New Reef Log - With ominous beginnings! - Page 2

scowiii · #26 05/28/2007, 11:00 PM

remember your LS and LR will displace water so you really dont want to top it off yet..

NanoGurl · #27 05/28/2007, 11:27 PM

Looks great! Thanks for taking some photos of the lights working. I really like the way it looks and am excited to see your scaping!

Leave your PH's running. A tip to get the sand storm out faster is to use a regular old hang-on power filter if you have one. Just run it with the filter pad, and remove every couple of hours to rinse. It will clear up *much* faster doing this.

PatMayo · #28 05/28/2007, 11:36 PM

Time will clear up the sandstorm. In the future the best way to do it is to put the sand in first. Then lay a dinner plate on the sand and add the water ontop of the dinner plate. No sand storm.

Is there a particular reason you are setting the live rock on the piping? Those will actually displace even more water and allow for much less total volume. Coupled with the live rock you total volume of water will be reduced quite a bit. (Less water means larger and more severe water quality swings.)

Regards,

Pat

WinnipegDragon · #29 05/29/2007, 07:17 AM

Just using the PVC for support and stability. I'm looking at a decent sand bed depth (2" plus) so I wanted to make sure I wasn't burying half the rock. Besides, the PVC won't displace much water.

WinnipegDragon · #30 05/29/2007, 09:51 AM

The two return pumps/powerheads are a bit annoying. They are friction fit only, basically the return nozzles fit through a hole in the back of the tank and then you stick on the powerhead. That's it, no other mounting equipment.

As such, they can come loose with vibration, and they seem to do that somewhat regularly. I'm sure all the floating sediment from the sand is encouraging this, but it's annoying. I might have to come up with another brace or something to help keep them in place.

Outside that, the sandstorm is clearing, and I have a 5g batch of SW in the basement just waiting for the LR to show up for cleaning.

coyoteseven · #31 05/29/2007, 09:56 AM

Wrap a couple of turns of teflon tape around the pipe before inserting it into the fitting. IME, It will help snug up the connection and seal any small defects to prevent leaks.

HTH

Reefmack · #32 05/29/2007, 10:02 AM

Haven't had any problems with my RSM powerheads coming loose or vibrating. I just hand tightened mine months ago and other than the times I've wanted to remove them I've had no problem. Maybe you just haven't tightened them enough, but don't overdo it - you don't want to crack the glass in back. You could try the teflon tape - it wouldn't hurt.

WinnipegDragon · #33 05/29/2007, 10:25 AM

Ah, good call on the teflon tape. I'll give that a shot tonight!

OrangeKoi · #34 05/29/2007, 01:21 PM

What kind of live rock are you getting?

WinnipegDragon · #35 05/29/2007, 01:38 PM

35 pounds of Tonga Deepwater and 10 pounds of Vanuatu.

About 5-10 pounds of the Tonga will be made into rubble for the filtration chamber and the rest will be aquascaped.

Here is a dumb question, do you glue your rocks together, or just rest them stably on top of each other? I know you can use crazyglue gel/loctite for coral mounting, should I do the same here?

Reefmack · #36 05/29/2007, 02:25 PM

I'd use something like aquamend rather than Superglue, but keep in mind that if you attach them all to each other you can't rearrange anything. Plus, if you ever need to remove the LR that would be pretty difficult with all 40-45 lbs. attached in one big hunk. Also, with the bigger hunks of rock try to use both hands - that LR can be pretty slippery. I tried to put one big piece of LR in mine using one hand, and it slipped out and I had a near miss in possibly cracking the glass. As it was it fell on the outside and put a little tiny nick in the top black rim and a tiny almost imperceptible scratch about 1/8 inch on the front glass. Not really noticeable, except by me!

But the aquamend type putty is good if there are a couple small rocks you want to attach to each other for stability or effect. Superglue is good for corals, but IMO not for attaching hunks of LR to LR. Even with corals I use the aquamend - I mix a small piece of the aquamend putty, put some superglue gel on the coral base, then the aquamend, then another blob of Superglue & then into the tank quickly & press it where you want. The aquamend will harden in 5-10 minutes.

WinnipegDragon · #37 05/29/2007, 02:27 PM

OKay, I'll try and keep it all unattached then. I just know that something like a fighting conch can really ruin your day if it starts shifting live rock...

Reefmack · #38 05/29/2007, 02:34 PM

Then don't get a conch LOL!

WinnipegDragon · #39 05/29/2007, 02:39 PM

Or any sand-sifter... That's the other reason I got those PVC fittings put together.

WinnipegDragon · #40 05/29/2007, 08:52 PM

Evening update. The tank is looking quite a bit clearer, and regular squeezing of the filter floss in the overflow seems to be helping quite a bit.

Did a round of checks on the parameters, and it all looks good. Salinity 1.024 but the stuff I have premixed for cleaning the live rock is about 1.026 so it should balance out nicely. Still waiting for my ALK test to get here, but pH is 8.2 and the Calcium is about 380ppm. That should shore up with the aragonite dissolving during the rock curing.

I've got a mini sea-water lab cooking in the basement as I mentioned. I have one 5g tub ready to go and I'll make another before I go to pick up the LR at the airport on Thursday. That should be plenty to get the LR submerged and enough left over to clean.

I bought some chisels today to make LR rubble as well. There shouldn't be much more to update until the LR lands!

sabbath · #41 05/29/2007, 09:09 PM

Firefish
Flame Angel
Coral Beauty
Royal Gramma
Ocellaris Clown
Clown Goby

The tank looks nice. I would recommend you do a little reading on those fish you said you where looking into though. Angels can be trouble in a reef and read up on the Mandarin too. They need lots of pods that you will not easily supply in that set up...

WinnipegDragon · #42 05/29/2007, 09:21 PM

We weren't thinking one of each, it's only 34g so that would be a bit overloaded

Both the Flame Angel and Coral Beauty are outside chances. I know that they 'can' be successfully kept in a reef tank, but we would only keep one if it was safe around our selected corals.

The Mandarin would only be purchased if I could get a successful 'pod farm going, or if we could buy a local raised/weaned one that would eat pellet/frozen food.

We are trying to be careful and smart about our choices

sabbath · #43 05/29/2007, 09:36 PM

fish 511 · #44 05/30/2007, 12:04 AM

Tank is looking good! I like the aquascape idea. I did something similar to that in my biocube but moved the "v" back to make it look like a valley.

About how much turnover to those two powerheads put out? You may want to add one in the back right for less dead spots. Everything is looking good, keep it up!!!

WinnipegDragon · #45 05/30/2007, 08:57 AM

The two pumps are both pushing about 175gph, so it gets a nice even 10x water turnover. The plus side is that the rounded glass corners really seem to make that current 'swirl' along the front edge and it does seem to stir up the back area quite a bit. How it reacts with rock in the tank, we'll have to see.

If I have to add another powerhead, I think I would put it right below the other two, jetting straight across the back of the tank, but I would really prefer not to. One big advantage of this style of tank is the clean look, so I hope I won't have to mess that up.

Oh, one more thing. The powerheads are fine now. No more rattling, or disconnects. I think there must have been some air bubbles in the heads or something...

Reefmack · #46 05/30/2007, 09:20 AM

You might want to think about putting a Hydor Flo on one of the powerheads (rightmost one seems best). I got the idea from another RSM owner & I really like it. It's only about $10 from Foster & Smith & other online outfits. It uses the flow itself to mechanically rotate the head 360 degrees. It also spreads out the flow wider, which has helped to get my flow from one of the powerheads more evenly distributed, without blasting at my frogspawn & torch corals. I have mine directed so that it creates a bit of wave action in the tank, and also increases the surface turbulence when it rotates to the top. Best $10 I ever spent on reef equipment so far. I've thought about a mag mount Koralia for the right side but haven't really seen a big need for it.

WinnipegDragon · #47 05/30/2007, 10:30 AM

Both good ideas! My live rock hasn't shipped yet, and the store I am ordering from has Hydor products.

Looks like I am going to add the flow director and a 400gph Koralia to my order

WinnipegDragon · #48 05/30/2007, 10:53 AM

Actually.... Hmm... 400gph when the display is basically 26g. Is that too much considering the 2x175gph already in the tank?

Does anyone know if you can adjust the speed on the Koralia powerheads?

Reefmack · #49 05/30/2007, 11:21 AM

Not sure what to tell you on the Koralia. I don't think they're adjustable. I get good flow in my RSM. I guess a lot depends on how your rock ends up being placed, and if you get flow all around it. My top rocks are braced against the back wall. I can't really easily clean the glass behind the rock, but except for the top rock pieces touching the glass, the space back there is open and I do get flow through that area behind my rock. Some corals need moderate or even low flow so that's a factor too. That's why I haven't opted for a Koralia yet - in my case it may be too much current for soft corals like the Frogspawn and Torch that I have. I'd suggest waiting on the additional powerhead till you get it all set up, and decide what you'll add. You can always add another PH later on if needed. I really like the VorTech pump - adjustable from 100 - 3,000 gph, and the mag mounted motor is on the outside of the tank, powering the head magnetically through the glass (less water heating) Great idea, but no way I'm dishing out $345 for one!

Keep in mind that while the turnover is about 10x, that front compartment is only 29 g, so you really have a flow comparable to 12x in the tank compartment itself.

WinnipegDragon · #50 05/30/2007, 11:25 AM

I've done a little more reading and it seems that the Koralia has a really wide flow, so even at 400gph it's not very direct. I'll add one to the order anyhow, they are cheap, and if it's too much, I'll remove it.

I'll just have to decide where to attach the magnetic mount. There will certainly be room in the overflow chamber, and possibly in the power centre as well, so I should be able to messa round with the flow quite a bit.