Forstral's Red Sea Max Adventures

[forstral]

I had to do my first top-off today. I think I should have waited one more day. I put just shy of a gallon of RO/DI water in and it is a little high for the comb leading to the skimmer. I think this tank is going to require a gallon top-off every 3 days. My temp is hovering right around 82 degrees. Is this too high? I attached the optional fan that came with the aquarium kit and it lowered the temp from 84-85 degrees to a constant 82 degrees; the temp does not really go down at night. The temp in the room is 77-78 degrees and I have central air running and a ceiling fan running on high in that room. I am going to check chemistry on Saturday and if all levels are zero then I am thinking of getting my first buddy. The live rock was pretty much cured when I got it and so far I really don't have any waste to speak of in my skimmer. Show I add a charcoal bag in the water next to the skimmer? I read that it clears the water so well you start to wonder if there is even water in the tank. Right now I have a lot of micro bubbles swimming around in the tank but I think the amount is starting to dissipate.

[Woodstock]

How large of a system is it? I always recommend topping off evaporated water twice a day. Topping off less often will create fluctuations in salinity, ca, alk, temp, etc. and will stress the inhabitants. 82.0 deg will be fine as long as it does not get much higher. Be careful NOT to overstock your tank with high temps; warmer water holds less oxygen.

[forstral]

It is a 34g nano tank with an very good fitting hood. I went a little high today with the top-off so I will probably wait until Saturday, but I will take your advice and add what little bit of water is needed to offset the evaporation each day. Thank you for the advice. Is there something else I could do to cool the tank besides a chiller, I really wanted the temp to be between 78 and 80 degrees and I don't think $300 is reasonable to spend for a 2 to 4 degree drop. Plus this winter the heater will definitely be kicking on because I keep the house at 68 degrees. I will definitely turn off the cooling fan and re-insert the plastic cover that goes over the opening for the chiller to attach (if I had one).

[Woodstock]

A fan blowing across the water's surface will cool it a lot but would also increase the evaporation rate! I use two sump fans and they work wonderfully to keep the water temp down

[lcstorc]

Fans are wonderful things. A couple of those and you should be good to go. Just top off more often and you are set.

[forstral]

I have (1) 80mm fan that came with the aquarium kit. It mounts to the back of the tank above the pumps and blows in. I have it mounted and I have removed the cover that allows for a chiller hookup. That is allowing the air to circulate. Without the fan my tank would be running at 84 degrees. I took some cardboard and wedged it between the first hinged lid and the main hood (hood has 2 hinged areas) so that it would hold the hood open enough for air circulation but not enough for anything to jump out (when I get my first little buddy). I will check it in the morning and see if that helped lower the temp any. I want to stay around 80 degrees constantly. If the cardboard works I will probably only have to use it and the fan during the summer seeing as how I keep my house at 68 degrees during the winter. Does any of this sound like it will work at keeping the temp down? Thanks.

[BigAl07]

It very well could keep the temp down. That temp isn't terrible but it's flirting on the high side. What I do and suggest you do is set your heater at pretty close to whatever your determine your high daily temp is and this way during a normal day your heater will keep it up close to it's max when everything is running and heating the tank thus decreases your temp swings. Personally I like to keep my temps in the upper 70's that way I have more wiggle room but without a chiller you have to work with what you have. I do know that you can get some of those VERY nice controllers that will control your heater and chiller totally automating your system for you. In fact, I am seriously looking at getting one of these **Neptune AquaController** for My tank.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Allen

[forstral]

Here is the first chemistry test for the Red Sea, I hope that it uploaded.

[bluespotjawfish]

If you want the temp lower and don't want to add a chiller, you may need to lower the room temp more. That is what I have done. My central air conditioning is set at 72 to keep my tank at 78.

[lcstorc]

Interresting that you have nitrate but no amonia or nitrite. Usually that comes at the end of the cycle.
Did you have a cycle on this tank? The only thing I read was about adding LR that was pretty cured. If you havenot already done so add a shrimp from the grocery store to kick off the cycle. If you don't cycle it now the fish will have to cycle it and that is extremely stressful if not life threatning.
If there was a cycle I didn't read about then I appologize.

[forstral]

I started up the tank on 7/03 at around 2pm. The l/r was mostly cured but still there is a little die off b/c the LFS didn't have it long enough to fully cure it. They had it a week before I got it. I thought the tank would cycle itself with the l/r, at least from what I had read on about.com and a book that I purchased. If the rock was mostly cured could it not have cycled by now? Also, there has not been very much in the skimmer but I have gotten my wonderful algae bloom. It is a brownish algae, I am thinking diatom? Anyway, went and bought a small cleaning crew to eat up the problem. I bought the following:

(3) Astrea
(3) Cerith
(3) Nerite (unable to find one of them at the present moment)
(6) Blue Leg Hermits
(4) Scarlet Hermits

How am I doing so far?

[Melanie]

Originally Posted by forstral

Here is the first chemistry test for the Red Sea, I hope that it uploaded.

Where did you find this handy chart?

[lcstorc]

Well since you have added livestock my plan is no longer a good one. The best you can do is keep a close eye on your parameters and hopefully they will be ok. Start doing water changes at the first sign of amonia since it is a killer (literally).
I would have preferred to see a good strong cycle since the tank is usually better long term if it goes through this in the beginning.
The cleanup crew looks like a pretty good list so you should be ok there. Just add fish very very slowly when you do add. One small fish at a time since each one is likely to start a mini cycle to help establish your LR.
Do you have your fish list ready? Now would be the time to do it since you want to add the more timid fish first and work toward the more agressive fish.

[forstral]

Melanie, the chart came from www.redseamax.com under support, downloads. It is called the maintenance log, it is in word (which you can type in) or a pdf file.

[forstral]

Lynn, my fish list is as follows:

B/W Clown
Yellow Clown Goby
Green Clown Goby
(2) Neon Gobies
Royal Gramma
Mystery Wrasse

This is not written in stone and I may not do the wrasse. I saw a picture on saltwaterfish.com of a "flashlight" fish which looked kind of like a clown goby, if I can find out exactly what type of fish it actually is I may do one or two of those instead of the larger wrasse.

If the snails and crabs I have don't survive then I think the tank will cycle hard. I am unable to find 4 of the blue leg hermits and the 2 I can find aren't really moving that much. I know for sure 3 of the 4 scarlets are still alive the fourth is not moving so I don't know. All 9 snails are still with us but one hasn't moved much in a while. I think I like the snails better than crabs. They move so slow but yet it is so facinating to wake up and see how far and where they have moved to over the night.