Saying "Hi" to MR - new arrival

[techreef]

sigh. at this rate, i'll be adding fish around Halloween...

yeah Jon, i'm going to wait and see how the temp issue shakes out w/ water in there. we don't pay for electicity in our coop apartment, so our AC is pretty much on all day in the summer anyway for our two cats. I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out. the back of the stand and canopy are open to the air, so that may help, plus the sump and display tanks are open top.

 

[KathyC]

Awesome already!

As soon as I saw the eggcrate at the back of the cabinet I knew you had cats...ah, the things we have to do to outsmart our other pets.:catsmiley

Best of luck with it!

 

[jhale]

speaking of cats, make sure you cover the containers you mix the new salt water in. they will either drink it, or go for a swim

 

[techreef]

Hi guys. Here's a question/possible solution to the note that MAG pumps' metal screws eventually rusting out: What about putting a smear of silicone on top of each screw head? Wouldn't that insulate the metal from the saltwater, and yet be easy enough to peel off if I need to dismantle the pump at some point?

 

[masterswimmer]

What about putting a smear of silicone on top of each screw head?

Is the local deli and/or brothel aware of that one? :lol2: It's a new one to me, a screw and a schmear :tongue1:

da swimmin' rabbi

Not a terrible temporary fix. It should work. I don't remember where I heard it, but I believe I've read that this was tried already.

R

 

[PalmTree]

Welcome to the madness Tech!! Again.. these are some of the nicest people you will ever meet anywhere. You're tank looks AWESOME!! I can tell you put a lot of thought into it and it really shows. Just a side note on chillers since so many people are chiming in about them. I have had a chiller for some time now and I would not be able to go without one. However my old set up had 2 fans attatched to the wall and it would come on when the tank hit 82 degrees. Only draw back to that was it made the room super humid and it was not the quitest thing to have on. Chillers are getting more and more advanced and some are so quite that you can't even tell that they are on. Feel free to ask questions here cause someone will have the answer. Welcome aboard!

 

[techreef]

Thanks Allan. If my "screw and a schmear" plan works out, maybe I can move forward and repay all the great people on this board w/ a helpful tip. :spin:

I made my first 40G batch of SW last week and spent 2 hours transferring it into the display tank last night until 12. Gotta say I'm scared that having a gigantic grey trash can in a room of our apartment doesn't strike me as odd anymore! Oh, and I also used to read these forums rolling my eyes when people would say "you WILL spill some water around your tank." I figured using my maxijet 600 w/ some airline tubing to pump water from one vessel to another would eliminate spillage. um, yeah, right. i am now a member of the "oh shoot!" club of frantic plug-pullin, towel throwing reefers! i'm so proud...

I'll post more pics soon, as I get the tank full and the first half of my live rock arrives this Sunday. I decided to buy my LR from Tampa Bay Saltwater, (TBS) as they ship everything submerged under water and the stories of life I've heard arriving on their rock blew me away. Jose, thanks very much for your offer to help w/ LR and LS. I totally appreciate it. I've been dreaming of TBS rock from the first days I started researching this hobby back in Sept. '05.

Cheers everyone,
-Steve

 

[charile1]

Steve, who's the maker of your stand?

 

[techreef]

Charile1, the stand, tank and canopy are all AGA (All Glass Aquariums). It's a special line of their furniture. I forget what it's called, but it's hardly special order or custom. I got it from Absolutely Fish out in West Clifton, NJ, but I've seen them for sale other places too.

 

[techreef]

found it. the stand and canopy are AGA's Classic Mission line of furniture.

 

[masterswimmer]

Steve, welcome to the ' OH $HIT' club!!!! Sounds like you've been duely indoctrinated!

I hope you have that tidbit of helpful advice for us looooong before you find out if your 'screw and a schmear' works. The only way to find out if it's successful is by just letting it run its course. That could take a year or two. They don't rust out right away......luckily.

Glad to have you almost up and running. Don't forget pix of the TBS rock. We're all picture whores here. :biggrin:

swimmer

 

[techreef]

mounting egg crate

to all those reefers w/ cats in the house, you've most likely had to cover the back of your stand w/ egg crate to keep your cats out of the mix. i mounted a full sheet of egg crate to the back of my stand using cable anchors, and it was very easy and looks clean. (to me anyway!)

here's a pic.

 

[techreef]

there, swimmer, my tidbit of advice, 1 year and 364 days early! :birthday:

 

[masterswimmer]

there, swimmer, my tidbit of advice, 1 year and 364 days early! :birthday:

Awesome dude :thrash: Now you're really indoctrinated! You be one of us. :hug:

How do you take off the light diffuser for access? Removing the cable clips would be very inconvenient.

swimmer

 

[techreef]

Being a newbie, i hadn't really thought I'd need to ever take the egg crate off. It's much easier to just open the two doors on the front of the stand if i want to gain access.

There's nothing down there that I can't get to from the front, at least so far. I may want to figure out a different way to mount the small section of egg crate to the open back of my canopy, to keep carpet surfers contained in the tank. But really, why would you need to get to things from the back of the stand/tank? I have my lights wired w/ quick disconnects, so I can remove the canopy entirely from the tank if I need to mess w/ wiring. What am I not thinking of here?

 

[masterswimmer]

Contingency plans. You just never know. I try not to close up anything without being able to get back in, if possible.

I'm sure your setup will be fine the way it is. Keep the pix coming.

swimmer

 

[techreef]

you peeps are just using me for pics! :lol2:

 

[masterswimmer]

you peeps are just using me for pics! :lol2:

Nobody told you yet? We're pic hoe's :shhh:

swimmer

 

[techreef]

Got Part I of my TBS live rock package last night. Picked it up at 10:30PM at Newark Airport. Only managed to snap one pic at the very beginning of the process of putting everything into the tank, because i was starting to worry that the rock had been boxed up for 12 hours+. Will post pics soon of the progress so far. I'm still trying to dial in my skimmer, as I just can't seem to keep the water level or bubble amount consistent yet. I'm hoping that it's due to it being a new skimmer.

As far as identified hitchhikers so far, I found a bunch of tiny brittle stars, a stone crab (gone), a tiny mantis shrimp (gone), a 2cm-long pistol shrimp sans pistols (i think, anyway) a couple lancelets, and a tiger goby! I thought the goby was a pale shrimp at first, but it was indeed a fish. Crazy. And everything is so TINY. Kind of a surprise after looking at so many great photos from other reefers' critters. And I gotta say, at 1:45AM, my patience for carefully plucking out shrimps/crabs that look cool but I know will be problems once they grow up was gone.

So I guess now I've got to go get a turkey baster and "dust off" my rocks. There's a fine sediment film on everything. Of the Part I rocks, I received three rocks that were about 17" wide and weighed about 35-40lbs. each, so there wasn't a whole lot of swishing that I could manage in the shipping water that came w/ the rock before I put the rocks in my tank.

 

[masterswimmer]

Good luck and post pix.

R