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My obsession - 450g reef

tbittner

By tbittner,
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EBR

EBR

THAT is so cool! And what'r the two white things sticking up on either side? Part of the closed loop, I suppose?

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tbittner

tbittner

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Yeah, those are the feeds to the CL pump. They'll be covered with LR so they won't be visible. They'll give a good circulation under the rock though and should keep nasties suspended in the water so they can eventually get sucked out and sent to the sump for removal.

tbittner

tbittner

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Water was up to 79.2 and holding. I drained out about 10" of water so when I aquascape, I won't have to go diving. :lol2:

 

We dumped in two of the 160g salt buckets of reef crystals. Water is almost clear already. I'll test the salinity and adjust it in the morning.

 

Hopefully, Wednesday will be our aquascaping night. I currently have 450 lbs of LR to put in plus another 200 lbs that is in the 120g reef that will move in to the 450 eventually.

MLazar

MLazar

HOORAY! So very happy and excited for you.

 

(loved your post)

 

Can't wait to see what you have in store next.

 

Maureen

 

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tbittner

tbittner

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Ahhhhh, I LOVE the smell of curing rock!!! :lol2:

 

OMG that was NASTY!!! Don't disturb the water once the rock starts to cure. It's a REALLY BAD IDEA!!! We took the rock out of the container it was in, put it in a container with fresh saltwater and scrubbed it down good. Then we placed all 450 lbs on towels so we could see what we had to work with. Don't worry, I was the one getting all wet. My wife directed, our son handed the rock to me.

 

Here is the right side. It's stacked up, very securely, to about 28".

IMG_0627.jpg

 

Here is the left side if you can see it.

IMG_0628.jpg

 

And the full tank shot:

IMG_0634.jpg

 

The sand will go back in tomorrow night. We were just wiped from doing all of this. The sand will be about 6" deep all the way across though.

 

The rocks with corals on them that are currently in the 120g reef will sit on top of the rocks on the left side. The 72" solaris will be over that side. I probably won't be placing any corals over the right side until I get another 48" solaris.

 

The salinity was just a little low at 1.0242. I didn't test anything else. I'll wait until the sand is in and settled down. Then I'm going to curl up into a ball and SLEEP for a few days. :lol2:

Carl

Carl

Looking GREAT!

 

I think this is the fastest build I've seen on a tank over 75 gallons!

tbittner

tbittner

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Carl, we've been at this since January I believe. Of course, remodeling the room was thrown in there too. :lol2:

 

NRehman, it was painful to see water dribbling under the tank the first time we filled it up. Even MORE painful to see it doing it again after ripping out the silicone and replacing it. :lol2:

 

But, we got it fixed this time. :wink:

 

Tonight will be as painful as last night though, we have to dig out the 640 lbs of sand from two 44g trash cans and dump it back in. I'm actually looking forward to it! :bb:

 

THEN it will be time to sit and relax and watch the rest of the NHL playoffs. I'm sorry for the Caps fans, but I'm a Pens fan. I grew up in Southwestern PA so I'm a Pens and Steelers fan. :biggrin:

FishWife

FishWife

GO! GO! GO!

 

SO exciting! It's going to be BEAUTIFUL!!!!

tbittner

tbittner

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Thanks Marcia. I sure hope so. :biggrin:

 

We added all 600+ lbs of sand back in tonight so I can't see a thing in there now. :lol2:

 

Hopefully by tomorrow night it will be cleared up enough so we can get the sand leveled out and positioned where we want it.

 

I tested the water before the sand storm:

Ammonia - .25

NitrIte - 1

Salinity 1.0248 (had a little evaporation)

 

I didn't test anything else. No need to at this point. Now it's sit back, relax, and wait time. :)

tbittner

tbittner

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(edited)

Thanks everyone. It's been a challange for sure!

 

The water is clearing up nicely so tomorrow I'm planning on getting the 72" Solaris hooked back up and light the tank back up again. I'll get some more pics then. I also found a company that has several 48" solaris's in stock so I ordered one of those. The whole 10 feet of the tank will now be lit with I4 Solaris's. :biggrin:

 

My readings for today are:

Ammonia - .5

NitrItes - 4

 

I'm getting a nice strong cycle so I'm just going to sit back and relax and watch some hockey. How about those PENGUINS!!! :biggrin:

Edited by tbittner
Carl

Carl

Are you running all the pumps? equipment yet? Or keeping the flow down while things settle?

tbittner

tbittner

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I'm running the CL and it re-arranged the sand rather nicely. It still needs a little help though. We also bought the wood trim that we're going to put around the bottom of the tank to give it a nice finished look. My wife is working on coming up with the exact combination of stains to get it to match. We'll probably get that put on sometime next week.

 

This tank will connect into my existing system so unfortunately, I don't have a skimmer to run on it. I'll compensate for that with water changes when it's time for that, after the cycle is complete. Then I'll get the nitrates down to <5 and then start running water through the sump and getting all of the water equalized with my existing system. When everything gets moved from the 120g, acclimation won't be required except for maybe light acclimation.

Carl

Carl

Good luck with trying to match the wood...always a challenge for me!

 

Do you not have a skimmer? Will you be getting one?

tbittner

tbittner

  • Author

I have an Euroreef RS-250 skimmer in my existing system but that doesn't help the 450 while it's cycling.

 

Until the cycle in the 450 is done, I'm going to go skimmerless on it. I'll compensate with WC's.

 

After the cycle, it will be connected to my existing system and the skimmer will work on that water too.

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