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BSDaemon's 20gal tank


IPv6Freely

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IPv6Freely

DAY ONE:

So I finally made it to my new home here in... ugh... Kansas.

 

Now to start putting together the 20gal I bought before I left Canada.

 

I got my basic supplies (bought a cheap hydrometer because I don't have my refractometer yet)

 

06-01-06_1827.jpg

 

I also ordered a 45lb box of Dr Foster and Smith's SELECT premium fiji liverock.

 

06-01-06_1828.jpg

 

Today, I set up the aquarium and the sump and fuge:

 

06-05-06_0028.jpg

06-05-06_0029.jpg

 

And started filling it:

06-05-06_0058.jpg

 

Now the part I don't like, is my substrate. It's ugly live sand that looks more like mud. I put it in the tank, and after filling it, the water went brown, and it hasn't cleared up at all, hours later.

 

06-05-06_0136.jpg

 

The substrate:

06-05-06_0137.jpg

 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I'd really like to get some different substrate. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm looking for something more like the consitency of salt or sugar, and very white. This stuff I have is grey/brown and looks like mud.

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sea man dan

Well all substrate is going to leave your water murkey , but it doesnt look like that was live substrate. It looks like that was sitting in a bucket in a garage until you threw it in the tank. yes? Well if that is some what the case i hope you at least attempted to wash the sand out , if not you might want to wait a little while longer before stocking than intended

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IPv6Freely

Wow, are you psychic?

 

It was live sand *shrug*, but it was in a bucket, in a storage unit, for a couple weeks, then another couple weeks before it came down.

 

The water still hasn't cleared up, and I don't like it anyway. So I ordered some substrate that I like a lot more. It's much finer, and very white.

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IPv6Freely

DAY THREE

 

Alright, so my refractometer and my powerheads showed up today, but they were signed for by the front office while I was at work, and they had gone home by the time I got home from work. Phooey.

 

I decided that my liverock had been sitting here just far too long. I hadn't expected it to be waiting like this AT ALL, and I'm sure I had a whole hell of a lot of coraline and probably lots of other stuff die off in the wait.

 

So I took action.

 

I drained the tank, and scooped out all the yucky muddy looking livesand. I then opened up my box o' rock, and rinsed it all off to get the extra sand and crap off it.

 

Then I positioned it in the tank the way I liked. (Boy that took a long time, aquascaping with this much rock is much tougher! You don't have much of a choice when you only have like 4 pieces of rock, like in my old 5.5gal)

 

06-06-06_2324.jpg

 

Then I started filling, and stuck in the heater and thermometer into the main tank to get it started:

 

06-06-06_2355.jpg

 

My awesome electrical work:

 

06-07-06_0024.jpg

 

Filled, with metal halide warming up:

 

06-07-06_0025.jpg

 

Radioactive water? No, my phone just sucks when it has to deal with anything but perfect lighting conditions. Made for a cool photo though:

 

06-07-06_0026.jpg

 

A couple things that I found that look like they could be cool (or really bad, I'm not sure):

 

06-07-06_0027.jpg

06-07-06_0028.jpg

 

And Finally, the lit tank (with the thermometer still in the way, I've moved it since ;)

 

06-07-06_0029.jpg

 

Tomorrow I'll get the refractometer so I can fine tune the specific gravity, and install the powerheads. My Substrate should also be showing up tomorrow, and while I know I did it kinda backwards, and that I'm gonna have a heck of a mess when I dump it in, I felt I needed to get this live rock into some water ASAP.

 

I also need to find a ballast for my actinic. I'm just not sure what I'm looking for to be able to buy it... its one of those coralife T12 actinics with the built in reflector. I have the end caps already, I just need the ballast.

 

Stay tuned!

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neanderthalman

That's some schweet looking rock! Good call on getting it in the water. You spent good money to get live rock, not dead rock.

 

Did you get your latest shipment from the office today?

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IPv6Freely

Sure did.

 

p_19340_FS32754-i.jpg

 

and

 

p_14035_FS34702D.jpg

 

Showed up yesterday (but I didnt make it before the front office of my building closed, so i only gotit today). They were sent 2nd day shipping.

 

Today, my substrate showed up apparently, but I guess nobody was in the office because they didn't deliver it. So they are coming back tomorrow.

 

Looks like this:

 

st_lg_12022_26573_meridian.jpg

 

The substrate was sent ground shipping (they said 5-7 days), and it only took one single day longer then the 2nd day shipping. I am totally a fan of drsfostersmith.com and liveaquaria.com!!

 

Fun fun fun

 

My

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Well, time for another update.

 

Substrate is in, water has cleared (though because its so fine, its stuck to the inside of the glass... ill have to clean that off)

 

For the pics:

 

Tank w/ substrate:

06-11-06_1754.jpg

 

My substrate. Nice stuff!

06-11-06_1925.jpg

 

Close up of the substrate:

06-11-06_1926.jpg

 

Actinics only (bad colour representation, its my phone cam):

06-11-06_2146.jpg

 

My lighting (MH off, Actinic on):

06-11-06_2147.jpg

 

Now that I finally have all of it set up, I can finally put the doors back on the stand! haha (we removed them so itd be easier to get up the stairs, and I figured I'd leave them off until I was done messing with stuff)

 

:happy:

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Some more pics!

 

I found some living stuff today. There is a snail on the back glass that I'm unable to get a decent picture of. Mainly black, with small white specks, and I've been watching this little white worm come out of the rock to snatch food, and theres also a little red thing sticking out that resembles halfway between the tail of a cleaner shrimp, and a feather duster. but its SMALL. I couldnt get any very good pics.

 

Here you can barely see the worm in the middle:

06-16-06_2147.jpg

 

My rock seems to be quite white lately. Almost looks like I should be scrubbing it off or something

06-16-06_2153.jpg

 

Full size shot of my tank:

06-16-06_2158.jpg

 

Man I wish i had a good camera!!

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watchemburn

I liek the camera phone pictures, they look like abstract wall murrels if you spinn in your chair 5 times really quick and stair at them upside down. But besides that the tank looks cool. what ballast did you decide on your actnitics? i may have accidently skipped teh text that told what it was but figured i would ask anyways. BTW fav picture is teh blinding rectangle of light picture. Good luck with the tank.

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The ballast is just one of the cheap generic ones you can get at any home depot. Nothing special. :)

 

And yeah, the glowing picture is pretty awesome :D

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  • 1 year later...

So my tank was kind of neglected, and yesterday I got motivated. So heres my cleanup:

 

Before:

 

Yucky tank:

1388249482_8842884264.jpg?v=0

 

What I removed:

1388262696_9bf6d02d69.jpg?v=0

 

After

 

FTS:

1388267088_2e6719beae.jpg?v=0

 

Another:

1387376099_82460a106e.jpg?v=0

 

What are these, anyway?

1388273832_3cc0511d7c.jpg?v=0

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Right on. They look really cool :)

 

Wait... I've never seen candycane that small before, with heads that dont touch...

 

 

this dude has candycanes like that:

Tank47.jpg

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Wow! What happened between posts 11 & 12? Besides 1.3 years elapsing, that is. :)

 

I "inherited" my tank from my son, after it'd been set up for over a year with not much added...I think that was actually a great thing, in retrospect...it has been very stable...and stuff just kept appearing from the LR!

 

 

--Diane

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Wow! What happened between posts 11 & 12? Besides 1.3 years elapsing, that is. :)

 

I "inherited" my tank from my son, after it'd been set up for over a year with not much added...I think that was actually a great thing, in retrospect...it has been very stable...and stuff just kept appearing from the LR!

--Diane

 

Other then time elapsing... nothing. I've added almost nothing to it. Some things have come and gone. I have a hard time keeping frogspawn and hammer corals, though my torch is great (im thinking because the torch is the only thing I got from LFS instead of online). And both me and another guy have a hard time with clownfish. Any other fish is no issue though.

 

Lost my starry blenny during my move.

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Sorry about the blenny...

 

That sounds like one long move!

 

Looks like you have lots of room to experiment with now, if you're getting re-interested...How much fun!

 

Do you have a decent lfs?

 

--Diane

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Sorry about the blenny...

 

That sounds like one long move!

 

Looks like you have lots of room to experiment with now, if you're getting re-interested...How much fun!

 

Do you have a decent lfs?

 

--Diane

 

yeah it was totally a matter of being re-interested.

 

Actually, its funny. Our LFS was complete crap. Then 2 days ago I went in and... WOW. They have probably a 700g+ tank with some small sharks, a ray, etc. Also they added 2 coral tanks (probably 100g each) to the one that was already there. The coral tank that was there was actually clean! they also added a couple oh... 60+ gallon tanks that theyre holding tangs and such in. Everything in there is nice and clean and for once it all looks HEALTHY, which it certainly didnt the last time i was there. Oh, and there was another big tank full of liverock... all of which was a nice dark purple. I was blown away. As soon as I got home I started pulling the rocks outta my tank to get it all cleaned up.

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Okay, I got another pic:

 

1407397332_f7a43455c2_b.jpg

 

And, while cleaning out my tank i had a couple of my frags break off so I put them in a bucket of tank water until I got some more superglue the next day, and apparently they didnt like that. So these are MY fault :(

 

Dying torch:

1407398294_521219b859_b.jpg

 

Dying digi:

1406516899_b595250e88_b.jpg

 

I'm just not having very good luck lately...

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