pelochas's startup questions, tank, log

[melosu58]

Salinity is not high

 

[pelochas]

well after much thinking and discussion about water movement or wavemakers, i decided to go with the Red Sea Wavemaster and 4 Maxi-Jets 1200. The scwd is great but i feel that if my bio load starts to reach its peak, 1 SCWD isnt going to do it for a 75 gal tank. adding aanother SCWD will eventually cost more money and i will have to buy pumps and also plumbing supplies.

i pick up my chiller, 1/4 hp Aqua Via, from a local hobbyist, bought on ebay for $135. to my surprise the Hot HUmid HOuston Weather was really CHILLY this morning and supposed to drop into the 50s!!

i am still have microbubbles issues and the salt spray all over my reflector and PC lights. i manage to reduce it but its still there. i just need a slower pump or more water to my sump which leads me to the following question. i have a Pentair Quite One 4000 (1017 gph with about 5 feet of over head which will reduce to about 700 gph)

can i add another U tube to my overflow box to get more water down to my sump? the over flow box is a dual U tube and dual return lines to sump.

can i add a T to the return line (from sump pump to main tank) and have the T feed back into the sump with a ball valve for adjustment to reduce flow to my main tank?

can i add a ball valve on the return line (from sump pump to main tank) to reduce flow to main tank. no T on the main return line like the question above.

i dont want to create back pressure on the pump so i dont want to adjust the ball valve to reduce flow and create pressure. will this reduce life on the pump?

i have plans to have the T feed the skimmer compartment since water depth is really low and the skimmer pump is not working well with the low water level.

thanks,
pelochas

 

[pelochas]

i edit my subject title from "cleaning live rock" to that above simply because i can keep up with the answers and question i have and stop from going back and forth to other posts i made.

i have added a T to my return line and had success reducing microbubbles but still have some. during the installation i had my return pump off and i had very few bubbles. so i know i have bubbles from my sump. i read some more about the larger pumps were the main problem of bubbles and also non air tight on the joints and tubing were main causes. will try to recheck and tighten everything down.

i have more problems with my overflow box than with anything else. one overflow U tube is always catching air and not producing the flow rate im looking for, since my pump a bit too fast i need to get 100% from my overflow. i have ball valves on my return and the incoming pipes. im about to get rid of it and buy something like Melev's website has. but of course this will cost me money which is like the only thing im doing with my tank. i will try a few modifications to the overflow box that i can find within the site. my overflow box is the original style with two u tubes.

i also need to look for some tips on the red sea berlin turbo skimmer. i bought this simply because it was all i could afford, though after looking at other skimmers for that price i could have spend a few bucks more and got something much better.

i have a small hair algea problem and some other brown algea on the sand and LR. the very few cleaners i have and working on it but its just a little bit too much for them. i went ahead and but a couple hundred more for the tank and some to the future refugium. the snail im more interested to get are the ones that are larger, longer cone shape, and always seem to be on the LR. the other tiny ones, size of a pencil eraser, round ball shape, are always down in the sand bed or glass, hardly ever on the rock? which type of snail am i looking for.

well this is enough for now, TIA

 

[pelochas]

ok, now im convinced that my Red Sea Berlin Turbo skimmer isnt worth it. I even got it new for a cheap $130. Im asking for your opinion.
Looking around for fixes or mods.
But what is my best option.

1. Buy a 700gph to 1000gph pump (used/new for $20-50)and Kent Venturi ($20) = Total $40-$70

2. Buy another skimmer. I can sell or ebay my skimmer, its like in new condition, hasn't skim at all in the cup. I wont get nearly $100 for it. If i can $100 plus let say add $40-$70, what is the best skimmer for $140-$170

i read so many opinions on the skimmer, people who has modded them, say it does a good job.

help me out here. :x

 

[pelochas]

Livestock added:
2 zoa frags
2 red mushroom
Capnella colonies
neon green galaxia
Pompon xenia
candy coral
4 blue chromis
1 scooter blenny
1 algae blenny
1 scarlet reef hermit
1 emerald crab
10 astrea snails
1 medium yellow tang
200 illynassarius snails

equipment added
Neptune Aquacontroller Junior w/ temp probe and pH probe
3 MaxiJets 1200
Aqualifter pump w/ filter for overflow tubes (works great)
veggie clip
ammonia alert clip
magfloat glass cleaner

Nitrate NO3 = 0
Nitrite NO2 = 0
High Range pH = 8.4
Ammonia NH3/NH4= 0
pH probe = 8.37
salinity = 1.024
temp probe = 83

notes:
no more hair algea after large water change

yellow tang is very shy but eats veggies, almost lost her during acclimation process, laying on bottom bucket. i beleive i screwed that up on doing the drip acclimation so slow that the water was pretty chilly after a two hours. i immediately put her into the tank and she recovered quickly. never going thru that again with out heaters or something. everyone else in the bucket was A OK!

working on buying a new protein skimmer. my red sea turbo is too hard to work with and i decided to go with AquaC. is the skimmers from AquaC that much better?

had a dripping leak on my sump. spotted it last night and worked on it for 3 hours until i repaired it. wood floors a little wet. this is the 4th minor flood i had.

my new neptune aquacontroller is so cool. it did everything i wanted. on/off lights, wavemaking, temp heater control, pH and temp readings. so cool.

no more siphon loss on my overflow tubes with the aqualifter pump. great pump.

having a microbubble trouble again after adjustment to my sump. i guess my sump is too small and need to either buy a larger one or limit the sump use or just get a smaller pump.

that enough for now.

 

[pelochas]

added the new livestock on Oct 16. weeks passed without view of my emerald crab. has been missing for a long time and i finally found him early past week, shell only.

and more bad news, my scooter blenny died yesterday morning

 

[Macmommy]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck

 

[pelochas]

Nitrate NO3 = 0
Nitrite NO2 = 0
High Range pH = 7.8 ??
Ammonia NH3/NH4= 0
pH probe = 8.18
salinity = 1.024
temp probe = 88 ??

Went to LFS and brought home a small Clown fish. Son is very happy that we found Nemo.

 

[pelochas]

so the tank is about 4 months
tank is 75 gal with 90 lbs of LR

i also have a yellow tang, clown fish, 4 blue chromis, purple dottyback, algea blenny, a chalk bass, coral banded shrimp, RBTA, pulsing xenia, and about 100 obselta snails,

my tiny hippo blue tang, 1 inch, is not doing her normal activities today. when i got home, my wife said "Dory" has been hiding and looks scared. The tang has been resting or sleeping every night in the same live rock hole, but today, most of the day, she has been in the rock. Every so often, she will come out and swin around but she looks fragile or scared, and weak swimming against the currents of the power heads. When i fed the tank today, she did not come out to eat but maybe once and got a tiny piece. currently as im writing this msg, she is actively around the rocks, but not as usual, and swims weakly. Mainly she swims with the clown fish, all over the tank. She is about 2 weeks old. i meant i put her in my tank two weeks ago after purchase from LFS

in the two weeks i had her, she has been very active, feeding frozen mysis shrimp, flake food, and seaweed

What can i do or look for?


on sunday, i did install a new 18 gal sump/refugium, where i did infact add about 18 gallons of fresh ro/di water

Nitrate NO3 = 0 ( i can never tell the yellows apart with the liquid test, but its very bright clear yellow)
Nitrite NO2 = 0
High Range pH = 8.0
Ammonia NH3/NH4= 0
pH probe = 8.0 (during mid-day i have higher pH of 8.2 but this is the lowest i ever seen this late at night)
salinity = 1.024
temp probe = 81