jph's first reef tank (90g)

[Fly Guy]

Your rock will be fine. I think it actually cooks faster at higher temps like high 80's to 90 IME.

[jph]

decided to start putting the rock into the main tank today.
not exactly happy with it yet. we'll see how it works out.

i'm thinking of getting some "nano" live rock, some small pieces to fill the gaps that are bugging me right now.

i still have A LOT of base rock that is unused, but i don't like the pieces too much, they are a bit too big, and i don't want to break them up as they won't look very natural anymore.

hope to get the overflow and sump plumbed tomorrow..

oh, it's dark, and my hood and ligts aren't on yet, so here's a ugly picture with flash




it's roughly 40lbs of figi live rock, that's beek curing since last november, and about 60lbs of reef bones base rock, that's been curing for quite a long time too. oh, and a "box" of rubble

oh... there is live in the tank too.
i picked up 5 scarlet hermits, they should give me something to look at until the real clean up crew comes in.

i'm first going to get everything going, then get the lights on a timed schedule so the algae can take off, then i'll order some snails and maybe a few more hermits.


J.

[jph]

well... my plans to get everything plumbed and circulating today turned into a small disaster. well, not really, it's not *that* bad.

but the velocity T1 is WAY! too strong for my skimmer.
it looks like i need to rethink that one. i should have tested it before plumbing everything huh ?

it filled up the cup with water in about one minute


J.

[jph]

been talking to Andy at MRC for a couple of days now.
i'm going to have him build me a new sump, and i'll get a new skimmer from him too.

not sure aboutthe skimmer yet, he's going to send me some more information before tonight, answering a bunch of my questions.

the sump will be 38"L x 15"W x 15"H
there will be two compartments, and no refugium (yes, i changed my mind on that too. skimmer section on the left, return section on the right. bubble trap inbetween.

in the meantime, i have a somewhat functional setup going now with what i initially wanted to run. it's not pretty, and it's not exactly practical, but it works for now.

still need to mix a bit more saltwater before i can fire up the return pump, but this is how things look right now;

Mag7 on the skimmer
Mag5 on the chiller
Mag3 as the return pump.

with any luck, i can fire this thing up tonight. the live rock, base rock, and DSB have been sitting in unskimmed water for about a week now.

the water level in the main tank is about 1/4" under the overflow holes


J.

[crvz]

Good thinking on the sump... I built my first with the refuge, but it never helped. For whatever reason, when I built the next I used the same design (just made it larger). I don't want a fuge, but there it is. I should have thought it through better, but oh well. I think you'll be happy with the design.

[crvz]

Originally Posted by jph

Mag3 as the return pump.

I just noticed this, how much head loss do you have? I have a mag 18 on my 58 gallon for the return, and while it's a lot, it's not too much (I bought it for my upgrade, I would probably use a mag 9 in normal sitations). The mag 3 may be too little flow, but maybe not...

[jph]

Originally Posted by crvz

I just noticed this, how much head loss do you have? I have a mag 18 on my 58 gallon for the return, and while it's a lot, it's not too much (I bought it for my upgrade, I would probably use a mag 9 in normal sitations). The mag 3 may be too little flow, but maybe not...

this is just a temporary solution.
i only have around 6' of headloss. at 6' a Mag3 still pumps 180GPH
and with my T2 already running on a CLS system, there is plenty of water movement for now.

i will be using either a velocity T1 or T3 as my return when i get the new sump and skimmer the chiller will then be plumbed inline with the return pump also. and an additional T4 on a second CLS.


J.

[jph]

well, when i got home, i decided to switch the pumps around.

current setup:

Mag7 : skimmer
Mag5 : return pump
Mag3 : chiller

i also turned on the skimmer chiller now, to see how long it needs to run on the main tank to keep it cool.

starting temp was 82.
it's been running nonstop for the last two hours or so, and it's almost down to 78 now.

now that i have a fully functional setup, i'm starting to notice things that i was not expecting.

- it looks like my DIY drilled through the back overflow may not be able to handle much more flow than what this mag5 is pushing.

- the two overflow boxes us a durso pipe, that ends in a 1" bulkhead, then a flexpvc 1" pipe into a T, into just a single 1" pipe, into the sump.

and it's sucking down quite alot of air. it is just blowing bubbles into the sump like crazy.

is there a simple solution for this ?


J.

[jph]

added the snails. for a clean up crew (on top of the 5 scarlet hremits that i picked up at the LFS a while ago. 4 astraea are DOA.

25 of each: astraea, cerith, nassarius.

and here's a new FTS, i finally figured out how to set a custom white balance on my camera, so it looks pretty much the way i see it, and not blue like in the previous shots.




J.

[jph]

before anyone sais it... i'm not quite pleased with the reef bones base rock.
it will do for now, but i'm plannng to replace it with more live rock over time.

but at least it will do the job just fine, just not as pleasing to the eye as i want it to be.


J.

[jph]

Originally Posted by jph

well, when i got home, i decided to switch the pumps around.

current setup:

Mag7 : skimmer
Mag5 : return pump
Mag3 : chiller

had to dial the air intake back on the skimmer. it was skimming VERY wet all of a sudden. the skimmate was barely any darker than the main tank water

and i switched pumps around yet again.
i'm still not done, and this setup is not final. so expect changes again

PanWorld 50PX : skimmer (yes, for some reason it's working now)
Mag7 : return pump
Mag5 : chiller

so far things are going well.

the fans in the canopy seem to help cool things down a bit. but evaporation went up with a gallon per day judging by the deacresing waterlevel in my sump's return section.

i've got all kinds of little particles floating around in the water now, so it looks that for now i've got some flow going that prevents this from settling down. hopefully the skimmer will take them out.

and with the second CLS soon to be added, all should be good

now i've got to figure out if i'm going to go to the LFS or not.
very tempted to add my first fish (or pair of fish)



J.

[jph]

Originally Posted by jph

now i've got to figure out if i'm going to go to the LFS or not.
very tempted to add my first fish (or pair of fish)

well, my wife solved that problem. she "requested" that i clean up all the mess and junk i had in the garage. by the time i was done the LFS had closed

i guess waiting another week won't hurt anything

also, i discovered some salt creep on one of the overflow boxes.

the store that made them for me told me that they can not guarantee that anything they make is water tight. but by the looks ot it, i didn't see a problem. well... it looks like one of the seems was leaking ever so slightly... cleaned it up, wiped it dry, and put some wel-on on the outside of the seam. that should take care of that problem.

lost about 2 gallons to evap. today.
time to start working on that automatic top-pff system.


J.

[jph]

IT'S ALIVE!

yesterday evening i discoveredthat i had pods in the tank!
and after a few unsuccessfull attempts at snapping a picture, i finally got one.

and at least one of the cerith snails, and one of the nassarius snails are happy, because they deposited some eggs on the tank.

didn't snap a picture of the cerith eggs yet.






J.

[jph]

new additions to the tank today;

a few mushrooms. unknown species. please feel free to make a guess at waht they are.
one lawnmower blenny
one emerald crab
two peppermint shrimp


the shrimp and crab disappeared behind the rocks before i could snap a picture. the LMB hung out a little bit and posed for me before he also disappeared.








J.

[crvz]

Looks great! The third picture kind of looks like a ricordia, but I'm not certain. I like the blue mushrooms, too. I havent decided to add any softies to my tank when I get it running, but these look pretty good and I may be talked into it.