igotreefermadness Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Well with the cracking of my 10g AIO, I was forced to begin a new tank build. I searched craigslist and the local petstores, posted WTB ads in on here, came up short on anything that really caught my eye for a new tank. I just can't stand having plain tanks! I broke down and bought a Mr. Aqua 12g. Current FTS 2/2/12 Older FTS with a better view of dimensions: Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Man, I haven't heard the name Menards in nearly 4 years. Brings back memories of making fun of the name as a kid Looks like a nice setup. I was pretty close to buying a Mr. Aqua tank a little while ago so I'm curious to see what yours will look like. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Save big money at my nards lol. I used to say that all the time when the commercial came on. Yeah I'm excited to see what high clarity glass can do for me. I see ADA tanks and it just seems like a night and day difference between regular glass and their stuff. Should pair up well with my 50/50 RB/NW led array. But might have to add a T5 bulb to get good spread though we'll see. Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Do they still have the same old guy in all of their commercials? I am getting a little bit of nostalgia over this whole situation. Ya, the high clarity glass is something. I am in the process of setting up a starphire pico atm and it's looking like good stuff. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 I'm not sure about the commercials haha. Yeah I played around with the idea of a custom starphire tank for awhile, then I was like nah I dont need to spend more money on tanks. But then this whole situation arose and now I don't have time for a full DIY tank. Only thing I'm skeptical about is the clarity of Mr. Aqua vs. the clarity of starphire. Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 My guess is that starphire will be the clearer glass, but that it's not by much. I wouldn't worry about it really. For the tank that I have I could probably have gone with regular glass and not noticed the difference. It's only when the thickness starts to increase that the color really changes. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 24, 2011 Author Share Posted March 24, 2011 Yeah I would imagine, the Mr. Aqua was pretty cheap. A local business wanted 200 just for basic acrylic cuts of the same dimensions. I'm just hoping this old tank can hold up another week at the least. Its going to be a gamble. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 The tank finally came today. I have been running around rounding up parts. I cancelled a 20 dollar order on bulkheads and went and picked up some pvc parts for the DIY type. I think it cost around 9 dollars for the DIY ones. LOTS of parts. Locline plumbing to be done, three holes to be drilled in the base. Rock to be siliconed, plumbing it into the stand. Still need to build a sump but I think I have a nifty idea for a filtration unit as well.. There will be no wires or tubes running over the edge of the tank I'm also making an overflow out of pvc covered in rock like I had linked in the previous posts. Progress so far: Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 26, 2011 Author Share Posted March 26, 2011 Progress I didn't think it would take more than four pounds of rock to cover it but I'm about out! What I want to do is continue to stack the rock up until I get the water level I'm happy with, and hopefully the rock will keep any fish or invertebrates out. Still need to build a sump, but plumbing is all ready to be hooked up! Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Getting closer to filling it with water. Should have a leak test done by tmrw, along with the sump and a wet/dry filter idea I came up with. Link to comment
jgpico Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 This looks sweet and promising. Any plans to hide the returns at all? Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 What are your plans for lighting it? I can just imagine it might be a little tricky because of the pillar in the middle. I like it though. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Thanks, as far as the returns go, I'm not too sure. I thought about siliconing some rock to it, but that would compromise the locline's flexibility. I'm open to suggestions though. I have a 12 cree led array that I'm going to try using. I'm hoping that I can raise the light enough to get a good spread pattern. And if that gives me trouble I will probably add a single T5HO bulb. Another member on the forum here had good overall success with two T5s so I'm thinking that should be enough. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 I've been having some issues with the corals in my tank lately. Ever since the tank has cracked, growth and coral health have been for the worst. Bad polyp extension, tissue necrosis, closed up polyps, etc. Anyways, I run triple dose of Phoslock and activated carbon in a 90 gph reactor. Biweekly W/C's. Alkalinity: 7-8 dkh Calcium: 360 ppm Nitrates: <5 ppm Nitrites: 0 ppm Phosphate: <.25 ppm PH: 8.2 I know my alkalinity and calcium are a bit low. But the coral are responding like the parameters are much farther off. These palythoas have been looking this way for about a week. Here's a birdsnest with STN And here is a FTS of my current 10g Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Are you losing any water at all or is the crack only superficial? I wonder if your SG might be off. The phosphates are usually a problem, but that is more due to algae growing than it killing your corals (I'm sure it could but .25PPM isn't huge). Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 Yeah I have always battled with phosphates ever since I began the tank last August. And I do lose water daily. I don't see much of a change in SG though, it stays consistent around 24 to 25 so I don't think it is a case of osmotic shock. Link to comment
d9hp Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 That's an awesome looking 12g...such a cool idea with the overflow. I don't have any real ideas for hiding those returns that's a pretty wild way to approach that but I think it looks good. Following. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Thanks! After 4 hours of back and forth driving, lots of heavy lifting, planning, and stress and angry animals, I finally got everything set up. So far nitrates are being nice to me. And I got my hands on a decent camera yayyy. So here's some pics: You can see the sump system with my wet/dry walmart tupperware filter. So far its worked really good and there is almost zero noise from the entire system. And here is my reclusive little Flaming Prawn Goby who is named Prancer. Hopefully his new trimma goby friends will take care of his shyness. That glass is probably about 1/4" to put his size into perspective. And here is crab mountain haha, the Pom Pom is kickin out the Astrea snail. Those two crabs have the most character of any marine animal I've had. And the final product... well sorta Keep in mind there has been zero rockscaping done. I also want to add some Oolite sand to the aragonite. I know people say it blows around but I think mixed with aragonite might help. Also, Im stuck on whether or not to do a DSB... Input is needed. thanks! Link to comment
Cheapreef27 Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Also, Im stuck on whether or not to do a DSB... Input is needed. thanks! DSB, THEY LOOK SO SEXY Link to comment
pyrocreep Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 The tank looks sick, with or without any scaping on your part. Were you going to try and cover the returns up more once you get their positions figured out? Also, Im stuck on whether or not to do a DSB... Input is needed. thanks! I would say don't do it. You'd want at least a 6 inch deep bed for it to properly work. Anything less than that (down to around 1") is just going to give you problems. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Yeah I would like to hide the returns. But I found out I'm real low on current so I need to bulk up my pump system, and once thats done I can mess with how I want the returns and stick some rocks around em. And yeah that's the thing with DSB's is I have the ability to make a 6" or even 7" bed, but I just dont know if the lost water volume versus the efficiency of the bed would be beneficial. Just read nitrates, theyre <10 ppm, phosphates are about .25 ppm. I dont know how adversely phosphates will affect the animals though. Might just make an algae bloom. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 Just a little update, everything is going well in the tank. I haven't even done a WC yet! Water chemistry has been good to me and all the coral are starting to forgive me for throwing them in a 10g tub and banging them across Nebraska. I never would have imagined my frogspawn could change from the size of my fist to the size of a gumball. Crazy... Im about to pick up a 650 gph industrial pump, should add the extra needed flow Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 Heres just a cell pic after some aquascaping and added sand. Toward the end of my old tanks life, all the coral were looking very unhappy. My palys were all closed up, my frogspawn was half its normal size, and everything looked pretty sad. And looking back on it I think my roomates had used one of my RODI buckets as a mop bucket and never told me.. So since then my palys have began to open back up, and things are starting to look better than ever. Link to comment
igotreefermadness Posted April 12, 2011 Author Share Posted April 12, 2011 Well good news, my palythoas are open and its nice to remember what they look like. It's been an entire month since their polyps inexplicably quit opening. My pocillopora has the PE of a torch and my GSM doubled in size. Also, my pink birdsnest is looking better than ever. Alk levels are holding around 8 to 10, and the brown cyano outbreak has nearly slowed to a halt. I've ordered two T5HO clips and have a ballast on hand to overdrive a 36" tube, this should help get lighting to the far ends of the tank and give me the ability to raise the LED for a little more spread. I am moving out of my house soon and I opted to begin this tank in the new location, with the current gas prices and my school affecting my work efforts, I usually get around to making a trip to see them once every 3 days or so. It's great for seeing noticeable effects on the coral. But I do miss stopping to look at that window of nature that you can't find closer than 2000 miles from Nebraska. Link to comment
yeast Posted April 12, 2011 Share Posted April 12, 2011 What happens if the power goes out? The returns will suck the water down into the sump and you'll have an overflow. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.