monkiboy's tank thread

[monkiboy]

that's excellent (captain obvious) kind of advice. sorry i didn't think of those things and yes, you are right on point!

i put all the LR i had in a separate bucket into the DT. i didn't feel right leaving my fishies alone without hiding places as they largely depend on them and it keeps their stress levels down. so i'm going to take most of their LR out tomorrow but leave one or two pieces for hiding and wait for the tank to cycle and have appropriate levels.

good news is the mag9.5 arrived today for my algae scrubber return.

the tank has also cleaned up considerably in only 24 hours which is happy. i can almost see through it. tomorrow night it should be clear, i think.

i realized that if my PVC overflow inlet got clogged with a snail or anything really, i'd be in big trouble and my pump would run dry and ultimately, fail.

so i thought about different things i could do to build a snail/fish-guard and came up with the below.

it's two 2" caps cemented and glued together with slits cut into the top portion. so if a snail lands on it, there is still a lot of room that allows water to flow without too much hassle.

tomorrow i want to finish the algae scrubber, sand, prep and paint the overflow, and get water flowing through this thing!

 

[monkiboy]

been spending a lot of time on this tank the last week or so and finally got all the plumbing done.

the koralia pumps arrived in record time and are SO beautiful and well made and such a steal during the dr. fosters and smith sale. between the 1150s and the overflow, i'm gonna be getting some serious flow through my tank, i'm excited.

all that is left is to get light installed tomorrow (it arrives tomorrow) and start fabbing a custom tank for my algae scrubber and a possible refugium/sump.

i'm too tired to explain everything but here are some process pics of the setup, thus far.

found this stuff called loc-line which is like an aquarist's legos. it was awesome. i made a swell return with a 1/2" hex nut to screw into my 90 degree PCV elbow return from my pump with a Y and two outlets. no leaks and really nice adjustability.

i added a union to make the screen easy to remove and do maintenance/cleanings on. just unscrew and take it out.

didn't feel like wasting my old light fixture, so i swapped the 6000k 21w for a second actinic 10000k bulb. i was able to modify the housing so it fits tucked neatly above my tank under a shelf out of the way of the location of the new light will go.

the 2 actinic bulbs will provide the florescent coloring i'm looking for from my future corals and a nicer overall color paired with the marineland lighting system. i had noticed in a few tanks i saw, the light was very white and this should add the blue spectrum i was interested in adding.

don't know why my camera shows the tank as purple/crimson but it's blue and very nice. was glad to be able to recycle the old light fixture and it will soon complement the marineland LED system nicely, i'm sure.

when i took the koralia power heads for a test drive they stirred up some sand, so now i have to wait another two days for things to settle while levels continue to show good readings.

 

[monkiboy]

ps - selling one of the koralia 1050 power head/pump as it was too much flow with two of them in there so i'm going to sell one and get another smaller flowing one. 40 bucks shipped!

it's in the FS section for those interested!

 

[monkiboy]

i'm building a custom sump for my algae scrubber as the lower cabinet is not very deep (8") and is long. this is a crude drawing i came up with.

what do you think? is there something i should change? i tried to give the return pump as much room as possible for evaporation space and water volume. the ATS sits in the middle. the water input on the right goes low against a wall to force the bubbles to rise and pop.

ideas?

 

[beeguiles]

Looks good to me but I'm no expert with sumps.

 

[monkiboy]

Looks good to me but I'm no expert with sumps.

haha, well thanks for the reply nonetheless...

 

[NanoReefer]

yeah i think it looks good, wheres the fts?

 

[monkiboy]

yeah i think it looks good, wheres the fts?

what does FTS stand for?

 

[NanoReefer]

full tank shot. how do the lights look now?

 

[monkiboy]

full tank shot. how do the lights look now?

oh, thanks. right now i still have two actinics in the original corallife fixture so...very blue. haha.

i've been waiting on my marineland reef capable system for two weeks. usps can't seem to get their act straight. i have two tracers on the package and i have until this friday (14 business days) before they call it quits and it is described as lost.

i'm very irritated by it.

as soon as i have it, i'll be sure to post up as i'm very antsy to get it as i have a few things pending it's installation in the space above the tank including some mood lighting thanks to ikea.

 

[beeguiles]

Oh yes the sand should be settled by now. Fts!

 

[beeguiles]

Woops Sry didn't see your post. Well that would irritate me too. I would deem it lost right now. Where did you order yours from? I got mine from marinedepot.com I got mine in a week or so. How are all your levels reading?

 

[monkiboy]

Woops Sry didn't see your post. Well that would irritate me too. I would deem it lost right now. Where did you order yours from? I got mine from marinedepot.com I got mine in a week or so. How are all your levels reading?

good thing is that i payed through paypal and they have never let me down when it came to getting my money back for any sale that has gone wrong.

i got it off ebay but from a reputable seller. the discount was just too deep to pass up and he has sold two others the same week and those buyers got theirs fine so i know it's not a scam.

i am going to have hope til saturday. then filing a claim and seeing what paypal makes of the situation.

my levels? good question, i've been meaning to post to keep them for reference.

ph 8.4
ammonia 0ppm
nitrites 0ppm
nitrates 10-15ppm

 

[beeguiles]

Well that stink about the light. But at least you will get your money back. Your levels look good! Looks like you are cycled my friend. Time for a partial water change of 15-20 percent to bring the nitrates back down. Did you put the fishies and rock back in yet?

 

[monkiboy]

Well that stink about the light. But at least you will get your money back. Your levels look good! Looks like you are cycled my friend. Time for a partial water change of 15-20 percent to bring the nitrates back down. Did you put the fishies and rock back in yet?

i was reading that a cycle isn't complete til you have 0ppm for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. is this true? hopefully not. nitrates have been dropping every day/couple days by about 3ppm, as best as i can test.

i have put all my live rock and livestock back in. this is why i asked the above because, i too, thought i was completely cycled.

i guess for a FOWLR setup, a low nitrate reading isn't too harmful but if i want to do corals/reefing, then i'll need to be much closer to 0 if not 0, correct?

seems my algae scrubber is already doing it's job really well as the nitrates keep dropping and i have a bit of growth on my screen that i washed from the first week and now again going into my second week with it.

i also spent some time (if i told you how much you'd laugh at how ridiculous it is) in Paint (i don't have any other programs) finishing the design of my sump. here is what i ended up with.

it'll be built by this weekend and hopefully up and running by early/mid next week!

hopefully i'll have my lights by then and then i'll have everything almost dialed in for the time-being!

i am really enjoying learning and building and have spent a lot of time on youtube watching mr. saltwatertank vids and DIY stuff.

i won't be selling my second koralia evo 1050 pump. instead, i'm either going to rig up two timers and have each powerhead in the tank alternate being on OR pick up the koralia smart wave which will do this neatly and simply for me with a myriad of intervals.

i'll be sure to keep on posting, thanks for reading!

 

[beeguiles]

The cycle is done when ammonia is zero, nitrite is zero and nitrates are between ten and twenty. But since you have the scrubber that's what's making your trates go down so that's good. Yup you are cycled bud! That was a fast one! Your sump looks good to me. Don't you just love the mr. Saltwater tanks vids. I love them! There is also this other guys vids. Newyorksteelo, his are really great too, esp when first learning. That's a good idea about the powerhead. Everybody is getting these smart wave things. Maybe I should get one and another powerhead.

 

[monkiboy]

so good news, the light arrived and some other goodies arrived!

got a refractometer, two wide nozzle return attachments for my loc-line and a digital thermometer. i really like my refractometer. so much more accurate than my hydrometer that would read all over the place unreliably. i feel like a pro with my new optical testing gear, haha.

the light is really swell. it is VERY white. i am glad i have my extra actinics to give it the more blue hue i enjoy. there is spot lighting between the blue and white LEDs, unfortunately, and there is a ton of light flicker on the sand bed which is really neat.

here's a short vid (pardon the quality, didn't have my HD camera on me) of my tank as it is now.

monki's 46g on Vimeo



overall, the fish look so much happier in this tank with the new sand, the flow, the riddance of the canister filter, and RO/DI water. i can't believe i've waited over two years to "do things right." but nonetheless, it is even more amazing to just sit and watch my lil guys go. bob (the clown) and cassandra (the blue tang) act like a mated pair. wherever one goes, the other follows and they constantly rub and act affectionate (whatever fish affection looks like). it's really funny. and when there's a camera, they love to be in the shot. you can see how they swim right to the lens, haha.

i am still trying to get cassandra out of the tank. i inadvertently put her back in the DT when migrating the fish over and nearly had a conniption for being so dense and forgetting to keep her to take her back to the LFS. i'm gonna try to put some food in a net and see if i can catch her. it'd be nice to get her a properly sized home and be able to get something more comfortable with my great new place setup.

i saw this stuff growing in my tank, what is it?

i should have the new sump in place soon, it's looking great.

i also ordered a new CUC from reefs2go as they had a gnarly sale. it's a large order compared to what i have now but everyone tells me i got it right, so i'll have some guys shipped to me on monday for acclimation on tuesday.

things are coming together!

 

[little_fish]

Looks good! And i bet the fish are just happy as can be!

And the white stuff is a white sponge growing, harmless filter feeder :)

 

[monkiboy]

Looks good! And i bet the fish are just happy as can be!

And the white stuff is a white sponge growing, harmless filter feeder :)

thanks, they sure seem it!

that's crazy - the sponge. i hadn't seen it before in my tank and it seems pretty big already. hopefully not a nuisance if it continue to grow. maybe someone will eat it. i love a saltwater tank just for all these cool things that GROW!

is it horrible that i really want to pick up a frag or two?! haha. there is an incredible sale going on and they have some zoas, kenya trees, green-star polys, that look really nice.

i figure if i can catch cassandra (my blue hippo tang) i can take her in for a better home and perhaps get an even better deal.

would these corals be ok with my nitrates at 15-20ppm? ammonia and nitrites at 0ppm.

 

[NanoReefer]

i think some zoas would be fine