135 Oceanic Build!

[BigCountry]

sooooooooooooo I stumbled upon another craigslist score today!

Guy is taking down his 90 gallon reef at his office......selling me 125lbs of live rock covered in purple coralline for 300 dollars. That's $2.4/lb. I was going to buy/build it piece by piece over time via the LFS (Fintastic down the street). This stuff (premium rock) sells for $13-16 a lb there!!! Saving 1300+- dollars over time - although my wife fails to grasp this concept atm...LOL


He is also throwing in a purple lobster for free - hermit crabs might be in trouble...

My light and RO/DI untit arrived via UPS today also, so expect some more pics soon! It will definitely look 100x better full of rock!

And now that I have enough rock for bio - say goodby to the bioballs!! That changes my sump plans.....will have to make the skimmer section a little larger now...time for a refugium?

 

[BigCountry]

You guys think I should smash that large white piece of dead coral up (first few pics) and use the frags in the refuge?

The trigger loves to lock and sleep in it though...hmmm

Problem is it's going to be too big to leave in the tank with all the rock I bet.

 

[BigCountry]

Lot of pics incoming from this week. Too tired to label...feel like I am working 2 jobs! Lights came with 6 teaser moonlight LEDs.....and I will tell you what...these are the lights of the future when it comes to tanks......they look so bad ass....

Time to drink some beer, 10g of water change, then off to bed.

 

[Otherone]

That water jug is brillant - guess the waste waters goin in the sink?

 

[BigCountry]

Yes. Waste water is going in the sink.

Yeah we had a few empty 5 gallon jugs at work with rubber/plastic lids. They will work great. You can get them full of water at Home Depot/Lowes/Walmart for 12 dollars also. Which is not bad. Collect 3-4 of them to use and your set.

This RO unit might be the best money I have spent so far....this thing is going to get used a lot. That and my protein skimmer!

Man I am tired this morning....and I still smell like the ocean....lol!!

 

[BigCountry]

Emptied the skimmer over lunch. Nothing but sludge

Nitrates stable at 10ppm.

Lot of GHA that came with this rock, I mean a lot lol.

Foxface is enjoying all you can eat buffet.....anyone have 10 more foxfaces I can borrow and a monster skimmer hehe?? Might take a few weeks to clear the GHA!

 

[Mavrick813]

What is GHA?

Mike

 

[BigCountry]

green hair algae

 

[BigCountry]

Hit a snag.

The green hair algae that was inherited with the rock is proving to be a mess. 10g water changes a day to keep the water fresh from it - the RO unit is proving to be a GREAT investment so far with this!

Lights are off until I can figure out what to do. Might create a holding tank out of the kitchen sink and groom each rock individually, trying to remove as much of the algae as possible without removing any bio from it....

Any other ideas? There is no way I can treat it in tank, like I thought I could, it's simply too much.

Also, the korean lights I ordered off ebay are complete trash. Lesson learned on those - if its too good to be true - it normally is. lol they generate so much heat it's not even funny.....gotta figure out how to mod those as well...thank goodness I did not spend a lot of money on them....

 

[Mavrick813]

Hit a snag.

The green hair algae that was inherited with the rock is proving to be a mess. 10g water changes a day to keep the water fresh from it - the RO unit is proving to be a GREAT investment so far with this!

Lights are off until I can figure out what to do. Might create a holding tank out of the kitchen sink and groom each rock individually, trying to remove as much of the algae as possible without removing any bio from it....

Any other ideas? There is no way I can treat it in tank, like I thought I could, it's simply too much.

I'd build an Algae Scrubber in that Sump, Lights off in the Big tank. Starve the top for light and food and keep cleaning the scrubber down below. I think that would be A LOT less hassle then your holding tank idea. What would it take?, a Piece of Screen, a 5' section of PVC, some glue, a small pump and a bit of time? You could set it up right above that heater. Build the whole thing in a way that it hooks to the pump and is slid down into that chamber. The screen could hang above the chamber and drain back in to the sump. Then those light you don't like might be the ticket for the Scrubber?

Mike