Hello from an 'accidental' tank owner.

cracker · Aug 9, 2018

hello Ice jam, we all love helping' Beginners ! Feel free to ask away.
I'm curious about the 2 pics of the rock . The 1st looks like dry base as it's all white is it kinda dusty?
The 2nd I'm interested in. This rock has some color on it. Did this come out of the existing tank? Is it still wet? How long out of the water? How much does this stuff weigh?
Which do you have in barrels with water? If you all of it in water my I suggest keeping just the colored in one & the white looking rock in the other for the time being.
Just a few more questions sorry if I'm wearing Ya out here LOL.
Do you have the tank in hand? Have you had a chance to clean & test the equipment?

Maacc · Aug 9, 2018

If the rock was in a long established and/or algae problem tank, you may want to run some lanthanum chloride to leech out excess phosphate.

icejam · Aug 9, 2018

cracker said:
hello Ice jam, we all love helping' Beginners ! Feel free to ask away.
I'm curious about the 2 pics of the rock . The 1st looks like dry base as it's all white is it kinda dusty?
The 2nd I'm interested in. This rock has some color on it. Did this come out of the existing tank? Is it still wet? How long out of the water? How much does this stuff weigh?
Which do you have in barrels with water? If you all of it in water my I suggest keeping just the colored in one & the white looking rock in the other for the time being.
Just a few more questions sorry if I'm wearing Ya out here LOL.
Do you have the tank in hand? Have you had a chance to clean & test the equipment?

As far as I know dry rock is man made and all flat from one side so it could be use as a base. It has never been in water before.
Live rock in the other picture came from an established tank. It was a last minute, lucky find on Kijiji so I had very little time to get organized. I had to use buckets and portable cooler to transport it

I was moving it to the more permanent storage when I took that picture. It only shows about 50% of the rock I got. Rock was out of water for about 45-60 minutes in total but kept wet during that time.
Now some is already in the tank and the rest stored in the black container from the picture with power head and a heater going until I decide what to do with it all.
Tank was cleaned, now already set up and running since Tuesday night.
I will post more pictures when I get home from work.

icejam · Aug 9, 2018

Maacc said:
If the rock was in a long established and/or algae problem tank, you may want to run some lanthanum chloride to leech out excess phosphate.

Rock came from an established tank that I do not know much about but it leaked and the rock was stored in a sump (I hope that sounds right) for about a month with minimum light before I bought it.
I have it in a tank now that I will run for a couple of months and try to learn as much as I can before buying any live stock.

icejam · Aug 9, 2018

It's a PITA typing and adding photos on the phone but here's one for you.

More coming tonight or tomorrow in the build thread.

Bigbaby · Aug 9, 2018

icejam said:
It's a PITA typing and adding photos on the phone but here's one for you.

More coming tonight or tomorrow in the build thread.

Welcome!!!

Looking good already. The live rock might be questionable, unwanted hitchhikers/pests perhaps? Anyways, looking forward to the build!

cracker · Aug 9, 2018

Good job ! The scape looks real nice ! There is debate on the good & bad of live rock . I personally like it . Hitch hikers & all. Great you kept it in water the short period out shouldn't be an issue. let it sit in there & cure !

Ruben's Reef · Aug 9, 2018

!!! Welcome to R2R !!! Nice looking tank.

Lovemyreef2015 · Aug 9, 2018

Welcome to R2R

icejam · Aug 9, 2018

I wouldn't be able to distinguish pests from 'the good guys' yet but I noticed a couple of crustaceans (I think) some red/black worms (bristleworms?) and some polips/spores/corals or whatever those things are called.
The worms are all in the rocks that are not in the fish tank (as far as I could see) and I am not sure if I should transfer these guys over to the tank or not.
I guess I could just nuke everything in a microwave and have clean rock but then again it's exciting to see how the rock changes and grows (or not) over next few months.
If it comes to worst I'll just drown everything in bleach and start over

Chrisfish · Aug 9, 2018

Welcome to R2R, really nice looking tank and aqua scape

Katrina71 · Aug 9, 2018

I started the same way with rock like yours. It worked out fine for me.

Dom · Aug 9, 2018

icejam said:
It's a PITA typing and adding photos on the phone but here's one for you.

More coming tonight or tomorrow in the build thread.

Can you stand the heater vertical in the back behind the rock?

Katrina71 · Aug 9, 2018

Not sure about the JBJ tank, but in my 29 biocube, I put the heater in the filter section.

icejam · Aug 9, 2018

Dom said:
Can you stand the heater vertical in the back behind the rock?

Unfortunately not with this heater which at 300W is way too much for a tank this size.
I am getting new heater(s) hopefully on Saturday. I need to find something under 10in in length to fit the filter area.