hello, lurker finally commited

[lildingy]

Well hello there my new friends, I am new to Masst ,and reefkeeping in general.
Thought I shoud introduce myself before asking a bunch of questions.

Clay Williams
aka lildingy

[Mike]

Welcome to MAAST. Good group of people on here with a lot of experience. Just shout if you need help or have questions. Welcome to the club.

[hobogato]

welcome clay, i love how you said "committed" kinda makes us all sound a little crazy here :lauging:

[reefreak]

Glad to see another member Welcome to MAAST!

[allan]

Welcome aboard, clay.

New to the area? What kind of set up do you envision?

[koa25]

Welcome Clay. Always glad to have more around to join in on the bickerings on here. And ask away. There are a ton of helpful people. And of course post some pics of your build/ setup. We all like seeing others ideas.

[ErikH]

Welcome Clay!

We're all good at killing things, unfortunately, so ask away!

[JesterGrin_1]

welcome clay, i love how you said "committed" kinda makes us all sound a little crazy here :lauging:

What do you mean a Little Crazy? Is that not a HUGE Understatement lol.

[lildingy]

Wow, wasn't expecting the overwhelming hospitality :)

I see dead fish.... but anywayz we dove in a bought a 125 gal tank. I guess now the work begins. Our end goals would be a mixed reef with mostly lps and softys, along with the pinical being able to provide home and FOOD for a mandrin goby. I realize these are lofty goals for a rookie, but we plan on taking it very slow and trying to provide the best possible home for our new friends. Fish we have discussed are a yellow tang, hippo tang, 2 pair clowns ****icsso? and tomato, firefish micro gobies, and maybe a few bleenys. Corals we are a little lost at but some of the things we have seen are frogspawn, hammer, i love zenyas?, basically fuffly things that are perdy:P

We definally are in the devloment stage working on a 60 gal fuge/sump, we have a small skimmer a couple of t5ho ballast, and dead rock.

I guess one of my first questions if i had to pick one right off the bat is, Could/can I use some "texas holyrock" as a base to pile some of the more beatuifull peices of reef bone?

[reefreak]

Yeah I have it in a frag tank currently and ace (hobogato) has it running in his tanks

[Scutterborn]

"It's a very dense rock. Hard to populate a good source of beneficial bacteria."

A nearly perfect ( as I can remember ) quote from Ace when I asked him about the same type of rock.

[hobogato]

yep, you got it ben. it is ok to use, but dont ever count on it being a big part of the biological filtration

[lildingy]

:nailbiting:

[tony]

welcome to maast!

[grouch]

Welcome to MAAST. Welcome to MAAST (that was the other voice in my head).

[lildingy]

Thank you. Thank you.

I just want to say that after viewing alot of your builds and tanks i am kinda scared to even begin. You all have some amazing works of living art in your homes. Half of the mechanical things your rattling off, i have no idea what they even are. I belive i may be in over my head already :sick: I may just drink a few beers and start playing with some of the rock we have here at the house to get an idea what i want it to look like. I still am open of any suggestions as this is my first serious mix tank. I want to have mangroves in my fuge so i am trying to maximize the space for it. how many of you all run with this type of setup?


*edit* should i be posting this in another location, forgive my noobiness

Clay

[lildingy]

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well first draft of landscaping, questions/comments dont be shy

[lildingy]

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I think I needmental help or some kinda 12step proram. The wify "made" me put this 44 gal togather last night round midnight.
I had no idea we had just bout everything needed for startup. We have a pendent fixture I think we gonna get a 250 15k and try out.1534015340

[lildingy]

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gettin closer on the 44 pent start cyclin tomarrow evenin.

[lildingy]

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well here is my first attemp at MH. bought the pendents and ballast this afternoon. Now I just gotta mount it to the ceiling. Think this one 250 20k will be enough, I belive a good reflector may help?

[hobogato]

i would not leave it sitting on the glass top, the heat will probably crack it.

[allan]

Yeah, I wouldn't keep it on that glass too long either. And as i discovered last night, studding a ceiling while working over a tank is no fun at all.

[koa25]

Dry wall in the tank. Fun. But I cracked my glass doing that while I was finishing my canopy. It will crack. Plus it was too close to the braces that ran across and warped the plastic a bit which scared the poop out of me.

[lildingy]

Thank you guys, I dont have a glass top for the tank right now :(

I had it on some alum runners to see what it was gonna look like. the fixture has 1/4 inch glass to protect the bulb, but I still didnt leave it running very long. I will most likley use a chain with a large drywall anchor to hang it with the ballast located remotely.

Do you think think it will be enough light for corals? Oh btw live rocl rubble and a peice went into the sump today!!!! whooot

[lildingy]

All I can hear is Elvis singing "It's now or never"


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[lildingy]

Sucess!!!!!!
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now for the returns, any suggestions on location.

[hobogato]

way to go! :thumbs_up:

[lildingy]

Done for the night, I guess the tubing connector must me metric threads:(
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[allan]

Nice work, Clayton!

[lildingy]

Overflow glued in gettin so close!!!
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[lildingy]

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[reefreak]

Looking good man

[lildingy]

I'm bout a week or two from having the cash to get the fuge built, but i dying to check out the over flow, looks like a rubermade tub may be in order to "leak test" the tank:) Hopefully the time reading on the plumbing will be well worth it.

[lildingy]

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Well everything is working as planned, tho tank is bout 1" outta level across the 6 feet :( shimmy
Tested the airline safety and it flushed the overflow, Its awsome to see it all running:)

[hobogato]

how far are your return lines from the surface of the water?

[lildingy]

4"to the bottom of the bulkheads, so i will be draining about 23 gallons of water without a check valve in there. I plan on puttin the click ball things in, but i was afraid to get too close to either edge of the tank while drilling. Probably a rookie mistake but hard to change it now :(

[hobogato]

that isnt too bad, it looked like they were lower in the pic. you can add locline on the inside of the tank and have it arch up ward closer to the surface of the water so it doesnt drain out as much water when the pump is stopped.

[lildingy]

Shoud i be reducing the size down to a smaller lockline to increase preassure or just leave it at a 1" to keep the flow up? any suggestions? Also lookin like i gonna be in the market for a external pump soon :)

[hobogato]

the largest locline is 3/4" i believe. that is what i am using on my big tank.

[lildingy]

hummm, Then i wonder if it would be contuitive to put 2 locklines on each bulkhead :confused:

I guess i'll figure that out after i get some sand and rock in and see how much room i have left and what needs more flow.

[lildingy]

Can i raise my PH with baking soda?

[allan]

Idk, but kalkwassar will raise your ph.

[lildingy]

Here are some of my shots on the mod to the MH lights I bought.

154461544715448

I may decide to get a hole saw and mount a fan on the back to pull some heat out if i can hide it well enough. I got a 20k and like the color that is coming out but still think i may need a blue led or somthing to add some bang.

[lildingy]

Its kinda funny i googled Kalkwasser and found out that i have used bags and bags to get concrete trucks unstuck hehehe

[allan]

Hey, those pendants are going to look good.

[lildingy]

Any thoughts on spanning 6" with a tripple 2x6 header to support a 125gal tank? I think i am gonna build a stand so i can put a larger sump and am perdy sure this will carry the load, just don't want any center supports to be in the way.

[allan]

Hey Brian, you would want to scope out the for sale forum.

Also, asking here in another's thread is a bit off topic. If you're interested you can post in the wanted to buy section.

Sorry for the hijacked post, Clayton.