MartyD Posted March 4, 2007 Author Share Posted March 4, 2007 Thanks everyone. I think I am off to a good start with some nice rock work and caves. Left Side Right Side Link to comment
Ryanhdd Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Well your tank looks nice. way to go. I just set mine up yesterday. Put my first set of LR in it today. Its a really nice tank im pretty happy with mine. I did not have anything damaged in shipping so i guess i lucked out. anyway i will post some pictures of mine to your post soon. anyway. besides cheato what else did you put in the fuge? And im not to sure if you should have put the cheato in already. I think you might want to wait. but then again i am not sure. looks good though Link to comment
Oceanic 30g Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 This is a really nice setup. The fit and finish of the tank and stand rival some of the best custom work I have seen at a fraction of the cost. You have a lot of current in the tank with the tunze. I am on the fence about what to order right now, but I am leaning to the cadlights 9 gallon. Good luck woth this! Link to comment
JG Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Are you using any light over the refugium? Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 The light is velcroed to the side of the fuge. See my pic above. Ryan ... I think it was ok to put the Cheato in the fuge. I had been curing the rock for two weeks and it was under lights for the past week or so. There is noting but Cheato in the fuge right now. Since the Cheato is sharing space with the skimmer, there is not much room for anything else. I do have a bag of Chemipure and a Poly Filter is the overflow chamber (left side). The pump chamber (right side) has the float and pump in it. The water level seems very stable in that chamber (as is the middle chamber). I am leaving it alone. Everything is running perfectly and the water is crystal clear. I am very happy so far. Link to comment
cannonball68 Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 WOW thats a nice set-up. how did you manage to fit so much media back there in the fuge? you can also put a 1" pvc elbow facing down with a pvc pipe reaching halfway down on the back side of the fitting to quiet down the noise and splashing for the intake. it worked good for me when i tried to stop the splashing for my wet-dry filter. Link to comment
Ryanhdd Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Marty, yeah you are right since you cured your lv. My lv is a little cured so it was not safe to put the cheato in. anyway your tank is really nice. I went out and bought 15lbs of lv and more live rock. that makes 27lbs of LR. Well the water is a little cloudy now(ofcourse) but when it settles down i will do some aquascapeing and take some picts. Anyway, cant wait. Ryan Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 6, 2007 Author Share Posted March 6, 2007 I have gotten a couple of emails about the aquascaping ... how did you do that kind of questions. I thought I would try to answer them here. Let me start by saying that aquascaping is one of my favorite parts of building a reef tank. My other hobby is landscaping. I think a lot of the same skills apply. I have been told that I have an eye for it. Who knows? I have done a bunch of tanks, both large and small, but this was my first nano. I think the most important part of aquascaping is the rock. I have bought some beautiful rock sight unseen and you can get away with buying it that way when doing a larger tank, but for a nano, you need to hand pick your rock. Why? Because there are so few pieces of rock in a nano (ten in my tank), every piece is important. What kind of rock should you buy? Everyone has their favorite. I used a mix of Solomon Island and Tonga branch (about 50/50). The SI is light for its size and the pieces have interesting shapes like arches and curves that make nice caves. Stay away from round pieces. You can't do anything interesting with them. Think about how the pieces will fit together when you pick them out. In a nano, the pieces should be about the same size. You really can't have a "centerpiece" rock in a nano. Don't go by the pound or pound and a half per gallon rule either. Buy enough rock to fill the tank ... not overfill it! And remember to leave some room for the corals. FYI ... there is about 23 lbs. of rock in my tank. When you get the rock home, lay it out on a plastic tarp and study it. It is like a puzzle. You will eventually see how it fits together. I like to start with two "foundation" pieces and build from there. Bridge the gaps with tonga branch to form nice caves and overhangs. Try to make the design asymmetrical. You are not pruning a shrub. Get the rock it the tank and then STOP! Let the tank clear overnight and come back to do some fine tuning. You can't work in a cloudy tank. I know some people aquascape with their tanks empty, but I think you get a different perspective with water in the tank. It may take a couple of tries, but be patient. It will eventually come together. I hope this helps. Good luck and happy aquascaping! Link to comment
Iceman202 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 this post has been a big help. I just got my CADLights 25G in last night and I'm pretty excited about it. I had a leak in the 1st chamber where they just neglected to do a complete sealing job. But other than that, it's a pretty good little tank. They sent me some extra lighting, and I'm not sure what to do with it. It doesn't fit anything on this tank. Kinda strange. I'm very excited about getting it up and running. Thanks for the informative post Marty Link to comment
Derby Reefer Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 MartyD, nice post about aquascaping. You might want to think about writing an article and post it here. I would read it. BTW great looking tank. Link to comment
reefer2reefer Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 your tank looks really nice i cant believe how clean the water looks. makes me envious, makes me want to start up a 'new tank' project, just wont tell the wife. lol keep us posted w/ more pics Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 6, 2007 Author Share Posted March 6, 2007 Iceman, are you talking about the small light with two bulbs? If so, that is the fuge light. I agree that it is too big. You can velcro it to the back of the fuge. It worked great for me. Link to comment
HammyDavisJr Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 Can you nab a close up shot of how you have your Tunze 9002 mounted? The lip/rim on my M-Tank seems to be giving me more problems than I care to admit. Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 6, 2007 Author Share Posted March 6, 2007 I am not sure how much this will help. My skimmer is mounted directly to the glass divider. There were a number of mounting options for different kinds of tanks. Link to comment
Iceman202 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 Yeah, I'm talking about the fuge light. Mine is a little smaller than the one you have in that picture, but is still too big. I think I will give the velcro idea a shot though. I don't think it will hurt to try. Link to comment
HammyDavisJr Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I am not sure how much this will help. My skimmer is mounted directly to the glass divider. There were a number of mounting options for different kinds of tanks. I see now what my problem is. They short changed me on some of my screws. I thought they did when I was looking at the instructions. I'm missing that long plastic screw and a long stainless steel one as well. I was able to get it rigged up with their hardware, but it forced the skimmer to sit too high in my skimmer chamber, and didn't skim properly. I nabbed some brackets I had from some other equipment and was able to mount it pretty well at the appropriate level. Thanks for the pic. Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 6, 2007 Author Share Posted March 6, 2007 I had to move the 6025. I was getting some pretty bad beach erosion I put it in the back left corner. I would prefer to have it hidden on the back wall, but it works much better this way. I have it pointing straight out toward the middle of the tank. I have the pump return line (which is on the right side) directed up toward the middle of the tank. The two working together seem to make a nice flow. Left Side Right Side Link to comment
cannonball68 Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 I had to move the 6025. I was getting some pretty bad beach erosion I put it in the back left corner. I would prefer to have it hidden on the back wall, but it works much better this way. I have it pointing straight out toward the middle of the tank. I have the pump return line (which is on the right side) directed up toward the middle of the tank. The two working together seem to make a nice flow. Left Side Right Side How do you like the lok-line? i have the older version with the pvc return from the top. i like the way the lok-line being hidden looks, but was wondering if the function is just as good if not better than my return. thanks Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 7, 2007 Author Share Posted March 7, 2007 I like the Loc-line very much. You can direct the flow pretty much where you want it. All you get is about 8 inches of Loc-line. I would be nice if the spray nozzle and the correct fitting to attach the Loc-line to the bulkhead was included. With what is provided, you just push the round end of the Loc-line into the bulkhead. It fits fairly tight, but does seem to back out over time. I will be ordering the correct threaded endpiece and nozzle. Link to comment
VDub90 Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 I like the Loc-line very much. You can direct the flow pretty much where you want it. All you get is about 8 inches of Loc-line. I would be nice if the spray nozzle and the correct fitting to attach the Loc-line to the bulkhead was included. With what is provided, you just push the round end of the Loc-line into the bulkhead. It fits fairly tight, but does seem to back out over time. I will be ordering the correct threaded endpiece and nozzle. I have a few pieces that I bought for an earlier project. After seeing your return I was thinking of using the "y" fitting and having another piece of locline hidden in the rocks along the back. Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 7, 2007 Author Share Posted March 7, 2007 I just ordered some parts from Marine Depot. I was thinking about doing that too. It would definitely decrease the flow. You would have to increase the pump size to make it worth doing. Link to comment
MartyD Posted March 7, 2007 Author Share Posted March 7, 2007 I didn't get one. I decided to run it as is for now. All I bought was the correct fitting for the bulkhead and a nozzle. Link to comment
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