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 Verified Admin]

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. :D

 

[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! :p

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 :rolleyes:

 

[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 Verified Admin]

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 Verified Admin]

Ok where is it? :D

 

[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.