Drama's 34g cad (media basket install)......sike

[rdck99]

No sign of him, he must have been abducted my kids said.

No clue, no body no signs of him being eatten. I do t know why but I wanted to smash the tank wuth a bat last night. Im over it now. I will probibly never get another pair of designer clowns again because of it. Im still a lil bent about the whole disappearence.

 

The other one is doing great, he does hot laps around the tank. My wife thinks he killed the other one and my c.u.c cleaned up all the evidence.

 

I got my battery back up all hooked up, gives me peace of mind knowing summer is coming and blackouts are a possibility. Other than that tank is fine. I need to stock it up with fish and corals already, it looks so empty with just the one clown. Maybe in a few weeks ill pick up another fish. Ive been thinking of a bang card or a male lineatus fairy wrasse or maybe a small treo school of something.

What battery backup did you go with?

[Dramad1]

What battery backup did you go with?

ecotech marine vortech battery back up.

I have one mp10 and a hydor425 I figure if the power goes out I will have power to my mp10 for about 72 hours.

[Dramad1]

Picked up a bag of frags today from a local reefer. Got an awesome deal on everything. Only some of these are going in the tank while others are going I. The 4g and the bc29

The list:

Tri color stylophora

Sunset millipora

pink birdsnest

Tri color birds nest

povona porities

Green monti cap

a piece called (joe the coral)

 

ill get some pics after I aclimate and arrange them around. Super stoked right now

[Dramad1]

Sneak peak, just getting them outta the bags. Going to aclimate them individually along with dips

 

[Dramad1]

Okay got a lil bit better pics but still crappy phone shots

these are in the cad tank

 

Sunset millipora

 

 

 

Povona, lettuce coral.Love the patterns

 

 

Orange piclipora (spelling<<<) I believe this is what its was called. Really lights up under actinics

 

 

Green tri color styliphora

 

 

Tri color birds nest

 

 

Porities, really yellow, cant really tell in the pic

 

 

I may end up moving a few to my other tank depending how well they do.

[Dramad1]

So far so good.

Went to a new shop today about an hour drive or so and picked up an rw-8 and 3p of rastas w/ a few babys and a mystery zoa was throw in for free.

The rw-8 will be going in this tank to replace the hydor 425. So ill Have the mp10 on one side and the rw-8 on the other. I hope its not to much. I just wanted to try the pump out and see if I can randomize the flow on both sides of the tank. Kinda just bought it outta the blue plus wanted to see for myself what its capable of.

 

The rastas and mystery zoas will be going in the bc tank to add a bit more color and appeal.

Ill post pics and opinion about the pump later this evening.

[theishkid]

Please let us know how the MP10 and the new re-8 compare There's a bit of arguing going on about the two pumps in another thread, you might be the first to actually own both.

[Dramad1]

Booooo....

so once I got home, I started my weekly w/c's and planned to get the rw 8 hooked up. So started with the 4g. Went to pull the media basket to change the media and it literally fell apart into pieces

 

 

pulled it out and cleaned it up, had some weldon16 and glued it back up. Im going to let it dry for a few days.

But this was the start of my evening.

 

I was cleaning the glass in the cad tank, swapping floss and cleaned the mp10, removed the hydor 425 so I could put in the....

 

 

 

 

 

so I pulled it all out and it looks pretty good, getting excited until.....

I put it in the tank. The footprint on this pump is 2 1/2 times wider than the mp10. It looked huge in the tank and I would have had to rescape my tank for it to fit. I didnt even bother turning it on. I pulled it out and rinsed it off thoroughly w/ warm water and dried it off, put back in box . Its just way to big for my liking. Needs a 40b or larger imo. No idea how the flow is cause I never turned it on. The place I bought it from is about an hour drive and I dont plan to go all the way back there just to return it so it will be for sale.

Other things I did was aclimate my rastas and freebee mystery frag. Here's a crappy pic, rastas are turned funny in the tank so it was hard to get a good pic. Mystery frag just behind the rastas, can anyone id? I like it

 

[land_lubber]

I've heard nothing but good things about the RW8. Can't wait for the smaller versions to come out. I used to have a MP10 but man it was loud, the RW's are suppose to be quieter.

[Dramad1]

 

I've heard nothing but good things about the RW8. Can't wait for the smaller versions to come out. I used to have a MP10 but man it was loud, the RW's are suppose to be quieter.

this pump is awesome for sure, just to big with the scape I have. New paper weight I guess

[theishkid]

Drama do you have problems with your MP10? Would you say it's loud?

[Dramad1]

Nope, dead silent. When I first put it in it was a lil loud. Took about a week to break in, now its so quiet I find myself checking if its on.

If yours is loud I would check to make sure its aligned properly. Play w/ the wet side a lil, if its still loud maybe try turning the dry side just a hair. If its still loud, maybe take the wetside off and take it apart and clean it. I had an issue with dwarf cerths climbing up the glass and then jumping into to wet side getting themselves stuck in the guard. It happened 2-3 times a day. I put the foam guard on for a week and now it seems like they know to stay away from it.

[Dramad1]

Update:

I did an 7gal wc this morning, then went and picked up some bio pellets at lfs.

I got the vertex pro-bio pellets. After converting 24g into liters ( 94.6 liters ). Going off dosing instructions of 50-200ml of media per 100 liters of net system water, I figured I would start with 25ml of media and slowly bump it up to around 50ml over a few weeks. So after converting ml to tsp, I came up with 5 teaspoons=25ml and 10tsp=50ml.

So, I have 5 teaspoons soaking overnight in straight ro/di water and plan to throw them in the NR-1 reactor tomorrow. I'm starting with a Lil over half dose (25ml) to start because I don't want to strip the water to clean to fast and nor do I want to kill my bandit ocellaris. I plan to turn the return pipe from reactor towards the pls-50 skimmer intake. I'm hoping this works well.

Can anyone chime in giving me any advice or comments.

Does 25ml to start sound like to much?

[Dramad1]

Just finished up installing the NR-1 w/25ml of pellets to start. I had a lil issue with the brand new reactor pump not working, after fiddling around with it and a few curse words, I got it to kick on. Not sure if the mag was seized up in the pump or if it was a kink in the cord?? Don't know but plan to keep a watchful eye on it.

After getting the reactor set up in the rear chambers, I got to say I'm a bit skeptical about the return flow from the reactor getting picked up by the skimmer intake. At the moment I'm debating on picking up some pvc and running the return pipe on reactor higher, to a lil above the skimmer, then run the pvc line over the top of the skimmer and then back down between the first wall and the false wall that the skimmer hangs on. I feel like the skimmer would have a better chance of collecting more of the water coming out of the reactor.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Dramad1]

Bio pellets are working awesome so far. Tank is stable and free of any algae.

so I've been browsing around the lfs and looking to add some more fish. I have a few fish that I'm interested in but would like to hear some thoughts or experiences with these fish. I want a few fish that are peaceful and reef safe and won't kill each other. Also, I don't want to have the same fish that are in my other tank. So I have been looking at the...

gold line goby and the swales swissgaurd basslet. Both of these to go in the cad 34g w/ my frostbite bandit ocellaris.

Opinions anyone? Thoughts. I have failed to hit the check out button for 2 weeks now and really want some fish to add to the display. Would these be a good choice for my tank. Plan for corals is sps dominate with a few acans and zoas.

[Dramad1]

Well now the fish are on hold. I am doing tank maintenance and wc right now and noticed chan2 on my ati fixture is not working. I unplugged the fixture and swapped chan1 bulbs to chan2 to see if it was just the bulbs or the ballast. Fml only channel1 is lighting up still no channel 2. I checked my settings and both channels are set to 100% and on. Light is only 3 months old. Kinda pissed atm. If its not ine thing its another.

[Spiderguardnano]

damm drama that sucks hopefully it could get fixed or just send it to dave for a retro fit

 

i think the swissguards would be sick or even a flame angel

[Dramad1]

To small a tank for a flame angel. I used to have one in my old 55g. He was awesome.

Sourcing out a place for best price on a replacement ballast right now. So far the cheapest I have found is from reefgeek. Af t er shipping its 71$ yea! Called all the local shops and no one carries it and would have to make a special order.

This all comes after I make a huge order at brs and amazon for aquarium maintenance supplies,new test kits and salt. Ha ha ha. That is all I can do at this point "laugh ". Happens

[Spiderguardnano]

[Dramad1]

A flame angel imo should not be in an aquarium less than 55g. Sure I could put one in my tank but not advised. Someone would call the dwarf angel police on me. Lol. Plus I want to have about 4-5 fish in this tank. The flame would just sh!t all over my clean water. Lol. Its like people having a tang in a bc29. You can do it but not advised.

[richgoose]

That gold line is a really cool looking goby. I have no experience with the basslet. Hopefully you can get your light sorted and get back on track stocking!

[Dramad1]

I placed an order for a replacement ballast and also emailed ati about warranty. Finished my water change on the tank and lowered my light back down to 8" above water line and bam, channel 2 kicks on. Wtf. Not sure if its a loose wire or if the hanging kit wire that goes through the fixture is rubbing anything or if its the power cord. Not sure whats going on. Plan to wait to open the unit up until I talk with ati. I will keep an eye on things.

As far as fish, looks like I'm going to wait a lil while longer due to me going over budget this month. These are on my list of possibles.

List of possible fish

midnight ocellaris to go with my frostbite morph

swales swiss guard basslet

gold line gobie

bang card

yellow stripe card

few red stoplight cards

Ylw banded possum wrasse already have a tanaka in my other tank

Neon gobie

Tail spot blenny

Orchid dotty back

Neon dotty back

Blue spotted jawfish

Midas blenny

Royal gramma

These are all on the list of possibles, just cant make up my mind on which ones and order to add them. I really only want 4-5 fish max, I think anymore and I would be pushing it. I have other fish in mind just cant think of them atm. Also may pick up some kind of shrimp or crab.

Anyone have any comments on my list?

[theishkid]

We need some videos like that of your 34G.

[Dramad1]

Do you mean videos like the flame angel one?

[Dramad1]

Cell vid before lights out....

 

Cad lights out: