New Reef Log - With ominous beginnings!

[WinnipegDragon]

I did it today, took the plunge, bought a tank.

Thanks to those that helped me with all of my questions regarding a big basement tank. Having done the research, and the math, it was decided a big reef tank was just not in the cards right now. But, my wife and I decided we wanted a taste of reef keeping to make sure that we really wanted to make the effort to save the many thousands of dollars that would be required in order to do the big reef tank.

So we did some thinking, some more research, and today we started the first steps to our first reef tank.

We went out, and came home with two boxes and one very sore back.

The boxes looked like this:



Behold the Red Sea MAX! Everything we needed at a price we were comfortable with. Found a local distributor who undercut our LFS by a couple of hundred bucks, and made the decision even a little easier.



Why do I keep thinking that someday I'll look back at this and think, "I should have just started taking heroin, it would have been cheaper."

Anyhow, we bought the matching 'Totem' stand, and we were anxious to assemble it to make sure that the tank would fit in the area of our living room that we had picked out.



The pieces of the stand were unceremoniously dumped onto the carpet, and I began to catalogue the parts and pieces, while trying to keep my 19 month old daughter out of the way. Of course, her curiosity would not allow this. It was a blessing when she was swept away by my wife for dinnertime.

Now to work!

Hmm... Part N... I should have... 30 of them? I appear to have approximately... zero.

SON OF A #(*%&!!!

So I did a tally. The package is missing all of one connector and 8 of one of the screws. Why I took a picture of the parts list, I don't know. But I did. Here it is.



Sigh... At least the guy at the store will let me take them out of another stand tomorrow as soon as he opens, and nothing appears to be missing from the tank itself.

Hopefully tomorrow I can post pictures of it all together!

[stealthbimmer]

patience is the biggest part of this hobby....guess you learned that fast

[Gdevine]

Welcome to the club!

Remember, patience is a virtue in this hobby. Before you stock, read, do a little more reading and finally, a lot of reading before you add coral and live stock.

Do this and you'll be fine

[Reefmack]

If your RSM cabinet is like mine you'll need to peel off the thin shiny protective covering on each piece. Kind of a pain - my wife did that while I was putting the cabinet together. I got mine direct from RSM - no parts were missing. Bummer on the missing connectors.

[WinnipegDragon]

Yeah, I do wish I could be setting up the tank now, but I've done FW for years, and I know that rushing is the biggest mistake you can make.

I figure I have a few weeks while the tank cycles to really nail down the corals and livestock we are going to add, so we can get our research done.

Having said that, waiting still sucks

[WinnipegDragon]

Oh yes, my newfound friends... I declare:

VICTORY



Let this be a sign to all those that would stand in the way of my saline adventures, I will not be trifled with!

With bolt-thingies in hand, the stand went together quickly, and I only woke my daughter up once from her nap. Normally anytime I use tools there is way more swearing than that.

Overall I'd say the stand quality is decent. It's basically the same type of construction you see in computer desks and stereo/TV stands. It should hold up well enough, and it's fairly level even though it's on carpet. It's maybe 1/8th of an inch lower at the front but dead on side to side. I threw some cardboard scraps under the front feet and shored it up somewhat.



Getting the tank out of the box was a pain. As usual anything that is in a tightly fitting box forms a lovely vacuum as you try and pull it out, and this was no exception. I just ripped off one side of the box instead, so let's hope this one doesn't need to go back for warranty.



It's a nice looking piece of kit I think. The rounded front corners are carried all the way through the stand, so it looks like one piece, even though the tank just sits on the top with no mounting hardware or anything like that to hold it in place.

Got the canopy and all the assorted gear (skimmer, skimmer pump, 2 circulation pumps, 2 x 55w T5HO 50/50s) installed. The built in power centre and timer is a thing of beauty. Red Sea really put together a nice bundle.

Did a leak test and it all looks good.



The only concerns I have right now are the stability of the tank on the carpet since it is quite top heavy, and an apparent lack of levelness on the top of the stand.

Stability on carpet is always an issue, but I can wobble the tank with one hand fairly easily. Of course it has no water and has just been set up today so it should settle, but it's still a bit unnerving. The tank is moving into the basement in about 4 months where it will sit on a much denser berber, so it should be better then too.

The top of the stand also doesn't seem to make contact all the way along the width of the tank. The front 4 inches or so of the tank are about 1mm or so above the stand, although the back 20 inches or so are firmly down. But it's disconcerting to look at the bottom of the tank and see a sliver of light between it and the stand. I'm not sure if this is an issue or not... Once the tank is filled and settles into the carpet it might sort itself out, right?

On to the fun stuff. Tonight I am ordering my live rock. The local water shop is delivering 10 5g bottles of distilled water tomorrow morning, and I'll get this baby up and running by the end of the week. Unless I should be returning the stand...

[coyoteseven]

Originally posted by WinnipegDragon
Hmm... Part N... I should have... 30 of them? I appear to have approximately... zero.

SON OF A #(*%&!!!

Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt... ... ... way too many times!

[WinnipegDragon]

Update: A city of 750,000 and not one store has a hydrometer or refractometer in stock.

GAH!

[NanoGurl]

Congrats on your new nano! Tagging along

[WinnipegDragon]

I should have guessed that 'Nano'Gurl would tag along

Yes, I've read your 75g log, and I know that the Nano refers to your petite frame, but it still seems fitting. BTW, I showed my wife your sugar glider pictures, and she wants one of them now too

[NanoGurl]

hehehe. Here is a secret, but you can't let anyone know, k?

When I created the name it was bc of nano tanks.. but I got tired of answering, "why nanogurl with no nano?". So it was easier to say I'm small then a paragraph long explanation lol. Don't tell though.

Sorrry Gliders are addictive!

You got me back though... after seeing your thread you're making me want to setup another nano again... It's a good thing stores are closed today... otherwise who knows what might have happened!

[WinnipegDragon]

It's funny, a lot of people told me the RSM was expensive, but I priced out a 38g bowfront and it was really about the same once you get the same equipment. I think it's a good deal personally...

Not that I am trying to encourage you or anything...

[NanoGurl]

Yea, for what you get I don't think it's that bad at all. SW is expensive period. I don't think you have to have a 300g system to have something "amazing." I think a well done nano is just as impressive as a large system.. maybe even more so bc it's more unique and difficult at times.

I'm really interested to see the T5's on your nano. Have you turned them on yet?

[WinnipegDragon]

Yeah, I fired them up, and 2 x 55w T5HOs are plenty bright I might even try a clam in this thing after all. I'll be trying some easier SPS too. My wife is in love with Frogspawns

I should be mixing saltwater in the tank tonight, so I'll fire up the lights and take a picture then.

[NanoGurl]

Thanks

Really looking forward to seeing your setup. I like the Frogspawns too. What fish are you going for?

[WinnipegDragon]

Fish are undetermined, but we are doing our research now.

Red Sea recommends up to 14" or 15" at adult size, but that seems a bit too much, so we might stick closer to 10".

Early favorites we are selecting from are:

Firefish
Flame Angel
Coral Beauty
Royal Gramma
Ocellaris Clown
Clown Goby

We would really love to have a Green Mandarin too, but we will wait until the tank is really established. Six months to a year or so.

[NanoGurl]

[WinnipegDragon]

More shopping, more cash gone.

Two water change buckets, a large container for cleaning the live rock, crazy glue gel for corals, lots of 2" PVC pipe segments, 55g mix bag of Instant Ocean, 2 30lb bags of Sugar Size Aragonite, Refractometer...

My wallet is melting...

And to add to that, the Live Rock is ordered. 35 pounds of Tonga deepwater and 10 of Vanuatu.

[fish 511]

Looks good. I had a hard time deciding between the RSM and the Oceanic Biocube. I ended up going with the Oceanic, and will be tagging along to see how this turns out. Good Luck!!

[WinnipegDragon]

Thanks! The Live Rock is being air shipped from J&L Aquatics in Burnaby, BC on Wednesday and I should be able to pick it up on Thursday morning. I'll have to get some Saltwater mixing action going tonight!

[WinnipegDragon]

Okay, as promised, here are some pics. First with the lights on and the room light on:



And with the room lights off:



Without anything in the tank, the LED moonlights don't really show up so no shots of that yet.

As you can obviously see, there is water now, courtesy of six 5g office cooler bottles full of guaranteed 0 ppm TDS distilled water. Crystal clear, and the tank is holding up just fine. It is holding precisely 30g of water, with the waterline about an inch and a half below the rim. I might top that up, I might not. I'm not sure yet. That little crack under the front of the tank is no longer visible so that's a relief.

Just to clear up my paranoia I also measured out where this is sitting and checked the basement. The good news is it is sitting right on a telepost and main beam along the front of the tank, and there is a crossbeam right under the left side. It's on the most stable flooring I could get in this house. SCORE!

I've also added salt (15 cups of Instant Ocean), calibrated my new refractometer, and checked out the salinity. 1.0255, just about perfect!

Now I am rinsing off about 30 2" segments of 1" round section 40 PVC that I will be making into little stands for the live rock. It should be well-cured by the time the live rock gets here on Thursday.

BACK TO WORK!

[WinnipegDragon]

Stumbling block. I can't figure out where to run the temperature probe into the tank. The canopy seals completely around the edge.

Hmm....

[fish 511]

Is there any spot in the back where there is an opening? You may want to cut out a little bit of the back of the hood for powercords, probes, etc. What kind of aquascape are you going to do? Looks good, keep it up!

[OrangeKoi]

Try one of the sticky thermometers.

You could put it on the side where there is less visability then it won't restrict your view so much.

[WinnipegDragon]

On the thermometer thing, it's hard to see the full back of the canopy when it's 1" from a wall, but there is a slot beneath the protein skimmer cover. I was reluctant to go alcohol with the thermometer since I want to take no chances with this new tank. So the good news is that the digital probe is in there now. Stuck on my MagFloat as well.

Now then, I heard of a trick. The trick is to lower wet sand into a full tank one cup at a time, with the cup upright, and then you gently pour it into the bottom.

Doesn't work:



Quite the sandstorm, even after a rinse or two on the sand. Oh well, it'll clear. I can't recall if I leave the powerheads on or off to clear the tank though? Let me know please!

I'm not sure how deep the sand base is at this point. 2 -3 inches I think. I can't really see. I'd guess there is about 40-45lbs of sand or so.

Anyhow, here is what we want to do for aquascaping, using the miracle of MS Paint:



Imagine this as a topographical map, with the lighter blues being the higher elevations. Essentially we are going to make a C-Shape with two peaks of rock. The green lines are the angles of the powerheads. The left one points down, the right one less so. This should give us high and low light points with high and low flow, so we can make all the corals happy.

This tank will be observed from all three sides, so the little satellite 'island's are there for more colour from those sides. They will be the substrate dwellers: Zoos, maybe some Xenia, a Kenya Tree or Devil's Hand Finger corals. Something like that.

To support all this rock, I got some of these:



Held them together like this:



Applied liberal goops of this:



So they now look like this:



My own little army of PVC tripods. The are two inches tall and nice and stable. They were all precut fittings so they are nice and level, even if my silicone work was suboptimal. I made ten tripods, so that should be enough to support our little cove design.

They should be fully cured by the time the live rock gets here. Now all I need to do is clear up that sandstorm. Any tips?