[organicreefer]

palmetto reefs are great arent they-i ordered somericordia from them and it was late but they were very helpful intracking it down and everyhting turned out great in the end.

so -wheres the pics!!!!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by organicreefer

palmetto reefs are great arent they-i ordered somericordia from them and it was late but they were very helpful intracking it down and everyhting turned out great in the end.

so -wheres the pics!!!!

I'm putting the pics of the live rock into my last post above right now. Everybody's supposed to be asleep right now anyway!

Give me another 10 minutes to get them in there. I don't have any pics of the full tank yet because my sister is sound asleep and it's her camera. I'll post full tanks pics tomorrow.



I tried to put 10 pics in that post and I got a stupid error message telling to cut it out.

So here are the five other pics that Scott wouldn't let me add to the previous post:



Check out some of the unusual shades of coralline on some of these pieces.




Some Tonga Branch.




More rock!




Another wider shot of the part of the table that has those two beautiful flat pieces of Kaelini covered in coralline.




Lots of Buna Spiney in this picture.

[Minh Nguyen]

Now you need to post picture of the tank. Please
Minh

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen

Now you need to post picture of the tank. Please
Minh

I second this motion, Minh

How about the pix of the rock going into the tank and, when you're pleased with the scape,some of those...please?


BTW, the rock is spectacular and I'm going to order something similar when I'll restart my 110 gal. So..., I'll probably pester you with the annoying qustions soon

[Ninong]

The most amazing thing about this experience is the fact that all of that live rock displaced only 10 gallons of water!!! And yes, I actually measured it precisely. I siphoned the water from the tank into three Rubbermaid Brute containers and then after the rock was in place, I returned the same water to the tank. When I was done I measured the water remaining in the last Rubbermaid container: 8.5 gallons exactly. Then I added 1.5 gallons for the fact that my sump was now running about 1" higher than before. The rock is so porous that it soaks up water like a sponge and displaces a lot less than I would ever have imagined had I not measured it myself.

There are three kinds of fully cured live rock in the tank: Kaelini, Tonga Branch and Buna Spiney (Fiji) Branch. The Kaelini represents more than half the weight and probably at least 40% of the volume. The Tonga Branch is nice, I have always wanted some of that, but heavy, of course, so I estimate that it made up at least 15% by weight and less than 8% by volume of the total order. The Buna Spiney probably represents no more than 25% (at the most) by weight but possibly as much as 50% by volume if you take that to mean the space occupied.

Because of my DSB, ranging from 5.5" to 6.5" deep, and my rock support structures, I could have gotten by with about 100 to 120 lbs of live rock, especially with the extremely porous and very light Buna included. I ordered 160 lbs of live rock but I have a feeling I received 170 to 175 lbs of live rock. I don't think the vendor actually weighed it before taking it to the airport.

The rock was delivered to the airport at 9:41 p.m. Thursday night and it arrived in New Orleans at 1:45 p.m. Friday via Delta Air Cargo. The shipping charge was 50 cents per pound. It was available for pickup 1.5 hours after flight arrival but I actually picked it up at 4:30 p.m.

The first thing I did was to open the boxes and spread the live rock on the table so that I could see what I had to work with. The rock was extremely fresh and smelled like an ocean breeze. There was very little rubble and all of that was from the Buna Spiney.



This is what I started out with. Table is 42" x 62".




This is what I ended up with.




Looking up from my desk chair.




Center of tank looking left.




Center of tank looking right.

[Ninong]

Left side of tank. There is 4" of space between the rocks and the front of the overflow compartment which shows up as black now that I inserted a piece of black acrylic sheet... no more ugly white standpipe glaring out at you. Can you see the 19" tall cast acrylic rod upright supports? Look harder. Harder still.




Right side of tank. This is the only tall acrylic rod support structure that would not stand upright after all of the rock was in place. It collapsed against the side glass of the tank; however, this still leaves a little open space for water flow and is better than having the rock itself up against the side glass. There is a 3" space all along the back wall of the tank behind the live rock and there is about a 6" space behind the center/right section.




View from left side of tank. One of the Kaelini shelf outcroppings is about 3" from the front glass and the other is about 2" from the front glass, in spite of what it looks like in this picture. There are two pieces of Buna Spiney at the bottom far right side of the tank that are too close to the front glass. One is only 3/4" away at one point and the other is only 1.3" away at its closest point. These were the last two pieces placed in the tank and they can be removed without any problems if I decide they can't stay there. I ran out of options.




Another shot from the left side of the tank. It might be possible to take a picture from the right side of the tank but you can't actually view from the right side because there is only 4.5" of space between the right side and the wall of the room.




Another view of the center of the tank looking from left to right. There was originally much more open space between the two sides of the tank but I had a lot of rock that had to go somewhere, so it went there. There is still a very open cave system that runs diagonally from left to right from the front of the tank, opening to a lot of space behind the rock. Remember that all of the rock is resting on supports that are 5.75" tall. There is a large, massive piece of Kaelini at the bottom on the right side spanning the rock support structure on that side. This piece of rock was about 18" long and probably weighed 25 lbs.


Observations: The tank water is almost crystal clear right now. Just some tiny sand particles bouncing around like inside a snow globe. I added some Florida Keys live sand to the top layer of Southdown that was already in the tank yesterday. I mixed it in with the uppermost inch or so of Southdown. I will be adding 10 lbs of live sand from Darren at Palmetto Reefs Tuesday.

In case you are wondering where I got such beautiful, fully cured live rock that was covered in all sorts of different shades of coralline algae: http://www.palmettoreefs.com Darren and his lovely wife, Laurie, were extremely nice to do business with. Laurie even emailed me to tell me when Darren left home for the airport and to let me know that the Columbia, SC airport accepts air cargo until 10 p.m. and he would be able to make it with at least half an hour to spare.

[zhenya]

Ninong,

I...like it Great job! But I do agree with you that it might be little bit too much of it? The rock is beatiful to say the least and I just hope you have enough room left for the corals to go in and grow Oh,and great job on narrating,Ninong.
So...tell me when I can send some frags to you to house and identify?

The tank looks gorgeous,Ninong.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Great job! But I do agree with you that it might be little bit too much of it?

I guess I need a BIGGER tank!

Originally Posted by zhenya

So...tell me when I can send some frags to you to house and identify?

Thanks, I would love a few of your gorgeous frags, especially that M. capricornis, but I will probably hold off for several weeks. Let's get the start-up algae battles over with first. My first priority will be getting the DSB life started and I will be working on that next week.

I haven't tested my water yet, except for salinity and pH, but I will be doing that tomorrow. I have a feeling that my sand bed was cycled before I put the rock in the tank and since the rock was very fully cured, I expect that I will have an extremely brief initial cycle.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I guess I need a BIGGER tank!




Thanks, I would love a few of your gorgeous frags, especially that M. capricornis, but I will probably hold off for several weeks. Let's get the start-up algae battles over with first. My first priority will be getting the DSB life started and I will be working on that next week.

I haven't tested my water yet, except for salinity and pH, but I will be doing that tomorrow. I have a feeling that my sand bed was cycled before I put the rock in the tank and since the rock was very fully cured, I expect that I will have an extremely brief initial cycle.

Ninong, I agree with you on the cycle period to be very breef,if any.
When I put fully cured rock in my 75g tank and sand bed that was live I had almost no cycle at all. Just to be sure I waited couple of weeks and then just added a small fish and it lives today two years later

What are your plans on the infauna for the sand bed? Will you be ordering some start up creatures online? I was very happy with Morgan Lidsters infauna kit and actually I'm planing on getting another order to rejuvenate my infauna after I come back from vacation.
Regarding that Montipora,it will be here waiting on a word from you
Just make sure you give it some space as it will get huge in your beautiful tank.

PS. Forgot to add that looking at your rock it looks like you won't need to use much of the glue,just stick some frags in all those marvelous crevices and let it encrust

[organicreefer]

man i told you before you ordered you didnt need that much rock-and you were gonna order 240 at first lol
i probably have about 130lbs in my 120 at the most...

dont take me the wrong way -but i think you should take some out and redo the aqauscape-open it up a little more,leave some room for youre corals and fish.
ok now that i got the (constructive )criticism out of the way-thats some sweet rock that darren sent you -you should give him some props on all the boards and send him a thank you basket of fruit

seriously nice stuff-he definitely cherry picked for you-i had to buy alot of rock and pay high prices for cured to get all big peices like you did -he really did you right.

[Ninong]

Yes, I do have too much rock right now, especially the Buna Spiney, but I didn't want to throw it out last night.

I guess I'll have to ship some of it to Gene in exchange for frags.

It looks like I could have gotten by with 100-lbs of mostly Kaelini. I think he sent me such large pieces because he knows I have crappy eyesight and he wanted to make sure I could see them.

[Joaco]

I like both terraces in the center of the tank!
I have LOTS of them in my 90 gal seahorse tank, will have to take some pics one day

Are you going to hook up the Tunze Stream again and test it, now that the rock is in the way of the stronger currents that it generates?

Joaco

[Joaco]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I guess I need a BIGGER tank!

Hehe, you already have the bug...

Check this out, I'm very seriously thinking to go 1000 gal with the new SPS tank, instead of 'just' 630 gal (the other one -softies- will be 630 gal, the space is already fixed for that one)





Full size pic:

http://www.cih.com.au/images/tank_001.jpg

Yes, I just told my wife. And yes, I believe I will be spleeping on the couch tonight!

The above tank is in Australia, it's 8x4x3 feet

more pics:

http://www.cih.com.au/3800L.htm

Joaco

[Joaco]

Originally Posted by Joaco

http://www.cih.com.au/images/tank_001.jpg

The above tank is in Australia, it's 8x4x3 feet

I just notice it's the same size as Wayne Shang's (new?) tank

96 L x 48 W x 36 H ( www.underseadiscovery.com )

Joaco
ps: but we will talk about my new tanks in a separate thread, I just couldn't resist

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Joaco

Are you going to hook up the Tunze Stream again and test it, now that the rock is in the way of the stronger currents that it generates?

No, not yet anyway. The space is there for it behind the rocks in front of the corner overflow. I might even be able to leave the 3/4" Sea-Swirl running just above it at the surface. I would have to take out some of the large pieces of Buna Spiney to the right of the corner overflow compartment first. In any case, I will have to take those out before I start adding corals to the tank because I have much too much Buna Spiney right now.

Besides, I don't want to do anything to kick up the sand bed right now. Let's wait a few weeks at least to give the DSB a chance to settle down first. To tell you the truth, the two 3/4" Sea-Swirls and the 3/4" plumbed return do a pretty decent job of circulating the water throughout the tank. Right now the strongest flow is in the upper third of the tank and that's where the Acropora would go anyway.

[Minh Nguyen]

It looks very nice right now but in 6-12 months your will need to remove at least 1/2 of your rock.
Nice tank.
Minh

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Minh Nguyen

It looks very nice right now but in 6-12 months your will need to remove at least 1/2 of your rock.
Nice tank.
Minh

I think I will need to remove a lot of it before I start putting anything at the top.

[Reefland]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I think I will need to remove a lot of it before I start putting anything at the top.

You can send me your extra rock and I can get rid of this crap with the red macro algae from hell attached to it. With all of the crevises in the rock, even when I took the tank apart to scrub it there was some left and that is what has grown and filled the aquarium today. You send me your extra and I'll throw out what I have now.

Originally Posted by Ninong

To tell you the truth, the two 3/4" Sea-Swirls and the 3/4" plumbed return do a pretty decent job of circulating the water throughout the tank. Right now the strongest flow is in the upper third of the tank and that's where the Acropora would go anyway.

I thought that was enough in the beginning. Sure, we are wanting to throw as much current at our SPS as possible but there is a limit. When you send me your extra rock, you can send me your extra Tunze Stream too.

Originally Posted by Ninong

I think I will need to remove a lot of it before I start putting anything at the top.

Yeah it looks pretty full. However it sure wouldn't hurt to leave it all in there for a couple fo weeks to get the tank fully cycled and then take out a few pounds (or 40#) when your ready to start placing corals in there. I would definately do it before adding any corals though, it will make it A LOT easier down the road.

It sure does look great Ninong and beleive me, I am just excited about it as you are.

Regards,

[zhenya]

Ninong,

I vote for letting Scott have that extra rock I'll not be ready for anything untill I finish breaking up my 110 and nuking everything with bleach afterwords ...might take awhile.

Joaco,

That is some LARGE tanks you posted there... good luck with them

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Ninong,
I vote for letting Scott have that extra rock I'll not be ready for anything untill I finish breaking up my 110 and nuking everything with bleach afterwords ...might take awhile.

I'm looking at the tank right now and as much as I hate to part with any of my live rock, I don't see how I can avoid removing at least 4 or 5 pieces of the Buna Spiney. This stuff is extremely porous but it is also more fragile than Kaelini or Tonga Branch, so I don't think it would support any other rock on top of it other than perhaps another light piece of Buna Spiney. It is decorative but doesn't have the coralline coverage that you see on the Kaelini and the Tonga Branch.

I'll probably force myself to remove at least a few pieces within the next few days. No sense prolonging the inevitable.