Here goes... everything

[baker89]

Alright I have finally finished setting up the tank (for the most part...) and finally have some time to give you all an update! Thanks to everyone who has helped me set up my first Reef Tank and all the wonderful advice and patience! Here we go!

So its a 110g Acrylic tank (60"L, 18"W, 24"H), Octopus 250 extreme skimmer, 3 AI Sol Blue LED's, 3 Koralia 1400gph pumps, 200ish pounds of LR, about an inch of medium crush coral.

Curing my first round of LR that came with the setup.

I bought this 5 year old setup for $500 off craigslist. It had some rough spots, but with a little elbow grease it is coming along. The frame on the bottom I build out of 2"x8"'s to build the tank up so I could fit all my junk underneath and raise the tank to eye level.

Stupid overflow... took me a minute, but I figured it out.

Moved my LR in to the tank after sitting in the garage for about a month. A big problem I had was my skimmer was too big for the sump that came with the tank... (of course...)
So what I did was went down to lowe's and bought some fitting and some tubes that go from the pumps (inside the sump) outside the sump and to the skimmer. I didnt think it would actually work, but it is and I'm getting results! Thanks for the skimmer Steve! (Steven11)

Tossed the hood on and played with my lights a little bit... Looks like I need A LOT more LR...

So more LR it is! Thanks to Eric! (Eww)

Much better!

Thats a finger leather and a Zoo in the substrate on the right. Eric (Eww) had some extra and sent them with me. They are doing really well today.
The finger keeps opening up for a little bit then sucking back inside.

Sorry the picture quality is a kind of poor, but its better then nothing right! Now I need to add some more pumps and get some macro algae for my refugium. I tested my water last night and it showed
0 ammonia,
0 nitrite
and about 3 nitrate
PH 8.2

It sure would be nice if I didnt have to go through a cycle. I'm going to watch my water a little more and see what it does before I add anything else. But with there being some nitrates that makes me a little hopeful.

Thanks again guys!
Dennis

 

[Sasquatch]

rock looks pretty tight packed? are you going to get any movement in there? maybe a couple of caves?

 

[eww]

Hey Dennis. We're curious what your emergency overflow plan is for your skimmer sitting outside your sump. What if the collection cup suddenly overfills??? It happens. Ours does it every once in a while. Just a thought. Don't worry about the leather. It will do that for a while and then settle in. We also noticed the front and center piece...

 

[baker89]

Sasquatch- Yes some parts are a little too dense, but if you look at in person you can see that it looks a little worse in the pictures. Thanks for saying something I'll ponder how I can open it up a bit. I have at least a month to get everything where I want it before I'll start adding anything. I was so focused on getting the rock nice and secure I might have made it a little too snug :frown:.

Eww- Thanks for the rock! It looks great. I dont have much of a plan for the skimmer which you probably expected. I can tell you that my skimmer has already overfilled because I either wasnt thinking or paying attention. Fortunatly every time it seems to fill the collection cup and then stop right at the top... lucky me I guess...? Any suggestions on some insurance I can do to help save my carpet? besides putting it in the sump lol. Also the Leather has been open all day today and seems to be very happy as well as the Zoanthid.

Thanks again!
Dennis

 

[Sasquatch]

I hate aquascaping, nothing looks right when your placing the rock, or it does till you step back lol, happily its not cemented together so you can do as needed when needed

 

[Krish]

I hate aquascaping, nothing looks right when your placing the rock, or it does till you step back lol, happily its not cemented together so you can do as needed when needed

I went 8 hours one day. Almost pitched everything in the street because I was so mentally exhausted from trying to get the rockwork to look the way I wanted it to! It can be a pain in the neck!!! I was happy with the results though. Came out really nice for a tank that was only a FOLWR. :rockon:


As for this tank, so far so good!! You'll have to make sure you have good flow in there to get into all of the nooks and crannies because that's a lot of rock!!

 

[eww]

I dont have much of a plan for the skimmer which you probably expected. I can tell you that my skimmer has already overfilled because I either wasnt thinking or paying attention. Fortunatly every time it seems to fill the collection cup and then stop right at the top... lucky me I guess...? Any suggestions on some insurance I can do to help save my carpet? besides putting it in the sump lol.

Well here are a couple of things you could do to help with the insurance policy...

1. Get a tub to put it in next to your sump. I don't know if you have the space to do this but even a small trash can or storage container could buy you hours in case of an overflow. This is not an indefinite amount of time that you are safe but it would cover you for some time.

2. Drill a hole in the collection cup about 1/2 way up or a little more and get a fitting to attach a small hose to and run it as a drain into your sump. This would be more of a long term fix in the event of a crazy skimmer. Just think if you and Erin weren't home for hours or worse yet, away for the weekend. We all know this is when everything goes wrong. This way the skimmer could run wild the entire time and the worst thing that happens is the excess water goes back into the system instead into your carpet. The most clean up you would need to do is maybe a water change.

Just a couple of thoughts.

One other question. If this is a skimmer that is normally designed to sit in the water in the sump, how is it performing properly without the recommended water level to sit in that they usually have? I'm just curious on this one because I thought they needed that external water pressure to operate correctly. However I could be completely wrong here.

 

[baker89]

2. Drill a hole in the collection cup about 1/2 way up or a little more and get a fitting to attach a small hose to and run it as a drain into your sump. This would be more of a long term fix in the event of a crazy skimmer. Just think if you and Erin weren't home for hours or worse yet, away for the weekend. We all know this is when everything goes wrong. This way the skimmer could run wild the entire time and the worst thing that happens is the excess water goes back into the system instead into your carpet. The most clean up you would need to do is maybe a water change.

I think this is a great idea thanks!

Maybe this will help. So here is a full shot of my Skimmer. The white and black tube is from my overflow. The smaller tubes are the air hoses that attach to my pumps and the larger tubing is the water/air bubbles being pumped into my skimmer. And of course the large gray plumbing is the return from the skimmer.

With my skimmer I dont think water pressure affects it. The only area I could see it would be the return plumbing, but she seems to be running just fine... My biggest worry was if the return from the skimmer would leak or not. So far so good. I should probably start looking into a larger sump... This is more of a temporary solution.

Dennis

 

[baker89]

One other question. If this is a skimmer that is normally designed to sit in the water in the sump, how is it performing properly without the recommended water level to sit in that they usually have? I'm just curious on this one because I thought they needed that external water pressure to operate correctly. However I could be completely wrong here.

Just a thought I had. Maybe the recommended water level that these skimmers are rated for is pertaining to the pumps? Because I do know that the depth the pumps and pumps alone are in effects the skimmer dramatically. For example when I added the LR the water level rose and caused the water in the skimmer to rise. So perhaps the recommended water level is only pertaining to the pumps and as long as they are at a certain depth your still meeting the requirements of the skimmer? Something like that lol

Dennis

 

[eww]

No idea. There are others here who will probably chime in on this though given a little time. It's coming together nicely though Dennis. Keep it up.

 

[baker89]

Got my ammonia spike today (.5). Probably the only time I'll ever be happy to see ammonia in my tank. Using the raw shrimp method. Do you guys think I need to take the shrimp out now? Or let it sit in there longer?

Dennis

 

[NC2WA]

The shrimp has done its job, personally, I would remove it and just test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates.

As Hannibal used to say on the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together". (and things are coming together as planned).

 

[baker89]

Umm so this crawled out of a rock today... What is it? It looks pretty much like a centipede about 6" long. Are they good? bad? should I take it out next time?

 

[rainydave]

Looks like a bristleworm. Not dangerous, in fact a good scavenger.

Bristleworm

 

[IPisces]

Sweet tank and you have some great rock in there too. I love aquascaping!
Great job!

 

[baker89]

Looks like a bristleworm. Not dangerous, in fact a good scavenger.

Awesome Thanks!

Sweet tank and you have some great rock in there too. I love aquascaping!
Great job!

Thanks I really appreciate it. I took a few pieces out today and opened it up a little. Ran out of time to take pictures, but I will tomorrow morning. I need to remember that it will fill in a lot better once I have corals growing all over the place.

Dennis

 

[NC2WA]

yup...bristleworms..some like them some don't, but whatever you do, do NOT pick up with bare hands..they will sting and it does hurt.

 

[baker89]

So... checked my water today. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate about 10. My ammonia spike (.5) was Tuesday and I took the shrimp out Wednesday. I didnt see any kind of Nitrite spike... I used cured live rock from Eww and I guess its doing its job. I still thought I would see some Nitrites... What do you guys think? There is a little bit of algae growing on the rocks and on the pumps but not a lot. I guess the next step would be to add some macro algae to my refugium and maybe give it another week and add a clean up crew?

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[baker89]

Hey guys its been awhile since I updated. Sorry I get busy but I dont have to much going on today! Heres some pics!

This was a about 2 weeks ago. Fighting a little bit of hair algae while my chaeto catches up. I took about 40lbs of rock out and opened it up quite a bit. There are 2 k4's in the back blowing behind the rock and 2 MP40W in front on reef crest.

I figured since everyone seems to like lights I would post a pic. I have 3 AI Sol Blues mounted on 1 rack parallel to the tank length. Typically you mount them perpendicular on 2 rails, but my tank is only 18" deep and that would be some what wasteful of the lights. So what I did was I took the (2) 36" rails and screwed them together (72") and then cut it down to 60" to fit my tank. I might add that I love these things and they are doing a great job. A little expensive, but worth the money in my opinion.

My Chaeto... Its coming along I added it a little later then I should have so I have to fight off the stupid micro algae. It wasnt doing well under my first spiral bulb, but I went out and got the biggest flood light I could find and it took off ever since (was about the size of a baseball 2 weeks ago). The light are on 24/7 right now to get it up to size. Once it has filled up my refugium and I have beat back the hair algae I'm going to put it on a reverse cycle.

My 2 Clowns! The little guy readily and always has eaten Spectrum Pellets, but the bigger one would only eat frozen food at first and even then was still finicky. About the fifth day in the aquarium the big one decided to eat like a little pig and now swims to my hand every time its in the tank. Bottom left is my Finger Leather from Eric (Eww) which has taken off and grown like a weed. Oh yeah and some hair algae... this was probably 2 weeks ago.

Frag Swap!
So here are some items I picked up yesterday at the PSAS fragswap. I was the tall skinny younger kid with the seahawks hat, black jacket and my girlfriend (little short lol and brown hair). Thanks for having us we had a blast.

So I wasnt planning on getting any SPS, but we were given these to try out. I was pretty adamant about waiting because I know SPS typically need a stable mature tank, but yet somehow I left with this guy... Anyway I believe this is a green birdsnest. Looks pretty happy to me...

Hammer coral: He is a lot more open now I took most of these when the lights were still ramping up.

Little eclipse Zoo... My girlfriend (Erin) just had to have it lol. pink skirt was just too good to pass up...

Frogspawn and a Duncan: Frogspawn is definatly my favorite, I gave him some prime real-estate in the tank...

And now a funny story... kinda...
So I got a piece of monti that was attached to an old shell... I was like like oh cool that will be super easy to mount... I simple wedged it in a crevis to see how it would do before I glued it into place. Although it had crossed my mind I doubted it would actually happen. So I was sitting in front of the fire when my monti started waving back and forth at me... Weird I thought... I went to check it out and one of my hermits had found himself a new home and hi-jacked my monti... Sorry the picture isnt the greatest, but its the best one we got in the moment.

Also a little pink birdsnest in the background.

Anywho thanks for all the great advise and help guys! We had a great time at the frag swap and cant wait for the next meeting. Sorry the pictures are blurry and lame, thinking about investing in a nice camera. Any thoughts, advise or recomendations are always welcome.

Dennis

 

[IPisces]

Oh wow, now this is really nice rock work. Lot more open swimming space.

Hey guys its been awhile since I updated. Sorry I get busy but I dont have to much going on today! Heres some pics!

This was a about 2 weeks ago. Fighting a little bit of hair algae while my chaeto catches up. I took about 40lbs of rock out and opened it up quite a bit. There are 2 k4's in the back blowing behind the rock and 2 MP40W in front on reef crest.

Dennis