chanathon Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 It's true, I admit it. I have no idea what I'm doing. I come from a 20 yr background with freshwater fish, but this will be my absolute first venture to the dark side. The reason why I decided to start up this build was because I wanted something to liven up my office space. It had to be small enough so that it would be easy to do water changes and light enough to move in the event that I switch offices. I ended up picking up a Cadlights 8gal AIO as it seems to fit my requirements. Here's what I have so far: Equipment: * Cadlights 8gal AIO * Coral Compulsion Par38 * Hydor Theo 50w * Hydor Flo on stock pump * Hydor Koralia 240gph circulation pump (added) Filtration: * stock black sponge * Chemipure Elite * Purigen Today marks the day that the tank gets wet. I added about 6 lbs of Fiji cultured LR and an inch of CaribSea Fiji Pink. Now we cycle! My iPhone really had a hard time adjusting to the LEDs. Oh well, water's still cloudy anyways. One thing I've noticed so far is that the stock pump really doesn't provide enough flow, especially after installing the Hydor Flo. When looking at the back chambers, the water level is even with the display tank...is that normal? I'm assuming it's the inadequate return pump, but what do you guys think? If I were to upgrade the stock pump to something else, what suggestions do you guys have? Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 5 days into the cycle and I've realized something that may put a stop to this build... I just realized that the building my office is in turns off the master power every night, so my aquarium will go without power for at least 4-5 hrs/night. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS BEFORE?! ugh, so here's my predicament; is it still possible to run this tank? Temperature-wise, the building stays around 78-79 degrees so i'm more worried about lack of oxygen and stagnant water. Is there some kind of air pump that can kick in when the power goes off and charge when the power comes back on? Help! Either way, here's my 5day update pic: http://s158.photobucket.com/user/jonathanthechan/media/IMG_1556_zps47e45754.jpg.html'> Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 Thinking to myself here: I'm probably looking for a UPS system. Time to research Link to comment
Steelen Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Why would they turn off the power at night? Is there no security system running? Or other hardware that require power? Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 They probably power down the individual offices and keep security systems on a separate power grid. I also do not know why they do it, so this was unexpected. Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 A UPS looks like your best bet in this situation. I have an older Cadlights 12g with the Hydor rotating device and the stock pump was plenty @~240 gph. I now use a Tunze 'Silence' pump with 210 gph and it's fine Your 8g is advertised @ 187 gph which should suffice for your tank size for all but the high flow loving Acropora types. Most pumps have a way to adjust the output velocity. I'd check yours to see if it is on a lower setting. Another thing to try is to time your Hydor rotating device for one complete turn. When my pump and this device are running optimally it takes 15 seconds to complete a 360. Timing the rotation will allow you to determine when your pump is running optimally and also when you pump and/or Hydor unit needs to be disassembled/cleaned. Link to comment
atrox Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 I'd say with the power issue most practical thing would be to set up at you're home. Even with an ideal environment nano aquariums are not set it and forget it tanks. I'm paranoid with my tank and it's in my living room. I wouldnt like the idea of scheduled power outages, weekend office closures, and the janitor. When things go downhill with these tanks they due it quickly, and the domino effect of a dead fish would be catastrophic in a small system let alone one with hours of no water movement. If you truly want to enjoy this hobby, it really can't be a "work hours" project. Things you haven't thought about. 1. No water movement (no oxygen in water) 2. No way to heat tank in winter months. 3. How will you regulate evap 4. What happens when office is closed on weekends? 5. Not trying to be a downer, I just want you to realize how impractical this tank is. Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 1, 2014 Author Share Posted November 1, 2014 ^ yea, I know where your'e coming from, but i work 6, sometimes 7 days a week long hours so i spend most of my time sitting in this office. The temperature doesn't drop below 75 in this building even during socal winters so I'm not worried about heat. My main concern would be water movement. The stock return pump runs 7.5watts, so if I pick up at 255w UPS, I'd be able to run it for a max of 34 hours. This'll be fine in the rare case they do turn off all power for a day. I'm thinking about picking this UPS up http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102135. Cheap and should do the job! Link to comment
ABC Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 I think this could be done, Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Great news today! I don't know what my front desk girl did, but she talked to the manager and now I have power 24/7 in my office! I won't ask questions, I'm just happy I have my power! The build goes on... Link to comment
Dramad1 Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Well if they turn it off again, you could go with a mp10 and battery back up. Will allow up to 72 hours of half speed flow to the tank when power goes out. Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 Yea, I added a Koralia 240 for some extra flow and was going to connect a UPS to that to get me by, but since we have electricity squared off, I think i'm fine. I have a backup battery powered air pump that lasts for a few days if I need it in a pinch. I'm finally finding some diatoms building up on my rock. I've never been so excited for diatoms..gonna order a 2 gal CUC pack from Reefcleaners soon Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 14, 2014 Author Share Posted November 14, 2014 Just got my CUC from Reefcleaners. Holy crap! I bought the smallest quick cleaners pack and he sent sooo many more! He does live up to his reputation haha. They're temp acclimating right now. I'll post more pics once I drop them in the tank. http://s158.photobucket.com/user/jonathanthechan/media/IMG_1568_zps5522e5ac.jpg.html'> Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 16, 2014 Author Share Posted November 16, 2014 Well, got too lazy to take pictures of snails lol, but my first shipment of corals just came in! I purchased frogspawn, green implosion polyps, and GSP frags from a forum member. The frogspawn and green implosions look very good in my tank. However, the GSP looked like nothing from the get go. Out of the bag, I saw no green extensions or polyps of any kind. It's been 24hrs and it looks exactly how it came in the bag it was shipped in Frogspawn! http://s158.photobucket.com/user/jonathanthechan/media/IMG_1574_zps8443079c.jpg.html'> Green Implosions! http://s158.photobucket.com/user/jonathanthechan/media/IMG_1573_zps2443cc9a.jpg.html'> ...GSP???? http://s158.photobucket.com/user/jonathanthechan/media/IMG_1570_zps02b6cf83.jpg.html'> Should i assume the GSP frag arrived DOA? I always thought GSP was super hardy too.. Link to comment
Pinner Reef Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 GSP is not dead until the mat flakes apart. Give it time and it should come around. Everything else looks super healthy. Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 18, 2014 Author Share Posted November 18, 2014 Things are looking up for the GSP frag. Guess I just have a shy frag. http://s158.photobucket.com/user/jonathanthechan/media/IMG_1579_zpsffea2b7b.jpg.html'> In other news, the CUC is really going to town on all the algae! It's nice to see rock again instead of a mass of green. I'm also up in the air of what fish/inverts i'd want to add to this tank. I originally wanted a randall's pistol / dracula goby pair but I'm scared the pistol will demolish/bury any corals on my sand bed...maybe i'll just secure everything to rock, because their symbiotic relationship is amazing! Link to comment
chanathon Posted November 23, 2014 Author Share Posted November 23, 2014 Well.....I'll probably get some flak for this but I bought myself a little clownfish. As much as I told myself I wouldn't get one for such a small tank, I ended up walking out of the store with one -__-. Plus, the kids that come into the office have a hoot when they see "nemo" I think my GSP likes my clownfish. Once the fish touched the water, the GSP opened up more polyps....saying hi or crying for help? You can probably see the GHA in the background . The snails are going to town on most of it, but the long hairs I'm starting to manually pick off. It's a real PITA, but I'm finding it's much easier removing saltwater algae from LR than the hair algae I've experienced on driftwood with my freshwater tanks. Gotta get more a bunch more corals and take some pics with a real camera soon! Link to comment
chanathon Posted December 12, 2014 Author Share Posted December 12, 2014 I need an ID on something growing on my LR. It kinda looks like some sort of anemone??? Link to comment
metrokat Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 A vortech battery backup gives you enough power for at least 24-48 hours. If you had one mp10 hooked up to this your lack of oxygen problem will not happen. Link to comment
chanathon Posted December 27, 2014 Author Share Posted December 27, 2014 Zoas Green Implosions. These haven't been looking the best lately. It seems like something is irritating them. If you look closely at the bottom of the photo, there looks to be a tentacle sticking up from underneath the rock. Does it look like a brittle star?? Could these be causing my green implosions to not....implode? Shrooooom Zoas......this frag is being taken over by algae...I've moved the frag onto the sandbed and hope the snails will be able to take care of it. All in all, everything's going pretty decent with this tank. No losses yet and pretty easy to maintain. I'm waiting for things to stabilize and mature a little more before adding anything else. Hopefully I'll run into a nice rock flower anemone soon! Link to comment
chanathon Posted December 28, 2014 Author Share Posted December 28, 2014 Can't forget mister Frogspawn! http://s158.photobucket.com/user/jonathanthechan/media/IMG_1622_zps9bd0269b.jpg.html'> Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 28, 2014 Share Posted December 28, 2014 Lools like things are going well so far. Some algae is really difficult to get rid of if it gains a foothold. If I were you, I'd carefully remove the Zoas from that plug (without any algae) and glue them onto a clean plug or piece of live rock. I've used a small flat-head screwdriver to dig into the frag plug itself underneath the Zoa colony. That way you'll have a solid base to glue the colony down easily. Alternately, take a strudy plier and crunch/nibble away at the frag plug disk until only the Zoas are left. Snap off the plug's foot if desired and glue the remaining plug with the Zoas wherever you want it. Link to comment
chanathon Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 It's been a while, but update time! Surprisingly, this tank has been easier than all my freshwater tanks to maintain. Weekly water changes and that's it. Growth has been amazing and everything looks happy. Every time I rinse out the sponge in my back chamber, I see rolly polly sized copepods crawling around. I've also had a few tiny starfish pop up here and there as well. I recently added a trio of sexy shrimp and today I added a nice rock flower nem. It was the size of a ping pong ball at the lfs but once I dropped it into my tank, it opened up and it is the size of my palm lol. It's hard to capture the colors with my phone but the body is a nice neon green. The tentacles are a brownish hue with blue tips. It also appears that there are two mouths?? Is this thing splitting? Here's a crappy FTS Link to comment
chanathon Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 UGH something's off. Everything's been going well until I came into work yesterday to see my nem all tiny. I did a water change and tried to feed it some brine shrimp, but when I got to work today it looked like this! NOOOOOO! Everything else in the tank looks fine except for this guy Link to comment
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