Phischy's Project-3days to start

[Phischy]

After waiting months and months and months and months and months it's finally going to start. Pop's Worthington of Wally's Workshop has completed my custom stand to my spec's and will be driving from Houston to San Diego starting tonight. He'll be delievering alot of other furniture but the A-Stand is the #1 thing I'm looking forward to.

My good friend who works at Aquatic Warehouse shall be helping to provide knowledge and a hookup into a frag connection plus creme of the crop as he's the buyer, so if I want anything he'll keep it in mind when he drives to LA to make purchases for the store. Yeah, I'm one lucky bastard. I'll try to get photo's uploaded to my website today to start the posting frenzy!

Woohoo...here come the fishes![/img]

 

[Phischy]

Pics!

Along with the dimensions I sent my dad the following autocad drawings:

I also sent him a few reference images I found on the web for the design/look I was going for. Furniture grade w/ trim and to make it smokin' good lookin'. He also built me a queen sized futon and coffee table to match the stand. This is what he's delievering:

This weekend I buy the rest of the hardware I need and hopefully I'll get to at least fill it![/img]

 

[Phischy]

Oops, forgot one:

 

[incysor]

Very nice...What size tank is it for? Are you going to use Hang on filtration or is there some way to get past the drawers to a wet/dry or refugium?

 

[Phischy]

I had thought of doing a sump/fuge but then decided against it. My tank is a 35 gal, not exactly a Nano but DJConn and I go way back anyhow. The tank is actually the same one I had in college when he turned me onto salt water aquariums. It's an Oceanic glass, so I'd have to do alot of other crap to get a sump set up properly and that's more work than I'm looking for at this point.

I'll have a HOB skimmer, I forgot the brand, most of my hardware was given to me as christmas gifts last year, as you can see, I've been waiting a good long while to do this. This weekend I'll get a ton of more info up on my project.

 

[incysor]

I'll have a HOB skimmer, I forgot the brand, most of my hardware was given to me as christmas gifts last year, as you can see, I've been waiting a good long while to do this. This weekend I'll get a ton of more info up on my project.

Well congratulations on finally having everything ready to set it up. That's always an exciting day.

I understand taking your time. I started planning my 1st setup a couple years ago in November. It took me until the following June to get all the pieces together and do all the research I needed. It paid off though. The tank was incredibly stable from day one. No major algea outbreaks, no major livestock/coral losses.

Everything was really good until I had to move this month. Let me just say that trying to move tanks and upgrade/change your setup at the same time is a bad combination. I should have just gotten the move over with, then waited a couple months to change/upgrade the system. I thought it would be saving time/energy to do it all at once. Instead running into problems at nearly every step has resulted in losing 12 of 19 fish, at least 2 anemones, a couple corals, and I'm not out of the woods yet.

Brian

 

[Phischy]

I've done things the wrong way a few times and have lost alot of live stock. I've done so much more research and one of the managers at the best store in town is going to help me out with this project. He set up a 30gal bowfront a few months back and can help me figure all this out step by step. The big key is simply to go slow.

So this time around I hope to get it all right. I plan to cycle my tank with uncured live rock/live sand. I figure I can get all the major rock in at once and let that cycle the tank, add the cleanup crew and then let it sit for a month or so while everything stablizes. Then I'll start stocking it bit by bit to avoid major changes/dieoffs.

And then I'll go from there!

 

[djconn]

WOW Phischy! This is a nice project you got going on here :rockon:
Pops sure knows how to build a tank stand. That thing looks really nice. Even though its a 35 gallon, I'm still very interested in this project and you need to keep us updated along the way. Let's face it, its still a pretty small tank comparatively speaking.

I need to make another section for 'slightly bigger tanks'. Maybe call it Wally's Workshop or something :lol:

 

[Phischy]

Yes he does. They've begun the haul from Who-ston to Sandy Eggo, once they get here he and I will have to mount the lights and then I'll start working on getting the pump/water flow configuration figured out while I start chatting with nate and running numbers for live rock/sand. Woot woot! I just hope to get the lights on, it full and water flowing by the end of this weekend.

 

[incysor]

You may already know this, but if you let the tank cycle without any lights, you should be able to avoid an algae/diatom bloom. Just figured I'd mention it since your post said something about getting the lights on soon.

 

[Phischy]

Actually I hadn't heard that before. So when I add live sand/rock, I should run the skimmer full bore, do a weekly 5gal water change and almost cover the tank? Or will I kill off beneficial algea in the process? I will have to cure whatever it is I'm putting in but I do hope to put in 30-40lbs of live rock and a 2.5" DSB.

This a good/bad idea?

 

[Phischy]

Here's another question:

In prepping my tank, #1 make sure it still holds water w/ no leaks. This tank is older and has been sitting dry for the past 4 years. I used to have problems with pink spooge slime, is there anyway that crap could have survived in a dry environment for four years? Can anything survive that?!?! Just looking for cleaning advice so I don't start off on the wrong foot by having something unwanted already introduced to my system.

 

[djconn]

As far as the slime and other undesired inhabitants in your tank go, I would recommend filling the tank with hot water and a few cups of vinegar and letting it sit for a day or so. That will clean everything out. Scrub and rinse it all out and you should be good to go. I soak my powerheads in vinegar from time to time to clean off all the gunk and calcium.

When I added my uncured rock and sand to my tank, I left the lights off for about a week and then started putting them on the regular 11-12 hr photoperiod from then on out. I kept my skimmer on the whole time and had to empty it pretty often. My cycle lasted about 3-4 weeks. It went through continous algae bloom cycles.

I think I also did small water changes throughout the cycle but you might want to get differing opinions on that. You may not want to do that.

 

[Phischy]

Ok, I'll have to do that then. Probably means I won't do it while the rents are in town, or maybe I will?!?! They're past Tuscon now, about 5-6hrs away. Hot water, vinegar and a leak check all at the same time. I can dig it.

Next big thing is figuring out what sort of lights I bought and to make sure they're powerful enough.

 

[Phischy]

Got the stand in last night. It's georgous! One problem, Pops read my dimensions wrong and it's 1/2" too narrow. So this means I'm going to sell my all glass aquarium and I'm going to have to find one that's less than 36" wide, instead of the 36 1/2" I have. I'm not really worried about it b/c tanks are cheap. Anyone know how much custom acrylic tanks are, just incase I have to have one made? I'll be talking to my buddy Nate about this today. A little bummed but the fact is, it's so awesome looking I can't get upset. I've waited 9 months a few more ain't gonna kill me.

 

[Phischy]

After thinking about it all morning my brain has been going full tilt for awhile. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with a custom built (for sizing purposes) acrylic tank. So then knowing it's acrylic I started rethinking my entire draining/flow idea since I plan on using a 300gph pump w/ a SCWD wavemaker. One pump for 4 heads and no bulkly powerheads in my tank. So to keep dead spots from happening in the rear of the tank behind the live rock and from keeping one head from being positioned there for water movement I figured I could drill the rear, install a bulk head and have the water drain from there.

Then I started thinking about having a sump again. If I do go with acrylic that opens up an entire new avenue of possiblities since it's easy to modify and since I'm already having one custom built.

I've already got a HOB skimmer, but I can easily place that below. Because I had my stand constructed with doors I do not have a huge amount of space in my cabinets. But I could get a small sump in there, or a 'fuge. Hmm...ok, just checked the openings. I do not think I could get a decent sump in there with only 13" of depth and about 20" of width and maybe 20 of Height. I could possibly get something int here but cleaning would require almost a complete breakdown of all equipment. Scratch that idea.

Would someone please explain to me what a 'fuge is and what it is used for again? Also is 250 gph water flow enough for a 34gallon tank? I've got a Quiet one 1200 pump and with my expected head height that's what I'm guessing my flow rate will be. Shiznit there's alot to think about.

Anythoughts or ideas? I'm pretty wide open right now since I'm redesigning everything. I've ruled out a sump due to space constraints but I'd like to hear thoughts on fuges etc...

 

[Phischy]

I just drew this up, I don't have Acad at home so please deal with my MS Paint version

How's that for water flow? The water movement will be from left to right as the SCWD changes. Are four heads too many? Could I get just adequent flow and movement from 2 heads?

 

[Phischy]

I spoke with Nate today at AquaticsWareshouse and it looks like I'll have to wait 2 to 3 weeks to have a custom tank made. Major bummer as I'd have liked to have it sooner but what are ya gonna do? At least it'll be a perfect fit and the acrylic will allow me more flexibility in building the setup. I thought again about putting in a sump but I don't think I'll need it. I've got an idea for a fuge though.

 

[incysor]

I just drew this up, I don't have Acad at home so please deal with my MS Paint version

How's that for water flow? The water movement will be from left to right as the SCWD changes. Are four heads too many? Could I get just adequent flow and movement from 2 heads?

I don't think that 300gph will be enough for the tank. I had 2 300gph powerheads sitting in my 55 for current.

The more outlets you have the less current the return will generate. In addition 90 degree elbows reduce flowrates more than you think they will.

As an example, right now I have a mag 18 that at 4ft should pump 1350gph. Unfortnately with my setup as it is currently it has to run through three 90 degree elbows and a t joint before it's split to 2 return pipes. My 600gph overflow doesn't have any trouble draining out what's actually being pumped into the tank. So the flow rate is being cut from 1350gph to less than 600gph by my plumbing.

I never really did too much reading on the SCWDs, how many GPH can they handle?

Brian

 

[Phischy]

I think you're right about the gph, methinks my pump is too small. I was worried about that. I'll have to reval everything. I hadn't planned on putting in any 90's. Not sure about the SCWD's, I'll check tonight.