It's so on now - 72g Reef build

[neilanh]

Thanks Ziggy. I posted on WAMAS too and they all said how difficult drilling a 10 was too, but also one of them nearby offered to help that has done it a lot, cuz I'm extremely nervous.

I did keep it wet with the water hose the entire time, but I was under the impression I wanted high RPMs at all times, so I was running the drill at pretty quick speed.

I'm going to pick up another 10 on my way home and try again - they're cheap, so not a big deal. Unfortunately, my 20H won't fit in the stand. That was my original plan, but I've had to drop down to a 10 to fit inside the extra vertical supports.

 

[Ziggy953]

If you need some help let me know I may be able to come by this weekend.

 

[neilanh]

That might actually be nice, I'd like to walk through with someone my plumbing plans. Right now my weekend should be mostly clear, but it's another crazy week for me so who knows.

You're due for another trip to fins & feathers anyway, aren't you?

 

[intimatecple]

beautiful looking LR ...I am now looking at that outlet for some LR as well...that really looked nice!!! Great job with the stand as well!!

Barry

 

[pat8you]

I did keep it wet with the water hose the entire time, but I was under the impression I wanted high RPMs at all times, so I was running the drill at pretty quick speed.

Going slow at first to get a good groove is probably a good idea but i think more important then RPM is not putting much pressure on the drill. You want the bit to grind away very small pieces as low pressure. Its when you push to hard that it causes the bit to torque and stick and other such problems that could cause cracking. Make sure at the end when you are very close to getting through the glass to put almost no pressure on the drill. I've found this to be the most difficult part of the process. Just my limited experience with it though. Haven't done a ton of drilling

 

[neilanh]

Thanks for all the comments and advice everyone!

 

[SparKy697]

I've drilled a couple tanks at this point, 10 gallon tanks as well. IMO if you are breakig glass then you are applying too much pressure as you break through the last little bit of glass. I assume that it's breaking right at the end when you are about to break through the last bit of glass.

What ever pressure you are applying durring drilling, you want to really back off as you reach the end. This will keep the flaking of glass around the hole to a minimum.

Practice, practice, practice. It does not have to be a tank either. I actually practiced on a small piece of glass from a cheap picture frame at first.


EDIT:

around 450 rpm is what is usually suggested.

 

[fijiwigi]

I just read the entire thread from start to finish for the first time man that took a while. You are in the fun stage I am excited for you. Good idea getting the skimmer going with the rock cycling great time to break in the skimmer but why not cycle your tank with the rock It works awesome for an ammonia source. Do you have the stand done and tank ready to go yet?? Also I notice you will be using reef crystals you should pick up some turbo Calcium to add to your PWC Reef crystals has a low calcium level. Granted you don't have to worry about it until you have corals its a good idea to start the habit now. Good luck and I look forward to seeing the pictures.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Nice lookin rock Neilan, can't wait to see it in the tank.

 

[Ziggy953]

I wouldn't suggest adding CA to the water until you are in need of it. I use RC and out of the bucket I get 350 CA so It's not as low as some thing.

While the tank is cycling and for the first several months after you aren't going to need a high CA content. 350 or what ever you get right out of the bucket will be just fine.

When you get into SPS corals and have a high CA demand then you can look at CA. It is more important to have a stable PH, SG of 1.023-1.026 (Mine is 1.025) stable temp, stable Alk and Mg. I have a heavily SPS dominated system and I don't have to add much CA to my system to keep it up. As long as my Mg and Alk are good I don't worry so much with the CA.

 

[neilanh]

Yeah, not worried about the Ca levels right now. I'm a ways off of that.

I haven't gotten the skimmer tweaked out just right yet. No foam has made it into the collection cup, but in the chamber below it it is collecting some nasty water. Not sure what's going on, I thought that stuff would come all the way up so it's easy to dump - so I guess I'll just keep tweaking it until it does.

My rock photos made it onto Underwater Outlet's website. I feel so proud.

 

[Ziggy953]

How high in the body do you have the water level set?

 

[neilanh]

It's pretty much right at the throat of the funnel

 

[pat8you]

I usually continute to raise the level untill i see the bubbles start to spill out into the collection cup. Then bump it back down just a bit. Good place to start and then you can adjust if from there but at least you will have something going into your collection cup.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with Pat. Raise the water level in the body and make sure that your air intake is wide open if there is a valve on it. You can always tweak it back down if you are getting too much water in the cup. Now is the time to figure out a good skimming level and break the skimmer in.

 

[neilanh]

Is it critical for breaking in the skimmer that it be running tweaked just right? I understand it's benefits during the curing process to have it right, but does it affect the breakin?

 

[Ziggy953]

No not at all. Breaking it in just means that it, like new plumbing needs that slim coat to work properly.

 

[neilanh]

So I keep tweaking it, finally getting stuff up into the collection cup, but the water pipe is way higher than I anticipated it needing to be. Irregardless, it looks to me like it's going well. I'm getting good thick foam all the way up, but it's all white. I expected it to be brown nasty stuff by now, but I'll just let it keep running.

I keep telling myself I'm probably supposed to be monitoring water parameters occassionally during the curing process, but I've yet to do so. Is it really that necessary?

 

[Ziggy953]

Not really right now....You could test the basics now and have a base line to work from.

Your skimmer will pull nasty stuff out even if the foam looks white it will still have nasty stuff in it. Give your skimmer some time to break in and you will see some gunk.

 

[neilanh]

Another crazy busy week at work, even working through this weekend, but I did find a few hours today to work on my project.