Nice! Love that grill! Where did you get it? Looks like something out of the movie Blade. How do you like the moon lights? I should be getting all my stuff for the tank on Friday and MAYBE fill it up this weekend!

i bought the grill from coolerguys.com. i used the silicone screws with it and it is silent!! nice and tightly fitted also. i also put in a terminal so that when i have to chagne the fan, it will be easy to just remove the heatsink as one. for the moonlight, i actually attached it to the splashguard for better coverage, you should think about doing the same, i love the moonlight.

i bought this to drive the fan from coolerguys, easy
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556087977.html

For your sand, use seafloor special grade reef sand, its a perfect grain size, almost homogenous, and isnt going to blow around with the strong pump (i think). I just bought 40 lbs and am going to pull my rock and sand tonight and replace the crappy black/white sand with this stuff. I'm also going to take a hammer and chisel to my rocks and break them into small pieces, so when i mount frags, its easy to pull out the rock and cut off frags and trade them.

So where do I get the seafloor special grade reef sand? Brand?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=7326

still trying to figure out how to rinse it off before swapping.

Is it ok to rinse in tap water, then rinse in RO/DI before using?

You could just wait until you do a water exchange then rinse the sand with that... then rinse with your RO water...

i ended up using tap water via the tub. i think i spent like 3-4 hours washing sand...it just never comes clean!! I rinsed 1-2x with RO/DI after the tap

Think you should be fine. Thats what I've always done.

Are you running a fuge in chamber 2 via StevieT's media rack? If so, seems like your tunze ATO sensors will have to be pretty high. Making sure it will work for me before I put down the money.

the tunze will definately keep yoru water level in the 2nd and 3rd chambers almost at the same water level as the main tank. I lowered my water level in the 2nd and 3rd chambers to try to get my skimmer working better, well see how it goes.

I was going to use the media rack at first, but i bought the sapphire aquatics Biocube 14 skimmer. it does produce a green tea type skimmate, and i can definately see foam in the riser tube, so i'm going to give it a bit longer to break in and see how it performs. Currently i have my ATO set to keep the water level about an inch above the side water level indicator window for my skimmer.

I just finished the changing of the sand, and busting up the rocks with a chisel and hammer...some of those rocks are extremely hard. I'll post pics when the tank clears up.

oh, if you do get the tunze, id reccomend siliconing the brackets that hold on the positioning/slider strip to the back wall. easiest to do this without water in the chamber. see my earlier posts about it.

Here are a couple pictures of the skimmate I am getting from my Sapphire Aquatics BC14 skimmer:

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Very nice if I may say, I wasn't expecting it to be so efficient.

some tank shots later, here is a moonlight shot of a couple new corals and new rockwork and sand.

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Loving the moonlight and new rock work!

glass is dirty, need to get myself a razor for the coralline.

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Bought a head of frogspawn today, decided to dip it in revive, and tropic marin pro coral cure. Not sure why, guess I just really don't trust the LFS i got it from. I only dipped for about 5 min in the revive, and then 2 min in the TMPCC, then swished in tank water.

This is my first time dipping a coral, hopefully I didn't kill it.

Nice! Let me know how it works out. I plan on dipping my corals as well but not sure what to use and how. I just noticed you got a six-line wrasse in your tank. Do you plan on putting any other fish in there? They are pretty territorial.

I'm getting barely any polyp extension still, so i moved the coral from mid tank down to the bottom and its getting a little better. Hopefully by end of day tomorrow it will have good PE.

Yeah i have a six-line, he is awesome, very very active in the tank and has unique swim patterns. he seem to find every little cave within the rockwork. He used to pick on the clown a bit, but then the clown started fighting back and i havent seen him go after the clown since then. they dont even go after each other when competing for food. Eventually I will add a pair of picasso's, interested to see how that goes, might have to remove the wrasse for a bit.

I used to have an orange spotted goby (gutatta?) who would snap at the wrasse whenever he was close by, was funny to see the bully get bullied. that goby went carpet surfing while i was retrofitting my LEDS to the BC hood. I had a piece of plexi-glass over the tank to prevent this, but my girlfriend moved it because it extended far off the tank and she would accidently hit the corner on her way to the kitchen (i did it myself a couple of times), oh well...poor goby.

traded in my onyx clown for a bigger, better colored onyx clown, and also bought him a mate. the breeder i get my clowns from is awesome, if you dont like the coloration of your onyx, he will let you trade it back for something more to your liking, awesome guy, his names mitch from booyahs onyx. pictures in a few days.

got a couple astreas for .99 each and a margarita...downside i had to just toss them in cause i didnt have any saltwater made to replace anything used in acclimation...oops.

guess ill see what happens

Could you add the link to that site that explained the ammonia dosing to cycle the tank on my build thread? It got lost when the site crashed. I should be filling my tank next weekend, so I want to read up on it to see if thats the way I want to go and ask you any questions. Thanks!

you can google for fishless cycling, here is the one i used: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/librar...shless-cycling/

Got rid of the damned wrasse, he was picking on my gorgeus onyx clowns. I will get cracking on those pictures...i need to find a card reader for my new hand me down camera

I got my Tunze ATO installed yesterday and it was acting strange. I have both sensors on one rail and I left chamber 3 a little low, so as soon as I plug the controller in, it should start to fill up. Plugged the controller in, meter pump kicked on and it filled to the optical sensor and stopped. I was like wow, this is great! 30 seconds go by and I hear the pump turn on again and then stop. I check the water in chamber 3 and now the water is filled to where the "U" clip holds the optical sensor. 30 more seconds go by and the same thing! This happens until I eventually unplug the controller. I am thinking maybe sensor break in? I emptied the excess water and try again. This time it fills up to the optical sensor and stops. 30 seconds go by and the pump turns on and stops. Again filling chamber 3 to where the "U" clip hold the optical sensor. I was able to see the LEDs on the controller during this. I saw the Green LED turn on (level) when it was at the bottom of the sensor but the pump remained on until it filled to the "U" clip part. Where does yours stop at? I was also testing with the full length of the black tubing. It only repeated what it did the first time I turned it on once more. But it consistently fills up to the "U" clip. I see the yellow LED turn on (pump on), then I see the green LED light come on, while the yellow LED is stil on. They are on together for about 3-4 seconds before the pump shuts off. What are your thoughts? Normal? My faith of this overfilling has gone up.

Mine does similar thing. when you plug it in, it fills while a capacitor charges. I think there is a minimum time the pump can run, like 10s or so. on any larger volume system, like even a 29g, this doesnt really make a difference, but its so noticeable since we have such a small amt of water.

if you are really concerned, e-mail tunze usa.

Email from Tunze USA:

On a new Osmolator this can happen because the new plastic parts have a strong affinity for air and attract air bubbles or trap a film of air. Since plastic is made of oil it repels water until it has broken in which takes a few days. You can speed this up by rinsing the sensor in hot soapy water or soaking it in vinegar for an hour or so.

It is important that it is in a chamber with little or no microbubbles as it cannot differentiate between a bubble and being dry. It is normal for the two LED's to be on at the same time for a few seconds. The osmolator waits about 8 seconds to turn on the pump after reading dry and overfills for about 10 seconds after registering full, this was done to minimize rapid cycling, a slight overfill and a delay in case of a wave or slight turbulence in the water.

Dude, go add your LED retro to the project list.

added to project list, I need to stop looking at LED retros before i get more ideas.

Bought a new coral for 18$ at aquarium adventure. normally i dont buy stuff there cause its massively overpriced, but they decided to start selling frags and it looked like it would color up much better in my tank under LED's (think they had it under a 20k hqi). Will post clownfish pics later when they decide to wander from the top rear of the tank.

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as you can see in the picture, fighting off a bit of hair algae atm. I am ready to give up on this sapphire aquatics bc14 skimmer and put in stevie T's media rack.

I'm introducing phosphates somewhere, I think maybe from my home depot bucket that i had salt mixing in for a week or so. Either that or I am overfeeding. either way, the skimmer requires i use a piece of sponge to quite the flow of water from chamber 1 to 2, which in term raises the water level in the tank higher than the intake grates and prevents good surface skimming.

I am hoping that with the stevie T's that i can get a good mix of mechanical (filter floss), chemical (purigen, chemi pure) and biological (chaeto), + the gfo in chamber 1, that i will never see hair algae again. What do you think?

I'll post here instead of my thread. I very much like StevieT's MR. I thought though, that I would be able to get both the purigen and chemipure elite into the middle section of the MR. Seems like that wont happen, so I am thinking of putting just the chemipure in the middle section and the cheato in the bottom section (bottom section is bigger, but I want the cheato in there). Purigen isnt really needed since I am running the chemipure, but i can run it in chamber 3, where the stock blue sponge pad use to be or either under the filter floss (i dont think the purigen needs to be submerged). As for your GFO, chemipure elite contains GFO, so not sure you need to run that separately. Hair algae will be a problem in the beginning of any tank. Your CUC in time should get rid of it. It they dont work, get a sea hare, it'll mow it down within a day. Are you testing for phosphates or just think you are introducing it in?

i think i am introducing it in somehow, never had any issues until now. I may just be feeding too much.

Why cant you put chaeto in bottom, chemi pure in middle, and purigen in top, then filter floss on top?
Did you also buy the underwater light that Stevie T uses?

That was my second option, thats what I meant by "under the filter floss". Yea, I bought 1 light for now to see what kind of growth I am going to get.

ordered almost 1 of everything from stevie t. luckily i already have chemi pure and purigen (which i hear is renewable!). cost almost $80 shipped, almost as much as the skimmer that is worthless imo. I'm going to try and get a refund from sapphire aquatics.

Just got home from a fellow reefers place with a new Ricordea Yuma frag!

Check it out:

Here are my clowns, the males bars are awesome and kind of swirl a bit:

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This is the best pic I could get, I hope this helps. If you need another angle, let me know.
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They are beautiful! Cant wait to get mine.

You going to get them from Mitch @ Booyah's right?

I'll see what my LFS has, he has got a school of them right now. I told him when he gets a pair, put it aside for me. If I dont get it there, I'll hit up your guy.

Thanks for the water level pic btw. Sapphire Aquatics agreed to refund my money and is even sending me a box with a return label. Very cool of them. Glad to see a company standing by their product, EVEN though it didn't work out for me. Definately would not have any issues ordering something from them again. And their nano media reactor is awesome btw.

It may be uneccessary, but its an added level of protection against phosphates, and will help all the other filtration items last longer.

Looks like I'll hit your guy up for the fish. Asked my LFS what he sells them for, $150-200!

holy crap. Tell him Brian (bpkenn) sent you and he will hook you up with a nice pair. BTW, just found out his guarantee includes shipping also. So if after a while you don't like how they have colored up, you can exchange them

you took one of the ones that i wanted. that swirley one looks sweet

yeah he is pretty cool isnt he? he actually sold him to me for a bit less than he posted too He was in a tank with like 50 other onyx when I picked him out, knew I wanted him immediately as he caught my eye.

Neither of us noticed the pelvic fins were missing when I picked him, but I am assuming they were nipped off. I'm pretty sure they were nipped off and will grow back, but even if they don't he is an awesome looking Onyx.

I think i can start to see a little bit of black on the end of one of his pelvic fin stubs...lol. I am going to take this as a good sign that they are growing back in full force. They appear to be larger then when i first bought the fish also. yay

Noticed last night, despite having a small HA problem, I am getting good growth like 1/8-1/4" growth on my hammer and frogspawn. The green yuma frag that i got from a friend looks like its almost fully healed and growing now...though im starting to doubt its a yuma, its definately some type of softie though.

I am considering starting to use a 2 part dosing solution. I haven't really taken calcium readings regularly (i know lazy), but I think this might help my LPS really grow faster.


My order of Stevie T's stuff came today. Can get some added filtration setup tomorrow because I bought the 10oz bag... which wont allow me to fit both the chemi pure and purigen in the bottom chamber.

StevieT confirmed that you can use the 1/2 unit (5oz) chemi pure and the 2.1oz purigen will also fit. He said the extra 5 oz of chemi pure (i.e. using a full 10oz) wont really help in a tank this size.

I will have to head out tomorrow and buy some chemi pure elite 5oz. The main difference from the non-elite is that it has GFO in it. I know i already have a GFO reactor in chamber 1, but id rather have it in there as a backup.

I have never used either of these products...ive always been a fan of the au natural methodology, but these water volumes are just too small to incorporate the necessary components of a system based on that. Here's crossing my fingers, lol.

My girlfriend took me out for dinner and drinks tonight to a place called Stonewood Ale House. The food was excellent, and they had a few decent imports...not as great of a selection as you would expect from a place with "ale house" in the name.

anyhow, came home feeling good and decided to finish off the tank. So first on the order was to glue and epoxy down the awesome Yuma I got from Menard (on reefcentral). Hopefully my yuma isn't too pissed about being dropped face down on the sand bed a few times. No more working on the tank after drinking I think. Second thing to do was to finish up the filtration/media basket setup from StevieT.

Now let me start by saying StevieT makes a kickass product, but his Quality Control is severely lacking. His products are great, but there were a few problems i had to overcome. For instance, with the fish saver, i had to sand down/trim the far left portion so that it would fit in my tank.

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second, i had to file down the piece of acrylic that snaps into place to "lock" the fish saver in place. The acrylic was bent inwards and was too narrow to fit on the false wall between chambers two and 3.

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Third, the media rack itself was not level, and would fall backwards in chamber 2 and hit the back wall. This isn't a big deal though.

Problems 1 and 2 are probably the most inconvenience, as i had to bust out the dremel to fix problem 1, and i had to use a miniature file to fix problem two. Problem 3 isnt that bad since you are able to position the acrylic "flow directors" in the proper direction so the water falls into the media basket. Still, I would like to see more QC for the $$ paid. I mean with shipping I ended up paying about $85.

Even with those issues, I would definitely recommend buying the StevieT media basket, and fish saver guard. I cant tell you how many times i fished my previous onyx clown from chamber 3 before i finally bought a fish saver.

I think every tank might be a little different (in size internally). My fish saver fits almost perfect. The little notch on the side of the fish saver doesnt really line up with the side molding, but this works for me because it makes the fishsaver more ridgid. I would have thought that notch would have helped you if it was a little to long, so you didnt have to sand down the portion you did.



I did have to sand down the fish saver lock (length wise). But I attribute this to there being too much silicone holding the false wall between chambers 2 and 3 on the glass.



If you look down in chamber 2, part of the molding/false wall sticks out a bit, which makes the rack tilt back towards the glass. Once you get the rack in, you can shift the entire rack closer to the glass so it does not sit on this part, whic would make it level.

I just think the tanks themselves arent built exactly the same. So whatever tank he used to measure, could have been different from what our tanks are, making the pieces not fit exactly. Just my opinion.

I must have the one tank that the fish saver is slightly too big for then, lol. Its all good tho.

Did you notice that with a lower water level (barely at/below the eggcrate for chamber 1) the water seems to drain through the basket better.

I'm going to pickup some chaeto on saturday, see how well it grows with all the filtration in place.

Yea, thats where I have my water, comes up to the blue part that holds the egg crate.

Question for you, do you dip your corals\fish? I have never bought corals/fish online and have never dipped my corals/fish. I thought that I read somewhere that there is no need to acclimate beside temp because the water is so fouled up from shipping anyways.

i use old tank water and mix it with revive and dip for 5 min, 10 max, using a turkey baster to clean off the frag. It depends where i get the coral/frag from really. I got a yuma from someone i really trusted, so i didn't dip it as it was/is my favorite coral. i got some random zoas from some guy, and i dipped them in both revive, and iodine (tropic marin pro coral cure). the guy watched me closely as i was dipping them because he had never done so, and then at that point decided to mention he had been picking off Zoa spiders the other day from his zoa colonies...oh and he had been sucking out zoa eating nudi's!!

I didnt see any spiders drop off, a few asterina's, pods, some indistinguishable things, but you never know.

some do a freshwater dip, i havent done that yet or researched it, but the revive/tmpcc works pretty well. the TMPCC is mostly for SPS i think (red bugs/planaria i think)

id rather loose a frag or new coral than introduce a pest that will cause me far more loss of time and money.

Hey B,

Are you using any supplements if so what?

On the media rack, I made a spacer out of extra plexiglass to prevent it from leaning backward. Luckily I have the newer version of the BC14 where the partition wall is already extended to prevent snails and fish from entering the back chambers.

OMG, I love this Yuma, how much did you get it?

You will love the purigen and chemi pure elite, and I used them both at my 7 gallon tank, and only got a little bit of diatom aglea at the first month, and then it worn off, now my tank is 5 monthes and water is always crystle clean.

I will get my BC 14 next week shipped from nanotuner. I'm also gonna order MR from Stevie T.
But not sure about 5W underwater light, do you have experience on it? Is it good enough for chaeto growth?

How about sixline, I want it too. But not sure 14 gallon is big enough for it or not.