tiepilot68 Posted January 1, 2005 Author Share Posted January 1, 2005 Thanks, sprite. My Canopy hood is warping a bit on the top front corners. Took the top off and am Weighting it in hopes of making it flat again. Gonna have to find a good sealer. There is a pretty decent LFS called Pet Connections on highway 13 between Marion and the Williamson County Airport. Its small but its a clean place. Thats where I picked up my LR thursday. There are about 2 or three people there who know quite a bit about marine tanks and I've found their advice pretty sound. I mean one lady told me yesterday, "Don't get in a hurry. Take your time, let everything cycle for a good long while and add inverts and fish slowwwly. Were not going anywhere so take your time." She also said that when they order fish in for you, they keep them there about a week before they will sell em just to make sure they dont have any problems or diseases. A good thing I think. I work down in Paducah 6 days a week, have yet to find a good quality LFS down there though. Well..petsmart...NOT. Lon Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Share Posted January 2, 2005 OK! Picture time! Here are the pics of the live rock I added on the 30th. The water was still a bit cloudy but has since cleared up nicely. Full tank shot. One of my caves near the center of the tank. Series of caves from the center of the tank to the right hand side. Finally at the far left of my tank a close up of a cool looking rock. A bit of Pink Coraline already forming! This is my 1st marine tank and first encounter with Live Rock, so of course I am thrilled with it, but what do all of you think? Also I tried to go with an open aquascape design to give plenty of hiding places while allowing for good water circulation. Hope I did well. Lemme know whatcha think! More to come as things move along! Lon Link to comment
Travis Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 Hey! Looks Nice! I like all the caves and such. Good work Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Share Posted January 2, 2005 Thanks! Cant wait to see some growth. I pulled alot of dead things off of the rock today..but amonia levels are still quite low..my tap water has more..lol. Link to comment
Travis Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 haha, I hope your not topping off ith your tap water then Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Share Posted January 2, 2005 Thanks Smokez! Cant wait for some color, coral, and critters! Travis..lol lord no. I keep about 9 gallons of distilled on hand for changes and top offs Link to comment
Travis Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 Who needs to SEE coraline. If you have enough corals to cover ALL the rocks...who gives a rip about purple algea haha Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 2, 2005 Author Share Posted January 2, 2005 LOL Travis, good point. Although its gonna be a while before I'll get to that stage....come to think of it...wont that be a sad time? No more room in the tank! EEK! I do have a question of sorts. I've always planned on adding my 3 fish (one or two at a time of course) before adding my corals so I don't introduce an amonia spike into a tank with corals...safer that way I assumed. Well...the gal at my LFS suggested I start with corals, get them stablized, healthy and growing, then when I add fish the corals will be strong enough to handle any sort of small spike. This is sounding to me like a matter of preferance and opinion. Also...my water parameters thus far. Interesting..wondering if these rocks are gonna have a die off of any kind! 12/30/04 Ammonia 0.5 Nitrite .05 Nitrate 5.0 12/31/04 Ammonia 0.25 (decrease) Nitrite 2 (sharp increase) Nitrate 20 (sharp increase) 1/1/05 Ammonia <0.10 (decrease) Nitrite 0.50 (decrease) Nitrate 20 (no movement) 1/2/05 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.25 (decrease) Nitrate 20 (no movement) When my Nitrite hits 0 and my Nitrate begins to decrease does that mean I'm good to go on the clean up crew? (after a 20% water change) Also concerning temps. At night and during the 1st part of my day my temp will be stable at around 76 degrees. After my lights have been on a while it will creep up towards 80 and even slightly over 80! Is this gonna cause problems for me? Lord knows I dont have the cash for a chiller. I've been leaving my hood open while the lights are on. Maybe hanging a small fan up top would help? Anyway...things are looking great. I've reworked the LR some...created two larger deeper caves instead of the 3 and a half I had. heh I'll post some more picks this week. Lon Link to comment
The_Barbe-Hatten_Project Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Great work... i have a 20L w/ a 20L sump (just installed it)... At first we just had the 1 20L running on a Emperor 280 and 4 20watt NO bulbs... everything was built into the wall and nearly completely enclosed... well... completely enclosed.... look here Then we upgraded to a 130 watt PC fixture (24" mounted above the tank) plus a huge Power-Sweep powerhead... the temperature would start at 80 and creep to 82, said the glass thermometer... but really it was 78* creaping to like 84.5* at the end of the day... after we installed the sump the temp went down to a stead 78*-79*... Now, we had a LOT more working against us than you do... -Completely enclosed tank w/ no where for the heat to go -Large Powerhead -Large Powerfilter AND -PC lighting super heating the water my advice to you is to completely remove that wonderful looking canopy and simply run the fixture, they look great in my opinion anyway... set that heater to 76* and see what happens... if it's still to hot... mount that fixuture to the top of your canopy on a 2x4 to rais it up above the water... but you don't want to close off the top of the canopy like you had it... that just traps heat.... don't worry about there not being enough light for the corals... our fixture is almost 10" above the water level and we're keeping SPS very successfully... Link to comment
The_Barbe-Hatten_Project Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 BTW this pic was taken a year ago... the two bottom tanks are now a sump and the top tank is nearly full of coral Link to comment
The_Barbe-Hatten_Project Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 Oh and we live in Bowling Green Kentucky if you want to swap frags some time... Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 Hey, thanks for all the advice. That set up is VERY nice. Once I actually have some frags to swap I would love to! I think I will remove the canopy like you said. My wife really hates the idea, but hopefully she will get used to it. Would just taking the lid off of it and strappin a clip on fan on the side help? Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 3, 2005 Author Share Posted January 3, 2005 Ok...I took off the canopies hood and raised the lights up in the hood so they are about 7 or 8 inches off the water. Before they were only about an inch and a half to two inches from the water surface. Will see how things go tomorrow. Link to comment
Travis Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 are you still using the Aqualight? Mine is mounted with the legs and my temps are fine, but the tank IS open top. Link to comment
The_Barbe-Hatten_Project Posted January 3, 2005 Share Posted January 3, 2005 good deal... you should see some improvements... a fan blowing over your tank will cool the water slightly, but more than anything it will cause extreme evaporation!!!... probably double the eveporaton you have right now... paducah is 120 ish miles away from where we live in Russellville... i'm thinking we could meet in Cadiz, it's about half way between RVK and Paducah... what kind of frags to you have ready for trade? Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 4, 2005 Author Share Posted January 4, 2005 Travis, yup I still have the Aqualight. Love that light. I would mount it on the legs but my wife tends to like the hood alot so am gonna try to make that work...hey you gotta keep em happy. Ok...After removing the Hood's Lid and raising the light up to about 8 inches off of the water my temp is stableized at a cool 76.5 :) Are the gnobs on heaters a good indication of temp? I turn mine up to about 74 and the "On" light comes on. Its a 75W Ebo-Jager..supposed to be good I have read. Trust the heater, or trust the little glass thermometer? BHP. Heh, I dont have ANY frags atm. Nothing in my tank now except live rock and live sand...but I hope to be adding things shortly. Which brings me to my cycle..... .....Alrighty....My parameters today are Ammonia 0 (same as yesterday) Nitrite 0 (decreased from yesterday) Nitrate 15 (decreased from yesterday) My tank started out with an Ammonia reading of 0.5 and in 3 days has been brought down to Zero. The Live Rock I bought has been cycling at the LFS for a while...one lady says since 2 days before christmas...another guy says for two weeks. Is my cycle really almost at an end? Hoping so, but not one to rush things. OH I actually have a tiny sprige of Grape Caulpera growing on the side of one of my rocks! LET THERE BE LIFE!!! lol I know its good in a fuge, but not sure I wanna let it grow in my tank. I think its ugly. Lon Link to comment
The_Barbe-Hatten_Project Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 The heater and the glass thermometer aren't really very good. .. i had a glass theremometer that always read between 78-80* but then when i used a digital thermometer the reading was like 84.5*!!! (at that moment the glass thermo read 80*) so a digital thermometer costs like $10 even at a LFS... if you are having temp problems i highly advise that you get one... let that macro grow in your tank for now... it will help the tank cycle faster... it sounds like your tank is nearly done cycling, but don't add anything untill you nitrates read 0... then your golden... BTW... the cooler you can run your tank, not below 76*, the better soft corals will do... if you ever keep SPS you'll want to keep your tank at a higher 78-80*... Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 4, 2005 Author Share Posted January 4, 2005 Thanks for the advice. I'll pick up a better one tomorrow after work. I got a free digital one with my order from Hello Lights but it broke in two days..lol. I probably wont keep SPS's for a good while. I'm very new to the hobby and will be starting with softies, colony polyps and a little later on a few LPS. On a side note my DVD I ordered for christmas came in the mail today....Discovery Channel's Blue Planet disc 3 Coral Seas. It was great! Just toooo short..hehe Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 Update. 4 days now and the ammonia and nitrites have been 0 and the nitrate has steadily fallen to 5ppm. So I've added a tiny clean up crew.... 2 red tipped hermits and a zebra hermit. My first life! Loads of fun to watch so far. Got to see one of the Reds fall onto his back, climb out of his shell then upright it and climb back in...was hillarious! All the while the tiny Zebra was "Trying to help". In another week and a half to two weeks I will be adding something else. Should I go with my pair of clowns or get some easy corals 1st like Green star polyps? I want to take the route that is easiest on whatever I put in. Lon Link to comment
Brian da lion Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 I would say clowns, then you'll have something to watch besides hermits in there. Link to comment
keschee Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 I have a question. I'm new to reef tanks, and I am in the process of cycling a 37G Oceanic. I've been looking at the rock work in your tank, and wondering if you glue/epoxy your rocks? In my experience with F/W I had to glue the rocks together so that they didn't fall. In the first pics of your tank the rocks look kinda unstable. So I was just wondering if you had secured them somehow? Link to comment
Travis Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Originally posted by tiepilot68 In another week and a half to two weeks I will be adding something else. Should I go with my pair of clowns or get some easy corals 1st like Green star polyps? I want to take the route that is easiest on whatever I put in. Lon I would go with fish before you add your Corals. But later on if you want to add a small fish, while haveing your tank stocked, that would be fine. Link to comment
tiepilot68 Posted January 6, 2005 Author Share Posted January 6, 2005 Thanks guys. Yah, I think I'll add the pair of clowns 1st. You guys are right...my two red tipped crabs and one zebra (who my wife has dubbed "Peppy" are fun to look at, but am looking forward to having my clowns in there. And it would be good to get the small ammonia spike adding them will cause cycled out before I add corals anyway. I have a question. I'm new to reef tanks, and I am in the process of cycling a 37G Oceanic. I've been looking at the rock work in your tank, and wondering if you glue/epoxy your rocks? In my experience with F/W I had to glue the rocks together so that they didn't fall. In the first pics of your tank the rocks look kinda unstable. So I was just wondering if you had secured them somehow? I've since changed the aquascaping in my tank from the pics posted on here, but not for stability issues. The rock work was very stable, and I spent nearly 3 hours chipping here and there to get it to be that way. Sure dont want your rock work tumbling down upon your critters heh. I've changed it since then to give it a more natural look, creating a large cave on the right side and two slender arches on the left. (I'll post pics this weekend probably) I didn't use any epoxy because I correctly guessed that I would want to change my rock work at some point in time, so what you see in the pics is just fitted together carefully, but solidly. Pics to come soon guys! Cant wait to get my two Occelaris Clowns! I've talked to my LFS and the owner is quite sure she can find me a mated pair. Thanks again all....havin so much fun with this! Lon Link to comment
Travis Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 I wouldn't get a mated pair, most of them are ripped from the ocean and aren't too healthy IMO. I would get two Juvee Tank Breed Clowns and let them gus pair up on there own...Just a suggestion Link to comment
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