This girl’s 310g peninsula dream tank with fish room!

[Cudaman]

Stand looks great ! Pressure Treated Lumber should be fine for this ... however I would strongly recommend to varnish it to seal in the chemicals (usually Arsenic) that were used during the pressure treating process. Definitely would be a major concern if you were to run an in stand sump/fuge since salt creep can get on the wood, chemicals can leach into the salt and then fall into your sump.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Stand looks great ! Pressure Treated Lumber should be fine for this ... however I would strongly recommend to varnish it to seal in the chemicals (usually Arsenic) that were used during the pressure treating process. Definitely would be a major concern if you were to run an in stand sump/fuge since salt creep can get on the wood, chemicals can leach into the salt and then fall into your sump.

Thanks. It really bugs me that we messed up and used pressure treated. Nobody talks about it anywhere. It should be a sticky in the DIY forum, lol. I just thought, "hey it used for decks and they're around a lot of water, this is around a lot of water too, so it makes sense" lol, I just wish I'd asked first. I think it will be okay though. I never thought about the chemicals leaching, so its good we don't have the sump under there. The canopy is the same, but it has a coat of kilz, 2 coats of trim paint, and 3 coats of poly over everything, so it should be good.

 

[Snitch]

Yeah - agreed with the treated lumber. There was a LFS that completely revamped their sw section - all new common sumps, new frag tanks, all kinds of $$ was sunk into it. It wasn't the greatest place in the world for livestock - but it was OK, I would go in there like once a week to see what was going on. Anyway - it was all framed out with treated lumber, which is fine as long as you think about it and build appropriately. Well - they covered the sumps to keep customer hands out and stuff, and the salt creep would start collecting on the covers and wood and just drop back off into the sumps. I happened to see the sump covers off one day and grabbed an employee's attention and told them about it. They blew me off so I was like ok - it's your money, not mine. I would come back every week to see their frag tanks die-out, weird algae growing, fish laboring and dying - so I would keep telling everyone about it - only to keep getting blown off. A couple of weeks later, everything was replaced with plastic feeding troughs and absolutely no treated lumber.

Although you can use treated, make sure it won't come in contact with anything in your tank - even keeping treated lumber in your house is not recommended. If it were me, I would re-do it and use regular wood - and paint it.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Yeah - agreed with the treated lumber. There was a LFS that completely revamped their sw section - all new common sumps, new frag tanks, all kinds of $$ was sunk into it. It wasn't the greatest place in the world for livestock - but it was OK, I would go in there like once a week to see what was going on. Anyway - it was all framed out with treated lumber, which is fine as long as you think about it and build appropriately. Well - they covered the sumps to keep customer hands out and stuff, and the salt creep would start collecting on the covers and wood and just drop back off into the sumps. I happened to see the sump covers off one day and grabbed an employee's attention and told them about it. They blew me off so I was like ok - it's your money, not mine. I would come back every week to see their frag tanks die-out, weird algae growing, fish laboring and dying - so I would keep telling everyone about it - only to keep getting blown off. A couple of weeks later, everything was replaced with plastic feeding troughs and absolutely no treated lumber.

Although you can use treated, make sure it won't come in contact with anything in your tank - even keeping treated lumber in your house is not recommended. If it were me, I would re-do it and use regular wood - and paint it.

Thanks for the warning, I do appreciate it, but there’s no way we’re going to re-do it at this point, not without knowing for sure that it will even be an issue. The water won’t be coming into contact with the wood at all. The sump will be on the other side of the wall, no pressure treated there. And its only the framing of the canopy that uses it, not the doors or anything, and that’s a foot and a half above the water surface. Its got so many layers of paint and poly anyway. We’ll keep an eye on it, and re-evaluate later if needed.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

I was planning on ordering a bunch of pods and pre-seeding the tank before the fish go in to give them plenty of time to reproduce. Would it make sense to seed them into the brute can the rocks are in currently (once the ammonia stays at zero) or should I wait to add pods until the rock is in the tank? Anyone have thoughts?

 

[TriggerFinger]

I would wait and add them to the tank. I feel like a lot would be left behind in the brute?

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

I would wait and add them to the tank. I feel like a lot would be left behind in the brute?

Yeah, that's probably true.

 

[Patientman]

Here is an interesting read regarding pressure treated wood - summary: no arsenic since 2003 BUT chromated copper arsenate replaced it.

Pressure Treated Wood Uses, Limitations and Safety Considerations

Pressure treated wood is a must for many outdoor projects, but it requires different handling than untreated woods

www.naturalhandyman.com

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Here is an interesting read regarding pressure treated wood - summary: no arsenic since 2003 BUT chromated copper arsenate replaced it.

Pressure Treated Wood Uses, Limitations and Safety Considerations

Pressure treated wood is a must for many outdoor projects, but it requires different handling than untreated woods

www.naturalhandyman.com

Thanks for the article, that was helpful!

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

This rock is producing so much ammonia. I just can’t get it under control. Yesterday I did 2 ten gallon changes, and 1 fifteen. Today I’ve done two fifteens and a twenty. It seems like the ammonia just skyrockets within an hour or two after the water change. I dumped some microbacter start xlm into it. Hopefully that helps somewhat.

 

[Cudaman]

It might be kinda late now but I used on of these to cure my rock in where I was able to place a skimmer in it ... skimmer definitely helped keep the water in check

 

[TriggerFinger]

The bacteria will help. But are you taking it out when you change the water? I don’t know how that works. Do you think it would be better to spread out the rock in two separate containers? Less rock-more water-smaller ammonia amount?
Edit: maybe prime would be cheaper to use since you’re changing so much water?

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

The bacteria will help. But are you taking it out when you change the water? I don’t know how that works. Do you think it would be better to spread out the rock in two separate containers? Less rock-more water-smaller ammonia amount?
Edit: maybe prime would be cheaper to use since you’re changing so much water?

Probably lose some of the bacteria but most of it should be clinging to the rocks. More water volume would definitely have helped but oh well, I’m committed now.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Sump room has walls and lights! Hubby and our son have been hard at work the last two nights!

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

These are the lights we’re using in the sump room and adding in other parts of the basement. They were $80 for a pack of 6 on amazon. They can be hard wired or plugged into and outlet and are soooo bright. I highly recommend them.

 

[User1]

These are the lights we’re using in the sump room and adding in other parts of the basement. They were $80 for a pack of 6 on amazon. They can be hard wired or plugged into and outlet and are soooo bright. I highly recommend them.

I have those for my garage. They do produce a lot of light . Super affordable and easy to install.

Oh - comment on pods - wait until the rocks are in the tank and it is cycled. At least that is what I did. Once the tank was cycled I ordered a pod kit from algae barn and introduced it. Worked really well and I can see them spread all over the place. They are in my overflow box, sump, and in the display. I do not have specific pod eaters (wrasses or other similar fish) so the population is doing well as the tank matures. I'm 2 years in and only now starting to add more corals and fish.

Great updates also - hope all is well.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

I have those for my garage. They do produce a lot of light . Super affordable and easy to install.

Oh - comment on pods - wait until the rocks are in the tank and it is cycled. At least that is what I did. Once the tank was cycled I ordered a pod kit from algae barn and introduced it. Worked really well and I can see them spread all over the place. They are in my overflow box, sump, and in the display. I do not have specific pod eaters (wrasses or other similar fish) so the population is doing well as the tank matures. I'm 2 years in and only now starting to add more corals and fish. I’ll be using new dry sand.

Great updates also - hope all is well.

Thanks. That brings up another question I’ve been wondering. If I’m curing my new rock currently, about 130lbs and I’m planning on adding another 80lbs of mature live rock from my current tank, will I even have a new cycle? Or should I be good to transfer my fish and coral right away? Would it be better to put the new rock in the tank and wait a couple weeks before transferring the existing tank rock, fish, and coral?

I don’t mind waiting. I just don’t want to have to waste a bunch of water that will have to be removed when I add the second batch of rock if I don’t need too.

 

[User1]

Thanks. That brings up another question I’ve been wondering. If I’m curing my new rock currently, about 130lbs and I’m planning on adding another 80lbs of mature live rock from my current tank, will I even have a new cycle? Or should I be good to transfer my fish and coral right away? Would it be better to put the new rock in the tank and wait a couple weeks before transferring the existing tank rock, fish, and coral?

I don’t mind waiting. I just don’t want to have to waste a bunch of water that will have to be removed when I add the second batch of rock if I don’t need too.

I would not expect a cycle since it is coming from a mature tank. However, a lot depends on the rock you are using. I merged a 40 breeder with established rock to my 210 gallon and didn't see any cycle. However I did lose some corals over a two month period that I attribute to moving too soon. In the new tank I used 150 lbs of dry Pukani and while the tank was cycled for a couple months before I merged Pukani rock is very porous and getting a good biological foundation was more than just the cycle and processing of ammonia. Probably one of the worst mistakes I made.

I wouldn't expect a cycle. Possibly a mini cycle or spike due to the shock of move but nothing major. Having done something similar I probably wouldn't move big bang like I did in 1 day again. I lost too many corals in the process but again I was using Pukani rock and while it is super affordable at the time it takes a while to fully mature. I'm 2 years into this upgrade and only feel now it is ready.

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Picked up some goodies from my favorite LFS today!

 

[LovesDogs_CatsRokay]

Walls are taped and mudded! Another step complete! A guy from my LFS is coming over tomorrow to help us level the tank and plan out the plumbing. It won’t be long now!