15g nano rebuild

[Fish'InMN]

Before I get too carried away with typing, here are a few (blurry) photos of the tank yesterday, just before lights out: FTS, Imagine if it wasn't blurry.

This is at my parents' house, currently under their care. I set it up last April and let it cycle while I was away at college, over the summer added a bunch of stuff and made them (brother, mother, dad) comfortable taking care of it. It was looking fine until the end of the summer when we went on vacation for a week; came home to a tank full of bryopsis, HA, bubble algae and more. Since then it has been a losing battle, especially since I moved back to college.

The tank is a 15 gallon high, currently has about 20 pounds of live rock and roughly the same amount of sand (2" or so). Currently running an old CSL PC hood with 3x 28W bulbs, 1 10K and 2 actinic now. Powerheads are aquaclear 201s, no skimmer, weekly water changes are about 1 gallon. Both the rocks and sand were from a tank that was being torn down here locally; I should never have bought either.

We do not test weekly, though we do have most of the test kits; the last "big" test showed nitrates below 1.0 and phosphates below 0.5. Neither of which don't make sense to me.

I have already bought a skimmer, a Remora HOB, and a MH retrofit kit, 150W 14K Phoenix. Just completed a canopy based on a design from Melev's website, it will hold the MH and one/two PC fans, as well as my moonlights.

Okay, so I need some help, big time. I will be going home these next two weekends, and would like to make some drastic changes, whatever that requires. I've too many different ideas going through my head right now as to what I should do, what would be best for the longevity of the tank and it's inhabitants, and the best for US, especially for the rest of my family that likes to just sit and watch the little slice of (algae covered) ocean.

Regards,
Marty


PS. I have two 20gal rubbermaids in the basement, one full of fresh RODI water, the other empty. Plenty of clean 5g buckets lying around, but no eggcrate or hdpe/cutting board.

[gman0526]

phosphates below 0.5

You want 0.0 .

[Wiskey]

Well, one advantage of having sand is it allows you to slack on husbandry without major problems, and since you are not around much it may be the best idea to keep it. That skimmer will be a big help as far as reducing algae goes, it will also go a long way toward reducing your phosphate.

I have a 15G BB build thread here in this fourm that may give you some ideas.

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Here is that thread I was talking about, my 15G BB build thread:
http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71886

Whiskey

[Fish'InMN]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I decided to drive home a bit earlier so I can get started bright and early tomorrow morning. Skimmer is not here yet and I don't think it can make it from Georgia to Minneapolis to my house in a single day, especially via FedEx.

Plan for this weekend is to take out the offending rocks, those covered in algae, as well as all of the sand. Then give the tank a decent scrubbing, put in 1" of brand new sand and a couple fully cured rocks from a local store. I anticipate taking out about 10 pounds of rock (of the 25 or so in the tank), the rock I will be putting in is a bit more pourous, so it is not that heavy. After the hours of painstaking stacking and 'scaping, I'll add everything back into the aquarium.

Meanwhile, my hood will have dried from painting & staining so I can install the halide retro, cooling fan and moonlights. I'll cut a few pieces of screen to cover the tank so I can begin acclimating corals to their wonderful new way of life.

After this weekend I will begin work on my new CLS based entirely on Geoff's design; will be using a single Mag3.5 or 5 mounted on the rim of the tank. This will get rid of the unsightly powerheads and allow more room for the Remora, whenever it arrives.

I probably could have shortened this up a bit, but thinking about saltwater stuff tends to warm me up inside. Especially when its 30 degrees outside and the wind gusts are reaching 40 mph.


Marty

PS. If a mod feels it necessary, could this be moved to the Nano subforum?

[Fish'InMN]

No in-action shots, but here's what I started with. Enjoy the algae while it lasts!

[Fish'InMN]

And here is what I slowly moved towards!









See next post for the summary.

[Fish'InMN]

So, after a very spendy trip to the mechanic Friday morning ($$$$ literally), I made the time and effort to completely disassemble the tank.

First, I moved the fish, corals and acceptable rocks to two heated/PH'd 5g buckets (blenny got his own bucket). While draining the water remove snails and hermits to the good buckets and bad rocks to the death bucket. Once no more water could be syphoned out, scoop out as much sand as possible! This was the truely enjoyable part... After no more sand could be removed, I took the tank to a nice warm laundry room and proceeded to scrape every square inch of the tank clean, using a spray bottle of vinegar/water and razor blades. Once this was done, I took the tank out to our front yard and amidst the cold and wind managed to rinse it clean with the hose. Brought it inside to wipe it dry, then put it back on the stand and dumped in the sand and a bit of water. This of course clouded up, and so I decided to call it for the night.

The next morning (Saturday) I awoke to a less cloudy tank and after returning from pheasant hunting put everything back in the tank! That last part is short because there isn't much to describe; though it was probably one of the longest parts of the ordeal due to the tricky placement needed by some of the corals and rocks. By Saturday evening we had some corals opening and otherwise showing little sign of stress. By Sunday morning, the tank had cleared considerably and everyone seemed perfectly happy. After these pictures were taken I did switch a few of the corals around along with cleaning the front glass! I had some other very important business to attend to this afternoon, so I did not have too much time for the tank after I woke up.

Things still to come: Switch to metal halide canopy, swap three powerheads for a closed loop system, find some way to make the Remora/MJ less noticeable.

I'll post a thread in the DIY section when I finish my canopy and closed loop, hopefully this week!


Cheers,
Marty

[Wiskey]

Great work! How are you going to do the closed loop with the tank already full? Do you plan to use a hook over the back for inlet and clafo maifold for the return?

Whiskey

[Fish'InMN]

The closed loop will be Geoff-style, so it'll sit on the lip of the tank and run along the side with (probably) two outputs. It will be run by a Mag 3, which should be plenty of flow for this tank. I'm going to make a trip to home depot tomorrow to fit some PVC pieces together, just to make sure my plan will work on a 10" wide tank!

[Wiskey]

Sounds good! It should look nice having no powerheads in the tank too!

Whiskey

[dobejazz]

what a great thread Thanks for sharing your progress.
The tank looks great

[Fish'InMN]

Finished and 'installed' the new canopy this morning, sans CLS as Savko sent me the wrong parts. The canopy includes a 150W metal halide with a 14k Phoenix bulb and two rather noisy PC fans. Once my new plumbing parts get here I will replace the three powerheads with a CLS run by a Mag3, I will also be adding in some nice moonlights that have three different color LEDs (green, blue, and UV). Depending on how bright the tank is lit up by the LEDs, I may also install a single actinic PC bulb, so I can get dawn & dusk type lighting.

I really like lots of pictures:






Inside of new canopy


Right side; pantyhose on the skimmer-output!


Left side; I need to cover/seal my wiring a bit:


Thanks for the comments!
Marty

[Wiskey]

We like lots of pics too!!!

Looks great! You are really comming along! I like the bracket for the MH too, alows you to screw it down to move it closer to the water, good idea.

Whiskey

[Fish'InMN]

Uggh, what a week! Lest I forget to mention, I am living/attending school about 180 miles North of my parents' house, where the tank is. Keep that in mind...

Wednesday night my father called me and told me there was water overflowing the back of the tank. I immediately knew the pantyhose "filter" on my Remora output was the culprit, after that was verified it was removed and the skimmer turned back on. Apparently almost 4 quarts of water had slowly leaked down the back and around the front before dripping onto the (40 year old) hardwood floor. Luckily nothing dripped onto the electrical sockets or this could have gotten even worse. I have yet to decide what to do about the skimmer output (microbubbles) or the floor (possibly a mat/cover of some sort).

Today, while I was in class at about 3:30, my brother sent me a message that "Nemo" had been sucked into the MJ, as the filter cover had been bumped off. We don't have the best of luck with clowns for some reason, so we do not plan on replacing him.

Put this all together and you have a dysfunctional tank with some aesthetic problems (MJ & powerheads) as well as technical problems (MJ input, Remora output & powerheads), and of course one less fish.

One possible solution is a "filter box" for the Remora, pretty much an internal overflow with a sponge of some sort to combat the microbubbles. This would look a bit out of place, especially on my small tank, but it has its benefits. I took the measurements and added a box to my existing model, but this is just a best guess. I am also considering simply making my own internal overflow, though it would have to cure in the tank, so I'm not sure.

We're also looking for a fish to replace our beloved clown, as long as it isn't another clown. A firefish is the only other fish I can think of that is a decent full-tank swimmer, but I'm not sure how the blenny would react to a fish of his type (long, slender body) being added. I have had a request for another pajama cardinal, but I'm not sure if we should even had one in this small of a tank. Any suggestions?

Regards,
Marty