[STOCK] Blind Tree Frog

[Blind Tree Frog]

Consider the die cast, the gaunlet thrown, the hat tossed in, etc.

[Sebea]

Good luck!

[doncb]

Welcome to the dark side! Where we do everything the big guys do, only smaller!

[Blind Tree Frog]

From the bedroom

 

From the kitchen

 

 

It would seem that the Deep Sea 24 is a bit much. I'll have to dial it back some.

[Blind Tree Frog]

Stuck a 3 way elbow I had on the pipe to make a splitter. Still splashes a little outside, but a hood over top would fix that. I guess I should acquire one.

 

 

Still may replace the airpump with a smaller one that is a bit quieter.

 

The other problem I'm having is that the sand is small enough to get sucked into the undergravel. I need to get some live rock over it I guess.

[Blind Tree Frog]

Some more pics before I go to bed....

 

This is what the surface looks like. I'm guessing the air lift is giving suffecient flow. Too bad it's spewing sand too

 

From the windows..

 

To the walls

[tinyreef]

you might want to either screen off the ugf grille to limit the sand (i had the same exact problem) or sprinkle cc over the grille then LR (no sand over that area).

 

i still get a trickle of grains but we're talking about one or two granules every few seconds (most of which are carried away in the current) versus mt. vesuvius before.

 

you're using a clippie? man, that's like wearing a clip-on tie. jk

 

i like the 3-way elbow idea to limit the splash. a variant you might want to try is slightly extending the elbow output (i.e. insert a short pipe length). this was the bubbles 'pop' inside the pipe versus around the tank. you still get all the benefits but much less splash.

 

the con to that is the 'look' and for such a small system the addt'l light blockage from the extended pipe length.

[Blind Tree Frog]

The clipie was $9. The in the tank was like $26. The clippie works for now. I'm actually thinking of using a flat heater in the tank that Hydor makes. But it doesn't have a temp control so I'm not sure if I trust it. Either way, the clipie may go. I'm not impressed with it's holding of temperature.

 

 

I thought about a grille originally, but i couldn't find one around the apartment that worked to my satisfaction, so I decided to risk it. I think I may pull all of the sand and rock out and figure something out though if the situation doesn't improve.

 

Light blockage won't be an issue if I do what I think I want to do.

 

As far as the bubbles, I'm thinking of putting a cover over the tank anyhow, so it's no big deal for now.

[tinyreef]

for the grille, you may want to try a cut-to-shape tank divider sheet. i've used that method in the past with success on sw ugf's (sand issue mainly). i had to heat-stake the sheet (which is perforated) to the grille but you could just weigh it down.

[Blind Tree Frog]

For now i wrapped the UGF in a ziplock sandwich bag and poked a few holes in the bottom (possibly not enough).

 

Looks like it might of fixed the sand issue, but I'm going to let it run until the water clears some more (kicked a lot up moving things around) before i decide. It seems to have made the water much more spurty now though instead of the steady flow of bubbles it did have.

 

 

Also redid the rock work. I like some of the new rock work better and some a lot worse. Pics later tonight.

[Blind Tree Frog]

and now that I'm custom, here are the new pictures that I promised yesterday.

 

I redid the rock work today. I like this best so far.

 

 

 

[tinyreef]

gawdam, you're using the 24? mega-airflow.

[Blind Tree Frog]

Considering the undergravel portion was wrapped in a plastic bag with a few holes poked into it, the air flow is'nt so bad.

 

 

Well, when I first set it up, it was pretty bad. When I added the splitter it was reduced to pretty good levels. With the plastic bag around it, it's a lot weaker, but very spurty and seems much more irregular.

 

I was looking at the tank eariler and watching little things float around. Seemed to be suffecient flow to be moving everything around in the tank. May not work well for SPS far from the outlets, but should be suffecient for everything else (And sps near the outlets would probably be fine)

[Blind Tree Frog]

Crap it is spitting sand again. I may just go bare bottom. I need to figure out how to keep this dark color that i'm enjoying though.

[Blind Tree Frog]

Odd, my tank may have a small leak. I need to keep an eye on it and see if it is indeed leaking on the bottom corners.

 

One corner has been having some salt build up. Hopefully this is from spilled water and not from leaking water.

[tinyreef]

One corner has been having some salt build up. Hopefully this is from spilled water and not from leaking water.

the salt spray from the bubbles can build up significant salt creep and water.

[Blind Tree Frog]

Possibly, but it's the corner furthest from the pump and the lid over the bubbles should keep the spray under some check.

 

I would think any leak would be going a bit faster then this one seems to be though.

[Blind Tree Frog]

The vibrating is getting old. I'm going to blame it on the UGF, but i wish I knew how to fix whatever is vibrating.

 

 

Still getting some sand spat up by the air lift. Not sure if it is less now and I can possibly just wait for the sand to settle or if it's just a continuing problem. I'm not convinced I like the look of bare bottom though as I like the flow and unevenness of sand. Perhaps egg crate as a base with sand over top so I can filter sand out of the problem areas.

[Blind Tree Frog]

Felt like updating since I'm bored. Toying with the idea of adding trace substances in additive form to the tank to see how it helps things (if at all). Found a source of the following trace elements

 

• ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

• calcium (mineral)

• choline (base, part of the vitamin B complex)

• fructose (sugar)

• glutathione (peptide amino acid)

• hyaluronidase (enzyme)

• inositol (sugar)

• magnesium (mineral)

• nitrogen

• phosporus (mineral)

• potassium (mineral)

• sorbitol (sugar alcohol)

• vitamin B12 (for proper function of nervous system and metabolism)

• zinc (mineral)

 

Checking Kent's web site to compare, their supplements inject some of those things in additions to other. The price of this source destroy's what Kent is charging though so maybe as I am 99% sure this supplier's product will not harm my tank.

 

But I probably won't. It's just an amusing thought. I'd probably get better results from just buying supplements from the LFS if I wanted to go with supplementing the tank.

[cybaix]

Dosing is not needed if you are doing weekly water changes.. there is plenty of the trace elements in the salt.

[minimalist]

I agree. In a tank that size, dosing is not needed at all.

[Blind Tree Frog]

But I love my tank, and Seminal plasma looks like it could benifit my corals.

 

 

 

:-P

(there is a reason that I never named the source of the elements... and why this idea amuses me... and why I won't do it most likely)

[Blind Tree Frog]

OK, sand issue.

 

Try as I might, the sand keeps on getting picked up by the air lift. While I could blow sand off the rocks multiple times per day, and while this would improve my circulation, I think not.

 

So i went to lowes and checked out the egg crate. Huge sheet and cost almost as much as the tnak. So I walked over to the acrylic section. Picked up a scrap sheet that would work for 25 cents. Doing good so far.

 

I cut out a shape a bit smaller then the bottom of the tank. I then cut a notch for the piping. All rough cuts. Apparently using the dremel on high speed likes melting acrylic. Oh well. I wasn't worried how it looked.

 

I pulled the rocks out of the tank and some of the sand. I was too lazy to worry about getting all of the sand out so I sat down the UGF and stuck the acrylic over it (nice fit really, I was surprised). I then dumped the sand back in and put the rocks back in.

 

there are a few problems with this plan:

1) I forgot how I had the rocks in there exactly, so the new layout is different. I don't like it quite as much. I'll have to tweak some later.

 

2) I forgot to put support pieces under the acrylic on the side away from the ugf. Oh well, it can bend. Shouldn't cause any problems and I'm not pulling the ###### back out.

 

3) The sand I left under there? Well I'm hoping that the UGF will pull most of it out and that for the most part, more sand won't fall down under. This may be a pipe dream and I'll find out more so in a few days once the sand has finished shifting around. Hopefully this works out as the plastic bag trick didn't work like I hoped.

[ejls2]

Don't get me started on sand! Your solution sounds pretty good though! I had similar problems (my sump return is on the sandbed) and the only thing I found that could stop it was to switch to a coarser grain of sand.

 

I hope it works for you,

 

Ed

[Blind Tree Frog]

And we are bare bottom. Sand was still getting spewed. I added some agronite from my other tank hoping it was coarser. It was getting spewed too. So I sucked all of the sand out. That was fun. I don't like the look so much (i really like sand), but I think the only other options i would have would be to color some coarse agronite or use aquarium gravel (though that has a certain charm to it really.