GrenDeL's 45g Project

[Falcon_Punch]

695?700? 900 for a 1 bedroom apt here! Any updates?

[Grendel0501]

I killed the skimmer pump yesterday.

 

I was figuring out how the overflow siphon works , I didn't account for the 1-2 extra gallons that was needed to fill up the hoses and the overflow box , this uncalculated loss of water caused the skimmer pump to become uncovered by water.

 

I plan on replacing it with a Octopus skimmer pump.

[Falcon_Punch]

That sucks! But a good excuse for an upgrade! To get a siphon started I just put an airline tube in the Utube and suck to get a siphon going. I have the same overflow box.

[Grendel0501]

Today I am going to try and get two noises dealt with.

 

The waterfall in the sump and the gurgling coming from the overflow.

 

After I get that done I am going to get my live rock and finish my scape.

[Grendel0501]

The overflow doesn't work so well as a particulate filter. Stuff has to overflow into the box and then to the bottom to get sucked out by the u tube.

 

I've still got alot of dog hair floating around the tank.

 

Do I need to aim one of the koralias at the overflow? or do I have to add a hob filter to catch the crap in the water?

[Grendel0501]

This really sucks.

 

I might have to give up on keeping a aquarium for now.

The guy who lives above me is a real jerk and I can't run the pumps at night bc the overflow makes too much noise.

 

Man I made that tank SO quiet today. I fixed all the loud noises. Hell the fan on the light fixture was louder than the water noises , and still the a-hole upstairs bangs on my floor. I fixed the gurgle from the overflow , I fixed the sump intake noises. I couldn't even hear the tank in my bedroom 5ft away from the tank.

 

I want to move out of this place SO bad now. I am looking into buying or renting a house as we speak , and hopefully when my lease is up in september I will have a new place to live.

[Grendel0501]

Well............

 

 

It took me alittle longer than i thought it would , but I moved out of that apartment complex and got a house!!!

So , now I can actually run my tank without a neighbor calling management on me.

 

And there's a perfect spot in the living room wall where the tank fits perfectly , I may even upgrade to a 65 or even a 90 , but for now I am going to use this 45 as my first tank , to learn off of.

 

I've setup everything pretty much the same as I had it before.

 

 

 

I just got it setup today , for now I have acouple of things to get done.

1.) Live framing , I'd like some tall rock structures , but with the small width of the tank , I'll need something strudy. I've got 50lbs of dry rock to work with for now.

2.) Protein skimmer , I need to either replace the pump to the skimmer I bought , or purchase a whole new skimmer. The skimmer is a modded Coralife Super Skimer , no clue on how well it works , bc I killed the modded pump on the first time i setup the tank.

3.) I need to take the board that I mounted all the wires , timers and ballast to , and move it behind the tank. Where I can get to it only by opening the doors.

4.) I also need to get a new Koralia , one of the 2 2's that i ahve died sometime over the last year.

5.) Overflow silencer , randomly it quiets on its own , but it doesn't last.

 

 

Sometime after I get this stuff figured out , I'll start my cycle.

[Arkayology]

You shouldn't be eating those donuts, they are pure sugar pretty much.

 

Nice setup btw, the tank looks good in your house, which doesn't look that bad either.

[Grendel0501]

 

Got one half of the rock work done. Got my favorite peice in , and even raised it up afew inches.

 

Going to try and do some live framing to get the other side done. Maybe a tall slender tower of rock on the right side.

[Grendel0501]

 

I finally got the live rock from a friend to finish up the right side. I leaned 2 peices on the glass , most of it stands on its own.

 

There's alot of nice holes and caves for the fish to hide in.

 

 

Along with the rocks , i got acouple zoas , green star polys , some kenya tree , and 2 damsels.

[Grendel0501]

Had a Apista outbreak on the rocks I got from a buddies tank. I think since he was only randomly running his lighting the apista didn't thrive in his tank , once they got under my 250w halide they sprouted up like weeds. 10-20 polys randomly on the rocks.

 

I try and fight that I put all the new rock back into the container I had transported it in. I added a 96w pc light , power head , a heater , and 5 peppermints to the temporary container , but the apista shrank again under the 96w light and there was nothing for the peppermint to snack on.

 

For now I have moved the rock back into the tank , in the hopes that the tank light will grow these apista out to the point that the peppermint find them and eat them. I smell failure looming. *chuckle*

I also went ahead and added the sand bed bc I KNOW I'm never going to have to take the rock out again.

 

The livestock of the tank for now , consist of

1 True Percula Clown

1 Striped Damsel

1 Unknown Damsel pic , bottom left , hard to get him to pose

2 Turbo snails

2-3 Certh snails

1 blue legged hermit

1 red legged hermit

 

 

 

I think I am going to have to take out the striped damsel , he came from my buddies tnak when i got his rock. He is very dominant and chases other fish around the tank.

 

 

The tank is still slighty green from when I overfeed acouple of day in arow to try and get the clown to eat. He refuses to eat most of the time , and only nips at mysis if I throw some in.

 

 

 

Finished product........... for now. I re-did the rock work alittle differently than before. Alittle taller on the right side.

[pismo_reefer]

Are you about to blow yer tank's brains out???

[Grendel0501]

Are you about to blow yer tank's brains out???

 

 

Huh? :confused:

[Grendel0501]

I have a tendancey to not leave something alone when its done , but in this case I think it worked out.

 

I added two peices of rock that I really wanted in the tank , but didn't think I had room unless I wanted to take up more sand bed.

 

 

 

Those two peices really change the look , and give me a nice flat shelf to work with.

 

The first two corals I got , are the Kenya tree and GSP that came with the live rock.

The kenya tree has been opened up since afew hours after getting it into the tank. The gsp is starting to open up , but I scrapped the bulk of it off. There was ALOT. Looking around the tank I see what look like alot of small polpys of the gsp. Might have to scrap it again if it starts to take over the tank.

 

 

 

Today while at the fish store picking up some RO , I also picked up 2 $15 frags. I got some colorful zoanthids , possibly watermelons , and a ricordea (sp?). The zoanthids are already starting to open up after , a 1hr drip and then being in the tank only 30mins.

 

 

 

I think I'm doing pretty good so far, I do have alittle green on the glass and rocks. I think it is from overfeeding , while I was trying to get the clown to eat.

[Grendel0501]

One of the peppermints knocked my ric frag off into the sand. I picked it up fairly quick , but it still died afew days later.

 

In its place I pick up another frag with acouple of zoa polyps and a Maze Brain frag. They are doing alright , I need to pick up a 2 part calcium buffer and start adding it to the water.

 

 

 

 

 

Today I picked up a wad of cheato and put it in the sump under the eggcrate. I'm hoping the small flourescent fixture I have against the side of the sump is enough to grow chaeto , if not I'll have to get a more pin-point source of light.

[MGDMIRAGE]

Huh? :confused:

 

Black plastic surrounding entire tank. As in to minimize the mess from brain matter from splattering everywhere.

[Grendel0501]

Black plastic surrounding entire tank. As in to minimize the mess from brain matter from splattering everywhere.

Yeah I felt like a moron when I finally realized what he meant.

 

I came up with it acouple of days after he said it. I think Goodfellas was on tv when i came up with it.

[Grendel0501]

I added some chaeto to the sump. Trying to get rid of the brown thats building up on the rocks. For the few days i had the skimmer running it cleared up.

 

Still waiting on the ventrui fitting to arive , the Octopus 2000 pump arrived today.

[Grendel0501]

Octopus 2000 pump is up and running and the water look so much clearer after just one day of running the skimmer.

 

 

Hoping that it tunes in alittle better over the next week or two.

[Grendel0501]

 

Picked up a nice sized Frogspawn , from a local reefer who has to move. It's still closed up , but when it was in his tank it was as big as a soft ball. Got it for $35.

[Grendel0501]

The frogspawn opened up nicely.

I always thought frogspawns were a softie until yesterday when I read about the base part actually being the skeleton.

 

 

Here's a pic of the frags I ahve so far. I noticed most of my corals are green , so I think I am going to avoid green corals from now on. I need some reds , pinks , oranges , yellows in there to mix it up.

 

 

The flat rock crossing the two mountains makes a nice frag rack. As long as the power head doesn't blow it off. I had a nice Ric frag but one of the snails knocked it into the sand bed.

I have 5 different types of Zoas , a Maze Brain , green acro , and a green birds nest (not in pic). All from my 2 lfs.

[Grendel0501]

 

Been working on clearing up a hair and slime outbreak. (the hair is all over the lower left and the slime is taking over the sand bed)

 

Did a 14g water change last week , just did another one today.

Also took the sump completly apart and hosed off all the components. There was alot of gunk in there.

The sump looks so much better now. Also the skimmer is working NICELY after the hose down.

About to order a phosphate reactor to see if that helps.

 

 

I am slowly removing 5 unwanteds from the tank.

The 2 hermits , the 2 peppermints and the dominant damsel. I caught one of the hermits and one of the peppermints today and returned them to the lfs.

 

 

After I get the slime and hair under control and the unwanteds out of the tank.

Then MAYBE I will work on some kind of stocking list.

 

For now it's still a learning project. Once I figure out what I am doing (years at my pace) , and get more experience.

Then maybe..... I'll splurge , get a larger tank and more fish/corals.

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

wow, lots of progress!

 

that slime isnt as bad as i thought, alot of getting rid of it is just time....

 

dont feel bad about no traffic on your thread, mine gets little as well. maybe if i put a link in sig to it, id get more hits, but im not that motivated.

 

im just counting down the days till i have to break mine down

[tyty22]

im glad to see someone gave the 45 tall a shot. i had one couple years ago with cichlids sadly i sold it. Its deffinitely not an easy tank to clean or aquascape but it sure has good results.

 

Keep working at the algae i had the same problem in the begining but after consistant water changes and calibrating feeding and dosing it goes away.

 

Good work thats a real nice spot for the tank

[Grendel0501]

wow, lots of progress!

 

that slime isnt as bad as i thought, alot of getting rid of it is just time....

 

dont feel bad about no traffic on your thread, mine gets little as well. maybe if i put a link in sig to it, id get more hits, but im not that motivated.

 

im just counting down the days till i have to break mine down

The slime sucks! It seems to be getting thinner since I cleaned out the sump. I also added phosphate media to the HOB filter/intake in the sump. *fingers crossed*

 

You'll come back to the hobby , just some downtime.

 

im glad to see someone gave the 45 tall a shot. i had one couple years ago with cichlids sadly i sold it. Its deffinitely not an easy tank to clean or aquascape but it sure has good results.

 

Keep working at the algae i had the same problem in the begining but after consistant water changes and calibrating feeding and dosing it goes away.

 

Good work thats a real nice spot for the tank

 

I couldn't find anyone else running a 45 tall. It's definatley a odd size. Very limited as to aquascaping bc of the 12" depth.

 

I think my lighting could handel something 18in (65g I think) maybe even 24in deep (90g). I plan on upgrading to a 65g or a 90g tank in a year or so. But that depends on how I do here.