Raamiah Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 So I bought a 75 gallon tank and stand from MMERITT28 and I cleaned it up...wasn't too bad just a little dusty from not being used. It's in another room so I'll take a pic later. The stand is great but for some reason the color of it just didn't look good to me. The stand has a dark trim and a really light center color. I think it was done that way to match the trim of the tank. So I decided to darken it up a little bit. I have one coat done that I did last night and I'm going to put another one on here in a little bit. The hinges on the door were also fairly rusted as were the screws so I took that all off. I bought new screws and currently the hinges are sitting in a cup of vinegar to remove the rust. The hinges work fine but I thought I would try to spruce them up instead of buying all new ones. We'll see how they turn out. Here's what it looked like before: Here is the stand after 1 coat: Here are the doors after 1 coat: Here are the hinges soaking in vinegar: I'm also planning on painting the back of the tank navy blue to keep in light and to hide the overflow box hoses and return hoses too. My plan is to have Saturday the 14th be the date to load up the sand rock and water into the tank. Things are coming along nicely and I've got everything I need to get things started up. Thanks for everyone's help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Looking good so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Nice start! Good idea to put another coat on the cabinets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 Alright here it is: after 2 coats of stain for the stand. Several (just kept adding) coats of paint to the back of the tank. soaking in vinegar then scrubbing the hinges with steel wool I am very happy with how it turned out. I'm not good at staining but I'm happy with how I did. Now next Saturday is the big day when I'll add everything to the tank and start the cycle. Hopefully everything will go smoothly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefnjunkie Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I could not get past that clean looking garage-there is something just not right there-(scratch) Good job on the refinish, that's much nicer looking-IMO New tanks can be fun, can be-DOH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 I could not get past that clean looking garage-there is something just not right there-(scratch) Good job on the refinish, that's much nicer looking-IMO New tanks can be fun, can be-DOH! Thanks for the compliments from everyone. The clean garage isn't mine. That is a pic from the guy who sold me the tank. He sent me pics so I could see if I wanted it. The rest of the pics of staining and it set up are of my office where the tank is going to live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMERITT28 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 That garage is not clean, it is trick photography. LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Rockwork Thought I would get some ideas on how I want my rock to look so I tried some configurations and I ended up with this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Really like the rock work!!! P.S. Where did you pick up the rock? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Really like the rock work!!! P.S. Where did you pick up the rock? Thanks! All the rock is from my previous tank I had set up in CA. Got it from two different guys that gave me great prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 I set the tank up yesterday and here is what it looks like right now. Still a bit cloudy from the sand but its going! Now all I gotta do is sit back, relax, and test the water about every other day with those stupid test kits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Looking good so far. Yeah being patient and going through the cycling process is my least favorite part of starting up a new build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jozee Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Looks great!! Did you seed the sand to speed it up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Looks great!! Did you seed the sand to speed it up? I don't know anyone too close to me to help me out so I started with dead sand and rock, and when I went to the LFS they had already done their water changes so I couldn't use any of that to speed things up either. I'm going to throw a piece of shrimp in there when I get back to work on Tuesday to get the process started/sped up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 28, 2012 Author Share Posted January 28, 2012 So I have been researching a CUC for when my tank is done cycling and both Reefs2Go and ReefCleaners suggest very large amounts of snails and if you want some hermits too. The guy at the LFS said that those sites are basically crap and want to sell you a ton of inverts to make money and you don't need nearly that many. What does everyone think? As you can see I have a 75g tank so what is everyone's experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 I would say just put a few of each in and see how they do, I have never been a fan of the huge "CUC" theory. If they thrive add some more, there are many sizes of different hermits you can have in your tank and are a great addition to your livestock, but like anything they need food, if you start to see empty snail shells don't add any more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 Walked into my office this morning and I've got a nice diatom bloom in the works. Water is a bit cloudy also. I discovered that one of my powerheads was hitting a rock and was shoving the water downward causing a lot of stir up in the sand which was causing a perpetual cloudiness in the tank and a nice hole in my sandbed. Hopefully re-positioning the powerhead will take care of it. My last readings on Sunday were: SG: 1.026 pH: 8.2 Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 1 Nitrates: 15 Temp: 77 I'll test the water again today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 Tested my water yesterday and the water is now cycled. SG: 1.024 pH: 8.2 ammonia: 0 nitrites: 0 Nitrates 10 temp: 76.5 Now it's time to start adding coral and fish. Didn't think it would happen this fast but glad it did. I'm looking into getting either a pair of BW clowns or snowflake clowns as the first fish and looking into coral like frogspawn and some zoos to start with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefnjunkie Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Myself, I'm a fan of a large CUC. I have never had any hair algae and when the tank broke out from diatomes, the snails and crabs took care of it in 2 days-tank was spotless and was covered. For my 150 gallon I started with roughly 250 inverts, that was a start- for a 75 I would do roughly; 100 Dwarf Ceriths 20 Nassarius 30 Florida Ceriths 15 Trochus 25 Assorted Hermits 16 Large Nerite 2-3 Emerald Crabs but thats just me and those are rough numbers-(laugh) FWIW, I have bought form both companies and they are good to deal with like anything else its an investment for a healthy tank-IMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raamiah Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 So my next question would be if I buy one of those crews from one of the sites I would have to add them all at once, would there be enough 'crap' in my tank for them to survive or should I get fish first and create a bioload for them to thrive in and then add them? Here is a pic of my tank today: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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