AJ_Tsin's Zeo 47g Shallow. NEW FTS

[Reefmaster1996]

Nice skimmer, sad news about the tang.

[BRADYBUNCH7]

Sweet skimmer!

Cant wait to see it up and running!

[Rehype]

Hey AJ just a suggestion when treating Ick its helpful to raise the temperature to speed up the life cycle of the parasite and expose it to the medication. In the past Ive increased the temp gradually over a few days to the high 80's/low 90's and the cysts fall off within hours. You will have to make sure the tank stays very well oxygenated during the treatment and the fish continues to eat but IME they never seem to be stressed by the temps.

[AJ_Tsin]

Nice skimmer, sad news about the tang.

 

Sweet skimmer!

Cant wait to see it up and running!

 

Thanks guys its bubbling away in my sump and looks a lot more stable this morning. The sheer amount of bubbles in the main chamber is insane. Once I get a chance to fine tune it I will post some pictures.

 

I highly recommend these skimmers to anyone looking. Everything you read about first impression and the look and feel is true. The packaging is beautiful, the feel is heavy and well built, and now seeing it in action is is without a doubt one of, if not the best skimmer dollar for dollar on the market.

[AJ_Tsin]

Just to clarify my process to break in the Omega 130 as many people on other sites are still figuring it out.

 

I ran mine with the wedge pipe fully open and venturi nozzle fully closed for about 36 hours in exactly 7.5 inches of water before it settled down. The cup overflowed 2 or 3 times during this process. The manual suggests running it for 24 hours or so without a collection cup however, I have spent enough time in the past few weeks without a skimmer so I left the cup on to see what happened.

 

Today it is pulling skimmate and I have closed the Wedge pipe to about 1/2 the foam base is sitting about an inch below where the body starts to curve and the head is just above the threaded part of the collection cup. Microbubbles are no longer coming out. I plan on dialling in the nozzle in a week or so once it really stabilizes. From what I understand on this model the goal is to set the wedge pipe to the water level in the skimmer that you want and once that is stable you can open and close the venturi nozzle to regulate air flow a bit and fine tune the size and power of bubbles vs water making its way up the body.

 

The bubbles in the body are insane, there is absolutely no water line as the entire skimmer is filled with a dense foam where water ends and bubbles begin is impossible to distinguish... awesome.

Very quick break in for this skimmer especially on a system thats only about 8 weeks old with only a bit of live rock 2 fish and a CUC.

[Reefmaster1996]

Hopefully you can start producing some of this,

 

 

And this

 

Hopefully you can start producing some of this,

 

 

And this

[AJ_Tsin]

Few quick updates: The new skimmer is doing well, still very green tea like skimmate being pulled however my bioload is very low so that isn't unexpected. It took about 3-4 days to start holding a decent foam head.

 

Tang is looking awesome finally, I am 99% sure it will be going into the display soon possibly next weekend. No signs of Ich after 5 weeks of QT, it came back briefly about 7 days ago but the cysts fell off within a day, I spent a huge amount of time doing a 50% water change as soon as the last one fell. The first 25% was syphoned with airline tube. I figured this was the best way to suck up as much off the aquarium base as possible on the day after the cysts dropped. The hope was that the airline would be precise enough to vacuum the entire aquarium base over an extended period of time, hopefully sucking up any of the Tomont and Tomite stage parasites that fell off the fish before they re-attach. Combined with copper this seems to finally have worked. Since then I have done this twice essentially doing a 100% water change over two days.

 

My Extra Rock is still cooking away, I am a bit annoyed as PO4 is still reading 0.04 on a Hanna Checker even with GFO running, which means the rock is still leeching, I don't really want to drop this stuff into my tank until its 0.00 so may take a bit more time. Planning on throwing it into a spare 30g shallow tank with a skimmer this weekend to maybe speed up the process.

[AJ_Tsin]

Small but significant update:

 

Purple Tang is in, dripped in on Friday, it is getting along well with the clowns, they actually all cruise around together. It seems infinitely more happy then the 20g Quarantine it was stuck in for the better part of 2 months. Very happy fish and has settled in very quickly. It had a little HLLE from the copper and QT, which already in a few days seems to be clearing up. Color is beautiful under the ATI.

I also added a ton of live rock into to the sump and did a slight rescape of the display over the weekend. This rock was cooking for a while and fully cured testing 0.00 ammonia about 3 weeks after a spike and more importantly I managed to drain the PO4 from the rock in about 2 months. I added the pieces over the course of a week or so and haven't seen nutrients budge at all so I expect the integration is seamless. I am not sure the exact weight however I believe the large amount of rock in the sump will do wonders for stability while still maintaining a "minimal" look in the display.

 

For anyone looking to add rock or even start a reef with some old rock this cooking process is definitely the way to go. I detailed it a bit more a few posts ago.

So I plan on giving things a week or two to stabilize and to be sure I have no issues with the Tang, and then move on to coral.

I am strongly considering adding a school of Chromis or a Yellow Wrasse or something as well, and would like to make the decision sooner than later as my QT tank is still up and cycled. However on the fence on if/what I should add. Wrasse seems like a risk in a rimless shallow, and it seems hit or miss wether 3-5 Chromis will just kill each other.

I have yet to take a March FTS as all the rock additions and re-scaping over the weekend made for a bit of detritus in the water column, not ideal for photos. Should post some pictures sometime in next couple days.

[Reefmaster1996]

I would say go for a couple of wrasse or small anthias, I keep a mesh net top on my tank at night so they don't jump, so far haven't had any issues

 

Get whatever makes YOU happy

[AJ_Tsin]

I had Lyretail Anthias in my last build so I probably will skip those. I think I am going to try doing 5 chromis and see if they end up killing each other. From what I have read if there is another threat they seems to not attempt to kill each other and stick together.

Given that the purple tang is known to be aggressive and will be established in the system by the time they get in there maybe this will keep them in line?

[Arkayology]

Nice skimmer! I'm glad the tang is doing well and in the tank now.

[AJ_Tsin]

Nice skimmer! I'm glad the tang is doing well and in the tank now.

Thanks man, me too. Even with a ton of experience and a lot of patience this was one of the most difficult and frustrating startups of a system I could imagine. Flukes x2, Ich x2, Ammonia Issues etc. etc. However it seems I am finally over the hill.

 

I know there are tons of people that just buy fish and toss em in the display, but after all of the effort I went through for these few (albeit expensive) fish, I don't think I will ever add anything to this tank again without a QT, and significant dip procedure for corals.

[Arkayology]

Thanks man, me too. Even with a ton of experience and a lot of patience this was one of the most difficult and frustrating startups of a system I could imagine. Flukes x2, Ich x2, Ammonia Issues etc. etc. However it seems I am finally over the hill.

 

I know there are tons of people that just buy fish and toss em in the display, but after all of the effort I went through for these few (albeit expensive) fish, I don't think I will ever add anything to this tank again without a QT, and significant dip procedure for corals.

Good idea. It is paying off.

[AJ_Tsin]

As promised here are a few shots for March, Tang is finally in. Scape is a bit fuller, still lacking coral though.....

 

MARCH 2014 FTS

 

 

RIGHT SIDE

 

LEFT SIDE

 

PURPLE TANG CLOSE-UP

[JR!]

 

o btw what sand did you go with this time?

[the_gats]

So I was thinking to myself today that I haven't seen an AJ thread in a while and was wandering if you had one up. Granted I was away for a while. Good to see you getting a tank going.

[Mr. Microscope]

This reload is really entertaining. You've got my dream skimmer! It's awesome that you're documenting the break-in period so well. It will become a good resource.

[AJ_Tsin]

 

o btw what sand did you go with this time?

Opted for Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade. I chose to run a Shallow Sandbed with plans to vacuum every week or two. This is a better setup for ZeoVit and probably better for a huge open scape. Seems to be doing well it's amazing how much gunk is vacuumed out every week. It is staying very white with this routine but not sure how it will look in the long run.

 

I soaked the sand in RO for a few days and rinsed it in a pillowcase for what seemed like a very long process before adding which makes a huge difference If anyone is looking for a sand rinsing protip: rinsing in a pillowcase is where it's at.

 

Thanks for the gif compliments. Glad you're still following along.

[AJ_Tsin]

Here's another Tang shot.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

So I was thinking to myself today that I haven't seen an AJ thread in a while and was wandering if you had one up. Granted I was away for a while. Good to see you getting a tank going.

Actually I was away for a while too so you did not miss much in this thread. Glad you are following along. I am loving getting back into it. My bank account is terrified for when I decide to start adding coral.

 

I am going to try and keep this thread updated regularly, however I hope to keep it informative and useful instead of just showing off my shit.

 

Thanks to everyone liking and commenting, hopefully its only going to get better...

[AJ_Tsin]

I made a reddit/r/reeftank post. About adding the Tang and someone had a question there about 47g display being too small for a Purple Tang.

Thought I would post my response here as well to explain the logic and help some people in the future.

 

If/when the Tang gets too big I will move it or sell it. This is one of the smallest Tangs I have seen at the moment its about 1 1/3" from nose to tail, so the hope is that it doesn't grow too fast. I keep a very close eye on things, so if I notice it being uncomfortable, HLLE, or other signs of not thriving, I will reconsider. Generally speaking my goal is not to just keep it alive but have it thrive. Based on my research and other "case study" type systems, I think I have a few years until size would become a real issue.

 

Running Zeovit also allows me to feed a ton of Nori, Mysis and NLS Pellets, giving all the livestock a very hardy balanced diet while still maintaining 0.00 Nutrient Levels across the board.

 

Although the tank is only 47g it has a huge footprint at almost 3'x 3' and lots of swimming space with a minimal aquascape. Also I find a square footprint instead of a rectangular rock wall also makes a difference as the fish can swim laps and figure 8s around rock work instead of back and forth.

 

I have an entire basement to work with and a a few tanks from 55-20 gallon that could be incorporated for extra sump space so if bioload was an issue. For now I am trying to stay with a large enough amount of water to keep the quality pristine, while keeping 10% weekly water changes manageable.

 

In my experience keeping a ULNS usually alleviates any water quality concerns for fish, when you are tinkering with P04 and Potassium readings at the decimal level to optimize colours of SPS tips, generally the water quality for fish is a given or assumed.

 

I felt like I should write this all out for other people on here who may know what they are doing but get shut down by Tang police. I agree that keeping a Tang in general is controversial and not for the faint of heart or impatient reefer, but that can apply to everything in this hobby. So maybe this knowledge will help some people on the fence.

 

TL:DR - If size becomes an issue or the Tang seems annoyed without space, I will move it. Bioload will be a non issue. A lot of thought and research went into this fish, comparable systems it thrives in etc. etc.

[AJ_Tsin]

This reload is really entertaining. You've got my dream skimmer! It's awesome that you're documenting the break-in period so well. It will become a good resource.

 

Thanks for following along. I Actually have to give some skimmer updates. Currently it is overflowing in my sump. About a week after installation it was taken offline for 15 days of Prazi-Pro treatment. It was put back online about 4 days ago, and for anyone who has used Prazi the key word is micro bubbles.

 

It seems to be settling down, however this combined with a reboot of the break-in as it was off for over two weeks, caused some crazy overflow and bubbles. The wedge pipe is fully open and volute nozzle completely closed.

 

My strategy, which I don't think has been noted in any of the Omega break-in threads is to run the skimmer with the "drain valve" in the collection cup open, and a chunk of filter floss below that tube to collect gunk. This allows the skimmer to still sort of do some dirty work as the larger particles and gunk is brought into the cup flows out of the drain and collected by the floss while the filtered water drips back into the sump. Whether you have medication in the water or not I think this is a very good method for any skimmer break in to allow it to keep removing gunk while still overflowing and sorting out the bubble issues on its own time.

 

As this process continues hopefully the bubbles settle down and this thing breaks in....again sometime this week.

 

All that being said, the skimmer is a remarkable product for the price, the build, sound (or lack thereof), foam it produces is comparable to any skimmer in the same class for any price. It is not that it is not working, it is that remnants of 3 rounds of prazi-pro would burden any skimmer break in.

[potatowned]

Hi AJ, just dropping in to say the tank looks great, even without any coral. I also commented on your post in Reddit. Same handle for both sites.

[AJ_Tsin]

Hi AJ, just dropping in to say the tank looks great, even without any coral. I also commented on your post in Reddit. Same handle for both sites.

Thanks for stopping buy dude. Plan on getting some coral any day now... see you on here and reddit.

[Reefmaster1996]

If it motivates you any, my tank is about 9wks old and I added a clam last week, so I'm sure you're system can take coral which I've had since the sixth or seventh week, Aslong as params are stable you should be fine.