Aquarium Newb takes on the fish world - Come watch me grow.

[Heuristic]

The more and more I read about canister filters being Nitrate factories, I finally decided I would just use it to move water and pulled out all of the filters/media and left only a bag of carbon in there. With almost 80lbs of live rock(also live sand) and a protein skimmer, I am thinking that I really don't need any kind of other filtration.

When I removed everything my nitrates were at 10ppm, so we will see how that effects everything. :fish1:

 

[Devaji108]

you might want to look in to the tank transfer method for the QT.

 

[Heuristic]

Well, I'm officially 6 weeks in to my 72 days of my tank running fallow. I'm officially getting the impatient itch of not having anything in my DT :bawling: I've been thinking of adding an invert or coral just so there's something to look at, but so far just continue to wait patiently.

I am going to be switching over to black box LED lights, but I really wasn't finding anything that great to mount them over my tank. There's no way the wife would have just let them hang from the ceiling and as you can see, there isn't a wall behind the tank to really mount them on. So, I decided I would try to build something out of PVC pipe that sits behind the stand and can hold them in place.

This is what I came up with. It will have no problems holding the lights in place

Here are the two clowns, they seem pretty happy together in the QT tank. They are starting to get a pretty decent size now.

When I turned on the lights one night, this muscle that has been in my tank forever, I suddenly noticed appears to be open. Sure enough, inside of it you could see 2 almost tarantula looking leg things in there. When I shined my line on it, it shut pretty quickly. I have no idea what it is, any idea? Should I move out more out in the open to enjoy it more?

And, I have this shell that I got as a child that I was thinking I could add to the DT. Any reason why I shouldn't? I was thinking of boiling it in RO water just to make sure there isn't some sealant or something on it

 

[vikinglord13]

The shell will eventually disolve.

That is a nice shell and I recommend keeping outside the tank as a display piece.

 

[Heuristic]

The shell will eventually disolve.

That is a nice shell and I recommend keeping outside the tank as a display piece.

Ahh, I didn't realize that. This is why I ask these things :lol:

Thanks!

 

[Heuristic]

Things are changing! This may be out of boredom from lack of fish, or the fact that there probably is going to be no better time(than the fallow) to pull everything out, throw them in to some brute garbage cans and then get to drilling! So, I got a few pieces in! I still need to get a return pump and then the Synergy overflow box before I start drilling

The mount I made for these lights isn't working quite as I planned. I think I am going to have to scour around home depot and see if there's something else that stands out to me. I need something more sturdy for them as they are not exactly very light.

 

[levi_patrick]

lighting option

lighting option

Things are changing! This may be out of boredom from lack of fish, or the fact that there probably is going to be no better time(than the fallow) to pull everything out, throw them in to some brute garbage cans and then get to drilling! So, I got a few pieces in! I still need to get a return pump and then the Synergy overflow box before I start drilling

The mount I made for these lights isn't working quite as I planned. I think I am going to have to scour around home depot and see if there's something else that stands out to me. I need something more sturdy for them as they are not exactly very light.

I purchased the same light and struggled with the best way to mount it. I ended up using a 3" butterfly bolt in the ceiling, used black plastic coating 1mm bonsai wiring and ran that to the carabiner the light came with. It turned out looking nicer than I thought and seems sturdy. You're correct, this light is heavy!
I attached a picture of my setup.

 

[Heuristic]

The return pump just came in the mail. This thing couldn't have even be a 1/4" bigger and fit.

 

[Heuristic]

And... We are off.... getting the sand out of the bottom and in to a tub was not fun, but I think once I can successfully drill the holes tomorrow, I'll be much, MUCH more excited for this project. LOL

 

[Heuristic]

Saturday was the scary day, finally going to try and concur drilling my own glass :help:

One down, took WAY longer than I thought, but seemed easy enough

Success...


Now time to put it all back together

Synergy 16" Overflow on

Finished up the plumbing, was my first time doing something like that. Everything now up and running, just waiting for the dust to clear. No leaks most importantly.

As of last night... Got the lights up and the tank has cleared. Now I can go back in and finish the aquascape and cord management.

Now I need to figure out a better return. I wasn't sure what I wanted to use so I waited to see where I was at and then just used something I had laying around. I will be replacing that in the near future :blob:

Exactly 1 week before my fish can return in to the tank after the Ich :fish:

 

[Skynite]

Like your setup, the aquascaping looked awesome in your first setup. The last picture above, are you still aquascaping that? I'm also in Sacramento, Elk Grove to be specific. You mentioned you picked up the rocks local, where did you get it from? Do they have dry rock there?

thx

 

[Heuristic]

Like your setup, the aquascaping looked awesome in your first setup. The last picture above, are you still aquascaping that? I'm also in Sacramento, Elk Grove to be specific. You mentioned you picked up the rocks local, where did you get it from? Do they have dry rock there?

thx

Ya, I couldn't see a thing so I had to stop. That was picture I took just after the tank cleared so I could go back to work on the aquascape. I've since put it back up, but I think I may adjust it some more.

I got the live rock from Aqualife in Rocklin. They do have a decent amount of dry rock if I remember right. So far I've had really good experiences with them.

 

[Darthv247]

looking good. moving along at a smart pace actually the fallow may have saved u lots of money and time to keep learning before adding more critters.

Those are some real nice looking clown fish! The larger clown turns in to the female and that is why it killed the one its own size then paired up with the little guy.

 

[Darthv247]

another great fish to add would be a Royal Gramma. real ptetty fish with interesting behaviors. likes to swim.upside diwn under ledges and things. also real affordable and hardy fish. dunno how they do with fire fish though. fire fish can get bullied easily it seems.

 

[Heuristic]

another great fish to add would be a Royal Gramma. real ptetty fish with interesting behaviors. likes to swim.upside diwn under ledges and things. also real affordable and hardy fish. dunno how they do with fire fish though. fire fish can get bullied easily it seems.

Sadly, the fire fish didn't survive the move/copper treatment. They were cool fish. Really liked watching them dart all over the tank during feeding time.

I've made a few more changes lately, including adding 2 additions :eek1:

First, I went ahead and finally put something in my refugium part of my sump. Since I took this picture, I have moved the light placement and it now hits it much more directly.

I've been wanting a skunk cleaner and saw one that looked to be very active/healthy at the LFS so I decided to pick him up

And I also added this bluespotted watchman goby. I went in looking for a diamond watchman goby, but this guy caught my eye. For the most part it has been staying in it's cave, but I catch him out and about here and there. At night sometimes he can be seen flying all over the water column. Glad I have a tight fitting lid :eek1:

 

[Heuristic]

Update
I've been having some GHA issues since disturbing the sand bed, so I actually went out and got some Margarita snails(5) and some Nassarius Snails(2) and they've been a great addition. I can see some of the damage that they've been doing on some of the uglier rocks as far as the GHA goes. They're constantly just sitting there working

Here is where the GHA is at now, it's getting there

The Skunk Cleaner Shrimp cleaning one of the snails. Been a great addition to the tank. Adds some entertainment.

Some pics of the clowns that have been there from the start

My Watchman is finally out a lot of the times now, but still pretty skittish. Here he is hiding in the corner

 

[Heuristic]

Went and got my first coral, an SPS Green Polpy Birdsnest(??). It seems like it's doing well, I've been told if it looks like a "saggy dog", it's happy.

I also went and picked up a one spot fox face that is now hanging out in QT

Not going to lie, the more comfortable he gets with me, the more he scares me. When I put the nori strip in, he now flies up to it without any fear of my hand. I'm still a little nervous about the spikes around him, LOL


As mentioned, I've been fighting that hair algae problem. I've notice I've got a macro algae growing pretty rapidly in my DT, may have to move this rock to the refugium.

The light I was using on my refugium was a certain house LED and I was not happy with it at all. It was creating a lot of cyano bacteria, so I went ahead and switched to this one that was recommended on many posts on this site

Hopefully this will now promote growth of the Chaeto and get with of the Cyano.

 

[Cancun]

Hi! Nice tank! I am following along too! Keep us all posted on your progress! ��

 

[Heuristic]

My one spot in QT eating like a pig, he will not miss a scrap no matter how much I put in there

 

[Heuristic]

I am unfortunate enough to drive by a reef store every day on my way home from work, so.... I picked up a hammer... It's about 1/4 of the size as it was when I bought it, it's still ****ED!!! shortly after the move.