GodfatherNikki's 29g Tax Return

[godfathernikki]

Got a little work done on the tank yesterday. First thing I did was cut out a section of silicone so the box would sit flat

Then I set the box in the tank and traced it on the outside of the tank with a sharpe

The next step was to mask everything and put a line of 795 where I traced, then put the box on top of the 795. I had to work fast so I didnt get a shot of it, but here is the result after tooling, removing the masking, and taping down the box:

This stuff takes about 2 weeks to cure, but it is already feeling pretty firm. Im hoping I'll be able to move the tank to paint the back this weekend.

[godfathernikki]

Got the back painted this weekend, it's looking better...

[godfathernikki]

Got some more work done yesterday, this time on the stand.

First pick is of caulking all the gaps in the wood, second pic is after putting on a nice thick layer of sealer paint on the inside of the cabinet.

I'm thinking of adding a panel to the back to help cut down on noise from the sump.

 

The 795 on the overflow should be cured by next wednesday, and I want to get my sump done before then so I can water test them both at the same time.

I'm also having a problem finding 1/4" glass for baffles, so if anyone knows a good source in the Phoenix area, I'm all ears.

[godfathernikki]

Added and sealed a panel to the back, with holes for electrical and plumbing:

[godfathernikki]

Ok people, I managed to get a ton of work on the tank done this weekend. It's finally starting to look like a working aquarium!

 

Finished the drain in the back, with a gate valve to control siphon speed:

Testing the newly assembled sump:

The sump in the cabinet:

Next step was to create the return lines. I used 2 HOB returns, split by a pvc T. I almost went with loc-lines, until I found these which were cheaper and do exactly what I want. Return pump is a Tunze Silence.

 

And finally, the long awaited water test!

 

Nothing exploded! Yay!

All the plumbing came together nicely. The drains and sump are both dead silent, the only noise is from the return pump. I was worried about water height when I ordered the overflow box, but it is right at the bottom of the trim, so that also worked out nicely.

 

I did have a couple of very small leaks on the barb fittings for the flex tubing, and one on the threaded bulkhead in the back. I took all the leaky parts apart, put silicone in the fittings, then put them back. After letting them dry then running it for a day, they are all leak-free.

 

Next I need to start looking at scaping and lighting

[surgicalsense]

Great build with trial and error.

 

... looking forward to the see what you are going to stock.

[godfathernikki]

Great build with trial and error.

 

... looking forward to the see what you are going to stock.

 

Thanks! Luckily I haven't made too many mistakes(not counting the cracked tank- I'm blaming that one on the crap tools I was loaned )

 

I'm not sure on stocking. All the corals from my old tank are going to be moved over, all softies and lps. I'm going to try sps at some point but it needs to be established for a while before I try that.

 

As far as fish go, the purple firefish and yellow clown goby are going to get moved over from the old tank- which still leaves me room for a few more. Not sure what to get though. I'm leaning toward several small 2"-3" fish over a couple large ones, but nothing specific in mind yet.

[godfathernikki]

Got the sand and rock in!

Aragonite sand and the rock is a mix of 25-30lbs of reef saver and pukani from brs. I am quite impressed by the rock, the reef saver is dense but lots of larger holes and channels, and the pukani is incredibly porous and light weight- good stuff

 

I added some cyclopleeze and flake food into the tank to kick start the cycle. I'm also looking for sources to seed my rock with coraline and such. There are a few things in the old tank that I don't want, so I'm trying to avoid using that as a source. I saw something called garf grunge that might do the trick- still on the fence about that one though.

Next step is to build the lights.

[godfathernikki]

LEDs:

[godfathernikki]

Lighting is functional and almost finished!

Below is a shot of my DIY project box made from an old plastic container we had lying around. I used barrel plugs for the connections which are easy to work with and so far this particular brand seems to hold well. I only have 2 pwm ports on my reef angel, so I had to wire two of the drivers to a single pwm channel. Right now I have True violet and ocean coral whites on one array combined with neutral whites on another array. The third array is royal blue on its own dimmer.

Closed up:

Connections to lights:

Open top:

Under the hood:

The first FTS with lights!(Yea I know the glass needs a good cleaning)

 

 

Next project is to find the best way to mount the light in the hood. Right now it's just sitting on a couple blocks of wood and could be knocked off easily- not good. I was thinking it might be a good idea to attach some kind of a track that can slide back and forth like you find for keyboard trays on a desk. That way I could just shove the whole heatsync back 6" or so when I need to open the top.

[godfathernikki]

First step of the cycle is done! The tank is able to process the ammonia dose overnight down to 0ppm. Nitrites are still reading off the charts though.

[godfathernikki]

Nitrites were down to 0ppm this morning! I added another dose of ammonia and will check it again tonight. If ammonia and nitrites both read 0, tomorrow will be one long day of mixing new water

 

It also means I need to figure out what friends to get my purple flamefish and yellow clown goby.

 

On another note, here is what the sump looks like now with all the goodies I've been adding to it.

Currently has a skimmer, bag of carbon, about a pound of dry rock rubble, and about a pound of sand and gunk that I scraped off the bottom of a LR tank. I've got one big rock left over from scaping that I dont know what to do with, so ill probably smash it up to add about another 5lbs of rubble.

I need to find a solution for the sump light so I can add my cheato. I'd prefer it be waterproof for obvious reasons, but those tend to be pricey so I think I need to do some looking around.

[godfathernikki]

Finished the cycle! And some cleaner glass:

[StruckaNerve]

Your tank looks great. Did you build the sump yourself? Is that a 10 gallon tank? I plan on doing the same type of sump and yours looks flawless.

[godfathernikki]

Your tank looks great. Did you build the sump yourself? Is that a 10 gallon tank? I plan on doing the same type of sump and yours looks flawless.

 

Thanks! I started with a 10g, then added the baffles and egg crate myself. I don't know about flawless, but it seems to be working pretty good

[godfathernikki]

Well in the past few days I've started moving the fish over and getting some livestock in.

 

Here's the fish getting moved over from the old tank

 

Everyone hanging out with the new Blue Green Chromis

 

 

Part of my snail army!

 

 

I've got 10 ceriths, 10 nerites, and 2 turbos to take care of the algae outbreak I got after the cycle.

I think I've also got some bryopsis in there, so I started Tech M dosing last weekend. There are a couple corals in the tank, but I'm waiting until the mag treatment is done before I move the rest over.

 

I've also got a lot of work done on my awesome movable-in-hood-light, more on that later

[godfathernikki]

Tech M seems to be doing the trick so far, most of the bryopsis is gone, and the bits that are left on the rock look pretty much dead. It's been just over 1800ppm for a little over a week now, so I think after this week I should be good.

None of the livestock look bothered at all with the exception of 1 of my 2 turbos. Hes's alive but not moving around the tank. I'm thinking I'll move him over to my 12g to see if its the mag bothering him, or if I just got a bum snail.

 

I've been really busy the last couple days, but I do have some pics I'll post when I get the time.

 

In other news... I've got some rasta zoas that should be here tomorrow!

[godfathernikki]

Tech M seems to be doing the trick so far, most of the bryopsis is gone, and the bits that are left on the rock look pretty much dead. It's been just over 1800ppm for a little over a week now, so I think after this week I should be good.

None of the livestock look bothered at all with the exception of 1 of my 2 turbos. Hes's alive but not moving around the tank. I'm thinking I'll move him over to my 12g to see if its the mag bothering him, or if I just got a bum snail.

 

I've been really busy the last couple days, but I do have some pics I'll post when I get the time.

 

In other news... I've got some rasta zoas that should be here tomorrow!

 

 

So it looks like all but a handful of dead pieces of the bryopsis is gone. I used the mag for about 2 1/2 weeks total, not including the time it will take to get back to normal levels via weekly wc. No losses, although the turbos did act sluggish for a while but are fine now.

 

The mag did make all the other algae EXPLODE! Wow, in like 2 days my glass was no longer transparent there was so much growth, the cheato liked it too. It does seem to be subsiding however with the lower levels of mag

 

On to the new rastas....

Well turns out the guarantee on overnightshipping with usps is a pretty weak guarantee. It showed up a day later even though all the criteria was met to have it make it overnight. Lesson learned, usps. It's been a few days and they are still closed up. I've got my fingers crossed for them still because nothing has melted away yet.

 

I also updated the FTS for this month on the first post. There's fish in it now!

[Quantum]

No curing process for the pukani? Uh-oh...

[godfathernikki]

No curing process for the pukani? Uh-oh...

 

Nope, I bought it dry from brs and it was very clean of organic matter when I got it. I gave all the rock a soak and scrub, but I didn't cure any of it. Since I used it in my cycle I don't think it would have mattered anyway. From the brs site:

 

*This rock does come out of the ocean and may have some dead material on it such as sponges or other critters. We strongly suggest soaking or curing the rock before use in an active aquarium. For new aquariums this may be beneficial to the initial cycle of the tank.

 

or I guess you could technically say that it was cured in the tank...

[JamesHL88]

Your diy skills are impressive. I just took on my largest diy project by building a custom acrylic sump to fit under my 55 gallon. I will be stealing your return section baffle idea.

[godfathernikki]

Your diy skills are impressive. I just took on my largest diy project by building a custom acrylic sump to fit under my 55 gallon. I will be stealing your return section baffle idea.

 

Thanks! That's good to hear considering a lot of the diy involved skills I didn't(and some I still don't ) have at the time. Luckily most of it was kind of "behind the scenes" so it didn't have to be pretty; I managed to keep it clean where it was viewable though.

 

I saw that eggcrate/baffle idea online somewhere, so I can't take credit for it, although I'd like to, hah. I thought it would work perfect because my return section was small and would evap out quickly if I didn't increase the volume somehow.

[godfathernikki]

Well the (not so) awesome rastas I ordered from a member here didn't survive the trek I paid for guaranteed overnight shipping from USPS - which they failed at and took 2 days to deliver instead of one. I guess a day of sitting in 114F heat was too much for them. Took almost a week but they all melted away.

 

Seller in this case was awesome though, everything was well packed and insulated, and I'm sure they would have been fine had they been delivered on time. He got a refund from USPS for the failed overnight and passed it along, and even gave me a refund for the zoas when I told him they had died off.

 

All in all, I would have rather had the zoas than the cash, but at least it wasn't a total loss.

 

The moral of the story? DON'T TRUST USPS OVERNIGHT. Lesson learned. Use a commercial service like ups or fedex if it has to be there on time. I even called to find out what happened to the package, which they said they would do some "research"(whatever that means) and call me back. I ended up getting a call the next day 4 hours after it was delivered, to tell me that my package had been delivered

[godfathernikki]

Got the ATO started!

 

It was my first time bending acrylic, so it isn't too pretty but it looks like it will work. The cases for the float switches are little salad dressing cups I found at the grocery store, which I then drilled out and painted black.

[godfathernikki]

The ATO in action - seems to be working just fine so far.

 

 

You can also see that I pulled the rubble I used to seed the tank out of the sump. I'm starting to get some coraline and other growth in the main tank, so I figured it wasn't needed anymore