50g FOWLR Setup

[CMG]

Originally Posted by JoJo

sorry to hear that. there's a chance something leached, did you do a vinegar bath on anything that needed it? i was planning on using PVC glue but Jack says to use Red Hot Glue because it doesnt leach

I am 99% sure I did use the red hot glue instead of the regular PVC glue. Its blue instead of purple. Maybe they should have named it blue hot glue. Anyways, I have to admit I never soaked anything in vinegar, what are we usually supposed to soak in that stuff??

[CMG]

Well I think my plate coral is gonna kick the bucket. It is not puffing up at night as much as it used too. ONly about 1/4 of it is puffing up now. I tried to feed it and it wouldnt eat. After a lot of readong on RS about it, it seems that they are not very hardy which goes against what I read in my books about them before I bought it. Although I have not completely given up on it yet doubt it will make it.

[CMG]

I was a little busy bee last night and decided to post some pics of what I did. Basically I put together the DIY phosphate reactor I mentioned before. Its just a gatoraid bottle with some holes in the lid. A piece of PVC runs down into it which is T'd off from the overflow and has a ball valve on it to control gph. The return holes are small so the media cant fit through it and apparently if you use phosguard instead of phosbane it doesnt float anyways. But you can also run carbon in it.

[JoJo]

karma to you buddy! let us know how its working out.

[CMG]

I just realized today i broke the cardinal rule of reefing and didnt even realize it!! Wait one year until stating to add reef life. I totally didnt wait one year! haha. What a goober. I think august will be one year-ish. Maybe this is why I have a lack of coraline and my plate coral is being weird.

Anyways, yeah I will report in on how this DIY reactor works out. I went to both LFS's today and one actually had phosbane. But it was $34.99 Besides I really want phosguard not phosbane. I think I want to....actually I know I want to get some monti coral really bad, its sooooo cool and colorfull. I havent decided if I am going to wait until after I move though. Moving this tank is keeping me from QT andy fish or buying any corals, so as you have noticed I have been working on equipment which is good.

My goal by the end of the month is to grow some damn coraline and hopefully recover my plate coral. I might even try using a minimal amount of purple up......we will see

[JoJo]

one year? i must have missed that rule. if the rule is a year, i will be tossing it.

[CMG]

Yeah, they say wait a year because thats how long it takes for a salt water tank to become stable enough to keep reef creatures. Maybe it was just an anemone? I dont know, cant remember anymore. I was originally doing a fowlr so it didnt matter to me at first.

[CMG]

I have been neglecting my chrnicle for a while now so I wanted to get back on it. Finals are next week and its crunch time. 4 essays and lots of studying this weekend.

I am building a canopy this wekend at my buddies pop's shop! SHould be fun. It will be really simple and plain. Just to make the tank look clean. Probably a hing 3/4 the way in and hanging the tek fixture in the middle. The back will be open with 1-2 fans. I bought some fans at target for $6 each.

I also got an aqua controller jr. that I setup a few days ago. I am having a problem with the temp probe. It reads really really high. I calibrated it down today though. I really like it a lote. Allows good control of lighting and all other equiptment. We are having a 3 day heat wave and it has really helped! I got it for about $214 shipped locally brand new, came with the tep probe, 4 DC connector, serial port for computer. My fans and my heaters need to operate at the same time so I just use a socket expander to run the heaters and fans together that way I dont need to buy a DC8. Its fun to program things into this computer. Really really nice!

I also got some phosguard so I can now start to use my gatoraid phosbane reactor! I purchased a new powerhead called akoralia or something. They looked really nice and look easy to hide from view. I dont know if it will go in my tank yet or in my QT tank....havent decided. Basically I am trying to plan for when I move, it will be nice because I am moving back in with the parents for about a year and will have my own room so I can just setup my tank in there (even though its noisy with the new overflow!, theres another project..looks liek I am booked for summmer!) and also going to set up a QT tank in the room too (10g) that way I can get my black and white clown and hopefully a flame angel maybe even a randals goby!

Im not at home so no pics just yet on all the new updates. My new passion is to get a flame angelfish!! I have been researching them all day. I am moving at the end of the month though so I am forcing mysefl not to purchase anything.

[CMG]

At lunch I found a gift card in my wallet that had over $100 on it!!!!!hahahahahahahaha, what a dork. So I went online and made a shopping list and put an order in:

MG test kit-salifert
Garlic-seachem
Kent Essentials
Methylene Blue-fresh water dip
cupramine

I also wanted some deworming food but they didnt carry that and Formalin but its illegal in california. So I am going to go to the LFS and see if they have the deworming food...yeah right. hehe.

Next time I get a fish I am going to do it right.

[JoJo]

cool upgrades, sorry i cant help with the controller. keep up the good work

[CMG]

Woooooow! I am an idiot! So today me and my buddy spent about 3 hours making a canopy for the tank and it came out pretty nice for a quick slap together. Unfortunatly I wasnt thinking for some reason and we put a back brace across the bottom and now I cant put it on the tank because I have an overflow hanging on the back of the tank! DUH!!! hahahahahaha. What a bunch of goofballs.

[prow]

Originally Posted by CMG

Woooooow! I am an idiot! So today me and my buddy spent about 3 hours making a canopy for the tank and it came out pretty nice for a quick slap together. Unfortunatly I wasnt thinking for some reason and we put a back brace across the bottom and now I cant put it on the tank because I have an overflow hanging on the back of the tank! DUH!!! hahahahahaha. What a bunch of goofballs.

lol, i think we can all relate to that.............

Originally Posted by CMG

I also wanted some deworming food but they didnt carry that and Formalin but its illegal in california. So I am going to go to the LFS and see if they have the deworming food...yeah right. hehe.

illegal? formalin is not illegal, or were you taking about something else? on the deworming food, try interceptor. its a dog dewormer. i have used it to treat my tank for red bugs. the red bugs died but my pods, snails, shrimps and live stock were all fine. they had no aparent reaction to it. the last dose i never even did a water change. works great.

[JoJo]

yea, we all done something similar. i'll probably do something like that today while plumbing the system. but the brace should be an easy fix

[CMG]

Yes, I am just going to have to raise it to about the middle of the canopy, that way the return plumbing and the overflow will fit under it.

I dont know if formalin is illegal because it has formaldehyde in it and thats illegal in CA. That is what I read. Ok, but here is the funny part.....the LFS sells it...???? Confusing.

[CMG]

OK, my aqua controller is starting to piss me off. First the temp issue was occuring and now the clock is slow. I keep having to reset the clock to the correct time! From this morning to tonight it lost 5 minutes! Crazyness. For this amount of money I dont think I should be having all these problems.

On a better note I was just staring at my tank today and notice little insects running all around in there on the LR and especialy in some hair algae. I think they are mysid shrimps or pods. I put a bottle of pods in there a few months ago so that would explain it. They are fun to watch. Here is a pic. It is below the green flower looking thingy. Its facing to the right and so you can see its antenas making a Y sidways though.