crabs new 24" cube

[fishytime]

[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.

[i have crabs]

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

[i have crabs]

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


thankfully the skimmer fit also since i didnt leave much extra room and i ordered the sump before buying the skimmer

[i have crabs]

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




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

[mtlmatt]

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.

[i have crabs]

Originally Posted by mtlmatt

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.

[i have crabs]

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,

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

[Boomboy]

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.

[rattler]

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 have crabs]

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