tibbsy07 IM10

[tibbsy07]

Quick update - BUSY BUSY BUSY! Dog is good, but I haven't even been IN the office where the tank is since Friday. Life is crazy hectic right now.

 

As for the tank, it seems to be ok. The corals all look marvelous, but there is definitely some cyano or brown hair algae. I thought I had gotten rid of it, but it has returned. I think it's cyano. I haven't been feeding save for a tiny amount every week or so in order to sustain Cousteau the porcelain crab and Beyonce the sexy shrimp.

 

I looked at Microbacter7 under a microscope. A few things. First - my bottle is old. I've had it for 6 months, and who knows when it was bottled. That means that there could be lots wrong with this. Take my observations with a grain of salt. Until I get a fresh bottle, I can't say much.

 

I viewed a 10 uL sample on a 40X magnification (400X total magnification), but the scope I used was old and crappy. We only have that one and a SUPER high powered one that requires sign up, training, and lab funds to use. No go on that one, sorry.

 

I counted very few bacteria at all. My estimates, based on my counts and the volume used, is that there is about 1000 CFU (colony forming units) per milliliter. In the whole bottle that means that there are ~250,000 bacteria. For reference, a typical colony of bacteria on a petri plate that is visible contains on the order of 1,000,000,000 bacteria. So there is not much currently in MY bottle. That doesn't mean that new bottles don't have lots of bacteria, but this one doesn't.

[hey]

Quick update - BUSY BUSY BUSY! Dog is good, but I haven't even been IN the office where the tank is since Friday. Life is crazy hectic right now.

 

As for the tank, it seems to be ok. The corals all look marvelous, but there is definitely some cyano or brown hair algae. I thought I had gotten rid of it, but it has returned. I think it's cyano. I haven't been feeding save for a tiny amount every week or so in order to sustain Cousteau the porcelain crab and Beyonce the sexy shrimp.

 

I looked at Microbacter7 under a microscope. A few things. First - my bottle is old. I've had it for 6 months, and who knows when it was bottled. That means that there could be lots wrong with this. Take my observations with a grain of salt. Until I get a fresh bottle, I can't say much.

 

I viewed a 10 uL sample on a 40X magnification (400X total magnification), but the scope I used was old and crappy. We only have that one and a SUPER high powered one that requires sign up, training, and lab funds to use. No go on that one, sorry.

 

I counted very few bacteria at all. My estimates, based on my counts and the volume used, is that there is about 1000 CFU (colony forming units) per milliliter. In the whole bottle that means that there are ~250,000 bacteria. For reference, a typical colony of bacteria on a petri plate that is visible contains on the order of 1,000,000,000 bacteria. So there is not much currently in MY bottle. That doesn't mean that new bottles don't have lots of bacteria, but this one doesn't.

 

interesting, hopefully a new bottle would have lots more... hopefully heh

[tibbsy07]

One would hope.

[tibbsy07]

OK, so Chris @ Brightwell aquatics emailed me back, and they add ~10⁷ to 10⁸ bacteria per milliliter, and a bit of replication happens at first, so we'll say that in a 250mL bottle, there are between 2.5x10⁹ and 2.5x10¹⁰ bacteria total. That's a lot. Not at all what I saw. I'll definitely have to do this with a new bottle.

 

For those who aren't familiar with those numbers:

 

Starting bottle has ~10,000,000 to 100,000,000 cells per milliliter. That means the bottle should have 2,500,000,000 to 25,000,000,000 cells total. I saw what amounted to <250,000 left in my bottle.

[hey]

OK, so Chris @ Brightwell aquatics emailed me back, and they add ~10⁷ to 10⁸ bacteria per milliliter, and a bit of replication happens at first, so we'll say that in a 250mL bottle, there are between 2.5x10⁹ and 2.5x10¹⁰ bacteria total. That's a lot. Not at all what I saw. I'll definitely have to do this with a new bottle.

 

For those who aren't familiar with those numbers:

 

Starting bottle has ~10,000,000 to 100,000,000 cells per milliliter. That means the bottle should have 2,500,000,000 to 25,000,000,000 cells total. I saw what amounted to <250,000 left in my bottle.

 

wonder if sitting on store shelves also has an effect.

[metrokat]

i have 2 new unopened bottles of MB7. Send me vials doc.

[tibbsy07]

Finally have the tank set. Rock work, sand, water added. I used a welcome mat kind of thing under the tank to help even it out and cut a piece of thin drawer liner to the tank size to help any extra irregularities.

 

Rinsed the sand until it was clear, but still ended up with some dust in the tank.

[jbb]

Looking good Tibbs .

 

Now fill her up !!!

[teenyreef]

Dude, you're killing me (just kidding). I've been following your thread hoping you'd figure out all the problems with the IM10 so it would be clear sailing for me when I got mine wet. Instead we both got them going at the same time

 

It looks good. I love the rock and the stand turned out great!

 

Where did you put the ATO sensor? The second compartment? I've got a skimmer in mine and I've run out of places to put the sensor between the media caddy in the first compartment and the skimmer in the second. The water level goes up and down too much in the third compartment to put it there.

[Polarcollision]

Great followup on MB7. 6 months isn't much time at all to use up a whole bottle. Even if a handful are left won't they just multiply like crazy in the tank if conditions are favorable?

 

@teenyreef ATO goes in the variable water height chamber. That's how it knows to add water to keep salinity/total water volume stable.

[teenyreef]

I think Tibbsy is busy with work so hopefully he won't mind me hijacking his thread

 

@Polarcollision: that's what I tried first. But when my MP10 speeds up and slows down, it raises and lowers the water level in the third chamber by over an inch. It ended up setting off the overflow sensor on my ATO. And because my ATO uses a thermal sensor, the water level needs to change slowly for it to sense level changes. I may have to switch to a mechanical sensor and use a secondary sensor for overflow detection.

[teenyreef]

I turned the MP10 down and now the sensor works fine in chamber 3. I will probably switch to an ATO with a mechanical sensor eventually because I want the freedom to turn up my MP10 to 11!

[tibbsy07]

I have been slammed with work, hijack away for now.

 

As for a thermal sensor, which ATO do you have? I would think that the constant water levels changing would actually mess with a mechanical just as much. What you might try doing is lowering the ATO sensor in the water to the point at which the MP10 is on, the water is lowest. That way it will always fill your tank if the level drops below THAT line (assuming your MP10 is on most of the time). Also, to be honest, the MP10 at max will blow your tank to pieces. In a regular 10g rectangle tank, maybe not, but in these cubes absolutely, especially considering that I only filled about 7-8 gallons of water once sand and rock were accounted for and the recommended level in the rear chambers via IM. I'd stick to the MP10 on low. There isn't enough space for it to be worth it. You'll eventually likely have not just diminishing returns, but negative, in the long run. Keep your MP10 on medium or low and it'll be fine.

 

As for the tank, we're cycling along. Sorry Kat, things have been too hectic for me to get those tubes out. I'm pretty much in lab from 8 am until midnight every night right now, with an hour or two of commuting and food as "rest". No other tank news. I finally get a break this weekend for a bit, so I am going to try and finish up tank stuff, and get out to the better LFS an hour away and see what they have.

 

Still not able to put together an xmas list for this tank. I feel like I have most of everything?

I've asked for a PicO Skim 2.0

BRS Rox Carbon

Spin Stream nozzle

 

Thinking about asking for an IM mediabasket for the IM and then maybe a better pump for the rear chamber?

[teenyreef]

I was just kidding about turning the MP-10 up all the way I'd have an instant flood. The ATO is a Hydor Smart Level Control, and I have set it up just like you described, so that it kicks in only when the water level is consistently low. The problem I had was that when the MP10 runs a little faster, the water level fluctuates between "low enough to trigger a refill" and "high enough to trigger the overflow alarm". With the Hydor that's there's only about an inch between those levels. A higher end ATO with a separate overflow sensor wouldn't have this problem because I could place it higher.

 

Glad to hear the cycle is moving along and that you'l get a little free time this weekend. I've been working late every night and will be working this weekend too. Same kind of schedule so I know just how you feel. The only difference is I get to work the extended hours form home so I can get on NR for a quick break every once in a while.

 

I highly recommend the IM media basket - mine works great. Because I have the MP10 I haven't worried about the flow with the factory return pump. It seems high enough to get decent water flow through the filter and skimmer. And the PicoSkim 2.0 I won in the contest in in my 4g CAD LIghts and is working great. It's a great value for the money and size.

[tibbsy07]

Derp on me, I actually meant the inTank media basket - Stevie's products are just too good to pass up.

[teenyreef]

Oops! I meant intank too

[tibbsy07]

My cycle is finished? I added some phytochrom to the tank today in the morning and tonight I checked the cycle - 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate. Normally I'd say that nothing had happened at all, that I had totally clean water and no cycle had started, but I put a piece of live rock from the pico in the tank when I first added the water and rock. It's been seeding the tank for a week or so now. I think I may actually be set to go. Unfortunately the salinity is way too high (1.030) so I need to bring it down.

 

I have swapped over the NanoBox to the new tank and have it in place - I just have to remember how to hook it up! 48W power to the light and the 9W power to the controller, right? And the Arrow on the cable faces UP (towards to side with the screen) but is it the side with the knob or other that the cord goes to for channels 1 and 2? The second ATO switch is in place, so when i'm ready I'll plug that one in and unplug the pico.

 

In other news, oddly my pico has been dirty because of the lack of water change for 3 weeks, but I'll be damned if the corals don't look amazing. I cleaned the **** out of the pico tonight, and there was tons of either brown algae or cyano (I lean towards the latter). Doesn't matter, I'm going to dip the corals before the transfer into the new tank. I'd like to move stuff over to the new tank before Wednesday and get it all situated before I go out of town for Thanksgiving.

 

Back to the lab!

[tibbsy07]

It's also possible that the brown algae stuff was diatoms? It was a kind of brown dusting, but it was all over. It was all over the inside of the AC70 intake tube and was very thick. It turned teal/green when I killed it, though. Not sure what it was. It's gone now, though. Tank looks good, but the coral miss the NB light now that the CC Par30 bulb is back over them for the time being.

[teenyreef]

Did you figure out the Storm controller cable? It goes on the end of the connector that's furthest away from the knob.

 

I got uncured live rock from KP Aquatics shipped overnight, and other than some cyano, I've never seen ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates go up at all. It's been like just moving rocks from another tank. I'm going to add some snails and take my time, though.

 

Good luck on the move! I'd be scared to move everything over and then go out of town

[tibbsy07]

Transfer complete! Matched salinity and temperature of my tanks, melafix dipped my corals and placed them in the new tank last night. Also drip acclimated Cousteau, Beyonce, and some of the snails. Everything seems good so far. One of the ricordea was very unhappy - it had attached itself to the actual rock and not its epoxy plate, so I had to forcep/scrape it off. Lots of mucus. Put it on the rear sand in the new tank. Xenia were the same and so I had to scrape them off the old rock and I let them float to wherever they wanted and will let them settle.

 

As for setting up and going out of town, I have an ato so it should hold stable. Going out of town also forces me to leave the tank alone for a couple of days and let everyone take it easy in there.

 

FTS

 

Front:

 

Right:

 

Left:

 

I am still figuring out coral placement. For now adjustments are being made. Pico is completely dismantled.

[DaveFason]

Glad to see the transfer went well. I am sure you are glad it is all over.

 

I will shoot you a text.

 

-Dave

[Fishstiks]

Looks awesome!!!!!

[metrokat]

I love it!

[hey]

great looking setup, my lfs was out of the small bottles of microbe lift btw, didn't wanna buy the huge bottle so I will have to keep checkin til they get some in on my frequent trips there lol.

[Polarcollision]

Nice looking tank you have there. :-)