do fine but the guy I got it from said his were perfect and from what I have read, since it is only a 55g that the T5s give plenty of light, even without going to the higher priced IceCap stuff. If you are looking at that 300-400 range anyways, IceCap is great and is well known for their excellent customer service which is a huge benefit, but you can get high quality setups for less if you keep an eye out for some deals. The way the Tek is set up, the two outside bulbs and the two inside bulbs are controlled separately. I think the common setup was explained already of 2 actinic bulbs on the outsides and 10 or 20k bulbs on the inside. Joe

excellent, thanks! I was trying to search for this stuff but missed your thread. Any other suggestions? I haven't done anything besides just dumping rock in to aquascape before so I figured this would be a fun and interesting project. Joe

Hey Guys, I am looking to build my rock pillars soon but wanted to ask before I run off to Home Depot about what exactly to get. I have seen people use a paving stone or something for a base... do I have to be careful about the 'aquarium-safeness' of those at all or can I just get a couple to use for the base? What are the best options for support rods? I have heard of people using plastic hangers but are there other, better options? Finally, should I just use epoxy to attach everything? Is there a glue or something else I can pick up at Home Depot instead of paying the premium for 'reef epoxy'? I will be posting pictures as I progress, but unfortunately things like painting my new place come first! Thankfully, the trips to Home Depot give me plenty of opportunities to get excited about projects for the tank! Joe

I think that adding an image of a table from excel will be your best bet. the effort of taking a screenshot and putting it online isn't as much as coding a table in the boards the moving text is fun though

love the mtv cribs reference haha i guess its not too bad a deal if you have a crap car you have been trying to get rid of. i can only hope its a wife/gf who got pissed because that would be funny, but from the post it seems like some dude who spent all his $ on the tank then realized he needed a car to get to work or something.

3 months old. wow Very interesting read and some advanced breeding: http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/viewtop...asc&start=0 Just wanted to share because I was floored!

i got the link in there.. jeez.. it only took me 30 secs to add it haha

I searched to see if I could find this PDF somewhere on the boards but didn't see it. Here is a great comparison of test kits and the variation of results as performed by DFWMAS/Melev's Reef. Interesting to see the results and, my main concern, how older Salifert kits compare to the new ones. http://www.dfwmas.org/pdf_files/Test%20Kit%20Analysis.pdf Figured I would share since it took me a bit to find the file! Joe

I am not sure about the general flow ratings on powerheads and overflows, but for your return pump, it should be the same or less than your overflow (taking head loss into account). It is fairly easy to just think what would happen if you pump more water into your tank than you can drain out of it

I've heard a lot of good things about these! I think I will be getting one for my tank when it's fully cycled and everything