Todd's 240g Build

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I've got a little more that's in my 45g holding tank that has the Singapore Angel and Volitan Lion that it came with. I'm going to just keep it up as a QT tank for all the upcoming additions.but not too much more. Its in the ballpark of 275-300 lbs right now and I've got some in the refugium too.

Cycle Log:

Zeros across the board yesterday and dosed to 2ppm Ammonia using Dr Tim's solution and One & Only.

Today:

Ammonia: between 1.0-2.0ppm (API test)
Nitrite: 0ppm (API)
Nitrate: 0-0.25ppm (Red Sea test)
pH: 8.2
 
Looking good . One recommendation if you are going to get a porc puffer is make a very large cave . The puffer once full grown will appreciate a nice cave that he can fit in.
 
I'm home now looking at the rock work and there are a lot of caves. How big should they be and do they need to be "pass-through" of just single entry? I've never had a puffer, so I'm not sure what would work best for them.

I took pics, but it is probably difficult to get an idea of depth.

image-3583477923.jpg


image-4169577602.jpg
 
your going to want something at minimum of 10 x 10 inches for the puffer. Pass thru or one entry will work. I have pics on my thread somewhere of how I made mine. Basically made a frame from 1 inch pvc then stacked the rocks around that.
 
Put the hood on just to see how it will eventually look. Going to add a coat of varnish and fix a broken cross brace.

image-503300567.jpg

Also moved a little rock around to get a couple decent sized caves. Might need to widen them down the road (for the puffer), but should work for now, since I want to get a smaller one to start with.

image-396132005.jpg

Just waiting for it to cycle...day three Ammonia looks closer to 1ppm, no Nitrites or Nitrates...hoping to see those trites within a day or so...
 
Ammonia went down to about .25 today, but nothing new with trites or trates...still at zero. PH is at 8.0. I'm bringing ammonia back up to around 3.0 again and see what happens...
 
Disaster strikes! I wake up this morning to find my center brace that was replaced in the tank, along with the other glass top pieces and my light! Not the way to start the day! I'm draining the tank now, as it kinda looked like it was bowing in the center. Can almost hear the dollars draining into my backyard...



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Oh no... That sucks but with a tank like that, when everything gets sorted it out it'll be worth it. If you have big enough container or garbage cans you might want to consider saving that salt water.
 
Yup, that sounds like a bad day brewing. Hope all goes well for you from here on in. It's a shame I've been looking for a tank like this on CL for a while and have been shying away from ads that have phrases like cracked trim or replaced braces, maybe I'll get lucky some time
 
Yeah...saving the water would have been smart, especially when I've got two trash cans that I was holding sand and rock in. I panicked, grabbed a pump and tubing and started shooting the water out the back window into the backyard. I drained it down to about 25%...just enough to keep all the live rock submerged. I've got three Hydors keeping the water moving for now.

Now I've got to figure out a way to get that brace to hold. It was originally two pieces of glass, one a little wider that sat on the notched glass on the front and rear panels of the tank. We went with one 1/2" piece to replace it, not knowing there was a notch. the replacement piece was the length of the inside of the glass, so it did not rest on the notch. The glass guy made two L braces, attached them with what was supposed to be heavy duty double sided tape and then sealed them in with aquarium sealant. Obviously not strong enough to support the weight of my light. I think that it was not totally sealed and the tape got wet and fell apart from there. I've texted this guy...just waiting to hear back to see what he comes up with as a better solution.

The light was barely touching the water all along one edge, so I am hoping it is not ruined. I got the water out and have it out drying while I am at work.
 
Well...good news at the end if a bad day. Glass guy came by and is going to redo the braces and get it on so it doesn't come off again.

Beyond that, I decided to do a water test to see if I have nitrites yet. My ammonia was almost gone last night, so I dosed it up to about 3ppm last night. I tested right now and its at zero. No nitrites (thinking maybe a bad kit?) and Nitrates are high on the Red Sea test kit (bright red on the low range kit) Where they were zero a couple of days ago. This disaster might have just been my big partial water change. :) I'm going to redo the tests again later and take a batch to my LFS for a second opinion on the nitrites and nitrates tomorrow...

image-451588487.jpg
 
TheTodd said:
Well...good news at the end if a bad day. Glass guy came by and is going to redo the braces and get it on so it doesn't come off again. Beyond that, I decided to do a water test to see if I have nitrites yet. My ammonia was almost gone last night, so I dosed it up to about 3ppm last night. I tested right now and its at zero. No nitrites (thinking maybe a bad kit?) and Nitrates are high on the Red Sea test kit (bright red on the low range kit) Where they were zero a couple of days ago. This disaster might have just been my big partial water change. :) I'm going to redo the tests again later and take a batch to my LFS for a second opinion on the nitrites and nitrates tomorrow...
Click to expand...

Good to hear! Hopefully those tests check out tomorrow, fingers crossed
 
Oscarr19 said:
Good to hear! Hopefully those tests check out tomorrow, fingers crossed
Click to expand...

I think they will, but want to be sure.

The brace is not going back in until Friday morning, so it will probably be Sunday before I fill it back up. I will be retesting again then. I'm thinking the ammonia might have gone done to zero because there is now about 275-300 lbs of live rock with 1/3 the water. I wish I had tested nitrates last night.
 
Try to get some Dow Corning 995 silicone sealant. It's structural silicone , used by sea world etc,

That's what I used for all the euro bracing on my 800 gallon tank. It's uber strong.

aquascaping is a tough one, try using acrylic rods to create strong structures or 1/2 cpvc and zip tying rocks to it, have a couple beer, do some aquascaping , sit back have a couple more and decide what you can improve. Lol
 
audifusion said:
Try to get some Dow Corning 995 silicone sealant. It's structural silicone , used by sea world etc,

That's what I used for all the euro bracing on my 800 gallon tank. It's uber strong.

aquascaping is a tough one, try using acrylic rods to create strong structures or 1/2 cpvc and zip tying rocks to it, have a couple beer, do some aquascaping , sit back have a couple more and decide what you can improve. Lol
Click to expand...

I like your style of aquascaping! Beer always helps with the creativity...tequila even better! :). It's a blank slate again, so I am going same basic idea, round two, but am going to try and get more large openings for the puffer.

I will see if I can find some of the 995. I think his fatal flaw in attaching was using double sided tape to hold the braces on to the sides of the tank and figuring the sealant would keep all the water off. Once those got wet, they were done sticking, thus leaving only the sealant to hold the weight of the light. I'm going to redo my hood so that the lights rest on that, instead of on the glass and brace. Its open up top, but so tall you cant tell. Eventually, I will upgrade to LED and I'm guessing those weigh a fraction of the setup I have now.
 
Only just found out about your disaster as I've been pretty busy with my own tank. Sorry to hear dude. Looks like that's two of us with 'glass' issues on a new setup!

I'm getting some good tips here Bout aquascaping. I'm hoping to do something cool with mine too.

Looking forward to seeing fish in there!
 
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