Alex's 20h

[alexmurovec]

Hello everyone, I have made a couple of forums over the last while and no one seemed to reply. I am going to make this forum and it will be my official tank process forum. Just to give some background, i have a 20H aqarium and am making a cusom internal overflow system as a type of filtration. Today, i was able to get a start on it and spray painted the back of the aqarium gloss black and siliconed my overflow in place. I will let the silicone heal over a couple of days and then i am ready to add water.

 

for lighting, i have a 65W 50/50 Compact Flouresant fixutre, i know its nothing to special, but i am going to start off easy and small. For filtration i have a rio 600 pump that puts out 200gph, which is going to be my internal overflow pump. I also am going to use a aquaclear 300 HOB filter for extra flow rate and possibly turn it into a fuge with a fuge light and cheato down the road. I still need to acquire a heater as well. I have salt, a hyrdometer, master test kit, thermometer and all i need now is the sand and live rock...sound right?

 

I do have a few questions that need to be answered before i add water to the tank in a couple of days. I was told by our trusty local pet store owner to put my water and salt in the tank and let it dissolve for a day or so until i add sand and live rock, correct? I can then add live rock and right after that the sand, right? One more question, while i am cycling, is there anything you would recommend to put in the aquaclear filter, any type of media, or should i make it a fuge right away? For the record, i plan on having some filter floss in the overflow just to catch all the particles that are going to come off of the surface of the water, otherwise, the dirty particles will not be filtered and will just be pumped back into the water.

 

i have done alot of research and hopefully i have a decent understanding of how i should go about starting my tank. If you guys have any suggestions or anything, please let me know. Much appreciated, alex.

 

Oh, and heres the good stuff; some pictures of the process. Stay tuned for lots more...

 

 

 

 

[Spilo26]

Why the overflo if your not using a sump?

[alexmurovec]

hey, thanks for the question. Alot of people seem to ask the same thing. See if i have this overflow box, everyone looks alot cleaner and sleeker. I can put my HOB intake pipe in this box, my heater in this box, and my pump acting as a powerhead in this box. This way, in the main display, all you will see is the box in the corner and the output that is mounted to one of the sides of the overflow box. Make sense?

[alexmurovec]

anyone!?!?

 

well, i plan on putting water in the tank tomorrow after the silicone is cured. I am going to run my filters with just some salt water in the tank until i get back from a short vacation this weekend. I will be in Vancouver area and live rock is alot cheaper there than in my smaller hometown. There are a few nice pet stores there, and a big als as well. Question is, do you think live rock can stand a 5 hour drive home at the most? And, the water will be fine to add liverock and live sand when i get home right? Parameters will be steady as all it will be in the tank is RO water and salt? Thanks.

[Matty1124]

if your running a HOB i would put the floss in there... and if that is black acrylic i would put some chaeto in there if it gets light... just build your self a little egg crate divider with your pump.... i think the LR will be ok just try and keep it wet with a few pages of news paper soaked in tank water, and if you can keep it in a styrofoam (sp?) cooler with a heat pack to try and keep it warm... and yes you can put it in the tank right away to begin your cycle... the over flow looks great by the way should keep your surface free of scum... great start

[alexmurovec]

thats what i was ultimately going for, to keep the surface free of any bacteria buildup making it ugly would be nice. I did originally thing that i should put the floss in the HOB too, but then what is going to catch the scum off the surface in the overflow box...live rock and cheato? If i were to put cheato in there, some of my light from the main light unit should shine into the overflow, or at least enough to seed the cheato. I would assume the fish store that i buy the live rock from will have shipping boxes and what not that should keep the live rock alive. Anyways, i appreciate the reply and comments on my build Matty. I'll post some more pics after this weekend when i have the rock, sand and water in place.

[Withers]

I'm looking but I don't see anywhere that water can enter the fake overflow except from the top. If this is the case you should consider drilling some holes midway through and at the bottom to avoid a likely disaster with a heater running dry

 

Otherwise great idea!

 

P.S. Don't forget that rock displaces water so you should make sure your tank is no more than 3/4 full of water before adding rock. Also, keep in mind that when you add the sand the water will become extremely cloudy (unless you want to add the water last, which we can show you a way that it won't become cloudy), so make sure you have your aquascape how you want it before doing so.

[alexmurovec]

hey, good point. I just planned on having the water overflow on the top. I didn't really see a point for drilling slots along the top of the plexi glass. But your saying i should drill holes at the bottom so even if it doesn't overflow the level of the overflow will not decrease with water evaporation so that the heater does not run dry?

 

oh, and by the way. Should i buy some cheato when i am in vancouver this weekend because no where in town has it. Or is cheato something i should add after a cycle?

[Withers]

Right. How you have it set up now, if water evaporates to a level below the top of the overflow, your powerhead will simply pump all of the water out of it till the water level is filled back up to the top and it can run back into it. By drilling holes in the middle and the bottom you're saving yourself the trouble because water will enter it from multiple points, so the main water level is less crucial.

 

Its hard to explain without pictures, but thats about the best I can do. Just imagine in your head what would happen if the water drops below the top of the overflow.

[alexmurovec]

ok, i understand what you mean. But isn't the point to circulate the water in the tank? This way water only overflows over teh top, then is pumped back into the bottom of the tank. Would this not give the tank the most movement? When water does evaporate, it will not appear to be evaporating in the main display, but only in the overflow box. So as long as i make sure the water in my overflow box is at the desired level i should be fine, right? I do plan on doing 10% water changes each week so i wont fall behind on checking water levels. Just my thinking.

[nanoty]

That's what he is talking about. If you just have the top over flow and it starts to evap you wont notice it in the main tank until the pump starts to run dry. Doesn't have to be a huge hole just enought to let some water in. You will still get a lot of over flow and regardless of where the water enters it will still be circulated with the pump. If it's open top you will be suprised by how much water can evap. When my cube was without top for a while I had to top off almost every other day to keep the pump from running dry. Anyways, it looks like a great start. That is a cool size tank to use. Keep the thread updated.

[Withers]

ok, i understand what you mean. But isn't the point to circulate the water in the tank? This way water only overflows over teh top, then is pumped back into the bottom of the tank. Would this not give the tank the most movement? When water does evaporate, it will not appear to be evaporating in the main display, but only in the overflow box. So as long as i make sure the water in my overflow box is at the desired level i should be fine, right? I do plan on doing 10% water changes each week so i wont fall behind on checking water levels. Just my thinking.

 

No you're right. What I'm talking about acts as a sort of safety net. Since you can't see into the overflow very well you'll have a tough time knowing where the water level is inside it.

 

Another good thing to throw in there (if there's room) is an auto-topoff switch to keep evaporation in check.

[alexmurovec]

well the auto top off isn't really an option. Although i will be using our home RO unit, it will not be directly hooked up to the tank. I will just be making water in a bucket a couple days before i need to do a water change.

 

I understand that i will not be able to monitor the water level through the main display, but only if i look in the overflow. I do have a glass top, but if water does evaporate that fast it would probably be easiest just to add an additional intake hole at the bottom of the overflow box.

 

One last question for the time being; can i add some cheato and the live rock rubble in the overflow box from day one, or should i wait after i see a cycle to add liverock and cheato in the overflow box?

[epicfish]

I had a project for a 10 gallon too. What I ended up doing was making an acrylic wall in the back along the length of the tank. It took up some real estate in my tank, but when I got the acrylic laser-cut, it had notches to act as a skimmer. I then hid my heather, powerheads, cheato, and LR rubble in behind that wall. That's something else you might want to consider?

 

I had the acrylic laser-cut for two return holes, one on either side of the tank which allowed me to have much more flow while still keeping it looking clean. You don't even see the second powerhead in the tank. One return was higher with a loc-line nozzle aimed upwards at the water, and the other return was lower near the sandbed with a nozzle to blow across the sandbed to help clear it of debris.

 

I only make this suggestion because you're concerned about esthetics and I just wanted to throw the idea out there.

 

It looks like you have a good start though. I had chaeto and LR rubble since the first day to help the cycle if that helps you any.

[alexmurovec]

epicfish, i appreciate your reply. I had thought about doing something like that, but then did not want to take up too much room in my tank. Afterall, it is only 1 foot deep. My one pump is going to feed one output acting as a powerhead and then my HOB will direct the water flow down to contribute and hopefully have no dead spots. I have already siliconed everything together and will be adding water tomorrow, so going back and changing everything isn't really an option. I hope your tank is running smoothly and you had a fun time building it.

 

Oh, and thats for the answer on the cheato. Since i am goign to vancouver i am going to buy some then because i cannot find any in my smaller hopetown. Take it easy, Alex.

[alexmurovec]

hey, well i sure haven't forgot about this forum, i'm just waiting to fill it up with water and get some live rock from out of town this weekend. I also plan on buying some cheato and putting it in the overflow box from day one. My question is, can i just run my main lighting and have it spill over a little bit into the overflow box. Will this be enough light for the cheato to grow? I have seen people grow cheato on a reverse light schedule than the main tank, is this a must do, or can i run it on the same cycle as the main tank?

 

I put some pictures below to kind of show you what i mean by the main light spilling over into the overflow box. It is hard to get a perspective from these photos though. Any suggestions would help.

 

 

[yankeereefer]

I wouldn't put any LR or Chaeto in the actual overflow compartment -

 

LR and cheato put off junk (chaeto fragments periodically) that will clog the pump and AC filter intakes in your overflow and reduce flow through both

 

Put the LR and macro in your AC fuge with your heater

 

As for fuge lighting, check this thread

 

HTH

Yankee

[alexmurovec]

hey guys, well i just got back from out of town with my live rock, live rock rubble, live aragonite, and some cheato. I setup the tank, and by the way, aquascaping a nice tank is impossible! Haha, it took me so long to get the rocks sturdy and looking decent, but i guess i can always change it in the next couple of days. So after i put the rock in, i put the live aragonite in. It said rinse on the bag but i didn't know if it had to be rinsed with saltwater, so i just put it in the tank. The bags purpose of rinsing was to reduce any little particles that would cloud the water, so that will dissapear in time during the cycle anyways. What does scare me, but it's probably normal, is that there is foam all around the top of the tank from the substrate i'm guessing. I put a decent amount of filter floss so hopefully it will clear up. I posted some pictures of how it looked about 5 minutes after i added the substrate.

 

P.S. would it be ok just to run a desk lamp over my cheato and LR rubble i have in my aquaclear until i get a better light?

 

pictures...

 

 

[Tangman1218]

Hey Alex, whats up? I see you got yur project underway.

And whats with the first post with you whining saying no one helped you! HUH!

 

I cant believe you didnt rinse off the sand my man! If youve got it, put an HOB filter on it and it will clear it up pretty fast. If you have something that pushes around 300-500 gallons an hour, it will clear it up pretty quick and help to get rid of that scum youve got on the surface.

 

As to the light, I'll let you in on a little secret. I know someone who grows Cheato with a regular 75 or 100 watt light bulb. Most phenomenal cheato growth Ive ever seen. So in answer to yur question, use what youve got.

 

Tang

[alexmurovec]

hey tangman, no help with the acception to you of course. Only person i can thank is you right now, haha. I am currently running a pump that does 200 gph in the overflow system and then i have a aquaclear HOB that is running at 300gph with some floss in it. Would it have been ok if i rinsed the sand with freshwater? To tell you the truth, i really had no idea. Are there any downsides later down the road to not rinsing it, or just the fact that it will cloud at beginning?

 

Thanks for the fact on the light, i think i'm going to get a little smaller more sleek desk lamp but thats good to know that i can use that until i pick up a different one. I've read its good to throw in a compact flouresant bulb in there too. You know, the ones that screw into incadesant light sockets.

 

Thanks again for your help, Alex.

 

for the record; the rock i got was awesome! It had some live coraline on it, some dead white coraline on it. Theres lots of little critters i saw on it, and lots of polyps that could potentially grow on it. Then there is a huge dead looking sun coral, its got the same shape to it, and is like 4 inches by 4 inches. Now, i know most of this stuff will probably die when i go through the cycle, but i'll take some pictures of it all when it clears up tomorrow.

[alexmurovec]

ok, so heres an update. My tank this morning was clear, but there was still foam all over the tank along the surface of the tank, sticking to the top of the glass where there was no water to swish it away. I just replaced all my filter floss and some fog from there made it dirty again, but now its clearing up pretty quick. Now since i was dumb and didn't rinse my gravel, i have been stirring it up every so often and hoping the HOB will pick it up and it wont just settle back down. Do you guys think this is a good method of at least getting all of the dust out of there before i have the tank up and running? Right now it doesn't mater to me if its cloudy for a few days but is it bad for the tank? Thanks as always.

[alexmurovec]

i feel like the only person in this forum, haha. Well the tank has cleared up, and the foam is all gone. I've been dusting the sand off of the rock from when i put the sand in. Maybe its normal, but when i stir up any sand off the rocks or on the main substrate it gets super foggy, to the point where i cannot see my back wall. This could probably be because i haven't rinsed my substrate, i'm hoping this will not continue to happen throughout the life of my tank. Tonight i'm going to test the water and take some pictures of my rockwork. Right now i have 20 pounds of live rock and i think i could use one more piece to finish it off. Bye for now.

[Tangman1218]

Itll be fine Alex. Dont disturb it anymore than you have to. Eventually, most of it will slowly enter the water column via sand sifters and be flushed out. If you want to speed it up a little more, on yur next water change, swish it around a little and do the water change. After that, dont swish anymore. Youll begin to disturb the beneficial bacteria in the sand after that. More pics now that its cleared up please

 

Tang

[alexmurovec]

My tank is almost 100% clear so i will take some quick pictures. I have so many little unknown coral polyps and i saw a little hermit or something and i think i might have a star fish. I'll do the best with taking the photos but i'll have to play around with some settings and get the pics on there within the hour.

 

By the way, i have lots of sand in the cracks and crevices of the rock, i'm thinkin of using a little powerhead to clean off the rock. Do you have any good methods for that?

 

Pics will be up super soon!

[alexmurovec]

well here are some pictures. For how quickly i took them, i think they turned out ok. The focus was a little hard to get at certain distances with my little digi cam because its not really made for macros. But no more words...