An Alaskan Reef (38G)

[Craig Manoukian]

Wooooohoooo, don't you just love those simple and quick projects! Congrats on the new tank!

[AQTCJAK]

looking good

[koffee]

Thanks, all. You know, if I was rich, I wouldn't get a really big tank. I would just keep upgrading a few gallons at a time cause building everything is so much fun! And I expect that I would get better at it each time.

I learned a few things this time:

Cutting glass isn't hard. Being precise is.

Never, ever buy a cheap plastic mitre box. I'm lucky a friend with a power mitre saw let me use it at the last minute. For my next tank/stand, I'm going to add $100-150 to the budget for one of my own.

There are a few problems with my new setup. The sump is wider than the side panels. Not a big deal - I covered the sides of the sump with some aquarium backing, and will trim the stand side panels to fit. A slighty bigger problem is that I measured wrong, and the pump is placed in the last baffle. Some PVC elbows or flex tubing will fix that.

Another issue is that the pipe from the overflow gurgles. This is not in the overflow itself, so a durso/etc. may not help. It gurgles into the sump. I'm going to post in the DIY forum for suggestions on how to quiet this.

[koffee]

The sump is up and running. Of course, it didn't go all as planned, and part of the plan was wrong. Oh well. This is a learning experience.

First, the good news... taking out the trash:



Now, the bad news:



That rock used to be the most purple thing in my tank. But it was also the most fuzzy green thing. I took out the worst of the HA coated rubble, and let it dry out for a couple of days. Then I gave it a good scrub, and put it back in the tank.

And finally, the new 38G sump (which used to be the main tank, before I upgraded to the 40 breeder):



I measured the return chamber wrong, so I had to use a longer piece of vinyl tubing to get enough bend from the pump to the return pipe. (It was either that, or PVC elbows.) The baffles are 2 inches apart. I've seen many designs with 1.5 inches - I don't know how anyone could spread the silicone in such a narrow area. It was hard enough working with a 2 inch gap. Everything else worked out as planned, but next time I will change the plan.

The skimmer/intake chamber is big enough, but another inch or two would make it easier to work in there. The return chamber is also big enough, but I should have made this a bit larger too. The fuge spills over into the return, but I should have baffled that since I have a few bubbles from the drop-off. The fuge takes up half the tank - 18 inches. The water level is at 14 inches.

Right now, the water level is above my normal line, but I'm still tweaking things. There is plenty of room for excess water when the main pump is off. (Tested and confirmed.)

The fuge has a glass top, and two strip-lights sitting on that. The sand is about 5 inches deep - 60 pounds of aragonite sand and a pound or two from the main tank sprinkled on top. I also picked up a 2.5 pound LR to get things going. Obviously, I need more LR (much more), but I can only add little by little. There is a ball of chaeto in there too - it is hiding behind the center post. A small pump in the intake chamber feeds the fuge.

Should I add any snails or hermits to the fuge? My main tank has both.

p.s. I also added a Stockman standpipe to the HOB overflow. With fine tuning, it really quiets things down. I'll try to get some pics of that when I clean it.

[Craig Manoukian]

Nassaurius snails, Red Scarlet and Blue Micro Hermits, a Fighting Conch, and Astrea snails are all good choices.

[koffee]

Params are not too bad this morning:

Temp: 79.0
SG: 1.023
pH: 8.0-8.1 - need to buffer more
Alk: 3.0 meq/L, 8.4 DKH - should this be higher? It used to be a lot more.
Calcium: 345 - still working to bring this up
Ammonia: barely there
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20ppm
Phosphate: 0.25

Some ammonia is expected since I was messing with the tank for the upgrade and then the new sump, and added more LR and DS (Dead Sand) yesterday. Nitrates are still too high, but the new sump and fuge will take time to have an impact. I'm going to throw a bag of De-Nitrate and a bag of Phos-Sponge in the sump.

With all that went on in the past week, I threw away some water and added a lot of RO and DI water - about 20 gallons new. Once I'm started on normal water changes, the results should give me a better idea of how things really stand.

And about the water - I was wrong about buying it. The source I found charges over $3/g for RO/DI!!! It is $0.50 for RO and $0.70 for DI. I got 10 gallons of each this time around. Perhaps I will be looking into an RO/DI unit sooner than I thought. In the meantime, I have to decide which water I should get - RO or DI.

Finally, I forgot if I mentioned - I am now at 55W of 50/50 power compact, and 2x30W of NO daylight. It will be quite a while before I can upgrade the lights, so I am wondering if I should replace one of the NOs with actinic. Unfortunately the fixture is all on or all off, so I can't stagger the daylight and actinic times. However, I could stagger the 50/50 PC and dual NO on/off times so that I have half-intensity 50/50 and then full 50/50 (or 50/50 and all daylight, like it is now). I still only have mushrooms and GSP, so light shouldn't be too much of an issue, but I would like to add some more coral soon.

[koffee]

This is odd - I see this only 2-3 days after installing the new sump:



Is that coraline or just discoloration? I've been lighting the fuge 24/7, so there is spill-over light in these chambers.

I got rid of the free Prizm skimmer and upgraded to a cheap Coralife skimmer. Hopefully this will be better. I also swapped out one of the NO bulbs for actinic, so my light is now 30W NO daylight, 30W NO actinic, and 55W PC 50/50. I think that should allow me to support a variety of "basic" corals. Keep in mind that a 40 breeder is only 16" deep, and my sand ranges from 2 to 5" deep, so the water is pretty shallow.

I added a fighting conch to the main tank. There's still nothing in the fuge.

At this point, my plan is to keep adding LR and CUC. It turns out we will probably be moving in Feb, so this tank will undergo a major change yet again. I might add some cheap frags if I come across them, but I will hold off on most coral and fish additions until after the move and things are stable again. The move will also allow me to fix some of the minor plumbing issues. I may upgrade the lights too, or that might wait until spring/summer. I'm going to stick with PC for this tank. My temps are already climbing, and I would rather save for RO/DI than a chiller.

I think I'm also going to keep the tuffa as the base rock - buried under the sand to support the LR - unless anyone can tell me why that is a bad idea.

p.s. The LR I bought off of Craigslist (as part of a 29G system) was officially free. I sold the stand, old 20G long sump, 29G tank, and various parts from my closet to someone with an Oscar. That money went right back into my reef - the skimmer, conch, and some more buffer.

p.p.s. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

[koffee]

Hi all. I haven’t been around in a long time. Life was turmoil for a while, and one of the victims was my reef. It didn’t crash, but that was pure luck.

Maintenance was really, really bad for a while. My salinity was fluctuating (usually too high), and nitrates were out of control. All I lost was a small open brain and some yellow polyps. My scooter died too, but that was before maintenance went downhill. I probably shouldn’t have had him to begin with since I never had much pod growth.

In the past couple of months, I’ve had time and a little bit of money to focus on my reef again. I did some huge WCs to bring the nitrates down, but I still struggle a lot to keep them around 20-30. I have only been able to bring them lower for a day or two. I keep my SG nice and stable (1.025). Temps stay at 80 +/- 1 degree. Ammonia and nitrites mostly stay at 0, though ammonia shot up recently. I can’t see anything major missing or dead, so I assume it is all the work I’ve done recently.

I’ve rearranged the rock a bunch of times over the past few weeks, being careful to not remove it from water for more than a moment or two. One rearrangement was due to my efforts to catch and remove a royal dottyback which was eating my bristle worms and nassarus snails. (I tried a fish trap, but only caught snails.) Most of the rearranging has been to improve appearance, but more importantly, to open up the rock for better flow. I lost track of how much rock I have. It is probably 40-50 pounds. Some of that is tuffa, but that is all burried in the sand to support the LR, plus one big hunk of tuffa in the fuge.

The tank, btw, is a 40G breeder with 38G sump/fuge. I also deepened the sand in my fuge by removing the top layer, adding another inch or two, and replacing the top. I have about 6-7 inches in what is roughly the size of a 15 tall.

In order to improve flow, I also took my MJ 900s off the 5 minute wavemaker, and have them always on. I also have an AC 201, which puts me at close to 600 GPH total flow (not counting the sump return), and creates lots of turbulence.

Still, I battle nitrates even though I feed so lightly I’m worried about the fish. I haven’t seen any noticeable growth with the ocellaris, for example. My makeup water comes in at 0. I think part of the problem is the sump design. I have it packed so tightly under the stand that I’m probably not doing that great a job of siphoning out the gunk that settles in the bottom and in the fuge. If I ever upgrade, my next sump will have easier access, or even in the room behind the tank; wouldn’t that be nice?

I use a Magnum canister with the micron cartridge for power vacs. I’m going to hook that up full time for a bit to see if that helps. I know that filters can become nitrate factories, but if I don’t pull out the gunk more frequently, obviously my whole system is a nitrate factory! I have two micron carts, and will get another one or two so I can clean, bleach, and dry them, rotating them out at least once or twice a week.

I have grape caulerpa in the fuge (chaeto is hard to find and damn expensive), and put the lights there back on 24/7 to hopefully avoid the problems with caulerpa. I also have a pouch of Purigen in the sump. It doesn’t seem like anything so far is helping, but then again if I didn’t have a DSB, caulerpa, etc., maybe my nitrates would be climbing to 80 or more instead of just 20.

I’m also struggling to keep the pH and alkalinity up. Calcium is low, but acceptable since I have softies. The pH is usually around 7.9-8.0, alkalinity around 2.5-3.5, and calcium around 375-400. I don’t test my magnesium. I can’t find a kit locally so I am going to order one on line. In the meantime, I buffer daily with Kent Superbuffer dkh, biweekly with Kent Coral-Vite, and every so often with Seachem Reef Complete. If/when I can bring everything to the proper levels and test/buffer for Mg, I want to try a Kalk drip.

Current livestock includes about a dozen or so nassarus (mostly in tank), a dozen or less small hermits (mostly in fuge), 3 turbo and 3 astrea (one each in fuge), 2 small conchs (one in fuge), 2 brown blotch snails (both in tank), a brittle star, 2 peppermint and 1 skunk cleaner shrimp. I also have a sea hare added a while back when my tank looked like a Chia-Reef. I’m thinking of getting him out; I’m not sure I want him crawling on the corals as much as he does. Fish are: 1 coral beauty (c. 2.5”), 2 ocellaris (c. 1” each), and 1 lawnmower blenny (c. 3”). Even with the high nitrates (and measurable but low phosphates), I don’t have an algae problem. In part, that is because of the grazers, but even the fuge stays relatively clean.

Corals are: various mushrooms, pulsating xenia, a small frag of about 5-6 zoanthids, and GSP. Nothing is taking off the way I’ve read, but everything seems to be happy: nice coloration, wide open when the lights are on, etc. The xenia does have some white tips, but I haven’t seen any noticeable decline on any of the other coral. Btw, I think my water has a lot to do with the shape of the xenia, but I have seen the sea hare sucking on the tips, which could be another reason to get him out.

Well, here are some current pics to close. First is the “showcase” coral in my tank (biggest, happiest), and then the tank itself. I actually managed to get fish in the shot. On of the ocellaris is out of view, but you even spot the blenny if you look closely.





p.s. The picture doesn't show it well, but the aquascaping has lots of caves and open areas, especially that section on the left which looks like one big rock or solid stack.

[tbittner]

I think everything looks great! Really nice aquascaping too. You have nice coraline growth too so your water parameters aren't that bad.

Welcome back!

[Emg]

Your mystery critter is a peanut worm....harmless according to all the info I've read about them....but I had 2 HF gobies and a small tiger pistol shrimp disappear from my tank..and I found one of those squatting in the last location of the gobies'/shrimp's lair.......I removed it.





BTW.....VERY nice tank you've got there ! OH....I have an over abundance of cheato.....want some ?

[koffee]

I haven't seen the worm in months... it could be hiding in the rock, but it probably died. I'd love chaeto! But I live in AK, so shipping anything can be pricey. Btw, it is snowing again.

The tank is more purple than the photo shows. A lot of that came from the used 29G I bought (as mentioned earlier in this journal), but there is definately new growth. The overflow and brand-new 40G were spotless when I started this thing. A couple of the rocks were bleach white - now they are dingy and have coraline. One has a lot of green algae too. I think it looks nice that way, and so far nothing has cleaned it off, plus it has not spread. That "tree" thing in the middle of the tank is a fake decoration. I have kept it all along just because it is 100% purple.

I just did a WC, and hooked up the magnum canister for full time duty. That also increases the flow in my tank even more. Oh, my calcium is around 435-450 today, which is great. The pH is still too low, and alkalinity is at the low end of where it should be. I'll order that Mg test kit later this week.

[Emg]

The worm is probably still in there. I had only seen mine show itself once. I found it again when I had to take the tank apart and move things around to get a fish out. They bury themselves right inside the rock.

[koffee]

I posted about the worm in early Nov 2007. Soon after that, I tore down the tank to move from 38G with 20G sump to the current configuration of 40G with 38G sump/fuge. Of course, most everything survived that process, then then hair algae bloom, then the cyano bloom, etc. So, I guess the worm could have survived too. It would be nice to see it, though... it was kind of cute.

Here's an example of change in the rock. The photo inset is from mid October. I had to adjust the contrast so the rock was more visible - it was so white. The main photo is the same rock today, albeit positioned differently.



And one more pic from today - it is only mushrooms and GSP, but I think it came out well.



I really want something other than mushrooms and GSP. The LFS has a nice fox. But I keep telling myself to improve the water first.

And thanks for the feedback and comments everyone!

[Craig Manoukian]

Nice work koffee!

[koffee]

Well, my params are a little better or just as bad this morning. Ammonia came down a bit, though it is still around 0.5. Trates are still up at 20-30. I've done all I could other than daily WCs, so I just have to be patient and cross my fingers. Hopefully, the mech filtration and regular cleaning of the media will pull out enough gunk to make a difference.

I was in chat last night, and Frankie suggested a sock. The way my sump is designed, I have really bad access to the in-flow. But I thought about it a bit, and it turns out my skimmer can hang off the side of the sump (with 1/8" to spare - luckily the cup slides off instead of lifts up) instead of inside, up front. All I had to do was rip off the side panel of the stand. It is an ugly stand, anyway, so that's no big deal. I'm never going to rebuild the stand for this system - if I'm going to put even more money and effort into a reef, I want to upgrade to a 75 or 90. (Well, maybe a 125 but I doubt that big.)

I don't have a sock, though, so I am still using the Magnum canister. I'm not even sure if I can find them local, so I might have to order on-line. I'm going to change out the canister micro tonight, so I'll see how dirty it is after 2 days.

Back to the params, my pH and alk are better this morning: about 8.0 and 3.5. I didn't check calc today, but it was way up (for me) yesterday. I don't have a huge demand for that, but I want to get everything right so that I can add something other than a softie once I'm in control of the trates.