aviator300 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Ok guys, i've been reading Andrews thread about his 4 yr old pico and i've fallen in love with its style and simplicity. (I know, a guy shouldn't say stuff like that). Over the last year, i've had small tanks and larger ones, Skimmers and fuges and expensive lights. I don't want to offend Andrew but i just had to order a Dymax Iq3 and start a build thread on it in hopes to build a tank even partially as nice as his. It will have a BB, no fish, and maybe a small CUC and a couple small inverts. My goal is to have one special tank that can follow me anywhere, no matter where i move to and can be maintained fairly cheaply and easily. Here is the equipment list. Tank.. Dymax IQ3 Sand BB Aquascape 2.3 lbs BRS ReefSaver dry rock Filtration.. Floss (when needed) and Mangroves in filter chamber. Using small HOB filter from a JBJ Picotope for chemical filtration when needed (Chemi pure, DeNitrate, carbon, etc). . Flow. Taking stock pump and hiding it behind bottom of scape for bottom flow. Added 7.00$ chinese mini pump to pump chamber for main flow(80 gph). Total flow 132 GPH Heat.. None. house stays warm. Light.. PAR 30 bulb 14w 18K from Coral Compulsion with DIY hanger fixture. Salt.. Red Sea Coral Pro Livestock Coral.. Zoas, Xenia (i know, runs rampant), GSP(same thing) and whatever pops up at the moment. Inverts.. CUC (Dwarf Ceriths, one Astrea turbo snail), whatever feels right at the time. The tank came today and boy, i haven't seen a prettier tank. The acrylic just sparkles and is very heavy duty. The stock pump feels weak and i replaced it with some small chinese job i found on Amazon which puts out 80 gph and it seems like it moves all of that and maybe more. I had to take off the back plate to make it fit. I did wet testing today and discovered i needed to slightly enlarge 2 of the intake openings on the skimmer weir to allow enough water to flow into the pump chamber due to the stronger pump. I took the stock pump and will put it behind the scape to add some bottom flow. I'm going to post more tomorrow along with pics of the tank and my DIY light stand for the PAR bulb. I sure will welcome any suggestions from anyone with ideas and especially those like Andrew who have or have had An IQ3. Link to comment
andrewkw Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 I'm honored. Good luck. I look forward to following your thread. One suggestion I have is to make sure you are happy with everything BEFORE you start adding livestock. Even if that means you have to remove the rock. The worst thing I did to my tank was drill it while it was running so I could put an extra powerhead in the back chamber. Plan first add second. Link to comment
aviator300 Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 Thanks. I thought about another pump behind the wall also but decided to put the stock pump (which is very small) near the bottom back of the rock to give bottom flow and keep any detritis stirred up. The pump im using as the main puts out 80gph and seemed like plenty of flow in wet testing in fact it almost drains the back by itself. I'll be filling the tank today. I don't know why i'm so excited about such a little bitty tank but i am. Link to comment
aviator300 Posted November 7, 2014 Author Share Posted November 7, 2014 OK...I filled the tank on 11/2/2014 so i guess this is day 5. I previously had the rock cycling in a bucket for about a week prior to filling the tank but i added additional BioSpira and Ammonia to the tank anyway after i got it running. The Ammonia went up to 1.0 ppm and cleared within 24 hrs. I never saw a nitrite spike but that may have happened in the bucket earlier. Anyway, i tested Nitrates the next day and had a 50ppm reading. I did a 100% water change and waited 48 hrs and tested again. Everything was at zero. I added a Mangrove to the filter media area and will probably get one or two more. the one i have has a terminal leaf bud about to open and i suppose i should mist it daily huh? I don't know if they will have much to do with nutrient export or not because i'll be doing 100% weekly water changes anyway (with my rockwork, it only takes about 1.5 gallons to fill the tank) but they sure will look good. I glued in 2 frags last night. A 2 polyp Red People Eater Zoa on a ledge about halfway up the rock and i glued a small frag of GSP halfway up the back wall on the right side. I also have my small HOB filter running just to see how all the flow works. I'm not sure if it will run all the time or just when i need to use Carbon, GFO, etc. The PAR 30 sits at 8" above the water and seems awfully bright at that height but others with this tank have kept theirs from 3 to 6" up so i'll go with that for awhile. I've taken several pics and here they are. A few pics are with the light on and one shows the tank with ambient room light. The tank sits about 2' from a window and gets good light all day (although no direct sunlight). One of the pics shows my DIY light stand (which doesn't look quite as bold in real life as it does in the pics). http://s513.photobucket.com/user/fsuggs50/media/20141103_135012_zpscae85dd2.jpg.html'> http://s513.photobucket.com/user/fsuggs50/media/20141102_222454_zps8b3be7d5.jpg.html'> http://s513.photobucket.com/user/fsuggs50/media/20141102_222829_zps21baaa08.jpg.html'> http://s513.photobucket.com/user/fsuggs50/media/ca189686-193b-475f-892d-ecf0455bd0f3_zps9acb76b7.jpg.html'> To end up today i have a question. Should i add some dwarf Ceriths now or wait till some diatoms start. I thought that if i added them now, they would add the needed Ammonia to keep the Bacteria alive. What does everyone else think? Talk at Y'all later. AVIATOR Link to comment
aviator300 Posted November 10, 2014 Author Share Posted November 10, 2014 Today, i decided to raise my light even further to 10" above the waterline. I get a little more spill over but at least it doesn't appear that the tank has a military grade spotlight over it Haha. I took some pics of the first coral to go into the tank and as you can see, i'm starting with very small frags (and a lot of them as i can afford them). I don't have any plan or "theme" for the tank, i just want to add what feels right at the time. I'd like to eventually try some SPS and i'm aware that they should be added only to a "mature, stable tank, but with near 100% water changes weekly, does that philosophy still apply? I think i'll add some carbon to the HOB filter just to make sure that the water remains pure and use floss to catch any detritus that i purposely stir up during water changes. Even though we keep the house pretty cool (72 to 74 degrees), the tank stays around 78 to 80 because of the 3 pumps running in it so i am not using a heater. (pumps= main pump, BB flow pump, HOB filter pump). Well. here's the pics and catch Y'all later. (Boy, do i wish i had a good camera or even knew how to properly adjust my cell cam!! This GSP is glued to the back wall about 2" under the return. http://s513.photobucket.com/user/fsuggs50/media/0e5db79d-a88a-41d6-9b0f-1a97501a92db_zps3bc55639.jpg.html'> Dime size 2 polyp frag of Red People Eater glued to a ledge http://s513.photobucket.com/user/fsuggs50/media/394ba978-0507-4660-b17b-392c3480f3ed_zps69b9939e.jpg.html'> Both frags http://s513.photobucket.com/user/fsuggs50/media/20141108_235346_zps85e366ae.jpg.html'> Link to comment
teenyreef Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 I've had the same light over my 4g tank for about six months. I've found that 10" is a close as it should be to the waterline, and recently I moved it up to 12" with great results. At 10" my SPS were fine but my zoas were kind of squashed looking and they would only grow well on the sides of the rocks where they got a little less light. Coral Compulsion recommends 10-12" over a 4g cube btw. With a 3g tank you might end up needing even more distance than I had. The other thing I learned is that the light has a lot of purple tones, especially in pictures. The only way I've ever gotten decent pictures is with a DSLR in RAW mode and fixing the white balance later on the computer. I've also done post processing using Gimp with jpg's from my cell phone. It's better than nothing but it doesn't turn out as well as the correction I get using RAW. I've posted a bunch of pictures using this light in my build thread if you want to check them out. I'm not completely happy with them but they are much better than what I get from a cell phone. Link to comment
aviator300 Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 I noticed today that i'm starting to get a little buildup (possibly diatoms) on the glass. I don't want to pull out the big guns yet (nano Mag, credit card, etc) but what should i use for normal day to day wiping of the inside acrylic to "prevent" buildup. Should i just use a regular fabric type scraper or what else would be recommended? Link to comment
aviator300 Posted November 14, 2014 Author Share Posted November 14, 2014 I added 2 Zoa frags this evening. I dont know their names but i'll post pics tomorrow and see if anyone can ID them for me. BTW, i added a small green Hammer on a frag plug yesterday. I just set it on the bottom glass. Link to comment
brandon429 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 the best thing to use on the glass is paper towel wet with peroxide when the tank is fully drained for a big water change, how ever often you plan on doing them. thats the opposite of scraping after deposition, its preventative and prevents scratches better than anything, not scrubbing, not needing big guns. harmless in trace amounts left on the glass to any inhabitant, its the secret inside wipe for coralline prevention and micro algae Link to comment
aviator300 Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 the best thing to use on the glass is paper towel wet with peroxide when the tank is fully drained for a big water change, how ever often you plan on doing them. thats the opposite of scraping after deposition, its preventative and prevents scratches better than anything, not scrubbing, not needing big guns. harmless in trace amounts left on the glass to any inhabitant, its the secret inside wipe for coralline prevention and micro algae Thanks Brandon. I suppose i should take and post another FTS with an update because I haven't done so since my knee surgery over 2 months ago. Well, the tank's still chugging along with its weekly 100% water changes and some different scaping so look for updated pics by the first of the week. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Glad you're feeling well enough to start posting, and I'm happy to hear things are still chugging along. Knee surgery sucks! Link to comment
aviator300 Posted March 1, 2015 Author Share Posted March 1, 2015 more than you know unless you've had it Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Where did you end up getting the IQ3? Link to comment
aviator300 Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Where did you end up getting the IQ3? Big Als online but i'm not sure he carries them anymore. FTS Update? Actually, i took it down to use the rock and corals in another project. Link to comment
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