first salt set-up

[manbeast]

not sure about corals, I might get there at some point but since I'm only on day nine as a salty dog I'm just going to take my time, I just had a lot of lace rock sitting around from a previous CL transaction that the seller had used in a salt tank so I figured, why not? I'm already kicking around the idea of a sump/fuge so some of the pcs of LR that I don't find athstetically pleasing will probably end up in there, right now my biggest concern is picking up a master test kit, most likely I'll do it this payday if there's anything left

 

[paul87]

Yea this hobby can eat up some money! LOL. I'd say you have plenty of rock now and agree heavily with convict if you plan to keep corals. Fish and shrimp will definitely love all the caves and crevices though. I strive very very hard to make my little 35 gallon look like it was picked right out of the ocean! Gotta make every little inch count IMO. Also I noticed you may have a little cyano (red slime) on your sand bed. Could be something different hard to tell from the pic. But you might want to check it out. Looking forward to more updates.

 

[manbeast]

no, not cyano, diatom outbreak from adding sand when I put it all back together. I was thinking if I decided to do corals I might make the rock slope less steeply leaving more surface area exposed to the light and giving more options for placement but like I said those are "someday ideas" although I did read some zoanthids are hardy and forgiving so they may be the first attempt but not just yet, though I am headed to that fish place later this week to pick up a $5 gasket kit they ordered for me so if I can get out of the store spending less than $100 I'll count myself lucky

 

[Paulm87]

I'd get rid if your fluval 305, when the live rock takes off you won't need it. Its just a time bomb waiting to cause problems in your tank. The live rock and slimmer will be enough to keep it clean aslong as you do regular water changes. Try to keep on top of water changes too because soon as you let it slip, things can really spiral out of hand. If more diatoms start growing on the substrate try to get a bit more flow over it.

 

[manbeast]

cracked open the 305 over the weekend pulled out everything, only kept the sponges(unrinsed) and loaded the baskets with bio media, was just measuring up possible sump options, I have the oceanic mentioned earlier in the thread or a tank I picked up off the curb that measures @ 30x12x17, for that one the pump would have to be internal as opposed to external with the oceanic

 

[Paulm87]

Id still get rid of the fluval, it just harbours nitrates and when something goes wrong it just let's it all leak into the water.

 

[manbeast]

just took the time to scrape the buildup off the back of the powerheads turns out i've got two hydors rated at 400 and 425 gph and a jvp-101?rated at 3000 lph plus the output from the 305 totals up at a max of @ 1875 cut it by 30% to get more realistic numbers and I figure I've got @ 20x my tanks volume in flow

 

[manbeast]

yaaayyyy! got out of that fish place and only spent $85, and I got my test kit soooo we've got ph 8.4
nitrate 0 ppm
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
and my wife wouldn't let us leave without a peppermint shrimp, she honestly didn't get much of an argument from me. still undecided on the name York or Patty

 

[Convict2161]

Looks good. You should test phosphates in your SW tank. If doing corals it's a whole other ball game. As far as testing goes IMO.

 

[paul87]

Looking good. +1 on the phosphates. Even if you choose not to do corals. But your doing good.

 

[manbeast]

took a load of measurements and it looks like the tanks I have sitting may be to high to accomadate my hob skimmer( both@ 17" high) so it looks like I may go with a 20 long as the 12" height will allow plenty of room as for phosphate testing, I'll get there, just not there yet

 

[manbeast]

junior fishkeeper in training

 

[manbeast]

update time, added to the stock since last week are
12 more hermits
6 more astria
6 green chromis
1 more peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
everyone still happy and healthy, also started my DIY sump today, came up with the idea of putting the weirs between two plates of plexi so they can be moved as a unit until I get my dry fit of the equipment done then they'll be set in place with silicone



all the way to the left



and a little more to the right, whole thing slides as a unit, also put in a tray to support media bags

 

[manbeast]

so finished up the sump yesterday and got everything plumbed(pics will be coming) had to take the 305 out because not only is there no room with the sump underneath the tank but when I went to move it, it was sitting in a small puddle. I know I disturbed a few things but the water is getting a little cloudy which has me a tad concerned also all the aiptasia in the tank seems to have shriveled up for the time being

 

[paul87]

That's strange that the aiptasia shriveled up. That stuff just don't disappear.

 

[manbeast]

they're not fully retracted just about halfway, I also found that one of my engineer gobies had made it out of the tank and came to an untimely end between the stand and the wall, not the best weekend for this tank

 

[paul87]

Aw that's too bad those gobies are awesome. Hope it all works out for you. Did you use aquarium safe silicone on the sump?

 

[manbeast]

yeah, I used 100% silicone but I'm starting to think I didn't let the PVC cement cure long enough though it was looking better this morning, I guess my next steps are get a light for the fuge and maybe move down some sand from the main tank, this would have all been so much easier had I started Fromm scratch and been able to take more time with things, it's just frustrating trying to make all the changes and adjustments while there is fish in the tank everything becomes more critical and time sensitive

 

[paul87]

I know all about the frustration! But when you do it right and you get done its a true sense of pride. Hope it all turns out good for ya. I spent all day today trying to rearrange my rock and corals then powerheads. I'm fairly happy with it and on sure I'll move some stuff around when I get another coral or something.

 

[manbeast]

well it's been while and I'm on sump version 3, first sump the baffles failed and were pushed over by the weight of the water, second sump was perfect for about 2 days and then the side cracked due to the inside of the stand being warped, so now we're on version 3 with a few upgrades. first I removed the warped flooring in the stand and replaced it with 3/4" plywood and and put in carriage bolts in the board so I can use them to level it al out
I also put in a turf scrubber to help with algae next step is some macro, I like the caluerpa at my one lfs I just haven't asked if they'll sell me some yet. There's also now 20 lbs of arragonite sand in the fuge, hopefully all this will hold up this time around and help stabilize the conditions of the tank