The Life Aquatic
Community Member
Hey all!
Figured it was time to get this build thread started. You can find a bit of my background here.
Tank: TruVu 84x24x20 .5” acrylic. Ordered 2 weeks ago so expecting it in 2-4 more weeks.
Stand: Tenecor “magnum” t-slot open stand. Just got my shipping notices! Note I’ll likely do some customization as I’m worried about load distribution (more on that below)
Equipment - much of this is tbd. Some already purchased, some not:
- Skimmer: Quantum 160, showed up today!
- Sump: Trigger Triton 44v2. Got one “blemished” for half off and honestly what a deal because it seems absolutely perfect.
Lights: haven’t ordered but leaning aquatic life 61” T5 hybrid and will add Kessil 360s as time goes on
- RODI: yes, more on my mixing shed below
Everything else: pumps, wave makers, heating, ATO etc will be added in the coming weeks but not as worried.
Mixing: I live in NorCal where it never really gets too hot or too cold. So I set up a mixing station in my shed. I have both tap and well sources within 5 feet of the RODI and may play with both. The tank will be in a room approx 12 feet from the shed and I plan on doing water changes from the window by pumping water in and out. It sounds simple in theory but let’s see how it goes.
Rock - here is an area that seems to have changed a lot in the 10 years I’ve been out of the hobby. I was shocked how much “dry” rock is used now and that the phenomenal pacific live rock is a thing of the past. I ordered 60lbs of Caribsea Life Rock (good sale a few weeks back, got it for $3/lb). Will also add 100lbs of “live” rock closer to startup from sources like KP and maybe try a few others and mix it up. I will probably ordered 30-40lbs and start “cycling” it in my sump to get a head start and also get some “good” water going that I can pump into
the tank at startup.
I’ve been “cycling” the Caribsea rock for the past 48 hours in a mixing tub. I added “fish less fuel”, some flake food, and turbo start and now have .5ppm ammonia, 5ppm nitrite and 40ppm nitrate so something is cooking. Plan is to keep this cooking until startup. I’ve seen some advice to NOT use this water for startup but I’m leaning towards using it assuming testing looks good as 1) I hate the idea of wasting all this water and 2) I’ve always been a believer in seeding the tank with some “live” water, albeit my only hesitation is idk what possibly leached out of this dry rock but it seemed very clean.
Placement: this was a bit of drama. We live on a raised foundation on a very very tight crawl space and although possible to reinforce it would be a pain in the ****. Lucky for me, my brother is a structural engineer and after getting our hands on the house plans and getting into the crawl space I have a location that I’m fairly confident in. For those wondering, right on top of a load bearing wall with 6 joists running perpendicular.
I should also mention that the thought of earthquakes has scared me away from keeping a tank out here and part of my choice of acrylic, stand, etc is with the best level of prep in mind. Although nothing is fool proof. The stand I got has those leveling feet and I will likely build a very very basic support structure under it that is a combo of rubber and HDPE, similar to the seismic structures they use for buildings and bridges but there is no great way to know
If it will actually do anything. It will likely slosh more than tip and I plan on keeping the water level a bit low while the bracing style used by Truvu will naturally keep a bit more water in, but in a big enough quake that will all be moot as I’d have much bigger issues to worry about.
My wife told me it looks like I’m cooking meth in the shed so I may need to name this the “Heisenberg” tank.
Figured it was time to get this build thread started. You can find a bit of my background here.
Tank: TruVu 84x24x20 .5” acrylic. Ordered 2 weeks ago so expecting it in 2-4 more weeks.
Stand: Tenecor “magnum” t-slot open stand. Just got my shipping notices! Note I’ll likely do some customization as I’m worried about load distribution (more on that below)
Equipment - much of this is tbd. Some already purchased, some not:
- Skimmer: Quantum 160, showed up today!
- Sump: Trigger Triton 44v2. Got one “blemished” for half off and honestly what a deal because it seems absolutely perfect.
Lights: haven’t ordered but leaning aquatic life 61” T5 hybrid and will add Kessil 360s as time goes on
- RODI: yes, more on my mixing shed below
Everything else: pumps, wave makers, heating, ATO etc will be added in the coming weeks but not as worried.
Mixing: I live in NorCal where it never really gets too hot or too cold. So I set up a mixing station in my shed. I have both tap and well sources within 5 feet of the RODI and may play with both. The tank will be in a room approx 12 feet from the shed and I plan on doing water changes from the window by pumping water in and out. It sounds simple in theory but let’s see how it goes.
Rock - here is an area that seems to have changed a lot in the 10 years I’ve been out of the hobby. I was shocked how much “dry” rock is used now and that the phenomenal pacific live rock is a thing of the past. I ordered 60lbs of Caribsea Life Rock (good sale a few weeks back, got it for $3/lb). Will also add 100lbs of “live” rock closer to startup from sources like KP and maybe try a few others and mix it up. I will probably ordered 30-40lbs and start “cycling” it in my sump to get a head start and also get some “good” water going that I can pump into
the tank at startup.
I’ve been “cycling” the Caribsea rock for the past 48 hours in a mixing tub. I added “fish less fuel”, some flake food, and turbo start and now have .5ppm ammonia, 5ppm nitrite and 40ppm nitrate so something is cooking. Plan is to keep this cooking until startup. I’ve seen some advice to NOT use this water for startup but I’m leaning towards using it assuming testing looks good as 1) I hate the idea of wasting all this water and 2) I’ve always been a believer in seeding the tank with some “live” water, albeit my only hesitation is idk what possibly leached out of this dry rock but it seemed very clean.
Placement: this was a bit of drama. We live on a raised foundation on a very very tight crawl space and although possible to reinforce it would be a pain in the ****. Lucky for me, my brother is a structural engineer and after getting our hands on the house plans and getting into the crawl space I have a location that I’m fairly confident in. For those wondering, right on top of a load bearing wall with 6 joists running perpendicular.
I should also mention that the thought of earthquakes has scared me away from keeping a tank out here and part of my choice of acrylic, stand, etc is with the best level of prep in mind. Although nothing is fool proof. The stand I got has those leveling feet and I will likely build a very very basic support structure under it that is a combo of rubber and HDPE, similar to the seismic structures they use for buildings and bridges but there is no great way to know
If it will actually do anything. It will likely slosh more than tip and I plan on keeping the water level a bit low while the bracing style used by Truvu will naturally keep a bit more water in, but in a big enough quake that will all be moot as I’d have much bigger issues to worry about.
My wife told me it looks like I’m cooking meth in the shed so I may need to name this the “Heisenberg” tank.
