Reefer Dude's blog

[Reefer Dude]

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[Reefer Dude]

Well I picked up my tank today. It is in pretty good shape for a used tank. The gloss on the Cherry finish has worn off a bit due to salt water sitting on it too long. The center brace on the stand was also knocked off to get the sump out so I will need to dust off the nail gun tomorrow and put it back on and decide if it may need further support. The last thing I want is for the stand to start falling apart after it gets filled up. I am going to have to make some changes to the plumbing provided because a piece of the bulkhead was missing. Luckily I had a spare but the one I have is threaded not a slip, so just some minor changes. The person I purchased the tank from said he was using a MAG 9 and it was way to much so I need to figure out how to get a MAG 7 working with 3/4 PVC. It is always fun to have these problems when you want to get the tank going!

Another problem is there is a strip of wood missing off the hood so I need to get a replacement and stain it to be as close as I can to the tank. Good thing I wont need lites for a few days. I am going to have to start with VHO's and then I will change to T5's over the next couple of weeks.

I ending up buying old castle sand for the DSB, which will be 4". I also purchased 10lbs of live sand from Ocean Pro, along with 50lbs of Premium live rock from them. My one wish with the rock is that it was not a couple of huge rocks (which it was) but instead a bunch of smaller rocks. Nothing a hammer wont fix tomorrow. I also have a couple hundred lbs of head rock from Hawaii that is some of the best looking rock I have ever seen, as my tank is only a 90 I will not use it, but I can't wait to see what kind of life it gets on it after several months of the seed rock. I am going to take the remaining dead rock and do some experiments at aquaculturing it in a tank environment in my basement and see what I can get it looking like in a year or so, I am also going to do the same thing with the sand, although the live sand should not take as long.

Well I hope I have the tank up and running without lights tomorrow and get ready for the cycle! I hat cycling tanks, it is hard to wait to start stocking the tank! Well I want this one to be nice so I will so make it through the wait! Well let me know if you have feedback!

[Reefer Dude]

Well the tank is up and running for amost a week now. The water is crystal clear, and the skimmer (ASM 1X) is pretty dialed in, although I am really starting to regret my choice in this skimmer as I am not sure it is big enough for my system. Most likely I am going to end up moving up to a G3 in a couple of months or build a DIY. The tank is running with 4 VHO's for now, I had a ballast and URI bulbs, next week I will be putting together a T5 setup for the tank. I am thinking 6 bulbs running icecap reflectors. For bulbs I was thinking of using the following: 3 aqua blue plus, 2 actinic plus and 1 6500 k, or I run 2 DD aquablue, 2 DD actinic/blue+, 2 UVL super actinic. I just want a nice blue light close to the look of a 20k MH setup so the colors of my tank really pop. I want to have a nice mixed tank, but some very nice SPS pieces. I am not sure if the 6500 bulb will be to much.

I am still working on getting some live sand from fellow hobbyists tanks to keep seeding my sand band.

I am still very disapointed with my live rock, so far no signs of life, I am still on the lookout for a couple more pieces, so if I find some nice pieces I will get them.

Now that the cycle is underway I am doing the big wait. I really hate the the tank cycle, wish there was some magic way to speed it up! Oh well my goal this week is to figure out my bulb configuration for the T5's and get them ordered.

I will be also plumbing in my fuge this week. The tank is going to be a 24g tank that I purchased to be a nano. I have a sandbet in it and some live rock ruble that will go in there. I am going to install a 3/4" bulkhead and have it empty in my sump. For now the tank will be fed from a maxi-jet 1200 for now to keep the flow low. This tank will have some live rock and Chaeto in it.

I am thinking that in a month (depending on stats) or longer my first addition will be a supersized pack from IPSF and get some cleaners into the tank.

[Reefer Dude]

Well the first sign of life started showing up in my tank in the form of nice algae blooms. I did a couple of tests this weekend for the first time at the one week mark. Nitrites and Nitrates were through the roof, while it took over 30 mintues for Amonia to show any sign over 0 and settled on .1 so the good news is that my cycle is already at the high point, meaning that the rock and sand I purchased from Ocean Pro trully was cured! I figure since I am already spiked after one week I am looking at about a 30 day cycle. I am not going to rush out there and do a major stocking of the tank, but... my tank is very boring right now. Given the fact that the algae blooms are kicking in I am sure my tank is going to be very ready for a clean up crew!

I have been thinking a lot about my career path lately. I am about to start my MBA in non-profit management, I chose this because I have been working IT for the last 12 years and have to say I really hate it! As I get older I want to contribute something back. I have been a fan of public aquariums from when I was a young child and the Montery Bay Aquarium. Minnesota (where I live) has no public aquarium, well besides Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America which is a for profit and does not contribute anything back to the study of marine life. I have been wondering what it would take to actaully start a public aquarium in Minnesota and get funding for it. I would like to to have an Aquarium that would showcase reef and marine life from around the world along with showcasing Mississippi River and Great look fish life, and work on research projects on rebuilding depleting reefs with propagated coral and man-made structures. This is an easy thing to say you want to do, but I am going to make it my mission to figure out how to make it possible as I work through my MBA. St. Paul is a perfect place for an aquarium like by the fact that it sits right on the Mississippi river. Minnesota has a lot of very large business organizations like Target, Best Buy, and the Mayo Clinic, that I think would be more then will to give with a good plan and the right fund raising the money could be raised within the state. It is just something I have been thinking about and have a very long way to go!

[Reefer Dude]

Well there is a lot of color popping up in the tank today, just not the color I wanted to see! I have a healthy growth of diatoms, hair algae, and red slime. My skimmer also really kicked in today and started skimming like crazy and filled up the colection cump. I am really starting to question my decision on the ASM G1X, I am not sure if it is going to be too small. I am thinking about upgrading to a G3.

[Reefer Dude]

Did my water tests for the week just to see where I am at with things. My Nitrites dropped from 25 last week to 10 this week so I am really on the downword swing now! The Diatom bloom my tank was going through is starting to back off, and my skimmer has really kicked in and skimming like crazy now. The red slime also backed off a bit too and now is just showing as a red stain. I started plumbing in my fuge today, it will be up and running tomorrow. I also ordered some Chaetomorpha today so it will be nice to have that going. Depending on how my tank is doing I may plan to do my IPSF order in two weeks.

[Reefer Dude]

Wanted to post some pics here. This is my tank after the first week. I will post some week 2 pictures tomorrow.

[Reefer Dude]

Well things have been a little busy lately so I have not had a chance to take or post pictures of my tank lately. I am now in week 5 of the tank heading into week 6. Red and Brown slime algae are 100% gone however hair algae is a major problem as you can see in the picture. My Nitrites and Amonia are at 0 so I am not that worried as the hair algae is slowly backing off.
On week 4 I did do about 20% water change, which made a huge difference in my tank. I will not be on a schedule of changing 5 gallons of water every weekend. I have been dosing B-ionic every night and the coraline growth is really starting to pop up on the rocks.

Over the last week I have gotten a small clean-up kit. I purchased 5 small red-leg cortez hermits (I do not like crabs so did not purchase many). I purchased 3 astrea, 3 Mexican Turbos, 5 Ceriths, and 5 Nerites, along with a lawnmower blenny. I am on a three week break for adding anything new, but will purchase a kit from IPSF early next month.
The Hair Algae is my biggest battle but I am starting to notice that I am winning the war, thanks to the crew! My first additions are going to be some soft corals such as green stars, and colts, I am also looking for a piece of Green Nepthia. Maybe at the end of september I will add my first SPS piece. My local shop has some really nice pieces of ORA frags that I can't wait to get into my tank and color them up.

I am still running temp VHO's on my tank, as I cheaped out on my T5's and did not get waterproof end caps. A couple weeks ago I had some water get into a surge breaker and pop the circuit. This really got me thinking that I really do not want to experience an electrical fire of any sort so I am ordering water proof ends for them, and then I will put the canopy on the tank with the new lights which will be 3 11,000ks and 3, actinics. I am also going to switch out my skimmer next week. I am currenty running an ASM 1x which I purchased under the old rule by a skimmer rated for 50% of your tank size. I did not know at the time that ASM's are not really accurate on their tank size info. I am going to replace it with an Octopus NW150 which will be a big skimmer on my little tank and that will be all right with me.

Well here is a pic of my Hair garden. The shells you see on the bottom of the tank are not dead snails, they are shells from my duaghters recent trip to California. The small things I do to keep my kids happy.

[Reefer Dude]

Here is a close up of the coraline I am starting to experience. This rock here, I am 99% sure, started the hair outbreak. It is starting to retreat and you can see the coraline growth kicking in.