Tore down my 180 last night

[nwdyr]

Well first of all congrats on the new start!!!
I had my first swf when I was in high school, 1979 wow i am old

but back then we used to have "dead" coral for rocks, and I used to bleach them to keep them white. I would lay them on the driveway to sun dry, and never had a problem. there was not much info back then, so it was allot of trial and error...usually more error. Its funny to think back then we WANTED all the coral white and dead, and now we do everything we can to keep it "alive"

anyway you sound like you know what you are doing and I wish you all the luck in the world

Don't worry about the "bashers" It takes allot of B@#$'s to do what you did!

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by nwdyr
http:///forum/post/2654699
Well first of all congrats on the new start!!!
I had my first swf when I was in high school, 1979 wow i am old

but back then we used to have "dead" coral for rocks, and I used to bleach them to keep them white. I would lay them on the driveway to sun dry, and never had a problem. there was not much info back then, so it was allot of trial and error...usually more error. Its funny to think back then we WANTED all the coral white and dead, and now we do everything we can to keep it "alive"

anyway you sound like you know what you are doing and I wish you all the luck in the world

Don't worry about the "bashers" It takes allot of B@#$'s to do what you did!
That is a good point, they used to do that all the time back in the day to keep stuff clean and white.

 

[kogle]

Originally Posted by nwdyr
http:///forum/post/2654699
Don't worry about the "bashers" It takes allot of B@#$'s to do what you did!
Thanks man. As for the bashers, not worried. I wouldn't have tried this with an investment this large without seeing it work first hand.
I think a lot of people in this hobby hear something and take it to heart without ever trying it or even trying to understand it.
I've had a few minor problems in setting this thing back up but it's given me the opportunity to improve something about the system every time.
Hope to have the salinity up to par this weekend so I can seed this thing.
Now if I can just figure out how to wire up my DIY VHO's. Can't figure out how the wires attach to the end caps...

 

[kogle]

Progress report on the 180...
Got the salinity where I want it so I went to a friends house this past weekend and stole 2 cups of sand off of him to get some bacteria started in the tank. I've used nothing but base rock and base sand in the tank so I needed something alive to put in there. Hoefully I got some pods and what not with the sand as well as the bacteria.
I'm going to add the first fish this wednesday or thursday. I'm going to add the small clown from my QT tank. After a couple weeks I'll add the larger clown. That will just leave my 6 line and mandarin in QT. Hope to let the tank mature a bit before adding those two guys. I'll have to dose pods for sure but I want the population to be as high as it can be before adding the 6 line and mandarin.
I was having a problem getting my new RO/DI to build up enough pressure to work the float valve on my auto top off. Thought I was going to have to order a permeate pump but it somehow worked itself out. Maybe a clog in the float valve??? I dunno but it's working now for 5 days so I think I'm in the clear.
Going to wire up the VHO's tonight and cut the vent holes in the canopy. After that I'll get the canopy on the tank and it will all be watching and waiting... 3 months from now and I'll fire up the lights...

 

[hefner413]

I found that if you can get a rock or two, you'll usually get a ton of pods that way. I took 2 rocks out of my reef and put them in my 180 aggressive to help start the cycing process. Within a couple weeks, the entire tank was full of pods everywhere.

 

[kogle]

Good idea Hefner. I didn't even think about asking him if I could snag a rock out of his sump or fuge. I've got plenty of base rock I could replace it with...
Tuesday morning update: I got the wood mounted in the canopy last night that the VHO's will mount to. Thought I was going to get it all wrapped up last night and low and behold, I need some screws to mount the VHO sockets. The one's they supply with the DIY kit are about a 1/4 inch long. Don't really know what they expect you to mount the sockets to unless it would be the reflectors for the MH's but not everyone runs MH's. Dunno.
Another trip to Lowe's I guess.

 

[kogle]

Thursday update: Kris said let there be light!!! Also added my first fish, smaller of my two clown fish. I'll probably add the other clown in a couple weeks. Don't want to rush anything...
Here's some pictures... PC pictures are of the fuge. 130 watts. Probably overkill but we'll see. Picture of canopy, 900 watts MH and 300 watts VHO super actinic. tank pics with 2 cups of sand out of friends tank and my little clown fish...
Time to play the waiting game!

 

[fishkid13]

Are you going to get any more sand?Looks good,you shouldn't have torn your 180 down, and just have turned the lights out for a few days and do a decent size water change or get a U.V light.

 

[kogle]

Yea I'm going to add just enough base sand to the display to get about a 1 inch sand bed. Will probably start working on that tonight.

 

[fishkid13]

Sounds good cant wait till the fish and corals are added.

 

[kogle]

You know, I was cleaning up my fish tank mess in the basement and what do I find? Nothing else but my moonlight I've forgotten to mount to the canopy. Good thing I set all the lights up on quick disconnects. Made it easy to pull the canopy off and mount the moonlights.
Of course I didn't get a picture of any of this but I will.
I'm still in search of some good base sand. I bought a bunch of the stuff that DeathCo sells for the fuge but I noticed it is almost too fine and looks like it packs down too tight. I think it will be fine for the fuge and it's deep sand bed but for the display I'd like to go with something a little bigger.

 

[kogle]

Another update, got my sand bed in the display tank this past Saturday. Used a mixture of fiji pink live sand and special grade custom seafloor. Seems to be a good balace between course and fine. Couldn't get a good picture becasue of the aragonite cloud but it should be all settled down tonight...
A couple more weeks and I'll seed the tank for coraline and turn on the actinic's.

 

[kogle]

1 month into cycle update, it's finally time to shed some light on this thing!!!

I turned on my actinics last night and they're running 16 hours per day. I also decided to turn on my moonlights.
Here's a few pictures. They're not the greatest but about the best I can do under actinic lighting. It's 300 watts of VHO super actinic.
What do you all think? Next step will be the addition of a small clean up crew. I'm also planning on adding some PODS next Saturday 8-8...

 

[kogle]

oops! Almost forgot to mention I started the fuge up as well but the only thing in there right now is base sand, base rocks, and the normal flow rate. no lights on the fuge yet. Just running water through it for now.

 

[hefner413]

Looks great!!! MORE PICS! Gotta get some of the hood open, stand open, fuge, etc...

 

[kogle]

I'll take some pictures tonight, I think I'll need to fire up the MH's to get a good picture of the display because the actinics mess with the camera too much...

 

[oceansidefish]

KOgle just read through and had a few thoughts....No bashing just questions spinning in the noggin.
1. Are you using an RO only now or RO/DI
2. Are you on well or city water
3. Thought about conducting a watercheck? on the incoming water to see if there was a problem with the source water.
Obviously the difference between well and city would make a monstrous difference

 

[kogle]

Originally Posted by Oceansidefish
http:///forum/post/2711056
KOgle just read through and had a few thoughts....No bashing just questions spinning in the noggin.
1. Are you using an RO only now or RO/DI
2. Are you on well or city water
3. Thought about conducting a watercheck? on the incoming water to see if there was a problem with the source water.
Obviously the difference between well and city would make a monstrous difference
No problem, I'm now using RO/DI water instead of RO only. I think there may have been a crack in the housing of the old unit becasue filter changes wouldn't even fix the problem.
TDS coming into the house now is in the low 300's and TDS after the RO/DI is at 1-2. Not zero but close enough I think...
I'm on city water as well so that helps a little...
I tell you what though I can tell the difference in water quality becasue I used water out of the 180 to start up the QT tank and I got algae in the QT tank. With every water change I do on the QT tank the algae gets less and less of a problem. I'm really leaning towards my old RO unit being the issue but I didn't have a TDS meter back then so I'll never really know for sure.
Good questions though!!!

 

[kogle]

Ok, I fired up the MH's long enough last night to get some good pictures of the tank and some of the equipment. Here goes... first off a few tank shots.

 

[kogle]

Some shots of the filtration...
Water comes through two internal overflows with durso's down through a filter sock, across a drip plate, through a chamber of bio balls, and into the sump where it gets skimmed and returned to the tank... one durso feeds both the fuge and the wet dry...