210 gallon Dream tank
- Thread starter MichaelB
- Start date
I think it all depends on where you live. Im pretty close to neptunes. I've used him twice. Once for 80 gallons and once for 115 gallons.
No progress as of now. In terms of getting things set up more efficiently. Have the rodi unit running to a 55 barrel. Just not set up mixing station style.
I had filled the other 55 barrel a few weeks back with extra rodi, i used that water to mix fresh water into the stock tank today.
I will leave the other barrel empty for the mixing station once I fully empty it (only about 20 gallons left in it).
Breif Status update.
Equipment for tank.
2- 500 watt finnex heaters
1- 55watt pond uv clarifer
2- Jabebo 13000Dcp retun pumps
Rock s³tructures are from @Coral reefer
Lots of stuff still to do before the tank ready to go. Yet progress is good.
Equipment for tank.
2- 500 watt finnex heaters
1- 55watt pond uv clarifer
2- Jabebo 13000Dcp retun pumps
Rock s³tructures are from @Coral reefer
Lots of stuff still to do before the tank ready to go. Yet progress is good.
Attachments
Last edited:
Coral reefer
Past President
Bummer that branch broke off. Moving these is hard sometimes. I’ll have to come fix it for you
Been a while since the general update on this tank. There have been many postives, also lots of progress and one depressing let down I caused from a lack of knowing better.
postives:
1.) Frag tank was successfully set up and has been running going on 2 weeks. There is a separate journal for it.
2.) I was able to get several lights so I now have many options. 4kessils 360x, and 2 xr30 black box knock offs, in addtion to the 3- Kessil 360we that came with tank. (During testing found out one has a burnt lense. So down to 2)
3.) things are really starting to fall into place overall with lots of progress.
Progress:
1.) Finished painting inside of the stand. I need to replace the rear bracing and possibly install shower pan linner to add some level of overflow protection.
2.) Looking at the nice tank made me look around the room and notice other improvements I could make.
2A. Painted fire place white to match stand.
2B. Decided to mount the tv first time I ever attempted it. Mission successful and very easy project.
2C. looking at the tank and fire place I knew the walls needed similar attention. Two coats of semi gloss yesterday and they are done.
2D. Tonight I ripped up all the old flooring down to the sub flooring to prepare for attempting to install new water proof laminate.
3.) With all the progress made I'm just about all out of delaying projects before attempting the floors. (If I'm being Honest I wish I could recurit someone who's done it before to give me a hand, gotta stick to a diy type budget so hopefully I won't screw it up.) I only get one day off this week, so I'm expecting next sunday and monday I will have to start the attempt.
4.) Moved nem tank to kitchen in order to do the floors.
5.) Aquired a tank to replace my main biocube32. Water test successfully there is more details in the other tank journal.
Negative:
Since my last post about getting the amazing looking rock structures from @Coral reefer
I kept them dry for a few weeks until one day last week I decided it was time to get them soaking. I already had the larger fish intended for the 210gallon tank in a stock tank where there was still plenty of room.
I had a fair amount of live. Rock already in the stock tank maybe even slightly more than the structure I was going to add.
I added the structure and removed the structures that were originally in the 65gallon tank and gave them to another member. This left about 80 lbs of live rocks meant to ve split between the sump and display of the 210gallon for a faster kick start.
Things well well after adding the rock structure for 3 days right until it alll fell apart. I went to feed fish, no feeding response. Switch to a different food. Nothing. Took a closer look no site of fish. Got out a work light to see better. Than all the fish were dead.
I was pretty distrught, inkbird said temperature was perfect 78, salinity was .025, skimmer and pumps were working so wasn't lack of oxygen.
I was so dang I didn't wanna test the water myself. So I opted to drive to neptunes and try to collect myself. Got there main tank water tested perfectly in the typical ideal ranges.
Stock tank results were unexpected.
The fish had been in the stock tank for a few weeks no issues at all. 3 days before only change I made was adding the new rock structures. They were dry rock I didn't think it was a issue when I originally added them to a tank already containing %70 precent more live rock than I was planning to add.
After the fact I learned seeing the Ammonia increase that the dry rock structures spiked the water parameters basically starting a new full tank cycle.
I lost: magnificant foxface, one spot foxface, melanurus wrasse, lemon peel angel, tomini tang, 4 pj cardinals. None of the snails or crabs appeared to have died. I transferred them immediately to the frag tank after seeing the results.
The only saving grace was that I placed my favorite fish larger maroon clowns into a tank with all the nems. I would have been pretty devestated if something happened to them.
This was a lesson learned the hardest way. Never add dry rocks directly into a tank with existing fish.
It's been 6 days since it happened, so once again I'm encouraged to learn from it and use more caution.
postives:
1.) Frag tank was successfully set up and has been running going on 2 weeks. There is a separate journal for it.
2.) I was able to get several lights so I now have many options. 4kessils 360x, and 2 xr30 black box knock offs, in addtion to the 3- Kessil 360we that came with tank. (During testing found out one has a burnt lense. So down to 2)
3.) things are really starting to fall into place overall with lots of progress.
Progress:
1.) Finished painting inside of the stand. I need to replace the rear bracing and possibly install shower pan linner to add some level of overflow protection.
2.) Looking at the nice tank made me look around the room and notice other improvements I could make.
2A. Painted fire place white to match stand.
2B. Decided to mount the tv first time I ever attempted it. Mission successful and very easy project.
2C. looking at the tank and fire place I knew the walls needed similar attention. Two coats of semi gloss yesterday and they are done.
2D. Tonight I ripped up all the old flooring down to the sub flooring to prepare for attempting to install new water proof laminate.
3.) With all the progress made I'm just about all out of delaying projects before attempting the floors. (If I'm being Honest I wish I could recurit someone who's done it before to give me a hand, gotta stick to a diy type budget so hopefully I won't screw it up.) I only get one day off this week, so I'm expecting next sunday and monday I will have to start the attempt.
4.) Moved nem tank to kitchen in order to do the floors.
5.) Aquired a tank to replace my main biocube32. Water test successfully there is more details in the other tank journal.
Negative:
Since my last post about getting the amazing looking rock structures from @Coral reefer
I kept them dry for a few weeks until one day last week I decided it was time to get them soaking. I already had the larger fish intended for the 210gallon tank in a stock tank where there was still plenty of room.
I had a fair amount of live. Rock already in the stock tank maybe even slightly more than the structure I was going to add.
I added the structure and removed the structures that were originally in the 65gallon tank and gave them to another member. This left about 80 lbs of live rocks meant to ve split between the sump and display of the 210gallon for a faster kick start.
Things well well after adding the rock structure for 3 days right until it alll fell apart. I went to feed fish, no feeding response. Switch to a different food. Nothing. Took a closer look no site of fish. Got out a work light to see better. Than all the fish were dead.
I was pretty distrught, inkbird said temperature was perfect 78, salinity was .025, skimmer and pumps were working so wasn't lack of oxygen.
I was so dang I didn't wanna test the water myself. So I opted to drive to neptunes and try to collect myself. Got there main tank water tested perfectly in the typical ideal ranges.
Stock tank results were unexpected.
The fish had been in the stock tank for a few weeks no issues at all. 3 days before only change I made was adding the new rock structures. They were dry rock I didn't think it was a issue when I originally added them to a tank already containing %70 precent more live rock than I was planning to add.
After the fact I learned seeing the Ammonia increase that the dry rock structures spiked the water parameters basically starting a new full tank cycle.
I lost: magnificant foxface, one spot foxface, melanurus wrasse, lemon peel angel, tomini tang, 4 pj cardinals. None of the snails or crabs appeared to have died. I transferred them immediately to the frag tank after seeing the results.
The only saving grace was that I placed my favorite fish larger maroon clowns into a tank with all the nems. I would have been pretty devestated if something happened to them.
This was a lesson learned the hardest way. Never add dry rocks directly into a tank with existing fish.
It's been 6 days since it happened, so once again I'm encouraged to learn from it and use more caution.
Last edited:
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
Moving in the right direction
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
My apologies
I did not read carefully….
Fish losses…..oh no!
I add dry rocks with great frequency, never had an issue
I did not read carefully….
Fish losses…..oh no!
I add dry rocks with great frequency, never had an issue
They were previously used before being structures not like marco rock fyi.
It's grey i will take one out box and post picture later on after work when i make it home.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
I am sorry about your livestock losses 
.
My takeaway here is (professional habit, sorry) that you have super complex efforts going across multiple projects, so very difficult to keep all balls in the air at all times. Also, looks like these rocks were in use previously and just another example of the ‘power’ of rocks, with large PH differences leading to instant full release of what is in the rock potentially resulting in what happended. Not sure about the ammonia theory though.
. My takeaway here is (professional habit, sorry) that you have super complex efforts going across multiple projects, so very difficult to keep all balls in the air at all times. Also, looks like these rocks were in use previously and just another example of the ‘power’ of rocks, with large PH differences leading to instant full release of what is in the rock potentially resulting in what happended. Not sure about the ammonia theory though.
Ayman
Supporting Member
I had similar issues with rock leaching, Like you mentioned if it was used and dry and never cured its a problem. I see lot of rock going around and believe should be mentioned that it must be cured before use. Sorry for the fish loss man. Did the purple tang make it?
Coral reefer
Past President
Oh no! Not sure how the ammonia happened. Once things start to die it keeps increasing tho. Did you keep the old live rock in with the new stuff?
I usually advise people soak the dry structures in a bin with water from a set up tank and ideally some sand bio media or a chunk of existing live rock for a week or 2 before using them. Super bummer
I usually advise people soak the dry structures in a bin with water from a set up tank and ideally some sand bio media or a chunk of existing live rock for a week or 2 before using them. Super bummer
Coral reefer
Past President
What issues did you have, and what does “cure” mean to you? I see lots of terms like cure and cook and none of it makes sense to me.
“Curing” used to mean what we did to actual live rock that got shipped in and had some die off that you wanted to avoid going in your tank right away.
Kinda similar to putting dry rock in a bin like I was saying I guess.
After I took out dead fish I just left them together in stock bin with heater and powerheads. I just tossed them in with the live rocks i had. Eric took the soak them first approach. Same structure more or less. Very different results. I had other totes I could have put them in, just figured the stock tank was big Enough to fit everything.
I won't do anything with any of rocks in it until testing shows they are ready.
Alexander1312
Supporting Member
Maybe more semantics, but moving rocks from one tank to another might not always be the best idea, depending on what is in the rock. I am less concerned about phosphates although this can be an annoying issue, but more on other deposits which might have built up which under a low PH environment release back into the water. So to truly know if your rock is safe to use, you would probably need to ICP test the water the rock sits in after a while.