Biocube build ish

[Off The Deep End]

So a few months ago my tank flooded and I was ready to be done but a few words of wisdom and hope from the fine people of MASC and I decided to not let it get the best of me. Well last week it happened again... this time instead of feeling defeated I decided to do something about it! I went out and bought another 29g biocube and decided to drill it to alleviate the issue of me losing Prime and the tank flooding. I have never drill a tank before so I was a little hesitant at first but I decided to go all in or bust haha literally. I was able to drill the tank put the bulkheads in and get all the plumbing in with success, here are some pictures of the progress and I hope to switch the tanks out this weekend. View attachment 13811

 

[Off The Deep End]

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[Off The Deep End]

Also want to throw out a big thanks to "the real Chris brown" and Josh Nelson from Biggs Lagoon for helping me find this tank and for letting me come over and pick your brain about drilling tanks.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

Glad it worked! Did you water test everything?

 

[Off The Deep End]

Glad it worked! Did you water test everything?

Just water tested it and it worked beautifully, I'm getting really excited to set it up this weekend. Do you guys think I should give the sand a good rinse since I will be transferring it?

 

[MuralReef]

How long was the sand in your other system?


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[Off The Deep End]

Roughly 2 years

 

[zombie]

Most definately needs a good rinse at the very least. Personally I would buy a bag of new sand and add a couple cups of the old stuff just to make sure there aren't any nutrients locked up in it for a clean slate, but many others on the forum prefer to just rinse their old sand well.

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[Off The Deep End]

I was thinking of going deeper with the sand bed so I might rinse what I have and add new sand to it. Thanks for the input.

 

[halmus]

Anyone here have input about the rinsing process if you intend to transfer a significant amount from one tank to another? As opposed to starting with a majority of new sand/gravel and a few cups of old (as Zombie suggests and I would be inclined to do). I’ve never personally re-used sand immediately from one tank to another.

I have reused old sand after basically rinsing, sterilizing, and drying. Then rinse again and add to a new tank fully expecting a cycle.

I’m imagining that rinsing the old sand in fresh tap or even RO/DI fresh could potentially kill all of the beneficial bacteria and cause more problems if there’s still a lot of nutrients trapped in the particles?

That being said, not rinsing sand that has possibly accumulated years of detritus and general fish poo could cause problems when transferring.

So, I’m imagining that rinsing the sand in excess tank water would be best?

 

[SynDen]

Methods I have used before is either
1) put a small amount in a 5g bucket. Shove a hose down in it. run water until it clears up some. Let dry and repeat if needed. Works good for small amount of sand.
2) Get a big mesh screen. Spread sand across the mesh and rinse well. Works well if you have a bunch of sand to rinse. Did this when we rinsed and put all the sand in the Downtown Aquarium tanks, and I will likely do something like this when I do the sand on my big tank.

 

[halmus]

I built a frame work out of scrap 2x4’s and attached a screen to it. Ran the sand through with water like I was planning for gold. Neighbors thought I was crazy, but what else is new? I set that standard early after moving in.

I was even able to separate out different grain sizes that way. My original substrate ended up with too much fine grain and too much flow.

 

[Andrew_bram]

I like drilling holes in pvc put at bottom of bucket put sand on top and turn it on low.

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[jda123]

I would just gravel vac the current sand and put it on top of the new stuff.

 

[Off The Deep End]

So I am currently in the process of cleaning my sand, 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of saltwater from my tank, I take the biggest net I have and add sand to it then shake in the water to sift out the sand. This traps all the bigger stuff (old snail shells and such) in the net. Then freshwater rinse like has been stated above. I'm not concerned with the bacteria loss as the water and the sand/ rock in my sump I believe will seed the sand quickly, I guess we will see

 

[zombie]

So I am currently in the process of cleaning my sand, 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of saltwater from my tank, I take the biggest net I have and add sand to it then shake in the water to sift out the sand. This traps all the bigger stuff (old snail shells and such) in the net. Then freshwater rinse like has been stated above. I'm not concerned with the bacteria loss as the water and the sand/ rock in my sump I believe will seed the sand quickly, I guess we will see

A small sprinkle of sand that was never rinsed in freshwater over the top of new or well rinsed sand will seed very quickly. If you say just added the unwashed sand to the sump though will take a lot longer to seed what is in the display. If the seed material physically touches the new material you speed things up a lot.

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[Off The Deep End]

A small sprinkle of sand that was never rinsed in freshwater over the top of new or well rinsed sand will seed very quickly. If you say just added the unwashed sand to the sump though will take a lot longer to seed what is in the display. If the seed material physically touches the new material you speed things up a lot.

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I have a 5" sand bed in my sump, I'm going to toss a little of that on top of the freshly washed sand in the tank to seed it.

 

[Off The Deep End]

Well it's up and running, some pics for your viewing pleasure. View attachment 13818 View attachment 13819 View attachment 13820 View attachment 13821 View attachment 13822 View attachment 13823 View attachment 13824

 

[Off The Deep End]

Can anyone tell me why my pictures keep getting turned sideways when I upload them?

 

[zombie]

Can anyone tell me why my pictures keep getting turned sideways when I upload them?

It treats them all as landscape. I haven't found a good fix so I just try to take all my pics in landscape.

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