J & Jr

The first is the old tank, the second the new setup this last weekend.

I have a stand that went under my old 55gal it is for a 13"X48" footprint tank.in good shape the only problem in my opinion is it's to short I don't like short tank's and this stand is only 23 3/4" tall. I'M going to try to post a picture Well looks like the pic's worked so now I have no excuse not to do a build thread:)

In my new tank with all th pumps and lights the temp swings from 78.5 at lights on to 83.2 at lights off is this a acceptable range? is 83 to high the old tank never went above 80.5, just need to know if I need to invest in some new fans(laugh)

It looks like that to me also, I hope thats what it is I would hope that I did not give something away that would spread pests to other peopls tanks. The strawberry anemone I mean

I have about 50 or so lbs of crushed coral in my old tank with a powerhed and heater running is any one interested in the cc it has lots of nice pink and purple coraline and lots of little critters running around in it I also have about 45lbs of cc nice clean and white I cant think of a use for if you are interested let me know. I plan on tearing the old tankin the next few days.

DSOZ with the new cuc I got when I transferd to the new tank I have some turbo snails (the size of golf balls) and some hermits I got at waves that I just dumped in the sump I might donate. the tank is in clackamas next to napa just let me know. I'm running my skimmer verry wet and that seems to be helping some I think I will try to be patient and not go the additive unless it gets worse but thanks for the Options guys I will keep them in mind.

Luckily I have all the di water I can use its a comercial system makes waterchanges a snap. as to the cleanup crew I got what GARF recomended for a 55gal my tank is a 75gal this is what came 55 GALLON TANK X 1.5 = 82 JANITORS 25 MIXED HERMITS 57 MIXED SNAILS I was reading the wrong one when i wrote the above quote. I still think it seems like alot I may have to give some away:) will see what happens

Thanks guys for the reasurance I just got the cleanup crew from the GARF center with 50 hermits and 100 snails and would hate to become a mass murderer in the first week. just tested water again and everything else seems fine PH8.1,NO3 5.0,NO2 0.0, amm 0.0,KH 9.0, CAl. 390 so i'll cross my fingers and see how things go. by the way with that large of a crew and no alge to speak of does the crew need to be fed?

On the new tank i just filled with live rock from old tank and new sand I'v been keeping a close watch on the water everything seems good except PO4 it has climed to between 0.5 and 1.0 I'v never had it show up higher than 0.1 befor and just worried about my new cleanup crew should I be concerned? how high can it go without hurting snails and hermitcrabs? is it best to just do lots of waterchanges or try to run some of that phosban in the sump till this stabilizes?(scary)

Impur I wish I had seen that befor I installed the 5 bulkheads i'm Not sure how easy it would be now trying to cut around all the plumbing it look's great on your tank allway's somthing to remimber on the next tank. See what you guy's did not even finnished with this tank already planning the next.

CCR even with the tank shut down I still have about 5gal of head room in the sump. its the first one I'v built so I was overly conservative But thanks for the concern. I checked all the levels and they are all good except PO4 that is .5 the highest I'v had in eather tank till now. will monitor all week and hope to move the few corals I have next weekend.

thanks guys I feel much better about the hermits and one small blue damsel I added to the tank. neather I or the previous owner could ever catch that fish before to give to a lfs (he's a fin nipper) and when I was using a small net to help clean after pulling some liverock he just swam into the net so off he went to try out the new tank. Has any one ever tryed to paint the back of the tank with the paint sign painters use on windows? I just want to cover the back of the tank untill the coriline gets established enough to hide all the plumbing and thought that might be the way to cover it and still be able to clean it off easily latter if I want to.

there was CC and an undergravel filter in the old tank and with the stand it had no way to add a sump lots of things wrong which is why I decided on a whole new system. I did use about 20 gal. of old water in the new tank when I did a water change.

all the plumbing is finally finnished and the sand is in the tank and sump topped off. my question is if I put a adequate amount of live rock from a tank that has been running for 2 or more years 1) will it still need to cycle or is the live rock from the established tank an efficent filter to make up for the new sand. 2) will my live rock lose all that beautiful pink,red and white coraline? I don't want to move to fast on the new tank but would like to take the old tank down soon do to space limitations. thanks for any advise of your previous experiances.

Thanks joel I'll be by tomorrow

thanks guys I think the problem was only with that bag. the second bag the sand started out about where I gave up on the first. it rinsed fairly clean the second time I added water.

Finaly the leaks are fixed and its time to start adding sand and rock. I got about 80 lbs. of carib sea and started rinsing and rinsing and rinsing I started with about 10 lbs in a bucket rinsed and dumped water about 15 times. the first 4 the water was like milk by the 15th time it was only slightly cloudy will it ever rinse clear? with CC or gravel in my freshwater tank it washes clear the second or third time. do you realy need it to rince clear? at this rate it will take hours to rinse 80lbs. and I won't have any skin left on my hands.

I Know almost nothing about lighting except what I have read on the fourms this said I bought a new 48" 6 bulb tek from SLS for my new tank. befor the new tank was ready the PC fixture went south on on the old 55gal and I switched it out with the tek light. everything in the tank seems to love it. I have a pulsing zenia which is going wild suddenly, one of my shrums has turned into five, my GSP has grown from the size of a quarter to cover a rock the size of a softball,also some purple and pink birdsnest that seem to be fine. Hopefuly when I move everything to the new 75gal it will work as well

Thanks joel you have been more than helpfull. You always had time for my questions even about my DYI progects thats why I try to support vendors like you and some others close insted of the big internet stores. I also like the part about instant gratification when I make a decision to buy something. so once again thank you thank you

thanks for the sites but I like to support the LFS when I can and have already orderd one from joel I was just wondering if a crack in the voluite could be glued or fixed with Epoxy or a solvent base glue like PVC cement?

Well I finaly got all five bulkheads to stop leaking(clap) filled up the tank one last time kiked back with a beverage flipped the switch to turn on all the pumps and discoverd the next problem to tackle. The housing on my new snapper pump which did not leak the whole time I was working on the bulkheads is cracked and did not show up till I started the pumpsDOH! is there any way to fix these? I have a new one on order but it will take a week and I thought if this could be fixed I might at least have a spare. will any adheseve work in this high stress portion of the pump?

Thanks fly guy I never took the fitting apart to look at the gasket befor just installed it the way it came, now am wondering about the other four trying to decide wheather to leve good enough alone or check them all before putting in live stock

Hi, I am suffering the same problem with one of the five bulkheads on my new tanl the 1 1/2" I have been following this thred and have tried everything except the second gasket on the outside as I don't see how that could help. this may sound very dumb but as I was takeing the bulkhead apart one more time to clean and inspect for cracks (I thought I might have overtightend once) I noticed that the gasket was smooth on one side and had two raised rings on the other which side should face the glass of the tank? the smooth (which is the way it has been so far) or the ridged? or does it matter so far this is my fifth try and am getting frustrated the other four worked the very first try

I know I just kept asking people if they new of a club and finaly a clerk at a LFS told me to look on the internet it still took me about two weeks to find this one. the one I found first was saltwaterfish then RC and the were both overwelming to a computer iliterate like me. I'm glad I finaly found this site as what I realy wanted besides information was to meet other locals with like interests. and hope soon to meet more of you.

Hi Piero john here my wife just got a nikon D80 I'v been try'ing to learn how to use it to take pictures of my tank building efforts. I have trouble with manuels (lack of time) to many other projects. if you are interested in playing with one I would be happy to meet at a LFS in the area and watch how someone who knows how takes tank pictures. The only lenses we have at the time are a 28-80 1:3.3 to 5.6 and a 75-300mm. I'm not sure eather of these will work. I live in clackamas but enjoy trips to both upscales and waves Just a thought.