White trash?

completely off topic

but Karma to you magnus for feeling like you gained 100 bucks rather than gave back 700 bucks

a great jesture on your part and what a lucky guy that was, that you found his wallet.

Steve

 

Yes, yes........for some situations. Say someone has FO with decorative coral, the Marie-Max breaks down uneaten food and sludge. An in-adequate CUC etc. It is a preventative and since he has an UGF and may not change it, my advice is sound. I try to look at all possibilities when making a recommendation.

 

You aren't wrong here Jed. Your example - that is one way to go about it. You could spend ~$10 a month on bacteria (maybe less) or you could add rock that will permanently host bacteria without you having to add a drop of bacteria.

But we are not talking about a FO. I believe we're talking about a reef in the making and a dude on limited funds. When it comes to adding bacteria to your tank, that money, IMO, is far better spent on base rock that will host a colony of bacteria permanently than spending it on bottles of bacteria that will roller coaster your colonies. When he starts adding coral, he is going to need this rock anyway for placement if nothing else... so he could buy bacteria now and rock later or just buy rock now. I look at cost effectiveness and stability when making a recommendation.

Even if he leaves the UGF (don't Magnus!), he would be better off adding rock over adding monthly doses of bacteria IMO. This way he will have a steady supply of bacteria, not a roller coastering amount.

What happens here Magnus is the rock will host bacteria and this bacteria will populate to come in balance with the amount of nasty in the tank. The bacteria population will grow or fall naturally depending on the conditions of the tank.

But only if you have the rock to host it.

 

I definitely want the UGF OUT OF THERE!!! After I've been reading a little more and learning about this, I don't want it. Plus, the sand looks so much cooler

Tomorrow I'm buying 50 pound of a base rock called "sun rock" or something like that. It is very, VERY porous and has many many wholes for a cozy home for my bacteria. I swear, I never thought bacteria would be something I would encourage in any aspects of my life

The guy at the LFS will sell this to me for 2 bucks a pound. So there goes the reward money

I've also bought a 20 gallon tank today for $10 from a guy in my area. This will be my future sump. Tomorrow I'll buy a 10 gallon tank for $5 from another guy from craighslist which I'll turn into my QT tank in the future.
The dead sand will come later after my base rock gets filled with bacteria. Is that ok or do I need to add all of it at the same time?
I liked the Idea of doing it in sections, and I already got a piece of plastic wide enough to slide it between the gravel and isolate a section at a time from which I'll take the gravel off, and replace it with the sand, then I'll move on to the next section.

I do have another question (as usual):

The tanks that I'm buying were freshwater tanks. Is there any special treatment I need to perform before filling them with equipment and SW?
What I mean is: Is there a procedure to switch an ex fresh water tank into a SW tank?

Thanks again for the good advice. Even though I feel adding bacteria could be helpful at the very beginning of a setup, I think I'll have enough bacteria by the time I finish buying everything I need to build the sump.

- Milton.

PS: I will post pictures of every step of the process on this thread. It'll be kind of a before/after thread, as I keep learning more about SW tanks, sumps etc. I'm VERY exited here.... Feels like when you get your very first pet as a child!!

 

Thank you, it felt great to help this person. He was very happy and almost forced me to take the reward. Anything for my SW tank
I have to admit I was tempted for a little bit, then I saw this guy had a long list of prescriptions in his wallet, and on the other side of the list, the schedule when he needed to take each one of them. That did it for me.

It was absolutely worth it and would do it 100 times over.

- Milton.

 

Ill look at your tank post next - but for now once again, brilliant
tempted , naturally, I defy anyone not to be in same situation
100 bucks for your tank well deserved in my opinion

Steve

 

see my replies in your original text

 

Steve mentioned the copper (WRT the used tanks). That's the main thing. Copper is used in some FW medications etc. If it was ever used in that tank, that tank is tainted and it needs to be removed like Steve said.

They also make freshwater copper test kits. You could fill it up with water and run a test to know for sure.

 

Could it be that I've seen one of those at my local Walmart?
I'll double check and run the test on both tanks (today I got a 10 Gal for $5 that will be my QT tank)

I hope it's not an expensive test

- Mag.

 

Over due update; Tons of rock!

Ok my friends. I've finally bought 42 more pounds of dead sun ruck and stuck them in my tank to get full of bacteria! This rock is HIGHLY porous, and I hope it'll do a very good job at accumulating bacteria. I had no choice but to stack them up in my 55 gal tank, almost one on top of the other. But I did leave a lot of holes there for the fish to play and explore! I dare not post a picture of it though.. it looks chaotic and I'm a bit embarrassed.

Now, I want to build my sump while that's cooking

I come to realize that I made another mistake. The tank I bought is a 20 gallon tall... I guess a 20 long would have been much better. But I do have another 10 gallon tank that I can add to whatever design I come up with.

I went to melevsreef.com and I did not see any design with a 20 tall that could help me. So, I know you get a lot of these, but here it goes: Does anybody have a sketch of a good, efficient sump w/in-sump protein skimmer that I could build? I don't want to hang the skimmer since I'd rather keep things quiet. The tank is in my living room with the tv. And we like to watch suspense movies a lot

I have also vacuumed my tank for the first time. Since I don't have anymore salt mix or RO wather, I've decided to re-cycle my water and attached with a rubber band 4 brand new tube socks, one inside the other at the end of the hose and vacuumed away. I decided to do this so I could put the water back without having to buy anything else for my tank, since the money I spent on the rock I know will leave me hurting for a week. I still have the $300 that I've been saving to build my sump. So that would be my full budget for it.

Edit: Budget is still $400 since I forgot to count the $100 reward money!

I have tools like router, so I could cut acrylic myself, and I'm very proficient and skilled with power tools in general, so is there's a design that requires cutting or even bending acrylic, I don't mind doing that. I just want an efficient sump.

Edit: The router bit I need is completely worn. So nevermind about that. I may have to do without the cuts, or pay somebody to cut the teeth for me.

I would like to have a fuge as well, but I'm not sure the 20 gal tall tank will be able to house all of the things and have enough room for a fuge. For that, I'm willing to use that 10 gallon tank.

I hope I'm not asking too much. I've started looking at sump pictures online some time ago (since I decided, based on the advice from the pro's here) to ditch my UGF and get some serious filtration and more efficient water filtration system: SUMP! Here I come!!

As always, my most sincere thanks to my contributors at 3reef. I'll be browsing the "I built this!" forum now

- Mag.

PS: Feel free to direct me to sump designs, pictures, sketches, Howto's etc. I promise I'll read all of them.