darrellw

You may be right! But I think it will be 4 or 5 years before I upgrade. By then, who know what we will have for lights, probably mini-fission suns of our own (to go with the flying cars we are all supposed to have by now). Some, I had a 5 gallon with dwarf seahorses for a couple of years, and a 20 gallon fish-only about 20 years ago, but never a reef. I've had freshwater tanks virtually my entire life. -Darrell

I learned what a pazookie is! :-)

Thanks, and thanks for the warning about the gramma. I was trying to find one more fish to add. Of course, three may be enough anyway. Parameters are holding steady, and I do have some green algae forming. What was little, nearly clear threads yesterday morning were clearly little green threads, starting to branch out today. -Darrell

Hi Garrett, Thanks for the kind words! As far as fish, my plans were a clownfish (or pair), some sort of clown goby, and maybe a Royal Gramma. Would any of those fit the bill? -Darrell

So, not much exciting waiting for the tank to cycle, but I did see my first sign of life yesterday, a little bristly worm. He was out and about, but got camera shy once I got my camera, so I didn't get much of a picture. If you squint you can kind of see him. The first 3 days after adding the rock showed no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. Then I was out of town for a couple of days, and returned to see a golden-brown covering on my rock (diatoms, I presume?). The first day back my ammonia tested at 0.25 PPM, but went back to 0 the next day. Nitrite and nitrate still have not registered. I think I'm seeing the starts of some green hair algae. There are definitely some small branching threads growing, but they are too small and thin to see if they are green. I've also found three things that looks like (and are about the size of) freshwater hydras. I assume they are either hydriods or apistasia, but I'm not even sure if they are alive, as the only motion I can see looks like the current. Anyway, if all my parameters hold, I'm considering adding a couple of hermits and a few snails this weekend. Is that too soon? Here is a FTS from yesterday, and the worm.

Nah, just anxious. All the time building the tank and stuff I couldn't wait to get the rock in. Now it is killing me to wait a few weeks to start adding some "life". Hopefully some thing will appear out of my rocks in the meantime to keep me occupied!

Tested my water again, SG still 1.025, pH 8.4, and ammonia, nitrate and nitrite all still at 0 ppm. With the cover and bigger heater temp has finally hit 78 degrees. -Darrell

Cool! :-)

$935 Which ends up being about 1/2 off my total system hardware cost. But it uses about half the electricity of an equivalent MH, and should last for 10 years before the light degrades (would need to replace the MH bulb every 9-12 months at ~$50 a pop for a quality bulb), so that helps offset some of the cost. Plus it is much more flexible, with the timer controls and ability to adjust the color temp and light intensity. -Darrell

Yesterday I built a top for the tank. I really like the open top, but I don't want to lose any fish to "carpet surfing", have two very curious cats, and even the 100W heater was only keeping the temp at 75 (the room runs in the lower 60s this time of year). The top was less than $20 in materials at Tap Plastics. They cut the two panels (12" x 16 and 4" x 16"), and I bought 7 1" x 1" squares, two hinges and the handle. I already had solvent from building my ATO container. The had a solid, continuous hinge material that I was going to use, but it was so stiff that I didn't think the top would stay open. Note I took the picture with the moonlights on, but also the room lights, which are causing the pinkish tinge. I also isolated one of my major sources of noise, my return pump's vibration was causing a resonation in the glass sump. I added some rubber feet that I had on hand, and that helped a lot. Also, my skimmer seem to be quieting down (still nothing to pull out of the tank). I moved my VorTech up an inch or two, and dialed it back to about 75%, and now my sand is staying in place. Lastly, some closeups of the rockwork under the moonlights.

Of course, there are opposite opinions: http://angel-strike.com/aquarium/GroundingProbes.html http://angel-strike.com/aquarium/GFI&TechnicalDetails.html

Livestock plans right now are some zoas and rics, a frogspawn, torch or hammer, a clown goby, a clown fish or pair, and maybe a banded coral shrimp. Along with some snails, and a few hermits (I know they don't have the best rep, but I like them). Maybe a xenia, perhaps in place of the frogspawn/torch/hammer. My daughter saw one at Seahorse yesterday she really liked.

The tank? If so, I built it.

I got it at Petco, "Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Aragonite Reef Substrate".

This is a continuation of my DIY thread on building my sump, glass cube and stand: http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9655 Anyway, since I put my rock and sand in yesterday, I thought I should start a thread here now. Hardware: 17" x 17" x 18" deep home-built glass cube, 3/8" thick, starphire on the two viewing panels (~20 gallons), rimless with black silicone 14" PFO Solaris I5 LED light Home-built glass sump (~10 gallons) Eheim 1250 return pump 100 watt heater (50 watt couldn't keep up) Tunze 9002 Nano DOC skimmer VorTech MP20 Glass-holes.com Super Nano overflow Mechanical ATO system Yesterday I added 30 lbs of well-cured live rock (from Seahorse), and 20 lbs of black "live" sand. My daughter and I spend about 20 minutes at Seahorse building the rock, and even took a picture of what we came up with. Of course, when we got home we couldn't exactly recreate what we came up with! I also discovered that I either need to move my VorTech up a bit, or turn it down a bit (it is currently in lagoon mode at 100%), or maybe both as this morning the sand had re-arranged itself. I did my first tests today, and came up with: SG: 1.024 pH: 8.4 ammonia: 0 nitrite: 0 nitrate: 0 Quick question, since the rock was well cured, if I don't start to see any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, should I add "something" to make sure I have an active biofilter? Or if I don't see anything in a week is it OK to start adding livestock?

I know what you mean :-). On the positive side, I should never have a heat problem, since the room it is in runs about 62 in the winter, and only the high 60s in the summer. In fact, I may need to get a bigger (or an additional) heater, the 50W I put in still hasn't raised the temp out of the 60s (though the tap water is running very cold right now, about 50 or so). -Darrell

According to this article, it is a myth that they are a problem: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/eb/index.php Certainly for species that live on the reef crest there is going to be lots of bubbles in the water. Also, technically if you can see them with the naked eye, they are bubbles, not micro bubbles :-). -Darrell Looks like the microbubble section is in part 3: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.php

OK, good news and bad news. If you saw my thread in the Equipment forum, you will know that once I got the Solaris going it was kind of loud. Well, once I fired up the pumps and skimmer, it was clear I could not have the tank where I was planning. Since it is now "banished" to the family room, I'm keeping the Solaris. Here are shots of the whole setup. The bottom is my "wet" section, with the sump and ATO holding tank. It is pretty small, almost a gallon, but was about all I could still fit. I have a small fan to keep the humidity down, and I have a small stick-on LED light to see my way around. Not sure of the color temp :-). The top section of the stand has all of my electrical. The 4 switch box controls my return pump, heater, skimmer and cabinet fans. This section also has a fan to keep the temps down. The VorTech and Solaris are not controlled by the switchbox. I plan to install a face plate over this section to mount the VorTech control box, and I will put a cable retainer on door so that it can serve as a small shelf. I guess it is time to continue in the "Member Tank" section. I was hoping to get my live rock in this weekend, but I'm just now adding the salt, and probably won't have time tomorrow

Thanks for the replies. At the moment, the Fish Need It 250W is cheaper than the 150W: http://www.fishneedit.com/metal-halide.html Next question, 14K or 20K bulb? I don't plan on any supplemental lighting. -Darrell

If you've seen my build thread, you will know that I'm putting together a custom made glass cube. I was planning to use a 14" Solaris I5. I love the light, BUT the combination of the power supply fans and the fans in the fixture is just too loud. So I'm reconsidering my plan. First question, for a tank that is 17" x 17" x 18" deep, should I go with 150 or 250 watts of MH? I'm looking at the Aqua Medic Ocean Light, or the "Fish Need It" knock-off. Do either of these have fans in the fixture or the ballast? I'm also considering the Hamilton Reefstar, which I can order with LED moonlights, but the pendant is much bigger, so I will probably refit one of the others with a couple of LEDs. Thanks in advance for any advice! -Darrell

Quick update, the stand is coming together. Need to finish up some odds and ends, like bending the conduit for my light pole, but should be ready to fill this weekend

That seems like a reasonable estimate. In my opinion, you could use 3/4" ply for a tank that size. The important thing is to make sure it is well put together (screws and glue), and that you have the sides, back, top and bottom well tied together. To be super safe, you could build a 2x4 frame, then skin with thinner plywood.

Ah, OK. I didn't use anything. I figure the display will be around 200 lbs, and I figure that 3/4" plywood is plenty strong.

Just pencil and paper :-). I worked at my Grandpa's cabinet shop during high school and college, so it wasn't too hard for me to lay out on paper. He could have just done it in his head. -Darrell