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150 gallon tank, Any Suggestions?

I read on another website that an RO/DI unit is the same as the others and it is determined by the cartridges and the flow restricter. If that is the case then I will look for the cartridges first.
 
Animal Mother, how did you build rock structures so they didn't move???


I am going to use a lot of base rock so I want to make sure the octopus doesn't push stuff over and break the glass or himself.
 
chaostheory;130581 said:
I actually looked at it but I didn't know if it was legitimate. Have you done buisness with them?

Yes, Marc is a very reputable person in the marine aquarium hobby, and he spent a few years as our club president. I got one of these units from him myself and I am very happy with it.

As for the rock structures, I wanted something tall with out-reaching pieces for overhangs and lots of caves and holes in between the rocks so I drilled the base rock with a 1/4 inch bit. I placed acrylic rods in the holes, and then I can slide the next piece over the rods into holes drilled in those pieces, and that holds it in place while the epoxy sets. The epoxy I used was Aquamend. I didn't want to stand there forever holding the pieces in place while the epoxy cured so this worked out great. You can get really creative with it and with the rods you can play with the arrangement quite a bit before you epoxy it.

If I could do it over again I would have ordered smaller pieces of base rock, as the pieces I got were about 15lbs apiece and pretty bulky. I got my rock from Marcorocks.com, 40lbs and shipping was about $80. I considered ordering some artificially made base rock from GARF (they make some really cool shapes) but Marco got back to me much quicker so he got my business.
 
Well I've been told you can use it underwater but I did this for my new tank which is yet to be running... taking my time setting this one up. I did it all on my work table, dry.

I also used the epoxy only on our 140 now that I think about it. When we bought it there was about 150lbs of dead, dried out, live rock that came with it. Had I been a little more creative at that time I would have used the acrylic rods on that project as well. I tried making some nice big arches but once the epoxy had cured I lifted the pieces and parts of them broke off. That's where the extra support of the acrylic rods would have come in handy.

IMG_0357.jpg


I could have put it together without the epoxy, but I didn't want to risk it tumbling apart, and I have a kind of OCD issue with rearranging my rockwork so I figured it would limit my meddling.
 
Would it be okay if I bought sand from Home Depot that isn't alive. I know that it would take longer to cycle the tank but it would be cheaper. I would obviously rinse it off first.
 
That's what we've done with most of our tanks actually. Unfortunately I think the type we have used in the past was discontinued. If you can find it though, it's 50lbs for $5. Pavestone brand Crushed Limestone, mostly calcium carbonate and magnesium.

There's a lot of arguement as to whether or not silica sand causes severe diatom outbreaks (ugly stuff).
 
I can take care of that stuff. I took care of an outbreak the other day. I just took the head off of the siphon and sucked it off the rocks, then I did a water change. I don't worry about that stuff.
 
we had that problem in the 75 a couple of months ago and we took care of it the same way and it hasn't come back.

Oh, and my mom decided that she wants to dismantle the 75 and put everything in the 150 so I am back to square 1.



I have a 65 gallon tank, and I am going to build a stand for it. This is probably for the better because I'll save money on the rocks and sand and I'll be able to put that money into a new stand. I'll be able to make the stand myself. The creative juices are already flowing.
 

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