Diary - 75 gal Freshwater to saltwater conversion - WARNING BIG PICS

[mudrummer012]

Wow, sooooo many cool things happened over the weekend!!!

First off the base rock came in over the weekend!!!! This addition adds another 70 lbs of rock to the tank and some of the pieces allowed me to make so pretty cool caves and shelves for future corals!!

Tank pan from left to right:






2 Full tank shots:




Next, the skimmer finally started skimming!


Next both of the 2 sps corals popped out:




Also a BUNCH of zoos started to open today! I can spot at least 4-5 different colors! =)




I also found some things that I'm not really sure what they are.
First there is this purple thingy, its kind of like the other flat coral but it hasn't shown any signs of life. Is it just a dead coral and if so, what should I do with it? Here is a pic:



Last I found this coral on the floor of the aquarium while I was rearranging rocks. Its pink with a bit of green around the mouth area. I did my best to find a place where it might be able to reattach without being blown off by the power heads. Its definitely some type of lps but how do I know if its still kicking? Two small pics, I can get a good one with the camera I have cause its in a little further away from the front glass:

[mudrummer012]

OK trying to post these pics again for the 3rd time..... Don't know why they didn't post the last time.

I got the base rock in on Saturday and it had some really cool pieces!

Here is a full tank shot with the new base rock in!


Also, the skimmer finaly started to skim stuff!!!


The 2 sps started putting out their tentacles and seem to be doing alright!



Next there are zoos popping out all over the place!
Theres one really big group but I've spotted at least 4-5 different colors of zoo!!


The sand came in today...all 100lbs of it. I felt kind of bad for the postman until he was rude to me...now I want to order another 200lbs just to spite him !

I'll have pics of the tank with sand in it after all the particles settle to the bottom of the tank.

[d.french]

lookin awesome, oh yeah welcome to living reefs, i'm right across river from st. louis glad to see more locals here.

[mudrummer012]

Well the sand hasn't totally settled but here is a tank pic with sand on the bottom. It looks sooo much better now!!!

[kvcgsxr600]

Welcome to the hobby! You are off to a good start. The only thing I would say you need to do is add more flow to your tank. If I read correctly you have to power heads that pump 350 gph each, that will not be enough flow for that tank. If they are maxjet powerheads you can mod them fairly easy and cheap, marinedepot.com has what is called a sureflow kit for around $15. It would bump the pumps from 350 to 1600gph, you could also look into other powerheads that disperse the flow through your tank nicely. Some others are Tunze if want to spend the money and (Korilalia) I think thats how you spell it. Tunze is more expensive but they make a nanostream that than the Korilalia is smaller and uses less wattage, they also pump out some great flow. That's JMO though. Good Luck.

[mudrummer012]

Originally Posted by kvcgsxr600

Welcome to the hobby! You are off to a good start. The only thing I would say you need to do is add more flow to your tank. If I read correctly you have to power heads that pump 350 gph each, that will not be enough flow for that tank. If they are maxjet powerheads you can mod them fairly easy and cheap, marinedepot.com has what is called a sureflow kit for around $15. It would bump the pumps from 350 to 1600gph, you could also look into other powerheads that disperse the flow through your tank nicely. Some others are Tunze if want to spend the money and (Korilalia) I think thats how you spell it. Tunze is more expensive but they make a nanostream that than the Korilalia is smaller and uses less wattage, they also pump out some great flow. That's JMO though. Good Luck.

Already ahead of you!
I have 2 Koralia 3's on the way.

I figure that is (2*850gph) + 350gph from my mag350 is a total of 2050 gph which is 27 and 1/3 overturn an hour. Once I build the sump the mag350 will be replaced by a 600+ gph pump (thats 600 after head loss) which will easily make for 30x overturn.

The other two heads are going into the 32gal trash can I bought to be a saltwater mixing container. I figure with 32gals on hand I will always be ready to do a ~50% water change when ever I need to and I'll have the water ready each week for a 10% change.

My next big challenge is the figure out what still adding ammonia into the system and getting the levels down. Hopefully enough of the bacteria survived the shipping so the sand bed can do some work!

[daugherty]

Originally Posted by mudrummer012

My next big challenge is the figure out what still adding ammonia into the system and getting the levels down. Hopefully enough of the bacteria survived the shipping so the sand bed can do some work!

Your tank is in a cycle it will take some time just keep doing water changes or the coral is going to die.

[yote]

Yep,James is dead on.You got yourself a cycle going.

[fh64lucky]

That tank brings back memories of mine long ago.No matter what you do,do not rush a tank.Its hard to let a tank sit there 6 months or so without going nuts adding alot of life to it.Yours is looking great so far...

[mudrummer012]

Originally Posted by fh64lucky

That tank brings back memories of mine long ago.No matter what you do,do not rush a tank.Its hard to let a tank sit there 6 months or so without going nuts adding alot of life to it.Yours is looking great so far...

Thank you!

OK the new light fixture finally came in today!!!
I got a full tank shot with all the lights on and then some various shots of the zoos in there pretty new florescent colors!!!

Full tank:


Zoos (this set has bright orange tips under the actiniclights, another set is bright green, another is purple and green and the last set has really lone tentacles!)


The sps are really going crazy nuts now that they have some proper lighting!




And last but not least...what I thought was a purple sponge now is showing polyps on it! Its ANOTHER sps coral!!! Im still trying to borrow an SLR so i can get some cleaner pics of the further in stuff!


This live rock is the best thing I ever could have bought!

Oh and as an extra bonus, the ammonia levels dropped over night without a water change!