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da1001's dead tank update


da1001

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reefernanoman

I like my Pico Skim now that I have figured out its little eccentricities. Just make sure you buy a powerful enough air pump to run it and tune it in as needed, don't skimp on that part or it wont even work. It is however a LOT easier to get skimming right compared to the IM Ghost Skimmer from what I have been hearing. I get a good 2 cups worth of nasty tea colored liquid out of mine in 3 weeks of running it. Better in my collection cup than in the tank!

 

 

I went ahead and moved my Ricordea from the sand back onto the rockwork because it finally grew back its little leg thingy. It suctioned down so hard to that rock and looked so happy being there just overnight that I decided he likes his new spot. :) He is flattening out and growing too, I will get some pics when I have time. Its pretty cool. He is about 3 inches closer to the light now and loves it.

 

Keeping that sand bed stirred up and everything seems happier, so I will continue to stir it nightly. Found a crab skeleton that one of them molted. Makes me wonder if it wasn't kicking out some nitrates due to rot or something? It was hidden in the back of the tank, there's no telling how long it was in there before I finally stirred it out of its hiding spot but I suctioned it out last night.

 

Have to go get more salt mix this weekend. 50 gallon bag lasted me a little over 3 months because I like to do 25-30% water changes weekly, plus what I used to fill it up. That's not bad! Lots of running around to do in town this weekend, I will pick up another bag then.

 

I change about 1G per week, how many gallons do you change? Looking good BTW. I'm waiting on those macros from your new shiny lens.
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I change about 1G per week, how many gallons do you change? Looking good BTW. I'm waiting on those macros from your new shiny lens.

I usually mix up 2 full gallons and use about 1.8 gallons. Since my tank holds right at 6.8, that's like 26% water volume changed. Sometimes I use more, sometimes a bit less, so somewhere around 25-30% usually.

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Here is the torch still going strong. It seems to have been the least affected of anything in my tank the past few weeks when I wasn't able to keep it as spotless as I would have liked.

 

 

 

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And a new FTS with the new lens. You can see how horrible the poor birdsnest looks, but it appears to be making a comeback although it has what looks like brown algae on it. I don't know what that is all about.

 

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Pictures look great!

 

Wait, new lens? Did you get the 35mm f1.8 prime?

 

I just bought one on Ebay. Only it came with a D3100...for $250 total. I couldn't resist. The D3100 will be a minor upgrade from my D60, and, more importanty, I won't be sharing a camera with my wife any more and I can leave it set on RAW all the time :D

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No, not quite yet on the 35mm prime. The new FTS above was with me fiddling with my 18-140mm lens and freehanding some shots while I worked out everything on it. So its not the best shot but I was tired of fiddling with it at that point.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Haven't had the chance to do much here lately, work has been crazy as usual. I did get my lens but haven't even had time to play with it much yet so no pics to speak of. And now onto the latest with the tank.

 

I tossed the candy cane coral, the birdsnest and the montipora. I had a temp swing in my tank from when it got super hot one day outside and I didn't have my A/C on high enough yet and was stuck at work all day. It hit like 88 degrees in the tank or something, I figured the tank heater wouldn't kick on but it did for some reason? (I had it set at like 82) So I bumped it down to 76 and the tank stays about 82 max during the day now. But it was enough to pretty much kill my good corals over the next 2-3 days. I have been keeping on the sand bed cleaning more often and it helps a lot, the water quality is looking much better and I also changed the salt (after they had croaked) and my parameters are all 0 across the board for the ones that should be 0 so I have pretty much narrowed it down to that one day temp swing as the most likely culprit. The crabs, snails, LT 2.0, Zoa's and torch came through it just fine thank goodness. I glued down my big zoa rock with the bald spot in the back facing up where it wasn't getting any light at the fish store display tank. That was a great idea, I think I have added about 50 tiny new heads to that spot and it is filling in nicely in the last few weeks. The other zoa with the sunny d's has been cantankerous to say the least. I keep having problems with it spouting aptasia no matter how much I spray it down with joe's juice, I will see a new head of it 2-3 weeks later but I keep trying. It is causing the polyps to spread out a bunch tho and have uneven growth, its not in a nice little tight cluster anymore, but it is going haywire and growing over the frag plus and slowly taking over the rock I put it on so that's cool. Polyp heads are about the same, 20ish or so from the 8 I originally got it with. The torch got smaller from the change in light but it still looks plenty healthy and still good coloration so no complaints there.

 

Here at Christmas time I am considering getting a 5.5 gallon aqueon tank and tossing it in my living room with my spare parts from the IM 10 I have laying around. Trying to find a nice light for it, no luck yet but I keep searching! Might end up going with a gooseneck clamp and a Par 30 for it but that's my last resort. I really would like to find a nice light for under $200 that's good enough for the tank (inhabitants below for lighting guide). I would want to keep the build to around $350 total which is totally feasible, toss in a neon blue goby and turn the tank into a full on zoa circus tank. Shouldn't need insane lighting but its hard to find a light that fits a 5.5 gallon, I don't want it hanging over the edges so 18" is max with 1" of overhang off each end since its a 16" tank.

 

That doesn't mean I am getting rid of my IM 10, I just find I have such a tough time keeping the AIO chambers clean that it might be easier to run a tank with just an AC30 or something that I can easily take the power filter off, spray down and put back on in 5 mins, vs digging around in my back chambers for 30 mins trying to scrape gunk off the walls, cleaning the skimmer tube, cleaning the media basket, etc. etc. I am looking for something a little more low maintenance and that I have in my living room so I can look at it all the time. It was dumb of me to stick the tank in my bedroom since I am not in there much, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that. Too hard to drain it and move the entire thing now so it will stay where its at. I am really liking Zoa's right now, might as well dedicate a small tank to them, I still have a piece of live rock I didn't use from the original build that I can pop into the tank, it should fit perfectly. Who knows, I might like the ease with which I can run the smaller tank and move over whats left from the IM10, its a great tank but a drawback is definitely my fat hands not fitting in the rear chambers for cleaning haha. This is all in the air, I haven't given it up yet, just sharing ideas and looking for insight on how you all run yours better than me. I am still kinda pissed too that my damn rock isn't covering up with coralline algae at all, it has a bunch of small purple dots of it but it doesn't seem to be increasing at all, you would think after it having been up and running for 4+ months I would see more of it than I do now.

 

I will work on getting you all some pics this weekend.

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I decided to crawl into the AIO chambers and give them a heck of a scrubbing, cleaned up about 90% of the "gunk" back there which was nice. Popped on a new woodstone for the skimmer, changed the filter floss, scrubbed the glass, moved the sandbed around, shortened the photo period on the light (10 hrs down to 7) to hopefully help kill the excess algae, tossed in some new carbon and chemipure or whatever it is im using after cleaning the media basket then got my water mixing/heating for today's water change. Here is a pic of my little helper and the tank after the cleaning. I have had this thing running over 4 months now and it still looks pretty much the same, I am wondering where all my coralline algae is, it makes me want to dump a bottle of purple up in it or something. :unsure: Maybe instead of making a whole new tank in the living room for Zoa's, I will just a bunch of them in this one. They seem to be doing great in this tank.

 

 

 

 

 

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Well, let's see. Got bored so I went to the LFS tonight. Ended up coming home with some frag glue and a yellow/green stunner chalice. The Ric is finally glued to the rockwork (no more falling off when the crabs see it and toss it) and the stunner chalice is covering up the empty spot that the birdsnest was in before it croaked when my tank temp spiked. I will toss some pics up soon, maybe tomorrow if I have time before visiting family. Plans are to get a new birdsnest, there was a huge one on the $30 rack but a dude snatched it up maybe all of 5 seconds before I could. -.- I will get a new montipora as well, just saving up my cash at the moment. I checked into the windshield issue, my car insurance doesn't cover it so there goes $250 bucks outta my pocket. Honestly just considering waiting on the windshield until the spare paycheck in December but I am not sure it can make it that long honestly. We shall see....

 

I have pretty much knocked out the algae issues I was having by cleaning the sand and the glass every night religiously. Its maybe all of 5-10% of what it was. Just enough so that my snails and crabs don't starve haha. Hope everyone is doing good this holiday weekend, be safe and happy holiday!

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Well, I promised it and here they are! Pics!!!!

 

Here is a shot of my Zoa rock that I rotated towards the light so it could fill in the back half which it is doing nicely so far. Cut it in half horizontally and everything on the bottom half of the pic is new growth (all the darker colored ones). I would love to know what everyone thinks they are, both the lighter ones and the darker ones. I have forgotten their names!! <_<

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Here are my Sunny D's, slowly migrating from the frag plug onto the rockwork

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Finally got the Ric to stay in place! ;)

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Here is a macro of the stunner chalice, the lighter parts are actually lemon-yellow. You can see the true coloration in the next pic down much better

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Tank down shot of everything's current placement right before I cleaned the tank

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Any idea what this guy is? Had them pop up about 2 weeks ago. 6-12 total, maybe all of .5 cm in length all told. You can barely make it out but they have this little tube coming out of the top of their heads that is about as long as they are and they wave it around like they are looking for something with it.

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Top down shot looks nice :wub: It's going to look great once everything fills in.

 

Your mystery guy looks like a Nassarius snail (my favorites). They hang out under the sand until they smell something good, and then they surface. Also know as submarine or zombie snails :)

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Top down shot looks nice :wub: It's going to look great once everything fills in.

 

Your mystery guy looks like a Nassarius snail (my favorites). They hang out under the sand until they smell something good, and then they surface. Also know as submarine or zombie snails :)

Well they look cool, but aren't growing very fast so their shells didn't look the same as standard nassarius snails so I couldn't be certain but if you say it still looks like one I will believe you. ;)

 

I am about 50% on just going and buying another birdsnest and a monitpora to stick in again and help fill it up and maybe another Ric or an Acan or even a frogsnest. Just waiting for the LFS to refill their frag tank after it crashed a few months back, they selection now is maybe a quarter of what it was.

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Went and picked up a new digi to replace the old one. 3 times the size as the old one but the same price. Thinking of getting one of their red rock anemones but idk. Anyone have any experience with those in an IM 10? I know the guy said they only get like fist sized but I wanted to check with you all first. Pics sometime soon, I haven't glued the turd into place yet since its so late tonight.

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They had some nice blue/green ones too teeny but I need more red in my tank man, or any color other than green and blue anyway ;)

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Here's the newest FTS as of an hour ago. Just cleaned the glass but still waiting for the saltwater to heat up before I clean everything else for the week.

 

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Closeup of the new Digi, it is HUGE compared to the old one!!

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And here is a sneak peek at my future project: The Living Room 5.5 Project

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Here is a top-down shot of the rock I have for it, it has about one inch clean on either side of it.

 

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What do you all think of it? I want it as a Zoa tank for the most part, although something cool might sneak into it occasionally. It will be fish-free and as low maintenance as I can get it. Here are my questions to you all. Do you think it will fit a AC50 on the end or will only a AC30 fit? I am looking for affordable lighting solutions: Would a Par38 and a desk lamp fixture work ok or do you think one of these might be better? http://www.buildmyled.com/mc-series-20000k-reef-spectrum/ Since it would be mostly Zoa's I wouldn't need a crapton of lighting over it and I want to save a bit of money so yes, I know Dave's nanoboxes are the best thing ever but I want something half the price or lower for now just to see if I can get it to work. What about this: http://www.amazon.com/Wave-point-12-Inch-16-Watt-DaylightMicro-Output/dp/B007ZK816S/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1436657274&sr=8-27&keywords=led+reef+tank+light

 

Thoughts currently, subject to change from input by people who have used the above products before:

Tank - 5.5 gallon standard

Filtration: AC30 or 50 depending on what I can fit on the end of the tank

Powerhead: probably a Nano 240

Light: not sure yet, under $200 hopefully

Sand/Rock: already have

Heater: Generic 50w that can fit in the AC filter

no ATO, I am going low-tech and can refill it 2x daily

no skimmer, nothing else fancy. Low Tech is key.

 

What do you all think?

 

I am thinking of breaking the rock into smaller bits, but I am not 100% sure on it yet. It doesn't seem like enough rock either. Should I leave it be, break it and re-form it into something cooler, or break it and add more rock too?

 

 

Edit: I am not getting rid of the IM10, I will run both at once. The IM10 in the bedroom to lull me to sleep. The 5.5 in the living room so I can watch it during commercials :P

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Got the digi glued back down on the rockwork and then picked up an AC50 for the living room project. Still to get: powerhead, light, heater, bit more rock. I am going to break up that big piece into several smaller pieces and get a bit more rock so I can create 2 small islands I think and then its time to fill it and let it start cycling.

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Sounds good! I would definitely break up the rock. You'll be able to get a more interesting and flexible scape that way.

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Yeah, I am sort of kicking myself now for not doing that with the rocks in the IM10, its such a pain in the butt cleaning around the one rock on the left side since it sticks out so much etc. It nearly touches the glass under the sand so I have trouble getting the sand bed moved around over there too. Oh well, its all a good learning experience and hopefully my 5.5 can benefit from it.

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Well dang, one of the last 2 crabs I have ended up kicking the bucket earlier. Guess I know which one out of them turned out to be the serial killer since he is the only one left! :wacko: I plan on picking up a rock anemone and a purple birdsnest as soon as I got more bling in the bank account. Payday is tomorrow but the electric bill is crazy this month thanks to the heat wave we have been smack in the middle of the last few weeks. July in the South, what can I say! We shall see. I look forward to getting them but also gotta save up some money for the vacation in October too. I will have a family member look after the cat and the tank while I am gone for 5 days. Let's hope they are great at following the very detailed instructions I am going to leave them about how to feed the tank inhabitants properly and refill the ATO midway through the vaca. B)

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Picked up a YWG finally. :) Went to the LFS looking for Zoa's, I was gonna buy a bunch but when I saw the YWG's I had to have one. Picked up 2 zoa frags too, one is Mindblowers with 2 huge polyps, I cant remember what the other one is. It has about a million little orangish polyps on it. It wasn't open yet so no pics. Got to take some better pics for you all so stay tuned!

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He has already carved himself out a niche in the back right corner of the tank:

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And here they are in all their glory, a pair of massive Mindblowers zoa polyps:

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Here is the frag full of I don't know whats:

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And a new FTS right before I cleaned. The front right spot is where my clownfish likes to hollow out each night to sleep. When I sift the sand daily I flatten it out again but he doesn't mind rebuilding and I don't mind him doing it. The two Zoas are on the rockwork now to see if they like where I placed them, if not I will move them back to the sand for a bit:

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And a final picture of the lord surveying his lands :) :

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