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FishFrog's new 34G - Something strange...


FishFrog

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Moving tanks so time for a new thread!

 

Previous tank was roughly 16G and the new one is the larger version of the same tank in 34G.

 

I will be setting this one up with my brother and moving contents from the old tank over soon, after I have the new setup figured out.

He hasn't kept an aquarium before so I'm going to need this forum a lot if we are to have any succes.

 

Old thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/336443-fry-and-leelas-adventures-moving-tanks/

 

Last FTS shots:

14940919301_80b908b515_z.jpg

 

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New tank is a Sera marin Biotop Cube 130 (so 34 gallons) I bought the tank with stand for a steal online. The previous owner added blue leds to the hood.

 

As far as I can tell, everything looks okay. Will be testing with tap water for leaks soon.

I want to try and keep things simple, like in the old tank.

 

Filtration: LR, skimmer, filter floss and carbon.

 

I also found a UV filter thing with all the stuff he gave me, so will need to read up on that.

 

Lighting: I'm not sure about all of this yet. 2 x PL 24 W blue/white (color neutral daylight) according to info on tank and spare bulbs. Not sure what PL is exactly but so far it seems to just be the same as PC. I want to find out if I can switch them for T5 bulbs. Plus 6 clusters of blue leds fitted to the hood by previous owner, trying to figure out details.

 

Pumps: Tank included an unused Koralia smart wave pump controller, with two pumps, not sure how strong. I still have my old, far too powerful Tunze 6015 Nano stream powerhead (1800L / 475G p/h) or Hydor Koralia 900 (900L / 240G p/h).

 

Skimmer: Sera Marin PS 200. Previous owner bought this bigger skimmer which is now lodged in a filter compartment and I can't get it out. If it stays such a PITA to get in and out I'm going to go skimmerless for a while.

 

Heating: Sera Precision 100W came with the tank. My old Eheim heater is only sufficient up to 26G.

 

RO/DI Because of the larger water changes I am looking at RO/DI units but haven't decided yet.

 

Basically lots of stuff left to do.

 

I also need to buy egg crate, new dry sand, cured LR and lots of salt: set is all up and then bring over some of my old water, the LR, coral and fish.

 

And buckets. Lots of buckets.

 

~ Hester

 

Some pictures

 

15659442112_0d540539e7_z.jpg

 

 

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Good luck on the new tank. I read the previous thread and I am sorry to hear what happened. I couldn't respond to it because I was too busy with my move.

 

Looking forward to following it. Just take it slow and it will grow to awesomeness before you know it!

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Good luck on the new tank. I read the previous thread and I am sorry to hear what happened. I couldn't respond to it because I was too busy with my move.

 

Looking forward to following it. Just take it slow and it will grow to awesomeness before you know it!

Thank you :)

It has been tough but I'm going to be okay.

How is the move going??

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Thank you :)

It has been tough but I'm going to be okay.

How is the move going??

Move going good. Flight is on the 12th. Had my consulate interview the 28th in Amsterdam at Museumplein.

 

Youll be fine! Many good guys in the world. And if not, same sex is also not frowned up on in the netherlands haha (just kidding sorry). Focus on important and positive things and the rest will follow!

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Move going good. Flight is on the 12th. Had my consulate interview the 28th in Amsterdam at Museumplein.

 

Youll be fine! Many good guys in the world. And if not, same sex is also not frowned up on in the netherlands haha (just kidding sorry). Focus on important and positive things and the rest will follow!

Thanks haha I think it is just going to be myself and the pets for a while :P

 

Flying already, nice! Good luck with the final preparations!

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Grrrr... Was going to fill the tank today to check for leaks, but then I got out the level and low and behold... the floor isn't level, the stand isn't level and therefore the tank is also not level. The stand has four feet, so I don't know what to do really. should I try and put something between the two right feet and the floor? Or between the tank and the stand itself?

 

I am worried that it will damage the tank, especially since it is quite big, if I don't get it level.

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Some pictures of the squintness.

 

I have no idea how bad this is for 130l/34gallons.

 

As far as I can tell, I need to mainly correct the right hand side of the whole thing, possibly more on the right front leg. Having a hard time judging by how many centimetres or inches I should correct things.

 

I was thinking about buying some of those velt circles for under chairs, and putting them under the two legs on the right side.

 

Bottom of stand:

15697289641_274b4d9579_z.jpg

 

Inside stand:

15700791072_b9f2dac179_z.jpg

 

Inside front of tank:

15513325269_25272eb0cb_z.jpg

 

On the back of the tank, top:

15513807908_79ef42e239_z.jpg

 

Top of the tank, front:

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Side of tank, top right:

15079865763_a797f4578f_z.jpg

 

Side of tank, top left:

15675472486_5e551c8cd0_z.jpg

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Thats not bad. Koop piepschuim van ong een (halve)centimeter dik en zet je tank daarboven op. Dit zal voor stabiliteit zorgen en vibraties verminderen.

 

Try that and it should level over time :-)

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Thats not bad. Koop piepschuim van ong een (halve)centimeter dik en zet je tank daarboven op. Dit zal voor stabiliteit zorgen en vibraties verminderen.

 

Try that and it should level over time :-)

Dankje, ja ik was net bij een ijzerhandel en zij zeggen hetzelfde. Of een stukje dubbelgevouwen papier onder de rechter poten. Anders moet ik de tank optillen haha

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  • 2 weeks later...

The tank is completely level, we checked it for leaks and all the equipment is working.

I bought a RODI system and have made a few gallons so far.

 

I'm really not sure about how to do the move.

Basically there is about 14 gallons in the old tank, LR, sand and animals.

Now I'm going to need to make fresh water for the new tank, but I think I should try and bring as much water as possible from the old tank along, then put the old rocks in and let everything mix and add the sand.

 

Then I can bring the livestock.

After that I am going to slowly add new LR pieces, until I have enough for the 34G's.

 

Does that sound like a good strategy?

I just want to avoid a cycle or anything like that, so I am afraid of making clean water and adding new LR before moving everything.

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Well today is move day.

 

I filled the new tank up completely, because otherwise the water can't circulate through the back compartments.

Water does seem a little cloudy so I will add some filterfloss etc.

 

Picking up my old LR today, then adding the substrate. Going to just watch the water for a day or so, if everything stays stable then I'll pick up the livestock on Wednesday asap.

 

Pretty nervous about it all, but so far all that has really gone wrong is that I flooded the wash room with my RODI setup. Oops.

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Move was stressful but I think it is all okay now.

There wasn't enough water at my old house to submerge all the rocks so what followed was the fastest bike ride of my life.

Got everything into the new tank in under half an hour though, and haven't seen any nitrates yet.

 

Today I'm going to go and look for a bit more fully cured rock.

Now have about 17 pounds, so I think I will need at least 10 pounds more. Wish I didn't though, I hate that crammed full of stones look.

 

Anyway, seems like a good idea to finish the scape before adding all of the coral (hopefully Wednesday).

 

Will add pictures later.

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After scaping hell I have given up and left things as they are now.

I thought it was great that I got a huge piece of dead SPS to use as LR, however it turned out to be impossible to get it to stand up and even then, it looked like a Christmas tree. Now it is on its side. Gah!

 

I tried to create two islands, which has worked a bit. There is a trench down the middle and plenty of caves. Only noticed the massive aiptasia on the new LR when it was in the tank. Will need to think of a plan.

 

 

Corals are in place. Water is okay. Fish seem alright, although the clowns start fighting if I only run the leds. As soon as the PC bulbs are turned off Leela turns on Fry and pushes him into a tiny corner. Weird.

 

Anyway, here are some of the first pictures I took with my cellphone. Still quite empty but there is enough room for stuff to grow now.

 

15847978061_44e68958be_o.jpg

 

Left side: 15659561988_6ddae6b75a_o.jpg

 

Front view

15659561968_7b257989ec_o.jpg

 

Right island

15661310117_23b5e5bae9_o.jpg

 

Left island

15659727530_a0485bf1a9_o.jpg

 

Right side (still very boring)

15659727030_56415b0799_o.jpg

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Got me a bigger CUC, so Boris Yeltsin and Kanye won't be lonely anymore. Naturally, most of the snails tried crawling out of the tank.

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Looks good.

 

 

Looking good so far!

Thanks guys! I am going to let stuff settle a bit, just watch the water and do wc's for while.

 

Its back to my MA thesis starting tomorrow morning...

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:furious::furious: Broke my tds meter by drowning it.

Now I'm not sure if my RODI water is ok, as I was messing around with the thing and think I might have stored it upside down by accident.

 

Also starting to notice quite a bit of diatoms on the sand and glas.

Hope it is just because of the new sand and the couple of new rocks.

 

Nitrates are still 0, Kh is 9. Mg and Ca are a bit low, hopefully get it back up with WC's.

 

There is also a lot of aiptasia on the new LR. I tried to get some with Aiptasia X but I hate that stuff and my fish try to eat it.

 

The LFS want me to 'borrow' their filefish, but that just sounds cruel tbh. Besides, won't it eat coral as well?

I'm not going to try another peppermint shrimp unless I really have to. It was a nightmare with the last one, chomping away at my coral.

 

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Are you sure its broken? I am sorry to hear.

Well I have no idea how long it was in water. I haven't made any RODI water for a few days.

All I know is that the screws had gone rusty and it was leaking brown water... :S

I thought I could try putting it in rice or something, but then I couldn't figure out how to disconnect it from the whole system so I gave up and was angry instead.

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I am having a bit of trouble with some kind of algae.

It is reddish brown, mostly on the sand and some of the rocks. Not on any of the coral.

Some of it has small strings.

 

Is it possible to get diatoms from adding new dry sand and as a result of moving the LR?

 

Or does this look more like cyano or something else?

 

I did my first WC yesterday and I want to do another this weekend with a higher salt concentration/more water. Seem to have trouble getting my SG above 1,020 which is obviously quite low.

 

15881875201_18c3f8b905_o.jpg

 

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I am having a bit of trouble with some kind of algae.

It is reddish brown, mostly on the sand and some of the rocks. Not on any of the coral.

Some of it has small strings.

 

Is it possible to get diatoms from adding new dry sand and as a result of moving the LR?

 

Or does this look more like cyano or something else?

 

I did my first WC yesterday and I want to do another this weekend with a higher salt concentration/more water. Seem to have trouble getting my SG above 1,020 which is obviously quite low.

 

Looks like diatoms. I had them for a short time after transfering everying from one tank to another and adding new dry sand. It should only be temporary. They are pretty common for a newly set up or disturbed system.

 

What are you using to check SG?

 

Looks great so far, good work.

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Looks like diatoms. I had them for a short time after transfering everying from one tank to another and adding new dry sand. It should only be temporary. They are pretty common for a newly set up or disturbed system.

 

What are you using to check SG?

 

Looks great so far, good work.

Thank you, I appreciate it :)

 

I think you are right about the diatoms, it doesn't look like dino or anything else, so I am relieved. Has already improved a bit.

 

For SG I use a hydrometer (I know I know)

Should probably invest in a refractometer.

 

I just made a new batch of water with 37grams per liter, and that is measuring at 1,024. It is a shame that I hardly have any evaporation, otherwise topping off with salt water could have helped. At this rate however, it is going to take a while.

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Some more pictures to brighten up my thread.

 

Took this one at night with a flashlight. Hendrik the Hermit, with his shroom.

 

15719510800_027b09b425_o.jpg

 

 

 

TinaBob's sleeping place :P

15881012546_5079cfc486_o.jpg

 

And another nice one of Tina

15906842835_3230f51bb5_o.jpg

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