Biffy Finally Gets a Build Thread!

[Doc]

You work pretty damn fast there Biff. i am amazed at the speed your tank is taking form. How have you been able to add SO much new water without creating such a sterile environment that your fish die? I am assuming you are going to cure that base rock prior to adding it into the tank - with so much water and so little live rock, it almost seems as if you will have a bioload problem. How do you account for this? Granted, if anyone can do it, it is you.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[SSalty]

Wow, I just got done reading 20 pages of posts. Biff, you are making awesome progress. You setup is going to look saweeetttt!!!!

A few things:

About the RO/DI, I think it would be tough to get the TDS down to 0ppm with how bad your tap water is. My tap reads 240ppm and with JUST an RO unit, it knocks it down to 6ppm. Like someone else suggested, maybe a pre-filter would help get the tds lower than 12ppm. By now means is 12ppm bad for your tank, but with an RO/DI you should be able to get it down to atleast 1 or 2 ppm.

Also, you mentioned that you bought some heaters from wal-mart:frustrat:. With all of the money you are investing into your tank, atleast buy yourself some titanium heaters. I would hate to hear that your tank crashed because of a crappy heater.

But you definatly get one of these...:bowdown:... for stepping up to a massive tank.

 

[winyfrog]

um pictures!!!

 

[Alexander]

wow winy getting the picture push on you.... of all the people.

 

[winyfrog]

I deserve that I suppose :)

 

[Bifferwine]

Also, you mentioned that you bought some heaters from wal-mart:frustrat:. With all of the money you are investing into your tank, atleast buy yourself some titanium heaters. I would hate to hear that your tank crashed because of a crappy heater.

I didn't buy any of my heaters from Walmart. I got all of mine from Drs. Foster and Smith. Last night when my water wasn't heating up, I contemplated going to Walmart and buying a couple heaters just for the time being to get the temperature up. Raising the temp 10 degrees from 69 degrees was taking too long with the heaters that I already have.

 

[Bifferwine]

um pictures!!!

More pictures will come today, I promise! But first I need to finish setting up the sump and getting the water flowing.

I traded my blood thirsty sally lightfoot for a new red firefish. To replace the firefish the sally killed. Karma.

 

[Bifferwine]

You work pretty damn fast there Biff. i am amazed at the speed your tank is taking form. How have you been able to add SO much new water without creating such a sterile environment that your fish die? I am assuming you are going to cure that base rock prior to adding it into the tank - with so much water and so little live rock, it almost seems as if you will have a bioload problem. How do you account for this? Granted, if anyone can do it, it is you.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

I actually had to add ALL new water, unfortunately. I do have about 120 lbs of live rock in there. And with the same bioload that I had before, I'm HOPING that will be enough. I'm hoping that becuase I have so much water, that will prevent me having a bioload problem.

The base rock was completely dry. So I just added it straight to the tank. When the new rock comes in the mail next week, I'm going to cure it before adding it to the tank.

We'll see! There was nothing convenient and easy about this move. I can only do the best that I can. I upgraded five times the size of my previous tank, and the new tank had to go in the same place that the old tank was, so there really wasn't a better way to go about doing it, I think.

 

[Bifferwine]

TankAster! Came home from running errands and getting lunch, and the temp on my tank was 93. Looks like the stupid heaters finally decided to kick in! Neal ran out and bought two more thermometers to triple check. Yep, 93. Threw all the bags of frozen veggies I had in the freezer in the tank. Went out and bought a bag of ice. Which melted in about 30 seconds. Added a bunch of cold RO water. Three hours later, and my temps finally hit 85. Phew. I think I'm in the clear now. All the fish are fine, I hope it wasn't hot long enough to hurt any of my corals.

 

[bobby]

I hope there ok. I hate messing with stupid heaters, they're never right on.

 

[Alexander]

almost cooked meat biff. that would have been a first in a while

 

[MikMcgyver]

93, owie..... Glad all inhabitants are safe...:bounce:.

 

[Rcpilot]

I was reading about the heaters a couple pages back. I KNEW those stupid things were going to kick on and boil the water. Glad nobody died. That totally sucks. I'll bet you were stressed out big time.

Have you got it stabilized yet?

 

[Bifferwine]

I just checked -- 82 degrees. Although I have not seen my yellow tail or firefish since the water started boiling. I have kept the lights off since I saw the high temps, so it is kinda hard to see in the tank anyways. Urgh I better not have cooked all my corals! Tomorrow when I turn the lights back on, I will have a chance to survey the damage.

 

[reeffreak]

Was it those new Hydor heaters that got stuck?I would be pissed and called the manufacturer.

Seriously,I hope all your critters survive the ordeal.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yep. They were the brand new Hydor Theos.

 

[SSalty]

I have heard bad things about Hydor's.

I have had great luck with the Visi-Therms.

 

[LionFish]

Uhh wow that sucks,
The lights arent warming the tank? one would think those puppys would damn near start a fire!

may be a dumb ?
Are your heaters on one of your timers by any chance?

I may have jinxed ya there Sorry !

 

[Bifferwine]

Here are some pictures of the floating vegetables:

And here is a full tank shot from tonight. I haven't done any aquascaping yet. I just put all the rocks in a single layer along the bottom. I'm not going to move any of them for as long as possible, to try and let my corals recover from the boil. The water is still pretty cloudy, I might get some ChemiPure tomorrow to try and clear things up a bit quicker.

 

[Bifferwine]

Oh and I figured out... With no heaters whatsoever, the lights alone heat the tank approximately 1 degree every 3 hours. So we'll see if that sticks for a few days, and if so I'll have to buy a chiller :(.