HotRodScamp's 12g Aquapod

[Sea Slug]

Mike , Got my RO/DI system installed tonight and I'm making water as I wright this . Great unit and install went very smooth .

[HotRodScamp]

Mike , Got my RO/DI system installed tonight and I'm making water as I wright this . Great unit and install went very smooth .

 

Glad to hear it! I only ran mine for a day with temp. plumbing. I'm hoping to get the final plumbing done this weekend. For the day I ran it, it ran great and produced some nice (0 TDS) water.

 

 

 

I ordered a handheld TDS meter the other day so I can take readings pre and post RO to determine the efficiency of the membrane. Unless it's just plain horrible, I'm very happy with the purchase.

 

 

 

On another note, I've been watching 3 spots of bubble algae growing this week and reading up a lot on dealing with it. A lot of people don't like Emerald crabs, but I decided since there's nothing in the tank but a cleanup crew, I would get one. I ran over to the LFS yesterday afternoon and picked one up for $4.95. I did a 20 minute float for temp and dropped him in. This morning (just 14 hours later) the Emerald was face down in the sand, dead. WTF?

 

 

 

I have 6 blue legs, 3 scarlets, 2 red legs, 3 turbos, 4 nassarius and a tiny brittle star. All the crabs are constantly busy. So much so that the tank always looks like a snow storm from all the stuff they kick up. I've seen at least 4 hermit molts in the last week or so. I don't see the nassarius too often, but I usually see 1 or 2 after the lights go out. The turbos are as active as I've seen, cruising the glass or back wall most of the time. One turbo even caught a ride on my Hydor Flo one day The brittle star pokes a leg or two out from under his rock about every 2 days. Seems like a very healthy and active cleanup crew.

 

 

 

My last water tests a few days ago were good, Amm. 0, Nitrite/trate 0, pH 8.0, SG 1.026, Alk. 2.5 mEq/l 7 dKh, Ca. ~200ppm., temp runs 79-80. I'm going to run another set of tests today, and do a 2-4 gallon water change and sand vac. While I'm at it, I'm going to try removing some of the bubble algae with a syringe.

 

 

 

The tank has been running about 6 weeks now and I'm anxious to get some livestock in there! I've been hesitant to add any coral because of the "snow storm" from the cleanup crew. I don't want to see debris in the water settling on top of corals. I've been hoping they would get through all the loose stuff soon and the storm would settle, but it looks just like it did over 2 weeks ago when I added the crew. Anyone's thoughts on this?

 

 

 

I have also hesitated to add a fish, since I haven't decided what I want to keep yet. I have read a few opinions here that corals should be added before fish so I thought I would follow that recommendation. So I wait...

 

 

 

I'll post an update after maintenance today.

 

 

 

- Mike

[seahorsejl]

Sounds like possibly just something wrong with that particular emerald grab. I had a similar thing happen the other day ... added a bicolor blenny and a green clown goby. The clown goby went belly up by morning. The blenny is as happy as can be.

 

You might just try another emerald crab (good price for the one you got!). I have had one in my tank pretty constant and it keeps the bubble algae under control.

[HotRodScamp]

Sounds like possibly just something wrong with that particular emerald grab. I had a similar thing happen the other day ... added a bicolor blenny and a green clown goby. The clown goby went belly up by morning. The blenny is as happy as can be.

 

You might just try another emerald crab (good price for the one you got!). I have had one in my tank pretty constant and it keeps the bubble algae under control.

 

In some ways, I'm going to call this one my fault. First, the LFS I got the crab from was the same one that sold me pre-mixed saltwater for $3.00/gallon that ended up having a SG of 1.005. First RED FLAG! They also usually have a lot of sick/dying fish in their fish systems. Second RED FLAG! And finally, I didn't bother to ask what parameters they keep their tanks at, or check myself. That was just lazy on my part. Live and learn, and don't go back!

 

 

 

I just ran a set of water tests:

 

 

 

SG 1.025 (usually 1.026)

 

Temp 80.5 (never been outside 78-79 before?)

 

pH 8.2 (has been at 8.0 for weeks now?)

 

Ammonia 0

 

Nitrite 0

 

Nitrate 0

 

Alkalinity 2.5 mEq/l 7 dKh

 

Calcium ~200ppm

 

 

 

Although the alk/ca are still low, they've been steady and I have yet to decide what I'm going to do to raise it. I suspect the drop in SG is due to topping off, a water change should help that. I think the temp went up because the chamber the heater was in went low and exposed much of the heater. I moved the heater to the second chamber which maintains a higher water level. The increase in pH is a little puzzling.

 

 

 

I will be doing a sand vac and water change later today. I'll test again tomorrow and see how things are going.

 

 

 

- Mike

[Sea Slug]

You just got a bad one and unless you get a realy severe break out , I would just take the rock out flick off the three bubbles with a tooth pick ( Being careful not to break them , go at them at the base of the rock ) and put the rock back in . Emerald crabs are great for bubble algea , but as time goes on and they need more and more to eat , they can develop a taste for coral . Doesn't always happen but IMO only use a Emerald Crab when bubble algea gets out of control . Remember NEVER TRUST A CRAB ! John

 

Almost forgot , here are the pics of my new RO/DI installed .

[HotRodScamp]

You just got a bad one and unless you get a realy severe break out , I would just take the rock out flick off the three bubbles with a tooth pick ( Being careful not to break them , go at them at the base of the rock ) and put the rock back in . Emerald crabs are great for bubble algea , but as time goes on and they need more and more to eat , they can develop a taste for coral . Doesn't always happen but IMO only use a Emerald Crab when bubble algea gets out of control . Remember NEVER TRUST A CRAB ! John

I agree, bad crab from a bad LFS. All 19 members of my cleanup crew are present and accounted for. I got lucky enough to see 11 hermits all out in the open at the same time. All 3 turbo snails are always visible, and I've seen all 4 nassarius snails in the past 24 hours. The tiny brittle star has a leg out from under his rock at least once a day. If the environment was bad enough to kill an emerald crab overnight, it would surely have impacted these creatures in some way.

 

So we took a ride down to the "good" LFS today to return the Aquapod stand. We left the store with our first two corals, go figure! I am as excited as a kid with a new puppy, and nervous as a new dad

 

My SO picked out the first one, a green and pink ricordea yuma (I think). It looks a little stressed, but it hasn't been in the tank an hour yet. I took a picture in the bag:

 

 

Then I picked out the second one, a small Zoa frag of about 50 polyps. Here it is in the bag:

 

 

I've just put them in the tank, so I'll try to get some more pics once they open up. I know there is much debate about acclimation procedures, so I've decided that I will acclimate my livestock according to the recommendations of the supplier. In this case, the LFS owner recommended 20 minute drip, so that's what I did.

 

- Mike

[HotRodScamp]

Well, after an hour in the tank I got a couple of shots. The ricordea:

 

 

and the Zoas:

 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing them tomorrow. The lights were only on about an hour and a half after they went in, and they were already opening nicely.

 

I picked up B-Ionic 2 part and a new bag of Chemi-pure while I was at the LFS, so next time I do a W/C I'll swap out the Chemi-pure and I'm going to check Ca/Alk and start the B-Ionic.

 

- Mike

[Sea Slug]

Looks like a great start !

[seahorsejl]

Nice coral additions! What is about rics? My wife loves the rics in my tank too .... I think because they remind her an my anemone, which she also liked.

[HotRodScamp]

Looks like a great start !

Thanks! I couldn't be more excited!

 

Nice coral additions! What is about rics? My wife loves the rics in my tank too .... I think because they remind her an my anemone, which she also liked.

Something about chicks and rics... She's wanting to collect every color she can find now to create a "Ricordea Rainbow" I'm sure not complaining

 

I went to zoaid.com to try to identify these and narrowed it down to 2 possible candidates; "Blowpop" or "Eye of Rah". I put the Zoa pic up in the ID forum and got 2 more votes for "Eye of Rah". I really don't care what they're called, except that they're called MINE! "Eye of Rah" sounds really cool though.

 

- Mike

[HotRodScamp]

It's been a week since my last update so here goes... I have been dosing ESV B-Ionic 2 part solution for a week now and my Ca/Alk tests are starting to look better. Todays tests:

 

SG 1.025

Temp 80.9

pH 8.2

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

Alkalinity 3.75 mEq/l 10.5 dKh

Calcium ~260ppm

 

I will continue dosing the B-Ionic part 2 to keep bringing the calcium up to a target of about 400ppm. I did my last water change on Saturday 3/24 and will change again this Saturday. I plan to stay on that schedule now. I am also going to cut back on testing now since things have been very stable. I'll continue testing Ca/Alk as long as I continue dosing, and I will test Nitrate on Saturdays before my water change. I won't be testing for Ammonia or Nitrite unless I have a problem.

 

My Zoas are doing very well after a week. They open nicely in the morning and stay open until after dark. On one side of the colony the base of the polyps appears to be growing on to my rock. I'll be watching this closely! Also, on one side of the Zoas there appears to be some sort of small tube worm growing off the rock. The tube is only about 2mm in diameter and all we have seen of the worm is two tiny tentacles occasionally poking out of the end of the tube. It also seems to put out a long thin string into the water and then pull it back in with stuff stuck to it. It's been neat to watch, but I'm afraid I'll have to remove it. It seems that when it's "line" is out, it irritates the surrounding polyps. Does anyone know what this might be?

 

The Ricordea doesn't seem to be faring quite as well. It didn't seem to like the first spot we put it in. It seemed to be getting a little flow underneath it and was curling up on that side. After a couple of days we moved it to lower current and it seemed to lay out flat and look better. Next day, same thing, curling up on one side. Today I moved it down to the substrate to see if it would like that better, but still it's curled on one side. Anybody have any thoughts on this? I'm going to leave it where it is for a week or so and see if it settles down.

 

I almost forgot... I have an "outbreak" of Copepods! They are all over the glass and the back of the tank as well as floating everywhere! Maybe there's a 6-line wrasse in my future?

 

Now for the big news... I got my ReefKeeper 2 today!!! Of course I took a few pictures

 

Fresh out of the box:

 

This was the temporary wiring from the tank to under the cabinet:

 

Here's where it went. To a power strip in the bottom of the cabinet directly under the tank.

 

Here is the power controller mounted under the right side of the double cabinet:

 

Here it is all wired up:

 

This is the wiring from the back of the tank through a plastic grommet I installed in the counter top behind the tank:

 

This is below the grommet at the back of the right side cabinet. These drip-loops land behind the drawer and right side cabinet:

 

And this is all you can see now!

 

I calibrated the pH probe and it matches my readings from the IO tests exactly. I've been reading 8.2 all week, and the ReefKeeper says it's 8.19. My thermometer on the other hand was reading 80.0 and the reefkeeper is reading 81.1. I'm going to connect it to a PC and run the data logger application later.

 

I'll post an update soon..

 

- Mike

[seahorsejl]

The Ricordea doesn't seem to be faring quite as well. It didn't seem to like the first spot we put it in. It seemed to be getting a little flow underneath it and was curling up on that side. After a couple of days we moved it to lower current and it seemed to lay out flat and look better. Next day, same thing, curling up on one side. Today I moved it down to the substrate to see if it would like that better, but still it's curled on one side. Anybody have any thoughts on this? I'm going to leave it where it is for a week or so and see if it settles down.

 

Very nice! Man, you are going all out with this tank, ReefKeeper and all

 

As for the rics, yeah with mine I have found they are picking on the location and flow. They definitely do not like too much flow. I have all of mine on the sand bed next to the rocks, and they seem pretty content. I moved one last night as it wasn't looking as good as the rest (moved it closer to another one that was looking good). I would do as you are planning, leave it where it is at for a while. Also, they will curl up some if they capture something and are trying to eat it (happens when I feed mysis to my fish and some fall on the rics). Maybe your caught one of the many Copepods

 

Speaking of Copepods, I wouldn't worry about getting a specific fish for them ... once you start adding any fish, their numbers will decrease.

[HotRodScamp]

Very nice! Man, you are going all out with this tank, ReefKeeper and all

 

As for the rics, yeah with mine I have found they are picking on the location and flow. They definitely do not like too much flow. I have all of mine on the sand bed next to the rocks, and they seem pretty content. I moved one last night as it wasn't looking as good as the rest (moved it closer to another one that was looking good). I would do as you are planning, leave it where it is at for a while. Also, they will curl up some if they capture something and are trying to eat it (happens when I feed mysis to my fish and some fall on the rics). Maybe your caught one of the many Copepods

 

Speaking of Copepods, I wouldn't worry about getting a specific fish for them ... once you start adding any fish, their numbers will decrease.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I'm going all-out And still not finished! Next up is going to be an auto top-off and water change system. As for my comment on the six-line, I didn't mean to get one to take care of the copepods, but rather that since I have a good population of pods, I can take on a fish who will appreciate them

 

That ricordea is still not happy. Since I moved it to the sand bed yesterday it almost completely separated from its rock. While I was doing a water change today I moved it yet again to about the lowest current spot in the tank that's not in the dark. It looked a little better after the tank cleared up, but since the lights have gone out tonight it's curled up to almost a ball. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

 

The zoanthids are looking great! I was watching some kind of tube worm on the rock with the zoas that I described in an earlier post. Today while I was changing water I decided to remove it. The tube was about 1/2 inch tall and hard and at the base of it on the rock it was curly like it had been squeezed out of a tube. I used tweezers to pluck it off the rock. The previously aggravated zoas around it all look plump and happy now.

 

Today’s water change was my first "regularly scheduled" weekly maintenance. Before I started I tested for Nitrate, zero. That tells me that the current load is well under what a weekly water change schedule will support. I also tested Ca/Alk which I have been doing every day. Alkalinity is still low at 3.25, my target is 4.00. Calcium is also still low at about 260ppm. After the water change I did my daily dose of B-Ionic 2-part. I'll continue dosing and testing this week and see what it's going to take to get these levels up and keep them there.

 

Now that I have the ReefKeeper set up, I've been watch in the pH throughout the day. In the morning it gets down to 8.08 - 8.10 and by evening it gets up to around 8.18 - 8.20. I'm happy with that. The temp gets down to 78 at night and the ReefKeeper runs the heater on and off to keep it there. When the lights come on the temp starts to climb at a rate of about .5 degrees per hour for 4-5 hours and then stabilizes at around 80.0 - 80.2 until the lights go out. I'm happy with that for now too.

 

I took out the rock that has some bubble algae growing on it and put it in a bucket of saltwater and picked off about 75% of it, rinsed it and replaced it. I am curious to see how it reacts, if it comes back at the same rate it was growing before, comes back stronger, or weaker. I want to solve the bubble algae problem long-term, so I don't have to keep dealing with it all the time.

 

Taking out that rock also allowed me to vacuum up a bunch of junk that had collected around and under it. Every water change I've done in the last six weeks has resulted in a nice layer of brown mud in the bottom of the bucket I siphon into. I think the majority of this has come from the massive die-off I had on the rock when I got it, and a lot I think is just the finer particles from the live sand I used. And of course the cleanup crew has added a surprising amount of waste to the tank. Another item of weekly maintenance has been to change the poly media I am using in chamber 3, which has been loaded with gunk every time.

 

I still haven't done the final plumbing for the sink drain and the tap water feed and RO wastewater. I am very hesitant to knock a hole in the side of my house without being absolutely positive that's where it needs to be. So today I ran the feed and drain for the RO through the window so I could make some water. I ran it until the storage tank was full and then drained it completely. It seems like the 4-gallon storage tank only had about 2 1/2 gallons in it. I let it fill again and put a gallon of RO in my top-off container. Finally I filled the saltwater reservoir tank and again there was only about 2 gallons from the storage tank. It took almost an hour to put out another gallon to make my 3 gallon water change. I may need to increase the feed pressure to get more output water into the storage tank.

 

Now for the auto top-off and water change system I'm planning! I'm going to use a 2 gallon reservoir fed from the RO system by a float valve and the Tunze Osmolator auto top-off system. I'm also going to pipe in a 5 gallon reservoir from the RO with a pump and heater to mix salt water for water changes in, and pipe it up to the tank.

 

The ATO system should be about maintenance free by feeding it straight from the RO via a float valve. I'm evaporating about 1/2 cup a day now, and that will increase some in the summer. I'll set the float valve to keep about a gallon in the ATO reservoir, enough for about a month worth of top-offs. I might consider adding the Tunze calcium dispenser to this later on.

 

The water change system should be very simple too. I'll have two valves coming off a pump in the reservoir, one will be a "closed-loop" for mixing salt, and the other one will be a feed to the tank. Then I'll have a ball valve from the RO to fill the water change reservoir. Close the tank feed valve and open the closed loop valve, add salt and flip a switch to turn on the pump and heater.

 

While the salt is mixing and the water coming up to temperature, I can vacuum out the tank directly into the sink. I'm going to mark the tank at various water levels, between 2 and 5 gallons, I'll also mark the water change reservoir at the same levels so I can simply match the amount I siphon off with the amount I mixed in the reservoir.

 

Then shut off the pump/heater switch, close the closed-loop valve, open the tank feed valve an turn it back on to refill the tank. I'm looking at an effortless water change in 20 minutes with nothing to clean up or put away. Hopefully I can get to this project in the next week or so.

 

Lest we forget that this will again add to my running total of "the financial impact of a 12 gallon box of wet rocks". There have only been a few entries in the log since I last updated it here. I spent $25 at the hardware store while I was installing the ReefKeeper, and my LFS trip that resulted in my first two corals was another $25, plus the $65 in store credit from my original stand. And a few odds and ends like superglue. My total spent stands at $1478.50, or about $125/gallon. The ATO and water change system will cost somewhere around $250 and if I add the calcium dispenser that'll add another $100. Next I'm sure I'll have to buy an air conditioner for my rocks (they call it a "chiller", huh). That'll pile another $300 on to the bill. I keep wondering how much you can really spend on a nano

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but there's just so much going on with this little project it's tough to keep it all straight in my head! That's why I started this thread, so I don't have to remember all this stuff. Until next time...

 

- Mike

[HotRodScamp]

Not much going on. Ca/Alk are slowly coming up, Alk 3.5 mEq/l 9.8 dKh and Ca 280ppm today. Will continue dosing B-Ionic. The ricordea seems to be settling in to it's new spot. Every time I top off I'm itching for an ATO system. Maybe next weekend

 

- Mike

[Gerber77]

The last frags you got are sweet.

[HotRodScamp]

The last frags you got are sweet.

 

Thanks! They're doing great. At least the Zoas are. The Ricordea still seems pretty cranky.

 

 

Everything else is going along fine. All the crabs are always busy, I see the starfish legs poking out from under the rockwork almost every day. The turbo snails are always around, but they seem to sleep a lot. I don't see much of the nassarius snails, but I understand that is to be expected. I do see two distinctly different ones from time to time, so of everything I've put in so far I can account for all but 2 nassarius.

 

Alkalinity still at 3.5 mEq/l, but Ca is up to ~310ppm now. I will continue to dose and test until I get to 4.0 mEq/l and ~400ppm. Once I get there I'll stop the B-Ionic and continue testing to see how the levels fall. This should tell me what kind of regular dosing of B-Ionic I might need.

 

Last night I got around to hooking up a pc to the ReefKeeper 2. No luck. First I had to upgrade the firmware to get the data logging feature. That went fine, I downloaded it and it installed with no problems. But the data logging application gets no data from the device. I finally emailed Digital Aquatics tech support.

 

Today I got an email back from Scott at Digital Aquatics asking for a phone number where I could be reached. He called a while later and spent a half hour on the phone with me troubleshooting the problem. I appears the unit is defective. I have to give them a $100 deposit and they'll send a new unit. I'll replace it and send the old one back and get the $100 back. Very nice personal service and I don't mind the deposit too much

 

I'm itching for upgrades/mods/additions or livestock Auto top-off and water change system is probably next. I'm thinking refugium in the back chamber too...

 

Until next time.

 

- Mike

[HotRodScamp]

So, my girl came home today and said "Want to go to the fish store and buy something for the tank?" Does a fish have gills? So off we went to the LFS.

 

There was a nice looking pink Zoa colony for the unfortunate price of $69:

 

Then we saw 2 polyps of a bright green Zoa sitting in the sand. We offered $5 for it and struck the deal! Turns out it has about 5 polyps:

 

I wanted a piece of Xenia, so I pointed one out and told 'em to throw it in. I was already at the register when he told me it was $35! OMG! Oh well, lesson learned.

 

 

Then while I was standing at the register, I noticed a Tunze Osmolator ATO sitting on the shelf! I asked for a price and was told $179.99. I told him if he'd knock 10 bucks off, I'd buy it. He agreed!

 

Here's all the stuff that comes with it:

 

Not much room for it in the AP12, but I think I can get it to fit. It comes with PLENTY of brackets and hardware to set it up almost anywhere.

 

This is how I configured the sensors. One over the other on a single bracket:

 

It fits!

 

And here is the feed line from the pump back to the tank:

 

And a shot of the controller and reservior:

 

 

While we were there I picked up a jar of Coral Vibrance that I've heard good things about, as well as a frozen bar or cyclopeze. I ordered 2 bottles of pH calibration solution on eBay yesterday, but I decided to pick up 2 packets today so I can get calibrated now. So that little trip added another $341.38 to my running total, now up to $1880

 

I'll snap a few shots of the corals once they open up and post them later tonight.

 

- Mike

[HotRodScamp]

Pictures after an hour in the tank.

 

Pink Zoas. I don't know what they're called yet:

 

Green Zoas. I can't name these yet either, but I think they're probably common:

 

Xenia. I put these right in the path of the Hydor Flo, so they get a pretty hard current about every 10 seconds. I wonder how they'll like that?

 

After the white lights went out, my girl caught this great shot of our Zoas:

 

It hasn't been two months yet and I'm really happy with the progress of the tank. Next up will be my water change system, and I STILL haven't done the drain plumbing for the sink. I just can't seem to bring myself to knock a hole in the side of the house. I'll do it soon. I've also picked out the light I am going to use for a refugium in the back chamber. It's the Coralife Mini Aqualight 18W 6700K. So I'll probably do that soon since it's cheap. Of course the hot summer is already bearing down on me and will probably force me to get a chiller. So far I've got $157/gallon into this project.

 

- Mike

[HotRodScamp]

I caught a full tank shot last night that I thought was pretty cool

 

 

As could be expected, my hermit crabs are becoming a pain. Since I added my second batch of corals the other day, the crabs seem to be all over all the corals. The biggest hermit in the bunch completely knocked over all 3 zoas I have. So he went to the LFS. It was one of the two Mexican red-tipped hermits. I swapped him for another red-tipped that was much smaller.

 

I also did my first feeding yesterday with the Coral Vibrance I picked up. Everything seemed to really love it. The zoas closed up completely after just s few seconds. The 'Eye of Rah' zoas came back out after a few minutes in their full glory. The pinks didn't come back for almost two hours. The xenia layed out almost flat and stopped pulsing for about 10 minutes. And all the crabs and snails in the tank showed up and seemed quite frenzied. So I dropped a few flakes of food on the sand and the crabs all went to town. Overall it was quite exciting!

 

Last night I heard the ATO run for about 15 seconds. It was right about 5 minutes after the white lights went out. That makes sense that the water level would be at its lowest at the end of the light cycle. I also get a kick out of the high water level alarm going off when I put my hand in the tank. I'm really glad I bought a good ATO, it definitely gives me peace of mind.

 

I'm still dosing B-Ionic 2-part every day trying to bring up the Ca/Alk. The last two days it seems to have leveled out at 3.25 mEq/l Alk and ~300ppm Ca. and tomorrow will be my weekly water change. I'm going to keep dosing the recommended amount and testing next week to see how it goes. Slow and steady...

 

I started trying to see the light at the end of the financial tunnel I've been in since I started the tank. If you've been reading this thread you'd see that I've already been relieved of $1880. So I decided to take a look forward at what else will be coming my way to drain my wallet further.

 

I am going to buy the Nimble Super magnet cleaner for $20. The mini Mag-float I bought just isn't cutting it. Also going to get the Coralife Mini Aqualight for a refugium for about $32. I have a patch of fairly thick brown/green algae on the back wall which tells me two things. One is that there are nutrients to feed it, that's why I want to set up a 'fuge. And two there may not be enough flow along the back wall, so for $15 I think I'll add a mini-jet 404 in-tank for better circulation around the back. I've got about $100 to spend on various plumbing supplies (sink drain, water change system) and I need an extra heater for my W/C system for about $30. I need a piece of egg crate for about $6.

 

I would like to do a DIY in-hood metal halide upgrade which will likely relieve me of about $200. Then that will probably force me to get a chiller for $300. And finally, I may try a fission skimmer with a rio 600 for about $50. There's a thread here about someone who had good results with the fission by replacing the pump. Since there's no real alternative, it's worth a shot. That's about another $750 all together. So without any more livestock that would put me up to about $2650. I could easily see spending another $350 on livestock to round it off to $3000.

 

I think three grand gets you about as hooked up as you can get with a 12 gallon tank. Of course I'll continue to keep this thread updated so we can all see where this really ends up.

 

- Mike

[seahorsejl]

Crazy! Just plain crazy! (How much we spend on these "tiny" tanks )

 

Nice recent additions! I have some of those green zoas (got them from Ebin on this forum), and they are by far my favorites.

 

I think the $350 is a very conservative number for new live stock additions

 

The tank is looking great, just watch that hair algae, as it can very easily get out of control. But it sounds like you already have plans.

 

So you are liking the B-Ionic 2 part solution? I will probably have to start dosing soon, as I have a big influx of LPS coming this week for my tank

[saltman123]

Those numbers are definitely scary!!!:)jk.

 

I am considering a lot of the same things you've done, and are considering. I really want to do the 70W Metal Halide upgrade, but as you already mentioned that forces a chiller.

 

Think the Fission skimmer will actually work with the Rio? I read that on the boards too and am considering it but don't want to waste the cash on a paper weight. Thoughts?

[HotRodScamp]

Crazy! Just plain crazy! (How much we spend on these "tiny" tanks )

This has turned into a bit of an experiment. How well will a 12g all-in-one do over the course of time if you buy/do everything you can for it? Pretty soon I should reach the point of having bought everything I possibly can for this tank!

 

 

Nice recent additions! I have some of those green zoas (got them from Ebin on this forum), and they are by far my favorites.

 

I think the $350 is a very conservative number for new live stock additions

Thanks! My girl really likes the greens. Not to mention that we got the (now 3 open one hasn't) polyps for $5! If we could keep making deals like that, that $350 wouldn't be quite as conservative. We just went fantasy shopping for corals on line and picked out nearly $1000 worth. Little by little I guess...

 

 

The tank is looking great, just watch that hair algae, as it can very easily get out of control. But it sounds like you already have plans.

Every 2 days or so I see a turbo snail blast through about 30% of it, and it seems to grow back in about the same amount. I think if I get a refugium going it will take up enough of the nutrients to starve off the little GHA that's there.

 

 

So you are liking the B-Ionic 2 part solution? I will probably have to start dosing soon, as I have a big influx of LPS coming this week for my tank

I'm not really sure about the B-Ionic. The part-1 in the recommended dose raises my pH by .12 in just a matter of seconds. That can't be good. Also, my Alk/Ca are still low after 2 weeks of daily dosing. I stopped the last few days, and my Ca is rising a little. Yesterday I hit over 300ppm Ca for the first time. I'll continue testing to see where it goes. Now I'm thinking about getting a magnesium test to see where that is and how it relates to my low Ca/Alk.

 

 

 

 

Those numbers are definitely scary!!!:)jk.

 

I am considering a lot of the same things you've done, and are considering. I really want to do the 70W Metal Halide upgrade, but as you already mentioned that forces a chiller.

I am in Florida, so in another month it's going to be very hot here. That'll probably force me into a chiller anyway. If it does, I figure I might as well go with the lighting upgrade too. I'm expecting the light/chiller/pump/plumbing will probably set me back about $650-700. At the beginning of this thread I had myself convinced that such a small tank couldn't possibly cost that much money!

 

 

Think the Fission skimmer will actually work with the Rio? I read that on the boards too and am considering it but don't want to waste the cash on a paper weight. Thoughts?

Well, the way I figure, since I've gone all-out on this setup, what's another $50? I set up a Fission Nano on a customers tank when they first came out and for the few hours I got to see it, it poured green/brown gunk out of the top of it. The only reason I haven't bought one yet is all the negatives I've read here. I will certainly post my results here when I do try it. Probably in a couple of weeks.

 

 

Not very much to update. A crab knocked my 'Eye of Rah" into the sand a few night ago, and the polyps that were in the sand seem to have taken a real beating and they haven't quite come back yet. It seems like the colony has 2 distinctly different morphs on it, and the damage seems to have affected one morph and not the other. The undamaged polyps appear to be growing like mad! One small branch of my Xenia colony folded over last night. Looks like a broken tree branch. Maybe a crab crawled over it? The polyps on the broken branch are still pulsing away, so I'm not going to mess with it. I'll just watch it and see what it does. I'll bet it just grows in that direction. I also had a turbo snail fall over upside-down and (drowned?). I tried to leave it there a while to let the crabs and nassarius have a chance to eat it, but they just checked it out and didn't seem to eat any, so I tossed it a few hours after I found it. It also looks like I lost a scarlet red leg last week. I saw what I thought was a molt, but there was nothing but legs, the usual "fluffy" body covering wasn't there and it looked like it had been pulled down into the sand. I guess occasional "changes" in cleanup crew are pretty normal, though.

 

I've ordered more stuff!! I ordered the plumbing supplies for my water change system, a light for a refugium and a Mini-jet 404 powerhead to add to the flow in the back of the tank. The stuff should arrive on Tuesday and I will get right down to it and take plenty of photos. This order added $127.07 to my running total, now at a whopping $2006.50! More updates soon...

 

- Mike

[HotRodScamp]

One more project down! Today I plumbed the sink drain and the feed to the RO/DI so my system is now fully operational. I can't wait to do my water change tomorrow so I can siphon directly into the sink! This is slowly turning into a very convenient system I took some pictures while I was doing it, but I don't know if there are any that I should post here. After all it is just a hole in the wall.

 

I'll get my order from Fosters and Smith on Tuesday, and then I'll have 2 more projects to do. The water change system and refugium are next on the list.

 

I mentioned in my last post that a branch of mt new Xenia had bent over like a broken branch. That night the entire branch just melted away but the rest of the Xenia looks fine. I suspect a crab may have crawled over it and broken it. I may start removing hermits from the tank now. They've done their job, now they're just a PITA.

 

More updates this week!

 

- Mike

[LucasP604]

Are you getting any fish?

[HotRodScamp]

Are you getting any fish?

 

We're thinking about saving fish for last, once we have the tank fully populated with coral. Then maybe a goby/pistol pair, thinking about a 6-line wrasse, otherwise maybe a single perc clown (there's a 9-year-old girl in the house). I don't plan on "pushing it" as far as bio-load.

 

- Mike