New Tank Setup

If it were me, I would consider dumping two pounds of raw market prawn into the tank. Let them sit in the water for a good 5-6 days till they start to get rotten/fuzzy, then remove. Then let the tank sit for 7-10 days to finish the cycling process.

Seeding with dirty filter media should work too. I've used both techniques to good effect.
 
chen88 said:
I'm down to two areas...after using the plumbing tape tonight I think i will be down to one.

The one remaining is the threaded pipe that goes into the pump. I don't think I put enough teflon tape in it or tighten it enough...again it's a very minor drip...so minor that when it drips onto my rubbermaid lid that the pumps are sitting on it dries up from the heat of the pumps and doesn't pool but just leaves a watermark....I'll grab some pics tonight.

Also, I'm going to transfer 2 out of 3 trays of Eheim Media from my FX5 tonight into the sump so that it can start the seeding process together with me putting in Seachem Stability. I'll refill the FX5's 2/3 basket with pot scrubbers. I'll look at moving the remainder of the media from the fx5 to the sump later this week and fill the entire fx5 with either scrubbers or sponge..
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I went down almost 8 rolls of teflon tape for mine tank. esp more on the pumps.
 
Cirrus said:
If it were me, I would consider dumping two pounds of raw market prawn into the tank. Let them sit in the water for a good 5-6 days till they start to get rotten/fuzzy, then remove. Then let the tank sit for 7-10 days to finish the cycling process.

Seeding with dirty filter media should work too. I've used both techniques to good effect.
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soak sponges in Cycle and through them in the sump seems to work fast for me.
 
I use Prime which I believe is another Stabil product and have had no problems with it for my freshwater tanks. I use it to treat tapwater that goes straight into the tank for w/c. Maybe my tapwater has less chloramines than most and I do large water changes (30 -50 % twice a week).

Maybe I'm just lucky but my first two rays have bred 5 times so far and the first set of pups are now getting amorous (I see love bites recently on the 12" female from the 9" male). They seem to like the water.
 
I use Prime as well....also stresscoat....I'll pick up some sponges and pot scrubbers on the way home tonight...as mentioned I'm going to empty the crappy water from my pro 3 into the sump as well as 2/3 of the media into the sump. I'm ok with the remaining 1/3 of media in the pro 3 as I'll still have my fx5 full of ehiem media...
 
h.l_nathan said:
I went down almost 8 rolls of teflon tape for mine tank. esp more on the pumps.
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that's what I should have done...but it's all good...i would say the leak is extremely manageable....I would not want to take everything apart now considering it took me over 1 1/2 weeks to put together! lol....
 
Should of just hire a Pro. 25 bucks an hour and let them do the work. Then you wouldnt have to worry about the leaks.
Good luck with the new tank. I think you gonna end up like me wanting bigger and bigger soon.
 
h.l_nathan said:
Should of just hire a Pro. 25 bucks an hour and let them do the work. Then you wouldnt have to worry about the leaks.
Good luck with the new tank. I think you gonna end up like me wanting bigger and bigger soon.
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LOL...I'm afraid the 8fter is the largest I can fit in my house! LOL....or else I would have gotten the bigger one already! lol

As for hiring a "Pro" I'm only 5'5"...I would need the Pro to be my size if now smaller to fit under my cabinet ... :-) the tank, stand, sump without water weights almost 1500lbs...its not as if I could move it around =-)
 
you'd be amaze how flexible those guys are. they did plumbing for mine and fit my 220gal underneath my stairs and the position they had to be in inorder to do the piping.
 
What type of teflon tape are you using? There is the regular white stuff that is readily available at home depot and such or there's a thicker pink/orange type that is better quality.

Also, more tape doesn't mean better seals. You can crack the casing when applying too much tape and trying to torque on the fitting to your pumps, etc.
 
I was using the standard white teflon....and I knew the potential of too much means cracking hence not applying too many layers....I checked last night and the leaking is so so minimal I'm not at all concern anymore!....

So last night I emptied 1 3/4 trays out of my eheim pro 3 2080 which was full of eheim substrat pros into bags and put them into my sump. Also emptied the dirty water into the sump...my once crystal clear new tank is no long clear! lol....but was clearing up this morning...hopefully that just boosted the seeding process that much more. by the end of this weekend, I might empty 1 1/2 trays out of my fx5 into the sump, then replaced what I emptied from both the Pro 3 and FX5 with sponges to get those going...just want to make sure I don't get rid of too many BB's from my existing tank. Going to start testing the water tonight and see where we're at. Also been adding small portions of Stability and also Prime to the new tank.

I have my electrician coming over tonight to install 2 new 20 amp circuits and wiring it right into my tank cabinet. With the 2 20amp circuits I can safely plug in all my lights, pumps, heaters, uv and then sump with out tripping anything....was going for only 1 20amp but it wasn't much more work just to pull another set of wires and put in the 20amp for the guy....so I'll have lots of juice..

Getting there boys....starting to relax a bit....knowing the tank is finally running the way I want it. Next challenge and research is to figure out how to keep the pump noise to a minimum as the rigid insulation is not doing it's job as I'm finding it's deflecting the sound more then absorbing it. Looking at different options and while keeping in mind that I need to ensure I have ventilations inside the cabinet for the 2 pumps. The good thing is the sump is fully enclosed! therefore the moisture level is greatly reduced!.
 
wow sounds like a lot of work! but will all pay off once the tank is stocked.

when are the fish going in!? hahaha. im too excited to see a vid.
 
well...it's only be a week for cycling with 3/4 of the media from my pro 3 being in the sump together with all the bioballs and some pot scrubbers..going to hold on as long as i can ie....another couple of weeks before i consider putting them in.....
 
So finally got my 2 20amps circuit installed last night and plugged in my Ranco heater controller without plugging in the 2 heaters. The thermometer reading on my Ranco of my tank was at 89!....I think the water going through my 2 Reeflow is heating up the water....at this point do I need to consider a chiller? there's nothing in the tank right now of course...also noticed lots of condensation on the top of the tank but that could also be from the bubble disc....what do you guys think? At this point the heaters will not be plugged in until they are needed....but if the temps are set it shouldn't come on anyways....
 
So...it looks like one of my Reeflo pumps might had an issue. One of them is making a louder noise then then other...I'ved left that pump off for one night and the temp went down from 89 to 84....I re did the plumbing (PVC tubes) and had both pumps running last night and it's still a constant 84. The inside of my cabinet is enclose and a tad warm, also my tank and sumps are also fully enclosed so I do expect more heat then typical so if it remains at 84 with out any heaters I'm fine!

I've been back and forth with the owner at Reeflo in the states and he thinks it's the bearings of the louder pump that's causing the heating and apparently during shipping it happens with bearings shifting and when you turn it on it causes friction and eventually burns out. He is going to send me a replacement right away...Talk about SERVICE! and I didn't even buy it from him but from Tenecor....Going to do a 40-50% water change this week, a bit of maintenance and will be looking at moving some fish over by the Superbowl Sunday...that's my target....I'll probably throw in my Tig in there the next couple of days or two...I was thinking a leo, but I'll need to step inside the tank for the maintenance in the next week and didn't want to take the chance of getting stung!
 
Well Tigs the first to go for a swim in his new house. Looks like he's enjoying his new pad all by himself, hope he does get too comfortable! Lol
 
LOL....I was trying to get away with not posting any pics ....but you caught me Tim...ok..one before Bed...lol

Had the blue light on....

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