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Water Changes - Part I of II..................<moved to post 39 - changed status to experimental>

A week ago I had a totally different system in mind. I'd been planning this for months and had it completely figured out. I even had the updated content ready to post.

After reading some of the other threads on Canreef, I started wondering whether I had the best possible system for my application. In a nut shell, I've done a complete 360 from my original plan and have decided to go with a continuous water change system.

I would be very interested if anyone had suggestions for optimizing this system or can see potential problems. I'd also be interested if anyone is using a similar setup?

Today, I ordered 300 pounds of BRS "Reef Saver" Dry Aquarium Eco Rock.

The concept of dry rock was entirely foreign to me until only recently. Everyone uses “live rock” right? Well… Consider the advantages.

Live Rock
• Matures quickly and provides some bio-diversity.

Dry Rock
• Guaranteed not to have any pests (critters or algae).
• No water weight, so pound for pound you get more.
• Significantly cheaper.
• Much easier to aquascape as it can be done dry.

The dry rock can obviously be seeded with good quality live rock. I will not be using the live rock in my 90g as there is some pest algae that I don’t want in the new tank. I’ll either use this live rock in a qt setup or perhaps try to sell it.

I am actually really excited about this purchase. It is a big step forward in terms of planning and keeping this project on track.

Prior to making this decision, I ordered 20 pounds of the rock from BRS. I asked for an eight pound piece and a twelve pound piece. Here’s what it looks like.

http://owa.footit.ca/wwwimages/tn__ecorock06.jpg

http://owa.footit.ca/wwwimages/tn__ecorock03.jpg

http://owa.footit.ca/wwwimages/tn__ecorock01.jpg

Nice looking rock... I can't wait to see what you do with it :D

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Aquascaping - Part I of III...................Post 21
- Supporting the structure

Status Update

We've been renovating the basement, so work on the tank has been slow. However, things are starting to get back on track and I'm hoping to have salt water in the tank within the next 4-6 weeks. There's a ton of work to do between now and then.

nice Brad, cant wait to see what you do with the scape.

Really neat idea with the peg system. Can't imagine how long that must have taken you...wow! I think I'd give the peg leg thing a try one day but maybe forgo the slots due to laziness.

So what do you have planned for rock->rock stacking? Are you also drilling and pegging those?

I find the peg idea to be really intriguing. My only concern might be that once you put the substrate in (your plan if I read your build right) the sand will fill in the peg holes. Subsequently, I would think that this fill-in would make it really difficult to move the aquascaped pegs after-the-fact (as the sand would presumably fill in the holes). Have you given any thought to this?

Other than that little problem, I think this is a wicked idea for aquariums. It keeps the rock stable and protects the bottom from scratches. So long as algae and things cant slip underneath I could see people implementing this into their builds.

Thanks for the comments and feed back!! - It's was nice to hear from you.

Thanks John. Seeing what you've done with your tank has been inspiring.

I do plan to drill the rock where necessary, and to use acrylic rod within the rock structure to create overhangs and other such structures. I really can't say exactly what it will look like, which is percisely why I wanted a system that was flexible. I figure once I start stacking the rock it will become clear.

You are right about the substrate. Once the sand goes in, the whole peg system becomes fixed. I figure I will have to vacuum out the holes as I am working with the rock to get rid of any lose particles that break off. In any event, I will take the time necessary to get it right the first time.

- Brad

With that in mind though, you might only have a few pegs drilled into even the largest of your rocks. You seem to have enough pegs drilled in that, even with only a few minutes of substrate vacuuming (depending on the depth of your sand bed), you should have enough sand off to adjust your rocks. It might not be as tedious as suggested, but we'll have to see.

Looking forward to the rest of the updates!

Things are looking really good so far Brad ! I like the the two return pumps mostly if one should fail you still have one for some sort of flow. Also if I was to buy rock again I would most definitely use dry, I bought a piece of live rock awhile back and is now causing much grief which I'll explain on another post. Look forward to the aquascaping. Keep up the good work :)