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Bosco's First Reef


bosco

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Current FTS:

reef004.jpg

 

Current Livestock

 

Fishies

  • 2x Ocellaris Clownfish

 

CUC

  • 20ish Dwarf Ceriths
  • 5 Florida Ceriths
  • 5 Margaritas
  • 5 Small/Medium Nerites
  • 2 Large Nerites
  • 2 Emerald Crabs
  • 1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
  • 1 Peppermint Shrimp (died :()

 

Corals

  • Fire and Ice Zoas
  • Green and Purple Zoas
  • Unknown Zoas
  • Green Star Polyp
  • Kenya Tree
  • Pocillapora
  • Montipora Digitata
  • Orange Cap
  • Hammer
  • Green Yuma
  • Leathers (not sure exactly what kind)
  • Red PomPom Xenia

 

 

---------Original Post---------

 

Greetings from the Big Easy! :P

 

I've been lurking for about a month, registered a couple weeks ago, and bought my first aquarium yesterday :)

 

Went to the local fish store today and picked up 13 pounds of live rock and 9 pounds of dry rock, 40 pounds of sand, and 24 gallons of salt water. The lfs has 2 200 gallon drums and a RO/DI filter upstairs and they filter the water and put it in the drums. One is fresh and the other is salt :) I was so curious about it all, the lady who was helping me let me go upstairs to take a peek. It\'s pretty nifty.

 

The lfs was actually very helpful. Both people knew what they were talking about and weren\'t trying to make a quick buck off me. The one lady who helped me the most said she had 4 aquariums at home (2 freshwater, 2 saltwater) and a pond and she was going to buy a 120 gallon after work to setup as a reef :lol: so she knows a good bit. She helped me pick out rock that would work well in my size aquarium which was awesome because I had no idea which rocks were best.

 

When I got home, I spent a good hour arranging and rearranging rocks :huh: Nobody said how much of a pain it is to get everything balanced and sturdy. The last thing I want is a rock to fall down and hurt a fish :o After that I added sand, and then the water. Put the leftover sand (about 10 pounds) and some filter floss in the sump and plugged everything in.

 

The Koralia 1 and MaxiJet 600 are creating some flow across the rocks and the MaxiJet 1200 returning water from the sump is also aiding in that. The filter floss is already catching some gross stuff from the sand/rocks. I already pulled out some dead shrimp, some dead insect looking things, and a few other unidentifiable equally gross things. The water is already beginning to clear only 4 hours after turning everything on. The lady at the lfs said that I could probably add some clean up crew in a few days since I used live sand and live rock but I\'m going to give it a few weeks and see how it all goes. I\'ll run some tests tomorrow and see what everything looks like.

 

I did run into a couple of problems... #1 If you look at the bottom of the aquarium from inside the stand, you can see that the sand isn\'t spread out along the entire floor. There\'s a spot in the middle where I guess one of the rocks are that is blocking the sand from falling in that spot. I took a picture of it below. I am probably gonna give it some time to see if the flow pushes the sand there, if not though i\'ll try to sprinkle some in (i got a lot extra in the sump i can use) Is it really a big deal though? #2 There\'s a small leak where the tube goes into the sump from the tank. The connection above also has a tiny tiny leak but not as bad as the one going in the sump. I have a towel underneath it right now so the carpet doesn\'t have problems but I need to figure out how to fix it. I figure I\'ll deal with the drip until I do my first water change. When I do that, I can pull the tube out and try to fix the problem. Video of the drip: http://s655.photobucket.com/albums/uu275/b...ent=reef016.flv

 

Anyway that\'s enough of my chatter, here are some pics I just snapped.

 

Everything set up and ready to be cleaned:

reef009.jpg

 

Everything in and turned on:

reef018.jpg

 

Closeups:

reef020.jpg

 

reef019.jpg

 

Looking up from inside the stand (where you can see the area without sand:

reef015.jpg

 

Sump with filter floss in it:

reef014.jpg

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Where exactly is that dripping to ? Into your sujmp or what ? That is why alot of people do a leak test first ! :rolleyes:omgomgomg Bosco finally got your tank ! Gl ! kkep us posted !

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nice!!! ...where do you shop in NO?

 

Well I am actually staying in Slidell right now helping my dear old mom keep her house, so I went to Delta Pets off Gause Blvd. As soon as she's stable though I'm moving back uptown :) Life just ain't right without the streetcar for transportation.

 

But yea Delta Pets rocks. I forget the lady's name who helped me but she was very very helpful and friendly.

 

Where exactly is that dripping to ? Into your sujmp or what ? That is why alot of people do a leak test first ! :rolleyes:omgomgomg Bosco finally got your tank ! Gl ! kkep us posted !

 

LOL well yea I should have done a leak test but since the guy promised me everything was fine and dandy I believed him... I sent him an email asking if it leaked for him and what he would suggest I do to fix it. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. And it's not dripping into my sump, it's dripping right onto the stand and then sliding down onto my carpet. Luckily I noticed it and put the towel under it before it caused any damage. Thanks for the good luck wishes :) We'll see how things go in the next couple of weeks.

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Well I am actually staying in Slidell right now helping my dear old mom keep her house, so I went to Delta Pets off Gause Blvd. As soon as she's stable though I'm moving back uptown :) Life just ain't right without the streetcar for transportation.

 

But yea Delta Pets rocks. I forget the lady's name who helped me but she was very very helpful and friendly

 

oh ok...well when your finished your cycle and ready for coral, "coral connection" is a really nice place and he's pretty cheap w/ frags and such ...he has a viewing room upstairs that is insane!

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oh ok...well when your finished your cycle and ready for coral, "coral connection" is a really nice place and he's pretty cheap w/ frags and such ...he has a viewing room upstairs that is insane!

 

thanks for the advice :) i'll definitely check them out. i need to find somewhere to get some chaeto for my sump i wonder if they have any for sale.

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thanks for the advice :) i'll definitely check them out. i need to find somewhere to get some chaeto for my sump i wonder if they have any for sale.

 

he may just give it to you ...i know my lfs in houma just gives it out when they trim the access

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Well the leak is a lot worse than I gave it credit for... The towel I had down there is completely soaked. I stuck a bucket there for now and I noticed the water level in the sump has dropped a good bit. I gotta figure out a fix for this and soon :(

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I turned off the return pump last night so no more water would drip. This afternoon I'm going to drain some water out of the sump so I can disconnect the pipe on the back and see what I can do to stop the leak. I may just have to use some epoxy and make it a permanent fixture but that would make moving this thing nearly impossible because it would permanently connect the 20 gallon aquarium to the stand. There has to be a better way...

 

Here are some more pics I took now that the water is clear. Yes I'm pic happy since this is my first reef. I don't have a child so all I have are my hobbies :P

 

I'm not sure why they keep coming out so blue. I have 2 10k and 2 actinic bulbs and looking at it with my eyes, it's a lot whiter than the pics... I guess I'll have to fool with the white balance/settings to make it take less blue in with the shots.

 

reefday2001.jpg

reefday2002.jpg

reefday2003.jpg

reefday2004.jpg

reefday2005.jpg

reefday2006.jpg

reefday2007.jpg

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I'm confused, why would sealing up the leaky spot cause the sump to become permanently attached to the stand?

I thought it was just a leak around one of the connections to the sump.

Since you like taking pics, can you post a pic of exactly where the leak is?

 

Also, for the blue appearance, do you have an "aquarium" setting on your camera?

Or a snow setting?

If you have them, try one of those.

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I'm confused, why would sealing up the leaky spot cause the sump to become permanently attached to the stand?

I thought it was just a leak around one of the connections to the sump.

Since you like taking pics, can you post a pic of exactly where the leak is?

 

Also, for the blue appearance, do you have an "aquarium" setting on your camera?

Or a snow setting?

If you have them, try one of those.

 

Well I'm at work now so I can't take a picture of it but I did post the vid in the beginning: http://s655.photobucket.com/albums/uu275/b...ent=reef016.flv

 

The pipe is located here: http://www.rehostit.com/browst/f/78e71.jpg

 

If I seal the pipe to the sump part, it won't permanently attach the sump tank, it'll just permanently attach the pipe to the one part. However, there's also a very tiny leak up top to the 20 gallon aquarium I need to seal as well and if I put some epoxy, silicone or whatever on it then the aquarium will be stuck there to the pipe that's also stuck to part of the sump and that part of the sump is screwed into the stand... :o

 

Oh and I'm not sure about the camera setting... I'll have to check when I get home, thanks for that info :)

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dirtwheelsfl

i cant tell what kind of fittings are on that pipe but if its threads that are leaking, wrap a good amount of teflon tape on the threads ( take it out and do it then thread it back in of course) , i cant really tell what is exactly leaking from the video but it looks like it is leaking where the pipe fits the sump? i would just silicone that, it will come apart fairly easy if you needed to move it or whatever, rockwork looks awesome tho....

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i cant tell what kind of fittings are on that pipe but if its threads that are leaking, wrap a good amount of teflon tape on the threads ( take it out and do it then thread it back in of course) , i cant really tell what is exactly leaking from the video but it looks like it is leaking where the pipe fits the sump? i would just silicone that, it will come apart fairly easy if you needed to move it or whatever, rockwork looks awesome tho....

 

there's no thread, the plastic piece just goes into the connector in the tank/sump area. i got a message back from the guy i bought the setup from. he said he had to tap on the pipe with a rubber mallet a few times to make it tight enough to not leak. he said it still had a tiny leak for him but the salt water ended up sealing that. i think i may just use silicone. it's removable right?

 

and thanks about the rockwork :o it took me a good couple of hours but i finally got it where i wanted it :)

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dirtwheelsfl

yeah, im trying to compare the picture and the video, and see exactly whats goin on but it looks like in the pic your talking about the pipe out of view, see if you can get a pic or 2 of that fitting, but it sounds like its just press-fit into there for some reason? i might just replace it all with something like this, then connect a small piece of hose from the pipe to this, need mo pics to tell for sure

 

 

 

 

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Sorry about all the confusion of the leak. I used a hammer to lightly tap the pipe in more and it appears to have stopped the leak completely. I'll check again tomorrow to be sure. Just to clarify here are some pics of the elbow where it was leaking from (the part with the white tape is the part where it was leaking):

 

reef009.jpg

reef011.jpg

 

There's no real fitting or anything to thread on. The plastic tube just goes in the hole then you tap it to get it in far enough. Apparently I didn't tap it far enough -_-

 

I ran tests today and here are the results:

 

Salinity 1.026

Calcium 540mg/L (ppm)

Carbonate Hardness 10 ºdKH 179 ppm KH

Phosphate 0.0 ppm (mg/L)

Nitrate 5.0 ppm (mg/L)

pH 7.8

Ammonia 0.50 ppm (mg/L)

Nitrite 0.0 ppm (mg/L)

 

Also I played with my camera and found there's a way to automatically set the white balance so I took a few more pictures (now with less blue)

 

reef021.jpg

reef022.jpg

reef023.jpg

reef024.jpg

 

The previous owner had the light timer turn on at 1:30pm and turn off at 7:30pm. Is this a good light cycle to have? There's no sunrise/sunset option just on/off for these. Also he had the MaxiJet 600 turn on for 10 minutes, then off for 10 minutes all day to give it a change of flow. Is this a good idea? Currently I just have both the Koralia 1 and MaxiJet 600 on nonstop and then there's the return from the sump also adding to flow. I have the sump light off right now. Once I get ahold of some chaeto I'll turn it on but not sure how long to run the timer. Should I put it on the same 1:30-7:30 cycle?

 

And one last question... I want to be able to look at my aquarium after the main lights turn off. Can I get some kind of LED strip or cathode or something to just give it a nice glow? Also what do the fish/coral/etc look like under black light? Maybe I can setup something like that as well or will that be harmful to them?

 

Thanks guys for the help and kind comments :) I really love being a part of this community!

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dirtwheelsfl

yeah, thats a weird way of joining those, looks like the guy was just lazy or ran out of parts or something.. if it works for you i would leave it... i just got a couple of those current powerbrite strips off of here for pretty cheap (compared to new), im sure you can find pics on here, theres a ton of different little led strip companies out there also, mine are goin on a 20 long too...ill let you know how they turn out

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Well I now remember why living at home is such a bad idea even when doing it out of the good of your heart so your dear old mom doesn't lose her house -_-

 

Apparently the water in my tank is evaporating faster than I thought it would and the return pump starts shooting out air on a daily basis. It doesn't take much to refill what's been lost but it does make quite a racket when the pump starts sucking out air. Well last night I forgot to check/top it off and this morning I get a call from my mom....

 

The bucket was still behind the tank and half full of water from when I had the dripping problem. This was a dirty bucket I grabbed from the laundry room. Full of dirt/hair/chemical residue from mopping/etc.... It was meant to catch the water, protect the carpet, and be dumped in the toilet/hosed out afterwards.

 

The pump started sucking air, it woke her up (she's off work today because of good Friday), she wanted to go back to sleep so she saw the bucket, dumped the water in the sump, and then called me because soap bubbles formed all over and it was sucking the chemicals through the pump into my tank.

 

I had her unplug the return pump so all the water flowed back into the sump hopefully trapping the chemicals down there but she said it's been pumping for half hour after she dumped it because she was trying to scoop out residue/bubbles on top of the water and fix her mistake hoping I wouldn't find out.

 

So.... what do I do? I know the chemicals/dirt/hair/etc all went into the sump and then started getting sucked into my tank for a good half hour. Is there any way to fix this? Can I just do a bunch of water changes before adding CUC or anything and hope for the best? Is it possible to just empty out the sump, clean it real good, then hope enough of the chemical didn't go in the tank? Is there a way to test for this stuff in the tank? She said the only chemical she used in the bucket was pine sol. Apparently the chemicals in Pine Sol are 8-10% pine oil, alkyl alcohol ethoxylates, sodium petroleum sulfonate and isopropanol plus whatever fragrance it was. Can I test for these things?

 

I'm so angry right now but I know this can be fixed if it means emptying everything and starting completely over, sand, rock, and water... I just don't want to throw everything away and start over. I'm quite happy with how my live rock looks and how everything is setup.

 

Any advice on this? :(

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dirtwheelsfl

man thats rough... my 20L was evaporating pretty good too, i just made a lid to go over the whole thing, leaving about 4 inches on each side open, seems to work pretty good. ive never heard of anything like that going in a tank, but im sure its not good. i run the hob, simple..... good luck

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Well when I got home from work I emptied all the water from the sump and cleaned the residue off the sides of the glass. It wasn't really as bad as my mom made it out to be. Refilled everything and turned it all back on. Going to let the water mix up a bit and run tests Sunday to see what all the levels look like.

 

I noticed today that there's a good bit of brown algae growing which is normal from everything I've read. I guess the screw up this morning didn't have much of an effect on my cycle but I'll know for sure Sunday I guess. I was supposed to pick up some chaeto to toss in my sump today after work but the person who said he would give me some never called.

 

Here are some pictures of the brown growth (diatoms right? or is it cyano?)

 

reef001.jpg

 

reef002.jpg

 

reef003.jpg

 

reef006.jpg

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ato ftw! when i had a sump setup, it would evaporate like nobody's business. so i grabbed an auto top off, and all i had to do was worry about running out of ro/di water. it keeps the water level at a constant and the salinity level in check.

 

is your overflow setup not glued together? do you find that it makes a really loud gurgling noise?

 

maxijets are typically used to push water around in the tank, not as water pumps. having to pump water up that high puts a lot of strain on the powerhead, which results in overheating and eventual pump failure. i recommend a small water pump, like an eheim 1048 or something like that.

 

other than that, looks good!

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ato ftw! when i had a sump setup, it would evaporate like nobody's business. so i grabbed an auto top off, and all i had to do was worry about running out of ro/di water. it keeps the water level at a constant and the salinity level in check.

 

is your overflow setup not glued together? do you find that it makes a really loud gurgling noise?

 

maxijets are typically used to push water around in the tank, not as water pumps. having to pump water up that high puts a lot of strain on the powerhead, which results in overheating and eventual pump failure. i recommend a small water pump, like an eheim 1048 or something like that.

 

other than that, looks good!

 

yea i might end up getting an auto top off.... maybe not... we'll see

 

i don't know what you mean overflow setup? there's a drain pipe that goes to the sump and most of that is glued together except for the one pipe that connects the tank to the sump so that it can all be moved around easily when empty.

 

as far as the maxijet, it's a powerhead/water pump. it can perform multiple functions from what i read.

 

This powerful, submersible, sealed pump runs your undergravel filters and works well with wavemakers. Its silent motor is protected from overheating even if it runs dry. The small size makes it great for creating fountains. Has fully adjustable outlet direction and aeration. The included accessory kit allows you to convert the Maxi-Jet pump into a powerhead. The kit includes venturi injector, directional flow adjustment, air intake adapter with screen, triple-suction cup mount, and an adjustable hook with cable guide.

 

the guy i bought this from had it running for 8 months the same way i have it running now. he had no problems so i expect few to no problems *shrug*

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ok so i was reading through the forum and read that it's good to have the actinic lights in one ballast and the 10k white in another. that way i can have the actinics come on an hour early and stay on an hour later to simulate sunrise and sunset.

 

so i moved the lights around and have them set up that way, however my tank looks weird now... the front half is white and the rear half is blue and you can tell something just looks off..... i tried the white in back and blue in front and again it looks off

 

so i wonder is the sunrise/sunset really that big of an issue? i liked how it looked before where it was white/blue/white/blue. if i really need to simulate sunrise/sunset couldn't i get a separate deal for that and put it on its own timer?

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