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koden's 32gallon m-tank


kinetic

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Nice Izzue!!!!!! Great work!!!

 

 

10/5/05

I installed the R2 Moonlight today I got from MarineDepot:

 

I put the double sided mounting tape on it. The tape is really strong. I have 3M super duty double sided too which I was goign to replace it with, but the ones it came with were super strong already.

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This is how I mounted it. I put it on the front lip next to the daylight bulb so I could angle it towards the rocks and also illuminate the sand in front:

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This is with it on. Crappy thing is the power line going to it. When I replace the 55watt PC with my 70watt HQI metal halide retro, I will drill a hole behind the reflector here to put the wires through.

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Closeup with it on

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Side view:

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And finally a tank shot:

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In my opinion, this thing has great "Lengthwise" coverage, but in terms of width, it is only like a "strip" of coverage. They angle the sides inwards, which seems to have the beams "cross" each other. Not sure if this is a positive thing, I don't think light reflects off each other, but i know the electrons could collide. Also they should've angled them width wise as well. It's almost a line. But definately not bad at all. Also it's REALLY blue and it's kind of bright for "moonlight". Looks neat though, but if I were a snail, I wouldn't be able to sleep under that kinda lighting. Wish the moonlight was more of a white color. If i get tired of this I might go with the current USA white moonlight. Problem is the module it comes in won't fit easily inside my fixture unless I cut the center part where the reflector curves in.

 

A little snail appeared on my live rock! It's a baby! What kind of snail is this? It is brown with white stripes:

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The above picture was taken without my lighting fixture on, but with my living room's lighting, so it looks mighty yellow. Hehe. So I guess my rocks DID have hitchhikers! Do you think this hatched since it's so small? Can anyone ID what kind of snail this is? I guess patience does pay off. I'm starting to see more growth of algae. Lots of brownish hairy looking algae, some green spots of algae, purple spots, and very red spots are coming up on some of the rocks. This is exciting. After I get a cup or two of sand from a local reefer hopefully it'll seed it even better. I'm planning to get a cleanup crew this weekend, some trochus snails and scarlet hermits, because the algae growth is getting pretty crazy on the rocks. The sand has a little algae, but the water movement is so high that they don't seem to get a hold very well. Go 780gph pump!

 

plumbing

I'll be brainstorming what to do with my SCWD. I will most likely reverse the trays, so turn them around which will put the return pipe more central to the length of the tank. SCWD it in that chamber, have a u tube go over the top on the left, and a tube leading out to the stock output hole. I'll be connecting nozzles to the ends of them too to spread out the water into a fan. (will that help?)

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I would say just wait until the tank has gone through all of its cycle, ammonia nitrates and nitrites. Last thing you need is your cleen up crew passin out cause nitrate/nitrite was too high. If there is algae growing, cut back on the photoperiod tank seems to be cycling well

 

 

 

Its fo in da mo nin. what the hell am i doing going to sleep at 8 and gettin up at 4. Statistically I study more efficiently in the morning.

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I think my tank's about done cycling, though many can argue to wait longer just in case. All my levels are at zero. I already saw the ammonia spike 2 weeks ago, and it went away completely a week+a day or two ago. Everything else is checking out. I guess I'll wait another week, though I believe everything's constant now. I've checked my water params every day, ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are all perfect. pH is about 8.2, slightly towards 8.3. ammonia, trite, trate, are all 0ppm. temp is constant. salinity is constant 1.022/1.023

 

the clam finally opened after so many weeks too, and that baby snail is alive and moving all over. but to be safe, sure I'll wait a week =)

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Im really sorry guy, I just read everything in its entirety, lots of pics. So I change my previous post to...shoot man, if the clam opened and the snail is having fun. trites and trates are down, you are ready to go at any time. Hows that fuge coming? maybe it would be cool to coincide the reefer crew with the finished fuge that way you are rewarded nicely with a finished fuge and some life in the tank.

 

I didnt realize that the tank has been cycling for 4 weeks, I thought it was only 2

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Koden

Thks for the kind words

YOur moon light looks great-- you did a good DIY job-- no one will ever see the wiring :

Cant wait to see how your MH retro gos-- I take it the ballast will be external right???

Thats a new tank that I transferred all my critters to. My old tank had been setup for going on 5 months now. Damn new tank did not come with coraline algae growing on back wall :| -- Old tank had an acrylic flaw and was replaced.

Is your moonlight 420 nm?? The 420 nm blue will make corals flouress at night if they open-- I had one on my stock finnex light, but when I changed to the Current usa 130 watt dual sunpaq Pc light it had a built in white moonlight. Ive gotten where I actually like the white better due to the more naturally look than the blue-- Imo only

Keep up the good work

 

Izzue

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Izzue, about the coralline not on the back tank, if you kicked up the amount of Ca to optimum levels, its been a while but I would think around 420Ca and i think maybe more Gaurunteed coralline on the walls in 2-3 weeks

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Hey Izzue,

Yeah I realized later there was no coraline etc. I just didn't know your situation, so I was a bit amazed that it went BOOM and was quite alive shortly after you set it up =) Looks REALLY great. Keep it up! Also quash is right about Calcium, if you bump it up high enough you'll have coraline everywhere! It's starting to form on my shells and a bit on the LR. I actually like the black background, so I hope it doesn't grow on mine too much. Btw what eats coraline?

 

Quash: thanks for keeping tabs on my thread! Your help is much appreciated! I feel like I have a masterful teacher watching my back =)

 

 

 

livestock

After I get my SCWD setup, I'll be adding some Livestock. First the cleanup crew, then maybe a fish.

 

I really like lionfish, though I don't think they'd fair well in my tank. I like the Radiata Lion, P. Radiata. It's so badass. Though I think my tank will only support fumanchu, and dwarf lions. I was going to try a radiata, but I think I won't risk it or do something dumb. PLus I can't find a LFS that has one anywhere. I don't want to do the whole mail order fish thing yet. But here are my plans:

 

Cleanup:

10 Trochus Snails

12 Scarlet Hermits

1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

 

Fish:

Zebra Lionfish

2 Clarkii Clowns (since they're bigger than other clowns)

or

2 Percula Clowns

1 Randalli Goby

1 Flame Angel

or

1 percula

1 fumanchu lionfish

1 Randalli Goby

( i don't think the fumanchu can eat the goby =X

 

what do you guys think?

 

Originally posted by Izzue

Koden

Thks for the kind words  

YOur moon light looks great-- you did a good DIY job-- no one will ever see the wiring :  

Cant wait to see how your MH retro gos-- I take it the ballast will be external right???

Thats a new tank that I transferred all my critters to. My old tank had been setup for going on 5 months now. Damn new tank did not come with coraline algae growing on back wall :| -- Old tank had an acrylic flaw and was replaced.

Is your moonlight 420 nm?? The 420 nm blue will make corals flouress at night if they open-- I had one on my stock finnex light, but when I changed to the Current usa 130 watt dual sunpaq Pc light it had a built in white moonlight. Ive gotten where I actually like the white better due to the more naturally look than the blue-- Imo only

Keep up the good work

 

Izzue

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go wit dis one for sure(im kinda bias, i hate lions):

2 Percula Clowns

1 Randalli Goby

1 Flame Angel

30 gallons? thats about all you can have, and mabey just one clown and somthing else

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Yeah I know that's all I can get. 2 clowns, 1 goby, 1 angel. That might even be pushing it. We'll see. The reason I got into SW was because of lionfish. They're badass =)

 

I've been into cars my whole life, and now that I'm into SW fish / reef my friends are like, that's so sissy! Now if I had a venemous lion that stalked prey at night... then that would be cool. Haha, but all joking aside, I really like the lionfish.

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10/06/05

Update:

I was looking at my sand, it's about .5" to about 1" deep around the tank and noticed little holes in it. It was from an established tank which was very healthy. What do I mean by holes? Along the side of the tank, you can see a cross section of the substrate, I see little holes everywhere. It used to just be sand everywhere, but now it has little holes. Does this mean my sand is clumping up and has pockets where there was air? Or are there things making these holes?

 

Picture here:

 

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Thanks!

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I showed some people on reefcentral.com, and one replied saying it is nitrogen bubbles, which is a good thing. That's what the sand bed should be doing. does that mean there are bacteria creating this nitrogen? Is nitrogen good?

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Yep

Part of the maturing process in the sand bed...

Looks like yu have a nice diatom bloom going on in sand bed also.

Dont be worried even if you end up with some cyano-- Mine went through a cyano phase that I ended up treating with cheap erythromycin tabs for fish fungus infections.

Ca Im totally aware of --BUT remember Ca and alkalinity work together so if you get to much of one you hurt the other.

Just bought b-ionic 2 part ca and alka to try.

Before when I just set up my tank I used purpleup for the coraline algae to grow quicker but it ended up affecting my alkalinity, so now IM kinda a weirry (cant spell sry) of pushing Ca to high.

Ive been adding kent alka every morning for the last 3 weeks and my alkalinity still barely staying at 8.0

Koden-- I recommend a alkalinity tester-- lot of ppl overlock this until some life stock starts looking bad to only find out your alka is to low.... Alkalinity is a main factor is keeping a stable Ph -- I practice this one on my 27000 gal cement pond (swimming pool) hehehe

 

Izzue

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Yup good for the bubbles, the sand is seeded. I once had a tuxedo urchin. It ate all my green hair algae, and once it was done, it cleaned my coralline to a pearly white. I was pist, my rocks looked dead, I traded it in for a lettuce nudibranch and coralline came back

 

You've got diatoms on the sand I think they are diatoms, It was a problem on my old tank, BIG TIME after the cycle. Once you add a cleen up crew it will shake the sand up a bit, maybe the hermits will eat it. These diatoms are due to high phosphates somehow in your water. Dunno what the hell is causing it since you aint feedin your tank. It must be the water, Is it RO/DI? Thats some good water to have. Get a phosphate test kit. If its high some Rowaphos or Phosban will help.

 

In the initial tank setup, you have to get all types of stuff cause so much can go wrong. Initial setup cost is high. But the time spent oogling at the tank is priceless.

 

So you like cars eh? Do you race by any chance? I autocross my 240sx

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WOW-- Yu can tell I posted the one above at 5 something in the morning-- not enough coffee yet-- hell I cant even read that post-lol

 

I like cars Quash-- I have a 1990 mustang gt-- Ive done a few mods but mainly stock with 110 miles and still going stong :)

Good luck in Med School-- Im a Medical Technologist at our STate UNiversity hospital-- I deal with a lot of med students -- yall are not tought enough about the laboratory- or at least hear they dont.

I get a lot of thanks for helping them with lab stuff-- I work reference dept but deal with a lot basic stuff within the lab also..

 

Izzue

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I did add phytoplankton 2 days ago, a little less than a teaspoon of it. I did that because I saw my clam alive, and decided to give it a bit of food. would that be why this happened?

 

I used to be into cars, I've had two integras, one 1992 one 1993, the 1992 I had swapped in 2 different motors before selling it with a 1998 b18c type-r motor from japan, the 1993 was my daily driver with a b20b motor. They were heavily modified, and I did run them at the track several times (california speedway, laguna seca, sears point). I also had a supra turbo, but sold that pretty quickly. Now I have a 2003 Accord Coupe V6 6speed. It has a nice 255 hp at the flywheel. I also have a 2006 acura rsx type-s. Haven't raced these guys yet, been consumed by my SW tank for awhile now =P

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10/07/05

I will be hooking up a small powerhead or pump to a spraybar as well. Mine's smaller and the pump will only be less than 300 GPH and it'll sit in the tank.

 

I also did some piping to connect to the scwd on the return pump, but realized I need to somehow connect the piping to the scwd. I'll need a bigger pipe to act as a connector... or one of those pipe connector things with the ridges. But alas, here are some pix of today's handiwork:

 

I used a dark grey pipe so it'd blend better with the background:

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Here's my second outlet from the SCWD. I'll have the SCWD in the return compartment, but just high enough so the tube will go over the baffle separating the two compartments. This will be connected to that end and hang down from the top of the tank. (No drilling needed =) It's not the most graceful way, but hey it works =)

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spraybar, my camera lens cap, and the second return pump nozzle from squid:

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10/08/05

 

Went to New Alameda Aquarist and got a pair of false percs, a skunk cleaner shrimp, and a dripper to aclimate the little dudes. Went to Lucky gold fish for 6 trochus snails. I'll probably get more tomorrow! These guys are awesome.

 

I got my 70watt H.Q.I metal halide retro today in the mail too and installed it. Took a long time since I didn't have a good way to cut the metal reflector.

 

I basically removed the daylight bulb, removed the ballast, slid the actinic ballast all the way to the front next to the switches, electrical taped the power/ground for the daylight bulb.

 

Then I cut a hole in the reflector so that the retrofit could fit. Without the reflector in the way it fit perfectly! Just clearing the UV plastic. I fed the wires under the reflector, drilled a hole on the end cap of the fixture, and it was a clean install. The lighting is A LOT brighter. It's amazing how the h.q.i with astralux 14k bulb brings out all the colors. It doesn't blind everyone in the house either. This is a perfect setup for a 32 gallon. I know for sure that SPS and even anemone will have a great time under this lighting.

 

I'm not running 55watt PC Actinic and a 70watt H.Q.I Metal Halide setup with ARO 70watt electrical ballast and 70watt hqi Astralux 14k lamp.

 

I also added some trochus snails, a cleaner shrimp, and a really great pair of false clowns

 

Retrofit, fitted inside fixture:

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Side view:

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Front shot of tank:

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Underside of fixture: (shutter/ap getting low light so it doesn't blow out the picture, it's quite bright just darkened to show you how it looks)

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Trochus snail eating stuff off my clam's back:

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Trochus eating algae off the glass, good job:

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Side View:

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So a mollusk walked up to a clam...

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What kind of anemone should I get to host these oclleris?

 

I gathered from research that only these three anemone's will host them in the wild:

  • Stichodactyla mertensii (merten's, spotted-base carpet)
    Stichodactyla gigantea (gigantic or carpet)
    Heteractis magnifica (magnificent, ritteri, or skunk)

but those are the most difficult ones to take care of. Will a Bubble Tip Anemone host my false percs?

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Being a total geek, the fish have names:

 

small guy: sharkbait

big girl: uwhaha

 

the rock formation? mount wahnahohkaluggi

 

lol

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Well, instead of anemones, there are many LPS corals that clowns will host perfectly fine, as long as they are of proper size. Just mentioning an option. Knowing clowns, you'd be lucky if they didn't just host your mag-float ;)

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Koden

You rock buddy---

Your tank is looking awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sandbar is a great idea..

Your light install looks awesome-- ONly thing I dont like about Mh is the spotlight effect and the heat. If I ever mod mine form Pc Im thinking on trying VHO.

IM battleing air bubbles right now-- getting better but I still have a few other things to try.

I cut a pieace of acrylic 4 inch bye 10 inch or so-- got a coarse pieace of filter media thats 3 inchs thick from LFS.... Crammed the filter media against sump partition and wedged the pieace of acrylic same height as sump partition on pump side. Now the water going over sump partition goes throught the media then the water has to go to the pump from the bottom of cut pieace that stops about a inch from the bottom -- this is trapping most airbubbles....

 

Izzue

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Ah took me a while to find this thread, with the NR being down and all. I like the new look. My 240 is a 1996 with a bunch of suspension mods. Its got 142k miles on it, I drive it everywhere, its been to mexico a few times, florida and back once. And of course Austin to Dallas, Austin to Houston, many many times in my undergrad. Soon tho its prolly time to replace clutch differential. And I mite want to think stage 2.

 

Wow you've got reef critters now. Congratulations the tank looks fantastic, the light look hella nice too. Ive seen pics on NR of clowns hosting BTA's and RBTA's. There are some LPS like daemon suggested, but I cant remember which ones. Im litterally smiling so much as if your tank is my tank, it looks great. and the crew is doing their job already.

 

As far as stocking anemone's or not, since its your first time around, I would prolly start with something cheaper and easier to maintain, to get your reefer skill up. Those anemone's mite move around messin up your rockwork and what not. I did a quick google search for ya and found this pic of a clown hosting a flowerpot, it looks pretty happy

 

you gotta scroll down some

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/poritidcompfaqs.htm

 

Its cool that the percs are friendly with each other...they dont look mated, are they?

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THanks for all the input guys!

 

Daemonfly: I did read they don't need anemone's, and since it's my first SW tank, I'll stick with a LPS first. If I ever get a bigger tank (probably in a year after I move) I'll try an anemone then. Any LPS that people find clowns hosting the most?

 

Izzue: thanks for the comments man. I am getting bubbles now too. I'm not sure what I changed but all of a sudden there are bubbles swirling around in the tank. I did change my filters and clean them out, maybe I messed something up. The metal halide does have a kind of a spotlight effect, but it has a pretty broad range to cover, so it's not too bad at all. The sides ofmy tank still get plenty of light, but definately down the center is the brightest. As for heat, I will probably have to upgrade the fan inside the fixture. It does get hot, but the water temperature isn't rising because of it, even now at 12pm. If I went for anything more than 70 watt, I'd probably have problems.

 

Quash: nice car, it sounds awesome. I'll be trying some LPS soon, maybe a hammerhead. The percs are a pair. I found them in one of the LFS's tanks hanging out together, one's a lot bigger. When the bigger (I guess female) swims around the little guy follows her everywhere. They seem to be happy. Once the little guy strayed a bit far, looked around and realized his mate was far away, and zoomed back to her, almost bumping right into her. It was great.

 

10/9/05

I will probably get some scarlet hermits today, just to cleanup the substrate a little. There's some food hanging out on the ground, and the trochus don't like the sand. My skunk cleaner fish isnt'd oing anything either. It just sits behind my rockwork somewhere. Is it still getting used to the tank? Or will it forever hide? I was hoping it'd come out and clean up the floor of my tank... but I guess I need some hermits?

 

I ordered 10 nassirus, 10 cerith, 10 astreas, and 10 scarlet hermits in a group buy, but it won't come in until November. So I'll probably get half a dozen scarlets now and a couple nassirus.

 

I hope I don't get too big of a cleanup crew in the end.

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my skunk mainly hid around the rockword, but when feedin time came, it was a fight between him and 1 of my fishes. Usually the skunk got full first then it my pseudochromis turn, my dottyback just chilled with extras floatin around. I fed frozen brine, of course soaked in tank water for a bit

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