Tank Journal Archive

[VaultBoy]

Hi everyone and thanks for reading my journal.

This tank is a work in progress, I have done all of the work/building myself and hope to have some water in the tank in the next couple of weeks.

Heres a pic of where im up to at the moment.

:D
Jack

 

[MTG]

well done, also when you attach the images you can set it to do a fullscreen if that is prefered.

 

[MTG]

 

[VaultBoy]

this is just the first time i have used forum software like this.. its really good i just need to get the hang of it a bit

its really different from most other forums i have used. can images be embedded in the text using img tags?

 

[Dynamic]

Yes they can :) The BB code is the same as other forums.

 

[Luke]

Hi mate,
I bet you cant wait to get some water in it :)
Are they two metal halides i see ?
Will you go bare bottom , Or put some sand in ?

 

[Dynamic]

More photos :D

 

[MTG]

yeah whens it getting filled up ? the new bracing looks great

 

[MagicJ]

Will you go bare bottom , Or put some sand in ?

Don't you like the wet towel look :)

 

[Jonny Glover]

nice vaultboy! you did a good job with siliconing it frmo what i saw on masa

 

[VaultBoy]

thanks for the comments everyone...

i personally hate the look of bare bottom tanks so i am chasing some calgrit for substrate. I dont mind the wet towel look but im worried about the affect of cotton on the tanks inmates :p

I just got 3 x 3,000l JVP wave makers and my Diablo 3000l return pump from guppys today :D Im a bit worried that at the head it will be running at i will have approx 10x flow through the sump, so im considering running my protein skimmer off this pump too, any thoughts on this?

The lights are 2 x 150w shoplight metal halides, I plan on running 20k lamps so i dont need any supplemental lighting.

Hopefully this weekend will afford me the time to paint the stand black and finish the plumbing. I have a heap of DIY base rock that i made a couple of months ago aswell as the limestone pieces that are in the first pic so hopefully all i need now (i think) is some live rock to seed what i have and some salt. I will be using tap water for a start until i can get an RO system from work (im a plumber and i just found out i can get them cheaper even than on eBay! with service agents in aus :D)

Thanks for reading, hopefully i will have some worth showing soon.

 

[VaultBoy]

also i need testing equipment/kits... what do i need first? are the cheap refractometers and digital PH meters just crap? and what chems do i need to be testing for from the beginning?

 

[MTG]

hey mate, 20k bulbs sound good, that return wont be to strong remember you loose head from the pump once it go's through the plumbing but you should definetly be able to Tee it off through a chiller. i have a 3000l diablo running my display frag tank and chiller. but flow is extreamely low. doesent realy matter tho you dont need much flow running through to the sump and chiller.
invest in a hanna meter for phosphate measurements they are relativly cheap and rather acurate.
alk test kit by red sea (new one in black container) is decent.

wheres some new pics?? cummon :P
i like thicker substrate makes it easyer

 

[MagicJ]

I will be using tap water for a start until i can get an RO system from work :D)

If at all possible, I would not do this. Not sure what you water quality is like in Gawler but any phosphates etc in the water will eventually turn into algae during your cycle.

Make things easier on yourself by buying some RO water if you have too until you are able to buy an RO system.

 

[MTG]

does your local fish store sell RO water? ours here does. well worth it untill you can get an RO unit

 

[VaultBoy]

does your local fish store sell RO water? ours here does. well worth it untill you can get an RO unit

not that im aware of... there is one in adelaide that probably does but with the hours i work its a PITA getting there during the week and the kids make it almost impossible on the weekends... they are good fun but they are hard work :D

I might be going on a bit of a fishing trip next weekend so the tank might be delayed in start up for another week or two, hopefully the monster kingfish that I am going to catch will make it all worth it though :D but to put a positive spin on the delay i may be able to sneak an RO unit past the wife in the meantime... SHHHH dont tell anyone ;)

 

[MTG]

guppys has some realy cheap decent units under 300$ definitely worth it. i use it for drinking water to. (mines not a DI unit)

 

[VaultBoy]

im a plumber and i can get a better unit that their $300 for $115... we service RO systems for hospitals and research labs and such :D

 

[MTG]

then why havent you got one :D

 

[marineclass]

Just explain to the wife that you read an article about how bad drinking water cna be and that you wanted to provide your family with safe drinking water ;) thats going to be my reason for getting one...then it just so happens that it will help the tank as well