Jiddy's 220g MASTERPIECE!

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Me too been putin in 12 ers at work and 4 more at home afterwards, makes you wonder why or how we do it LOL!
I don't plan on leavin soon either so be ware!;)
 
I used three, three inch shrimp to kick start the cycle. I did not want to put a Damsel in the tank and have the hassle of returning it.

I agree that live rock will be sufficiant. My tank is now recycling since adding the rock. Save your self some time (and a damsel) and just use the live rock.
 
Scooterman said:
Me too been putin in 12 ers at work and 4 more at home afterwards, makes you wonder why or how we do it LOL!
I don't plan on leavin soon either so be ware!;)
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Well your always welcome to my circus thread and if you ever come to the Rally or Mt.Rushmore ill buy you a beer! :D

I feel yea on the 12hr days, tonite is my last one :)

Hopefully this weekend i will be hookin up the manifolds, addin water and startin the sump, that means i will jump the gun and buy LR to seed my tank, new SW wont hurt coraline will it? If not can i add some of my PURPLE UP right away?

I can taste it, can you tell, not the purple up, the feelin of ownin a REEF :lol:

Ja Ja Jid
 
Nope, new saltwater is great for coralline; if the brand you're using has plenty of calcium that is. Be careful when increasing your calcium level for coralline growth. If you don't increase the alkalinity at the same time one will drive the other one down. I think Purple-Up does both, but I have no experience with it. Things like additives, calcium reactors and kalk reactors are more of a way to keep the levels of your aging water the same as when it was new. Since your tank will be mostly bare though you can increase both your calcium and alkalinity to speed up the process. When you put your live rock in you can also scrub the coralline to force it to release spores. Once it really starts spreading you'll soon hate the stuff :) Stock up on razor blades.

Clayton
 
I cant wait to hate the stuff! And thanks for the help and encouragement Clayton, your swell!

I should be up an runnin on Saturday!

-J Unit
 
Have the tank half full, RO runnin 99more gallons (flooded garage last night) but should be near full today, and have one Cl siliconed and the other needs to be "adjusted" was curious how you setup/prime a syphon on the CPR overflows, i dont have a powerhead to do it???

Ill post pics after i goto class

-Jidz
 
I am goin to be settin up my sump with an CPR overflow and heard its a pain, ive never done it before and was curious how you get thre right level of water to go down into the sump and what not.

Jidz

***this just in*** my buddy told me with ex-wive is tearin down here tank, sellin me her LR $1 lb, im takin her water and sand too, holy moly, what the luck! (and three fish, wrasse, tang and clown)
 
Jiddy said:
was curious how you setup/prime a syphon on the CPR overflows, i dont have a powerhead to do it???
-Jidz
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Run airline hose to the hole on the top of the u-tube. Run the other end to a venturi, either on a power head or a pump. Let is suck the air out of the tubes. then drop the tubes into the sump. That'll do her. Some put check valves on there. I just leave the tubes in place and silicone around them to keep them attatched to the U-tube.

-Erik
 
Jiddy, I know we had a discussion on external overflows quite a while back. Why did you get the CPR? Those things are a disaster waiting to happen. Scooterman is right, the Lifereef overflows are probably the best externals you can get.

What is purple up? Sounds like a snake oil. I think we all made the same mistakes when we got started by buying all kinds of magical elixirs that we thought would work miracles but are really not much more than water in a bottle. In fact one of the Marc Weiss products that sells for like $25 for a 6oz bottle was proven to be nothing more than apple juice. Another example is a while back Dr. Ron did some testing on Combi-San and found that it was something like 97% water. Anyways, the point I'm making is don't waste your money on all the snake oils out there. Use it to buy new livestock and equipment instead. The only thing you need to do as far as supplements to maintain a healthy thriving reef tank is regular water changes with a decent synthetic salt and a Ca/Alk supplement.

I wouldn't recommend adding LR to the tank until your salt water has mixed up for a couple days, 24 hours minimum. Freshly mixed ASW is very caustic and hard on anything alive in the tank, which would include coralline. It also takes it a while to settle out at the proper PH.
 
Jiddy... I cycled my tank with a couple of green/blue chromis. They are as durable as damsals but you can keep them around. Mine are still in my tank and doing well after 1 1/2 years. They are cheap (about $5-$7) and it is more fun to see something live in your tank.
 
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Travis,
Purple-Up is a product by Carib-Sea that has earned respect from some reefkeepers. I've never used it myself, but have heard from other people that it seems to work increasing their calcium. I think it's still best to use something like kalk or a product like C-Balance to get the right mixture of calcium and alkalinity, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to call Purple-Up "snake oil". Just my opinion.

Coralline algae likes three things. 1: Lots of calcium, which is why products like Purple-Up can help (as well as every other calcium additive out there). 2: Lots of water flow. 3: Low light. The last one is the biggest problem with future SPS tanks; since we normally have an over-abundance of light above our tanks. They will adjust to the higher levels of light after a while, but it takes some time.

Clayton
 
Lighter colored Coralline grows in brighter tanks, low light just grows deeper & darker colors, you can have an abundance either way.
 
Thanks for all the help guys, i want to answer all the questions and comments, but first ill give you an update then give you some pictures!

Its nice to finally have the thread take off and not have to jump start it, lol. Its also nice to be at the SET-UP finish line and the start to the actual hobby of fish/reef keepin! ok....

As of yesterday i have finishied both CL's manifold's and silicone'd them to the tank, then filled up 6 trashcan's (33gal a piece) of RO water into the tank, it wasnt full yet. So i called the lady that i had made a bid on for the LR ($100 for 100lbs) but she didnt answer. I figured she wanted more. So i filled the rest of the tank up with hose water, maybe another 20-30gal. cuz i was goin to buy some LR. The LFS is closed on Sun and Mon around here. I added a bucket of IO and right after i did that, of course the LR lady calls back. She has to tear her tank down and wants $150 for the fish (rainbow wrasse, yellow tang, 2 damsels) 100lbs of LR and the water from the tank. I tell her fine and once again drain about 60gals of water from my tank that was full and put it in two trashcans. Long story short, that night i put the fish in the water with there old tank water and some of the sand. The LR is in a tub with aeration in the garage, goin to be put in today. The tank should be up and runnin later this day

My questions:

Will the tang/wrasse be okay with 100lbs or cured rock in there?

Also, i will post pics, but the LR had heavy green algae and red slime on it, should i put in my tank and cure it or what?

Send the pics when im done!

-Jiddy
 
Travis said:
Jiddy, I know we had a discussion on external overflows quite a while back. Why did you get the CPR? Those things are a disaster waiting to happen. Scooterman is right, the Lifereef overflows are probably the best externals you can get.

What is purple up? Sounds like a snake oil. I think we all made the same mistakes when we got started by buying all kinds of magical elixirs that we thought would work miracles but are really not much more than water in a bottle. In fact one of the Marc Weiss products that sells for like $25 for a 6oz bottle was proven to be nothing more than apple juice. Another example is a while back Dr. Ron did some testing on Combi-San and found that it was something like 97% water. Anyways, the point I'm making is don't waste your money on all the snake oils out there. Use it to buy new livestock and equipment instead. The only thing you need to do as far as supplements to maintain a healthy thriving reef tank is regular water changes with a decent synthetic salt and a Ca/Alk supplement.

I wouldn't recommend adding LR to the tank until your salt water has mixed up for a couple days, 24 hours minimum. Freshly mixed ASW is very caustic and hard on anything alive in the tank, which would include coralline. It also takes it a while to settle out at the proper PH.
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Geez Trav you make it sound like im in trouble for gettin a CPR? LoL, no i know we talked about it. Im not sure what brand these overflows are, they came with the tank when i bought it, its a Amiracle sump is all i know! lol. But i figured no matter what brand it was, it was good enough for now! Thanks for you help and im almost done!

-Jiddy
 
Beeba said:
Jiddy... I cycled my tank with a couple of green/blue chromis. They are as durable as damsals but you can keep them around. Mine are still in my tank and doing well after 1 1/2 years. They are cheap (about $5-$7) and it is more fun to see something live in your tank.
Click to expand...

Thanks schreena, i actually got some fish in the LR trade of someone else's teardown, only problem is there are two damsels in there. I cant trade them in because the LFS isnt open until Tuesday and the tank had to be out of there buy today (sun) lol, got stuck with them!

Jidz
 
I have two damsals in my tank. They are small and have neat flourescent markings so I like having them. They don't bother anything so I like having them.
 
Heres a small update. I have the manifolds sealed but the pumps arent hooked up. Thats pretty much all that is left, i need to build a little stand back behind the tank so i can set them higher and not deal with so much head loss. But the sump and overflow are set up, im still dinkin with it, but its comin along. The rock is in its place for now, its hard to add 100lbs when you have already aquascaped.

Heres some pics thusfar
 
1. Jidzter hookin up the manifold
2. Wifie fillin the tank
3. The tank before the LR and LW (live water) lol
4. Tank with rock and lights up, wife took pic
5. Nother tank shot

The damsels and wrasse are swimmin around like there are super happy. The tang was out before i redid the rock, but he'll be out again im sure. I think they are hungary but the LFS is closed until Tuesday? but.... my Hydrometer is readin at around 1.024 is that good or bad? my water temp wont go under 81, least thats what my heater is readin. Should i test for Am,Nit and Nat now?

-Jidz
 
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