crabs new 24" cube
 

i while ago the wife gave the tanks the boot down to the basement except a 29g biocube which ive had for a few years, anyway since i can only have 1 tank on the main floor of the house i decided to replace it with a 24" cube and make it a sps only(mabey ill let some clams in though).
im starting this thread a bit earlier than i thought but id like some input on equipment and livestock.
as of right now i have the tank which is a starfire 24" cube with a internal overflow, 2 drains and 1 return all 3/4" bulkheads,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...t192008005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...t192008006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...t192008009.jpg

not too exciting yet but i know id get linched if i didnt have some pics

next step is getting a stand and canopy built, if their is someone good in the Calgary area that can build something nice im thinking oak or maybe maple with black or some dark stain, since its gonna be in the living room its gotta be nicer that im able to build,im not thinking my super sweet 2x4 special is gonna cut it.

for lighting im still very up in the air so the options i was goin over where

option 1- 8-10 ho t5's wich would give me lots of color options,not bad cost wise and not to bad for heat, these would be retrofits so the canopy would have to stay on

option 2- a mh/t5 fixture with a 250w and 4 t5s mabey a giesemann or aquaphoton not overly picky on brand but has to be nice incase i dont keep the canopy on the tank

option 3 lumen max 3 250w with 4-6 t5's

option 4 2x lumen max 3's either 150w or 250w's and 2-4 t5's im worried about heat with 2 mh's in a canopy though.

option 5 - solaris i-5, costs the most but gives a lot of options for day cycles and the ability to turn down the power when adding new corals and no heat issues

Nice tank my vote is for option #2
Love that Starphire look.:biggrin:

Oooooh nice tank man. With the tank being upstairs, unless you have central air or plan on a chiller I would opt for option 1 or option 5. As far as the tank stand goes....see my signature:biggrin:

ill send you a pm about the stand forshure,
ive never had a tank with a canopy so im a bit unshure if im gonna like it or not and if i mount t5's in thier im stuck keeping the canopy on the tank but i am happy with the 8 bulb tek i have on my other tank so im kinda leaning towards t5's cause the price vs. the solaris which would be about double.

might as well get some opinions on skimmers and return pumps while where at it, the return pump has to be quiet.. very quiet so does the skimmer, the tank is abou 60g and the sump will be mabey in the 30g range i think some thing in the 700-100gph range will work fine, id like a red dragon but might buy something cheeper to start off with and switch it later, the tank is only gonna have 3-5 fish so fairly small bio load but i might try out the blue coral method which will add alot of extra nutrients so i want a good skimmer that is quiet

just wondering where you got this made?

cant remember his name but the guy who builds tanks for golds. i wanted polished edges and a black overflow but things never seem to turnout exactly how they should for some reason

Those are some mighty nice floors ... I know what my wife would do to me if I spilled SW on a floor like that. :lol: (I'm banished to the basement too ever since we moved into our new place.)

Anyhow nice tank setup, should be a fun build. :)

I say opt. 5.. :mrgreen: Looks like a sweet tank..

well i finally have something to update.
1. got the stand which turned out great thanks to kevin and doug
2. sold the biocube that was in the space where this tank is going
3. bought basically all the equipment
even though the stuff has been bought im now stuck waiting for the sump which ended up being 19"wide by 20" long and 18"tall and is the biggest i could fit fairly simple design (i think so anyway) and im also waiting on the return pump which is gonna be a red dragon 4.5 so hopefully in the next couple of weeks the stuff will show up and i can get it cycling

for lights i went with 2x 24" 4 bulb tek lights im hoping this wasnt a mistake but i cant test the par numbers untill i get it running to know for shure, i skipped on the solaris because where the fans are located on the side and also the tank is 24" wide and thier has been some unhappy people with how the spread of light goes to straight down.at least with the t5's the entire tank is covered in lights except the 3 inches between the 2 fixtures

bought a vortec for flow, ive been very happy with the 2 in my other tank since the 2nd generation has come out and it eliminates any wires in the tank

for the skimmer i went with a bubble king 160, i could have gone with a 180 also but the 160 was in stock and the price was already high enough as it was and i think the 160 will do quite nicely

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...c/DSC_0005.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...c/DSC_0004.jpg

That's a beautiful stand!

looks great man , what are you going to put in there any ways

+1

btw the 6 foot tank I bought off you way back in the day is looking stellar as my threadfin tank

im shure red coral would love to build you one just like it, the wife picked the stain and it did turn out nice so im likely gonna get 2 6foot stands built for the next project

Rbacchiega- im glad you like the tank its almost a standard 130g but getting the small eurobrace and the black silicone gives it a bit more class than just a regular tank

the plans for the tank is all sps with maybe a few clams
my fish list so far is
1 blue spot jawfish
1 mystery wrasse
possibly a flame angel im iffy on this one due to their behavour around corals and clams
maybe a blenny of some kind since they make me laugh
maybe 1 or 2 orchid dottybacks

wow how did i miss this thread earlier. tank looks great, makes me want to get the sapphire tank now. i hope those bulkheads can handle the flow you tend on putting through the tank. i guess you have the vortech to create lots.

ill be running about 700gph through the tank and the rest into a small fuge in the sump, i don't think ill have any issues, ive usually used 1" bulkheads on most tanks with about 1200gph or more and no problems, ill be relying on the vortec for the actual flow in the tank and if i think their is a need i could always add a second one

Are you going to stuff two teks in that canopy? Thats a kick-ass list of equipment, this should be a killer tank. Looking forward to water.

yes thats exactly what i plan on

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...c/DSC_0012.jpg



after putting in bulbs im not all that impressed with the par numbers and im a bit unshure if the teks are gonna be stayin which really sucks since even though i got them for good prices if i sell them now brand new ill probably loose a bunch and have to spend a bunch more on something else.

huzah. Looking great.

Why don't you just try different bulbs? Saying that, what are you running in the units right now?

:lol: I cant believe there was enough room in the canopy for two tek units. I kept it as narrow as I could and worried that I may have screwed you for retrofits....guess not.With eight bulbs to play with you shouldnt have any problem finding the color you like.

[quote=i have crabs;372478
after putting in bulbs im not all that impressed with the par numbers and im a bit unshure if the teks are gonna be stayin which really sucks since even though i got them for good prices if i sell them now brand new ill probably loose a bunch and have to spend a bunch more on something else.[/QUOTE]

The units are too far off the water? We could rig something up to drop the units down in the canopy? The 12" tall thang was to accommodate the mh pendant or whatever the original plan was.

right now thier about 10" from where the water line will be and ill drop them down quite a bit when the water goes in, on my 48" light the par goes up about 50 points from the highest to lowest point on the legs, right now thier is 1x22k 2x10k and 5xfiji's but ill be changing 1 or 2 of the fijis to 10k or something else

went and picked up the sump and thankfull it fit through th back of the stand without a problem since i made it as big as possible,
its 19"x20" and 18" tall,
the 2 holes are for the drains then they pour into the skimmer area which pours into the return pump area, the space in the right back corner is a small fuge which will have water pumped through the bulkhead and overflow back into the return pump area
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/024.jpg

thankfully the skimmer fit also since i didnt leave much extra room and i ordered the sump before buying the skimmer
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/026.jpg

ill be finishing the plumbing over the next few days i hope but for now im gonna try to cover the back pain of glass and overflow with rocks,
i went and bought a cut off disk for a hand grinder i have.id rather use a big chop saw but i dont have one and im not gonna go buy one unless i have too
first step was trying to cut a rock in half without losing my fingers, for my test run i cut up a reef rock which is fairly solid but still didnt go all that bad, wasnt much fun but i was shure not to wear any safty equipment or proper tools so that helped im shure
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/038.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/039.jpg

the black crud washed right off no prob

i have some extra glass lids so im trying to attach the pieces so i can find out if this is even going to work or not, first piece i glued with mr.sticky which is a epoxy type glue
the second piece i used deltec epoxy and i had another flat piece that i tried to silicone
so im not gonna touch it till morning and hopefully one of the 3 will work like majic
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/040.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/041.jpg

Frag tank........help
 

Hey guys,
I'm kind of new to the whole saltwater world and I have a few questions about a new frag tank I'm starting. I recently bought a current USA 24" 4 t5ho (24 watt each) (140$), a remora maxi jet 1200 (120$) 2 power heads and a heater, all in a custom tank
(24'x16'x18,) (180$). A friend of mine has a 140g saltwater tank and I'm going to use his water the next time he does a water change. I wanted to know if I would need more filtration, lighting, ECT. I would also like it if someone can give me some ideas on how to set up the tank and the egg crate. Thanks alot and I'm sure I will have more questions to come.

probably wouldnt be a bad idea to start your own thread wher people can help you better,
i dont think using his water is gonna do much for you but mabey some of his filter material will help yours cycle faster and also mabey get some pictures so we can see what your working with.

well thier was no way a could wait another 12 hours to the everything cure properly so i went and riped off 2 of the 3 rocks,
to be fair the mr sticky busted off but the glue definatly wasnt cured in the middle and probably would have been alot harder if i waited longer.
the dd epoxy rock i could barely bust off but it finally came off the rock(rock was quite smooth) it was very hard to get off though
finally the silicone rock i couldn't even get off twisted quite a but but wouldn't crack lose,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/002.jpg
since sillicone is a fraction of the price and seemed to hold quite well im happy enough with the results to risk my fingers and saw a bunch of rocks in half.
now i just have to go find some good candidates and probably a few more cutting disks

this is a really good idea, i was going to have a wall of rock on my back overflow, didnt think of this but now i will try it. you should kinda make it bigger on the bottom and gradually bring it in so that you could put corals on it also.

Silicone
 

Hey crabs!

Maybe do a long test on the silicone in water. I remember looking at Piecies pets big tank not that long ago and over 60% of the rocks that they siliconed together were falling off. These rocks were attached to them selves, as well as to the glass. With this much work going in to this system it would be horrendous to have something fail and need to be re-set up.

Just a thought

Cheers!
Geoff

i thought the tank in picies was all made from foam and isnt even real rock,
i wanna cut a piece of regular live rock in half and see how solid the inside is compared to the reef rock if its solid with lots of holes i think it will hold well but if its crumbly like some of the less dense rock is then i think the rock its self might break apart while the silicone holds,
i think ill silicone all 3 back onto the glass and stick it in a bucket of water for a few days or a week maybe and we'll see how that goes i guess, im just getting ancy about getting water in the tank and its hard to hold out even though i know i should, maybe albert wont ship my pump in a timely manner and ill be forced to take my time

Just tagging along for ideas as I plan a similar tank.

finally figure out a good way to do these rocks. the silicone worked ok but after a few days in water i was able to pull it off which left a bunch of rock crumbs in the silicone so i tried putting a thin layer of epoxy on the rock then i siliconed the rock to the glass,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/028.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/029.jpg

if anyone here thinks they have strong enough fingers to pull this apart now id like to see it and might even give you a prize, im quite shure you will be goin home with sore fingers though,
now i have to go buy some rocks that i can cut in half without to much problems,

also i dont suppose minus 30 is a good time to ship red dragon pumps,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...rtyc/001-1.jpg
i talked to albert and hes sending me a new bracket likity split

Ouch. Glad to hear it will be taken care of though! :)

other than the problem with shipping it seems like a sweet pump and im glad i spoiled myself sofar.

Spoiled indeed.:mrgreen: Gonna be the caddie'o'cubes for sure.

rock wall
 

A bunch of people on RC have rock-walled their tanks. A bunch used egg-crate and similar structure to start with. Nice thing is you can take it out when you want to change it up without having to scrape your aquarium sides.

this guy did a nice 5.5Gal.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1

i thought about making it removable but with a vortech on the back wall i want it to be on the glass,
the guy with the 5g spent a whole lot more time than im planning with this i just dont want a big glass wall at the back of the tank covered in crud all the time, at least if its rocks im hoping it wont look so annoying plus this will help stacking rocks giving a bit of grip on the back wall instead of just glass, ive been waiting for some black acrylic to cover the overflow but i think if the rocks are fairly tight together it wont realy mater if the overflow is covered once all the cracks between the rocks get a bit of coralline it should fill in alright,
i guess im gonna have to buy a few good sized chunks of rock now also, it always hurts buying big rocks,spending 2-3hundered and having 3-4 rocks really bites

first of all pump parts showed up a while ago and once the pump sits on the rubber pads i cant see how this pump could possibly make a sound,
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...rtyc/001-2.jpg

finished putting the rock wall up finally, cutting the rock and letting it dry out so i could epoxy it was one of the worst smells ive ever had the pleasure of smelling in my house, it wasnt all that bad to do but added up quick, about $100-125 in rock $60 in epoxy and $30 in silicone(still have half a tube though) i could have saved on the epoxy by not coating the whole back of the rock and just putting it in a few area's but i wanted it to be best as possible,im shure 25lbs of stinking dead rock should start a cycle real good
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/011.jpg

i also changed out the eggcrate on the overflow to black and instead of a full glass top im gonna try the front half eggcrate for a bit of ventilation unless the light seems really cut down from it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v508/djdirtyc/012.jpg

im gonna finish some plumbing tonight or tommorow and hopefully have water in the next day or 2, i already have 100g of heated and mixed water ready to go

on the rock wall i left an oval hole for the vortech so i can move it up or down a bit, the space on the overflow is for a future nanostream or korillia pump if needed and i also left space on the sides for the magnet to clean the glass