Gabe's Great 40B Build

[gabrieltackitt]

Rock is here! @uniquecorals so excited to go through them and begin aquascaping this girl.

 

[uniquecorals]

Rock is here! @uniquecorals so excited to go through them and begin aquascaping this girl.

Great! Looking forward to seeing the scape

 

[fishguy242]

sweeeet...waitin for pics

 

[gabrieltackitt]

So I got a box of Rocks..

And here they are..

I never thought a person could get so excited about a box of rock, but here I was unpacking these things like a kid at Christmas. I wish I had more time today to mess around with them but they are very clean looking rocks. I can't wait to rinse them and get them cycling soon hopefully.
And here is a first attempt at an aquascape, I didn't have a ton of time to really mess around with things today.

Let me know what you guys think!

 

[fishguy242]

NICE ,nothing like a box of rock,never know whats in there until you open.lol looking good ,but i'd bet you change scape atleast 3x before your done.lol ,are you going bare bottom? i hope so

 

[gabrieltackitt]

A Few More Versions..

Here are a few more versions of possible aquascapes. I think I am leaning towards the bottom one.

 

[gabrieltackitt]

NICE ,nothing like a box of rock,never know whats in there until you open.lol looking good ,but i'd bet you change scape atleast 3x before your done.lol ,are you going bare bottom? i hope so

I am not going bare bottom, it will have a 3 inch black sand bottom with lots of CUC and stuff to sift the sand.

 

[fishguy242]

are you going to add a couple pcs of live rock also to help cycle?

 

[fishguy242]

in my opinion 3" is too deep, would not go deeper than 1 1/2"

 

[gabrieltackitt]

are you going to add a couple pcs of live rock also to help cycle?

I was not planning on it. My goal is to keep this tank as clean and free of any kind of parasites or diseases as possible so I will be using all dry rock and sand and seeding with Dr. Tims One and Only and letting it cycle for as long as needed to get cycled completely.

 

[gabrieltackitt]

The Return of the Return (Plumbing)

I finally got the stuff from @Bulk Reef Supply to finish my return plumbing. It is fairly simple, I think, A union connected to a 3/4" barb, black hose, Right angle Barb into bulkhead with loc-line in the tank. This is way cleaner looking than my previous plan, well worth the extra $50 spent.

Here is the old vs the new in the tank.

 

[fishguy242]

movin right along,nice

 

[gabrieltackitt]

movin right along,nice

My current goal is to begin cycling by sometime early-mid May, will be picking up the last few things I need to get started hopefully after the gov sends out the stimulus checks. Before they announced that my plan was to shoot for mid June to spread out the purchases but I am getting antsy and I don't have a real need for all $1200 of it.

 

[fishguy242]

should bucket cycle like the thread we were just on

 

[gabrieltackitt]

@fishguy242 I feel like I've been seeing you everywhere! And I just clicked into your build thread to look at what you've been up to and about halfway down the first page realized that I have already read like 90% of it. You've got such potential, definitely following along with you there!

 

[fishguy242]

LOL,dont sleep much,very active,cabin fever has set in..lol plus gotta love this place n the people!!

 

[gabrieltackitt]

LOL,dont sleep much,very active,cabin fever has set in..lol plus gotta love this place n the people!!

I feel that. My department at work has basically gotten completely overlooked and nobody ever gave us any instructions not to come to work, or work from home or anything so we've just been continuing to go in and chug along on what we can, which usually ends up being about 2 hours of work and 6 hours of sitting at my desk on here/Hulu.

 

[lpsouth1978]

Things are coming together nicely.

One word of caution when using black sand. DO NOT use a magnet cleaner with black sand. The sand is magnetic and WILL scratch your tank. I learned this the hard way and had to look at a severely scratched tank for over a year before upgrading to a different one.

 

[gabrieltackitt]

Things are coming together nicely.

One word of caution when using black sand. DO NOT use a magnet cleaner with black sand. The sand is magnetic and WILL scratch your tank. I learned this the hard way and had to look at a severely scratched tank for over a year before upgrading to a different one.

Yes I have heard that! Several times just on here, plus the guy I got it from! It's so nice that everyone looks out for each other on simple things like this!

 

[gabrieltackitt]

should bucket cycle like the thread we were just on

I would but I don't really have the space and RODI and salt are one of the last things on my purchase list so I would have to go buy SW or have the LFS deliver some. I think just doing it in the display will be fine and with how soon I am planning to get the tank wet, I don't know if it would be worth the effort. I do wish I had thought of that weeks ago when I started this build, will definitely be doing that on the next build when it comes time.