ok mirror down wall painted. tomorrow i am going to lowes to buy the material to build my light bracket and hopefully i will start filling tomorrow night. and everything i need has come in. 90lbs of cycled live sand(not bagged bioactive) and a bunch of dry rock. plus will add my sand and rock from my 46 gallon when i move everything over so i will end up with around 130-150 lbs of sand and over 100 pounds of rock when all is said and done will post pics tomorrow when everything is filling
tank is up, light mount built, sand and dry rock in, and started filling with water
here are a few process pics leading up to were i am now
everthing is filled plumbed and running and it is already cycling strong :
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Ben, are those LEDs or T5 lighting?
its an 8 bulb t5 unit that i got dirt cheap with fairly new ati bulbs
Looking good. Your durso pipes work out for you?
yeah i had to fine tune the height a little bit but now it seems to be running great
Lookin’ good man!
Looks very nice. I like how you hung your light, I’m doing something similar when I am going to hang my canopy.
thanks guys. a little update i already have my diatom bloom starting so that is good news. i used all live sand, about 15lbs of fully cured live rock from my other tank, and some tank cycle chem so hopefully it is ready soon. my last tank cycled in 2 weeks so heres hoping
ok nitrates are almost down to zero and i ordered my cuc from reef cleaners yesterday. they are super cheap and had free shipping. so hopefully i will be moving stuff over soon i cant wait
bsnow, did your nitrates fall off naturally or did you have some help? I’m currently battling some nitrate issues from filling my tank w/ tap water and not waiting for my RO/DI setup. /facepalm
BioPellets and Cheato for me at the moment. Maybe some De-Nitrate but i’m giving the biopellets/cheato time to come online and do their thing.
Mine are falling mostly naturally I am running a little ammo-carb in my sump and added some cycling bacteria stuff. And I use strictly ro/Di took a while to fill up but it is the way to go
I ran out of Ro too but I disconnected my di canisters and ran tap water through them to fill it it exhausted fast but worked. Just an idea.
so i have started moving stuff over to the new tank. i bought a flame angel and a true perc and added them as well as moving my coral beauty in at the same time as the flame they seem to be getting along so far i also moved my anenome over for the clown. now i just need to catch my other fish so they can go over too and then its the last of the rock so i can aquascape before the corals make their journey
so i got home from dinner to find my new clown had committed suicide by jumping out of the tank. the most bizarre thing is that the dog didnt eat it. that is the second clown ive lost im thinking of just giving up on them completely
Sorry for your loss, were you close?
After I lost quite a few jumpers I cut eggcrate for the top of my tank. Seems to work well, 1 fish did manage to squeeze through it. Bad part was he couldn’t get back in the water and cooked under the halides. But I keep it on. Bulk reef supply has a 1/4" net kit that allows more light to pass than the eggcrate, been thinking about it. Something to consider.
Clowns are not really prone to acrobatics. i have found that it has been another fish chasing them. gets them cornered at the top and…JUMP!! Oh NOO Mr Bill!! one way to keep them low is with a host coral, or nem lower in the tank. if they take it up as home, they stay close and defend it. They are fierce defenders, mine often bite my hand when i get too close when they have eggs on their nesting patch. They bite in the soft web between my fingers, and sometimes draw blood too. Little buggers.
well nothing had been chasing him but he wouldnt leave the top corner of the tank the only other fish in the tank right now hide all the time so they havent even been near him that ive seen. i also had a bubble tip in the tank but he wouldnt go near it
The only fish that jumped for me was an ocel clown and firefish. Maybe try a seabae or maroon clown they seem more aggressive and less prone to jump. Maybe stray voltage. Also all your corals are ready when you want them they look good too