Roberts Upgrade!!! 45 to 150 Thread

[Doc]

you are making great progress. I can't wait to see it full of water and BIG fish. Have you considered Angelfish???

-Doc

[roberttroy81]

Yea.I love Angelfish's but i really want is 2-3 yellow tangs and A Hippo Tang.I like schools of fish rather then one or two but my tank still wont be big enough for that.

[reeffreak]

Everybody on here seems to build there own stand.Makes me feel like I'm lazy.
Great job on the stand Robert.

Shoaling fish you say,bartlett's anthias,bartletts anthias.bartlett's anthias!!!!!!!!

GO TITANS!

[Doc]

if you do it right, you can have both

-Doc

[fatman]

Good clean lines can be had easywith siilicone. Before you put down your silicone, after your cutting, scraping and cleaning with alcohol, decide on the width of your seams then lay down a strip of masking tape on each side of your seam, then pull uo tape immediately after running down your seam with your alcohol dampened finger. Keep finger well dampened down, never more than one seam per finger dampening. With tape down you can over caulk alot and still have a clean even seam. The excess comes off with the tape. But this kind of perfection, for most people, really only matters on the visible side wall seams. Pushing the silicone out ahead of the caulking gun usually leaves less chance for bubbles and thin spots/sections in your seams, at least for me anyway. Never cut to little off your caulking tube tip as reapplying more caulk to wet caulk is hard to do and still produce a clean seam. To large just means a bigger seam and/or more caulking used.

[roberttroy81]

Thanks sounds like a great idea.Thats the last thing to do too.I wanted to move the tank into the living room before i silicone the seams for two reasons.One the glass is cold and would be better if the glass was warmer.Two Its cold as hell outside in NJ and would be easier indoors.

[roberttroy81]

I finished the Stand today.The doors i had trouble with.Just cause i couldn't make my mind up how i wanted them.I just went with a simple pop on pop off style with magnets.



Finished Product

[Doc]

great craftsmanship. I am impressed. It looks better than store bought

-Doc

[roberttroy81]

Thanks I worked as a carpenter for 5 years,that helped me out a lot.Next step is to paint the back today,and make the move into the living room were i can silicone the seams in the warm.Then i can start the important steps.
FILLING the tank with water and LR.

I do have questions about sumps,Now when i fill my tank with water and LR.Do i have my sump setup and running while the LR cures and cycles.OR just the powerheads running?Does the sump have to go though a cycle too?The most impotant ? is what do i put in my sump?Just Livesand?LR and what type of plant?

Sorry if this seems like dumb ?,s but im new to this sump filtration.

[fatman]

Robert,
I would start the sump up as soon as the water is in before even putting in live rock. First to check for leaks, operation of overflow(s) , return pump(s) and, hopefully you have one, a skimmer. Unless your drivable close to your live rock source there will be certainly be some die off of all types of things on and in your live rock. Live rock usually does not arrive anywhere without being severely traumatized as usually live rock is sent in damp paper or an equivalent and seldom is it submerged in water. I would also place a phosphate absorbing media in a mesh bag in the sump. Heaters hide nice in a sump. Usually most people put all or nearly all of their live rock in the tank initially as it is (1) exspensive and (2) most people say it is pretty and interesting (or becomes that way), but it will do most of its filtering job placed either in the sump or tank. If you have too much live rock at some point the sump is a good place for it, but it is not necessary to have any sand or rock in a sump. Refugiums is a different subject. Circulation from return water from the sump should keep most rock die off in suspension to be removed by the skimmers sump. Lights are not necessary during rock curing and some people even think it detrimental to curing. A lot of outlets of marine supplies have articles section where there is information on curing live rock. When the tanks rock is cured your tank and sump as well as skimmer are essentially cycled. Chemically you test the same way for a trank freshly started up with live rock as you would cycling a tank without rock. Then you get to start water changes, adding cleaner critters and shortly after that a fish (yes preferably just one). The cleaners is because the rock die off during tanks cycling (rock curing) will probably start some algae growth as the rock die off will put plant nutrients into the tank. Yeah, I am long winded.