New Elos system mini owner; first timer!

[todd03blown]

This thread will chronicle my first ever saltwater aqurium I have ever owned. I decided to purchase the Elos system due to the LED lighting, design and look of the tank, all the components do not need to be changed, has a sump and the Elos reputation!!

As of 8/23 I added 15lbs of live Fiji rock and 20lbs of live sand. Water at that time was 1.026 and temperature was 80.7.

Today I can see some stuff growing on my ROCK!! YEA!! This hobby is going to be so fun!!

On wednesday of this week I will perform my first water change at which point I will change 4 gallons and begin to dose my magnesium and calcuim that I purchased as well.

Here are pictures of the aquascape:

FTS

Close up

Right Side

Left Side

My plans for the tank are as follows:

2 Picasso Clowns (ordered already)
1 Royal Gramma
1 yellow watchman goby
or
1 Banggai Cardinal

Clam
1 Anemone - not sure which one
SPS - not sure which ones
LPS - not sure which ones
CUC - 1 cleaner shrimp, crabs and snails

That's all for now.

If any one has any good advice, questions or concerns please feel free to post!!

 

[todd03blown]

Well the CUC went in the tank saturday night about 10pm. I did my first water change thursday which was 4 gallons. Right before we put the CUC in we did the water test using the Elos test kits and all 4 of my reading were PERFECT!! I was so excited!

Everything is going good with my CUC, the cleaner shrimp loves to hide on the inside of the cave and only comes out for about 2 seconds then retreats. I think in a few more days hopefully he will be out and about more so we can watch him. the hermits and snails are all over the place and very very active!! My Astrea snails haven't even moved since being put in the tank, is this normal for them to take this long to get acclamaited?

Still having a good amount of micro-bubbles at this time, I hope they will be gone in the next week or so.

 

[mps9506]

Looks good. I'm waiting to see how you guys like the lighting before I pull the trigger and buy one. Did your unit include the blue LED''s as well or just the 10k whites?

 

[Frankie]

Wonderful! I see you don't need that link I provided for you in the meet and great thread
How is the flow in that tank? It looks to be very calm in there. Also the surface has no agitation.
Love the scaping so far. It will be fun watching this system grow.

 

[todd03blown]

Looks good. I'm waiting to see how you guys like the lighting before I pull the trigger and buy one. Did your unit include the blue LED''s as well or just the 10k whites?

Yes the E-lite came with a total of 3 blue LED's, this thing is very very bright and emits no heat into the water at all. All the heat comes out of the heat sink. when you get a chance to see one in person you will be very surprised at how much light it puts out.

 

[mps9506]

How is the flow in that tank? It looks to be very calm in there. Also the surface has no agitation.
Love the scaping so far. It will be fun watching this system grow.

Good point Frankie.
I don't see any additional pumps in their. I would definitely consider adding a Tunze Nano/Korallia/Seio in their for additional flow since the return pump won't be adequate turnover for SPS. Otherwise looks great

 

[todd03blown]

Wonderful! I see you don't need that link I provided for you in the meet and great thread
How is the flow in that tank? It looks to be very calm in there. Also the surface has no agitation.
Love the scaping so far. It will be fun watching this system grow.

LOL

Actually the flow is very good in what I know and understand thus far. There is quite a bit of agitation on the surface of the LR, you can see the flow in the tank, it will blow the sand around if you don't turn or angle the outlet in the right direction.

My picasso's have been ordered and will likely be here in 4 weeks or so. I will likely add 1 fish before they arrive and will start picking the coral etc I want to add next.

 

[Frankie]

I don't see whats funny about my post but ok.
Agitation is not for the rocks it is for the waters surface to provide saturated oxygen for the live stock. Here is some reading for you on it that I pulled from the web:
That depends on the exact salinity and temperature of your aquarium -- the table below gives you the values of oxygen saturation (mg/l) across a wide range of temperatures and salinities. The basic answer is that saturation for a reef tank is roughly 6.5 mg/l, but that this value means relatively little to the health of your animals (see below).
- Salinity (ppt - 0 / 00 ) Temperature ( o C) 0 10 20 30 40 10 (50 F) 13.0 12.2 11.4 10.6 9.8 15 (59 F) 10.3 9.7 9.2 8.6 8.1 20 (68 F) 9.4 8.8 8.4 7.9 7.4 25 (77 F) 8.5 8.0 7.6 7.2 6.7 30 (86 F) 7.8 7.4 7.0 6.6 6.2 This brings up a question in my mind... do our tanks need to be at saturation? Along the surf, the water is probably saturated in the ocean, but what about 20 feet down - anybody have figures on O2 levels at various depths?
Actually, natural seawater in areas around reefs are generally between 95-110% saturated with oxygen, and >60% of areas measured are at 100% saturation Obviously oxygen is important to our animals, and such concern is justified. On the reefs of St. Croix, night time oxygen levels range from about 5-6.5 mg oxygen/l, and daytime levels rise to around 7.5-9 mg oxygen/l (saturation was roughly 6.25) depending on the reef and location. Walter Adey reports similar levels of oxygen in his ATS-based tanks at the Smithsonian, but also points out in his book that it is not the oxygen concentration itself that is important but rather the EXCHANGE rate of oxygen.
Let's say you start with an average well-stocked 50G reef aquarium. The respiration of the animals in the aquarium would likely be on the order of 3g of oxygen per hour. Even if you could supersaturate the seawater (lets say it's at 9mg oxygen/l -- the highest recorded on the natural reefs), that still only gives you about an hour for the animals to suffocate with only diffusive gas exchange at the tank surface. Of course, protein skimming, turbulent water flow (e.g., "dueling" powerheads, and especially surge devices), and photosynthesis will alter that rate of exchange, and with the normal exchange rates of roughly 4-6g of oxygen per square meter per hour, the respiratory needs of your animals should be easily met. While it is true that both salinity and temperature will affect the particular value of the oxygen saturation coefficient in seawater (e.g., if you're being good and maintaining your tank at a natural salinity of ~35 ppt -1.026 SG-, then the oxygen saturation at 25C is 6.9mg/l, while at 30C is only 6.4mg/l), this is pretty much a non-factor. If the difference of 0.5 mg/l of oxygen in your tank makes any difference to the inhabitants of your tank, you are *seriously* under-circulating or overloading your tank!

As for the flow around the rocks, once you start adding corals and live stock that flow is going to get cut way back. What is the pumps flow rate and exact water volume? We can figure out from there if the flow is sufficient or not.

 

[todd03blown]

Sorry the LOL was directed at your first statement about posting pictures.

The mini comes with 2 Eheim 1002 compact pumps which can pump at a max of 1000l or 264 gal an hour if my conversion is accurate. This mini is a 20g setup as well which includes the sump. let me know what other information you need as I am so new to this and am learning alot daily.

 

[blue_eyes53813]

Your tank is awesome.... Welcome to RS... This hobby is soooo fascinating. Remember to go SLOW and watch it grow.....

 

[Frankie]

Ah! I hope the info I provided helps a little. Yes 1000l is 265 gph. Thats a nice turn over you have in there. I think your just going to have to wait until you stock the tank and adjust it as you go for flow. This is not something your going to need to worry about right now anyhow. I would see if you could turn one return up twards the surface a bit to creat more aggitation though.

 

[todd03blown]

Frankie - Yes that info was great, I am a very eager learner and reader. I will adjust that one reture; I want it as close to the surface so it almost creates small waves I assume?

 

[todd03blown]

Your tank is awesome.... Welcome to RS... This hobby is soooo fascinating. Remember to go SLOW and watch it grow.....

Thanks!! This hobby is truly amazing watching it all grow. I have my first small algae bloom this morning in the sand so things are going good!!

 

[Snelly40]

nice tank, def point that one towards the surface, like you said it will create some waves which will add a nice shimering effect but it will also help with the flow but mostly it will assist with surface agitation which will help keep the water oxygenated and it will help keep the fish and corals healthy

 

[Frankie]

Frankie - Yes that info was great, I am a very eager learner and reader. I will adjust that one reture; I want it as close to the surface so it almost creates small waves I assume?

Perfect! This is going to be an awesome aquarium. Did I say how much I like your rock work?

 

[todd03blown]

Frankie - Thanks!! I just finished dosing my Mg and Ca and also turned my return to the surface. thanks i can tell a difference already with the agitation and seeing how the water flow is!!

 

[Frankie]

Awesome!
Let figure out now what's causing the micro bubbles. Is it coming from the skimmer or something else?

 

[todd03blown]

Awesome!
Let figure out now what's causing the micro bubbles. Is it coming from the skimmer or something else?

They dont appear to be coming from the skimmer. My assumption is they are caused by the turbulence from the return line in the sump since I see a decent amout of bubbles in that area of the sump. If things dont clear up then I have been told I should put a sock on then end of that line in the next week. I really hope I dont have to as I would assume a system of this expense would not require that but again I am so new to this hobby I am not really sure if this is normal part of life or not.

 

[DML08]

What's your calcuim and mag level's at?... you may want to test these levels before doseing your tank..

 

[todd03blown]

I had checked those as well and they are where they need to be, 450 for Ca and 1350 for Mg.