zmckenzie Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Nano-Reefers, I have spent a lot of time researching, reading others post, and finally setting up my first nano-reef aquarium. Thanks to all those who answered my questions over the past several months it was very helpful and appreciated. This will be the first of many post in this thread. As of now I only have the tank (aquapod 24) filled with saltwater sitting on the stand I built for it. The List: Aquapod 24 gallon (more like 20) Removed stock pump Maxi-jet 1200 Maxi-jet 900 Stealth heater 2 hydro-flos thermometer Hydrometer Refractometer (spelling) chemi-pure net algae scraper I might of missed something, but I have everything i need except the liverock and substrate. This weekend I will be adding the sand and live rock. Originally I was going to order livesand and liverock from Sealifeflorida.com but after my transmission going on my car, i have a tighter budget. I will be adding sand (arag-alive pink fugi I think) 10ish pounds of liverock from LFS and some base rock. I like that I get to pick my own liverock from the tanks. I most likely wont be adding fish for a few months, I am going to take it slow and easy. (a friend of mine just jumped into this hobby with no instruction or even thought, lets just say i feel very bad for his fish) Pictures as of now: This is the stand I built for it. Thanks to my Uncle for letting me use his shop and giving me a helping hand. Just need to had handles (knobs) After setting up the tank to check for leaks, there was a heat issue and the room was only 72 degrees I took what I read here, adding a fan in the empty slot and also decided to put these vents in. My hope was that because the water actually has a place to evaporate it would lower the temps. My trial run with just the feeding tray opened seem to do the trick so I went ahead and started drilling of course using a template I made and taped on. I am sad to say though that when I woke this morning the water was already at 80 degrees without the lights on, granted my room was close or above that. Many reefers with this aquapod or something close in size had two pumps going. Some with a maxi-jet 1200 and 900 others with two 900 or a 1200 with a 600. I went with the 1200 and 900. The first time i set up the tank (looking for leaks and ideas for fixing temp) i hated having 900 in the display. It was even worse when the hydro flo was attached. I also didn’t care for the look of the hydro-flo on the stock return, plus when it rotated it would shoot up and hit the light. So I decided to drill two new holes and cover the built in return. Both pumps are located in the left chamber along with the heater. This is how it turned out. This last is just a shot of the whole system as of now. I actually find myself staring at this a lot and there isn’t anything in it. Imagine that. Closing: Please feel free to let me know what you think. I plan on posting what i plan on putting in my tank here before i actually go out and purchase it (except for the liverock unless you all think i should wait). I want to make sure I do this right. Thanks for your time. Zmckenzie Student @ UWSP (Go Pointers) Link to comment
icenine Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Looks good. ...nice pattern on the vent holes. FWIW I don't think 80 is bad at all.... in fact I run my tank hotter on purpose, I've jacked my temps up to run at 83 to 84. Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted June 23, 2006 Author Share Posted June 23, 2006 Looks good. ...nice pattern on the vent holes. FWIW I don't think 80 is bad at all.... in fact I run my tank hotter on purpose, I've jacked my temps up to run at 83 to 84. Why such high temps? Link to comment
icenine Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 Why such high temps? Its is an average temp of most of the reefs where most of our corals are collected from really. I ran the tank lower, but things in my tank just look better at higher temps. I started experimenting with the temp range in my pico. Link to comment
supernip Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 higher temps are controversial. Theres a lot of evidence for lower temps actually Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted June 24, 2006 Author Share Posted June 24, 2006 Temps have been staying around 80. Currently Heater is set at 79. With lights running i have to have a fan blowing towards tank, which i guess isn't that bad to keep it from going much higher. Tomorrow i am adding substrate and lr. Zmckenzie Student @ UWSP (Go Pointers) Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted June 25, 2006 Author Share Posted June 25, 2006 Update: Today I was able to get to the lfs and pick out my LR. Let just say it is a lot harder then it looks to actually do this. Picking up lr that is especially what you have a budget. I believe that I was at the lfs for almost an hour before I got out of there. I ended up getting 14 pounds of lr and no base rock because they had none. Well one ugly looking piece that I didn’t want. I think I would like to get maybe 10 more pounds of smaller pieces to fill in a couple of areas. I believe this is how the rock will stay, but then again who knows, I did move it around a couple of times because of look and because the left corners sand was being blown away. I must say I am very excited to actually have something in my tank. There are a few pictures below. Try to ignore the spots on the glass, I didn’t clean the outside of the glass after moving the rock this last time and dripped water down the glass. Zmckenzie Link to comment
KMP Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 yes, you could use some more rock...but that sucks because i like the way you have it set up. i did the same thing...who would have thought picking out rock would be so hard. i picked up some rock, set up my tank and the following week went back for a few odds and ends an made the mistake of looking at rock. so the tank changed again. i'm done now...no more room for rock Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted June 28, 2006 Author Share Posted June 28, 2006 Update: I bought 10 more pounds of liverock today from my lfs in town. That puts me at 24 pounds of lr and I think that will be it. I did find some bubble algae on one piece of rock I purchased the first time. I took it out and tired to get rid of it all. Now it is time to wait for a few weeks and then I will add my clean up crew. I think I am going to start checking out what others put in this size tank and go off of that. There are pictures below of the final placement of the lr at different angles. Zmckenzie Student @ UWSP (Go Pointers) Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted June 30, 2006 Author Share Posted June 30, 2006 A Little Update: Tank is still cycling of course but i still find myself looking inside the tank everyday. Today after work there was a little surpise for me. A feather Duster. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and when i went in to take a look the little guy hid. I just sat there for a while and he slowly showed himself. On not such a good note, i have some new bubble algae growing. I noticed some a day after i put the peice in (from my first batch). I pulled it out and tried to get it all off, but of course it came back. I do have a question for all of you who are reading my thread. Do you ever get air bubbles that just stay on your lr. I noticied today that there are severl big bubbles that look clear just sitting under the rock. I think it is just air, but if it isn't let me know. I tried to take a pic of it but they are too deep into the rockwork. You all have a wondeful day/night Zmckenzie Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted June 30, 2006 Author Share Posted June 30, 2006 One more thing: Local store has RO water for 39cents/gal. I was very happy about the price. zmckenzie Link to comment
bucknellreefer Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 A Little Update: Tank is still cycling of course but i still find myself looking inside the tank everyday. Today after work there was a little surpise for me. A feather Duster. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and when i went in to take a look the little guy hid. I just sat there for a while and he slowly showed himself. Zmckenzie Keep watching, more things are going to appear everyday. Also try looking at night with a flashlight, I found a couple of stomatela snails that way and i wouldn't know they were there other wise. Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 It has been a week and i really havne't seen any spikes. Actually numbers are all ok which kind of scares me a bit. Everyone talks about the cycle and how at the end they have a major alage bloom and what not, but i have yet to experience that as well. All i have seen growing is some bubble algae. I really don't care how long the cycle takes, well that is kind of a lie, but i was more wondering if i should do the whole raw shrimp thing to jump it or just give it time. Tanks Link to comment
beyondtheblue Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Jacking up your temps to abnormal numbers is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Did you give up on keeping your corals long term? Yeah they might survive for some time..but anything over 82 is moronic to say the least. Everyone who is in this hobby should do everything in their power to keep them within suitable temps. Any advice to the contrary is not helping the hobby at all. Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 beyondtheblue, I will not take the advice about the higher temps, for all i have read has pointed to keeping your temps beloow 80 with 81 82 being the max. I have been able to keep my temps down for the most part, but today my room reached 90 and water to a hot 85, but that is also because my fan on it got unplugged. I was wondering, if i would just put a peices of ice into the back chambers and let it mix and get spread into the display if that would be a good or bad idea to help control the temps. As always any advice is appreciated. Zmckenzie Link to comment
beyondtheblue Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Dang that is super high...hmm what are you lighting your tank with? You need to seriously think about getting a chiller. They are not too expensive and will really make a big difference. Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 i am still using stock lighting with the hood. I find if i keep a fan blowing on the tank it stays around 80 at a max. As for the chiller i know that i will have to invest in one but is currently out of budget. I am hoping a cheap nano chiller will come out soon, not the one from nano-customs though. Thanks for your concern and insight. Zmckenzie Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 Update: I was a little worried when i wasn't really seeing any life in my aqurium except for the feather duster, but today i found another one a few inches away from the other. I also saw a big bristle warm as well. Never though i would treasure the sight of the bristle warm so much, but i did. By the way i didn't realize feather dusters aren't out at night. Man is only out when the lights are on. zmckenzie Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted July 3, 2006 Author Share Posted July 3, 2006 Sorry for the excessive post but i just get so excited when i see something new in my tank. I have found yet another feather duster which makes three on the same peice of rock. I really wish i could get a pic of them but my camera just can't handle such a small thing. What do you all use to take up close up pictures of the small species of whatever you find in your tank? zmckenzie Link to comment
aaronz Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Look to the photography forum for more info on picture taking. Your gonna want to use a camera with a macro and or super macro setting ( usually the little flower symbol) and a manual zoom. Tank looks good, keep up the good rock work and slow down a little don't make the mistake everyone else does and buy a whole lot and drop it into your tank. As far as keeping it cool dont put the ice cube directly in the tank, put a couple in a ziplock and sit it in there. usually drops 1-2 degrees.GL Link to comment
idog Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Just freeze bottles of water and swap them out a couple of times a day. I agree with BtB though, sustained temps of 85 will cause you grief in the long run once you get livestock. You need to plan for a permanent solution. The heat spike is likely caused by the extra pump. Any benefit you get from the extra flow is erased by the high temp. The MJ 1200 is like a little 20 watt heater that is running 24/7. Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted July 4, 2006 Author Share Posted July 4, 2006 Thanks for the replies. I will do the bag or bottle of water thing to keep temps down. Today i left my hood open and the temp stayed good, but a lot of water evaporated. As for the pumps, i kind of wish i went with two mj 900. I may still swap out the 1200 for a 900. But i still think that the main prob for my heat problem currently is my room temp for the water is always just a couple of degrees cooler then what my room temp is. As for taking it slow i am still on that track. There are some days where i just want to add something to my tank. Sometimes those damsles are sounding good, but when i sit back and think about it i come back to my senses. I must ask though why i haven't seen any nitrites spikes yet. They have been around 0 sense i started testing the water? On a different note, last night i took a flashlight and looked into the tank. And i must just say WOW. There was so many little things running around. From little black things, to someting that almost looks like a little shrimp, to brislte warms crawling on the rock. It is really the first night that i could really see that the rock was full of life. Today after work I also found another feather duster, and a small snail. I can't beleive how much he blend in. Looked like the rock. I notice all of this after i added about a gallon of water to my tank. I can't beleive that much evaporated. At first i thought leak but there was no water on my carpet, which of course is a good thing. Dropped my sg though. Went from 1.023 to 1.022. Well i think that will be about it for tonight. thanks you all for your help. zmckenzie Link to comment
DarkXerox Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Might want to get that SG up to about 1.025 so that after the heavy evap, it doesn't go over 1.027. Good luck finding ways to cool the tank though. I found that a fan blowing over the surface of the tank works the best for me. Link to comment
zmckenzie Posted July 12, 2006 Author Share Posted July 12, 2006 Update: 17 Days My tank has been cycling 17 days now and everything looks good. I really never saw a nitrite spike but I think that may because I didn’t start testing water until several days after putting the lr in. I had nitrates spike above 40 and now it is somewhere between 0 and 20. With nitrates down and everything else at zero I decided I will be adding my clean up crew either tomorrow or Thursday. I was going to order through liveaquria site, but after adding the 34 dollars for shipping I decided to order from etropicals (still foster and smith). They have the build your own reef clean up crew package which includes free shipping if you order 60 dollars or more of inverts. This is what I am planning on getting. Looked at others clean up crews and came up with this. 1 Emerald Matrix Crab (For my bubble algae) 6 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab6 Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crabs 7 Nassarius Snail 7 Cerith Snail 10 Astraea Turbo Snail 1 Peppermint Shrimp 1 Jumbo Cerith snail (to bring it to 60 dollars) I am planning on drip acclimating them but was wondering how they will ship them. Will all the snails be in one bag or do the separate by species? I was also wonder how I put them in the tank. Do you just pick them out of the bag and place them at the bottom? How do you handle the shrimp and crab? I have only seen one person add a fish to their tank, but he did it wrong because after acclimating the fish he just dumped the whole bag into the tank which I believe is something you are not suppose to do. Thanks for your help and support Link to comment
beyondtheblue Posted July 12, 2006 Share Posted July 12, 2006 Sounds like things are coming along. Patience is a virtue they say huh? That is a golden rule somewhat in this hobby. Rereading the thread....if you can keep the temp stable...even at around 80-82..you will be ok Link to comment
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