Reds first sw tank - Page 2

Reddog170 · 11-13-2008, 11:08 PM

Well I am making progress. The algae is retreating. I cleaned a part of the glass and the algae did not return to what I cleaned. Cool huh, LOL I am headed to the frag fest the saturday and I feel like a kid waiting for christmas. Well my fis seam happy, I think. One only comes out of his(her?) rock only to eat then runs back to the rock. Dont know what is up there. The shrimp seams happy and the snails and hermits get around well. Catch up late, Shaun

Reddog170 · 11-14-2008, 06:13 PM

Well after much study I have found that I can build a RO ubit for around $25 or so. As for the Di I still cannot get a strait answer as to just what the advantages of it are. I am also building a phosfate remover, at least that is what I am calling it. I looked at on that an lfs had and it seemed pretty simple so I think I may build one to see if I can reduce my phosfates and silacates. He was trying so hard to sell that thing to me swearing that it removes 100% of the phosfates and silacates and is why the store tanks have no algae. Thought some algae was good? He was also thying to sell my a Morish Idol saying my tank would be perfect for him. Also thought they required something like 125 gallon min. ? Well one thing is clear, well 2, I have a lot to learn and a lfs is DEFINETLY just out to make money, or at least some of them.

yungreefer2410 · 11-14-2008, 11:07 PM

good luck with the DIY. i'm glad my lfs don't do that

BLAKEJOHN · 11-15-2008, 03:06 AM

when Making you PO4 reactor be sure to have an upward flow through the media. This will ensure efficient use of the media. Also use a low flow pump somethiing like 70-80 gph or a large pump with a ball valve to adjust flow. You can get a Two LiL Fishies Phosphate Reactor with media and a pump in one kit for 69.99

islandcreation · 11-15-2008, 03:21 AM

Reddog170,

Tagging along on your thread. Nice start so far. I cn tell you what I have learnt over the years of reefing. Be patient. I saw you had an ammonia spike, Usually I say wait for atleast a month and a half for rocks to cycle. And thats cooking the rocks in a rubber maid with 50% water changes weekly with no light. Just a skimmer and powerheads for current. Take advantage of the horrible economy we are in. People are selling off items dirt cheap so DIY aren't always the way to go in the long run. I saw phosban reactors go for $15-$20 on my local CL or reefclub.

For your filtration, I see you don't have an overflow. I'd suggest a HO refugium as a natural sources for filtration, carbon in one chamber and cheato/natural algae in the other. Spend money once and get something thats going to last you especially if you plan on upgrading in the future to a bigger tank.

JOSEPHLB · 11-15-2008, 10:18 AM

The advantages of DI added to your RO system are explained as follows:

An RO membrane for the most part does not reject 100% of the bad stuff.. The good RO membranes might get you 95-97% rejection.. So your output RO water will still possibly be above 0 TDS.. this really depends on how bad your tap water really is.
The DI portion finishes it off, for near perfect 0 TDS water.

Reddog170 · 11-15-2008, 10:04 PM

Thanks for the info. I have got the amm under control. I found out that my test went south. The new test showed 0 this morning and I took some water in and had it tested at my lfs on my way to the frag fest and it tested at 0 for them to. I have an overflow coming and a sump that is waiting for it. I also did a very bad thing today. I LOVE the hammer corals well I found a large frag of one at the fest today and allowed myself to be talked into getting it for $15. I also talked to Anothony Califo and followed his instructions( or will) on some thing to do to take care of this coral. I was not going to put anything else in my tank for a while bu I cannot find this coral anywere around here. I know this does not justify it really but well I can do nothing but take care of it and enjoy it at this point.

Reddog170 · 11-16-2008, 10:53 AM

Well I have added a timer to my lights, excellent addition. I have set it to what the paper say the sunrise and sunset times are. I also cleaned all my glass and continue work on gettng rid of the ugly brown algae. I am making progress as it does not seam to return to the areas that I clean. I am starting to experiment with diffrent foods for my coral banded shrimp. I got a recipie from someone at the frag fest for food for the inverts. They do seam to like the frozen shrimp, dont think my wife will ever use the blender again. I also picked up some moonlights. Small problem, they are not waterproof and I do not have enough room to squeeze them betweem my lights. I will get it figured out.
The hammer coral I picked up looks great this morning. After the lights had been on for about an hour or so it had "fluffed" out well. I will be working on finishing up things so that as soon as I get the new overflow I will be able to get it running. The sump I am getting setup has a large area for a refugium. I want to get some macro growing in it but am not sure of how to do the light for it. If anyone can help here that would be great. I have some standard single tube freshwater tank lights that I can use. How much light do I need for macro? I am also thinking of getting a diffrent skimmer. Mine is working ok but it uses suction cups to hold it in place and when you clean it out or do anything with it it just slides out of wack then the cup fills with water and walla no more skimming.

BLAKEJOHN · 11-16-2008, 11:57 AM

refugium lights: A 6500k flood and a clamp on reflector fro the hardware store. Cheap, easy and effective.

Reddog170 · 11-16-2008, 09:45 PM

Thank you

Reddog170 · 11-18-2008, 11:48 PM

Well everything is looking good with my sump setup. I am building a stand in the basement for it. Running the plumbing through the floor and looking forward to getting the overflow this week. The sump was going to be a 20 that I had but then I found a 55g sump that another reefer was not using anymore. He also gave me all his live sand and macro that was in it.I found out that my father in law has a ro/di system that he uses for drinking water. He says I am welcome to get all the water I need. I was also given a brittle star. He did not want to come out of hiding or eat for the firstr few days but tonight I watched him come out and eat some chopped up shrimp meat. Looking forward to getting some more pics and posting them to see what you think.

yungreefer2410 · 11-19-2008, 06:14 PM

wow lucky dog (no pun intended)!!! good luck with the sump. it will def help on your aglae prob

Reddog170 · 11-20-2008, 10:08 PM

Got my overflow box today!! Got it setup and spent an hour trying diffrent ways to get it started. Finally got it going and now it has been running about six hours. Within sixx hours though my water is clearer than it has been so far. I am using my 20g sump right now until I finish the stand and plumbing for the 55g sump. Will get some more pics up monday.

Reddog170 · 11-21-2008, 11:15 PM

I LOVE the sump. I wish I had went with a sump from the very start. My skimmer is pulling more stuff out, my fish look and act happier and without all the stuff in the tank I can see more of what is going on in there. I mean no skimmer, heater, HOB filter in the display. I did not know how much space all that took up. Looking good now. I also found out that one of my damsels is not a damsel it is a chromis. I am still learning all theese diffrent fish and was asured that it was a damsel. Ok I feel like an idiot over that. Live and learn, right? Hopefully will get more pics up soon.

Reddog170 · 11-23-2008, 12:04 AM

Well I have no idea what to do now. My tank is cloudy with a bazillion micro bubbles. My ammonia is up to 1.2 again and everything I try just works for a day or two then back to this. I am pulling my hair out with all of this. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot trust my LFS any farther than I can throw it. I do not like these problems but I know I will overcome them, even if it takes me getting a bunch of help. I tried to id the source of the ammonia but came up with nothing. The only thing I can find that might cause it is that all the farmers around are spraying anhydrous ammonia on the fields right now and the entire town stinks of it. My thought is that mabey it is being sucked in by my skimmer. I have already pulled every rock and searched them for anything that may have died in them, nothing. I added some " ammonia out" that the lfs had and no response whatsoever. I did a 80% water change, twice, and only got it down for a couple days. Now my skimmer is also pulling out a white sticky goo along with the green slime. Is this calcium? This is where I start to think , man what did I get into? Any ideas or help would be GREATLY appreciated. I found a diffrent LFS and will head to talk to him on monday or tuesday, called him today and he said he wants a water sample before he will head me in any direction.
Starting to think I need to just restart. Just getting a little stressed out, work, baby, wife.
I do LOVE my reef. I will not quit just need to get things under control.

11-13-2008, 11:08 PM	#16 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Well I am making progress. The algae is retreating. I cleaned a part of the glass and the algae did not return to what I cleaned. Cool huh, LOL I am headed to the frag fest the saturday and I feel like a kid waiting for christmas. Well my fis seam happy, I think. One only comes out of his(her?) rock only to eat then runs back to the rock. Dont know what is up there. The shrimp seams happy and the snails and hermits get around well. Catch up late, Shaun

11-14-2008, 06:13 PM	#17 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Well after much study I have found that I can build a RO ubit for around $25 or so. As for the Di I still cannot get a strait answer as to just what the advantages of it are. I am also building a phosfate remover, at least that is what I am calling it. I looked at on that an lfs had and it seemed pretty simple so I think I may build one to see if I can reduce my phosfates and silacates. He was trying so hard to sell that thing to me swearing that it removes 100% of the phosfates and silacates and is why the store tanks have no algae. Thought some algae was good? He was also thying to sell my a Morish Idol saying my tank would be perfect for him. Also thought they required something like 125 gallon min. ? Well one thing is clear, well 2, I have a lot to learn and a lfs is DEFINETLY just out to make money, or at least some of them.

11-15-2008, 03:06 AM	#19 (permalink)
BLAKEJOHN Elegance coral Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: KINGSTON, I.L. Posts: 1,073 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Reds first sw tank when Making you PO4 reactor be sure to have an upward flow through the media. This will ensure efficient use of the media. Also use a low flow pump somethiing like 70-80 gph or a large pump with a ball valve to adjust flow. You can get a Two LiL Fishies Phosphate Reactor with media and a pump in one kit for 69.99 __________________ 110 gallon acrylic 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Blue Tang, 2 Eng Gobies, 1 Six Line Wrasse, 1 Tomato Clown, 1 Lion fish RBTA, Longspine Urchin, Approx. 200 snails Red Monti, Purple Rim Monti, Leathers, Elegence, Yellow Polyps, various Zoa's, FrogSpawn, Ricordias, Greenbirdsnest, Pink Milli, Blue Milli, Bonzai, unknown Acropora's, Purple Digi, GSP, Bubble Coral, Staghorn, Slimer

11-15-2008, 03:21 AM	#20 (permalink)
islandcreation Bryozoan Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Santa Rosa CA Posts: 58 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Reddog170, Tagging along on your thread. Nice start so far. I cn tell you what I have learnt over the years of reefing. Be patient. I saw you had an ammonia spike, Usually I say wait for atleast a month and a half for rocks to cycle. And thats cooking the rocks in a rubber maid with 50% water changes weekly with no light. Just a skimmer and powerheads for current. Take advantage of the horrible economy we are in. People are selling off items dirt cheap so DIY aren't always the way to go in the long run. I saw phosban reactors go for $15-$20 on my local CL or reefclub. For your filtration, I see you don't have an overflow. I'd suggest a HO refugium as a natural sources for filtration, carbon in one chamber and cheato/natural algae in the other. Spend money once and get something thats going to last you especially if you plan on upgrading in the future to a bigger tank.

11-15-2008, 10:18 AM	#21 (permalink)
JOSEPHLB Star Polyps Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Hanover, PA Posts: 169 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Reds first sw tank The advantages of DI added to your RO system are explained as follows: An RO membrane for the most part does not reject 100% of the bad stuff.. The good RO membranes might get you 95-97% rejection.. So your output RO water will still possibly be above 0 TDS.. this really depends on how bad your tap water really is. The DI portion finishes it off, for near perfect 0 TDS water.

11-15-2008, 10:04 PM	#22 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Thanks for the info. I have got the amm under control. I found out that my test went south. The new test showed 0 this morning and I took some water in and had it tested at my lfs on my way to the frag fest and it tested at 0 for them to. I have an overflow coming and a sump that is waiting for it. I also did a very bad thing today. I LOVE the hammer corals well I found a large frag of one at the fest today and allowed myself to be talked into getting it for $15. I also talked to Anothony Califo and followed his instructions( or will) on some thing to do to take care of this coral. I was not going to put anything else in my tank for a while bu I cannot find this coral anywere around here. I know this does not justify it really but well I can do nothing but take care of it and enjoy it at this point.

11-16-2008, 10:53 AM	#23 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Well I have added a timer to my lights, excellent addition. I have set it to what the paper say the sunrise and sunset times are. I also cleaned all my glass and continue work on gettng rid of the ugly brown algae. I am making progress as it does not seam to return to the areas that I clean. I am starting to experiment with diffrent foods for my coral banded shrimp. I got a recipie from someone at the frag fest for food for the inverts. They do seam to like the frozen shrimp, dont think my wife will ever use the blender again. I also picked up some moonlights. Small problem, they are not waterproof and I do not have enough room to squeeze them betweem my lights. I will get it figured out. The hammer coral I picked up looks great this morning. After the lights had been on for about an hour or so it had "fluffed" out well. I will be working on finishing up things so that as soon as I get the new overflow I will be able to get it running. The sump I am getting setup has a large area for a refugium. I want to get some macro growing in it but am not sure of how to do the light for it. If anyone can help here that would be great. I have some standard single tube freshwater tank lights that I can use. How much light do I need for macro? I am also thinking of getting a diffrent skimmer. Mine is working ok but it uses suction cups to hold it in place and when you clean it out or do anything with it it just slides out of wack then the cup fills with water and walla no more skimming.

11-16-2008, 11:57 AM	#24 (permalink)
BLAKEJOHN Elegance coral Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: KINGSTON, I.L. Posts: 1,073 View Gallery Karma Komment	Re: Reds first sw tank refugium lights: A 6500k flood and a clamp on reflector fro the hardware store. Cheap, easy and effective. __________________ 110 gallon acrylic 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Blue Tang, 2 Eng Gobies, 1 Six Line Wrasse, 1 Tomato Clown, 1 Lion fish RBTA, Longspine Urchin, Approx. 200 snails Red Monti, Purple Rim Monti, Leathers, Elegence, Yellow Polyps, various Zoa's, FrogSpawn, Ricordias, Greenbirdsnest, Pink Milli, Blue Milli, Bonzai, unknown Acropora's, Purple Digi, GSP, Bubble Coral, Staghorn, Slimer

11-16-2008, 09:45 PM	#25 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Thank you

11-18-2008, 11:48 PM	#26 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Well everything is looking good with my sump setup. I am building a stand in the basement for it. Running the plumbing through the floor and looking forward to getting the overflow this week. The sump was going to be a 20 that I had but then I found a 55g sump that another reefer was not using anymore. He also gave me all his live sand and macro that was in it.I found out that my father in law has a ro/di system that he uses for drinking water. He says I am welcome to get all the water I need. I was also given a brittle star. He did not want to come out of hiding or eat for the firstr few days but tonight I watched him come out and eat some chopped up shrimp meat. Looking forward to getting some more pics and posting them to see what you think.

11-20-2008, 10:08 PM	#28 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Got my overflow box today!! Got it setup and spent an hour trying diffrent ways to get it started. Finally got it going and now it has been running about six hours. Within sixx hours though my water is clearer than it has been so far. I am using my 20g sump right now until I finish the stand and plumbing for the 55g sump. Will get some more pics up monday.

11-21-2008, 11:15 PM	#29 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank I LOVE the sump. I wish I had went with a sump from the very start. My skimmer is pulling more stuff out, my fish look and act happier and without all the stuff in the tank I can see more of what is going on in there. I mean no skimmer, heater, HOB filter in the display. I did not know how much space all that took up. Looking good now. I also found out that one of my damsels is not a damsel it is a chromis. I am still learning all theese diffrent fish and was asured that it was a damsel. Ok I feel like an idiot over that. Live and learn, right? Hopefully will get more pics up soon.

11-23-2008, 12:04 AM	#30 (permalink)
Reddog170 Achilles Tang Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Winfield, IA Posts: 877 View Gallery Karma Komment Add yours!	Re: Reds first sw tank Well I have no idea what to do now. My tank is cloudy with a bazillion micro bubbles. My ammonia is up to 1.2 again and everything I try just works for a day or two then back to this. I am pulling my hair out with all of this. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot trust my LFS any farther than I can throw it. I do not like these problems but I know I will overcome them, even if it takes me getting a bunch of help. I tried to id the source of the ammonia but came up with nothing. The only thing I can find that might cause it is that all the farmers around are spraying anhydrous ammonia on the fields right now and the entire town stinks of it. My thought is that mabey it is being sucked in by my skimmer. I have already pulled every rock and searched them for anything that may have died in them, nothing. I added some " ammonia out" that the lfs had and no response whatsoever. I did a 80% water change, twice, and only got it down for a couple days. Now my skimmer is also pulling out a white sticky goo along with the green slime. Is this calcium? This is where I start to think , man what did I get into? Any ideas or help would be GREATLY appreciated. I found a diffrent LFS and will head to talk to him on monday or tuesday, called him today and he said he wants a water sample before he will head me in any direction. Starting to think I need to just restart. Just getting a little stressed out, work, baby, wife. I do LOVE my reef. I will not quit just need to get things under control.

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