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[BigIan]

The mrs and i are going to strip down either our 90 gal or our 60 gal tropical setup and use the tank to house our reef setup.

now i know we have enough lighting and skimming capacity. and most of the hardware is taken care of.

However we don`t have the cash to wap an extra 60 galons worth of Lr into the tank in one go nor enough power heads.

so what i was thinking is if we take all the Lr plus some extra from our 30 gallon, with some extra powerheads, and don`t increase the biomass on the tank I.E keep the same stocking ect untill we`ve built up a substantial amount of LR in the new tank will that be ok?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yup, thats it exactly

 

[andywg]

Even better idea:

Go to a builders yard and get 10 kg of portland cement. Go to a good bird stockist and get 50kg (two bags) of crushed oyster shell. The above should set you back less than £20.

Mix the cement with the COS in a 1:5 ratio (a part cement to 5 parts COS) and add water until it has a consistency roughly that of clotted cheese. If you want, make "tables" that are flat and just have legs to ensure that most of the rock is above the substrate, and you have a good base to buildon (as well as nice caves for ribbon morays to live in ).

Leave the shapes in sand for about 24 hours to dry, and then place them in water. Keep changing the water every couple of days or so (I changed mine once a week). After about 4-6 weeks you should be able to place the shapes in fresh water and the pH will barely (if at all) move.

Now you have around 60kg of DIY LR to use as base rock. Total cost, less than £20. You won't get any hitch hikers on it (both bad and good) but you have saved a fortune.

Within a year or so in good conditions it will colour up with coraline algae and you won't be able to tell the difference. I use mine as base rock and cover it completely with "real" LR. Works a treat.

Obviously you wouldn't be able to stock heavily for a while, but it would allow you to slowly add the odd bit here and there.

 

[Musho3210]

ive heard of people adding spaghetti to their DIY base rock. I think its because when the spaghetti dissolves it creates more pores..... I dunno if it works though.

 

[andywg]

ive heard of people adding spaghetti to their DIY base rock. I think its because when the spaghetti dissolves it creates more pores..... I dunno if it works though.

Some people add spaghetti, others salt, but none of it is really necessary.

If you want a more solid (but less porous) structure you can add sand.

 

[BigIan]

not to keen on the cement idea,
i know that concrete can take up to 50 years to cure properly in air and the amount of chemical reactions that go on there with absorbing co2 and what not, i`m quite happy with the idea of just getting some dead rock and seeding it from the stuff we have.


Also i was going to get a couple of 2000+ lph power heads when i initially set up the tank and build a void behind the Lr using some reef racking type stuff, now my hope is that it should allow plenty of movement behind the LR if i aim the power heads right. rather than it just channeling up between two or three places

 

[Musho3210]

thats why you dont cure it in air, just cure it underwater.


Have you considered stream pumps? I have a stream pump (hydor 2) and love it already. Great wide flow and very little electricity used. Tunze turbelle stream, Hydor Koralias, Seios, and Modded Maxi-jet are some examples of stream pumps.

I did a poll on which one were good and hydor came on top but everyone gave good info on each one of them and i came to the conclusion that they are all good.

 

[BigIan]

Meh, LR issue asside,

i was planning to use a couple of smaller power heads across the face of the LR to give water movement for the corals ect, and another one blasting at the surface but as its a trigon 350 so its 2 foot deep and i`m wanting to bring the rock work out a bit a the back i thought a few big pumps would move the water through the rock work a lot better than the smaller ones

I have my eyes on one of These to go behind the rock work i`d probably diy some kind of spreay bar or some way to spread the water flow from it so it goes al through the rock wall, with 3 or 4 maxi jet 1200 lph powerheads dotted around to move the corals and move the surface of the water.

 

[Musho3210]

no stream pumps?

 

[BigIan]

no stream pumps?

what exactly is a stream pump?

We have 3 of these in our thirty gallon plus some other power heads so what i was planning was to get that big pump at the back blasting through the rock work then use the three maxiget pumps we have across the face and of the rock work and then as we build up the rock i`ll add more

 

[Musho3210]

a pump that gives a wider flow, and uses very little electricty. If you already have MJ 1200 try modding it. You can get up to 2500 gph with this mod and it only uses 20 watts. http/www.mjmods.com/

For example a hydor koralia 2 pushes 600 gph using 9 watts in a very wide flow patter (wide is good). An un modded maxi-jet 1200 pushes 295 gph using 20 watts in a straight line (straight line isnt that good if its used by itself, its fine and its proven to work and many people use it, but there are better alternatives to straight line).

An un modded MJ uses 20 watts to push 295 gph
A modded MJ uses 20 watts to push 2500 gph

The modded MJ is a stream pump


And a final note, i dont know if they are really called stream pumps but ive been calling them stream pumps since thats what tunze calls them.

I did a poll on which one is best. They all did ok so i guess there all good.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=205105

 

[BigIan]

by the time i`ve paid for the shipping for those maxi jet parts i could have bought a tunze streem jet.

i`d like some streem pumps but i`ll just use normal power heads till the price comes down.

 

[Musho3210]

ok then

 

[SkiFletch]

Just remember Ian, as both myself and Aquascaper before me found out, cleaning inlet strainers on maxijets hidden inside rockwork is a PITA, so consider that before designing

 

[BigIan]

mmm...

for now i`m not to fussed as that ehiem pump will easily cover all the rock we`ll have in there so the maxi jets will be above the rock,

i`ll have to have a think about it as the reef grows