ok, will do. do all the typical parameters have to be in check for just keeping the live rock in a rubbermaid type container? does the specific gravity/salinty have to be just right or can i just dump whatever remaining DT salt water i have and fill with conditioned tap to cover it all?
monkiboy's tank thread
- Thread starter monkiboy
- Start date
ok, will do. do all the typical parameters have to be in check for just keeping the live rock in a rubbermaid type container? does the specific gravity/salinty have to be just right or can i just dump whatever remaining DT salt water i have and fill with conditioned tap to cover it all?
little_fish
Moderator
I would mix it up to the correct salinity, and I would also keep it warm.
ok, got it, thanks!
beeguiles
they call me fish geek ;p
+1 lil fish. Gotta remember there are tiny little creatures living in that rock and they need the same requirments as the rest of marine animals.
yes, great point. thanks for the advice.
so any ideas of what i can do with my fluval 360? should i just run carbon through it and have it for the little extra flow it provides? maybe i'll find someone who can buy it.
gonna take all the LR out today and put in a big rubbermaid container and have it completely covered in appropriately mixed salt water. then fill the smaller temp tank with DT water and maybe one of two larger pieces of LR and put all the tank inhabitants in there while i remove all the substrate. aragonite arrives tomorrow!
beeguiles
they call me fish geek ;p
Yea you could run it with carbon. Just make sure you clean it regularly so it doesn't create nitrates. Sounds like a good plan with the smaller tank. Is there enough room in the smaller tank for all the live rock? If so you could just put it all in there rather than the rubbermaid tub? It would prlly make the fish feel more at home.
no i have about 75lbs of live rock so it would not all fit in the smaller tank. what is a good idea, though is to get quite a bit in there instead of the one or two pieces to make it more homey and provide hiding places and take up water volume space. then less DT water goes there and more into the rubbermaid container for the rest of the LR so less to mix. talk about run-on sentences.
NanoReefer
Reefing newb
you maby throw some liverock rubble and carbon in that filter and you might be able to grow some pods in there if you put some in
beeguiles
they call me fish geek ;p
Yea! Just stuff as much as you can in there with the fish. Still giving them swimming room or course and put the rest in the bin. Good idea!
what are pods? is that short for a more technical term? do you have a photo you can share? what is the advantage to them and having them in the canister vs in my DT?
it worked great. they are all quite happy and even better my marco sand arrives tomorrow so i can get the setup back to normal and with an appropriate substrate this time. i might take the time to get some more LR, too, but i think i am approaching my tank's limits while still allowing some nice swimming space.
so...
today, i removed all the live rock and was able to fit most of it in the temporary tank for DT family and the rest i put in a 5g bucket i use for acclimation.
i don't know why but i thought it was going to be easier to remove the existing CC and substrate by taking the water from the DT and putting it into a big storage tub, removing the sand with minimal splashing and effort, putting new substrate in and then filling back up with the original DT water from the tub.
well, not so much.
i bought a 36 gallon rubbermaid storage tub. basically looks like this:
and just as the DT was nearing empty, the unbelievable happened. the psi was too much apparently, and the tub cracked, then cracked again, then cracked once more and split. :shock:
with the first crack i noticed a bit of water as it began to open and reached for a nearby mixing bowl but then it got worse and the others broke open and i had gallons of water pouring out all over my island and kitchen faster then what seemed even a firefighter could provide.
problem was that the darn thing was so heavy at this point, that i couldn't lift the tub to drag it outside to my deck which was only ten feet away. i couldn't drag it as it was on top of my island. i stood there as it emptied itself and i tried to put pots and pans in the tub to empty it into the sink what i could and as soon as i could lift it off the island, i did and tossed it outside.
here's the mess after twenty minutes with a shop/wet vac...
it got into my wine chiller, all over the mail and island and cabinets, no fun.
took me some time to dry it all and mop up the saltwater with clean and pine sol and now have a commercial drying fan on it overnight. i sealed my kitchen and it's waterproofed as is the paint when i did my kitchen, so that's good but still what a mess!
beeguiles
they call me fish geek ;p
WOW! What a mess! Who would have that the tub would crack. Well that sure does stink. Now you have to make all new saltwater. That's okay bc water doesn't hold all the good stuff you need, the rock does and the rock is nice and safe. My goodness though. That must have been terrible. I would have been freaking out screaming at my husband to fix it lol.
Okay so pods...pods or copepods are little tiny crustaceans that look like little bugs. It's good to have them bc a lot of fish like to eat them, like the green mandarin. You prlly already have then living on your live rock since your tank has already been set up for a while. Now the reason why its a good idea to grow them in your canister is bc it kinda gives them a safe haven to grown and reproduce where in your tank they have predators that eat them up. You dont nessisarly need them but if you were to get a green mandarin you would deff need them bc they eat tons of those things and would eat them all up before they have time to reproduce which is why giving them a little area to live and grow is beneficial. But you are making a small sump right? Or algae scrubber. The pods can grow in there so you still don't rlly need the filter. I would just get rid of it or not use it bc its gonna trap nasty stuff and you'll have to clean it out all the time.
Okay so pods...pods or copepods are little tiny crustaceans that look like little bugs. It's good to have them bc a lot of fish like to eat them, like the green mandarin. You prlly already have then living on your live rock since your tank has already been set up for a while. Now the reason why its a good idea to grow them in your canister is bc it kinda gives them a safe haven to grown and reproduce where in your tank they have predators that eat them up. You dont nessisarly need them but if you were to get a green mandarin you would deff need them bc they eat tons of those things and would eat them all up before they have time to reproduce which is why giving them a little area to live and grow is beneficial. But you are making a small sump right? Or algae scrubber. The pods can grow in there so you still don't rlly need the filter. I would just get rid of it or not use it bc its gonna trap nasty stuff and you'll have to clean it out all the time.
little_fish
Moderator
Holy moly! WHat a mess!
I wouldnt keep the canister filter, i think it will still be more hassle than its worth.
I wouldnt keep the canister filter, i think it will still be more hassle than its worth.
it was horrible just watching my kitchen flood and not being able to do anything about it especially caused some frustration until i could get the leaking tub outta there. i got over very quickly, though, and now am just excited to keep moving forward.
thank you for the information on copepods. i did some research and learned more as well.
i am going to scrap the idea of using the canister filter in my new design - i think you all are right that is will simply be more maintenance and trouble than whatever benefit it may/could provide.
i am building an algae scrubber, correct.
i was thinking of buying a bottle of copepods and putting it in my algae scrubber "tank".
Buy Live Copepods - Feed Your Fish! Ocean Pods(TM) is a site i found. just to see what happens it might be worth the minimal bucks. would they all just get sucked into my return and in the DT, anyway, though?
yeah, i'm gonna skip it and see if i can sell it off. thanks for your opinion.
so, good news is my sand from MarcoRocks arrived today! what a great way to take advantage of USPS flat rate shipment, haha. he only pays 10 bucks and ships 20lbs of sand, rock, whatever to someone. so simple and easy.
it looks and feels great. this will be much better than the stuff i had in there!
next job, is getting all the old substrate out today and getting this in, then mixing new water and getting it ready again!
i need a new test kit. which test kits are you using and which should i buy now if i plan on reefing in the future?
the one i have now is the salifert and it tests nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and pH but is old and requires replacement i am sure and i want to make sure this is done 100% right with accurate readings.
i don't have an rodi unit yet and i've always used tap with conditioner for the FOWLR setup. considering i am looking to reef in the future, is it best to buy at least RO water at walmart or wherever i can find it?
is RO water the same as distilled? do the gallons say reverse osmosis on them? i know i have seen distilled gallons at the grocery. do i really need to buy 30g of them to fill my tank or can i mix it with conditioned tap? i am imagining walking outta of the grocery with 30 individual gallon jugs, haha. maybe they have 5g water-cooler sized, hmmm...
thanks for all the help!
SarahSmile
:)
I would stick with the R/O instead of tap water. I know what you mean, I have visions of myself pushing 4 carts with 60 jugs out of wal-mart. I ended up buying 11 boxes of 5 gallon premixed saltwater in boxes. The jugs should say reverse osmosis. Check the fine print and it should say. At Wal-Mart it's the jugs with the purple tops.
Wish you could have seen my face as I read about your kitchen, I really felt like my jaw was on the floor. That sucks! Were you too dumbfounded to even swear?
Wish you could have seen my face as I read about your kitchen, I really felt like my jaw was on the floor. That sucks! Were you too dumbfounded to even swear?
beeguiles
they call me fish geek ;p
Glad you got your sand! A lot of people here use RO water but of course I'm the odd one out that uses tap. There might be a few more who use tap. People use ro bc you don't have to worry about anything harmful in the water and it won't cause algae issues. If I have it right, tap water can have nitrates and algae feeds off of high nitrates. Now I've had my tank up since the end of march..almost 8 months and have been using tap tho whole time. In the beginning I had a huge cyano aka red slime algse outbreak. But I didn't have any powerheads or a protein skimmer and I was trying to figure out my water change schedule. I used the red slime remover...added all those things...skimmer, powerheads, weekly water changes and the cyano went buh bye. Also if you plan to keep inverts you want your nitrates to be low. My nitrates stay at prlly 10-20 at the highest and my inverts, coco worm, Anemones, snails, crabs are all fine. Don't have any more algae problems. I believe there are trace elements in tap water also that are good. But ro water literally has nothing in it. Totally pure. Nothing good or bad. Some corals will love that like sps corals and other will hate it like green star polyps. Sps are harder to keep and Gsp is very easy, grows rapidly. So I guess what I'm trying to say is its up to you. Ro water won't cause algae and whatnot and is very clean. I've had my tank with tap and besides that cyano I've had no probs. I might also have pretty clean tap water also. Who knows. Did you have algae probs when you had the tank fowlr?
i ended up going to my LFS and got RO water there for .33/gal which wasn't bad in my opinion.
haha, that is cute about your jaw dropping. i don't swear much at all. i believe once the tub finally got removed outside and i walked back into my new pool in the kitchen my exact words were "are you FREAKING serious?!" with hands firmly gripping my head and a prominent scream "AHHHHH!" and i started mopping and with the wet-vac. i can laugh now, though - that's what counts.
wow, that is great info that you have shared about using tap ( i imagine it was conditioned?) with your tank and setup. thanks! i never really had problems with algae in 1.5years until recently i had some green hair algae growing on a 2x1" piece of rock and some cyano. i have been feeding too much lately and the lights have been on longer, so that makes sense. i guess i've "been lucky" too. my levels are always fine and fish healthy and seemingly content so i don't know. it seems that RO is the way to go, though, especially for my future reef plans so i will be picking up an RODI unit soon.
today, i took 6 5-gallon buckets to my LFS after finding out they have RO water for cheaper than walmart has distilled and filled up.
they had this fancy, regularly expensive "live water" stuff in 4.4g jugs on a super sale and i took two as a means to make sure i'd have enough to fill my tank as they only have 28g of RO and i took it all. anyone ever use this stuff?
here's the label:
seemed gimmicky but it was on sale and "pre-mixed" and i have to admit i was sold with all the biological crud listed that i had no idea what it was that seemingly was going to make my tank the best tank on the block, haha.
once i had all the old substrate out, i figured, "what the heck" might as well take the tank out, clean the base and it real well and vacuum up the 2+ years of salt that evaporated and fell to the sides.
got the DT REALLY nice and clean and scrapped every possible mm of algae off the glass and dried salt deposits. it's like new!
i mixed my new salt water and left room for the live rock to displace it in the tank and things got cloudy, fast.
how long before the sand/particles settle and the tank is clear, usually?
meanwhile, my lil guys watched from the other side of the kitchen, as i made their old home, new again. despite being cramped for a few days, they are all pretty happy in their temporary tank which was great to see. their coloring is vibrant and they are eating well. unfortunately, they don't have much room to swim but i'll have them back to their real home soon!
the clown is "bob" because that is all he does when he sleeps. bobs up and down. he has been with me for about 3 years and is the hardiest of them.
i checked my levels out of curiosity and everything was great, ammonia, nitrate/nitrite all reading 0ppm. oh and i cheked my test kit and it was made in 02/09 so i have still another year or two before it expires so no need for a new one, yet. if anything i'll pick up an alk and calcium individual test when i go with corals.
tomorrow, assuming things have settled nicely, i'll begin aquascaping and getting the LR in the DT. then, get the DIY pvc overflow and algae scrubber setup. then see where my levels are at for the next day or two and once confirmed good, i'll bring the fish back over.
super excited!
NanoReefer
Reefing newb
api makes a nice test kit. thats such a bummer about the bin , ohh id be pissed!!
little_fish
Moderator
I would keep the salfert test kits, they are best out there.
Also, i would be rather concerned about the stuff in the box. For starters, the bacteria you want is going to be living in the substrate, and the plankton requires light for them to be maintained. Plus I just cant see there being much beneficial live anything still being alive in there after being in a dark box, kept at who knows what kind of temperatures for who knows how long. I also find it funny that they are taking natural saltwater and anding chemicals to it, isnt the point of mimicking real saltwater as close as possible? My final concern would be where they collected it. When people do use natural seawater they collect it far from shore, very deep to avoid all the pollutants that are concentrated close to shore and at the surface. I doubt it would hurt your tank, but I dont see it doing much good either.
It usually takes a few days for the tank dust to settle
Also, i would be rather concerned about the stuff in the box. For starters, the bacteria you want is going to be living in the substrate, and the plankton requires light for them to be maintained. Plus I just cant see there being much beneficial live anything still being alive in there after being in a dark box, kept at who knows what kind of temperatures for who knows how long. I also find it funny that they are taking natural saltwater and anding chemicals to it, isnt the point of mimicking real saltwater as close as possible? My final concern would be where they collected it. When people do use natural seawater they collect it far from shore, very deep to avoid all the pollutants that are concentrated close to shore and at the surface. I doubt it would hurt your tank, but I dont see it doing much good either.
It usually takes a few days for the tank dust to settle
thank both for the recommendations on the test kits. my API master saltwater kit is still good as it has an 02/09 date on it but when i go to get a new one, i'll know what to get!
in regards to the jug of holy ocean water, haha, i figured as much. i only got it in case i didn't have enough RO and would rather have something to return than have to make another trip. it is marketed really well as magical salt water tank water, though. i love how they suggest to fill your entire tank with that stuff. retail is $23 for 4.4g jug! yeah right! i used one jug and am returning the other.
the tank dust is settling. it's been about 14 hours but i still can't see through from one side to the other. i thought it would be quicker. oh well.
if i put my LR in now, do you think that i would notice sand particles/dust on my LR once everything settled? i wouldn't be able to aquascape it but i want to get through whatever cycle i do and clean up my kitchen of all the tank 'ish. and leave my fishies for last after everything has been tested and cleared.
today i finish my pvc overflow and algae scrubber and my mag9.5 arrives!
i'll have pics up later!
everything is so exciting when you're a newb, haha.
in regards to the jug of holy ocean water, haha, i figured as much. i only got it in case i didn't have enough RO and would rather have something to return than have to make another trip. it is marketed really well as magical salt water tank water, though. i love how they suggest to fill your entire tank with that stuff. retail is $23 for 4.4g jug! yeah right! i used one jug and am returning the other.
the tank dust is settling. it's been about 14 hours but i still can't see through from one side to the other. i thought it would be quicker. oh well.
if i put my LR in now, do you think that i would notice sand particles/dust on my LR once everything settled? i wouldn't be able to aquascape it but i want to get through whatever cycle i do and clean up my kitchen of all the tank 'ish. and leave my fishies for last after everything has been tested and cleared.
today i finish my pvc overflow and algae scrubber and my mag9.5 arrives!
i'll have pics up later!
everything is so exciting when you're a newb, haha.
beeguiles
they call me fish geek ;p
Give it another day and it should be cleared up. You could put the live rock in now. Some sand may settle on it but with powerheads and the fish it'll get blown off and when you aquascape it'll fall off. And it will speed up the cycle so I'd put it in. Im excited to see your tank all set up and aquascaped. I have a feeling you being so meticulous is going to make your tank great looking!
