RedStang Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 Added in new sand on Saturday night. Created a nice milky appearance. Crammed a bunch of filter floss into the first chamber on Sunday afternoon and the water started clearing up quite quickly. Was clear enough this morning for me to see all of the fine dust that settles over the rocks so I gave them a nice shake and the water is milky again. I assume this will go on for the next few days? Hoping to pick up a CUC on Friday pending water samples. Ammonia and Nitrite's were 0 and Nitrates were ~10. This was before adding the new sand though. Will test again Thursday night. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Ya the water will clear out a bit just give it some time. Clean up crew could probally wait till somemore algae. Link to comment
RedStang Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Ya the water will clear out a bit just give it some time.Clean up crew could probally wait till somemore algae. Yeah. Gotta be patient. The water clears up nicely until I dust off more rocks or clean the glass of sand. Should of just rinsed it live sand or not. Lesson learned on adding new sand to a tank with water in it already. On the bright side I'm ordering the Apex Jr today and hope to have it before we leave on vacation in the middle of July. Link to comment
RedStang Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Apex Jr ordered today!!! Link to comment
REEFERBOY Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 add more pics !! whats an apex jr? Link to comment
RedStang Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 add more pics !! whats an apex jr? Here's a link to their site: Apex Jr It's a less expensive version of the rest of the Apex series of aquarium controllers. It has the same functionality but is significantly limited in the number of modules you can run compared to the others. But for a nano it's perfect. I was planning on the reefkeeper lite but this has network functionality built-in rather than an option. Pics are coming. I still get a cloud storm when I dust off the back wall and rock periodically after swapping out sand. I like the new scape though. Need to buy some sort of epoxy or glue that's safe for aquarium use to lock everything down. I'm guessing by this weekend I'll be ready to post some more pics. Thanks for checking in! Link to comment
jedidad Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 if you want to try a mandarin just buy some nutramar ova prawn eggs. all the mandarins love them and they are very nutritious. mine took to it the first time. he is really starting to fill out now. when i got him he was pretty thin. just make sure to feed once or twice a day if you can. the mandarin will tear through any pod population you might get in a 29g really fast. Link to comment
RedStang Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 if you want to try a mandarin just buy some nutramar ova prawn eggs. all the mandarins love them and they are very nutritious. mine took to it the first time. he is really starting to fill out now. when i got him he was pretty thin. just make sure to feed once or twice a day if you can. the mandarin will tear through any pod population you might get in a 29g really fast. I may try one some day. I just don't think it would be the best choice for one of my first fish. Love them though! Link to comment
RedStang Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 Guess it's time for an update. A fellow reefer a few miles from me was off loading some zoas. My tank isn't really ready for them IMO but he needed them gone and was ok with me taking the risk with them. Ammonia and Nitrites have been 0 for two weeks. Nitrates got up to 20 so I did a water change. Pic is still cloudy from it. I'll try to take another tonight. Personally I love the scape. When we go diving we love reef walls and that's what I tried to mimic while including plenty of tunnels and arches for flow. Starting to get what looks like GHA on the live rock and also some brown stuff on the live rock. Everything else is clean. Comments, and criticism, welcome! Link to comment
RedStang Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 CUC added! Started with 5 hermit crabs, 3 cerith snails, and 2 turban snails. They're going to town on some diatoms and a tiny amount of what looks like GHA. Link to comment
superspec Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 loving the rock! i wanna add more to mine but damn it then ill have to deal with moving frags and the sandstorm. Link to comment
absolon Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 I bet your zoas are going to not only be fine but thrive Link to comment
RedStang Posted June 29, 2011 Author Share Posted June 29, 2011 loving the rock! i wanna add more to mine but damn it then ill have to deal with moving frags and the sandstorm. Thanks! I'm very happy with it. I bet your zoas are going to not only be fine but thrive Funny you say that. This morning I noticed that some have "split off" on their own and are growing on the sand next to the colony and I see a bunch of baby heads from that group. Saw my first bristle worm too for better or worse! Link to comment
RedStang Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 Ordered some loc-line to split the flow coming off the return pump. Should give me more flexibility and ensure I have no dead flow spots. Now if my freaking Apex Jr would just get here ! Link to comment
RedStang Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 iNTank media basket is in! Very happy to have this mod finally in hand and installed! Thanks Steve! Link to comment
REEFERBOY Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 stang !!! tank is looking good man, zoas im glad to hear are breeding !!! that means other things are going well so dont change too much to what you are doing !!! Link to comment
Thrassian Atoll Posted July 15, 2011 Share Posted July 15, 2011 iNTank media basket is in! Very happy to have this mod finally in hand and installed! Thanks Steve! Great investment man! Will not disappoint Link to comment
ZenMastr1968 Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 iNTank media basket is in! Very happy to have this mod finally in hand and installed! Thanks Steve! I too just got my BC29 3 piece kit....definitely quieter! Link to comment
RedStang Posted July 24, 2011 Author Share Posted July 24, 2011 Update! I have fish! We went on a wonderful vacation and got back last night. I ran some tests and everything checked out so I ran out and picked up a couple clowns and some flake and pellet food. The big one ate right away and definitely prefers the pellets. I haven't seen the little one take so much as a nibble on anything yet. Hopefully he'll come around. Seeing a bunch of little coralline growth spots on my base rock which is nice. Pic! Link to comment
Coastie5685 Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Niiiice. Can never go wrong with a pair of ANY clowns. Hopefully they become mated pair down the road. Link to comment
RedStang Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 Woohoo!!! Apex Jr installed and working! Even have remote access enabled! Still need to get email configured but that'll have to wait till tomorrow. Got the small clown to eat a little bit today. LFS suggested some garlic to soak the pellets in and some frozen mysis as a possibility as well. It nibbled at the pellets but I couldn't tell if it actually ate much. It went after the mysis some as well. Still worried about the little guy but not as much as before. Not so pleased with the maxi 900 though. I was expecting a little less flow but I was also expecting temps to drop. So far they haven't. Still running 80-81.6 which is too high for my comfort. Fan mods are next up I guess! Link to comment
DK_Reef Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 your tank is looking great so far! (much better than mine) is your sand pretty small grain size? how do you keep the pumps from blowing it around everywhere? which is driving me crazy right now. I am thinking of getting a larger particle bag of sand, taking some sand out and then mix it up also the MJ 900 mod hasn't brought temp down? would the MJ 1200 ? because my tank is about 80 F right now. a little high w/o lights on. nice clownfish! Link to comment
RedStang Posted July 26, 2011 Author Share Posted July 26, 2011 your tank is looking great so far! (much better than mine) is your sand pretty small grain size? how do you keep the pumps from blowing it around everywhere? which is driving me crazy right now. I am thinking of getting a larger particle bag of sand, taking some sand out and then mix it up also the MJ 900 mod hasn't brought temp down? would the MJ 1200 ? because my tank is about 80 F right now. a little high w/o lights on. nice clownfish! Thanks DK! I'll try to do another FTS but I knocked my monti off doing a water change last night. I may have to break down and get a frag plug for it. My sand is pretty fine grain but has some shell fragments and stuff in it. I've nearly given up on keeping it static! The MJ 900 has helped in that regard and temps have actually come down too. Took a little while but the apex claims I've only gone over 80.5 once today and most of the time I've been under 80. Must have just been stored energy that took a while to dissipate. Good news! My little clown ate today without any trickery! He's VERY deferential to the bigger clown but he did nab a few pellets and I didn't even have to soak them in garlic. Wish they'd eat the pellets off the sand though! I definitely need to expand the CUC. Link to comment
DK_Reef Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Thanks DK! I'll try to do another FTS but I knocked my monti off doing a water change last night. I may have to break down and get a frag plug for it. My sand is pretty fine grain but has some shell fragments and stuff in it. I've nearly given up on keeping it static! The MJ 900 has helped in that regard and temps have actually come down too. Took a little while but the apex claims I've only gone over 80.5 once today and most of the time I've been under 80. Must have just been stored energy that took a while to dissipate. Good news! My little clown ate today without any trickery! He's VERY deferential to the bigger clown but he did nab a few pellets and I didn't even have to soak them in garlic. Wish they'd eat the pellets off the sand though! I definitely need to expand the CUC. great! I didn't spot the monti though lol, nice I will upgrade to the MJ 900 or 1200, why did you pick the 900? yeah congrats on your clownfish eating. I smelled my tanks water and it smells like a tidepool. when should I start testing? Link to comment
RedStang Posted July 27, 2011 Author Share Posted July 27, 2011 great! I didn't spot the monti though lol, nice I will upgrade to the MJ 900 or 1200, why did you pick the 900? yeah congrats on your clownfish eating. I smelled my tanks water and it smells like a tidepool. when should I start testing? I put a new FTS on the first post. The monti is still small. I went with the MJ900 to reduce heat. Temps have dropped 1-1.5 degrees since the switch so mission accomplished! I tested early and often. With LR you may not get much of a spike of anything so I tested 3 or 4 times a week the first couple of weeks. Link to comment
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