da1001's dead tank update

[jeremycee]

Ok, getting close. Its been 10 days now. I am seeing little tiny pockets of diatom popping up on both my sand and rock, the green algae is getting even thicker on my rockwork and the purple algae has really been spreading. I checked a few of my parameters:

 

Salinity: 1.022 (grr, still increasing it)

Ammonia: .25 ppm (woooo, finally headed in the right direction from 1.0 its been all week lol)

Nitrates: 40 ppm finally over the 5-20 its been stuck at so ammonia is being gobbled up finally and turning into Nitrites/Nitrates.

 

Hopefully CUC, fish and corals this weekend? But only if ammonia is 0 by then. We shall see!

IMO i would maybe test over the weekend to see if ammonia is gone by then and maybe do another water change. then next weekend see where you are at on the nitrates. You never know and better safe than sorry haha

[da1001]

IMO i would maybe test over the weekend to see if ammonia is gone by then and maybe do another water change. then next weekend see where you are at on the nitrates. You never know and better safe than sorry haha

 

Yes, I will add a water change in before I put any live critters in there but if it is zero ammonia by thursday, I will feel ok putting stuff in on saturday as long as it stays 0 ppm ammonia for the full 48 hrs. And you are right, if I still dont have it at zero then I sure wont be adding anything in there yet.

[Slowtwitch]

CUC this weekend for sure. Might want to give them a chance to clean things up for a week or so before you load up too much in the coral/fish department. Big water change before you put the CUC in. Patience.

[da1001]

True that Slowtwitch, cuc first for sure as long as parameters are looking good Saturday. Might add a tiny cheap frag if I am feeling lucky and find one I like. Something easy like Zoa's, if only for some color. If they are doing fine a week after I will feel better about adding more corals and fish. But who knows, my current parameters aren't where I want them to be just yet. Listed below.

 

Today's parameters:

Temp - 80.2F right where I want it

Salinity - got it up to 1.023 at least, slowly increasing to 1.025. This works since I can manually top off with saltwater to increase it. My ATO unit was stuck in Minnesota due to the crappy weather currently but finally made it to Memphis about 2:30 this afternoon. No new eta on the arrival date yet though.

pH - somewhere in the 7.8-8.0 range, the color looks the same on both to me so the range is somewhat close to being good.

Ammonia - still around .25ppm although the color looks just about ready to change more orange-y which is 0 ppm, there is a definite orangeish hue beginning.

Nitrates - 20ish, 20 and 40 look semi close color wise but I am leaning more towards 20.

 

More green and purple algae popping up on the rocks, more diatom on the sand although its a very very light dusting of it, barely noticeable unless you look directly in the tank.

 

Update on the macro lens: they had it slated for delivery today. I checked their website to be sure it was on the truck since UPS around here usually doesn't come by until 7 pm over here which is perfect in case I have so sign for it I will be home from work, but it says it made it to the carrier facility in the town next to me and then they transferred it to the USPS at like 11:30 am this morning? Wth? Anyone heard of UPS doing that before? The USPS will definitely make me sign for it and since they always come by around noon I wont be home to sign for it and they are only open from 9 - 4 pm when I am stuck at work, so now I don't know how the hell I am going to get my package if it really isn't on the UPS truck like it should be. For once I hope their website tracker is wrong and it is actually on the truck right now but I am not holding out much hope of that. Hopefully if the USPS does have it I can get on their tracker website and update it so they keep it at the post office Friday and I can maybe swing by there during my lunch break to get it. Its relatively close by my work although traffic is horrible and I have to make it through like 4 lights each way which is a pain because traffic is crazy during lunch haha. I will get it somehow, by god but I wanted it today.

[da1001]

Hmm...I can only hope that post office box out front is large enough for my lens to fit in it since it locks. They could just deliver it there. Here's hoping they went cheap and used the smallest box possible to fit it in safely. It might fit in there for all I know. We shall see, I got grocery shopping tomorrow night so I wont be able to run straight home after work like I did today. Who knows, maybe I will drive home and it will be sitting there on my doorstep due to the lack of a signature required? We shall see. I read online that a lot of times UPS and Fedex will send it the final step to your door to save themselves a buck on their lowest tier shipping models. Saves them money, but takes longer and pisses me off because now I cant track it.

[da1001]

OK, ammonia hit 0 ppm this morning.

 

I will continue testing 2x a day until Saturday when my LFS opens at noon. If its still 0 that whole time I will pick up a small clean up crew. Maybe like 3 small crabs and 6 small assorted snails to start up the clean tank patrol squad.

[da1001]

Updates:

 

Ammonia is still 0

 

Macro lens arrived, test pics below while I learn how to dial it in. Holy crap this thing is strong, picture 1 is the FTS, I had to sit about 5 feet away on the middle of my bed to do it. Tokina 100mm f/2.8 for the win! This shutter release is a godsend.

 

Tunze ATO arrived too. No time to drill holes in my water container until tomorrow night but I can get it all set up then.

 

FTS:

 

Random Shot 1:

 

Random Shot 2:

 

Random Shot 3:

[teenyreef]

You had a twofer today! Ammonia stayed at zero AND scored a macro lens

 

From looking at the rock, I think you're right on track getting the clean up crew (and nothing else) this weekend. You'll probably get another quick ammonia spike in the first few days after you put in the cleanup crew, as your bacteria catches up to the snail and crab poop. And you still have the algae bloom to get through, although having the CUC in place will help with that. Moving right along!

CUC this weekend for sure. Might want to give them a chance to clean things up for a week or so before you load up too much in the coral/fish department. Big water change before you put the CUC in. Patience.

Yeah, what he said

[da1001]

Well, clean up crew is acclimating in the tank, they gave me a hella deal on a 2 head baby orange acan and a 6-8 head sunny delight Zoa so I jumped all over that. We shall see! Pics tomorrow haha!!

 

Edit: forgot to say im only doing that because my parameters have been perfect for several days now lol

[reefernanoman]

Well, clean up crew is acclimating in the tank, they gave me a hella deal on a 2 head baby orange acan and a 6-8 head sunny delight Zoa so I jumped all over that. We shall see! Pics tomorrow haha!!

 

Edit: forgot to say im only doing that because my parameters have been perfect for several days now lol

Nice! Let the fun begin!

[Slowtwitch]

Sunny D's are beautiful. Looking forward to the pics?

[da1001]

I would add pics but I haven't even taken them out of the bag yet. I'll go do that right now lol. Then pics, then a movie?

[da1001]

Mwahahaha.

 

I was so excited about getting my crabs, snails and maybe a coral that I forgot to mention that I reran my cords before doing a 50% water change earlier, and also got my Tunze 3152 up and running. Waters still a little high from the water change but when I plugged in my ATO I know it works at least since it spit in like 2 seconds worth of water just fine.

 

And now onto the pics!! Sorry they aren't the highest quality ever, still learning the lens and rushed trying to get ready for my movie here in a bit lol.

 

Picture dump!!

My new favorite baby, after the cat.

 

One of my new little critters.

 

Sunny Delights slowly becoming less pissed about being moved from baggie to tank.

[Slowtwitch]

Looks like a great start. I was wandering through my LFS yesterday and stumbled onto another piece that was in the wrong frag tank. Grabbed a rainbow acan frag with about 6 heads in the $20 frag tank. I will try to get pictures today once it is open and fed. I have a running joke now with the owner that once a week I'm going to go in there and find the gem he has hidden in the mediocre crap since this is the third piece I've scored off him this way.

I wish I had a bigger tank going cause he also had some very cool new leathers there that came in a "random frag pack" that he ordered from his suppliers. Said he was going to buy this way much more often cause he didn't want to spend the time going through the catalogs individually picking out frags. Guess I know where I'll be spending many of my Friday afternoons after Thursday night shipments arrive.

[da1001]

Looks like a great start. I was wandering through my LFS yesterday and stumbled onto another piece that was in the wrong frag tank. Grabbed a rainbow acan frag with about 6 heads in the $20 frag tank. I will try to get pictures today once it is open and fed. I have a running joke now with the owner that once a week I'm going to go in there and find the gem he has hidden in the mediocre crap since this is the third piece I've scored off him this way.

I wish I had a bigger tank going cause he also had some very cool new leathers there that came in a "random frag pack" that he ordered from his suppliers. Said he was going to buy this way much more often cause he didn't want to spend the time going through the catalogs individually picking out frags. Guess I know where I'll be spending many of my Friday afternoons after Thursday night shipments arrive.

That's pretty much what I did last night. I was looking through his $20 section and saw the sunny delights and then I found the Acan in the $10 dollar section so I started talking to one of the guys who worked there and he said he would give me half off on the Acan if I bought both the Acan and the Sunny Delights so I jumped on it. That's hella good pricing for around here, being well over 600 miles away from any sort of saltwater whatsoever.

On another weird note now that I have my ATO up and running I have to get used to that. All I can think of is that it is randomly peeing into my tank. Its so funny, it turns on for about 1 second long, pees, then turns off again. I am not sure how often as of yet since I have only seen it do it twice so far but it will be interesting to watch since I will be around all weekend to babysit it and keep an eye on it after Tibbsy had such a mess with his ATO recently flooding his tank and short-circuiting some stuff. Its a nail biter for sure!

[Steensj2004]

That's pretty much what I did last night. I was looking through his $20 section and saw the sunny delights and then I found the Acan in the $10 dollar section so I started talking to one of the guys who worked there and he said he would give me half off on the Acan if I bought both the Acan and the Sunny Delights so I jumped on it. That's hella good pricing for around here, being well over 600 miles away from any sort of saltwater whatsoever.

On another weird note now that I have my ATO up and running I have to get used to that. All I can think of is that it is randomly peeing into my tank. Its so funny, it turns on for about 1 second long, pees, then turns off again. I am not sure how often as of yet since I have only seen it do it twice so far but it will be interesting to watch since I will be around all weekend to babysit it and keep an eye on it after Tibbsy had such a mess with his ATO recently flooding his tank and short-circuiting some stuff. Its a nail biter for sure!

I am constantly afraid of overflowing something, I like doing an ATO through a controller as it allows me a primary float for water level and a secondary for a,"Oh s#$t the first float stuck and the ATO keeps running"backup. Love the tank!

[da1001]

I am constantly afraid of overflowing something, I like doing an ATO through a controller as it allows me a primary float for water level and a secondary for a,"Oh s#$t the first float stuck and the ATO keeps running"backup. Love the tank!

I am going to have to look into that within the next few months, toss on a controller if only to keep the ATO in check and then its ready for future upgrades such as an MP 10 or dimmable lighting, heater, pumps, etc.

[Steensj2004]

If you buy a contoller it SHOULD come with a temp probe. Recalibrate with a known good analog thermometer and then plug you heater into the power strip provided with the controller, and program. Boom, very consistant temps!

[da1001]

If you buy a contoller it SHOULD come with a temp probe. Recalibrate with a known good analog thermometer and then plug you heater into the power strip provided with the controller, and program. Boom, very consistant temps!

 

I like the sound of that too. I have a little digital one on there atm with the probe tossed in the second chamber and the reader on the back left of the tank.

[da1001]

Update: Noticed a tiny spike in my parameters from adding critters just like I was expecting, everything is still looking happy and normal so I am not too worried about it but I have spare water handy if I need to do a water change. I still haven't taken the frags and attached them to my rock work yet, I am leaving them for a few days to see where they look best before popping them off the plugs and affixing them to their new homes (also need to pick up some super glue too, I have the reef putty already.) So if anyone was curious, I picked up 3 scarlet reef hermits (I had to have a few crabs, shrugs) and then 7 Astraea Snails to complete my CUC for now. If I need to get more I can later. Tunze is working good so far so no complaints there.

 

I went to my oldest and closest LFS today, they have been sort of on and off again the past few years after the old management decided they weren't making enough to make it worthwhile anymore (even though they ran an AWESOME store) and sold out to the new guys. Lets see, reasons I would rather drive 10 extra miles through a dozen extra lights? I saw apstasia in about half of their SW fish tanks, their coral selection was 1 frag tank, maybe 120 gallons only half full of washed out looking corals because their lighting was about 4 feet off the water and way too weak for proper growth. They had a frogspawn head for $10 which is one of the corals im looking for, but it looked half dead and totally bleached out. Honestly, I wouldn't mind going to the other place farther away and paying $30 for theirs instead because they look 10x better. I will be peeking at liveaquaria tonight while I have a few beers to celebrate my successes to far and planning my final set up so stay tuned for that. I have some more pics to upload, I have just been too lazy to toss them on photobucket, but that should be up in the next day or two.

 

Finally, a fish: I was originally thinking of a pair of black clownfish but I don't want to have them grow and get too big for the tank so instead I am considering tossing in a yellow watchman goby instead. That is the fish I have been wanting for 3+ years and I have the ability to get it now. I will keep checking critters, corals and parameters all week long and if everything looks good I will see if the farther away/good LFS has any in stock next weekend. Possibly some sort of shrimp for the goby too, just not sure where I am going to find one. Pistol shrimp are rare around these parts and get snatched up quickly.

[da1001]

Jesus, I didnt know Sunny D's were going for an avg of $25 dollars a head now!! I got one with 6 full heads and 2 baby heads for $20. Makes me want to sell it for $150 and buy that Acan the size of my fist at the LFS I saw last night.

[da1001]

Well, the beer has given me the energy to post a couple more pics (happy drunk I guess )

 

BOOM! Colors on that Sunny D head be ballin'! This is yet another one of those shots that I can honestly say, the pics dont do it justice compared to seeing it in person.

 

And finally managed to get one of them scarlet hermits to hold still for a second.

[teenyreef]

Looking good! Fingers crossed that everything gets adjusted smoothly and that the cycle stays stable

[da1001]

Looking good! Fingers crossed that everything gets adjusted smoothly and that the cycle stays stable

 

Thanks for the kind words teeny.

 

I noticed when I got up this morning that a crab/snail combo had knocked over my Zoa frag in the night, it was laying sideways from where I had put it last night and it looked PISSED. Everything still looked alive though, but I cant be 100% sure until my light comes on in 20 mins. Just more proof that I need to find some time today to reef putty that badboy in place. I think I will start the zoa off on the far left small rock and turn it into a Zoa rock, for my Acan it will probably be spending its life on the sandbed again until I can figure out where it likes best. I had it on my rockwork too but now I am worried about snails or crabs knocking it over also, so I am moving it back down to the sand shortly. Better pics that way anyway since I can sort of angle it more towards the front of the glass.

[da1001]

Ammonia: going down, spike seems to be over

 

Corals: Acan back to the sandbed and the Zoa plug is curing to its very own little Zoa rock. Its not the prettiest thing ever, but I do what I can until I have my fragging supplies and get more practice in. I used waaaay too much reef putty.

 

Skimmer: Pico Skim ships Monday.

 

Pump: my spare return pump I was using to mix up my saltwater for my water changes bit the dust a mere 2 changes in, glad I didn't leave it in the IM 10 since that was the stock return. Guess its mix via big plastic cooking spoon for now.

 

Everything is alive and doing well, Zoa was only slightly pissed at me for yanking it out of the water, its opening back up again already 5 mins later.