Carlos 60 gallon new tank

[carlos_fb]

I will wait until next week to see what happens.

In the meantime I'm still having problems with micro bubbles in the tank. I did the gate valve mod to my skimmer and I also put a filter sock in the output but nothing seems to help. I have seen the powerheads shoot some micro bubbles from time to time, I tried cleaning them up and shaking them under the water to remove any air trapped.

Also this week I got this fan from Marine Depot and it took care of the problem of the tank getting warm when the lights are on. Extremely quiet, love it!

 

[Krish]

I had a similar one over my sump on my 75gal after adding my metal halides! I was happy with it as well

 

[carlos_fb]

I'm trying to adjust a few things in my setup. I have that gurgling/flushing noise coming from the drain durso pipe and I believe the micro bubbles are coming from the drain when the water hit the floor of the sump.

Any suggestions?

 

[Krish]

How does it exit the pipe in your sump Carlos?? I had the same issue and put a "Tee" where the water exited coming from the drain and it eliminated all of the noise. Helped a few others as well. Here's a pic of the sump. Take a look at how the water enters the sump and you'll see the Tee. May be worth a try

 

[carlos_fb]

It exits just like I have it in the picture above. I tried putting an elbow but it didn't help at all. I just put a T in it, we'll see how it works. Thanks for the tip Krish!

What can I do with the bubbles coming out of it?

 

[Scooterman]

Did you make the durso? I bet you need to either make an adjustment on it or try the stockman, you should almost have a dead silent drain, I agree with Krish you can eliminate the micro bubbles. Somehow show us that durso, I may need you to break down the parts as I'm working blind here.

PS at Wal-mart this time of year you can get a fan similar for $8, actually I have to show you what I got, it has several adjustments on it that is cool!

 

[carlos_fb]

I actually got the pipe from dursostandpipes.com

Here's a picture of it. I can try pulling out the top part tomorrow to take a picture if you need it.



By the way, I didn't quite understand what to do in order to eliminate the micro bubbles? was it just with the T at the end of the drain pipe?

 

[Scooterman]

Sometimes they over complicate the standpipes, I can't tell but you can certainly tweak it to suit your needs, fix one problem at a time otherwise you may end up creating more problems. I would need more details on that standpipe, It doesn't look like the original plan.

 

[Krish]

The "Tee" I put at the exit point of my drain line was only put there to prevent the gurgling flushing sounds. Never needed anything for microbubbles as my bubble trap took care of it pefectly fine... That and alwyas used and elbow on my return pump to suck water off of the bottom on the sump seeing bubbles rise so I just had the pump suck water as low as possible

 

[carlos_fb]

Oops!

13 weeks Today...

OMG guys this is embarrassing!!!

I just found out that I have not been reading my Nitrate results properly. Today I tested everything and this is what I got:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
pH 8.2
Salinity 1024
PPT 33
Temp 79.0 F

This means that the tank had pretty low Nitrates even before I took it apart. Anyway, good but embarrassing news I guess LOL!

Sorry!!!

 

[Krish]

LOL!!! That's great news man! Congrats!

 

[carlos_fb]

If somebody is interested in knowing how this happened. Well, it appears that pH and Ammonia tests have to be compared differently to the color chart that comes with the kits. I had been comparing them all the same way from the side instead of from the top. Dump I know!

Scooty, I think you're right, ever since I got that durso pipe, it never looked like the original plan, especially in the bottom part of it.

 

[Scooterman]

I smell fish

 

[carlos_fb]

I smell fish

LOL what should I do now?

 

[Scooterman]

Work on the stand pipe, I'd really like to see how it is made, hard to say but it needs to be made so your water is quiet, only noise you hear should be pumps & the water inside the sump & you put that pipe under water so it should be fairly quite.
Other than that I'd get some hermits, snails & start looking at what fish you want, anytime now should be good to go from what your telling me with the test results.

 

[carlos_fb]

I just sent an email to Mr. Durso, I will let you know what he has to say about it.

Should I try to increase my salinity or just wait?

At what point I need to start testing for Alk, Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphates?

I might go to pick up a few hermits and snails later on Tonight or tomorrow. Should I add the pair of Perculas or the cleaning crew first?

 

[Scooterman]

Get you the clean up crew & see about the fish later. You can increase salinity to 35PPT when your ready for corals, also testing the others mentioned. Small steps for now & see how the crabs & snails do!

 

[carlos_fb]

Yesterday I got 5 turbo snails and 5 hermit crabs. Very exciting to finally have something to watch in the tank! If everything goes well I might get the cleaning crew by the end of this week.

 

[Scooterman]

Get your Perks

 

[carlos_fb]

Get your Perks

LOL, Sunday you said that I should get the cleaning crew first...