AlanM

Nice. Get some long stainless tongs, put some food in front of his hidey hole and ****** him when he comes out, heh. Dennis, d2mini on reef central, caught two of them from his Tampa Bay Saltwater rocks along with a few gorilla crabs.

2 sheets of plywood glued together! Then it's an LVL beam and could definitely take the load. You're right that it would just be the final 1.5" of material on the inside 2x6 at each end. I'm a plywood fan. I'd have built a 6 sided box the exact size of the aquarium footprint out of 3/4 plywood with no internal supports or dimensional lumber at all. Then I'd use a jigsaw (or router) to cut some holes for doors in the front, and called it done. Plywood can't rack in either direction because it's one big piece, and it can definitely hold the weight edge on in compression like that.

I'm going to build one like this into my house as soon as my little 75 gets done cycling. http://www.hgtv.com/real-estate/more-extraordinary-spaces-from-million-dollar-rooms/pictures/page-6.html Lookit all that colored rubber...

I was saying that instead of using a 72 inch long 2x6 and sistering it to the inside of the current 2x6 he could cut a 72 inch long strip of 3/4" plywood to 5.5" wide and use that with glue and screws where he drew his red lines. Even though it's half the width of a 2x6 it should be stronger and resist bending more and might stiffen the long 2x6 more than just another 2x6.

With such a little tank, if you're running high flow from the MP10 you might end up needing one of these to prevent the MP10 from sucking down a vortex from the surface. http://www.picoaquariums.com/pico-accessories/29-pico-mp10-shallow-shield.html

What if he put 3/4 plywood rather than another 2x6? It flexes less, is stronger, and he could make it the thickness he wanted instead of needing to trim those inner 2x6 supportson the short ends. He could slather it with glue and screw it to the insides of the long 2x6's.

Just thinking about it a bit more. When you say you made it 22 inches deep, that's deeper (front to back) than your tank, so you're not going to be putting the tank on those long 2x6's going left to right. You're going to be putting it on a piece of plywood, I assume, and that will have to transfer the load over to the 2x6's which will then be transferring the load over to the end posts. Seems like it may flex a lot with 2000 pounds on it, but if you built it to the exact length of the tank, then at least the corners of the frame and the short edge will be resting on the load-bearing uprights.

Looks really nice! Nice job.

Will it spit out the shell or somehow digest it or incorporate it into it's skeleton?

Right. Thanks, Tom. I had planned to do Tampa Bay Saltwater rock, but just turned out to not be able to afford the nearly $2k the package would have cost me. So I decided to use the rock I had burned all the goop off last fall in a vat of muriatic acid. I picked up those few "live" rocks from congressional mostly for the bacteria count, not the life that was on it which seemed to me mostly little black specks and a bit of coralline algae.

Thanks for the advice. I am appreciating the WC practice, actually. Figuring out what powerhead can push it where through what hose and what needs to get shut off when draining the sump, and where the Brutes should go, etc. No livestock is going in until late september at the earliest, but once my ammonia drops and I get a little fur on the rocks and sand I would like to start adding microfauna like pods and maybe worms in advance of livestock. I will leave it alone and stop testing so much. The water is nice and clear, and the lights are fun to play with 8)

Any skimmer running on it?

Salt, water, and DI resin, all three. This is the first one I've actually gotten wet, and I'm already surprised by how fast the salt bucket gets empty.

If you're doing the drop-at-a-time titration type test for alkalinity are you sure you're doing the math right? It threw me for a bit that my test was measuring meq/L and not KH. On my tests you count the number of drops before it turns yellow, then divide by 2 and that number is the meq/L. To get KH you multiply by 2.8, iirc.

I added it Tuesday, July 23.

I wonder if that's what is going on with my seemingly constant small amount of ammonia showing. I only have 3.5 pounds that was live rock from Congressional out of about 40 total that was dry. The constant level of ammonia, if it stays down below 5 or so, seems like it might be ideal for cycling because it will build up a good population of bacteria. 8)

I've changed out 30g of water (out of a total of about 90g) twice now to try to keep ammonia and nitrite below 5ppm. I know the cycle is progressing because I see nitrites and nitrates showing up and increasing a lot. Ammonia seems to be holding fairly steady, so there seems to be a source of it somewhere in the rock I put in even though it looked totally dry and clean. How much do any of you worry about nitrite and nitrate and ammonia during your initial cycles with dry rock? Should I just let it go for a week and assume that the bacteria will work it out or keep doing water changes to keep NH and NO2 below the levels that Dr Tim seems to want? I'm not running the skimmer at all because I want the nitrogen and stuff in there for seeding my burgeoning bacteria population, so eventually all this should be nitrate.

Got some Dr Tims and dumped in there. Can't resist urge to dump in goop. Cycle seems to be going in earnest making nitrites and nitrates. I did a 30 gallon water change tonight because nitrites and nitrates were up to 20 and ammonia continues to be high even though I only put 3.5 lbs of "live" rock in there. I wonder if I'm measuring chloramines or something. Do the saltwater test kits work with RO/DI water? I have the seachem ones for ammonia which are like little orange discs that you put in after putting in a drop of "total ammonia" reagents that go from orange to blue on the surface. It's possible there was crud inside this dry rock I used even though I did a muratic acid bath, then a bleach bath, then lots of rinses and dry since last fall. I'm burning through this salt, but having fun so far. http://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/alanm/1

I'll take one of each, kthx. (kidding (for now))

Maybe a crazy question, but could you add 10 inches of height to your currrent stand? Like a square box of plywood set on top of the stand and held in place with some trim until you get water in the tank, at which time the 2000 pounds above it would hold it nice n tight.

I looked at your step 1,2,3. Is your sump footprint bigger than 18.7x 10.5? If so, you arent getting it in that stand.

I love my stand I built. It has about as much room as it is possible to get into a stand the size of the tank, and no bigger. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2269811 Mine is 42 inches tall and holding 75g and very sturdy. Yours would probably be three sheets of $50 plywood and done (unfinished).

"Photo Contest" wants to access my entire list of friends and likes?

I think it's much easier to get a glued fitting leakproof than a threaded one. I like the bulkheads that are threaded on the flange side and slip for the pipe coming out, so you can unscrew the stuff that doesn't need to be as leaktight (like the drain tube on the inside) and glue the stuff that does (the pipe on the outside of the tank) If you're doing a threaded one, make sure you use lots of teflon tape or even better teflon paste that specifies that it can be used on plastic fittings. Lowes and HD should have it by the pvc glue.

I think QR had phycopure at the fragfest? I know they had various algagen products and may have some phycopure in stock that could help start a culture.