New tank check in.

[BigJPDC]

OK, pics will go up tonight hopefully of the brown mess I have in my nice tank. Changing the photoperiod is a good idea, you can clearly see that the algae is thriving where the T5's are blasting it.

Are you sure it's OK to aquascape right over rock that is covered in algae? That's not going to create a trap for bad stuff, is it?

I described the sizes and shapes of rocks I wanted, and the good guys at aquariumonline hooked me up, and it looks like the order is for 20 more pounds due tomorrow. That's probably the best customer service I've seen in this hobby, btw.

Uh oh - more bubble trouble? The bubbles are coming right out of the algae, I figured is was CO2 since my params are still zeros. That salinity will work it's way up, I think I'm at 1.023 now and everything I read says to be between 1.020 and 1.025.

My first thought is to leverage a local LFS for the cleanup crew, and I doubt I'll make it through Sunday if that morning my parameters are still good.

jp

[BigJPDC]

Two mods are now on tap, after the stuff I still haven't done yet.

I want to move my DJ power panel to the back of the stand. I am just too nervous about those connections being so close to any splashing or salt creep, and it will give me more room. If those red switch lights look bad out in the open I'll paint them or something.

The skimmer is the source of all my microbubbles and I hate it. It has these cheesy foam rings that go around the outlet pipe and they really do nothing. I am really tempted to bag it and buy a CSS65 that I know would fit better in the sump. One thing I can try first is the gate valve mod, which would allow me to redirect the outlet water in a way to reduce the bubbles. The next tank will have a recirc skimmer, I'm convinced that is a good way to go.

jp

[Liquid Hobby]

At first my CSS 125 spewed tons of bubbles. Now it seems to be contained within the skimmer itself. I also dialed my return flow WAY back and that reduced the micro bubbles in the display. Once things are rolling, I'll put some cheato in the fuge section which I would think will also reduce the bubbles passing by.

I'm going to dramatically downgrade my return pump. the Mag 7 is just too much, even through a SCWD and 5' of head. I'm hoping a smaller pump will also create less heat.

If you get a new skimmer go bigger than the CSS 65, bigger is better with skimmers, as long as it fits! I saw the 125 for $114 at Dr. Fosters & Smith.

I will go LFS for the clean up crew. When you factor in shipping and time, the savings are not there online, which is why all the online prices 'seem' lower.

[newreefbishop]

BIGJ, if you want to be thorough, take the old rock out give it a quick scrub and put it back, the key is not to kill the stuff including algae on the rock yourself and produce a massive spike....when the new rock comes in and goes over the old rock the algae with slowly die off, and bacteria will keep up with the slow dieoff, so no spike should happen. The CSS65 will be a great skimmer as the foor print is pretty small, but depending on what you want you could get the 125, I personally hve the 65 and it works great and pulls everything out of my water, and I have no bubbles in display unless Im tinkering with stuff in the bottom.

LH, your right chaeto will also trap bubbles that escape the skimmer. As far as the pump issue, I preach Quiet One 3000 or Ehiem Pumps....high output and pretty low wattage. There is some debate as far as overskimming, because skimming actually pulls other things apart from waste out of the water also....like needed trace elements. Its a matter of balancing your stock and proper husbandry....anyway enough rambling.....on to the next thread....

[newreefbishop]

Oh one last thing I also agree to get cleanup crew from LFS, but in some situations, the only way you can get certain species, is online...for examply I live in south florida, sorrounded by roughly 20-25 LFS's of good caliber, and yet I can only find certain snails online...

[BigJPDC]

Got ya. When I get that DJ moved I'll be able to slide my entire sump over some and hopefully can manuver the skimmer to minimize the bubbles. It might also be submerged too much, so there is some tweaking to do.

The Eheim pump will be here on Friday, and I have high hopes for it.

After a lot of reading here on RC, I am committed to only cerith and nasserwhatever snails, plus a handful of hermits on your recommentation nrb. Cirolanidhunter has some good info on the whole snail thing in one of his threads. I'll try the hermits and see how it goes, I think they get a bad wrap for always being at the scene of the crime.

I am hoping that the LR pieces with all the algae on them can remain at the top of the tower that is ultimately constructed. That should be fun tomorrow, especially since the epoxy I ordered won't be here in time. I'll give them a good dunk to wash off sand and in the tank they go.

jp

[newreefbishop]

The only hermits I recommend at drawf zebras, blue legged, and red legged, or red hermits.

[BigJPDC]

are there some you would recommend against getting?

[BigJPDC]

Well, here's what I have to look at, after eleven months of research, patience and construction, and over $3,000 invested.



It is gold\brown, hairy and bubbling and disgusting.

jp

[newreefbishop]

AHHHHH BROWN HAIR ALGAE.......

yummy....lol your clean up crew should go through that quite quickly, snail, crabs....hebivores basically... AS far as what I recommend not getting just dont get any true crabs, the drawf hermits will do, and only get like 15 and get extra shells, they will only grow as big as the shells that are available...

That algae is feeding of excess nutrients in the tank...you could take them out the ones most covered and give a quick scub in a bucket of salt water then wash it of in another bucket of salt water, this will rid you of most, and let your crew do the rest.

[MR PALM BEACH]

put some mexican turbos on that rock and your algea problem will be gone in no time.

[BigJPDC]

Updates:

Added 20lbs more LR yesterday and the tank is filled out nicely now. A day later and the water is clearer than it ever has been and we should have crabs and snails on Sunday.

Params:

sg - 1.023
Ammonia, nitrate, phosphate - 0. Where is this cycle I keep reading about?

dkh - 9.5
calc - 455

Looks like adding Kent liquid calc and dkh buffer are raising those up. I plan on keeping up with that and am keeping a log now. It's fun trying to figure out how much to add, since the directions say to use x number of capfuls for 50 gals. 65 in the tank, minus LR displacement plus about 12 in the sump minus displacement for equipment . . . I tend to just fall back on the same way I measure shots of tequilla in the margaritas I make . . . and that got me through college.

It's been warmer here in VA lately, and I noticed the tank temp up over 83, so I have my lights off until I can get some kind of fan system in place.

The eheim 1260 came in today, so it's time to figure out how to plumb it. 16/22 lmao. Wow is that thing a brick, but if it's quiet then it's all worth it.

I fixed the bulkhead leak, it was scary for a moment when water was raining down in the stand, but after two days and no visible leak or salt creep I think I'm in good shape.

I basted a bunch of the hair algea and the skimmer woke up:



The bad news is that since I don't really know what water level I should have I tried adjusting the sliding riser bar on the Octo for the first time ever and in doing so found out that the o-ring was a p-o-s when it snapped. So that needs to be replaced to hold up until I can get the gate valve mod done. Another metric nightmare.

To do are figuring out how and where I'll acclimate the snails\crabs and wondering if it would be worht it to actually epoxy the rocks together.

jp

[newreefbishop]

Well the rock situation depends on you, if the rocks are fairly secure, and the towers arent too high, there is no need in my opinion. Personally i didnt epoxy mine ad I move mine alot, and considering I am still stocking coral, and making frequent changes, for me at least its a bad idea.

As far as the crabs and snalls, do a 45 min acclimation. (did I spell that right) take the extra time. You can do a slow drip with some flexibles hose, or you can leave em in the bag, and add 1/4 cup every 15 min for 45 min.....toss the old water in the bag.....and have some extra mixed water on hand to replace what you tossed.

For the hose...try 3/4 of an inch or 1 inch i believe that will work, Im not sure, I really dont remember and too lazy to go downstairs to check....

Anyway keep me posted. I will be working on my auto top off this weekend as well as some more rock and small inverts...

[Liquid Hobby]

BigJ, you measured tequilla into your drinks? I just added tequilla until there was too much! For that matter, why ruin perfectly good tequilla with mixer!

So, no real cycle for you huh? Not so for me. I just did a major rock scrubbing and another water change. I found 2 very dead snails... messy, smelly globs of goo.

Nice foam from that skimmer! When/if I upgrade to a larger tank, I'll make the leap to a premium skimmer.

I'm with bishop on the epoxy. It's just to soon. What if you get some great coral and you want to move things around?

Looking forward to some pix.

[newreefbishop]

LH, the snails, well they come and go...lol I cant count how many have died in mine I have an extensive cleanup crew, with peppermint shrimp and cleaner shrimp, and lots of bristle worms so things never really get out of hand. I jus tknow that every two months or so I add 5-10 snails and 5-10 hermits... anyway BigJ...hurry up with the pics

[BigJPDC]

LOL - you guys rock. Pics should be coming tonight, the weekend was all about the cleanup crews. Computing didn't make it up on the list of priorities, weird how it vauts over work to the front during the week, but then behind the fish tank on the weekend. =)

Saturday I went to the LFS and bought him out of scarlets and ceriths - 10 and 3 respectively. What a bust. The hermits all sat together and picked at the sand in front of them, or else just slept. The three ceriths immediately climbed up about 2/3 of the glass and slept there too. I also picked up a fan for the canopy, which set my back $38. I have it ziptied onto a cable mgt thingy that is clamped to the back of the tank. Of course it was cold and crappy in VA this weekend and the temp stayed right at 79.5.

Sunday I went to another LFS, and got hooked up with a lot of good info. Went home with 11 nassarius which immediately buried themselves in the sand up to their snouts and went to sleep.

Then I put the ten golfball sized Mexican Turbos on and around the rockwork. Wow, I would be surprised if there was any algae anywhere near Mexico. In only a matter of hours the rocks looked like they had been shaved. They've also worked their way around the rim of the tank, cleaning where the mag float wouldn't reach.

The skimmer is rocking as well now, I have about 1/2" of brown water I'll need to dump out. The Ehiem seems to take 3/4" fittings, so that shoudl be ready to drop in the sump soon.

I would call it a successful weekend - should I be worried about what those turbos are going to eat when they are done mowing all the grass I had on the rocks?

jp

[Liquid Hobby]

BigJ: How did you acclimate you clean up crew?

[BigJPDC]

Hey LH - since I was only about 1/2 hour drive from both LFS's, I did it like this.

Bags in sump for temp acclimation, 15-30 mins
Cut open bags, roll down and clip to the sump, add 1 dixie cup (4oz?) sump water to bag.
wait 10-20 mins, add another cup.
wait 10-20 mins, dump out about 2/3 of the water, add another cup.
wait 10-20 mins, add another cup.
wait 10-20 mins, pour contents into a bucket, through a net to catch the guys.
put the net with the guys straight into the tank and swish it around until they fall out. The turbos were so big that I just placed them by hand. Then discard the water and watch to make sure they were all moving.

It was pretty easy to be patient because I was watching football in another room at the same time. I'll know more about how they adjust over time.

It's pretty cool to finally have something alive and moving around in the tank - what a long journey.

jp

[newreefbishop]

You said you where still having micro bubble issues, you could try a couple things...

reduce water level in the sump so the water is slighty lower than baffles, place 90 degree bend in plumbing giving the bubbles time to "pop", or change the skimmer to a CSS65 or 125 http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113771

YOu can actually hang the skimmer on the back of the sump and have the return and pump in the sump that will give bubbles more distance and will actually get rid of em just because that skimmer doesnt allow alot of bubbles to escape

Or you can just build me a nice canopy (BLACK OF COURSE) and I will come do you plumbing for you....lol

[newreefbishop]

Oh and Ill bring the TQ

[BigJPDC]

If it wasn't for the tq, I don't know what I'd do.

It's all a big mess; I think I have the following going against me:

- I am too proud to stop using the $28 piece of ribbed flex hose, which is so long that I have to wrap it around the skimmer before entering the overflow section of the sump.
- I think my baffles are too close together in height. I wish I could extend the one touching the return section a couple of inches.
- My sump is too small, with only has two sections I barely have room for either a skimmer or return. Adding a fuge is laughable
- My skimmer is too big, and doesn't really fit in the skimmer section of my sump. The water exits right on top of the first baffle. Regardless, and with what I think is a light bio-load, that thing is cranking out the foam and gunk.

I need to divide and conquer here, the skimmer should be easy to fix with a gate valve mod, and the overflow just needs a refinement in the plumbing and a sock or two. I am contemplating building a shelf for the skimmer, where all the overflow piping runs under it.

jp

[BigJPDC]

A FTS for today - amazing the snails have indeed eaten everything that was algea, even on my CL outlets.




Yesterday and today I've quartered and dropped in one raw shrimp, to try and get some kind of cycle going. Watching the sand become alive with nassarius is amazing but tonight they left at least half the shrimp behind and weren't fighting each other for it, so I might wait another day before feeding again.

Here is a shot of a turbo, cerith and scarlet all together on the rock. Taken with flash.



jp

[newreefbishop]

My friend, the bacteria needed to process your waste is already in place.....

THerefore you will not see a cycle.

The rock was cured before you even got it. WHich is basically what causes a cycle. In any case the rocks look great, you will be pleased in a couple months when the rock is covered with coraline, purples, and yellows, and greens....

For the price Im extremely impressed.....

WHich reminds me January I will be getting my final batch....

[Liquid Hobby]

BigJ: this is a hobby! It's a constant process of refinement...

[newreefbishop]

LH its more than a hobby, lol....It's a lifestyle.....