Planning stage - 55g acrylic tank

[Octoman]

The tank looks great Golden!

Couple recommendations for the TBS package...

1) Put a tarp down on the floor in front of your tank, the big bags full of rock/sand and water can be a little awkward to work with and something is guaranteed to drip...

2) Make sure you take water out of the system before putting the rock in, don't displace too much water and overflow everything... Just keep what you take out and fill it back up when you're done. I got the 20 gal package and 55 pounds sand and the first part of the package displaced about 5 gallons, I saved this for my next water change...

3) Give a good shake to the rock as the instructions say to try to get bad crabs off. When I put the first part of my package in, I didn't do any aquascaping so that I could see every rock and snag crabs out as needed, also some sponges, tunicates, corals, etc... may not be apparent for a little while. Plus, you don't know what the rest of your rock will look like yet... DO NOT attempt to do a freshwater dip to drive crabs out, this will kill everything except the crabs!! Not all crabs are bad, make sure you check out each one closely before condemning it. I even got a little porcelain crab in my rock!! But, I did have a gang of xanthid crabs that are now confined to the refugium.

4) It takes a couple days for Richard to get the shipment together and he may be collecting in the Keys, so be patient and contact him in advance. Make sure you call Delta Cargo (or whichever airline he uses for your shipment) and get the local airport cargo facility phone #. I called them a few times to let them know I was expecting some live fish, find out when it should arrive, and to make sure it had arrived. Delta Cargo's online tracking info isn't always updated or accurate...


Can't wait to see some life in the new setup!!

[goldenmean]

Octoman,
Thanks for the TBS recomendations!

Well after months of planning and saving $$
The 55 gallon tank is running and filled with salt water!
After I set the syphon in the overflow and turned on the return pump
there was one small leak in the return plumbing. A little teflon tape fixed that.
Then there was just one little problem. I realized that the skimmer's electrical cord was partially under the stand. Doh!
Luckily I was able to lift the stand and tank just enough that my Husband was able to pull the cord out from under the stand. It doesn't look like there was any damage done to the cord.

I ordered the 45g Package(90 lbs LR, 45 lbs LS, 45 hermits, 23 snails, 2 Tigar tail cukes, 1 star, 1 peppermint )shrimp from TBS.
I also ordered an extra 40 lbs of LS as I want at least a 4"DSB so that later down the path I can add a Blue Spot Jaw Fish. Now I just have to wait for TBS to call and confirm the order.
I cant wait!

I put 35 lbs of sand in the tank tonight which combined with the TBS sand will total 120 lbs. That should give me about 4" sand.

Just a couple of pics before I added the sand

[ReefSilly]

Nice clean tank you have there

[goldenmean]

You should see it now since I put the 35 # ogf sand in last night.
Very cloudy.

I have already exchanged emails with Richard of TBS.
Looks like I will be getting my Part 1 of my Package later today!

So ChuckG should be happy to see some life in this tank already.
Lots of life!

[ReefSilly]

Did you clean the sand?
I ask cause I don't think many do. I know chuck did not.
I spent I know around 8hrs cleaning my sand and the tank never got cloudy.
Do I think it was worth it "NO" I only used 45lb of live sand and rinsed 120lb.

[goldenmean]

I did rinse the sand in a bucket in running water for about an hour stirirng it up occasionally. Now when the LS from TBS comes that will go right in

[ReefSilly]

I guess it's the woman in us that has to clean.

[Octoman]

The anticipation is killing me! I followed the plane on the Delta tracking website when my shipment was coming. Glad to see you have cool weather in the windy city right now, I lucked out and had nice cool days for both parts of my package.

[goldenmean]

Scheduled arrival time at Midway airport is 12:55pm.
Just 13 hours after I ordered it!
I am at work til 5 (well probably 4pm) then I am off to Midway.
I am not going to get any work done today thats for sure!

[olsaltybastard]

Nice tank GM.


On another note, I didn't know you were a she.