New with some questions (photos too)

[Ted]

75 lbs for $175 is a great deal. Much less then what I paid for my rock. As a matter of fact I have one rock in my tank that was $60 bucks all by itself. It was so covered in purple I just bought it anyway (wife gave me a lot of :pooh: for it) Good luck.

 

[ltkenbo]

Allright so this is so awesome, I found a guy on craigslist who was in the same town as me selling live rock and I emailed him and at first he told me $3 a lb. but after I emailed him back again he told me he wants to break down the tank tonight and that he would give me all of it for $100 if I could come tonight and pick it up and I did. I got over 100 lbs. for $100, it's a mixture of different types. I also got a Koralia 2 for $25 and 2 36" 2 bulb T5 fixtures with bulbs for $50!!! I know they aren't long enough but I'm going to stager them plus they were $50. The guy has a huge tank, all this stuff is from his old tank which he told me he hasn't been paying enough attention too so he selling all the stuff. He also had a 15 gallon sump which he said he could give me for $15 along with some other stuff like protein skimmers. Anyways here's the pics, I still gotta arrange all the rock and everything the way I want.

and here's the lights:

 

[dcantucson]

Wow! Congratulations, you got a deal!

 

[KidJ57]

That is pretty darn cool

 

[Ted]

wow nice deal. Its great that you lucked into that one go buy a lotto ticket while you are at it. You never know.

 

[yote]

You cant beat that with a stick.Looks like some nice rock to.

 

[ltkenbo]

Yeah it is, I'm about to star "aquascaping" it, a couple fo the pieces are pretty big, gotta leave some room for fish lol. So I'm gonna split some of the big slabs.

 

[ltkenbo]

Ok so I got the lights setup here's what I did:

Here's all the stuff I got for it:

Then I took the brackets I bought and cut off the end of each one so I could overlap them to act as a clamp:

Then I used feltboard to act as a damper on the clamp.

(I acutally ended taking out that clamp screw because they are tight enough)

Then I cut the board into 2 sections, one for each fixture:

and used corner braces to secure the two sections together.


Very nice:

 

[KidJ57]

one thing that worries me up front is the exposed wire at the sockets/end of the fixture...not so much that they're going to get wet (though that's a possibility) the concentrated salt air over time can damage your connections

 

[ltkenbo]

Yeah I'll have to cover those up, they didn't have brackets one one side for some reason.

 

[dcantucson]

Good job, over all though. Looks good.

 

[ltkenbo]

This is annoying, those lights really heat stuff up, it made my tank jump 4 degrees (80) which luckily these aren't fish and just live rock. Any tips?

 

[Ted]

open the top and use clip on fans. :D

 

[ltkenbo]

Well, you mean just for now? Or always, cause then I can't use the protein skimmer then, I guess I could install some PC fans. What should the ammonia levels be during the cycling process, mine are currently at 0.50 ppm. Also, the guy I bought the rock from recommended adding something like a frozen shrimp and let it float around and rot to help start the cycling process, along, do you think that will be necessary, looking at the fact that I already have ammonia buildup starting? My skimmer is collecting a good bit of gunk too.

 

[Ted]

well the shrimp method works very well. It might make your cycle a little faster. As far as the heat issue. Ya you are going to have to get air movment going through the canopy. I dont run a canopy or a top for that matter because of heat. You should try the computer fans for a long term solution. Try to have a even flow of air through the canopy. Intakes and exhaust,

 

[ltkenbo]

Does that ammonia level sound correct for the situation (live rock 2 days in the tank)?

 

[dcantucson]

If you can't keep the heat under control then you might consider a chiller. A temperature of 80* is okay as long as you keep it stable.

 

[ltkenbo]

I thought I might make my own chiller, I think the dorm fridge chiller idea I've seen on the internet is stupid, it's a waste of space and money. I thought, why not get a water cooler, take the cooling/compressor unit out, and use that in a way to chill the water.

 

[dcantucson]

Interesting idea.

 

[ltkenbo]

But what about the ammonia level, does that sound right??