So here it is.. I am going to be running this tank from my office at CU (In the southpark computer labs). Here is my entry photo and soon to follow will be the back painting photo (as soon as I start).

Here is what I am thinking..

4lbs Live Rock
8lbs Live Sand
AquaClear 30 /w 1 or 2 pounds of LR rubble
18w Current fixture

A various mixture of coral.. ( not telling you more details.. you'll have to find out later )

Go '04!

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...20&#entry624300

Hellz yea

If anyone wants to see my office.. (before it got cleaned out)
http://mars.microfury.com/images/csel/DCP_0386.JPG
http://mars.microfury.com/images/csel/DCP_0387.JPG

There is a bit more room in there now

If you get a forbidden or 404 then try to copy and paste the address instead (or replace the www.microfury.com with mars.microfury.com). There are some odd dns issues that I still gotta fix.

Painting time.. I think I am going to have to do one more coat to catch a few spotchy parts. This is my first tank paint job

After this.. leak test time (maybe should have done that first.. oh well)!

Good Luck

Thanks.. you too!

Light comes tomororw.. yay! Then the LR, LS, and Heater will be here Friday.. woot!

My first pico is coming together

My LR,LS and heater were supposed to show up tomorrow but premium aquatics delayed my order for security reasons (guess im the rare few clients that have a bank in a different state).

My stuff came today.. yay! The live rock is very porus but does not seem to have a lot of coraline on it . I do like the shape but I think I need to break the rock on the left up to make a little room and do some nice aquascaping.. any thoughts on this? Should I break it up and build an arch to the second rock on the right or leave it alone?




And here is a shot of my rather empty office (I've only had it cleared out for a month.. it was filled with filing cabinets when I first moved in).



PS.. I also have some left over rubble in a back (I ordered like 3 pounds of rubble from premium aquatics).. I want to use it later in my 2.5 or in my 6.. how should I store it? Right now I have it sitting inside 5g bucket with 1g salt water. It is still in the bag it came in but I put some holes in it to allow water to get in.

anyone??? my thread needs some love

Awe.. I am loved!


The questions could use some lovin too you know

sweet looking lights...

I would think you would need to take your extra LR out of the bag and have some flow in the bucket.

I like the LR on the left. The one on the right seems a bit tall. I would cut it down in size & leave the other one alone.

BTW, does your Boss know you spend all day playing with your tank?

What boss ? It was just today I doubt I will be playing with it much from now on (famous last reefer words).

The lights are the Current USA 18' lights from nanotuners.com. Chris did a fantastic job on getting these for a great price.. I love them! I was a little concerned however when I went back in this evening and found them flickering. But if I remember right that can be normal for PC lights when they are first being used.

Forgive my ignorance but this is the first tank i've done from scratch.

Dont worry about it, ignorance is bliss. This really is your first tank from scratch, because your looking pretty good. I just love starting new tanks, because you do it your way. Well anyways goodluck!

looks like it fits quite nicely on your workspace. good luck.

Yea.. it pretty much is. My 6g was given to me by my roommate (and he pretty much set it up). I did help my ex-girlfriend set her tank up but she picked out (or let the LFS pickout rather) what she wanted and I did all the setup work.

Thanks.. I think it is going OK so far. I really thought the rocks from premium aquatics would be smaller but oh well. I really want to do an arch with some of it sticking out of the water (sorry but I am a sucker for islands ).



Indeed.. now if I can fill the rest of my workspace up so it is not so bland

I seem to be gettng a lot of microbubbles.. any suggestions for this? I've tried slowing down the flow of my AC150 but it does not help.

The light looks awesome. Good luck with the contest.

can you raise the water level a little? i'm assuming the bubbles are coming from the water re-entry from the AC.

I had the water level up higher and it seemed to be worse that way (cause the flow was hitting the front rim of glass. I will bring it up a lil bit and see if that helps.

personally, i love the rock on the left, it looks really sweet! loving the tank so far, keep up the good work. I wish i could have entered this contest, but I just set up two new tanks in my dorm room and dont ahve the money/space to start a third. ill be watching your progress!

tanner g.

Thanks

I seem to have fixed the microbubble issue. I went and reaquascaped yesterday. I broke the rock on the right up and chopped a little bit off of the one on the left (and put the side with the coraline facing front). I really wanted to leave the one on the left alone but a large part of it was very close to the glass and would have made it impossible to clean :-\ .. I think the aquascaping looks a little bit better now but I still have more work to do. I forgot to bring my cam this morning but I will pick it up later and take some pictures.

OK.. here is the updated picture.. what do you guys think about the aquascaping.. yay or nay?

I like it. How stable is it?

Seems to be very stable.. the rocks lock together well. I tried putting pressure on various spots as well as jiggling things a little bit and they seemed to stay up just fine.

So.. should I leave it alone or re-aquascape again?

I like it. The only thing is that the arch is very high, and would give you less spots to place corals.

That way he can put a Tang in there & it will have plenty of room!

Dude.. I think I have room for TWO tangs

Yay! Nice aquascaping.

Best regards

Ann

Thanks Ann.. I reaquascaped (again!) and will post some updated pictures soon. Params are at 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrites so it is time for a %50 water change (yay.. tank is cycled). I am going to go get my cleanup crew today!

Heh heh! Positioning the rock (and being happy with the look) is always the hardest bit IMO. I'm just itching to get my aquascape done but with no water/lights/filter in/on the tank yet I can't get it done.

Best regards

Ann

LOL I know it is! I think I have a structure I am happy with now. I am thinking about moving the rock right above the snail that way I will have some more room for coral. Here is the updated FTS.



And here is a macro shot test. I have a Kodak DC4800 (yea.. its about 3 years old) and this was about as good as I could get it today. Does anyone have some suggestions for getting better pictures?



Oh.. I also ordered a Aqua Lifter today. Hopefully I can rig myself a nice drip top off system so that I don't have to put a float switch (ugly!) in my tank.

As for my current tank stock..

1 Unknown hermit crab hitchhiker (he is white & green.. very small)
1 Scarlet Reef Hermit
1 Margarita Snail
1 Cerith Snail
2 Nassurius Snails

I am thinking about adding another Cerith snail.. but not sure if I have enough algae. Should I wait?

Cool. I like the new aquascaping much better!

Thanks seabae.. took me another 2 hours total to get it but it was worth it

Yay, I like the new 'scaping even better. I was work the extra time I think.

Best regards

Ann

Thanks again Ann!

I figured I would post this picture in here.. my sleek sideshot

Very nice aquascaping. Makes the tank look a lot bigger than it is.

Also.. here is another updated office shot 8-)

I need more pictures/posters!

I love the way our tank is comming around. Looks great.

Ahhh! I had a slight ATO accident and the tank overflowed.. my S.G. is now at 1.17 and things are not looking so hot. Any suggestions on how to recover without creating even more shock to the tank? Should I just leave the ATO off for a while and let the S.G. return back to normal via evap?

I would try to mix some new water with different S.G. and make some small water changes to bring it back to normal. I dont know why everyone has ATO's on there tanks anywho's? With a cover on my tank I dont get enough evap even when I'm away from the office for the weekend and my S.G. is always between 1.023-1.024.

Thats what I've done before if it's any help.

How's it going?

As well as water changes you could also top off with saltwater. As water evaporates the SG will rise back up to the correct level. Then when it's achieved start adding fresh water again to maintain the SG.

Best regards

Ann

OFFICIAL PICO CONTEST NEWS

New Task... Read about it here...
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75620

YOU MUST COMPLETE THE TASK!

I am out.. somebody unplugged my ATO while I was on vacation

2g of water evaps quick when you have no top.

That blows. I had a lot of evap over the last 2 day weekend, things were not looking too good but perking up a few days later.