My Cadlight 25g Project

[TR3XX]

thanks cosmic! keep us posted on your tank as well.

 

i went to CFC today to scope out their inventory. lots of good finds. i hope the line won't be too outrageous. they said only 10 people will be allowed in at a time. =/

[Ryanhdd]

looking real good. You might want to get your Ca up to around 450. I was looking at the same chiller but at this moment opted for the Aqua Control JR. Still waiting to get it. It might get here next week. Frogspawn looks good and yeah the torch just keep an eye on it. I saw some yesterday and almost got it, but opted to wait till i see about getting a BTA in a few months. Then a pair of clowns. LOVE THE WATCHMAN. I want one of those too. How is he. Does he build burrows and have you thought about giving him a pistol shrimp friend. They have a really cool relationship at least i think its the pistol shrimp i might be wrong so dont quote me on that. Looks real good. I too have thought about getting lock line and doing that mod for my tank. looks like yours came with it. Lucky. I got two hydor korilias the 1 and 2. really nice they have really done a great job and really recommend them. Keep it up bro.

[TR3XX]

thanks ryann!

 

i'm starting to dose Ca sups to get it up. so far it's about low 400s. i think another week i should be up to 450.

 

my chiller is still sitting in its box. i haven't had the need for it since my fan is now hooked up to my reefkeeper 2. it's able to come on/off according to temperature and is able to keep my tank at a steady 78*.

 

the reefkeeper 2 is my favorite piece of equipment i've purchased so far. it makes everything so much easier to control.

 

i'll probably hook up my chiller once temps get really hot around here. we'll see how it performs. i have a eheim compact 1000 pump ready to go.

 

i guess i should post some new pics of my tank. since my last update, i've added a pair of ocellaris clowns, a six line wrasse, and a pistol shrimp for my YWG.

 

the YWG/PS pair are quite entertaining. they paired up within 1 hour of meeting each other and have not left each other's side since. the only thing that's kinda annoying is the PS will make a mess in your tank. he digs and digs everywhere. it took him a few days to finally settle on a burrow that he likes.

 

i have a koralia 2 running now in the tank. i had a tunze 6025 in there prior but felt the flow was too directed and strong. the koralia 2 definitely has good wider flow.

[cosmic1981]

thanks cosmic! keep us posted on your tank as well.

 

i went to CFC today to scope out their inventory. lots of good finds. i hope the line won't be too outrageous. they said only 10 people will be allowed in at a time. =/

 

do they let you pre-order?

10 people in at a time? that would be pretty lame...

anyways. my tank is leaking right now =(

[TR3XX]

checking in with a few updates.

 

thanks for stopping by.

 

[Ryanhdd]

looks real good man. the goby i love him. looks real real real real real good.

[TR3XX]

thanks ryan. the YWG is pretty much my fav fish atm.

[Ryanhdd]

is that a shrimp with your ywg. If that is. I am soooo jealous.

[TR3XX]

yeah, they paired up within 2 hours of meeting each other. Since then they haven't left each other's side.

[cosmic1981]

wow! great selection!

[TR3XX]

thanks cosmic =]

[TR3XX]

new addition to the tank

 

 

also, replaced my remora c nano skimmer with this tunze 9002. i was surprised on how quiet this skimmer is. we'll see how it performs, so far so good.

 

[Kombucha]

nice! let me know how the tunze 9002 works, I've been thinking about purchasing one in the near future. BTW - have you been doing any water changes at all while running a skimmer?

[One Eyed Bunny]

I'd imagine you'd still have to to replenish trace elements and minerals as well as calcium. I mean, you could buffer and supplement for them all but it still wouldn't beat a good ol' fashion water change. At least not in my opinion.

[TR3XX]

i still plan to do my weekly 10% water change despite having this skimmer. it's something i've gotten use to doing so i'll just stick to it.

 

right now i'm using b-ionic for supps. i plan to add a small SPS frag next week to see how well it does in my tank. my Ca is at 430 right now, hopefully it'll be up to 450 or so by next week.

 

if there's any advice you guys can offer for me with regards to my first SPS coral, please do so.

 

i've reserved the entire top half of my tank for SPS. i looking forward to the day i'll be able to populate it.

 

keeping fingers crossed.

[colinadam]

Very nice tank.

 

Start off with Monti Digitata's and aquacultured pieces, better luck of them holding their color and being hardier than wild caught frags.

 

I have 2 Digi's, a Monti Seratosa and an ORA Green Polyp Birdsnest under PC's and I dose with Kent Part A & B, you'll be fine

[Uhuru]

You'll love the Tunze. It took mine several weeks to really break in, but I have it on a 5g tank. But now that I have a fish to feed daily this thing skims about 150mL of stinkyness a day - imagine what it will do on a 25g. Looks like you have it in a good spot.

 

To maximize performance, I suggest using a syringe with hot water and injecting it into the air hole every week or so (whenever you remove the cup you can see it). It gets clogged up but will still keep skimming, but it will skim even better if you do this.

 

Also since you have a controller you can monitor pH right? I would look into dripping kalk once you start adding more sps to your tank. You can do it very safely with a pH monitor. The SPS really like the kalk.

[TR3XX]

colinadam: thanks for the suggestion. i really like the birdnest so that might be the first SPS i get.

 

uhuru: thanks for the tip. i'll be sure to do the hot water injection as part of my weekly routine.

 

is dripping kalk different from dosing Ca/Alk/Mag? i was planning to switch over to Randy's 2 Part and getting the supplies+dosing pump from twopartssolution.com. would this be sufficient or will the kalkwasser dripping be an additional benefit?

[Uhuru]

How many sps corals do you plan to keep? Dripping kalk with ATO is the cheapest solution, personally I would start with that and monitor calc, alk and pH. As calc/alk needs increase with the growth of your sps you can start dosing the 2-part in addition to the kalk. You'll see that most successful sps keepers drip kalk in addition to the 2-part or a calcium reactor.

[TR3XX]

i'm hoping to keep around 5-6 1"-1.5" SPS frags at first and then just let them grow.

 

i'm currently using a JBJ ATO which doesn't consistently drip. it pumps water a portion at a time into the fuge whenever the float switch drops down to a certain level.

 

would this kind of ATO be okay to dose the kalk? or do i need some kind of constant dripping mechanism to apply the solution?

[Uhuru]

That should be fine. So after you get your calc/alk levels where you want them (don't do this with kalk), add a couple of easy sps frags like the digitata or monti cap. I would start with a dilute kalk mix. Maybe 1/2 tsp per gallon. You won't hurt anything that way. Also use your pH monitor, and tell the controller to automatically shut off the ATO if the pH goes above 8.4, no matter what. That is a very nice safeguard to have!

 

Measure your calc and alk at least every day and adjust the kalk solution as needed. Once you get the hang of it (you will in just a week or so) you can add more frags and continue to adjust the kalk solution accordingly. If all goes well, you will be dripping saturated kalk and also dosing 2-part to keep up with your coral growth!

[TR3XX]

good stuff, Uhuru!

 

thanks for the tip. i'm going to try and implement it tonight.

[TR3XX]

This weekend I tried to hook up my JBJ chiller with no success. Got all my plumbing connected and made sure all clamps were fastened. Turned on the pump and to my surprise, water was coming out of the BOTTOM of the chiller! Immediately turned off the pump, and ran to grab some towels. Luckily I had tiled floors.

 

I double checked all my connections to make sure it was tight. All was fine. So I unhooked the chiller and took the cover of to see what was causing the leak. Water was still dripping out of the styrofoam wrapped tubes. At this point, I didn't want to cut the tape that was holding the styrofoam in place due to fear of voiding their warranty.

 

I decided to wait on moving forward this point and contacted JBJ this morning. Waiting for them to get back to me on how I can get this replaced.

 

Has anyone had this happen to them? I hope JBJ's customer service pulls through for me.

 

Despite my bad luck, I did get a chance to pick up some new items from a sale at the LFS.

 

Enjoy...

 

[G-Force]

that is one hungry brain.

[nattydread]

Looks great.

 

BTW, with the tunze in the second chamber, where did you put your cheato?

 

I put the 9002 in there as well, but im worried about it getting clogged.