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[saltwatercoral]

Glad to see you're finally putting water in the tank.

 

PS: The tank looks awesome, can't wait to see it filled and stocked.

 

Thanks MTWiley! I cant wait just to have this thing filled with water and the pumps runnning!!! LOL

[saltwatercoral]

Here Ye Here Ye! New updates. I am so tired and have been getting up every 2-3hrs at night to make sure my brute trash can wasn’t overflowing (call me paranoid). Any way, another night of the checking every 2-3hrs and I thing I can actually sleep the night through! Here are some pics to show some progress!

 

Almost Full!

 

Hot cable mess for now...

 

Removed the PS and reactor untill the tank is cycled

 

Finaly finished mounting the ReefKeeper Elite with Net Ver2

 

Side View with pumps and ReefKeeper

[pschom]

This is appropriate!

[Trainer262]

This is appropriate!

 

Very much so and hilarious!!!

 

 

Any new word on the light yet?

[21093r53]

This is appropriate!

 

 

just as it was a couple posts ago...but YES!

 

frags by spring? haha

[saltwatercoral]

HELP... My overflow sounds like it is doing some major gurgling! Its very loud and I believe it is sucking in a ton of air? When the water comes down into the sump it is producing lots of bubbles/foam. Here are some pics of this...

 

Corner overflow (you can see the holes drilled in the PVC where I believe its sucking in air)

 

Foam??? WHY???

 

I did see many other people having this problem with Marinland overflows... I found a solution (I think) in the link HERE. Please tell me if you think this will work!

[pschom]

Free skimmer!!!

 

Seriously, having had my current setup (not very long) I cN only speculate that a Durso pipe will stop your gurgling. Mine whistles a bit, but no gurgling. I gotta fix that though cause when I hear it at night it sounds like ghosts. Lol. As far as your foam, I don't see it being a problem until u find a fix so no worries there. Just annoying. These are the kinds of things you find that need fixing that you weren't prepared for after a biocube, or an AIO.

 

Oh, there's also something called a gurgle buster. Works as an add on to any PVC overflow. Looks like it should work and it's like $20.

 

I'm still just happy you finally put water in it!

[Formula462]

that's like some serious sea foam. if it did that when it was cycled, that foam would be all brown and stinky.

[redwhiteandblue]

ur filter sock is catching tiny particles/airbubbles from all the dust in the tank, thus they are accumilating causing foam. i would imagine this clears up soon. and i would add the skimmer now, it needs to break in for a couple weeks, it should also help clean the crap out of the water. just my opinion though. im not the expert. as for the gurgle....could be the hole in the side. do you have an air hole on top? i put some in mine and my overflows are silent. mine are through the back though so it could be different. its always chaos upon first fill. once the kinks are worked out, life is good!

[saltwatercoral]

There is a small hole on the top of the PVC pipe with a small plastic tube. I notice that if I were to cover the hole the gurgling noise gets louder. If I were to remove the plastic tube from the small hose it gets quieter! So I am going to cover the holes on the side of the pipe and put a bigger air intake hose with a valve on the tip of the hose to adjust the air flow. I'm going to do this tonight before bed so I will post pics and updates to see what the change is. I am hoping it's for the better!

 

Edit: if I were to put the PS back in wouldn't it take out the stuff I want in the water out of the water right now? Just curious. I thought I want to Keep the junk in the water during the water cycle?

[pschom]

Edit: if I were to put the PS back in wouldn't it take out the stuff I want in the water out of the water right now? Just curious. I thought I want to Keep the junk in the water during the water cycle?

Some people don't even use a skimmer so it's completely up to you. If I were you I'd plug it in. It's not gonna be efficient at removing anything right away anyway. Plus your not adding livestock until you get your lights so who cares really... I always like to know that everything works as it should immediately. Call me impatient.

[redwhiteandblue]

There is a small hole on the top of the PVC pipe with a small plastic tube. I notice that if I were to cover the hole the gurgling noise gets louder. If I were to remove the plastic tube from the small hose it gets quieter! So I am going to cover the holes on the side of the pipe and put a bigger air intake hose with a valve on the tip of the hose to adjust the air flow. I'm going to do this tonight before bed so I will post pics and updates to see what the change is. I am hoping it's for the better!

 

Edit: if I were to put the PS back in wouldn't it take out the stuff I want in the water out of the water right now? Just curious. I thought I want to Keep the junk in the water during the water cycle?

 

yes, the skimmer will remove "some" junk in the water, but not the bacteria on your rock. but you might want your skimmer working top notch and ready when you do get livestock.....i used my skimmer from the getgo just to get a feel for it. it will not remove all the stuff anyways. are you using any old filterfloss/shrimp/fish food to jumpstart the cycle?

 

as for the gurgling.....i run mine w/o airtubes. i just have a 1/4" hole in a cap on a pvc t. and it may seem loud,but you get used to it over time. especially the skimmer. the reefoctopus is cray loud at first. tocombat this, i stuffed some filterfloss loosley in the air intake inlets during the break in period (2 weeks).

 

glad to see this comming along

[saltwatercoral]

Some people don't even use a skimmer so it's completely up to you. If I were you I'd plug it in. It's not gonna be efficient at removing anything right away anyway. Plus your not adding livestock until you get your lights so who cares really... I always like to know that everything works as it should immediately. Call me impatient.

 

I like to see everything working myself! Good Idea!

 

yes, the skimmer will remove "some" junk in the water, but not the bacteria on your rock. but you might want your skimmer working top notch and ready when you do get livestock.....i used my skimmer from the getgo just to get a feel for it. it will not remove all the stuff anyways. are you using any old filterfloss/shrimp/fish food to jumpstart the cycle?

 

as for the gurgling.....i run mine w/o airtubes. i just have a 1/4" hole in a cap on a pvc t. and it may seem loud,but you get used to it over time. especially the skimmer. the reefoctopus is cray loud at first. tocombat this, i stuffed some filterfloss loosley in the air intake inlets during the break in period (2 weeks).

 

glad to see this comming along

 

I could add fish food to jump start the cycle? Sounds like that might be what I am doing!

[saltwatercoral]

What I did is you can see in the pics. I covered the 2 holes with pieces of PVC and glued them in nice and tight! Then I covered the smaller air intake on the top of the PVC pipe and then made my own air intake line with a adjustable valve so I can control how much air is being sucked in. I also took everyone’s advice and put the Protein Skimmer in and fired it up so it will start to break in over the next few weeks. Here are the pics. My cabling is a HOT MESS right now but its all in and working! I manage the cables later. I’m beat and can finally sleep the entire night through since I don’t have any water to make and I don’t need to keep getting up to check the water levels in the brute trashcan to make sure it was not overflowing!

 

Modified Pipe.

 

Air intake hose into the PVC pipe.

 

Adjustable air valve mounted to the inside of the canopy.

 

Final outcome without cable managment.

 

ReefKeeper Elite w/net V2 and my cable management job after mounting and painting the conduit.

[Lawnman]

How is the water? Clearing up for you? I would not personally add fish to jump start the cycle. The ammonia burns there gills and it is not needed. If you have anything live such as rock or sand it will get the cycle moving just fine. Adding fish or a raw shrimp is so old school.

 

Rinse that filter bag daily or twice daily. That will really help the sand dust. The skimmer helped my tank ALOT with the small particles.

[Mr Pants]

If you want to jump start the cycle the modern way of doing it (as opposed to a fish or dead shrimp) is to buy Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria (Phil should have it as Exotic Aquatics near you) and add ammonia to feed the bacteria. This will get you completely cycled in a couple days. Measure ammonia every day and add fish when the ammonia drops to zero. Now if you don't add fish soon after that then the nitrifying bacteria population will crash after consuming all the ammonia and you'll have to start over (though it will rebound fast).

 

Do be wary of any other brand of nitrifying bacteria as I believe all the others use bacteria from water treatment plants (fresh water) which can't live in your aquarium (maybe this has changed though).

[tokendog]

If you want to jump start the cycle the modern way of doing it (as opposed to a fish or dead shrimp) is to buy Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria (Phil should have it as Exotic Aquatics near you) and add ammonia to feed the bacteria. This will get you completely cycled in a couple days. Measure ammonia every day and add fish when the ammonia drops to zero. Now if you don't add fish soon after that then the nitrifying bacteria population will crash after consuming all the ammonia and you'll have to start over (though it will rebound fast).

 

Do be wary of any other brand of nitrifying bacteria as I believe all the others use bacteria from water treatment plants (fresh water) which can't live in your aquarium (maybe this has changed though).

 

As much as this is frowned upon, I followed Dr. Tim's and MrSaltWaterTanks advice about Dr. Tim's One and Only Nitrifying bacteria, and added fish right after adding the bacteria. I tested the water daily and never EVER had a spike. Everything stayed zero. The fish are still with me today and the tank has several more residents in it with no problems.

 

If you decide to go this route, make sure the bacteria is fresh, and when you add it to the tank it should come out almost like a milkshake. If it comes out clear, then that bottle was ruined by temperatures or time, and it won't work.

 

They also recommend starting with one or two fish but you have to make sure its enough of a load to feed the bacteria. If you overstock, you will overpower the bacteria, and if you under stock, you will reduce the amount of bacteria available.

 

My tank has had fish in it for 3 months. No issues.

[saltwatercoral]

I'm not going to rush the cycle for 1 reason... Waiting on the Veaga from AI to come out! I'm going to put some live rock in once I get everything just right or close to it.

 

I just put a ball valve on the return pump line so I can restrict the water flow so it does not get the water flow noise in the overflow. How long once I restrict te flow will the waterflow noise stop. I tried to mess with this a little before the RAVENS game but was not able to get this dialed in. It doesn't even seem to make a difference... If I were to take a small piece of the foam that goes over the pumps and cut it down and put in in the overflow, that should cut the noise down right?

[saltwatercoral]

I was able to dial in this Ball valve off of the return line to restrict the water to about 85% now. I also was able to open the air intake valve that I was showing in one of the picture above and this raised the water level in the overflow a smidge higher which is less noisy now (now it sounds much better) I am still going to get a piece of foam (just like the stuff that goes over the intake on your pumps) and cut it down and modify the shape that way it will cut the noise down hopefully to nothing...

[JNA_DESIGN]

Thats why you put the ball valve there... Oooooooo.... Also you might want to twist thos valves completely opened and closed every month or so because the salt creep can cause them to lock up pretty bad. Just a heads up. Looks great... Now we wait for scaping and stocking...

[saltwatercoral]

Thats why you put the ball valve there... Oooooooo.... Also you might want to twist thos valves completely opened and closed every month or so because the salt creep can cause them to lock up pretty bad. Just a heads up. Looks great... Now we wait for scaping and stocking...

 

The opening and closeing the valves ever once in a while is a good idea! Just to make sure no junk/coraline blocks this from even being able to open or close!

 

Now Im am new (obviously ) so now I am wondering how in the world I am needing to cycle this thing. I am wondering what I realy need to test for now and what to do to get the cycle going slowly and then waht to keep testing for. I am not sure what levels I am testing for. IE: beginning levls, spike, what it should end up being... Im feeling a little overwelmed and just need to make sure I do things right the first time.

[Mr Pants]

In the beginning you will be testing ammonia. You'll see a spike and then it will slowly decrease. Ammonia should be zero before adding fish and should be kept at zero. After ammonia has dropped to zero you can test for nitrite (the thing ammonia gets broken down to). Nitrite should be zero (below the detection level of kits).

 

The only other parameters that matter much at this point are salinity and temperature (and temperature doesn't matter too much).

[saltwatercoral]

In the beginning you will be testing ammonia. You'll see a spike and then it will slowly decrease. Ammonia should be zero before adding fish and should be kept at zero. After ammonia has dropped to zero you can test for nitrite (the thing ammonia gets broken down to). Nitrite should be zero (below the detection level of kits).

 

The only other parameters that matter much at this point are salinity and temperature (and temperature doesn't matter too much).

Thanks Mr Pants! My temp is at 77.5 this morning and my salintiy was at 1.025

 

Edit: Should I test for amonia now or wait a little longer?

[Trainer262]

I was test happy in the beginning ... Every day lol. I missed the ammonia spike(must come and go quick). just saw a little rise in nitrite and then came those damn nitrates lol.

[Fearlessmoto]

Just went up to get the tank, stand and conopt today! My first big stetp for this setup! Hope u all like the pics!

 

another pic

 

This one is ummm..... well.... Yea. This is why I bought the Canpopy, to keep the cats out not in, lol I just need to remember to close the lid and I should be ok.

 

 

:lol: i just started reading this thread, that's an interesting cat shark you got in that picture, haha !