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Tinkering (leds installed! with pics)


tinkerer

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Well, I started out thinking I was going to add a fuge to a ten gallon all glass I had about six months ago. This last week my buddy's wife says she wants the extra BC29 he has out of the house, and they'll sell it to me for $100! He had gotten it shipped to him by Oceanic due to a defect in the one he had bought and just never switched tanks. So today, with cash in hand, I went and picked it up. When i open the box I discover that it is the newer version with the window in the back and the flying fish guard, his was the old version and he had to make those mods himself. Now I am sitting here looking at an empty tank and a couple large boxes (which my children are playing in) and dreaming of the next few months. I was completely unprepared for this to happen so I have not gotten any of the other stuff I need for mods to the tank, any rock, anything at all. At least my current state will allow me to take it slow, if I had everything I would feel the need to set it all up today. Slow and steady wins the race, so here we go!

 

so far in the tank:

 

Eagle eye zoa

Dragon eye zoa

2 other zoas i do not know

Duncan

Torch

Frogspawn

Xenia

Kenya tree

yellow and brown polyps

mushroom frag

purple and green ric

purple ric

MIA orange ric

 

3 hermits

2 Nassarius

several Nerites

several Ceriths

Emerald crab

Tiger pistol shrimp

Yellow watchman goby

Six line wrasse

mocha clown pair

 

in retrospect i have added much to fast, but the tank is stable and i have not seen any spikes after all the additions.

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Builder Anthony

Well i guess washing it out and finding a suitable spot would be good.You could add salt and just keep the lights off and start a really slow cycle but putting the sand in there will make a storm but should settle.I would be concerned about the kids though becuase they are going to be seeing you fooling around with that thing all the time and there just going to be trying to fiddle around with it just as much.Maybe when your doing things to the tank you could explain what your doing to them as your doing it or make it a family thing.Then you have to worry about them making there own adjustments to the tank with them not full understanding what they are actually doing.Like they might add orange juice of something to try and feed a future fish or something.I would consider hooking up some sort of locking device for any parts that open up.Hope your family has a successful experience in the fun and enjoyment of maintaing a delicate ecosystem.It can be a great experience.I would also research types of sand that goes into reef tanks so you dont mess up and buy some garbage youll have problems with.

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Congrats on the score! I took the slow boat as well. My kids have absolutely loved the whole process of setting up the tank. At 9 and 6 they're thankfully old enough to understand what they can and can't play with. They do love to help though and with supervision do just fine. My 9yo daughter saw a BC14 in a store and immediately said she could set up that tank. I figure I'll give her my BC29 whenever I upgrade.

 

Definitely ditch the bio balls and build/buy a media basket. I bought one and couldn't be happier with it. I ran filter floss only through the cycle only adding chemipure and purigen right before adding fish. I have also added an MP10, LED lighting, and have a skimmer on the way.

 

Best purchase so far? An Apex Jr. After that is the media basket, MP10, and LED's.

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went to www.bulkreefsupply.com today to ask a few questions and buy some rock. felt good about it and came home with a box -o- rox. this weekend is going to be a lot of scape design planning.

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anyone care to comment on the volume of rock for the tank size? looks about right to me, and this stuff has tons of holes and little pockets. i am still tinkering with the rock layout and am thinking of adding some small shelf rock pieces if i can find them.

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anyone care to comment on the volume of rock for the tank size? looks about right to me, and this stuff has tons of holes and little pockets. i am still tinkering with the rock layout and am thinking of adding some small shelf rock pieces if i can find them.

 

Looks good to me! Don't put too much in though or you won't have room for corals to grow out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

got the wood today to build the frame for my stand. i'm like a kid in a candy store right now. will have pics up later when i get it done.

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so the basic frame is up. and next weekend i'll be adding water and some live rock to seed my dry rock. i will end up putting panels on both sides and a door on the face. i have also built in the bracing for the lower shelf and will end up adding at least one mid tier shelf down the line. had to get the frame up first so i can get the water in.

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i got lucky when i was searching for rock, the guy directed me to BRS since it is 5 minutes from my house. i still need to find some LR to seed with and some shelf rock, but that will have to wait till this weekend. i dig the look of the reefsaver rock though, and i enjoy stacking it in a bazillion different ways.

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so far my timeline is CUC late december to early january. and first coral sometime in january mid to late. this will give my dry rock a good time to seed and my tank to cycle. if i have learned one thing from reading here do not rush the cycle!

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tonight i broke out the false bottom on chamber one, not sure why i didn't do that before. and mixed up my first batch of water filled the tank and cranked up the pump. gonna let it sit for a few days and let it settle out before i check the SG and gonna run some temp testing with lights and heater and such. just the dry rock and sand in there right now, i am planning on dropping a couple pieces of LR in on monday to seed the dry stuff so long as all my testing goes well.

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24 hours later the water has cleared the SG is steady at 1.025 and temp holding steady at 78F. i half expected the water to take another day or so to clear, i guess rinsing everything meticulously and pre-mixing the water pays off. happy so far.

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thanks for the advice. at this stage i still try to take in all the info i can especially on products. i am going to try and cherry pic a couple pieces of LR tomorrow or monday to add to seed the rock, but i will check that out tonight. here is a pic with the base of my scape. i still have more rock to add. :)

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found some LR and a couple pieces of flat rock today. got it all glued together and got it in the tank. found my first hitchhiker about an hour later, a tiny snail no bigger than the eye of a needle.

 

EDIT: have now seen a tiny bristle worm looking thing and a couple tiny super fast moving shrimp looking bugs. hell yeah! they are all too small to tell exactly what they might be. when i saw the worm i did have an oh #### where are my forceps response. i just need to wait it out till they all get bigger to find out what they all might be.

 

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anyone care to comment on the volume of rock for the tank size? looks about right to me, and this stuff has tons of holes and little pockets. i am still tinkering with the rock layout and am thinking of adding some small shelf rock pieces if i can find them.

 

This scape was really nice, why'd you decide to change it?

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This scape was really nice, why'd you decide to change it?

 

 

i wanted a over hang or two and i wanted to build up some tiered effects. much like you, i think it will end up being a fluid scape for the first few months.

 

EDIT: hey, i made page two finally.

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Was thinking of doing the next tier with rods so it would have a clear separation. It is hard to tell from my pics, but the arch is narrow at that end and I wanted to fill it out.

 

 

EDIT: oh yeah, plus the arch was only 16lbs and I wanted some more rock it there. I have spent an hour in front of the tank tonight looking for hitchhikers.

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so far i have seen 2 worms (one clear and one rusty), a dozen shrimp like creatures that move like lightning, a strange white bubble with a brown spot coming from the bottom of the overhang piece to the lower right side that disappeared shortly after the lights came on, and just now a tiny sand colored isopod digging around in the sand. all of them are tiny except for the isopod which may be 1mm. god i hope that one of the hundred feather duster "shells" has a stressed feather duster in it that will come out. i am glad to see that nothing seems to be displeased with my water, they all just move about and take care of business.

 

i would like to say thanks to BRS for the awesome reef saver eco rock and the coral pro salt and the advice you gave me while i battered you with n00b questions. and to Sea Level (one of my many LFS) for quarantining any and all questionable pieces of LR that show aptasia and having a good selection of rock of various types that really is alive. i have always had good service from them with my freshwater stuff, and while there are other shops with a wider selection of saltwater options, it is nice to have someone you trust on the other side of the counter.

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Looking good! The fast things are most likely amphipods. Copepods you should barely be able to see. I used to have some bristle worms but haven't seen any since I added my six-line :).

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