This is gonna take a while...

[45bravo]

Test, test, and test, again. Obviously this was over the course of several days.

 

[45bravo]

She hasn’t tested yet today, but things are moving along as they should. She’s already being impatient about it and wanting it to be done. Ive already told her this is a long term thing and she has to just wait it out.

 

[45bravo]

I had to have her inspect the quartz sleeve and the UV bulb when they arrived. That’s the only part I was concerned with in terms of the UV.

 

[45bravo]

Heres some of the stuff thats come in. More or less just for inventory purposes so no one shorts a shipment on accident. You never know and this hobby is expensive enough as it is without having to order something again. I know the fitting for the plumbing look grey, but its black its just the light in the photos.

 

[45bravo]

Great news though actually. While I was putting all this up my old boss text me and said my tank and stand are done! He said they would be delivered next Tuesday and he’d just keep them in the trailer till we set up a time for delivering it. Luckily delivering the tank, other than the weight, will be pretty easy. Since I’ve got a walkout pit it only has to be moved down about 3 steps then straight though the sliding glass doors. I already told him its probably easiest to just remove the glass on both sides from the tracks. Other than that its straight in and they can just put both the tank and stand on rollers so they can be moved easily when needed.

 

[ycnibrc]

If u can get some real live rock and seed the dry rock it will help your tank so much better later. Lacking of beneficial bacteria cause multiple problems later down the road.

 

[45bravo]

If u can get some real live rock and seed the dry rock it will help your tank so much better later. Lacking of beneficial bacteria cause multiple problems later down the road.

Although live rock helps in terms of biodiversity it also comes with things you don’t typically want in your aquarium from the beginning. Using dry rock will at least help eliminate the chances of introducing pests.

Ive used live rock on all my aquariums in the past and although it’s always successful you will never get rid of everything you didn’t want.

 

[mattgsa]

This looks like a great build

 

[Gablami]

This is like a new level of reefing. Remote reefing with an on-site assistant. A whole nother level of challenge! Kudos to her!

 

[rwreef]

You girlfriend deserves a lot of loving praise for her patients. She is awesome to take on this task while you are working remote. Following along.

 

[laverda]

If u can get some real live rock and seed the dry rock it will help your tank so much better later. Lacking of beneficial bacteria cause multiple problems later down the road.

I agree 100 %.

 

[laverda]

Although live rock helps in terms of biodiversity it also comes with things you don’t typically want in your aquarium from the beginning. Using dry rock will at least help eliminate the chances of introducing pests.

Ive used live rock on all my aquariums in the past and although it’s always successful you will never get rid of everything you didn’t want.

What pests are you so worried about. You can always QT your live rock if that concerned. You can not beat the biodiversity of live rock. If I had to use all dry rock I don’t think I would ever set up a new tank again. Just not worth the aggravation and waiting sometimes years for it to become established and stable. It was wise to start cycling your rock first thing.
I have to say I am jealous of you having a girlfriend willing to do all she has for the tank while your away. I would not even bother testing the water at this point. Just give it lots time.

 

[45bravo]

What pests are you so worried about. You can always QT your live rock if that concerned. You can not beat the biodiversity of live rock. If I had to use all dry rock I don’t think I would ever set up a new tank again. Just not worth the aggravation and waiting sometimes years for it to become established and stable. It was wise to start cycling your rock first thing.
I have to say I am jealous of you having a girlfriend willing to do all she has for the tank while your away. I would not even bother testing the water at this point. Just give it lots time.

Any algaes, bristle worms, aiptasia, gorilla crabs, mantis shrimp, I mean the list kinda goes on and on. It’s not that I’m concerned with pests so much as not wanting to deal with it later. These things aren’t introduced into your aquarium just out of thin air. You are the one that adds them. If you can at least limit the amount you come in contact with you'll have a much easier time later on. Dipping everything you introduce, cutting all frags off their original plugs and re-gluing them to another, you can literally prevent probably 90% of the problems that people experience if you just use a little caution.

Now that being said I had only used live rock in the past. Now I did have some hair algae from time to time, it never took over the tank or anything, same with bubble algae. Obviously bristle worms come with basically all live rock, along with small brittle stars and aiptasia. I've personally never had huge issues with any of this however I don't want to deal with it in a larger tank, my previous largest aquarium was 125 gallons.

 

[45bravo]

Actually that brings up the question, how long does dry rock need to sit in its own tank never being introduced to anything else other than added pods and phytoplankton being completely filtered and lit to be considered "live" rock? I don't actually need an answer to that, but think about it if a fish store sold you rock that was soaking in tanks in the back of the store then sold it to you as live rock, because it does contain all the bacteria that would make it live, would you even know? Its going to change from white to green, purple, pink, even shades of blue.

 

[laverda]

Actually that brings up the question, how long does dry rock need to sit in its own tank never being introduced to anything else other than added pods and phytoplankton being completely filtered and lit to be considered "live" rock? I don't actually need an answer to that, but think about it if a fish store sold you rock that was soaking in tanks in the back of the store then sold it to you as live rock, because it does contain all the bacteria that would make it live, would you even know? Its going to change from white to green, purple, pink, even shades of blue.

That totally Depends on what else was in that tank. If noting but dry was ever put in there it will never have the biodiversity of live rock. It will have cycled and have limited bacteria strains. The bacterias in a bottle will increase the number, but it will sting be a fraction of true live rock. In addition will be no sponges, brittle stars, Stromboli’s or copepods. Even bristle worms which you consider a best. They are part of a natural inviroments clean up crew. With out all this I have seen 2 year old rock that I would not really call live rock. The only life on it was all sorts of algae. Let me see if I can find I post about some rock I recently received.

 

[laverda]

I recently was given some rock from a 2 year old tank that was taken down. The tank was started with dry rock. When I got the rock it was all covered with bubble algae and GHA. I have never seen bubble algae so thick before. There was one mushroom on the 5 pieces. I normally would not think twice about putting an algae covered rock in my tank as my tangs would have it cleaned up very quickly, but these rocks had way too much algae. So I decided to bleach them. When I did there was not a single critter on them. Not a brittle star, bristle worm, copepod, snail or ampepod on the rocks. Although it had algae it was still dead rock in my opinion! If i put a small rock from my tank in bleach water I would get all sorts of the above critters.

 

[laverda]

Any algaes, bristle worms, aiptasia, gorilla crabs, mantis shrimp, I mean the list kinda goes on and on. It’s not that I’m concerned with pests so much as not wanting to deal with it later. These things aren’t introduced into your aquarium just out of thin air. You are the one that adds them. If you can at least limit the amount you come in contact with you'll have a much easier time later on. Dipping everything you introduce, cutting all frags off their original plugs and re-gluing them to another, you can literally prevent probably 90% of the problems that people experience if you just use a little caution.

Now that being said I had only used live rock in the past. Now I did have some hair algae from time to time, it never took over the tank or anything, same with bubble algae. Obviously bristle worms come with basically all live rock, along with small brittle stars and aiptasia. I've personally never had huge issues with any of this however I don't want to deal with it in a larger tank, my previous largest aquarium was 125 gallons.

I understand not wanting some of those things in your tank. Algae’s will one in no mater what you do. As I just mentioned above the dry rock was completely covered in algae’s. Bristle worms and brittle stars are both beneficial to our tanks. Bristle worms can be controlled with an arrow crab and some wrasses. Arrow crabs love to spear them and then rip them apart and eat them. That is fun to watch especially if you don’t like bristle worms, gorilla crabs, mantis shrimp can be fun in there now little tank. qTing your rock can give you time to find and eliminate them and Aptasia. I had a gorilla crab in my second tank and have had aptasia as well. Good luck either way you go..

 

[45bravo]

That totally Depends on what else was in that tank. If noting but dry was ever put in there it will never have the biodiversity of live rock. It will have cycled and have limited bacteria strains. The bacterias in a bottle will increase the number, but it will sting be a fraction of true live rock. In addition will be no sponges, brittle stars, Stromboli’s or copepods. Even bristle worms which you consider a best. They are part of a natural inviroments clean up crew. With out all this I have seen 2 year old rock that I would not really call live rock. The only life on it was all sorts of algae. Let me see if I can find I post about some rock I recently received.

I think you might be stuck on the old way of doing things with only live rock, the majority of your bacteria is in the sand either way. So if you were so concerned with different types of bacteria you would just use live sand instead of dry. The surface area of sand vastly outnumbers the surface area of rock. You can also add sponges, brittle stars, pods, etc. on your own. Side note to that you should see some of the sponges in Honduras, I can fit inside them. Not to say you're wrong though by any means. Both methods work for sure, one may take less time than the other, but possibly bring in undesirables. While the other may take longer, the trade off being not bringing in both non desirable and desirable things alike.

 

[45bravo]

I recently was given some rock from a 2 year old tank that was taken down. The tank was started with dry rock. When I got the rock it was all covered with bubble algae and GHA. I have never seen bubble algae so thick before. There was one mushroom on the 5 pieces. I normally would not think twice about putting an algae covered rock in my tank as my tangs would have it cleaned up very quickly, but these rocks had way too much algae. So I decided to bleach them. When I did there was not a single critter on them. Not a brittle star, bristle worm, copepod, snail or ampepod on the rocks. Although it had algae it was still dead rock in my opinion! If i put a small rock from my tank in bleach water I would get all sorts of the above critters.

To me this sounds like someone who gave up on their tank because of the algae, it happens all the time. When I managed a marine aquarium store we had people give up all the time saying its because they kept killing stuff or all the algae or just whatever reason. I'd defiantly say they just didn't try and add any kind of pods or whatever else to the tank or it would have been different. I'd say that in that case though doing what you did if they gave up is the right course, bleaching everything and just kind of starting over. Wouldnt have been worth your time to try and deal with in the tank or even risking letting it spread more. As soon as this stock tank is cycled I'll be adding pods to it. The only real down side at this point is that shell have to add phytoplankton to the tank every day, it only takes a second but still kind of a pain. Not to mention ordering it, no way I'm gonna try to have her farm phytoplankton.

 

[45bravo]

Not done cycling yet, but its got a long time before I need it so no rush.

I’m not 100% convinced that these create random flow so much as throwing the water in a wider pattern, but I used them before and didn’t run into any problems.

I also needed something to stand on to work on this tank since it will stand 6ft tall. I’m 6’ 2” so at least I wont have to hunch over to look in the tank.