Yea, I knew they changed sexes, but I read that once they turn female, they never change back to male. If mine is a female and I happened to get another female... well that could make mating a bit difficult. ;D
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75 Gallons of Entertainment! The build begins...
- Thread starter TanksNStuff
- Start date
Well, here's a small update.
First off, I went out and bought 60 lbs. of Carib Sea Aragonite - Sugar Fine Sand which I will use to replace most of my crushed coral. I'll leave about an inch or so of whats in there, then put about 1 or 2 inches of fine on top and will probably wiggle some of the bottom crushed coral up to stabilize it and help seed the new sand. I'm not going to change it out until probably this weekend. I'm getting a skimmer on sunday and will wait until that's setup before causing a sandstorm. Should I screen the sand out before putting it in? What should I use to do that?
I also bought some timers for the lights and some AquaMend that I will use to bond some of my Live Rock pieces together once I get some acrylic rod. I'm going to pressure wash the rock that's been in the non-rodi saltwater tomorrow. I've left it drying out for almost a week now so it should be pretty much dead by now. Once I clean it up real good and bond it together, I'll start curing it for a week or two before putting it in my display (assuming the water tests come out good).
I also have made plans to pick up some chaeto tomorrow night from NJRC member thylacine. He offered to give me like a 6" cube, so that should help my system out a lot. Thanks in advance!
The tank itself has been doing well I think. All my tests have been staying within acceptable ranges ever since I did the water change. Here's a pic of the 4 API test vials
Other than that, the algae has been turning a yellow/green shade. Here's a full tank shot...
And here is the big 20 lb piece up close...
The pics don't show the colors as they truly are, but you can get an idea of what I'm dealing with. The LR was starting to turn purple (bottom right corner area)but is now being covered in yellow/green and even some white coralline. I hope it goes back to purple soon!
Oh, and I moved my 4-5 snails up to the display to help keep the glass clean. It was starting to get pretty badly covered. Hopefully they will minimize what I have to clean. I'm going to get a Mag Float this weekend because the long-handled scraper I bought is a PITA. More updates soon.
First off, I went out and bought 60 lbs. of Carib Sea Aragonite - Sugar Fine Sand which I will use to replace most of my crushed coral. I'll leave about an inch or so of whats in there, then put about 1 or 2 inches of fine on top and will probably wiggle some of the bottom crushed coral up to stabilize it and help seed the new sand. I'm not going to change it out until probably this weekend. I'm getting a skimmer on sunday and will wait until that's setup before causing a sandstorm. Should I screen the sand out before putting it in? What should I use to do that?
I also bought some timers for the lights and some AquaMend that I will use to bond some of my Live Rock pieces together once I get some acrylic rod. I'm going to pressure wash the rock that's been in the non-rodi saltwater tomorrow. I've left it drying out for almost a week now so it should be pretty much dead by now. Once I clean it up real good and bond it together, I'll start curing it for a week or two before putting it in my display (assuming the water tests come out good).
I also have made plans to pick up some chaeto tomorrow night from NJRC member thylacine. He offered to give me like a 6" cube, so that should help my system out a lot. Thanks in advance!
The tank itself has been doing well I think. All my tests have been staying within acceptable ranges ever since I did the water change. Here's a pic of the 4 API test vials
Other than that, the algae has been turning a yellow/green shade. Here's a full tank shot...
And here is the big 20 lb piece up close...
The pics don't show the colors as they truly are, but you can get an idea of what I'm dealing with. The LR was starting to turn purple (bottom right corner area)but is now being covered in yellow/green and even some white coralline. I hope it goes back to purple soon!
Oh, and I moved my 4-5 snails up to the display to help keep the glass clean. It was starting to get pretty badly covered. Hopefully they will minimize what I have to clean. I'm going to get a Mag Float this weekend because the long-handled scraper I bought is a PITA. More updates soon.
clownfish, when small, basically should be considered "juvenile" - neither male or female.
The best way to ensure a pairing is to buy a very small clown that will grow into the sex desired. If a female is there already - it should develop into a male.
Regarding the sand - you should probably rinse it first. On the other hand - you could just dump it in and then after the cloudiness disappates - remove whatever dust/sand is floating. The fish isn't going to like it - but it's no different then if a hurricane plowed thru a reef.
Make sure you remove some water before adding the sand as it will displace some volume and it could cause a flood adding a 60 llb bag of sand into a full tank.
The best way to ensure a pairing is to buy a very small clown that will grow into the sex desired. If a female is there already - it should develop into a male.
Regarding the sand - you should probably rinse it first. On the other hand - you could just dump it in and then after the cloudiness disappates - remove whatever dust/sand is floating. The fish isn't going to like it - but it's no different then if a hurricane plowed thru a reef.
Make sure you remove some water before adding the sand as it will displace some volume and it could cause a flood adding a 60 llb bag of sand into a full tank.
Hello Hawkeye and thanks for your input!
Unfortunately it was a bit late since I already moved forward since I asked those questions... but good advice nonetheless. Luckily, I was able to figure it all out myself with a bit of reading on the web.
So, I went to my LFS and bought a smaller (juvenile) clown... and setup a QT tank for him. I took a lot of live sand (crushed coral) along with some water from my main tank and put it in the QT. The QT is a 20gal so by setting this up I gave myself some room for displacement of the new sand in the main tank. Just for info, I also put a heater and an aquaclear 500 powerfilter on the QT. I took out all the carbon and foam from the powerfilter and basically used it for circulation. I also added a few pieces of 3" PVC to serve as a hiding spot... although I haven't seen the new clown go in one yet. He tends to hang in the corners. I've been running the basic tests and except for the temp fluctuating (its in my garage and I think outside temp is the culprit) it's been pretty good so far. The new clown has seemed pretty happy so far after two days, and he ate when I fed him last night.
OK, so the sand project was a bit more work than I anticipated. First off, I pulled the large piece of live rock out and kept that in the styrofoam I bought it in, and covered it in fresh salt water. Since that used up the rest of my salt mix, I had a full 32 gal can of rodi filling up to get ready for salt mix. I knew I was going to need it after I was done, so I had that going all day. I'll get to that a bit later.
Now, after putting about 3"-4" of crushed coral in the QT tank, I still needed to take a bunch out of the main tank before putting in the new sand. I also wanted to try to keep as much of the "live" matter as I could, so I used a plastic strainer and sort of sifted all the fine stuff out before taking it out of the water. I put in a rectangular plastic container in the bottom of the tank, then scooped up a bunch (using the container lid as a shovel) and put it in the strainer, then whatever bigger stuff didn't sift out went into the plastic container. I sifted it all into a nice pile in the same spot so I wouldn't have to redo stuff that already sifted through. Once the container was full, I pulled that out and dumped it into a 5 gal bucket, then back in to fill up again. By the time I was done, I had taken out almost a full 5 gal. bucket, plus whatever I had put into the QT.
So, then I leveled out the fine "live" sand left in the tank and then used the same plastic container to put the sugar fine sand on top of it. I basically just dropped the full container to the bottom, then tipped it and dumped/dragged it across the bottom. It worked pretty well, but the total process of taking crushed out and putting fine sand in made a heck of a sandstorm. I expected it to happen and just figured I'd fill it back up with the rock and salt water, then try to catch most of it in my filter sock when the sump/return was back on.
Well, remember that salt water I needed to make? Well, I did a major bozo move and dumped in a full 50 gallon-mix bag of salt!
I was in a hurry to get it all filled up that I wasn't paying attention. Needless to say, I had almost double the amount of salt in my clean rodi water. Luckily I had a few clean empty buckets, so I took out about 10 gallons and then turned the rodi back on to fill up the trash can. It took a while, but I kept checking it until I got it to the correct SG. Problem solved, but all that extra time I had my main tank too low on water to clean up the sandstorm. It was cloudy for several hours, and I was afraid Nemo was going to have a rough time. I wish I had thought to take him out and put him in a 5 gal bucket before I even started the project. When I start adding the rest of my Live Rock, I'll do that for sure.
Then on Sunday, I bought the used EV-120 skimmer. I took that home and cleaned it up real good with a vinegar bath. Then rinsed it in RO water and even ran that through the mag 7 pump for a while to get the vinegar out. I read the manual and found out that I had to raise the skimmer in my sump to get it at the right level of water inside. I rigged up a piece of eggcrate with two pieces of PVC cut to proper length. I tried to use Aquamend to fasten the eggcrate to the pvc, and when that didn't work I tried regular pvc primer/cement. That didn't work either, so I ended up just drilling a couple holes in the pvc and then tie-strapping it to the eggcrate. Like I said, I rigged it and I will probably make a better shelf at a later date, but it was stable enough to hold the weight of the skimmer.
So, I get the skimmer all setup, fired it up and man... I saw lots of bubbles within a minute! However, I think I still might need to adjust the height or fine tune the gate valve because the collection cup was filling up with mostly liquid instead of foam. I put the drain tube in a 5 gallon bucket, then left the house for a couple hours. Luckily my girlfriend stayed home because that thing filled up the bucket in that short time, and also lowered the water level in the sump enough to make the return pump start sucking air. That's what made her check on it. She called me and I told her to shut off the skimmer and the return pump. I was on my way home anyway, so I just added some salt water to level it all out again and turned the return pump back on.
I didn't run the skimmer after that because I didn't have time to play with it to adjust it. That will be done in the next day or so. I did change out the filter sock because it was getting clogged up with sand. Guess that helped alot because this morning the water looked almost clear again. It will probably be perfect when I get home, but that filter sock will likely need to be changed also.
On a side note, I just bought a used VorTech MP20 powerhead today. It will be shipped tomorrow, so I should get it by the end of the week. Can't wait to be able to replace the Rio 1400 eyesore.
To anyone following along, sorry for the novel I got going here. I'm trying to use this as my log book as many have suggested doing when caring for a tank. I put in lots of detail because it's more for my personal record of what I did so I can figure out where I screwed up, hehe. Anyone is welcome to post comments though. I'll try to post some pics tonight of the skimmer in the sump and anything else interesting to note.
Unfortunately it was a bit late since I already moved forward since I asked those questions... but good advice nonetheless. Luckily, I was able to figure it all out myself with a bit of reading on the web.
So, I went to my LFS and bought a smaller (juvenile) clown... and setup a QT tank for him. I took a lot of live sand (crushed coral) along with some water from my main tank and put it in the QT. The QT is a 20gal so by setting this up I gave myself some room for displacement of the new sand in the main tank. Just for info, I also put a heater and an aquaclear 500 powerfilter on the QT. I took out all the carbon and foam from the powerfilter and basically used it for circulation. I also added a few pieces of 3" PVC to serve as a hiding spot... although I haven't seen the new clown go in one yet. He tends to hang in the corners. I've been running the basic tests and except for the temp fluctuating (its in my garage and I think outside temp is the culprit) it's been pretty good so far. The new clown has seemed pretty happy so far after two days, and he ate when I fed him last night.
OK, so the sand project was a bit more work than I anticipated. First off, I pulled the large piece of live rock out and kept that in the styrofoam I bought it in, and covered it in fresh salt water. Since that used up the rest of my salt mix, I had a full 32 gal can of rodi filling up to get ready for salt mix. I knew I was going to need it after I was done, so I had that going all day. I'll get to that a bit later.
Now, after putting about 3"-4" of crushed coral in the QT tank, I still needed to take a bunch out of the main tank before putting in the new sand. I also wanted to try to keep as much of the "live" matter as I could, so I used a plastic strainer and sort of sifted all the fine stuff out before taking it out of the water. I put in a rectangular plastic container in the bottom of the tank, then scooped up a bunch (using the container lid as a shovel) and put it in the strainer, then whatever bigger stuff didn't sift out went into the plastic container. I sifted it all into a nice pile in the same spot so I wouldn't have to redo stuff that already sifted through. Once the container was full, I pulled that out and dumped it into a 5 gal bucket, then back in to fill up again. By the time I was done, I had taken out almost a full 5 gal. bucket, plus whatever I had put into the QT.
So, then I leveled out the fine "live" sand left in the tank and then used the same plastic container to put the sugar fine sand on top of it. I basically just dropped the full container to the bottom, then tipped it and dumped/dragged it across the bottom. It worked pretty well, but the total process of taking crushed out and putting fine sand in made a heck of a sandstorm. I expected it to happen and just figured I'd fill it back up with the rock and salt water, then try to catch most of it in my filter sock when the sump/return was back on.
Well, remember that salt water I needed to make? Well, I did a major bozo move and dumped in a full 50 gallon-mix bag of salt!
I was in a hurry to get it all filled up that I wasn't paying attention. Needless to say, I had almost double the amount of salt in my clean rodi water. Luckily I had a few clean empty buckets, so I took out about 10 gallons and then turned the rodi back on to fill up the trash can. It took a while, but I kept checking it until I got it to the correct SG. Problem solved, but all that extra time I had my main tank too low on water to clean up the sandstorm. It was cloudy for several hours, and I was afraid Nemo was going to have a rough time. I wish I had thought to take him out and put him in a 5 gal bucket before I even started the project. When I start adding the rest of my Live Rock, I'll do that for sure.Then on Sunday, I bought the used EV-120 skimmer. I took that home and cleaned it up real good with a vinegar bath. Then rinsed it in RO water and even ran that through the mag 7 pump for a while to get the vinegar out. I read the manual and found out that I had to raise the skimmer in my sump to get it at the right level of water inside. I rigged up a piece of eggcrate with two pieces of PVC cut to proper length. I tried to use Aquamend to fasten the eggcrate to the pvc, and when that didn't work I tried regular pvc primer/cement. That didn't work either, so I ended up just drilling a couple holes in the pvc and then tie-strapping it to the eggcrate. Like I said, I rigged it and I will probably make a better shelf at a later date, but it was stable enough to hold the weight of the skimmer.
So, I get the skimmer all setup, fired it up and man... I saw lots of bubbles within a minute! However, I think I still might need to adjust the height or fine tune the gate valve because the collection cup was filling up with mostly liquid instead of foam. I put the drain tube in a 5 gallon bucket, then left the house for a couple hours. Luckily my girlfriend stayed home because that thing filled up the bucket in that short time, and also lowered the water level in the sump enough to make the return pump start sucking air. That's what made her check on it. She called me and I told her to shut off the skimmer and the return pump. I was on my way home anyway, so I just added some salt water to level it all out again and turned the return pump back on.
I didn't run the skimmer after that because I didn't have time to play with it to adjust it. That will be done in the next day or so. I did change out the filter sock because it was getting clogged up with sand. Guess that helped alot because this morning the water looked almost clear again. It will probably be perfect when I get home, but that filter sock will likely need to be changed also.
On a side note, I just bought a used VorTech MP20 powerhead today. It will be shipped tomorrow, so I should get it by the end of the week. Can't wait to be able to replace the Rio 1400 eyesore.
To anyone following along, sorry for the novel I got going here. I'm trying to use this as my log book as many have suggested doing when caring for a tank. I put in lots of detail because it's more for my personal record of what I did so I can figure out where I screwed up, hehe. Anyone is welcome to post comments though. I'll try to post some pics tonight of the skimmer in the sump and anything else interesting to note.
Hey some of those issues sound familiar. :
Here are some tips.
You will want to put the live rock close to or on the bottom of tank glass because if you rest it on top of the sand a bit of digging by some industrious fish or critter can create a rockslide.
Leave the crushed coral out of the QT tank. From what I have read bare bottom is better for QT for a few reasons. First it is easier to clean. Second it is thought that the bare bottom does not allow the parasites a good place to stay. So in the case of ick for example they fall off the fish living on the surface for a while and then float around to reattach to the fish. Well don't know if you can syphon them up or they don't live as well or what but statistically the recurrence of ick in a QT is decreased with bare bottom. Finally when you go to take the fish out it is easier.
Finally leave the skimmer off for a while ...with one clown you hardly need it.
It sounds like you have the water level too high in the skimmer.
Here are some tips.
You will want to put the live rock close to or on the bottom of tank glass because if you rest it on top of the sand a bit of digging by some industrious fish or critter can create a rockslide.
Leave the crushed coral out of the QT tank. From what I have read bare bottom is better for QT for a few reasons. First it is easier to clean. Second it is thought that the bare bottom does not allow the parasites a good place to stay. So in the case of ick for example they fall off the fish living on the surface for a while and then float around to reattach to the fish. Well don't know if you can syphon them up or they don't live as well or what but statistically the recurrence of ick in a QT is decreased with bare bottom. Finally when you go to take the fish out it is easier.
Finally leave the skimmer off for a while ...with one clown you hardly need it.
It sounds like you have the water level too high in the skimmer.
Thanks for the tips JR! Yea, I was actually contemplating putting in a plenum before putting in my rock just for those reasons. I know that will cause another sandstorm, so I'll remove Nemo when I take on that project. By the way, he seems to really be enjoying himself lately. He's been circling the tank, riding the powerhead wave, then swinging around for another ride. It's quite fun to watch.
Hmm, OK, I'll remove the crushed coral from the QT tonight when I get home. I just thought it would help with the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate battle, but I see your reasons for not having it and agree it's probably better without.
I think this skimmer works great once you get it set right. I toyed around with it a bit last night and got it working so it would slowly make lot's of dirty foam. Yea, with only the single clown in the tank, there isn't much to skim but I want to get the feel for it for when I actually need it. It did help clear up my tank water some though and there was some fine sands in the skimmer cup last night.
I think my main issue with the skimmer right now is the drain line from the collector cup. I don't really have a lot of room under my stand to put a big enough container to be able to walk away for more than a few hours. In front of my sump, there is only about 3" between the tank and the doors. If I could find something 3" wide x 12" high x like 30" long, that would be great, heh. I did try to put a 3 qt water jug on the shelf on the right side, but I think that was too high and the drain hose was almost at the same level going into the jug as where it comes out of the cup. So, when liquid starts draining, it causes back pressure cause the tube is full. I need to have the entire hose lower than where it exits the cup or it messes up the skimming action. Maybe I'll try to make a custom "box" out of acrylic that I can just set along side the sump? I might need to make a better stand for the skimmer anyway, so might as well get some acrylic sheets and see what I can come up with.
Anyway, I was really busy playing with the skimmer and decided to watch the All-Star baseball game last night, so no pics yet. I'll add some soon though.
By the way, he seems to really be enjoying himself lately. He's been circling the tank, riding the powerhead wave, then swinging around for another ride. It's quite fun to watch.Hmm, OK, I'll remove the crushed coral from the QT tonight when I get home. I just thought it would help with the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate battle, but I see your reasons for not having it and agree it's probably better without.
I think this skimmer works great once you get it set right. I toyed around with it a bit last night and got it working so it would slowly make lot's of dirty foam. Yea, with only the single clown in the tank, there isn't much to skim but I want to get the feel for it for when I actually need it. It did help clear up my tank water some though and there was some fine sands in the skimmer cup last night.
I think my main issue with the skimmer right now is the drain line from the collector cup. I don't really have a lot of room under my stand to put a big enough container to be able to walk away for more than a few hours. In front of my sump, there is only about 3" between the tank and the doors. If I could find something 3" wide x 12" high x like 30" long, that would be great, heh. I did try to put a 3 qt water jug on the shelf on the right side, but I think that was too high and the drain hose was almost at the same level going into the jug as where it comes out of the cup. So, when liquid starts draining, it causes back pressure cause the tube is full. I need to have the entire hose lower than where it exits the cup or it messes up the skimming action. Maybe I'll try to make a custom "box" out of acrylic that I can just set along side the sump? I might need to make a better stand for the skimmer anyway, so might as well get some acrylic sheets and see what I can come up with.
Anyway, I was really busy playing with the skimmer and decided to watch the All-Star baseball game last night, so no pics yet. I'll add some soon though.
Gotcha. Well, when I remove the crushed coral tonight, I'll need to add more water anyway, so may as well do a water change too.
It's been a busy couple days so it's time for an update...
I changed out 5 gallons in the QT tank on Wednesday night and removed all the crushed coral. It's a shame to have all that live sand go to waste, but I just put it in the bucket with all the stuff I took out of the 75g tank and it's just drying out in the garage. I also bought a new heater for the QT tank because the one I had was fluctuating between 78 and 89 degrees. The new 150w Stealth (Marineland) heater did a great job at keeping it at a steady 82 degrees.
OK, my used VorTech MP20 arrived on Friday and I got that setup right after work. I'm loving it! Adjustable flow rate, a few different wave modes, a feeding mode ( :-*), and best of all, it's almost invisible due to it's magnet style attachment to the motor on the outside of the glass. I've played with the different modes and actually prefer the steady one-speed flow the best, but that may change once I start adding corals and stuff.
Saturday was a busy day. I began drilling my Live Rock and using acrylic rods and Aquamend to set up for my aquascape. I spent most of the day fitting pieces together to come up with a good design. Unfortunately, my cordless drill battery died so I didn't finish drilling/bonding everything, but I was all setup for finishing it Sunday morning after charging the batteries. The rest of the day Saturday, I made another 32g container of ro/di salt mix because I knew I would need it Sunday. I also cut my eggcrate to fit the bottom of my tank, with a 2" gap around the outside to the glass. I was originally planning on making a plenum, but decided I would just place the eggcrate on the bottom, put my rock on, then fill in the sand around the rock. This way the rock can't settle or fall from burrowing critters later on and it also gave the rock something to "bite on" to keep it in place. The plenum sounded like a good thing to do, but I read so many discussions on it that it didn't seem worth the effort and cost for extra materials.
So, once I got the two pieces of eggcrate cut to size (one big one would have been hard to fit through the top crossbrace) I brought them into the garage and laid them on the ground. My plan was to lay out all the rock I was bonding to make sure everything I was making would fit inside the edges of the eggcrate. I decided on a corner "rubble pile" look with a couple columns sprouting up to hide some of the overflow box... then I used the large 20 lb piece and made sort of a tunnel/cave for the right side of the tank.
Sunday was the big day! After finishing up the drilling/bonding of the LR, I got ready for the total overhaul of the main tank. First thing I did was take the clownfish out and put him in a 5g bucket so he didn't have to live through another sandstorm. Then I began draining most of the water from the tank to fill up all the buckets I had. I actually just flushed about 15g because I was planning on doing a water change anyway and knew the rock would take up some tank room. I also filled my sump to about an inch below the rim so I could keep some more water while lowering the level in the tank. After the water was only a few inches left, I took out 99% of the sand so I could put the eggcrate on a clean bottom.
After placing the eggcrate, I put my rock in and then replaced the sand around it. Then, I put the water back in b pumping it in and placing the hose on the rock so it didn't kick the sand up when filling. Once I got close to the height of my return loc lines, I turned on the sump until it was down to the normal height... then used fresh water to fill the tank (via pump) until it was back to normal height. When all was said and done, the water was still a bit cloudy and I could barely see the rock.
I then ran the return pump and put the VorTech on lowest speed and then started my skimmer up. Between that and the filter sock on the drain line from overflow... the tank was pretty clear in a few hours! I was reaaly shocked it cleared up that quickly. After the temp was upto 79 degrees and after running tests for pH, Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, and everything looked good... I was ready to put some fish in. First though, I decided since I could see the rock and the sand clearly, I leveled the sand out throughout the tank. This made it cloudy again, but nothing like before. Another half hour or so and it was clear again.
At this point, I decided to put in the new juvenile clow (he's been doing well in the QT for over a week with no signs of disease or stress) and let him adventure in his new home for a whle before putting Nemo (the bigger original clownfish) back in. They were a bit confused and cautious at first, but after being in the tank together for about a half hour, they seem to be getting along well.
Anyway, enough story telling, here are some pics...
Full View from the Front (Should I add more?) -
Closeup of the left "rubble pile" -
Closeup of the right tunnel/cave -
Side view (tunnel side) -
Full view of the back side -
Most of the rock is white because it's been sitting in the garage. I had previously cured it, but then let everything die off and then powerwashed it clean and it's been dry since. I think it should be ok to cure it again in the tank and I'll keep doing tests daily to make sure the tank stays healthy. Oh, I also threw a few pieces of rock in the fuge section of my sump. I plan on changing out my filter sock tomorrow since I'm sure that one will be full of sand by then. The water looks pretty darn clear right now though and I'm quite happy with how it all turned out.
Any comments are welcome on the aquascaping or anything I did this weekend. ;D
I changed out 5 gallons in the QT tank on Wednesday night and removed all the crushed coral. It's a shame to have all that live sand go to waste, but I just put it in the bucket with all the stuff I took out of the 75g tank and it's just drying out in the garage. I also bought a new heater for the QT tank because the one I had was fluctuating between 78 and 89 degrees. The new 150w Stealth (Marineland) heater did a great job at keeping it at a steady 82 degrees.
OK, my used VorTech MP20 arrived on Friday and I got that setup right after work. I'm loving it! Adjustable flow rate, a few different wave modes, a feeding mode ( :-*), and best of all, it's almost invisible due to it's magnet style attachment to the motor on the outside of the glass. I've played with the different modes and actually prefer the steady one-speed flow the best, but that may change once I start adding corals and stuff.
Saturday was a busy day. I began drilling my Live Rock and using acrylic rods and Aquamend to set up for my aquascape. I spent most of the day fitting pieces together to come up with a good design. Unfortunately, my cordless drill battery died so I didn't finish drilling/bonding everything, but I was all setup for finishing it Sunday morning after charging the batteries. The rest of the day Saturday, I made another 32g container of ro/di salt mix because I knew I would need it Sunday. I also cut my eggcrate to fit the bottom of my tank, with a 2" gap around the outside to the glass. I was originally planning on making a plenum, but decided I would just place the eggcrate on the bottom, put my rock on, then fill in the sand around the rock. This way the rock can't settle or fall from burrowing critters later on and it also gave the rock something to "bite on" to keep it in place. The plenum sounded like a good thing to do, but I read so many discussions on it that it didn't seem worth the effort and cost for extra materials.
So, once I got the two pieces of eggcrate cut to size (one big one would have been hard to fit through the top crossbrace) I brought them into the garage and laid them on the ground. My plan was to lay out all the rock I was bonding to make sure everything I was making would fit inside the edges of the eggcrate. I decided on a corner "rubble pile" look with a couple columns sprouting up to hide some of the overflow box... then I used the large 20 lb piece and made sort of a tunnel/cave for the right side of the tank.
Sunday was the big day! After finishing up the drilling/bonding of the LR, I got ready for the total overhaul of the main tank. First thing I did was take the clownfish out and put him in a 5g bucket so he didn't have to live through another sandstorm. Then I began draining most of the water from the tank to fill up all the buckets I had. I actually just flushed about 15g because I was planning on doing a water change anyway and knew the rock would take up some tank room. I also filled my sump to about an inch below the rim so I could keep some more water while lowering the level in the tank. After the water was only a few inches left, I took out 99% of the sand so I could put the eggcrate on a clean bottom.
After placing the eggcrate, I put my rock in and then replaced the sand around it. Then, I put the water back in b pumping it in and placing the hose on the rock so it didn't kick the sand up when filling. Once I got close to the height of my return loc lines, I turned on the sump until it was down to the normal height... then used fresh water to fill the tank (via pump) until it was back to normal height. When all was said and done, the water was still a bit cloudy and I could barely see the rock.
I then ran the return pump and put the VorTech on lowest speed and then started my skimmer up. Between that and the filter sock on the drain line from overflow... the tank was pretty clear in a few hours! I was reaaly shocked it cleared up that quickly. After the temp was upto 79 degrees and after running tests for pH, Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, and everything looked good... I was ready to put some fish in. First though, I decided since I could see the rock and the sand clearly, I leveled the sand out throughout the tank. This made it cloudy again, but nothing like before. Another half hour or so and it was clear again.
At this point, I decided to put in the new juvenile clow (he's been doing well in the QT for over a week with no signs of disease or stress) and let him adventure in his new home for a whle before putting Nemo (the bigger original clownfish) back in. They were a bit confused and cautious at first, but after being in the tank together for about a half hour, they seem to be getting along well.
Anyway, enough story telling, here are some pics...
Full View from the Front (Should I add more?) -
Closeup of the left "rubble pile" -
Closeup of the right tunnel/cave -
Side view (tunnel side) -
Full view of the back side -
Most of the rock is white because it's been sitting in the garage. I had previously cured it, but then let everything die off and then powerwashed it clean and it's been dry since. I think it should be ok to cure it again in the tank and I'll keep doing tests daily to make sure the tank stays healthy. Oh, I also threw a few pieces of rock in the fuge section of my sump. I plan on changing out my filter sock tomorrow since I'm sure that one will be full of sand by then. The water looks pretty darn clear right now though and I'm quite happy with how it all turned out.
Any comments are welcome on the aquascaping or anything I did this weekend. ;D
Thanks JR! Can't wait until the rock gets some color. Some of the white pieces are starting to get some pink covering and the one large piece on the bottom left of the cave/tunnel is starting to turn dark purple. That piece is also starting to get covered in brownish hair algae though.
Should I try to use a powerhead to blow off the hair algae, or scrub it or something? Or should I just leave it alone and let it grow?
I've also seen a few little green bubbles forming on the sand right next to that purple piece. Any idea what this is? I wish I got a pic of it last night but I didn't have time.
Should I try to use a powerhead to blow off the hair algae, or scrub it or something? Or should I just leave it alone and let it grow?
I've also seen a few little green bubbles forming on the sand right next to that purple piece. Any idea what this is? I wish I got a pic of it last night but I didn't have time.
Thanks guys. I'll definitely get a pic tonight.
OK, this is as close as I could get without making it blurry:
If you focus on the bottom of the pic, near the little indent, you will see a couple bubbles below the right side on the sand, a single bubble further out to the right on the sand, and on the inside of the indent (on the right side) there is a crop of about 6 bubbles on the rock itself. I know they are small and hard to see, but I circled the spots to look at.
Not sure if you can zoom in or get a better look at them, but if so, can you identify them for me please?
That was a .bmp so I can add the circles in mspaint. Here is a link to a .jpg that you might get a better quality from.
If you focus on the bottom of the pic, near the little indent, you will see a couple bubbles below the right side on the sand, a single bubble further out to the right on the sand, and on the inside of the indent (on the right side) there is a crop of about 6 bubbles on the rock itself. I know they are small and hard to see, but I circled the spots to look at.
Not sure if you can zoom in or get a better look at them, but if so, can you identify them for me please?
That was a .bmp so I can add the circles in mspaint. Here is a link to a .jpg that you might get a better quality from.
Looks like valonia (bubble algae). I would take it out because it can get out of control. Use an xacto or something sharp and dig under it slightly to take them whole if possible.
emerald crab did wonders for me when i had a small outbreak. it took 2-3 weeks, but it helped. also, lower nutrients in the tank so algae has nothing to feed off.
I think you are right Jcurry. It looks just like This stuff.
I'll try to get it out (intact) ASAP.
Thanks!
I'll try to get it out (intact) ASAP.
Thanks!
I haven't been able to get the bubbles out yet because I've been trying to get some things done around the house before I leave for vacation on sunday.
The bubbles have changed in appearance a little. They now have a dark spot at the top of each one, but the good news is that they don't seem to be spreading yet.
I'll try to get them out tomorrow.
The bubbles have changed in appearance a little. They now have a dark spot at the top of each one, but the good news is that they don't seem to be spreading yet.
I'll try to get them out tomorrow.
Well, after a week of vacation and catching up at work, I haven't had much time to post my progress. Here's a small update.
I never did get the bubble algae out and the bubbles have now turned into what I can only describe as whitish/green stalks. The good news is there are only about a dozen of them and they don't seem to be spreading (no more bubbles). The stalks have grown to about 1/4 inch or less. Not really sure what these are, but unless they start spreading I don't mind them too much.
What's worse is that brown (hair ?) algae has seemed to have spread all over my live rock. The 20 lb centerpiece of rock that has been turning purple seems to have it pretty thick, but the rest of the rock only has a thin covering that looks like flowing grass, if that makes any sense. I've put all 4 of my snails on the big rock and they cleaned up some portions of it pretty good, but they don't stay there and they wind up cleaning up the glass of the tank instead. Then the areas they cleaned up grow back again.
Oh, on the brown algae, there are 2 little "fans" forming that sort of look like they are cupped inwards. Any idea what these might be? (Will post pics later.)
I have an order of 20 snails that should be arriving this weekend (the group buy supplier had some issues filling our entire order last weekend), so hopefully that will put a bigger dent in the algae. If not, I'll have to let it run it's course I guess.
On a side note, I've been shopping at a bunch of lfs's to find a small hippo tang to give the clown's some company. All I could find (until yesterday) was larger hippos and I waited to find a smaller one to be able to watch it grown in my tank. I was really happy to find 2 small ones (about 1.25 inches long head to tail) so I bought one and put it in my QT tank. The QT tank by the way was emptied out, cleaned, and filled up with clean salt-water. This time I removed all the live sand/crushed coral and went bare bottom. I'll keep the hippo in there for about 4 weeks before putting it in the main tank. Also, the 2nd clown I bought before has been doing really well and getting along great with the first one. ;D
Well, gotta run to work. I'll add some pics of the rock/algae and the new hippo tang tomorrow. Going to the Phillies game after work so won't be able to get to it tonight.
I never did get the bubble algae out and the bubbles have now turned into what I can only describe as whitish/green stalks. The good news is there are only about a dozen of them and they don't seem to be spreading (no more bubbles). The stalks have grown to about 1/4 inch or less. Not really sure what these are, but unless they start spreading I don't mind them too much.
What's worse is that brown (hair ?) algae has seemed to have spread all over my live rock. The 20 lb centerpiece of rock that has been turning purple seems to have it pretty thick, but the rest of the rock only has a thin covering that looks like flowing grass, if that makes any sense. I've put all 4 of my snails on the big rock and they cleaned up some portions of it pretty good, but they don't stay there and they wind up cleaning up the glass of the tank instead. Then the areas they cleaned up grow back again.
Oh, on the brown algae, there are 2 little "fans" forming that sort of look like they are cupped inwards. Any idea what these might be? (Will post pics later.)
I have an order of 20 snails that should be arriving this weekend (the group buy supplier had some issues filling our entire order last weekend), so hopefully that will put a bigger dent in the algae. If not, I'll have to let it run it's course I guess.
On a side note, I've been shopping at a bunch of lfs's to find a small hippo tang to give the clown's some company. All I could find (until yesterday) was larger hippos and I waited to find a smaller one to be able to watch it grown in my tank. I was really happy to find 2 small ones (about 1.25 inches long head to tail) so I bought one and put it in my QT tank. The QT tank by the way was emptied out, cleaned, and filled up with clean salt-water. This time I removed all the live sand/crushed coral and went bare bottom. I'll keep the hippo in there for about 4 weeks before putting it in the main tank. Also, the 2nd clown I bought before has been doing really well and getting along great with the first one. ;D
Well, gotta run to work. I'll add some pics of the rock/algae and the new hippo tang tomorrow. Going to the Phillies game after work so won't be able to get to it tonight.