Gig 'em @ NDstructible

And here's an example of the stand for my 120 gallon reef tank.

Here are some example pictures of what we can do. Welding aquarium stands is only the tip of the iceberg, any kind of artistic pieces or welding services can be met.

Yeah, that coral has quickly become my most valued colony. It is growing at an unbelievable rate too. When I got it from you it was a tiny little stick, now it has at least 6 branches starting to bud off. Maybe in a couple of years it will be a beautiful grand table

Thanks, yeah I wish I had documented individual corals more closely from the beginning of the tank in February so I could compare them now.As an example, here's a terrible photo of one of my corals 7 months ago, just a pitiful half dead stick And here it is yesterday It's pretty remarkable how quickly some cross can grow under good conditions. I wish I had a good camera with a tripod so I could take nice time lapse photos and do a nice month-to-month comparison.

Tank Update shots

Bromine, that's the one, not boron. Close enough, right? [emoji12] I've never run ozone long term, so I don't have any experience or input, but I imagine indiscriminately killing bacteria in the whole tank for long periods of time would make nutrient cycling difficult.

Agreed. Ozone can be dangerous if left unchecked and will impact everything in a tank, whereas UV will only kill what passes through the reaction chamber.I haven't gotten to research it much yet. What is the main risk to worry about? An out off control ozone generator? What would be the effects of pumping too much ozone into the system? Destruction of the bacterial population in the tank? Oxidative effects on soft tissue of gills on fish and on flesh of corals? Are there any long-term worries? Any health and safety concerns for the household? Short answer, yes.The main risk is the oxidation effects of ozone. In salt water ozone will oxidize compounds and create toxic forms of that someone. I believe Boron is the main concern, but I would have to look it up to be certain. Whenever I run ozone I run a TON of carbon to scrub out any toxic compounds created. Also, high ozone levels are harmful to fish and to anyone in the household. If we run ozone at the lowest level (300 ppb) and something goes wrong and it runs continuously or at a higher concentration, then that ozone starts saturating the air inside the house. So let's say the house has a concentration of 200 ppb, the EPA NAAQS limit for ozone is 70 ppb! I spend a lot of time working with high concentrations of ozone in my career and I'll tell you when I've been breathing elevated levels of ozone I start feeling very wheezy and I have trouble breathing easily. High ozone levels leads to respiratory issues and oxidizes compounds in the air like NO into NO2, which is toxic to breathe. So if something goes wrong, then yes, you'll be putting your tank inhabitants and house inhabitants in danger. I've seen my anemones deflate and become ticked when I run ozone for more than a few minutes, so I imagine every animal feels that way when running ozone.

Agreed. Ozone can be dangerous if left unchecked and will impact everything in a tank, whereas UV will only kill what passes through the reaction chamber.

0.3 mg/L is a good setting I would think. That equates to 300 ppb ozone, which is enough concentration to kill most bacteria and viruses in water. I think it only takes about 30 seconds of exposure to kill viruses and most bacteria, but in a large water volume I imagine it would take a while of it running to make a real impact. I imagine it would spur a rapid growth of biofilm growth when you run ozone.

Going to have it controlled by the APEX and the OPR probe, but I will start it to max at 275 mV and slowly increase it to 350 mV. I'll keep the ozonator on "1" as I don't want to pump too much into the tank. Hm, I wonder how much O3 that creates. Does your ozonator create ozone by a UV lamp?

What concentration of O3 do you run in your tank? And for how long?

Did you add anything new that stared this bloom or do you think this is just part of the natural cycle of a new tank?

If it's a bacterial bloom, should you just let it run its course? I would make sure to keep the tank well oxygenated during the bloom since they can rapidly deplete the oxygen level. Eventually they'll run their course and die down to a stable population level.

Thanks for all the support to make this C4 possible guys! Y'all are hands down the best store in town

Thanks guys! I've been looking for a clam for months and my wife and I love the clam I picked up!! So happy y'all brought them. She named him Clams Armstrong [emoji23]

I remember RC had a thread of a huge outdoor tank being built in a neighborhood as a sort of common-park tank. It was in Saudi Arabia or something like that. Obviously born completely out of the insane oil wealth and making life better for the engineers and workers who had to live out there. I stopped following it before they got coral and fish in it, but it looked awesome. I always day dream about making an outdoor/green house coral reef pond. Keep the greenhouse temp stable with a heater supplement in the winter and fans or AC in the summer and you could have an outdoor system if designed well. Maybe one day if the real estate market stops growing out of reach of locals I'll have enough land to do that on [emoji30]

This is a pointless post, but I thought it was a pretty funny picture. Seems like meme material with that facial expression [emoji38]

Well at least it was just 5 gallons and didn't bring your SG way down or put more water in the tray. I know some people have their ATO tied directly into their RO system, which to me is just waiting for a catastrophe

Haha my wife was telling me last night that buying me a new pump isn't as exciting as another gift.... Well to me it is![emoji847]

Good thing you had that tray! Stories like this are exactly why I don't use foot valves to manage my water level. I'm sure there's always a good reason why an ATO keeps running in these cases and every tank needs a bit of growing pains to work through the kinks, but never once have I overflowed my sump with freshwater by running the ATO a few seconds every hour. My method may be antiquated, but it works without ever flooding my floors! Is there a way you can adjust the overflows so this won't happen next time the power goes out?

You have the worst luck with used equipment! Like terrible! I couldn't imagine the replacement pump on that thing is cheap. Good thing your birthday is coming up. [emoji4] Haha yup. Goodbye birthday presents, hello replacement pump

That time you check on your tank on your way to bed and notice the protein skimmer isn't running, then spend a good hour taking it out of the sump, taking it apart and cleaning it, and putting it back in only to realize the pump is dead. That's what I get for buying used equipment on the club [emoji35]

Dow Corning 732 Clear silicone sir. It's on the first page of my build thread. I'm surprised you missed it. [emoji12] I've used this stuff too. And the way I know it's the real deal is it smells to high heaven of vinegar just like the expensive little tube of "aquarium silicone" from the pet store. But if you're just doing a 20H sump, the aquarium tube will be more than enough, I only bought the big tube of Dow to rebuild an aquarium. You're welcome to come by and take the rest of my tube if you want it.

This may be a dumb question, but how old is your calcium test kit? I find it odd that calcium would be splitting off away from alk that quickly. Could it be that your calcium test kit has expired? Have you tried comparing your test results to that of another test kit? I struggle with lower Mg in my tank top and added NeoMag to the reactor. I didn't see Mg rise until I lowered the pH in my reactor below 6.5. It seems to not dissolve very well in closer to neutral water and requires a more acidic environment. This is just my observation in my own reactor, so who knows if it's the same for you. Like Jolt said, I would also check your pH probe and recalibrate it.

Hey Jonathan, looks like you're getting close to an exciting phase of owning an aquarium! I see that you've added live sand, but did not add live rock. In my experience a tank, a tank matures much more quickly with live rock than with live sand. Having live sand certainly helps, and adding a few pieces of live rock to your dry rock also significantly helps speed up the process, but it does not typically lead to a mature tank as quickly as adding live sand AND live rock at the beginning. A lot of people give a tank a couple of months to mature when adding only dry rock, and I would venture on the conservative side and say you may still need more time to let the bacterial and microbial populations really take hold and settle in. A lot of the tests you'll be conducting won't show that this has happened. Ammonia and nitrate tests will help signify that you're out of the main cycling phase, but it's my opinion that the majority of the microbes involved in proper nutrient cycling take longer after ammonia/nitrate cycling has died down to become truly capable of supporting large bioloads in the tank. That's just my opinion, in my experience tanks do much better and have fewer nutrient issues when given plenty of time to mature before throwing livestock into a tank. Too much livestock too quickly can lead to algae blooms. And considering you're starting with dry rock, which is building it's nutrient cycling capabilities up from scratch, I would err on the side of caution and wait a little bit longer. All that being said, if you really want to start now I would start slowly and add the most forgiving corals first. Green star polyps (GSP) is a great beginners coral. It grows quickly, looks pretty, and pretty hardy. Some people love this coral, and other people learn to hate it because it's so tenacious and grows so quickly. I think I left some live rock in the sun or turned it upside down in the sand once to kill it and then polyps began reappearing on the rock a few months later! It was like the trick birthday candles! Xenia is also a good beginner coral, perhaps more delicate, but still notorious for fast growth and difficulty to eradicate in a healthy system. Mushrooms and kenya tress are good start corals as well. Whatever you decide to add, add it slowly. Acclimate the corals, dip them to prevent any pests from entering the tank, and don't add too much livestock too quickly. Good things take time, and our fish tanks are a great way to practice patience! Best of luck.