Carmie's 54 Corner

**CarmieJo** · 05-14-2006, 11:51 PM

I have decided to start a thread on my tank.

I've been documenting it all the long with my camera so you can see it as it progresses.

**CarmieJo** · 05-14-2006, 11:59 PM

We drove about 3 hours to pick the tank up. I didn't think it would be quite so big. Our 17 year old son and his friend were squashed in the middle seats of our SUV with various parts. The tank and stand were wedged in the back. It was a long drive home... But the tank looks great even empty!

**CarmieJo** · 05-15-2006, 12:03 AM

I found a couple on the local reef group who were tearing their tank down and bought all my LS & LR from them. Here is what my tank looked like as I was filling it:

You can't tell from the photo but there are 50 lbs of LR in there. I wish I had known about the garbage bag trick! My brother who is also a reef keeper said "Carmie, you made a mistake. You were supposed to fill it with saltwater, not MILK!"

**CarmieJo** · 05-15-2006, 12:07 AM

By day five I can at least see into my tank! I've also added some of the old coral heads I'd kept from my FO tank in the 80's. I had to wait until someone could search the attic for the box with the rest of them.

**CarmieJo** · 05-15-2006, 12:17 AM

By day twelve my tank was looking better. I still hadn't seen any NH4 or NO2 and my NO3 was between 10 and 15. I had not added any critters but as the water cleared I found that there were mushrooms on one of my rocks!

**CarmieJo** · 05-15-2006, 12:24 AM

By day 20 my tank is clear and I am tired of looking at the mushrooms. NH4 and NO2 had remained at 0 and my NO3 had gone down to 10. So I added 2 scarlet legged hermits.

**CarmieJo** · 05-15-2006, 12:32 AM

I finally figured out that I needed to turn my flash off. DUH! The 2 hermits are entertaining! As they have not altered any of my parameters I go ahead and add 4 astrea snails.

pham411 · 05-15-2006, 07:37 AM

nice tank. are you using a sump?

**CarmieJo** · 05-15-2006, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pham411

nice tank. are you using a sump?

Thanks Pham,

Yes, I have what was intended to be a wet/dry filter but I am using it as a sump. It holds about 10 gallons and fits perfectly across the back of my stand. It has enough room for my return & skimmer pumps, heater and chiller. My skimmer stands outside the sump. I'll post pix of it tonight.

veriann · 05-15-2006, 09:49 AM

as i have said in another post &another conversation, but its worth saying again.............curved glass is sexy!
something about it really draws me in. ur never going to have the surface area of a normal box tank, but who cares, when they look that sexy!
these corner tanks have grown on me!!

nice effort calmy-glow.
u going to keep the same devices for water movement or u have something else up your cuffs?

ghostbear29 · 05-15-2006, 09:57 AM

i totally agree. my bowfront never gets boring. i wanted a bigger tank and that 54 gal. might just fit the bill. great tank.

dreams · 05-15-2006, 10:00 AM

nice carmie, i'm really likin' it:-)

Reefbaby · 05-15-2006, 05:40 PM

Carmie - it's looking great! It's great to see how your rock grew more calcerous algae over the 20 days! Woo hooo!! :-)

**CarmieJo** · 05-15-2006, 08:26 PM

Quote:

u going to keep the same devices for water movement or u have something else up your cuffs?

I lost the little rubber cap off the end of the impeller down the drain on one of the little Rio 200 (130 gph) and have replaced it with a 300 GPH one opposite the return. I then placed the little one lower in the tank to improve movement around my rocks. Total flow is around 1100 GPH.

kj_yoda · 05-16-2006, 11:14 AM

Very nice tank. I have always debated a corner tank