Chelsey's 100 gallon Cube Tank Build

[Chelsey]

It's here!

The rock was very well packed. Each piece of Tonga was individually bubble wrapped...I was amazed. I ordered 75lbs fiji and 25lbs tonga. Below is what I got, plus about half a bucket of rubble (some of which could be used as small rocks).

Several of the pieces are huge! The tonga shelf pieces are all 2-3" thick and are much larger than a dinner plate. This particular piece rivals a basketball, if not slightly bigger.

Contrary to some people's experiences the rock does not smell at all, and as you can see is a nice pretty white I'm still going to soak it before putting it in my tank, but I'm glad I won't have a stinky garage!

Since my RO-DI unit is relatively slow I decided to start filling up my tank, at least to right below the bulkheads (plumbing will get done this weekend).

 

[revhtree]

Very Nice, but not so fast! Mine was just as white and had no odor. Gice it a week and it will smell like death warmed over! It's worth it though, and I would do it again and will do it again with my new tank upgrade coming in the future.

 

[Chelsey]

Thanks for the warning Rev! It's out in my garage right now, working on curing in a tote with vinegar and water (1:1 ratio, but I'm wondering if I can do 1:2 so that I don't spend my life savings on vinegar!)

 

[msman825]

the rock looks very nice,

 

[Chelsey]

Thanks I'm quite happy with it. The basketball sized piece is so porous that it's very light...probably under 15lbs. The only complaint I have with all of this is having to spend $20 on VINEGAR!

 

[143gadgets]

What's the vinegar for?

 

[JGoslee]

That rock looks really nice. I'm still waiting for my marco rocks.

 

[Chelsey]

The vinegar is to clean all of the crap off of the rock. From what I've read it dissolves just the outer layer where the phosphates are bound. There's a thread on RC about it, but since the search function is out of order at the moment you might have trouble finding it

 

[Chelsey]

Here's the thread, I forgot I bookmarked it!

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1290138

 

[143gadgets]

Thanks!

 

[Chelsey]

Today I plan to aquascape and clean all of my marco rock. After 3 trips to Lowes/Home depot I finally found the last plumbing piece I was looking for...I was ready to kill someone by that time. I think I've been to either Lowes or Home depot 9 times while working on plumbing my tank

 

[Chelsey]

I took all of the rock out of the vinegar vat yesterday and scrubbed the heck out of it. After a thorough dunking in RO-DI water they were placed in the tank, which was already cloudy from salt not dissolving (it's cold in my basement). So, needless to say, I did not get my aquascaping done yesterday. I think my tank is clear enough for me to do some aquascaping

The tank is finally full enough for the return pump and all equipment to successfully run, so my system is officially up and running!

Chad and I are going to go eat dinner and then I'll start aquascaping!

 

[revhtree]

Can't wait for the pics and have fun with "the biggest pimp."

 

[Chelsey]

Chad says thank you for getting his title right

I'm going to go aquascape now

 

[msman825]

take pics for us

 

[revhtree]

Ok where is it?

 

[Chelsey]

After having many problems, including leaking bulkheads, problems with the drill, etc, the aquascaping has been postponed until tomorrow when we can get more plumbing parts and a bigger drill bit.

 

[MarvinsReef]

After having many problems, including leaking bulkheads, problems with the drill, etc, the aquascaping has been postponed until tomorrow when we can get more plumbing parts and a bigger drill bit.

good luck with the fixes... hope you get them situated soon...

looking forward to seeing the FTS...

 

[143gadgets]

good luck with the fixes... hope you get them situated soon...

looking forward to seeing the FTS...

Same here!

 

[Chelsey]

Well, as you can see I'm having some issues with cloudy water. I did get my aquascaping done today though. I did it outside the tank and then moved pieces back in.