Here we go

[JerseyWendy]

We finally moved the stand, tank and canopy to its final location.

I've been busy all morning figuring out this plumbing thing, the whole time crossing my fingers that the Durso would fit into the overflow. It did. Whew!

A couple of days ago I learned my first lesson about leaving a brand new R/O-D/I unit running all night, assuming it'll be ok. Woke up the next morning to find the dining room rather slippery.
Anyway, I filled a 32 gallon container, threw in a power head and heater, and mixed in Reef Crystals this morning.

Saturday I'm taking a ride to Medford, in hopes of coming home with a box of Kaelini. ;D

I've got to be honest though: Now that I'm getting SO close, I'm getting the jitters. Is this normal?

---
Wendy

 

[Candi]

OMG gorgeous stand/canopy, mind telling me where you got it (even if I couldn't afford it and hubby would never say yes LOL) You must be sooo excited, it looks like it'll be gorgeous and I look forward to photos as it progresses.

Good luck on Sat

 

[Phyl]

The part "they" never tell you is that when it cycles you'll get brown stuff on the sand that comes and goes (diatoms), when the ammo part of the cycle hits you'll get cloudy like you've never seen and you'll be wondering what you did wrong. All perfectly normal. Don't panic.

Good luck with it. Don't be jittery. It will be wonderful (though more expensive than you could ever have imagined, lol).

 

[JerseyWendy]

OMG gorgeous stand/canopy, mind telling me where you got it (even if I couldn't afford it and hubby would never say yes LOL) You must be sooo excited, it looks like it'll be gorgeous and I look forward to photos as it progresses.

Good luck on Sat

Candi, thank you so very much. I don't mind telling you at all - and you'll be surprised how much we paid: The stand and canopy cost us a total of $270 because we did it all from scratch. See here: http://www.njreefers.org/forums/index.php/topic,2583.0.html

---
Wendy

 

[jazzsam]

I know about the jitters..... This Sat I will "hopefully" get the tank on the stand and I am already jumpy.

 

[JerseyWendy]

The part "they" never tell you is that when it cycles you'll get brown stuff on the sand that comes and goes (diatoms), when the ammo part of the cycle hits you'll get cloudy like you've never seen and you'll be wondering what you did wrong. All perfectly normal. Don't panic.

Good luck with it. Don't be jittery. It will be wonderful (though more expensive than you could ever have imagined, lol).

Phyl, thanks for the warning. Actually I have a question about that already if you don't mind. :-[

"If" the plumbing isn't running by Saturday, or the tank isn't filled yet, I was planning on placing the rock in the 32 gallon tub. Should I move it into the display tank once it's up and running? I've heard mixed opinions about putting sand into the tank if it's used to cure the rock. So, cure it in main tank with or without the sand? Or leave it in the tub altogether?

---
Wendy

 

[JerseyWendy]

I know about the jitters..... This Sat I will "hopefully" get the tank on the stand and I am already jumpy.

Yep - I hear you loud and clear. I'm sure I've driven a few people absolutely nuts by now, and they may even wish they would have never met me.

---
Wendy

 

[Candi]

Oh the jealousy LOL I can't even imagine trying to make something like that, let alone having it come out 1/100th as nicely as yours did. Then again the only tools we own are are electric drill, few screwdrivers, and a hammer... and only because I bought them (my husband is not DIY at all).

Actually, that one doesn't look so great the more that I look at it, you should sell it to me and try again heheee JK

Gorgeous, and if you ever do want to get into the business of stand/canopy building PLEASE let me be your first customer!!!

 

[Phyl]

We cured our rock in the main with the sand. I've never read anything to the contrary. The sand will settle and seed as part of the cycling process. This is actually desirable because the bacteria that colonates on the sand helps it to settle (especially the finer particulate).

If I were going to cure the rock in a bucket I wouldn't put the sand in there but primarily because it would be awful to move the sand after the fact. How "uncured" is the rock right now? If it is "mostly cured" I'd cure it in the main. If it TOTALLY needs to be cured, there's no sense in doing that in the main. You'll need more water to do it that way.

We started with 80% dry and around day 14 added 20% live rock. The cycle ended when the live rock was added (shipped directly from liverocks.com though they're no longer in business as far as I know).

The ammo cycle days with the cloudy water made us want to cover the tank! We thought for sure it would still look like that for Thanksgiving, but it cleared up amazingly fast.

 

[JerseyWendy]

We cured our rock in the main with the sand....

How "uncured" is the rock right now? If it is "mostly cured" I'd cure it in the main. If it TOTALLY needs to be cured, there's no sense in doing that in the main. You'll need more water to do it that way.

We started with 80% dry and around day 14 added 20% live rock. The cycle ended when the live rock was added (shipped directly from liverocks.com though they're no longer in business as far as I know).

The ammo cycle days with the cloudy water made us want to cover the tank! We thought for sure it would still look like that for Thanksgiving, but it cleared up amazingly fast.

Thanks again, Phyl. It will surely make things easier doing it with the sand in the main tank. I honestly don't know "how" cured (if at all) the rock will be. I'm hoping my nose will be able to tell me. I'm planning on using new toothbrushes to brush off any obvious dead stuff, while dipping the rock in numerous buckets of water before placing it either in the display or into the tub. If I can't put the rock into the main on Saturday, I know it will only be a matter of days before I can transfer it into the display/main tank.

What do you mean by "we started 80% dry"?

---
Wendy

 

[JerseyWendy]

Oh the jealousy LOL I can't even imagine trying to make something like that, let alone having it come out 1/100th as nicely as yours did. Then again the only tools we own are are electric drill, few screwdrivers, and a hammer... and only because I bought them (my husband is not DIY at all).

Actually, that one doesn't look so great the more that I look at it, you should sell it to me and try again heheee JK

Gorgeous, and if you ever do want to get into the business of stand/canopy building PLEASE let me be your first customer!!!

Aaah, Candi, you're making me blush. Thank you so much.
Hey, I'm in Howell, how far are you from me? Perhaps we could build one for you together one day?

---
Wendy

 

[Candi]

she means dry base rock... great way to save lots of money especially if you're filling up a very large tank as the bottom pieces will likely not even be seen.

If you think you want to go this way I can not recommend www.marcorocks.com enough, I heard about them on RC and nano-reef.com and after thinking it over for a few days talked to the owner/Marc and ordered a small box (since this is try 25lbs dry usually ends up giving you about double the weight when wet, something to keep in mind) anyways I've been meaning to take some photos of it and post but haven't had a chance yet... the rock I got is awesome! It's completely dry so you can drill it and work it however you want (I'd love to create something like Mervs new tank, one can dream) anyways you then use your LR to "seed" it with critters and such. I think it's a great way to save money and then use that saved money to pick some really great show pieces of LR.

 

[Candi]

Now you're in for it Wendy LOL I just checked google maps and you're 40mins from me (I'm in Port Monmouth). If you think building with dogs around was hard wait until I bring my "mama I want to help" 3 yr old hehee But in all seriousness I would jump at the opportunity... my current tank is only a 50g acrylic but I bet if I was going to have something awesome looking like that in the house he'd allow me to get a RR 65 or so As long as it wouldn't be BYOT (bring your own tool) I'm in LOL

Oh the jealousy LOL I can't even imagine trying to make something like that, let alone having it come out 1/100th as nicely as yours did. Then again the only tools we own are are electric drill, few screwdrivers, and a hammer... and only because I bought them (my husband is not DIY at all).

Actually, that one doesn't look so great the more that I look at it, you should sell it to me and try again heheee JK

Gorgeous, and if you ever do want to get into the business of stand/canopy building PLEASE let me be your first customer!!!

Aaah, Candi, you're making me blush. Thank you so much.
Hey, I'm in Howell, how far are you from me? Perhaps we could build one for you together one day?

---
Wendy

 

[sinkingbeach]

Absolutely AWESOME ;D It turned out beautiful, if you think the next few days are going to make you anxious/jittery wait for the next 3-4 weeks while your looking at the tank with water LR and sand in it

 

[Candi]

Absolutely AWESOME ;D It turned out beautiful, if you think the next few days are going to make you anxious/jittery wait for the next 3-4 weeks while your looking at the tank with water LR and sand in it

That's very true, and don't feel bad about all the hours you will sit there just staring at the tank when it holds nothing more then water/sand/lr (because it could be worse, I remember staring at nothing but water & sand in my aquapod back before I got my LR... don't know what on earth I thought I was going to see, it wasn't even LS LOL)

 

[JerseyWendy]

Candi, whenever you do set up a new tank, please feel free to give me a holler and I'll be more than happy to build a stand with you and your little one. We can do it right here at my house, all tools provided.

Anyway, I do have an update - and it's a VERY frustrating one. Yesterday morning I got up at 5:30 because I wanted to fill up the tank with the hose and give it a test run.

When I plugged in the return pump I stood in awe because everything "seemed" to be working wonderfully. We had installed a valve in the return, in case I had to slow the return pump down a bit, but there was no need to use it. Water movement was great, the overflow was working flawlessly, the only thing I noticed was it was somewhat noise in the sump where the water entered.

By 8AM I was at Lowe's, and bought a rigid hose that I slipped over the PVC entering the sump, lowering that part about 5". Voila! Silent.

From the sump area I glanced over to the bulkhead fittings and to my horror saw a tiny, super slow droplet of water forming (from the overflow bulkhead). I tried tightening it a little, but it only seemed to make it worse. Panic set in. Since we had glued literally every piece of PVC, I knew I would have to cut it to redo it. By 11AM I had taken 3 trips to Lowe's and finally decided to cut and start over. By 4PM I had gotten nowhere, so tired and frustrated I waited for my husband to come home.

Now my hubby seems to think the bulkhead was a bit too small for the opening. I had ordered the 1" bulkhead from Dr. Foster and Smith, and the actual diameter of the thing is 1 5/8", and my hole is a tiny bit under 2".

By 8PM we had taken another trip to Lowe's but didn't find anything to help us. I pleaded with my hubby to try and put it back together and give it another shot, even though he kept telling me he believed the threading on the bulkhead was a bit stripped. At 10PM we fired it up again - HUGE leak at the same spot.

So now I need a new bulkhead, and it's Saturday and nowhere locally available. Talk about frustration.

On a good note, either today or tomorrow I'll be picking up the LR. I've got a 32 gallon trashcan filled with fresh saltwater. I'm excited about that part, but totally dread the plumbing now.

---
Wendy

 

[Brian]

Tank looks great! Good luck with it!

 

[JohnS_323]

Wendy, I have a couple of different size bulk head fittings. You're welcome to one if you want it. We're going to be at the meeting all day today so I won't be available until tomorrow. If you want to try to find one today, you can run down to Aqua Oceans on Rt9 in Toms River, just south of Rt 70. I was there they other day and saw that he had some. Not sure of the size though.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Wendy, I have a couple of different size bulk head fittings. You're welcome to one if you want it. We're going to be at the meeting all day today so I won't be available until tomorrow. If you want to try to find one today, you can run down to Aqua Oceans on Rt9 in Toms River, just south of Rt 70. I was there they other day and saw that he had some. Not sure of the size though.

Thank you so much, John. Very very kind of you.
I'll call Aqua Oceans to see if they have one for me. Wish me luck.

---
Wendy

 

[jazzsam]

Wow, now I am very nervous about my pluming because I will be going throug walls! I hope it works out for you.

FYI, Aquatic Obsessions also has bulkheads of different sizes.