Argh, I hate being a noob...

[Coelli]

I know that many of my issues are self-inflicted by choosing such a small tank (BC29) to start with but I'm at that stage where I'm trying to figure things out as fast as I can so the mistakes are really annoying and it feels like I'm spending all of my time working on the tank and not enjoying it.

Some things are going well so it's not all bad; I love the Apex, it was worth every penny, and the ATO was probably the second best purchase.

But then I have times like this morning where everything suddenly is a mess. I wanted to run chaeto for pod production in the second chamber, so I picked up the InTank Fuge basket and light and put them in about 10 day ago when I set up the tank. There's a coarse square sponge that goes between chambers 2 and 3 and InTank says DO NOT take it out because it will keep chaeto from getting near your return pump, so I didn't. I just remembered that I didn't rinse it when I did the first WC on Friday, so I figured I would do it now. I hit Feed mode, moved everything out of the way of the sponge, and went to grab it out. HOLY SMOKES THAT THING WAS CLOGGED. Like, nasty. And using a flashlight to look down into the chamber after removing it was like looking through a mudstorm. I knew the 5 minutes was almost up so in a panic I switched to my 1-hour mode, grabbed a siphon and siphoned about 15% of the tank water cleaning out the chamber and trying to get as much as I could out. There was so much gunk it actually clogged the siphon. No wonder my nitrate has been going up!

I didn't want to put the sponge back so I thought I'd put some plastic canvas in that space to block any chaeto. Ran to my cutter, cut it to size, slid it down, and... it floats. Grabbed a suction cup to hold it in place at the top and it just floated out and then up. Grabbed a suction cup with a heater clamp and wedged it in place. Got my flashlight, looked down, and... there's a piece of plastic that keeps the plastic canvas from sliding all the way to the bottom, defeating the purpose. Decided okay, screw it. It's going to stay open, no way am I putting that sponge back in!

And all the way along I'm dropping stuff and being just a complete butterfinger and bull in a china shop. I scared the dogs with my cursing.

Then I tried to re-fill the tank into the back chambers but it was slopping everywhere and over the back. I wound up just pouring it over a flat live rock near the top of the tank, apologizing profusely to everything living in it.

Now everything is back together (and my return pump is suddenly twice as strong) but oh, I hate being a newbie at this and not having everything working more smoothly... I am sure there will be many, many days like this ahead but I am looking forward to them being fewer and farther between.

Of course now I just had a thought on how to get the canvas to stay... :facepalm:

 

[Sk8r]

The amount of cheato you can grow in that space isn't worth the aggravation. Use piles of rock rubble in amongst your larger rocks, for pod production.

My advice is get a nice alkalinity test, watch that, do regular water changes, and see if you can keep the water flow clean enough to ditch the sponge (they're nitrate factories: live rock is the best) Have a refractometer, check things weekly, and keep a log of your chemistry so you can dose and correct before it goes all the way bad.

There are tricks: using a clean funnel can direct a pour. One of your problems is of course that everything is miniaturized. But practice makes perfect. You'll get it.

 

[IanWR]

Another tip to get water back into your tank with a minimum of aggravation is use a small pump. I use a MJ900 to mix salt, and to pump it into my sump. Just used some spare 1/2" hose, and no more hoisting a 5g bucket of saltwater.

 

[Coelli]

Another tip to get water back into your tank with a minimum of aggravation is use a small pump. I use a MJ900 to mix salt, and to pump it into my sump. Just used some spare 1/2" hose, and no more hoisting a 5g bucket of saltwater.

Yeah, I have an inline pump but it's way too strong for small amounts of water. I'm 5'2" and fairly strong but lifting a full jug that high and controlling the poor isn't easy. I will definitely be looking into a smaller pump.

I've been tracking the basic parameters almost daily just to get used to it, and I do have a refractometer but I'm buying my seawater from my LFS and I know they're pretty consistent (they are a coral store, not too many fish). It doesn't seem to vary much. Now that the ATO is in I am not sweating that as much.

I got the Apex with the lab PH probe, so that's easy. :lmao:

I did ditch the sponge completely, and the plastic canvas is in there now; it'll keep any chaeto out of the return chamber without restricting flow or harboring a bunch of crud. I'd like to keep the chaeto in there as a safe haven to increase the pod population even if it's marginal. The space is there, I might as well!

I also just re-adusted the water level in the back so the intake drops waterfall-like directly into the floss first (which I'll change at least every 2-3 days) on the top of the media chamber. It's just there to catch bigger stuff. I'm feeling pretty good about how it's set up now, but that was nuts for a few minutes there.

 

[m0nkie]

I've been having great success in the past few months of reefing.. these two weeks, I can't get my GSP to stick to my back wall glass no matter how much glue I use.. every morning I dig around the tank for random GSP pieces...

I can foresee a future GSP outbreak in my tank already..

that and random zoa death.. of course it has to be my favorite pieces.. not the uglier ones..

bumps happen