Noob Toad

[Phelpsius]

Hey everybody,

 

Was inspired by a recent trip to the Big Island (Kona) and was (plotting) planning on starting my first mini coral reef. Was thinking of going with a used 75g tank I saw at rose city aquariums today. Nick there was really cool. I'm planning on having the tank be a room divider, so it won't have any backing. I will plan on running my sump off of one of the ends. Nick's also helping me with a used sump, skimmer, lighting and sand/rocks. I'm thinking of going with VHO lighting for starters. Anyway, like I said I haven't even purchased the tank or any equipment yet so I'll keep you posted. Let me know if you have any good tips. (scratch)

 

Thanks!

 

Mike

[coralreefer]

Welcome...start slowly...learn steadily...ask questions...ENJOY!

 

DrMerle

[finch6013]

Welcome to the site! My advice, jump in with both feet and do it right the first time. Dont be affraid to spend extra money and have good equipment the first time. It will save you in the long run.

[Beckie]

Welcome... well I can only say really think about going with the best you can afford. I said "oh I only want easy basic stuff I don't need all that. 1 1/2 year later I have up graded the lights, moon lights, and planning the new sump/refug. Yep Nicks a great guy and yes........gone way beyond the bacis.

 

Beckie

[dsoz]

+1. Go with the best lights that you can at the start. VHOs tend to be on the low side of lighting, and you will quickly get tired of the "easy" coral that you can keep with them. Also, they are supposed to be replaced every 6 months (I think). You would do much better if you went with a 6x54w T5HO TEK light, or a 2x250w MH system. You will be able to keep much higher end corals, and the corals that you keep will have much better color.

 

When you do get your tank up and cycled, let us know. I will usually give a "newbie package" to new people in the area just so you can have some life in your tank. Nothing fancy, but some zoas, xenia, monti digi and such. I was given a bunch of corals when I first started and it made buying the more expensive equipment more tolerable.

 

dsoz

[CrazyInside]

Welcome! I'm a toad as well!

[CCR]

Welcome new "TOADS" Glad you found us!

[JManrow]

Welcome Mike and all other newbies!

 

If you would like to receive notifications of upcoming PNWMAS Meetings and Events, please send a PM your email address to me. You will then be added to the PNWMAS Evite mailing list.

 

The Annual PNWMAS Christmas Party is this coming Saturday, December 19th. You won't want to miss it! http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/calendar.php?do=getinfo&day=2009-12-19&e=72&c=1

[Phelpsius]

Thanks to everyone for the welcomes and tips! Got the tank (75 gallons) from Nick at Rose City. Nice guy that Nick. Here is a pick of the tank:

 

 

Nick also hooked me up with a light , sump tank, protein skimmer and more. The tank is on the island of my kitchen and will be viewable from all sides. The light I got was a power compact with 4 65 watt bulbs (2 are blue).

[Phelpsius]

Picked up my rock today. I got some from mytshall (Mike) that I met on pnwmas. He had some good stuff for $2/lb. I got about 55lbs from him and was able to meet his girlfriend and dog and check out his nice tank. Thanks again Mike!

 

I then picked up a few large pieces from Nick at Rose City for $4.50/lb. He charges $3.50/lb for smaller pieces, but there were 2 large ones that caught my eye and I had to go for it.

 

I read on the salt water section of about.com about putting cut pieces of PVC on end under your rocks before you add sand. They recommend doing this for a few reasons: It increases the amount of viewable rock you have that would otherwise be buried under sand, it creates more nooks and overhangs, and it helps prevent your rocks from shifting when any sand burrowers come through. Sounded good so I thought I'd give it a try. The hardest parts were sawing the PVC and balancing the rocks, but it wasn't too bad. Here are some pics:

 

 

And here is the full tank view:

 

 

Tomorrow Ill get the sand and water and then start working on my sumpfugium!

[jgf86123]

actually phelps, the best idea ive ever seen about rockwork and putting stuff under it to make itmore stable is to use egg crate, it works absolute wonders, and you dont have to worry about the rock falling and cracking the bottom glass panes.

[pledosophy]

Looks good.

 

Next time get some PVC cutters. They kind of work like scissors for PVC, no sawing involved. They are on the PVC aisle for about $8, makes life a lot easier over the long run IME.

 

Congrats.

[CA2OR]

sure wish I would have thought of that with my rock work.DOH!

[Phelpsius]

Sumpfugium

 

Eggcrates and PVC cutters. Good tips for next time:p. Got my sand and water in before the weekend and then set up my sump/refugium today. Bought the sand from Rose City. I went with 100% sugar sand. Nick was nice enough to provide me with a couple pounds of live sand from one of his tanks to seed mine. He was also nice enough to give me salt water for my tank.

 

I decided to use a 20 gallon tank for my sump. I used 3 pieces of acrylic and 100% silicone to make a bubble trap in the tank. Here's a pic:

 

 

It's tough to make out in the pic but all three pieces of acrylic are the same size with the bookend pieces siliconed to the bottom and the middle piece elevated 1 inch from the bottom. This forces water coming from the Protein Skimmer to take a less than direct route to the outflow pump. This helps to discourage air bubbles from entering the tank. Here is a pic of the final set up:

 

 

At the top of the picture you see my inflow going into a "filter sock." Next to it is the protein skimmer. Then comes the bubble trap. After the bubble trap is my outflow pump. Sharing space with the pump is 5 different types of algae I got from Nick at Rose City. They include, red ogo, chaetomorpha, caulerpa saw tooth, caulerpa blade and bubble algae. The lamp you see above my algae has a 120 watt, 50 volt bulb.

 

I put this sumpfugium under the counter my tank sits on and surrounded the entire area with tarp. You can see the setup here:

 

 

Next up: Putting together a clean up crew. I'm thinking of starting with 5 hermit crabs, 5 snails and a peppermint shrimp. Let me know if you have any tips

 

Mike

[reef165]

Very nice start! What kind of corals and fish do you plan on? Remember though, now that ya have all the tools, it's time to slow down and read! figure out what you want in your tank, there needs and how to provide the needs before you buy. But stating with a small cleanup crew is good. Expect an algae bloom in about a week or two.

[kilmca]

Good start so far with the tank and the build thread. I met you at Nick's last week or maybe the week before, I can't remember. You were picking up the 20 long, light and other stuff when I was there. I think the most important advice I can give is take it slow and be patient. I would also look into upgrading your lights eventually the PC's will only allow you to keep a limited number of corals.

[Phelpsius]

Thanks for the take it slow advice, I think that is the best way to go about it. It's really hard to do that though! (naughty)

 

So I decided to put together the clean up crew. I ordered some test kits online but haven't gotten them yet so I took some of my water into Rose City and Paul tested it for free. The nitrate, pH and salinity were all within normal limits so I got the go ahead to add some cleaners.

 

This is what I started with:

 

1 emerald crab

1 sally lightfoot crab

2 blue dwarf hermit crabs

2 Turbo Snails

2 Astrea Snails

4 Nassarius Snails (2 conch)

1 peppermint shrimp

 

Before adding them Nick at rose city showed how to acclimate them to my water using a drip line. Basically you place your new additions into a bowl or bucket with the water from the store. You then use a small plastic tube to start flow from your tank to the container with the new additions. You slow the flow by tying a not in the line so that the new water comes in at a drip. You allow the water from your tank to do this while you take out about a cup of water from the container every 5 minutes. You continue doing this for 30 minutes, at which time you are able to add your newbies.

 

Everyone appears to be doing well thus far, although I haven't seen the Nassarius since I added them as they bury themselves in the sand. The emerald crab does a great job of scraping the algae off of rocks. I got the peppermint shrimp to help me with a few majanos I spotted. It hasn't taken them out yet but I think it is still trying to get use to the new tank. The sally lightfoot has also been a little shy, but when it is out and about it is fun to watch. The blue dwarf hermit crabs have been all over the tank and frequently travel together which is pretty cool. The Turbos have done good work on some hair algae and the astrea are very active cleaners as well.

 

Another great thing about rose city, if they don't have something you want, they can probably get it. I put in an order with Nick for the following:

 

2 electric blue hermit crabs

2 scarlet hermit crabs

2 white hermit crabs (can't remember the exact name of these but Nick said they are white, uncommon and cool)

2 halloween hermit crabs

 

I also think I am going to pick up some more astrea in the future.

 

I am also looking for an addition to the crew that does a good job of cleaning the algae off the top of the sand. Any tips on that one?

 

While getting the clean up crew I couldn't resist grabbing one more rock for the tank, which was half covered in my first coral! The price was so great and the coral so cool I just couldn't resist. The coral is a purplish anthelia. Here's a pic:

 

 

A few days later I stopped by Rose City and got three starter corals: hammer coral, green star polyp, blue hornet zoanthid. Nick was nice enough to through in the polyp for free. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I really can't say enough good things about Nick and Paul at Rose City. They are so helpful and their prices are so great, half of the fun in starting my tank has been talking to those guys.

 

I basically went with some of the easiest corals that caught my eye to start with. I have heard that the green star polyp can spread like crazy so I am trying to be strategic in my placement. I put the hammer coral about halfway up in my tank as I heard they aren't a fan of too much light. One cool surprise with the hammer coral is how it glows in the moonlight lighting I have one my lighting system. I would include pics of these guys but they aren't big enough to come out well in a pic with my iphone.

 

Anyway, that's it for now. More to come...

[mytshall]

tank

 

Did you end up keeping that leather coral I gave you? I'd look to the forum to get some corals, thats what I did and was able to fill my tank pretty good. It was definatly cheaper than going to the store. I have some stuff if you are interested.

 

Mike

[MarkBirkett]

Welcome

 

This is one fast newbee. Your thread is like you have done this before. Nick is cool to deal with and he will take care of you. One question on your set up is I could not see what supported the tank. I hope the tank is not sitting on the overhang of the counter. Tanks full of water,rock,corals ect. are very heavy. Nice start.

[Phelpsius]

Thanks Mark,

 

The tank isn't sitting on an overhang, it has supports on both sides down to the floor. Despite this I was still concerned about the weight but it appears to be doing just fine. Let's hope it stays that way.

 

Just got a new book in from Amazon today, "The Super Simple Guide To Corals.". It had some good reviews on amazon. I like it so far. A good book for a newbie. It discusses coral biology, husbandry, propogation and profiles common corals. Probably all of this info is available for free on the internet, but it's nice to have it all in an easily accessible book.

 

Speaking of websites, any on have any good recommendations for sites they frequently use for info? (other than PNWMAS of course)

[chewie]

Hi Mike!

 

Welcome to the site!

[Phelpsius]

Auto Top-Off

 

Since I last wrote I have added a few more corals to the tank. Most were supplied by the very generous dzos (aka. dennis) who gave me a bunch of great corals. Really nice guy. I now have some small pieces in the tank that hopefully in time will grow.

 

My latest project was to install an auto top-off unit to my sump/refugium. The main reason I wanted to do this is that I am about to leave for 5 weeks. I'm a 3rd year med student at OHSU and we are required to do a rotation in rural Oregon for 5 weeks so I am headed to Milton-Freewater. My folks are going to refill the tanks water for me and I wanted them to only have to do so about once per week. I've calculated that I lose about 5 gallons per week due to evaporation. So, with a lot of help from Nick at rose city, a guy from home depot and my dad I was able to get one up and running. Here's a photo of some of the parts:

 

 

 

Nick provided me with a used float valve and I went with a gravity fed system, meaning I don't have any pumps or anything to plug in, just gravity and a float valve. When the water is low, the valve opens and gravity brings water in from a raised container. When the water is high enough the valve closes.

 

Here's a great websites Nick told me about that I used as reference for the project:

 

http://melevsreef.com

 

He's got lots of cool DIY projects on there.

 

Here is a pic of the installed system:

 

 

Here's a close up of the valve:

 

 

I took the valve, drilled a hole through a piece of plastic, and then fed the valve through the hole. I connected 1/4" plastic tubing to the end of the valve. I attached the piece of plastic to the sump by using 2 clamps with some old poker chips stacked together as spacers. The 1/4" tube then feeds into the bottom of a 7 gallon recycle bin stacked on top of some old pre-med texts from undergrad (finally getting some good use out of those). The connection at the recycle bin for the tubing is pretty cool. You simply push the tubing into it and it automatically seals. Here's a close up:

 

 

All of the parts except for the float valve were from Home Depot. They actually don't carry those type of float valves so it was a good thing Nick had one. If you are going to try to build one of these yourself the guy in the Tigard Home Depot plumbing department was really helpful.

 

One of the main reasons I was able to do a gravity fed system is that I can hide all of this equipment under my tank with my couch sitting in front. Here's what it looks like when it's hidden:

 

 

Here are a few of just the tank:

 

 

 

One of the added benefits of an auto top-off other than not having to add water as often is that it decreases any potential fluctuations in salinity. If you are a fellow nube and have any questions about setting this up let me know and I'll try to help.

 

Mike