Stan's 100g diary beginning to 30g transfer

stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
and beyond when I get there. I'm going to make this into four post/categories: 1)equipment collection 2)stand build up 3) setting up and 4)completed transfer.
my to do list is rather short: canopy/lights, 50lbs live/base rock, fish/corals
equipment collection (this began this past spring and ended a few month ago when I scored the tank)
tank 100g long used AGA circa 1988 72Lx18Wx19H

egay sump and coralife SS125

testing. good thing it leaked! acrylic solvent cement and 5 minutes it leaked no more.

no tacky bubble difuser box for me, not in sump use anyway. use porous mesh as to not block flow

ViaAqua pumps; return and all powerheads (30gallon return pump too) cheap, reliable and easy to clean

$3 a bag. did I mention this was a budget set up. go ahead and lecture


base rock seeded and cycled with cheato, 30g filter media and rubble rock. if nothing else it works very well for seeding base rock with amphipods and bio bacteria
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
tank stand build up:
I've build speaker boxes including fiberglass ones for the car, how hard could a simple design tank stand be
Cost about $150 in parts. I had tools already but just the bare minimum=not nearly as easy as it should have been





good thing it held water otherwise there goes the budget on a new tank
 
jjjoey

jjjoey

Active Member
everything looks amazing so far

ur quite the builder
if i built that it wuldn't have even held the sand lol
looks great
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
set up:
wife made me wait til after the holidays cause she had to have the tree in this corner
otherwise I'd be farther ahead

how the sump goes in. It will fit thru the back opening as well if the wall wasn't there but not thru the front




Hoped for the best here (the garage I built it in is anything but level)


and hoped some more

blurry pic but perfect!(macro shots, the one thing my outdated canon cant do)
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by JJJoey
everything looks amazing so far

ur quit the builder
if i built that it wuldn't have even held the sand lol
looks great


thanks but believe me if the online instructions told me wrong it would have tumbled down already cause I just followed them word for word and the cuts were far from exact
luckily precision isn't really required on this job
on to the fun part:
so two weeks later I have enough water....almost

in the background one of those speaker boxes I made of wood/fiberglass. anybody need a 235/35/19 Goodyear F1 tire brand new. make offer

the fill up. looks a hot mess!


with the base rock still looking a hot mess

sump looking a hot mess (the coke bottle is for show more than collection. skimmer hasn't even had 3 minutes of break in and no bioload

 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
added cheato once the tank cleared up a little more

live rock/corals from 30 gallon added to base rock

poor livestock have to go thru acclimation

and transfered
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
lighting, well I dont have any yet. fortunately the tank is only about 2" taller than the 30 gallon so I simply temperarily mounted the fixture over the center and made sure all the corals and rock sat underneath it. VHO and MH retro will go in once I have the motivation to start building a canopy



sump final configuration (added mini powehead, moved heater and changed light)
 
maelv

maelv

Active Member
Originally Posted by maelv
Looking good......looking good....
This just became
:joy:
You didn't have to cycle your tank? How long of a process was this, from having the tanks set up, water to adding rock and livestock????
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
and the 30 gallon
bare as all get out. Good opportunity to clean the glass. At this point the wife wants me to get rid of it now that I have a bigger tank. she wants to put furniture so she can puts family pics and what not in the living room. I have other plans. a) gobidia reef (reef with nothing but small gobies) or b)were the questionable reef choices in my tank will go if they dont act right (mainly toby puffer and dwarf angel at this point)


and thats all for now until I get a canopy and real lights up the set up. Plans for the tank are a little more of everything but not too much of anything. a little more rock (50lbs) but not filled to the brim with rock. a few more fish but not overstocked (right now hippo tang, fire shrimp, 2 astrea snails and a few hermits make up the livestock). I would like to add a foxface, toby puffer and dwarf angel. I've had the fire shrimp 2yrs and it was full size when I got it. damn if I'm going to risk putting in a toby until the shrimp dies of old age so it may be a while before I get that one if at all. Naturally a few more corals as well but again enough but not too much.
 
bruder

bruder

Member
Really nice stuff. Just one concern. Your stand that you made. The way that you have constructed it, there is no wood on wood. From top down weight. Meaning the majority of the stress is going to be on the nails/screws, this could prove to be very problematic. Everything looks great though! Just my two cents, I hope that nothing happens
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by maelv
This just became
:joy:
You didn't have to cycle your tank? How long of a process was this, from having the tanks set up, water to adding rock and livestock????
Well it was more of a transfer than a new set up so I really dont anticipate a cycle. If anything gets to dangerous levels remember I still have the 30 gallon up and running to put the livestock back in. The base rock has been "seasoning" in that 10gallon tank for about 2 months. It was in there while cyling the holding tank so for filtration purposes its active. the cheato came from that tank as well. I used all the rock from my 30 gallon and did not add any new bioload so I dont expect a cycle. I only have one fish and all cured rock so even if there was a spike it would be small and short lived. From the time I put the water, sand and base rock in the tank it was probably a week later the 30 gallon contents went in.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by Bruder
Really nice stuff. Just one concern. Your stand that you made. The way that you have constructed it, there is no wood on wood. From top down weight. Meaning the majority of the stress is going to be on the nails/screws, this could prove to be very problematic. Everything looks great though! Just my two cents, I hope that nothing happens https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/newr...e=1&p=1923247#

there is no wood on wood here

but there is definately wood on wood here

if it falls down due to design so will about 100 stands from participants of this site because this design is exactly like those I copied plus the recommended design on various how to sites.
 
blizz75

blizz75

Member
looking good, the sand looks great surprisingly, most play sand is grainy and brown,... where did you get that? Keep it up
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by blizz75
looking good, the sand looks great surprisingly, most play sand is grainy and brown,... where did you get that? Keep it up

thanks! I shopped around. I even found that Kolopscape (distributed by ole castle) was inconsistant in color from store to store. the three 50lb bags I got from K-mart were noticeably whiter than the same bags of sand found at home depot so thats what I used. It looks pure white under lighting. better than I expected as well. the inconsistancy from batch to batch is a bit concerning though. If I hadn't looked at the same sand at different places I would have not known the bag from home depot wasn't really white like it should be. no its not moisture those sands are different colors. have 3 bags of each (at $3 a bag why not)
kmart on the left, home depot on the right

yet identicle labeling and bar code

 
madman33

madman33

Member
Originally Posted by saltn00b
hey stan i couldnt help but notice the sign on the bag saying 'DO NOT USE FOR AQUARIUMS' ......
all play sands say that but old castle and south down are commonly used with no side effects.
P.S. I think you're going to need a bigger light lol
 
tank watch

tank watch

Member
It must be labled that way for a reason. If it says do not use, I do not use.
Why risk it? Spring for the live sand. this is an expensive hobby, probably why I dont play golf...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top