Smitty's 90g Build!

[Smitty]

I thought at first the water was cloudy from moving the rocks around but I was wrong. That isn't sediment in the water, those are micro bubbles. I've checked all the fittings on the return side and everything is tight but I still have micro bubbles on the return.

One problem after another... and I still don't even have any fish.

 

[huma-huma]

The 180 elbow should help in terms of the massive amounts of bubbles. Or possibly slip on a 3 inch rubber tubing to close the distance

 

[Smitty]

Well... when trying to remove the drain to my sump to try and add something to fix the horrible bubbles I slipped on the wet floor, lost my balance and cause my drain pipes to hit one of the glass baffles in the sump really hard. Cracked it in 4 places from top to bottom.

I only had to drain 1/2 of the sump but did get the offending piece of glass out. No shards in the tank that I could find. I'm going to have to completely get all the water out of that section and dry it up in order to put in the new piece of glass, then let it sit for some time before I can get it up and running again.

On a side note, the display is crystal clear now since the return isn't putting all those micro bubbles back in. I'm temped to just leave it without a sump!

 

[Smitty]

Tonight I moved one baffle so there is a bubble trap out of the fuge and there is no over pouring baffle from the live rock section. I replaced the glass piece that was broken with a thicker one and tested the water.

I have to let the silicone dry for 24 hours or so then will put the water back in the sump and then will work on the bubble issue again.

Looks like my cycle is under way! Hard to see in the photo because I swear the colors of the tubes are darker all around so I'm looking at:
PH 8.2 (turns out I was using my FW PH and not my SW, so the reading was off)
Amm: 4
NitrIte: 1
NitrAte: 10
Sal still at 1.025

 

[Smitty]

Cycle is moving right along. Looks like I've had my Amm peak out.

Amm: 1
NitrIte: (my strip only shows to 5 and it is over that)
NitrAte: 20
Salinity: 1.025

I've had to make several changes to my sump but hopefully by tomorrow evening the silicone will be dry and I'll be done with it (fingers crossed).

 

[Gti_Leo]

keep an eye on your nitirites, mine hulted on 5 ppm for 2 weeks with no ammonia and 180ppm nitrates.

theres alot of dried out coralline aglae on your power heads and overflow, should have scrapped it all off and made it look new

 

[Smitty]

I did scrape it all off of one of the power heads after a long soak in vinegar to kill some manjano (sp?). I was going to do a cleaning on the other one but I haven't had a chance to yet because I've been working on getting the sump running again. Perhaps I'll get to it tonight.

 

[Dinodu]

Ok i know those number, wait 2 days and do a change of water about 30% then wait lil more

 

[Smitty]

So looks like over the past 24 hours or do I've had a massive diatom outbreak. I'm not sure if that is good or bad during the cycle but most of my base rock is now covered in it.

 

[Smitty]

So just tested my water and it looks like my cycle is almost done!

Amm: 0
Ites: .25
Ates: Either 0 or 5

If the Ites go away I'm probably going to get some fish this weekend. I'm thinking of starting off with 3 small blue/green chromis and then after 2 weeks or so get 2 clown fish and then see how we are doing from there!

 

[Smitty]

So, tested last night and it was Amm: 0, Ites: 0, and Ates: 20, Sal: 1.025, pH: 8.2 so it looks like I'm cycled!

Went to the store and bought 3 really small chromis (at most 1" with the tail) and all I can say is that 3 really small chromis can hide REALLY well in a 90g tank with 160+ lbs of live rock. I have found 2 this morning popping up but can't find the 3rd at all.

 

[Smitty]

Oh NO! Mantis Attack! News at 11...

Ok, so I figured out why I haven't seen my shrimp in several days, and why I keep finding hermit crab shells with holes in them... I have a confirmed mantis in my tank as a hitchhiker. I got several good looks at him when he jumped out of the rock trying to take out my new wrasse. He is dull colored (with blue legs) and about 1.5" long.

In my effort to catch him I'm pretty sure I got the rock he went an hid in and I put it into the fuge section of my sump. I didn't want to risk leaving that rock in the tank if he was actually in it... but I can not find him on the rock as it has a lot of holes. It is also one of my premium pieces of live rock with a lot of life on it so I really don't want it in my sump for long.

Now to try and make a mantis trap and HOPE that I can catch this guy. If I can catch him I'll take him to the LFS.

Any thoughts on mantis traps?

 

[Smitty]

So here is a quick update. Not a whole lot has changed. I still have 3 chromis swimming around. I did have a 6 line wrasse that looked to be in really good shape but I haven't seen him for 2 days so don't know what is up with him. I'm ready to get more fish but I really wanted a pair of clown fish and haven't found any that I really like yet... may have to get something else instead like some dart fish or cardinals.

So here are a couple updated photos. First is the hood that I finished building today. Still need to paint it and stain it:

Then I have my zenias:

My wonderful hammer coral:

My I'm not sure what kind of coral but it is fun to watch waving around:

And the updated FTS:

All the base rock is really turning purple. I am now starting to get green algae along the bottom of the glass by the sand bed and I'm not sure what is going on with it... pretty tough stuff too.

The only things I'm currently worried about are what look like star fish arms that are really long that I see sticking out of the rock. Many are light grey/dark grey banded but one is red with some white on it. I never see the star fish, just the arms reaching out, plus they are in the back of the tank so getting a good picture is hard. I've left them alone for now and hope they aren't a problem.

Thanks for looking!

 

[hackteck]

why is everyone a freakin carpenter but me i couldnt build a piece of toast lol