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Jake's tank build

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tank build
4K views 29 replies 7 participants last post by  Jake258 
#1 ·

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#2 ·
I have a HOB aqua c remora with maxi jet 1200 and it works great on my 45 gallon, so you should be good to go! What are the plans for the sand bed? Remember, no more than an inch unless you are doing 4 inches or more with the sand bed (dsb's are good for controlling nitrates). Also, I would advise you to place egg crate on the bottom for the rocks if you are going to be going with a 4 inch sand bed because a lot of the bottom rocks will be covered if you don't, and you may end up having to buy more rock to make things work out ( I just placed the rock on the bottom and placed others on top of that and realzied I still need more rock, and I have about 50 lbs in there)
 
#3 ·
update

;-) I will have a deep sand bed i purchesed 60 lbs of live sand but it wasnt enough so i got premium play sand from home depot but i didnt add it yet. i am going to wash it out and wondering if it will harm the tank, so any thoughts?:-D i also got 20 lbs of live rock to seed my other 50 lbs of diy rock. lol it is bright red because all they had was red polyblend so whatever. the pieces of rock came from atlanticseafarms.net and had some great coroline growth. i hope im of to a good start?:p
 

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#4 ·
;-) I will have a deep sand bed i purchesed 60 lbs of live sand but it wasnt enough so i got premium play sand from home depot but i didnt add it yet. i am going to wash it out and wondering if it will harm the tank, so any thoughts?:-D
Read the bag and see if anywhere there is a Silica content on the bag. That content has to be 0. I recently bought a bag of aragonite sand, not live but base sand, for $17.00/15 lbs. This is the way I would personally go as I would not be sure if the play sand had any harmful components.

Looking good so far. What do you mean by DIY rock?
 
#6 ·
A lot of people make diy rock, and it ends up looking great.I am going sumpless as well, so we should keep each otehr updated on the process! I am a little ahead of you though; I already have a few fish in. I have two false clowns and a yellow watchman. I added a pistol shrimp but havent seen him since day 2... The only other fish I want to add is a flame angel and put the rest of the money into some nice corals and I still have to get a light.
 
#7 ·
that is about the same as what i am planning to do. i need a good light, but i am deep and i mean deep in the hole with my parrents so that will be further down the road. the rocks look good but i am not shure what to use to make it stay in place. Also what should i have as my "clean up crew."8)
 
#8 ·
I only have 4 blue legged hermits and about 10 different snails.. I need to get some more. With the hermits be careful because some are more aggressive than others. Also, you may lose a snail or two to a hermit, but this is expected if you do keep them. I have only lost one snail. You can make the rocks stay in place with epoxy of pvc or acrylic rods. I didnt use any of them, but I made sure everything was really stable; none of it is really necessary unless you plan on doing a big cave or something.
 
#9 ·

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#10 ·
purole up? hurt my skimmer?

i got up at 5 in the morning(not on purpose) because i find out that my skimmer's collection jug that is 2.5 gallons is over flowing i just about 6 hours i read the fine print on the instructions and it says not to use water conditioners so.:evil: i was wondering if i could use purple up to help my coraline growth and would it effect the skimmer
 
#13 ·
my mom is really angry that it overflowed. it was only a little water but when i tested it i realized that my tap water wasn't cutting it because i had very high nitrates so if any one can sugest a good RO/DI unit for under $125 that would be great.
 
#18 ·
more rock and clean up crew

:-D Got some good live rock with a ton of coraline and a bunch of life. i also got 5 turbo snails and 10 blue legged hermit crabs. i picked up some supplaments that include iodide, strontium, and magnesium. I have a koralia 1 and 2 and a rio 400, should i get a maxi jet 1200 or 2 to get some more circulation. it seems to be comming along. i am planning to add some soft corals in 2-3 weeks depending on what my parameters are. right now they are really good all 0 for ammonia, phospate, nitrate, and nitrite. the PH is 8.4 and the KH is 10. should i add fish before the soft corals. thanks for the responses and help.:-D
 
#19 ·
the first two pics are of an unknown tentical thing that came on my live rock that i am curious what it is. the next is a FTS. after that is a extra hermit crab shell that my LFS gave me and it seems to have some small polyps growing on it. the next is one of my turbo snails that seems to clean the algae of the glass nonstop. the last pic is my skimmer and it is producing a ton of waste and wet foam, and the collection cup is all the way up i am not shure if it will correct it self or i messed up something while i was setting it up.:-?
 

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#20 ·
the first pictures look like aptasia as well as the one thats on the hermit crab shell.

the mag pump you have is feeding your skimmer? you may have gotten a pump to large. i also notice you still have the foam on the pump and your going to want to keep that clean on a everyday basis or remove it.
 
#21 ·
I discovered a clam or scallop on a piece of live rock. it continusly opens and closes and i know that they help filter the water, but i dont really know what it does in a "fishtank" will it harm anything??? i hope not:lol:. When should i add fish? Should i add the corals first? i already had a diatom bloom. i am considering two false perculas, but that is what most people have i think a pistol shrimp and goby combo would be a definite yes. any responses of what you would do are much appreciated. i am still a real newbie.;-)
 
#22 ·
If you are getting a pistol and goby, I would make sure that you get a decent sized pistol if you ever want to see it. I got one that was really, really, small; when I switched tanks I never saw him again. Everytime my lfs gets them, they are baby sized and sold immediately. Also, make sure the two that you get actually pair up in the wild. I think there are a few that do not go together. There is a list somehwere on here. Your lfs should help you out with that though. THey probably have the tiger pistol. Did your ammonia already spike and go back down? What bout nitrites? If they are reading zero, and you have minimal nitrates, you can add a cuc to help with diatoms and begin adding fish slowly. I would wait to add any difficult to maintain corals because you ave a new tank. You could add some mushrooms though!
 
#23 ·
I see that you have an aqua c remora. If you are having trouble with it overflowing, you can purchase the drain fitting nozzle and run a piece of tube from that down to a 2 liter pepsi bottle (thats what I did). I never had to worry about gunk on the floor and just cleandd out the collection cup and bottle every 3 days or so. Well I jus noticed you had it on there... how did it overflow?
 
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