Hi! New to Saltwater & need help!!

[ChrisB]

GE silicone 1 not 2 , 2 has mold killer in it.

 

[Fu-Manchu]

GE silicone 1 its great stuff. You should probably make a quick sketch of what you want the plumbing to look like and go to home depot with an idea of what you are gonna need so you dont end up buying fittings that you wont use, also make sure that you get pvc and not copper or brass. I would also recomend that you leak test the tank with tap water before you put sand, salt and R/O water. I think that the black thing in the overflow is just a mask that goes on the glass of the overflow to hide the pipes, If thats the case then its just for aesthetics. Good luck and im looking forward to see that badboy up and running.

 

[Bry17nyc]

Any updates?

 

[d5332]

Jessica, if you live in Harrison NJ we can come over and help sometime in the near future.

If you got all that stuff for $100 and you like projects then GREAT find.

I suggest you come up with a project plan and stick to it, stop looking at all of the stuff you purchased and trying to tackle it in one shot, overwhelming.

I suggest, you work on your stand and main tank first. Clean both tank and stand, paint, stain or poly stand if you want to, ensure its still solid or reinforce.

Then deal with the main tank, clean it up, restore it back to usable reliable grade. I did not read everything you have written but once you clean it up, repair the overflow and plumbing fill it up and leave it filled for a few days, lay paper towels to test for water drips.

Once you have your stand and tank in order get to work on the sump. That sump design can be changed to a much more practical design and you may be able to use some of those glass panes if you clean them up poprerly, new blades from home depot are great, do not use dull blades create too much work.

Once you have your sump in order, tank, and stand, connect all the plumbing together, get your return pump in place and if you wish begin clycing your tank by filling it up with water.

While the tank cycles you can then work on cleaning up those lights or depending on condition of those lights just buy new lights. You are new to the hobby of SW tanks therefore you will not be keeping hard to care for livetock such as SPS corals, you can buy a light for that tank for $250 $300 with brand new bulbs and your LPS and softies will be fine but first check if you can clean up those lights.

Try not to fall in the "light dilemma". Your tank will need to be running for many, as long as a year for you to begin adding serious corals. most easy to keep softy corals do fine under standard aquarium lighting so if the lights work fine and the bulbs are old dont worry too much about it, clean it up and use the light. Once you are ready to add corals that do better under fresh T5 bulbs then you can begin replacing the old bulbs.

Fish, starfish, snails, shrimp, sand, live rock, crabs and easy to keep softies DO NOT need fancy lighting, regular lighting is fine.

 

[d5332]

Great point!

If you truly intend to try to keep inverts and corals please do not reuse the sand, too risky, you may find yourself confused as to why everything keeps dying and it could easily be the old sand and guess what, its the sand, on the bottom of the tank which is not easy to remove, will have to take tank apart.

Looks like you are getting some good advice so far.
Just want to add some of my own opinion on your sand.

I have reused my own sand in the past after washing it and cycling it. However, you dont know the history of your sand. There is a good possibility the previous owner used copper in the tank and the sand would have absorbed it. You mentioned you wanted to get coral eventually and that copper in the sand would be deadly to coral. So you should dump the sand and get new.
When you are ready to get new sand, dont get live sand. It is not needed. The dry sand will work fine and wait until after you cycle your live rock to add it. That way it does not absorb the junk that will be coming out of your rocks.

 

[Reef Fixations]

+1 on all the advice you're getting

You can go to any reef shop and get All Glass Aquarium (AGA) or Marineland silicone caulk tubes for a caulk gun for around $12-20 that way you are certain that it is "aquarium safe".

Many people in the hobby do "bare bottom" tanks. Sand & live rock are like sponges and can hold tons of organic & chemical compounds that we sometimes can't see and seriously cause an issue down the road.

You're going to get so many different opinions but bottom line is you shouldn't take anyone's word for it without at least double checking it (at the very least) by maybe a google search.

Many perfectly running systems that have been running for many years sometimes crash out of nowhere and when nothing else makes sense, people usually refer back to the detritus build up in the sand that is the route of the issue. Some will say just to clean the sand during water changes but with all of the live rock that we put in our tanks, it can be impossible to do. I like the look of sand myself but on my next build, i'll be going BB as well. In fairness tho, there are many people with systems that have been running tanks with deep sand beds for many, many years and they are alive and thriving.

Just like with FW... you have to do what makes sense for you and what it is that you are comfortable with.

Best of luck on your new project!

 

[jayjay]

nice