30gal Reef

[Rjukan]

Hello RC, thanks for providing such a great source of information, and a place for us to exhange ideas and experiences.

This thread is going to be a collection of entries logging my experiences with a 30gal reef system that I just started working on.

A fast bio: I am a 31 year old married guy from SINY, I have been out of the hobby for about 3.5 years or so. Last setup was a 75 with a few Tanganyikan cichlids which was after I had failed at my first attempt at reefing in that same tank. That failure is enough material for several posts which I am not going to get into in any depth now, only to say it lasted about 8 months total. Prior to that I had a short break of about 6months after I got out of breeding Tanganyikans. For about 4years I had been keeping 4 to 5 different species of those cichlids including O. Ventrails, and 2 types of Cyprocromis. Before those years I was in college and had south american cichlids for a few years, and back when I started (6th grade or so) up till college I had tetras and other misc. freshwater fish.

Now back to present (or recent present past?), 10/28/05 was about the time when I talked it over with my wife and we decided it would be cool for me to get back into the hobby... and refurbish the basement rec room in the process :) It was filled with her brothers stuff for about 2years while he did a home remodel but now I cleaned, and cleared it out. That same weekend my bro inlaw was coming to visit, he had a reef a year ago that ran into probs and brought down his leftover salt and LR (long dead but nicely cured rock) which I will get into in another post sometime soon.

10/31/05: Decided not to stay with the old 75 and instead opted for a new 30gal Perfecto (why o why did I get a Perfecto?), and build a refugium which I had just recently learned about from Melev's site.

11/2-11/12/05:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/EarlyStageinSetup.jpg

That was the Perfecto tank. So is this...

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/BottomofTank.jpg
Thats the bottom of the tank, with the crack that originated from under the silicone and frame.:rolleye1:

After a miserable experience with Perfecto's customer service I finally got them to admit it was a pressure/stress crack covered under warrenty and I got credited back. Went to another store that same day and got the same tank but an AGA :) Also during this time I had ordered my cell cast acrylic from delviesplastics.com, a 75gpd RO/DI unit, Coralife 192w PC, and a 600gph wier from various ebay sellers.

11/12 and 11/13/05: I built my refugium this weekend going just about 100% on Melev's Reef Site instructions. It was interesting lol (you can see my 75 and a 20long on top of it in far right, rock from bro inlaw on left in grey tub, and refug being built on completely wrong type of surface in center lol, I later learned my ping-pong table was great for welding seams)
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/RefConst.jpg
I dont have a table saw, and the router I had borrowed from work was impossible for me to use properly. So I did the whole job with a jig saw and a drill. I got the acrylic, weld-on 4, and 2 applicator bottles with needle tip from Delvies and they were great. Since they couldnt ship#16 (hazardous material) I made do with just #4. It is 21x17x12, and it had a couple leaks, but after posting on the DYI forum I was told to try cutting strips of acrylic and using them to reinforce any leaking or weak areas. It was a great tip and my refug is now leak-free, and very supported (come on, it doesnt look that bad lol):
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/Refugium.jpg

That shot was taken this past Tuesday which is when I got the system full of RO water and running for the first time to test out my piping. Over the last few days I have been getting the SG set at 1.024 as I was given a 200gal bucket of Oceanic from my bro in law, I dont want to push the SG limits with this type of salt and its history of cal/alk issues at 1.025+.

There is much to add but I am going to stop here, it brings me up to present more or less which is what I was hoping to do :) Will close with 2 pics taken tonight.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/112505Fug.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/112505TankandFugblurry.jpg

Oh, these pics arent that great I know. They are from my 1.3mp cameraphone. We are thinking about getting a good camera soon tho, so better shots are on the way!

Peter

[Rjukan]

Today I plan on cutting a top for my fuge, it will be in 2 pieces and both will be removable. I didnt do it originally because I have such a small amount of space to work with, I didnt want to get stuck while installing the plumbing or rock.

Anyone else notice the water in your refug area is higher on the teeth baffle then it is past it towards the return area? Because of this I only have a inch or so in that area from the water to the top of the fuge. I was wondering if this was normal, or a sign of bad resistance through that baffle even though the teeth are 1/4"+ wide. I would have made the teeth a little lower then the return baffle if I knew it was going to happen.

Thanks,

Pete

[Randall_James]

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

And yes Marc has a great site for this type of work, keep the updates coming ;D

What type of light is above the refuge?

[Andrew]

[welcome]

Nice sump design. :)

[Rjukan]

Hi and thanks Randall!

Fuge light is a 18" 10k 15w ZooMed Ocean Sun bulb in a standard 24" housing. Its not really what I was expecting to go with, but it fit the area nicely. The bulb is old and will be getting a Flora Sun when I am ready to introduce some macro algae. Because the fuge is shifted into the left corner of the space, the light is only slightly over the return and is mostly over the growing side.

I lined the right and back sides of the cabinet around the fuge with white tile to help minimize light absorption in the brown wood. Reflectance is underated :)

I hope it will be sufficient but if it isnt I have another fixture I could try to fit which has (2) T12s in it.

Pete

[Randall_James]

There are compact fluorencent floodlights that work great. http://melevsreef.com and Walmart have them. Run about $8 to $10 and the one I got has a 7 year warranty against burnout.

I had PC's (50/50) at 72W and it stunk. This 19W flood (replaces 90W floodlight) was just what I needed.

[eastcoastzigzag]

i have been fighting for a week to get in touch w/ perfecto. i have a drilled 65 that cracked from the middle of the drill holes. i believe it was their fault. i think the glass was stressed form drilling , then it dripped on my stand, then stand warping(handmade oak) then the bigger crack.

ur set up looks awesome! at times i wish i went alil smaller.

[Rjukan]

Hi Andrew, thanks for the Welcome :)

Yeah Randall, I purchased a housing for that flood the first trip I took to home depot for supplies, but I just dont have the room in this application for that light :( and had to return what I bought.

I am really hoping I will be able to get away with 15w of floruescent lighting to grow a nice amount of macro. Otherwise I can goto the 2 T12 fixtures I have that I might be able to shoe-horn into the space.

Hey EC Zigzag (ez wider fan here lol), good luck with the Perfecto thing man, I can give you the numbers I used and the contact person but its not going to be pretty I can tell you now. My case was straightforward, crack happened when I was filling the tank the 2nd time after I had already stress/leak tested it, and they still gave me incredible amounts of problems.
800 241 7485
317 773 7875 (fax)

Going to start the fuge top now, was out with wife hehe.
You can kinda see my idea to block the light on this hoodless tank, I spraypainted the outside face of a Perfecto glass hood and have it leaning on the light housing, and the bottom is in the trim. Shot taken yesterday 11/25.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/112505TankandStandNoLight.jpg

It works really well, I am going to cut out some pieces of acrylic to attach to the sides of my light for more light blocking.


Pete

[eastcoastzigzag]

thanks for the numbers. i had the 1800 # but now i have a fax # MUUhahahahmuahah!!!! keep the pics comin as you progress.

[Rjukan]

Finally got around to doing the top for the refugium today...
12x24 piece of 1/8" acrylic, I used 2 of them:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/112605FugeTopAcrylic.jpg

Back piece cut and fits well, the first pipe notch I made was the center one, the worst one lol. After that I used a drill to make the curve nice first, then a jig saw to connect the dots.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/112605FugeTopRearCut.jpg

Top finished and installed:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/112605FugeTopOn.jpg

Once Im cycled and running with my macro algae in, Ill drop the light strip to an inch or so above the top.

Thanks for any comments or suggestions,

Pete

[Rjukan]

Things are going well, I started the tank's cycle with 2 cooked shrimp on Sunday morn and had a ammonia level between 1.0 and 0.5 with cloudy conditions yesterday. Today things are clearing up a bit as I took the shrimp out last night.

I have been letting the tank settle in while I spend a lot of time researching a camera. Finally chose one tonight, a Nikon 8700 CoolPix refurb with a 3yr MACK ext warranty.

Back with some photos soon,

Pete

[Rjukan]

12/6/05

Things are going well, I now have small patches of light green, redish, brownish, and light pinkish algae growing in spots on the rock and glass surfaces.

Here is a shot from no more then 3 days ago:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSC00092.jpg

I have all of the rock my bro in law gave me in the system, and the big news is I ordered more rock today!! I decided to give International Marine Fish a try, they have some incredible looking (from pics) carribean LR . Its due in tomorrow morning, so I will post pics of it all sometime in the afternoon after I pick it up and get it into my tank.

Unfortunately my camera is still MIA, hopefully it will arrive sometime tomorrow while I am off and working with the LR.

[Randall_James]

Looking good, you are going to have another cycle with the rock when it goes in so be prepared. With some bacteria already in the system it may not be too bad. I would start getting some water brewed just in case. You do not want the ammonial to get over .20 for any amount of time as it will just kill off more stuff than it needs to. I am guessing you did not get a great big batch anyway.. glad to see you taking your time. What ever happened about the cracked bottom?

[Rjukan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6164880#post6164880 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rjukan

After a miserable experience with Perfecto's customer service I finally got them to admit it was a pressure/stress crack covered under warrenty and I got credited back. Went to another store that same day and got the same tank but an AGA :)

I got that taken care of early on, within the first 2 weeks of starting the project hehe.

Thanks for the interest James, yeah I am expecting to go through another cycle, especially since the first one with the shrimp wasnt that big of a cycle. But I do have a 35gal tub next to my setup that has SW ready to go if necessary :)

Delta is screwing me it seems :( My IMF order should have been in this morning at 8:30 but they didnt put any freight on that flight. A flight landed at 1:14 that had 500lbs of freight on it, so I am praying 40lbs of that is mine. Hopefully I will know by 3pm latest. Word of advice... use Delta Dash instead of regular priority shipping. It will be gauranteed to be on a certain flight, rather then waiting for room on one like mine is.

[alten78]

nice work, especially on the fuge

[Rjukan]

Thanks Alten!! Yay I just got the call from the airport, i can go pick up my rock now. O I hope its nice lol.

Pete

[Rjukan]

Well I got my International Marine Fish order back from the airport and in my tank...

Its no TBS rock thats for sure, this stuff was teaming with life; but not anytime recently. It looks like it was pretty well dried out and they just splashed some water on it and put some wet newspaper in there too :(

I am expecting my ammonia levels to skyrocket with all of the dead material on them, I just hope some of the stuff comes back. There was nothing alive in the bag like there was with TBS, it didnt smell bad tho that was good at least.

Here are some pics:

Right before I put new rock in:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSC00098.jpg

Rock as it was shipped to me:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSC00096.jpg

Tank after new rock:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSC00099.jpg

Lots of macro algae on there, I hope some of it will come back.

Pete

[IndoorOcean]

Any updates?

[Rjukan]

Hey Indoor, yeah I am about to update the thread tonight. I have been though a crappy week, and I had to remove those rocks from IMF.

More later...

[Rjukan]

So I got that order from IMF, the uncured LR that was "covered with life" last Wed, I tested my ammonia that night and it was solid blue (8.0ppm+). The rock didnt smell that bad when it arrived because it wasnt wet (just had some wet newspaper in there), but by Thursday morning you could smell it as soon as you got in the basement.

I spent the next 3 days stressing out on the path to take with this rotting uncured rock, do I leave it in my tank and hope the rock already in there will help the curing/cycle process or yank it. On Sunday 12/11, I read up a lot about the curing process and "cooking" LR, and I decided to cut my losses and put it out in a container in my garage with no light for a few months. The water is heated and circulating, Ill change it every week or so.

I took the rock out on Sunday night, did about a 5gal water change and vacuumed the bottom. Monday morning before work I tested it and it was still high but seemed not as dark blue as it had been, I would have said about 6 or 7ppm. I tested again this morning and it was 1.0ppm, woohoo was I happy!! Now this afternoon after work I tested again and Im down to .25 :rollface:

Here is the display taken today:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSC00100.jpg

Refugium:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSC00103.jpg

Hopefully TBS will have better weather and get back out collecting soon :) They are the only online vendors I will buy LR from now.

More soon

[Rjukan]

My ammonia tested zero the morning of 12/14, and I started testing for nitrite that evening and had 2.0ppm. Yesterday's nitrite was around 1.0ppm and I tested this morning and its 0 :) I will start to test for nitrate tonight after I eat dinner.

Sad to say I had a horrible experience trying to buy that Nikon CP8700 from The Refurb Depot and ended up canceling my order on Mon of this week, Im still waiting for them to credit my card. So no nice clear pics yet :( but hopefully we will look for one this weekend.

Last but not least I bought 2 blue leg hermits, and 1lb of LR from my LFS yesterday. So far the crabs are doing well, one in the fuge the other is up top.

[Randall_James]

Online camera stores can really bite. Order, they decline and must verbally confirm (so they can try to upsell you every option in the book) and finally find out that they will not sell at the quoted price.... been there.......

[Rjukan]

Yeah man, Im heading to B&H this weekend or early next week. They have some great prices and are local.

[Rjukan]

Quick photo update, Im heavily into cyano atm. I realize it will run its course, but I was just curious if the green algae that is growing is normal as well.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0040.jpg

Fuge has more then the display for now at least ;)

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0041.jpg

Im still learning how to operate this new camera, but so far I am pretty pleased with its results. It seems like its going to take a while to get used to it lol. Here is a tiny clam of sorts that is on a piece of LR I got from my LFS.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/ClamHitchhiker.jpg

[Rjukan]

I love my setup, Im very happy with how things are going. I have just done my first real water changes this past week since its been a few weeks since my nitrates dropped after my cycle and it seems like the cyano and diatom algae are possibly receeding.

I purchased 2 coral frags that are a blasto and another LPS that im not really sure what it is, they are tiny were $12 and $15. Also I lucked out and have what appears to be more blastos coming out on a piece of LR I bought from a LFS a couple weeks ago. I will post some pictures tonight I hope.

[IndoorOcean]

Looking forward to new pics!

[Rjukan]

Thanks for the interest Indoor! Here are some shots taken today:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0204.jpg

Here is the fuge, you can see my chaeto spinning in the back left corner. The current has kept it there tumbling the last few days, it seems like it is going to stay there!
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0209.jpg

Here are the corals I have, the first is the hitchicker that came in on some LR from the LFS. The polyps have almost doubled in size in the last 2 weeks, and there seems to be 4 of them atm on that one rock:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0203.jpg

Next 2 are the ones I paid for, first is a blasto for $12 and the 2nd is still unknown to me $15, any suggestions would be great:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0208.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0205.jpg

I am going to close this update with something big that happend to me this week... I lucked out and found a guy selling his Oceanic 75gal RR setup that has been in storage for 2yrs. In addition to the tank and stand I got a ton of other misc. equipment for an incredibly low price. It will be a in-wall setup in the basement, with a 75gal sump/fuge! Wont be starting that project for at least a month, but here is the tank:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0193.jpg

Thanks for any suggestions or questions!

[Swanwillow]

cool, and its looking good!!!

[Rjukan]

Thanks Swan, I am really hoping the cyano stays away for good this time. I really dont want to use one of those red slime remover products so Im just going to ride out this part of the new tank cycle.

Once TBS is allowed back out to collect rock I should be getting a 10gal "package" which will fill out my tank nicely. The 10lbs of LS will be going to my fuge as a remote sandbed because I like the display as a BB.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0129.jpg
That is a shot of the hitchicker coral a week ago, different polyp and you can see 2 small ones above it.

[IndoorOcean]

Looking good! And I'm jealous about the 75RR... that's the tank that I want to upgrade to!

[Rjukan]

Thanks Indoor :)

Lol, I hope you find one! Seems as though there are always tanks for sale if you look hard enough. This one was listed on my local version of a popular national BB service (CL).

I am really looking forward to starting that project but it will be a couple weeks before I can. Ill start up a new thread for it when I do lol.

[Rjukan]

I bought a peppermint shrimp and a yellow clown goby last night. They both seem to be doing well, the goby found a spot on the rocks where its comfortable and ate frozen mysis tonight. I also fed the brain type coral I have the mysis and every polyp got some :)

Here is goby with a lot of micro bubbles due to low sump (making ro water as I type), I just took the shot a couple min ago.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0210.jpg

[Rjukan]

Here they are, together again...

I thought my peppermint shrimp was a goner its been missing for a couple days, but I looked in the outside box of the overflow this morning and there he was on the sponge :D

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0215.jpg

[Rjukan]

Yeah, the shrimp is gone again :(

This time its not in the overflow, or from what I can see its not in the 1st box of the refugium either. It might be gone for good I think... it got out of the tank and is a dried out somewhere, or its wedged down in the first section of the fuge where the incoming water runs over rubble LR. Im pretty disappointed.

[IndoorOcean]

He may soon show himself again. I had a peppermint shrimp and he "disappeared" several times. Turns out he was just really good at squeezing himself in the tiniest places, especially under the liverock. Watch the tank at night, especially if you have moon lights, and you may find that he's just been hiding from you.

[Rjukan]

Thanks for the encouragment IO, I hope your right :)

[Rjukan]

Lol so the shrimp turned up in the tank a day or 2 after my last post, and then promptly got itself into the overflow box again :rolleye1: I left it there for a couple days and tried to get it out again last night. This time I was unsuccessful and it dropped down into the fuge. Its down there for now and I dont think I am going to bother moving it back up to the display until its a bit bigger.

My favia, or favites type coral seems to be doing well, it looks like its starting to grow a bit. Here is a shot of it:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0241.jpg

[Rjukan]

Blasto from LFS is doing well, looks like another polyp is starting to form:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/b2e076ed.jpg

That makes me really happy to see :)

I got a few corals this weekend from a friend in LIRA (thanks K) that I hope end up doing well:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0257.jpg

And the tiny Acan:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0254.jpg

Gorgonian?:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/b831eb06.jpg

And the brain:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0252.jpg

I moved the yellow clown goby to my fuge for now, it was sitting on the brain a lot and pestering it. I will end up trading it to a member or giving it away I guess.

[IndoorOcean]

Looking good! I'm sorry to hear about the Goby. I'm sure you'll find him a new home and a replacement for him soon.

[Rjukan]

Temp: 80
Ph: 8.2ish
SG: 1.026 (refractometer)
Po4: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ca: 490ish
Alk: 8dkh

[Rjukan]

Saturday I bought about 80-90lbs of rock from a friend, and its amazing. I was barely able to fit it all even after taking every piece of old rock out lol, but its all in there. Note: the frags you see and the brain were his bases and leftovers after selling off his setup, you can only imagine what it was like in his tank before.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0285.jpg

Yesterdays tests were important, I will be doing small water changes while vacuuming over the next few days and that will hopefully help raise alk a little, and drop Ca down to 450. Also I brought the clown goby and the BLHs back to the LFS, goby not good with SPS corals and the blue legs are not needed anymore since I got a ton of snails and crabs with the rock.

[Rjukan]

This guy emerged today, friend said its a type of carpet anemone.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0289.jpg

[ronbis]

Great looking tank and I like the work on the sump. I am building a sump too and just got my acrylic and weld-on from Delvies. You stated earlier that they sent you #4. I asked for #4 and got #3. I was worried about that too, because if you look at their website it says weld-on 3 but the description says 4. Just wondering if you really received #4 or #3 and how you made the joints. I was going to use the "pins" method, but now I'm not sure...

Keep the pics coming!

-Ron

[Rjukan]

Thanks a lot Ron, yeah man I got number 4 from them here is a pic I just took:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0290.jpg

I remember reading that #3 will work but its less forgiving when making the joint. I think it cures faster? I dont know for sure :confused:

But at any rate make sure you have a nice large flat surface when you make the joints, and yeah I used the pin method but I had guitar strings and used the high E string instead. I also read about people using shims under the area being welded, but I didnt. IMO an important thing to note was that the leaks I did have came from the seams that were done on the workbench not the ping-pong table. Next time I build a tank I think I am going to order their smallest acrylic rods for all of the exterior seams, it will make it strong and seal any leaks, plus it might look cool if you get a color.

Feel free to ask me any questions during your build, and good luck!

[ronbis]

Pete,

I called Delvis today and they no longer carry #4 as I had suspected. Apparently the shipping regulations recently changed and they can't ship it. So, I'll see what I can do with what I have.

How are you liking the bare bottom look? I had thought about going that route, but I really like the sand look. I would love to be able to aim my closed loop returns straight down the back though.

-Ron

[Rjukan]

Hey Ron, yeah thats annoying. They told me they couldnt ship #16 because of the haz mat issue, Im sad to hear they cant even send #4 anymore.

So far I like the BB a lot. The tank seems a lot brighter, and there looks like there is a lot more room without the sand. There is more vacuuming to do, but its easier since your not worrying about sucking up sand.

Thats cool that your doing a closed loop setup, I think I might give one a try when I get the 75 going. Seemed a little daunting to me when I started the 30.

[Rjukan]

Well, I figured it was time to post some of the things I did wrong, or that are going wrong atm.

First couple of things have to do with the piping for the send and return to the refugium. I cut holes in the back of the piece of furniture before I cut the pieces of PVC, now when I want to adjust the height of the overflow (or the water level in the tank) Im not able to because Im maxing out on the cut hole I made. Another big problem is that I have hard connections to my OF and my sump return pump. Now when I want to remove my OF to clean it I will have to cut the PVC, and I think it will be the same problem when I need to remove the pump to clean it lol.

Another problem is I didnt make enough space in the sump for the return section. I should have made the refugium area smaller which would have allowed for more water in the evaporation section.

Also, I see now that I would have been wise to only buy a couple rocks from my friend and let him sell the rest to other club members. This way my old rock would have been nicely seeded by this rock and I would still have a couple cool coral bases.

The brain coral seems cramped in the spot its in but I cant move the rock around to try and get a better spot for it because the tank is so packed.

Nudibranchs (sp) I think are having a great time eating away some of the SPS colonies, I have to try and get a good pic of them to find out what they are. Its obvious they are the ones that are causing the damage.

Otherwise, the torts I have, the blasto, the favia from LFS, and the zoo's I got are all doing very well. Will be posting test results and pics this weekend.

[Rjukan]

Here are those little monsters that are eating my SPS.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0294.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/RSCN0297.jpg

[Rjukan]

I think your doing a wonderful job.......you must have relatives from Dirt Jervis. LOL i'm extremely impressed how well the tank has come along and in such a very short time too.....
See you soon Bro!!! Your sister say's "Where's all the fish"

[Rjukan]

**LOL I just noticed the last post, if you two are reading this you have to remove that bookmark because its logging you in as me. Create your own profile/name on RC and post :P otherwise people are going to think Im talking to myself!

Big update inc, photos and test results this weekend...

I had a problem the last 2 weeks... no RO water! We have been working on our kitchen the last few months, and the faucet I had been connecting the unit to was removed. I replaced it with a new sink and faucet that doesnt accept the ro adapter lol.

So last night I finally got around to taking the faucet off of the old sink and I replaced my old slop sink faucet with that one, and it works great! Now I can fill 5gal buckets in the sink and not worry about overflow, I dont have a badly leaking slop sink faucet anymore, and the best part is I dont have to go down 10 steps with a 40lb bucket anymore lol!

I had a small reserve of fresh water, but it wasnt nearly enough to last the time my RO system was disconnected, so I ended up using Poland Spring to top off the tank. Turns out there must have been some salt in the reserve I was mixing with the Poland Spring and after testing my SG last night it was 1.030 (refractometer)! The water level was still pretty low so I dripped in about 2gal of fresh ro water overnight and I get a SG of 1.027 now.

I will be doing a full battery of tests this morning, and making a large batch of RO for tomorrow's 25% water change. I hope to post a few pics and the test results either this morning or tonight sometime.

OT: Tagged Nameless Order last night, wooohooo!!

[Rjukan]

5 months later and here is an update!

Im not going to lie, I havent done much of anything with the tank since my last post. Fell into a habit of just topping it off and making sure things were running ok. Here it is today looking pitiful.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/Picture001.jpg

I did about a 15% water change today and I brushed off all of the hydroids that were starting to overtake everything. You can see them as the maroon clumps in that picture, also you can see the bush of long green hair algae.

Had a few of these stars that I removed during the cleaning today:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/Picture004.jpg

[Stidd]

How did you wind up getting rid of the cyano at the beginning? Did you ride it out or use Chemi-Clean?

Tank looks good...

Have you upgraded to that bigger tank yet?

Stidd

[Rjukan]

Hi Stidd, no I didnt use anything like that. I rode it out and it was completely gone by mid March sometime. Ill bet it would have cleared sooner if I did more water changes.

Thanks, I will post better shots tomorrow I hope. I need to find a algae scraper for the coraline buildup, after that I should have some good pics to post.

I still have that 75 I got out in the garage, just havent been up to working with it. Maybe this fall :)

[Rjukan]

Well its been another 5 months so I guess its time for an update lol :p. My tank is in bad condition, I had to dismantle my refugium about a month ago or so. The weir style overflow I had was the weak link. After a while the rate would slow down enough so the box inside the tank was always full, and because I glued all of my connections I couldnt take it off to clean it. Eventually the tank overflowed 3 or 4 gallons and that was the end of the fuge. I had to cut the hardlines I made for the fuge and return lol, it wasnt easy there was hardly any room, at least I had my trusty Leatherman.

The corals I have are still doing well for the tank condition it seems, my zoos dont look at all happy but I have a few SPS corals that are still growing. The brain I have has shrunk a lot but doesnt look too bad.

Now the good news, I bought a project car in November and I needed more room in my garage so I cleaned out the 75gal RR Oceanic tank I got last year and started setting it up today. This way I can eventually break down my 30gal and just have the 75 going. Here are some pics:

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0571.jpg
I am going to the lumber yard tomorrow to find some nice molding for the recess and the exterior frame. Hopfully I should have it done tomorrow, but I have to see how I am going to prepare the molding (paint or stain).

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d56/Rjukan_1974/DSCN0572.jpg
Im going to use another 75gal tank I had for the new fuge. I have to goto a glass shop and get a couple pieces cut.

More soon...

[Rjukan]

Im going to end this thread here and start a new one for the 75gal.