1st Build - New to the game!

[rukis]

yea i seen the help he was giving, peppie is awesome too.. he seems like he helped alot, but i am totally in aww over your setup it is awesome... I have a 30" wide tank so i think i can have alot of fun making mine cuz i have the room to go wider... as soon as i get this mockup how i want i will post some pics... i really like the L shape you made to bring the water in... should have some mock up soon... got some kiddo stuff to tend to after work.. but will have an update soon...

 

[rukis]

i just drew something real quick... i am in a boring meeting so i thought i would sketch it up real fast...

its kinda hard to get the concept of flow, especially on a peice of paper...

so i have the pump, from my eclipse 3 that is kinda a U shaped pump, and it pulls the water up and over into the resevoir and leaks into the fuge area...
then obviously to the return and back into the tank...

got the idea for the resevior from 10GNano's L shape part...

any input would be awesome... i got a 30" wide so i have lots of room to play... woohoo!

 

[rukis]

i figured this might help understand...

its a top view and a side view...

i just wanted to give the aspect of how the flow was gonna work...

i will work on my mockup and get some pics of that...

 

[noobaquariumust]

i like the design, what kind of hammer is that? what do you plan on using in the AIO?

 

[10gnano]

i just drew something real quick... i am in a boring meeting so i thought i would sketch it up real fast...

its kinda hard to get the concept of flow, especially on a peice of paper...

so i have the pump, from my eclipse 3 that is kinda a U shaped pump, and it pulls the water up and over into the resevoir and leaks into the fuge area...
then obviously to the return and back into the tank...

got the idea for the resevior from 10GNano's L shape part...

any input would be awesome... i got a 30" wide so i have lots of room to play... woohoo!

Will this run across the back of the tank or on one of the sides? I recommend making a mock up out of cardboard to make sure everything will fit and look the way you want it to

 

[rukis]

So i had a weird issue with my calcium levels... so i had to take a trip to see Rob, at Red C... My kit was showing 400, but i was really at 300ish.. so i got a new kit, and rob put me something together for daily dosage to get my calcium right.... and he said everything else was on point.... As soon as i added the first dose, within hours the Kenya stood up more and started showing better... The Yellow Poly's started to peek out as well, but my Silver Xenia, is still all shrivled up... so hopefully it will open over the next day or so... So Salinity level is slowly getting better as well.. just under 1.025 pH is 8.3 and Ammonia is maybe barely 1ppm


So here is the first draft to the mock up made of cardboard...
got the idea from 10GNano's build...
I will definatly need to do some clean up... especially distance from back wall.. but it is the first draft.

The pump from the Eclipse Hood

So here is the new addition to the tank, a damsel. Blue and Yellow, Go Chargers!
Ohh and IPisces, i took your advice, and moved the Hammer to the top of the cave area....
Hopefully it is happy there.. because Koral & Marlin *The Clowns* already claim the cave area...

 

[rukis]

ohh and so i forgot, the lil place to the left of the little wall where the sand is.. i was thinking about stuffing that full of cheato and putting a lid *egg create * maybe? over it to hold it down...

any thoughts on that?

 

[10gnano]

i'm a little confused. So the 1st chamber fills up from the bottom, then is pumped up to the top chamber, then overflows down into the chambers with live rock, then into the return chamber. yes/no.

I see a couple things that could be a problem. The overflow chamber is going to be pretty loud when overflowing into the chamber with sand/live rock, it may also kick up the sand. And then It will be very hard to have the two pumps match up, one will always be pumping more water. I'm assuming you are going to have a pump returning the water back into your tank.

AIO are the S***, glad to see another DIY in the works.

 

[rukis]

i'm a little confused. So the 1st chamber fills up from the bottom, then is pumped up to the top chamber, then overflows down into the chambers with live rock, then into the return chamber. yes/no.

Yes Chamber 1 would fill and the pump will move it up to the top... then drip into the fuge area.... just started thinking about noise.. goood point.

I see a couple things that could be a problem. The overflow chamber is going to be pretty loud when overflowing into the chamber with sand/live rock, it may also kick up the sand. And then It will be very hard to have the two pumps match up, one will always be pumping more water. I'm assuming you are going to have a pump returning the water back into your tank.

Yea there will be a pump back to inside the tank... I am glad you came with some input, cuz i wasnt taking noise into account.. and the kicking around of sand and ish... but i figure if it has a good steady flow the water should be deep enough to not kick up sand... but i dunno that is something definatly something to think about...

AIO are the S***, glad to see another DIY in the works.

YES THEY ARE! and i would have never really put this much thought into an AIO untill i saw yours... thanks for the inspiration...

 

[rukis]

ok so i need some help, i got some weird SH*T happening right now, and its kinda throwing me for a loop, so i just got home from work and kiss the kids, the wife, and then off to my other babies... when i walk up, everything is ALL closed up... i start to look closer and i am seeing a weird browness everywhere... and i kinda panicking as i have NO CLUE WTF is going on.. i havent tested anything yet, i figured let me take a few pics and get em on here while i do that... cuz you are all so awesome and might be able to tell me exactly what it is and why and how to fix it...

this picture is how i KNEW something was wrong, this peice is brown when normally not..

this is what it normally looks like...

SOME ONE HELP ME!

 

[IPisces]

Looks like a diatom outbreak.

About Brown or Golden Diatom Algae - What Makes Brown Algae Grow and Solutions for Eliminating This Problem in Saltwater Aquariums

 

[10gnano]

+1 on the diatom outbreak

 

[rukis]

is it diatom algae????

 

[eww]

is it diatom algae????

Yup that's what it looks like. Just another stage of a new tank. It will subside over time and move into more stages. It's fondly referred to as the "moron cycle". Just let things be and keep things stable and the tank will typically take care of itself.

 

[rukis]

Yup that's what it looks like. Just another stage of a new tank. It will subside over time and move into more stages. It's fondly referred to as the "moron cycle". Just let things be and keep things stable and the tank will typically take care of itself.

thanks for the quick reply! my buddy initially asked me "how long do you leave the lights on!?" i told him that normally it goes off when i goto sleep, and on when i wake up in the morning... he said that is prolly a big part of the reason... he had to go, so i really didnt get much more explanation than that... but then after getting what he said, i started looking it up, and see that it could be from over feeding...

Do you have any input on this? and when you say the "moron cycle" does that refer to me?? haha i have been reading just grab some snails and a shrimp and it should take care of this as well as help maintain it.. any truth to this?

i have also read to feed minimally, i only feed every other day.. is that really to much?

also, how does this affect water chemistry? is there anything in specific i should be watching?

 

[10gnano]

I would cut the lights down to about 8 hours a day. Feeding every other day is fine. How much do you feed when you do feed?

Your tank will be fine continue with water changes and keep the tank stable and the diatoms will go with time.

 

[NC2WA]

I agree with Lorrie, looks like diatom bloom.

diatom algae bloom is a normal cycle..every new tank has one..unfortunately, there is no set period of time to the length of this bloom..some maybe 1-2 wks, some less some more..

how long do you keep your lights on??
i know you feed every other day, but how much food do you put in your tank?

I believe you said you have a RF octopus HOB? if so, how often do you change the collection cup? and is the skimmate clear or a dark green color?

water chemistry parameters to check for: Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Magnesium, Calcium, Alk, pH, and salinity.

as for as the "moron cycle", it basically means, one keeps tinkering with the tank instead of letting it be to let nature/time do its thing.

my motto, less is better...as long as the water parameter are in check, you have a skimmer that is removing organics (that is green to dark skimmate at least once a week), and light cycle is reasonable, let the tank be and mature.

if you need some help testing your water parameters, let me know. I have test kits for all the above mentioned parameters and don't mind performing them for you.

 

[rukis]

I agree with Lorrie, looks like diatom bloom.

I feel like crap, i didnt even see lorrie's post... *reading article now thanks lorrie!*

diatom algae bloom is a normal cycle..every new tank has one..unfortunately, there is no set period of time to the length of this bloom..some maybe 1-2 wks, some less some more..

is there something i should be doing to maintain this? i was suggested to get a few snails / shrimps?

how long do you keep your lights on??

I wake up @ 7am, and goto bed round 9-10 so.... 15 hrs? haha damn that sounds bad now that i was told around 8-9hrs...

i know you feed every other day, but how much food do you put in your tank?

I feed 1 tab every other day...

water chemistry parameters to check for: Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Magnesium, Calcium, Alk, pH, and salinity.

as for as the "moron cycle", it basically means, one keeps tinkering with the tank instead of letting it be to let nature/time do its thing.

my motto, less is better...as long as the water parameter are in check, you have a skimmer that is removing organics (that is green to dark skimmate at least once a week), and light cycle is reasonable, let the tank be and mature.

if you need some help testing your water parameters, let me know. I have test kits for all the above mentioned parameters and don't mind performing them for you.

I have tests for pH, Ammonia, Calcium, and Salinity... So i could use some help with the rest...

as for a skimmer, i dont have one yet... My buddy said that he thought he had an extra one, so i bought a new light setup instead, and then it came back that he couldnt find it... so at the moment i am skimmerless... ;c(
and unfortunatly it was the rent payday, so it may have to wait a few weeks.. unless someone has an extra one i can put to use till i can get my own...

i dont wanna buy a fairly cheap one to end up having to buy a good one later...


thanks again for all the responses... i kinda panicked for a minute there.....

 

[rukis]

one other question... i have a tendancy to turn on the actinics @ night instead of the day lights? is that still bad? should i just only turn the lights on period for 8hrs? or can i use day lights and night lights?

 

[NC2WA]

u should have lights (including actinics) on for a total time 8-9 hrs max...if you are at 15hrs...I would cut down to 7-8 hrs....electrical timers are your friend here.

as far as the food goes, brine shrimp is not a nutritional source of food...it is OK to use to get fish to eat, but once they are eating, a more nutritional source of food should be given. remember the goal is for the fish to thrive, not survive.

I would read the following article:

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/fed-properly-proper-nutrition-57474/