firedancer414 Posted March 8, 2018 Author Share Posted March 8, 2018 Hi friends - update on the build! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME I'VE HAD A FISHTANK FOR 3 WEEKS AND ALL I HAVE IS A PET ALGAE So I now have a 6 gallon refugium with a ball of clean chaeto from Algae Barn in there. There are also now apparently 5,280 copepods swimming around but I don't feel like I can see them. Also now have phaetoplankton living in my fridge. 24 marine pure 2" blocks for the "substrate". Skimmer is settling in nicely in the back by the drain. Running the H380 from 8pm-4am, still haven't turned the main light on. Bring it on hair algae! I somehow got my hands on Triton reagents so I'm figuring out my dosing strategy. I bought plastic containers to hold it, since I've read that the Triton containers tend to leak. Rapidly running out of space! Few fails to share since it's not always well and good ... Tunze ATO alarm going off at 4am because I had set the return location lower than the reservoir, and it started siphoning. Now have a sweet water feature since the return is at the top of the ATO! I picked up a short piece of PVC so I can mount the return super high and never have this problem again. I removed the old ATO and some other glass/plastic from the sump to make it cleaner. I made a big splash and then the breaker tripped. Isolated it down to the MP10 that was shorting. Thought it might be permanently broken. Finally looked at the power brick and realized that there was water sitting between the cathode and anode. Drained it, everything worked again - having gotten a free pass. So ... immediately raised all my cords above the sump, and now intend to build an even higher shelf to hide all the cords near the mounted power strip. Nitrates still insane between 40-80ppm, so let's see how chaeto + skimmer do. After I get back from traveling next week will just default to large water changes, no big deal. 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 18, 2018 Author Share Posted March 18, 2018 Ended up doing two big water changes (15/40 gallons, and 25/40 gallons, replacing about 75% of the water). Nitrates showed at 10ppm, so ready for some stock! As a bonus, clearing my nitrates (and really vacuuming out a ton of garbage in the sump) calmed down my skimmer a _ton_, which I now have on the maximum air setting. Put a red fire shrimp in the tank today, hoping to pick up two more cleaning shrimp tomorrow. Rest of the cleanup crew arriving on Tuesday from LiveAquaria: Shrimp (3) Fire Shrimp (1) Cleaner shrimp (2) Snails (5) Nassarius Vibex Snail (Caribbean) (1) Super Tongan Nassarius Snail (1) Cerith Snail (Aquacultured) (2) Banded Trochus Snail (1) Crabs (5) Electric Blue Hermit Crab (Indonesia) (2) Electric Orange Hermit Crab (2) Halloween Hermit Crab (1) I based my stocking decisions on this video, since I'm sort of obsessed with Youtube + BRSTV: Turned on my AI Hydra 26 for the first time today, since the chaeto seems to settling in fine, my nitrates/phosphate are fine, and the cleanup crew will be in place soon. Got it on the default schedule. Starting to make stocking decisions. My main question is: Where is the most premium online place to buy fish? I'm willing to pay a significant premium, if it means you get healthier livestock and I don't need to quarantine. Vivid aquariums? I think my salinity is a little low (measured 1.023 on my new Milwaukee digital refractometer). I might try to bring it up by putting salt water in the ATO. Quote Link to comment
mashedpotato Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 Hi. Nice build! I just purchased a reefer 170 and looking to include a decent sized fuge and utilize a small skimmer (icecap k2-50 is powerful and small footprint). Curious to hear your thoughts on replacing the stick sump. Did you look at other options before the DIY fuge? 1 Quote Link to comment
Indiana Reefin Posted March 18, 2018 Share Posted March 18, 2018 I am going to go with the icecap K2-50 for my 29 gallon when I add a 10 gallon sump. The 50 looks like a great skimmer for this size tank 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 18, 2018 Author Share Posted March 18, 2018 2 hours ago, mashedpotato said: Hi. Nice build! I just purchased a reefer 170 and looking to include a decent sized fuge and utilize a small skimmer (icecap k2-50 is powerful and small footprint). Curious to hear your thoughts on replacing the stick sump. Did you look at other options before the DIY fuge? I didn't look into doing a new sump - I was able to get the stock one to do what I wanted it to with a large fuge. The biggest miss is I still wish I was able to get up the size of the ATO reservoir, but I think I'll live. I still need a ton of space for my dosing pump which I'll install in the next two weeks. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 25, 2018 Author Share Posted March 25, 2018 Did a bunch of large water changes (25%, 33%, 25%) and got my nitrates down to < 5ppm. Salinity is back to 1.025 and I'm paying much closer attention now. Slowly stocking the tank when I'm not traveling. I have a fire shrimp (so pretty but timid) and a cleaner shrimp. I ordered 5 hermits but I think only 2 survived (2 electric blue, 2 electric orange, and 1 Halloween) - the two blue died, the two orange are doing great, and the Halloween crab disappeared - no idea where he went. Might still be alive but I doubt it. My nitrates were still around ~10ppm when I put them in there, it may have been too much. Learned a lesson in patience. Have a couple snails. My chaeto also melted (?!) in a diatom bloom, or something. I ordered a new ball + some more pods while I was at it. I redid the hard scape, to make some more room at the top for corals, and to add some islands in the middle for a zoa garden. Hopefully will pick up a clown pair sometime next week! Quote Link to comment
John L Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Looks great, I’m enjoying reading your thread. I’ve had my reefer 170 for just over 1 yr. I’m running chaeto in with my skimmer, no problems though I wish I could’ve separated the skimmer / chaeto section to keep it cleaner looking. Youl find as yr tank matures and stabilises, yr chaeto will take off, and be full of all sorts of life friendly bacteria/sponges etc ,all adding to the cycle of life in yr tank. One word of warning, and this is me personally, cleaner shrimp can be a pita, irritating corals by stealing food, they are gluttons and will have a never ending hunger. Mine used to open up my acans mouths and pull food out when I fed them. To the point I would have to stand guard with a grabber. I ended up stripping my tank rockwork to get the little sod out. Not all are created equal, but I would never get a cleaner shrimp again! 1 Quote Link to comment
squamptonbc Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Looking good. Ive also got the 170 that I have been setting up. 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 25, 2018 Author Share Posted March 25, 2018 11 hours ago, John L said: One word of warning, and this is me personally, cleaner shrimp can be a pita, irritating corals by stealing food, they are gluttons and will have a never ending hunger. Mine used to open up my acans mouths and pull food out when I fed them. To the point I would have to stand guard with a grabber. I ended up stripping my tank rockwork to get the little sod out. Not all are created equal, but I would never get a cleaner shrimp again! Ah, interesting. Thanks for the tip. I guess if I need to get rid of my shrimp after I have corals so be it. Will keep a look out. 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 26, 2018 Author Share Posted March 26, 2018 THE HALLOWEEN HERMIT LIVES! Found him hiding. Also got two swimmers today. I think the plan is purple firefish + watchman goby (and pistol shrimp) for now. then on to corals!!! Lastly just between us girls I get my Apex this week!!! 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 27, 2018 Author Share Posted March 27, 2018 Clowns are settling in and happy ... here's the current state of my scape. The two rocks in the middle are going to be Zoa islands. I added the duel nozzle random flow upgrade from Vivid for the return. https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/shop/red-sea-reefer-ultimate-return-line-upgrade-25mm-to-12in-rfg/ Current state of my sump. Space is at a ridiculous premium, since I'm have my Triton 4-part reagents and I'm getting my Apex tomorrow. Also have the GHL 2.1 doser to install, but want to see how big the Apex is before I do so. I also ended up "extending" the ATO stand. Still waiting to see if I should try to get a larger (2.5G? 4G?) reservoir. Should be a fun next few days of installing things!! Random thoughts and learnings: 1) I lost both my cleaner shrimp =( Both molted within 24 hrs of being added to the tank, one died in 48 hours. The other died for 1 of 3 reasons: 1) I tried to feed my clowns (they weren't eating in the tank yet) and the cleaner shrimp ended up springing for the food (it was probably too much), 2) I did a 25% water change 4 days after it molted, or 3) an ammonia spike from the first fish/food in the tank. So just the fire shrimp left (which hasn't molted). I also lost two hermit crabs (both electric blue? the Halloween and 2x Electric Orange both survived). Also melted my chaeto. Definitely taking it as a reality check before I get any corals, to get things under control. 2) My toddler scratched the glass a bit, which I exacerbated a bit by trying to polish them out by overheating a bit. =( Looking to getting a purple firefish and yellow watchman goby next. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 28, 2018 Author Share Posted March 28, 2018 Also, Apex. First thing I did was put the ATO on a timer so it won't start pumping in the middle of the night any more (thank heavens!) I didn't realize that to control my MP10 through the Apex I would need to buy another $125 module. This hobby, ugh. I'm now looking at whether it makes sense to get that module, or whether I should sell my Vortech MP10W-QD for ~$200 (what they're going for on Ebay), and get a Neptune WAV for $200, or 2 for $400. Seems like a better deal TBH. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment
Indiana Reefin Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 Really nice start m! Sorry about your shrimp ? i havent had had much luck with cleaner shrimp lately either so I am going to take a break. They all have such great personalities! 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 28, 2018 Author Share Posted March 28, 2018 5 hours ago, Indiana Reefin said: Really nice start m! Sorry about your shrimp ? i havent had had much luck with cleaner shrimp lately either so I am going to take a break. They all have such great personalities! Yeah, at some point I would stick my hand into the tank and he would start cleaning me it was awesome. =(( 1 Quote Link to comment
William Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 Go with the vortech 1 Quote Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted March 29, 2018 Share Posted March 29, 2018 I would personally just stick with the vortech and run it in either short pulse mode or reef crest mode. Vortechs have the benefit of the slim profiles. 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted March 30, 2018 Author Share Posted March 30, 2018 On 3/28/2018 at 7:02 PM, William said: Go with the vortech 22 hours ago, xiaoxiy said: I would personally just stick with the vortech and run it in either short pulse mode or reef crest mode. Vortechs have the benefit of the slim profiles. Fair enough I guess I'll just spring for the module then! Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 2, 2018 Author Share Posted April 2, 2018 Who cares about the display all the action is in the sump Built some shelving to hold my Triton reagents and dosing pump. My sump is absolutely packed. Chaeto V2 seems to be doing better than chaeto V1. Nitrates are <5ppm after I fed my pair of clowns all week. Traveling the next 2 weeks so I don't think I'm going to end up with more livestock soon. pH super high because H380, between 8.2-8.4 depending. 1 Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 9, 2018 Author Share Posted April 9, 2018 Weekly update ... Chaeto 2.0 is getting huge. Took a magnifying glass and some light and can see a bunch of pods swimming around. Nitrates have been at 0 with my cheap API kit. Probably need to switch to another kit so I can get my 0-5ppm read better. Added a pair of flighty purple firefish from my LFS. They are absolutely gorgeous. I tried to buy them last Wednesday, but one of them leapt to its near death (it must have been on the floor for 30 sec?) as we were getting it into the bag. They put them both back into the tank and we said that we'd wait until the weekend to see if they were okay. Called again, they were fine + eating again so took them home! Managed to get a picture of one of them at least. I'm also happy to announce my redneck vacation skimmer. I was away for 4 days this weekend, and came back to a full skimmer cup and a microbubble issue. I think the microbubbles were because I switched to a larger ATO reservoir -> I think the Tunze pump was struggling to move the water, -> the return water level was low. I'm going on a 10 day vacation in 2 weeks so I need to get this squared away. I set up my vacation cup for the Tunze and needed something for it to drain into. Found a Listerine bottle in the recycling bin. So testing it this week. Got some replacement electric blue hermits and a pair of orange spotted shrimp gobys + red banded pistol shrimp from Diver's Den arriving Tuesday. As far as fish go I think that's it for now? My long-term hope is that in 6-12 months, I'll have large enough of a pod population that I can get a mandarin. After I get back from that 10 day trip it's time for corals!! My current plan is to get some zoas + a torch from WWC to start, then get a 10-frag BattleBox from Battlecorals. Also loving my Apex, seeing nice 0.1 - 0.2 pH day/night swings from the fuge. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 10, 2018 Author Share Posted April 10, 2018 Got the doser hooked up and my WXM module for the MP10. Need to program both. I don't really need to dose my dKH and calcium have been super steady because I don't have any corals. Purple firefish acting scared Full tank shot these days. The tank is super cloudy, with what looks increasingly like a bacterial bloom. Immature tank life. Compare to the full tank shot from March 26 2 weeks ago, water was super clear. The pH didn't swing last night but my ORP hit an all time high. Nitrates testing at 0. So guess I just need to wait it out. 8pm yesterday - 8pm today: Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 11, 2018 Author Share Posted April 11, 2018 Added an orange spotted goby pair and a pistol shrimp today. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 22, 2018 Author Share Posted April 22, 2018 3 weeks into chaeto 2.0 and we are starting to see the crazy pH swings. Roughly 0.15-0.2 on startup/shutdown. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 26, 2018 Author Share Posted April 26, 2018 Another fun week of updates! Tons of livestock, it's so alive now! Swimmers 2 Ocellaris clowns 2 Orange spotted gobies w/ red banded pistol shrimp (shrimp currently MIA) 2 Purple firefish (one currently MIA) 1 Green chromis 1 Midas blenny Inverts 1 fire shrimp 1 cleaner shrimp ~10 hermits, ~15 snails Feeding time! Got through the massive algae bloom that developed when I was traveling. Turned off the lights for a week and added a bag of carbon, came back from traveling for 10 days and it was gone. Just the new tank things! I'm now planning an SPS dominant tank, with some zoas on islands in the bottom and maybe a cool acan + torch LPS. So my parameters that I'm hoping to hold are Salinity [35ppm] / Calcium [430ppm] / Alkalinity [8] / Magnesium [1280ppm] Starting to dial in my dosing. Have been doing daily alk testing with my Hanna tester. The tank was consuming ~0.1 dKH / day. I started dosing on 4/23, and have been steadily raising the alk (targeting 8). Getting the GHL Doser set up to Wifi was super frustrating, it was clearly intended to be done with USB and a Windows machine. I had to install Parallels on a Mac and it was super fussy. Instructions really unclear tons of Googling. It took me ~4 hours of fussing with it, and I dosed an arbitrary (~1-3 mL) of each Triton reagent as I was setting it up. I moved my Apex probes out of the refugium and into the return area, and the salinity was really different (~10%, eg. 1.022 -> 1.025 spg). That was a bit surprising. Had a spare firepad floating around, and now have a touchscreen dash for the tank. I bought a quarantine setup at Petco for my corals that I'm really unsure I want to use. If I'm going to be buying from WWC/Battlecorals/Austin Aqua Farms, sort of hoping that I could get by with just CoralRX/Bayer dips. I'm worried that I don't have the time to maintain two tanks, especially if one needs manual dosing + care. I ended up keeping the Vortech and getting the wireless module. It's really really nice having it on a schedule now, and being able to dial it way back at night so the fish can sleep. Quote Link to comment
firedancer414 Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 Decided to go for it and set up a small 10G coral quarantine tank. Using a 10G setup with a hood, heater, and power filter from Top Fin, ~$50. It came with a hood, which I'm hoping will help some evaporation/stability. I added a Tunze NanoStream 6015 to get some flow, set the cheap 50W heater that came with the kit to 76, and added a 25W NeoTherm I had lying around to 78. Built some frag racks out of egg crate I had lying around. Added a block of MarinePure from the display to get the cycle going (although I don't have a source of ammonia, and I'm not sure if I want to add it? Since there never will be a source of ammonia? I need to get some blue strip lights to add since this will carry some SPS frags. In a closet in my office Planning to order corals this week! Initially flooded my display about 2.5 months ago. 1 Quote Link to comment
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