Diver's Pony Paradise - New photos! (pg. 64)

[Felicia]

Looks like I won't be as far behind as I thought

 

My BRS dry rock and sand comes tomorrow so now I just have to figure out how to get rid of all this coral...

Nice! So you're replacing all the rock and sand? So basically its a full restart of the tank?

 

Do you have a local club or something that you could sell the corals through? Shipping isn't hard, but selling locally is easiest.

[Kfmmartin19]

Nice! So you're replacing all the rock and sand? So basically its a full restart of the tank?

 

Do you have a local club or something that you could sell the corals through? Shipping isn't hard, but selling locally is easiest.

Yep, doing a full restart. There is a local club but I'm not a member...idk just not my thing.

 

I might see if my LFS will take it for store credit. Dunno if they'd rather have a giant spongeodes or a bunch of frags tho lol

[Felicia]

Yep, doing a full restart. There is a local club but I'm not a member...idk just not my thing. I might see if my LFS will take it for store credit. Dunno if they'd rather have a giant spongeodes or a bunch of frags tho lol

Fun! I'm sure a fresh start is the easiest way to get it all set up properly for the ponies. That's too bad that you aren't part of the local club. My local club is a ton of fun It would probably be an easy way to sell off your frags. Yeah, you could call the LFS and ask what they would give you credit for and what size they'd prefer.

[Kfmmartin19]

Fun! I'm sure a fresh start is the easiest way to get it all set up properly for the ponies. That's too bad that you aren't part of the local club. My local club is a ton of fun It would probably be an easy way to sell off your frags. Yeah, you could call the LFS and ask what they would give you credit for and what size they'd prefer.

Dunno...I mean I enjoy talking to u guys on here but I can't see myself hanging out with people on the weekends to talk about fish haha

 

Especially with how busy I am doing other stuff

[Kfmmartin19]

How are you planning on cycling your rock? I didn't even think about that and seeing as Ive never used dry rock I don't really know what to do lol

[Felicia]

How are you planning on cycling your rock? I didn't even think about that and seeing as Ive never used dry rock I don't really know what to do lol

I'm still trying to sort that out. When I set up my 30 gallon, I had a 10 gallon that I was transferring. I used all dry rock in the 30 gallon with live sand and saw a tiny 3-4 day cycle after I threw in some food. I was able to transfer everything over within like 5 days of putting water in the new tank. I transferred all the livestock, coral, and 10 lbs of live rock that was in the old tank. That worked out just fine. This time around though, I'm not using live sand and I have no live rock I can pull out of one my established tanks. I bought a bottle of Dr. Tims to add bacteria, because otherwise there would be no bacteria in there. I plan to dump that in and then I'm thinking I'll get like a couple pounds of live rock from the LFS to throw in as well. Not sure how the cycle is going to look.

[Kfmmartin19]

I'm still trying to sort that out. When I set up my 30 gallon, I had a 10 gallon that I was transferring. I used all dry rock in the 30 gallon with live sand and saw a tiny 3-4 day cycle after I threw in some food. I was able to transfer everything over within like 5 days of putting water in the new tank. I transferred all the livestock, coral, and 10 lbs of live rock that was in the old tank. That worked out just fine. This time around though, I'm not using live sand and I have no live rock I can pull out of one my established tanks. I bought a bottle of Dr. Tims to add bacteria, because otherwise there would be no bacteria in there. I plan to dump that in and then I'm thinking I'll get like a couple pounds of live rock from the LFS to throw in as well. Not sure how the cycle is going to look.

I have some live sand coming with my BRS order so I wonder if that'd be enough to cycle the tank without using live rock...

 

I could pour 2 or 3 cups of my current sand into that sand to seed it...idk if that's necessary tho

[Felicia]

I have some live sand coming with my BRS order so I wonder if that'd be enough to cycle the tank without using live rock... I could pour 2 or 3 cups of my current sand into that sand to seed it...idk if that's necessary tho

Yeah, the live sand may be enough. You just need some source of live bacteria. I'm not sure how long it will take to populate the dry rock.

[Kfmmartin19]

Yeah, the live sand may be enough. You just need some source of live bacteria. I'm not sure how long it will take to populate the dry rock.

I ordered some of that Bio-Spira too so I was hoping that between that and the live sand, it'd do the trick.

 

Will I need to add some food to start the cycle?

[Felicia]

I ordered some of that Bio-Spira too so I was hoping that between that and the live sand, it'd do the trick. Will I need to add some food to start the cycle?

You'll definitely need to add some food or something in order to feed the bacteria. Otherwise the bottle of them that you add will die off. I was just going to start adding flake food as soon as I get water in the tank.

[Felicia]

Ok, so I played around with scaping the rocks last night and here's what I came up with. Keep in mind this is 15 lbs of rock. Let me know what you think. (Ignore the smudgy glass-it will get cleaned up soon, but doing all the work on it just keeps getting it smudgy).

 

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So its basically a rock pile in the left back corner of the tank that extends out along the back wall and left side. I didn't want to go too high with it so that I can put gorgs on the rocks and let them get nice and tall. I also wanted plenty of swimming space for the seahorses. The rock in the front right will be a mushroom island or something. Also, you can see the abalone shell feeding station in the middle of the rock pile. I want to add like 5 more pounds of live rock, but now I'm not sure where I'd put that. Its always hard working with a combo of dry and live rock, IMO. The dry rock scape needs to be set up so I can put water in there and not have to scape underwater. Once the water is in there, then I can go get some live rock to throw in, but it needs to fit in with the scape.

[Felicia]

I just got a box full of ricordea! I am seriously impressed with this ebay seller. They paid for guaranteed overnight by 12 pm shipping with insurance and that was included in the $109 for the 10 ricordea. They were packaged very well and all of them arrived in good shape! Also, I made some color requests of the seller and he was prompt in answering me and gave me what I wanted even though it was supposed to be colors of their choice. Very good ebay experience!

 

My official box inspector takes her job very seriously.

 

http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/LilyandBox1.png.html'>

 

"Ok, this box has passed inspection. You can open it now."

 

http://s289.photobucket.com/user/alatarie/media/LilyandBox2.png.html'>

 

This is what a bag full of ricordea looks like.

 

Here they are in the tank. I ended up throwing them in the main tank so I'd have an insane ric garden for the time being. So many rics in there! Not the best pic since the glass is a bit dirty and they hadn't had a chance to open yet, but you get the idea. I requested a yellow ric and a pink ric. The big multimouth ric on the far left is STUNNING. Its bright yellow with lime green trim. The one in the back middle is a nice bright pink.

[Kfmmartin19]

I think the scape looks good but you might not want the rock so close to the glass on the left. Becomes a pain to clean the glass after awhile

[eitallent]

You may be able to make a LR platform for the island and put the current rock you have there now on top of it; like a pyramid.

 

IDK. How about a picture from above? That may help us give you some good suggestions.

 

You got a good deal on those Rics!! Beautiful.

[Felicia]

I think the scape looks good but you might not want the rock so close to the glass on the left. Becomes a pain to clean the glass after awhile

There's more space over there than it looks like in the photo. I made sure to position the rocks so I could squeeze my hand down there with a razor blade. Its tight, but this tank doesn't have a very big footprint because of the height and space behind that rock will be wasted, so I wanted to put it as close as possible with just enough room to scrape the glass.

 

You may be able to make a LR platform for the island and put the current rock you have there now on top of it; like a pyramid.

 

IDK. How about a picture from above? That may help us give you some good suggestions.

 

You got a good deal on those Rics!! Beautiful.

Good thought! It all depends on what shape/size of live rock I can find. There's a bit of space along the back wall still that I could fill in with another rock. I'll figure something out. I'll post a top down photo tonight for better perspective. Good point! I'm definitely open to suggestions!

 

I'm glad you like the rics! I always get nervous ordering things online, but it was such a good deal. I'm glad they arrived in good shape. If you guys want to order some, let me know and I can post the ebay seller's info.

[Dark_ice]

D: what i miss??

[Red_Blenny]

Beautiful Rics you got there.

[Felicia]

D: what i miss??

Just the DIY planning and build. The tank just got water in it tonight.

 

Beautiful Rics you got there.

Thank you!

 

I water tested the tank tonight and everything is working great! The seams between the glass that I redid are water tight! I was relieved to not have any water end up on my floor. I did however notice some slow leaks with the acrylic partition and baffles, so they aren't sealed perfectly. Once I got the water in there and everything running though, those slow/small leaks don't seem to matter at all. The water is flowing through the baffles following the path I designed, and the water level in each chamber is just where I wanted it to be. I am so excited that it is working!

 

I actually ended up turning the return pump down to almost its lowest setting to get the water level where I wanted it, so the flow through there is actually not the full 300 gph of the pump. I'm guessing its closer to 150-200 gph, which is just fine. It also took a bit of tweaking of the flow to quiet the overflow. Also, the filter floss under the cascading water helps reduce the trickling water noises. Its not silent, but its very quiet now.

 

I made my media basket tonight out of black eggcrate. It slides right down into the first chamber, under the overflow. The first shelf is filter floss, the second will be Purigen, and the third will be ChemiPure Elite. The heater is sitting under the media shelves. The controller for the heater is mounted on the back left side of the tank and has a digital read-out of the temperature. I've got it set on 74F for now.

 

The skimmer isn't running yet because there's nothing to skim. The water level in its chamber turned out perfect! Its low enough that the skimmer sits way down in the chamber so that you can't even see the collection cup from the front of the tank. Thank you sooooo much for the skimmer, Mark! It is absolutely perfect for this tank!

 

Gena, your Nano-Glo is perfect for the refugium chamber and lights it up really nicely.

 

Ok, that's enough detail for now! Here's a video showing the full AIO design with water flow! The powerhead and skimmer are both turned off for now. Also, I removed the skimmer collection cup so you can see the skimmer chamber better. Oh, and please ignore the cat hair. Lily had to "help" me with this whole project so her hair is everywhere. It will all get filtered out in a couple days.

 

 

Here's a photo showing what the skimmer looks like with the collection cup on. You can see it sits all the way down in the chamber so its hidden from view. I would hate to look at skimmate in the collection cup over the lip of the tank!

 

Also, here's my finished screen lid. It extends just past the partition and then the back chambers are uncovered for me to access easily.

 

All the equipment is now set-up except for the AIO, which I will set up tomorrow. I have to figure out which chamber to put the float switch in. It will probably go in the fuge since that has a stable water level and no other equipment. I will also try to get salt, rocks, and sand in the tank tomorrow. I filled the tank with RO/DI water tonight so that if it passed the leak/flow test, I could just add salt and it would be ready to go.

[RollaJase]

Wooooooo Ponies! Love the scape, looks great. You have done a really nice job on the AIO, really looks pro. I will be following this one as well .

[eitallent]

Great video! You have inspired me. I will have to do the same for my AIO DIY.

[Spirofucci]

Wow! this tank is coming together way fast! Great deal on all those rics, they are gonna look great in there!

 

Hope that skimmer works for you!!!! If you can keep a consistant water level in the back it should work great.

[zhuangcg]

Your DIY AIO tank turned out fantastic! I am seriously impressed by your skills.

[Ebn]

I know that you mentioned that it's a tight squeeze on the left with your hand and razor blade. I would consider creating a bit more space on the left in the case that you do eventually have corals growing towards the glass. If you plan on making frags every once in awhile, you can discard the above. I would do it myself since if it's already hard to reach at the moment I wouldn't be as inclined to clean it as often.

 

As for the baffles, you can drain the back chambers and use some weld-on #16 to reseal the gaps. Pretty painless operation and works well. If you're considering it, I would do it now, prior to stuff growing back there (spirorbids and vermetids love such environments).

[Kfmmartin19]

I just tried playing with my rocks for a little and made a nice scape and then realized that is looks exactly like yours! Whoops

 

I'm gonna try to take a hammer to mine. The rocks are too big for me to do much with

[Felicia]

Wooooooo Ponies! Love the scape, looks great. You have done a really nice job on the AIO, really looks pro. I will be following this one as well .

Thank you! I'm glad you like it

 

Great video! You have inspired me. I will have to do the same for my AIO DIY.

I would love to see a video of your AIO design up and running! I was trying to take photos for you guys last night and realized that a video was much easier to show what's going on.

 

Wow! this tank is coming together way fast! Great deal on all those rics, they are gonna look great in there!

 

Hope that skimmer works for you!!!! If you can keep a consistant water level in the back it should work great.

Thanks! I'm having fun with the project, so I keep spending my free evenings working on it, which is making it go quickly. The hard work is done no

 

I was definitely thinking of your amazing ric garden when I ordered these rics. You have so many gorgeous ones! 10 is an affordable starting point for now and I can work my way up to one like yours

 

The skimmer is going to work great! I was watching the flow through the chambers for a long time last night and the water levels are VERY stable. The skimmer chamber didn't change one bit! I will keep you posted on how it does once there's something in there to skim.

 

Your DIY AIO tank turned out fantastic! I am seriously impressed by your skills.

Thank you! This has been fun and didn't require all that many skills. Just some good planning/design with help from you guys and then it was pretty easy to actually build.

 

I know that you mentioned that it's a tight squeeze on the left with your hand and razor blade. I would consider creating a bit more space on the left in the case that you do eventually have corals growing towards the glass. If you plan on making frags every once in awhile, you can discard the above. I would do it myself since if it's already hard to reach at the moment I wouldn't be as inclined to clean it as often.

 

As for the baffles, you can drain the back chambers and use some weld-on #16 to reseal the gaps. Pretty painless operation and works well. If you're considering it, I would do it now, prior to stuff growing back there (spirorbids and vermetids love such environments).

Yeah, when I am finalizing the rock scape, I will try to make sure there is enough of a gap there to clean easily. I just don't want to loose too much dead space back behind those rocks, since the footprint I am left with for the display is pretty small.

 

Its actually not the baffles leaking, its the silicone seal between the tank and the main partition (back wall). I was worried it might leak a bit since I had to leave gaps around the whole wall for the acrylic to swell in the water. That made siliconing it together without air bubbles or tiny gaps pretty difficult. I was debating draining all the water, touching up some of the silicone work, and then waiting another 48 hours for it to cure before doing a second water test. However, I doubt I'll ever get that sealed perfectly and once I started testing the flow, the water is moving through the back chambers the way I want, so I don't see any reason to worry about messing with the tiny leaks. I think it would be more work than its actually worth.

 

I just tried playing with my rocks for a little and made a nice scape and then realized that is looks exactly like yours! Whoops

 

I'm gonna try to take a hammer to mine. The rocks are too big for me to do much with

Oops! Not that I mind if your scape looks the same as mine. Just means I did a good job on mine, since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

Yeah, big pieces can be difficult to do much with. I broke up a lot of the pieces when I was building the arch in my main tank. My rockpile is this tank was easy though with the big pieces. Btw, did you get some Tonga branch pieces?

 

 

 

 

I left everything running in the tank overnight, and I woke up this morning to everything still running well. I'm pretty sure I had a nightmare at some point about waking up to my bedroom being flooded. Luckily that didn't happen and there are no leaks or anything. Whew! The fact that I built all this myself just makes me extra nervous. I guess I did an ok job