Going Bigger......maybe?

[SkiFletch]

Sounds like a steal if you ask me

 

[craigybaby37]

Thats what i was thinking when they told me the price....they had a delivery of custom tanks that day aswell and the build quality looked realy good.

At first i was a litle concerned about the 6mm sides but the man re-assured me it would be fine as they have a sum out the back of the shop which is 60 x 12 x 15 made from all 6mm and its been there for a few years an is perfectly fine.

Ive sold me 20gallon tropical tank to my sister which is gd so will eb shutting it down during the week and giving it to her friday to make some room then all i have to do is move the marine tank to another room an ime ready for the big tank.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, the tank is short which is why you can get away with the thinner glass. Tall tanks really increase water volume a lot, hence the need for thicker glass to support the water weight

 

[craigybaby37]

Thats exactly what they said to me. Well ive been out and brought the light for the tank i got the 4 x 80watt luminaire plugged it in when i got home and 2 of the bulbs didnt work do changed them round with the others and still nothing so was gunna get on the phone to them and turned it on again and they worked weird but ill keep an eye on it though.

When it comes to gettin more live rock how much more shall i get as i already have about 10kg in my current tank ill be using??

 

[SkiFletch]

Well since you've doubled your tank volume, double the LR volume

As for the lights, did you fire it up straight away after getting it home? And if so, was the fixture still cold from transport in your car? If so, remember, flourescent bulbs/ballasts do not fire well or reliably when cold. Could have been your problem

 

[craigybaby37]

ok thanks for that. and yea it was fired up first thing when i got it home so could of been cold.........ive shown a friend aswell now and it fired up fine then so must of been the cold.

 

[craigybaby37]

ive been thinking about the live rock for the new tank and i currently have another 6kg in my 5 gallon mantis tank that stil doesnt have a mantis in it as my lfs is struggling to get hold of one for me. however the rock has been in the tank for a good 6 to 8 weeks no and the tank has definatly cycled would i be able to put that rock in my current tank and get another 6kg of liverock for example and be curing it in the 5 gallon tank ready for when i get the new tank set up??

And then once i have the new tank will i be able to do a complete transfere of everything from the 20 gallon into the new 40 gallon (rough guess of volume) tank??

Or shall i move the tank to another room for a few days so that i can add the new sand and most of the new cured liverock and let it all settle down for a few days before adding the contents of the 20gallon into the new tank??

And if i decide to use live sand will that put the tank into any kind of mini cycle even though all the live rock in the tank will be cured??

 

[littleme1969]

From my own experience of moving and swapping letting the tank settle for a day or so or even more if you can is always best. New tanks always take time to stabalise both the s.g. and the temp . It also gives you time to get out any niggles with flow/skimmers/filters without disturbing anything. Sometimes however its not alwyas possible to have a settling period but if you can, then do

 

[craigybaby37]

yea i can make it possible to have the new tank settle down for a few days just fort ide check it was best idea first.

 

[craigybaby37]

Just been thinking of various equipment and was thinking about getting a tmc v2 400 skimmer as its the smallest they do in there range will that be a bit of an over kill for a 40 gallon ish tank??

And for the heater i was thinkin of a 300 watt visi-therm as i currently have a 150 watt in my 20 gallon so fort if ime doubling the tank capacity i should double the heater power???

 

[SkiFletch]

Were it my tank I'd use two 150watt heaters for redundancy.

 

[craigybaby37]

yea ill do that i think as i also forgot a 300watt heater will be longer aswell and not fit in the tank.