Woohoo! We finally bought live rock!!

[annaanderic]

Ok so we finally got the water chemistry right and all of the equipment came in so we decided to travel up to Indy on saturday and buy some live rock! We had 17 lbs of baserock already and we decided to add about 10 lbs of Bali Alor rock and about 5 lbs of Indo-Pacific. The bali-alor rock is so light and intricate that we didnt want to buy more than could fit in the tank and the LFS worker who we've talked to a few times suggested not following the 2lbs/gallon rule with the bali rock bc it takes up a lot of volume compared to weight.

Now here's the question we have. We're trying to attach the rocks to eachother in the formation we've agreed on, but are unsure which method would be the easiest. We tried zipties but the structure isnt overly stable with them so we went and purchased a couple adhesives that seemed like they followed the guidelines that other have suggested. The 2 types we bought were Quicksteel (steel-reinforced epoxy putty) and Loctite Super glue gel. Would either of these work? Thanks for any help!

p.s. we'll def. have pictures up as soon as we get it attached and the sand settles down a little! :mrgreen:

 

[project5k]

i definately would not put the steel putty stuff in a saly environment, just sounds like a bad idea to me,

from what everyone has told me tho, ca glue, or cyano-acrilate(normal old super glue) is safe in the tank.... i havent tried it personally...

 

[annaanderic]

the quicksteel stuff actually says its drinking water safe....does that say anything about its safe-ness in an aquarium?

here's the link to the actual stuff: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/CarGo-Chemical-QuickSteel-Epoxy-Putty/dp/B0002NKVJK]Amazon.com: CarGo Chemical - QuickSteel Epoxy Putty, 4 oz. (6004): Automotive[/ame]

 

[Smitty]

Congrats on the new rocks...I only know about epoxy putty and super glue gel working in tanks...Are you sure you want to attach the pieces together? If you're like the rest of us, you will rearrange your rocks several times before you're somewhat satisfied with the set-up.

 

[annaanderic]

we were thinking of maybe just attaching a couple of the rocks together so that the overall structure was more stable, but we probably wont attach all the rocks together for that very reason (rearranging)!

 

[yote]

Personally,I wouldnt attach any of the rock together.The ones you'll end up needing to move will always be the ones thats glues or epoxied.
The best method,is to just work the rock like a puzzle.Let the rock determine how its gonna look and be stable.
But thats just an old farts oppinion. :D

BTW
Congratulations on the new rock,cant wait to see the pics.

 

[annaanderic]

im just a little worried about the overall stability bc the pieces of live rock we bought are fairly small so stacking them seems a little risky with a goby/shrimp pair and hopefully a blenny. We did wait to add the sand until the rock was in, however, so hopefully the rocks wouldnt shift much due to the sand sifters!

 

[yote]

Thats a smart move.I added my base rock first,then the sand.Then the live rock on top of the base.As long as your base rock is sitting on the glass,you shouldnt have any problems with the sand sifters causing a rock slide.

 

[Melosu58]

Personally,I wouldnt attach any of the rock together.The ones you'll end up needing to move will always be the ones thats glues or epoxied.
The best method,is to just work the rock like a puzzle.Let the rock determine how its gonna look and be stable.
But thats just an old farts oppinion. :D

I must be an old fart also because I totally agree.

 

[annaanderic]

alright i just tested the structure and it def. feels like it can resist whatever a few small fish/inverts could throw at it haha. It looks like we'll go with the flow here and try out the unattached method for a while! Thanks for the help everyone!

On a side note, do you recommend running active carbon (other than the stock filter cartridge that came with the biocube) during the cycle?

 

[dcantucson]

If the epoxy says it's safe for drinking water it should be okay in your aquarium. Others may disagree but safe is safe. You can also run carbon during the cycle, it won't hurt anything and will help to keep the water clearer and help with any odors.

 

[project5k]

see i would want to question the salt water's ability to disolve stuff out of the putty.

the other thing that people might think about is something that we just did to my tank, we burried some of that eggcrate stuff in the bottom of my tank. we pulled the sand back, put the eggy down, put the rocks down, and now, slowly i'm pushing the sand around filling in the spots between the rock and the eggy. this keeps the rocks off the glass, which just scares the crap outta me...

 

[annaanderic]

Thanks everyone for the advice! It looks like we'll probably try to keep the structure non-attached for now unless it becomes obvious that its not stable enough!

Also, we finally uploaded some pictures of the tank and rock set-up into our profile (b/c we couldnt figure out how to actually post it in this thread), but feel free to check it out and let us know how it looks so far!!

 

[yote]

Thats some great looking aquascaping.I like it.And it looks to be plenty stable.

 

[annaanderic]

Thanks yote! It means alot to have somebody experienced say we did alright atleast setting up the tank!

Ok here's another question since we'll be adding a CUC here in the next couple of weeks, would you recommend scarlet, red, or blue hermit crabs or does it really matter? We will have corrals in there soon afterwards if that matters much. It seems like some sites say they're all equal and other say some are better for reefs than others.

 

[yote]

My personal oppinion on hermits,is it really dont matter what kind or even if you mix and match em.Just dont get a whole bunch at once.You want just enough of a CUC to keep up with the chore.Any more,and they'll just starve.

 

[dcantucson]

And get tiny ones. Stay away from big ones!!!

 

[annaanderic]

Ok it looks like we'll prob get a mixture of the mini hermit crabs!

Do you all know of any sea stars that we could support in this tank (preferably not the bristle or serpent stars b/c they're a little creepy looking lol)? We both really like the looks of the linckias but not sure if they're a good match or not

 

[annaanderic]

Also, do these numbers seem normal for the cycle? It's only been a week since live rock was added but it doesnt seem like the ammonia has really spiked.

2 days after cycling:
ammonia: 0.5ppm
nitrite: 0.2 ppm
nitrate: 3.0 ppm

4 days after:
ammonia: 0.25 ppm
nitrite: 0.5 ppm
nitrate: 5 ppm

7 days after:
ammonia: 0.25 ppm
nitrite: 0.1 ppm
nitrate: 0.0-0.25 ppm


After the 3rd day i sprinkled a little bit of fish food b/c it didnt seem like the live rock was providing enough ammonia from die-off. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[yote]

With serpent and brittle stars,its not their looks that matters:D They are great scavangers.And stay away from the linkias.9 times out of 10,they end up starving,even in huge reef tanks.

And those look good for a cycling tank.If the ammonia stays low like that,you'll have more cool hitch hikers survive the cycle.Which is good.
Just let it ride,test every so often,and let it do its thing.