Finally joining the club - Krogh's 240 in-wall

Okay folks... time for an update:

First, the replacement Dart arrived this past Tuesday and it's now installed. Works like a champ so I can confirm that the original pump I'd received was defective. With the good news of a working return pump... the bad news is now I'm dealing with microbubbles in the display. I've tweaked the returns by adding reverse dursos to try and quiet them down and limit the bubbles there. So far I'm pleased with the sound levels but the bubbles persist. Do I need to just be patient with the new pump and give things a week or two to slime over?

I also spent a bunch of time yesterday getting the tunze multicontroller and the RKE installed, wires tidied up, and programmed. I had hoped for the moonlight controller and pods would have arrived by now but I'm still waiting.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13555760#post13555760 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
I like the new avatar...so it begs the question...what high school did you go to? :)
Click to expand...

mccliffy, I actually grew up in western Iowa surrounded by mostly Cubs fans. My dad and grandfather were big Cards fans so that's where I get it from but it didn't hurt growing up watching guys like Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, and Darrell Porter. I named my yellow lab "Ozzie" after the Wizard and it's also where I get the "OZ" in my nickname.

Are you a closet Cardinal fan living in the windy city? If so, you're a brave, brave individual!
 
Sorry I've been delinquent in updating this thread but there's been little to report as far as the tank itself is concerned.

I took a water sample in to have it tested and while ammonia is showing up good, I was seeing slight amounts of nitrites (0.25mg/L) last Sunday and I'm still seeing the same as of today. So still no fish in the tank.

The skimmer has been tossing out some smelly nog which has also slowed recently so hopefully this will point to signs of life in the tank in another week.

I picked up a used 29gal off craigslist and got that set up last week as a quarantine tank and I also installed a humidistat in the fish room last week and plugged a panasonic bathroom vent fan into it so the room now stays at a reasonable 50% RH. We had a cold snap last week and I was leaving the fishroom door open to share the head and humidity with the rest of the house but the temp has climbed up to 80 today and I'm glad I can now keep the humidity in check with the fishroom door closed. It'll definitely pay dividends next spring.

So that's about it for now... hoping to get a few zoos and chromis in the tank in the coming week assuming nitrites cooperate.

One question for the general audience... any recommendations on starting vodka dosing? Nitrates are around 10-15 now and I'm toying with the idea of slowly dosing vodka into the tank to keep nitrates down from the get-go.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13582884#post13582884 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ozkrogh
mccliffy, I actually grew up in western Iowa surrounded by mostly Cubs fans. My dad and grandfather were big Cards fans so that's where I get it from but it didn't hurt growing up watching guys like Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, and Darrell Porter. I named my yellow lab "Ozzie" after the Wizard and it's also where I get the "OZ" in my nickname.

Are you a closet Cardinal fan living in the windy city? If so, you're a brave, brave individual!
Click to expand...

I'm very much out in the open about being a Cards fan :)
 
I'm in, especially since we're literally neighbors.

This is one awesome tank! That light system looks like you could cook steaks under it!
 
Oh BTW if you want to throw some chaeto and seed your fuge, I can spare a fistfull of it, my fuge is overgrowing with it. I pm'ed you my #.
 
I just noticed you were asking about dosing vodka to keep nitrates down. That chaeto I mentioned above should do the trick once it grows out some, if you have a lighted fuge. That little 10g nano I have has a fairly stiff bioload, with 0 nitrates and barely detectable phosphates. I keep it lit 24/7 with a 26W screw-base CF light/6500K.
 
Thanks redfishsc! I will definitely take you up on that offer!

Overall, I'm not thrilled with the accessibility of my sump but at least I have plenty of room should the power ever go out and the overflow and skimmer drain down into the sump. Problem with limited access is I don't really want to put anything in there (like chaeto) that I'll have to deal with later on. I knew about this going in and the plan is to put in a separate fuge/grow out tank. Once I get that plumbed in, I'll be able to get a nice chaeto ball growing.

Have to head out of town first thing in the morning and I won't be back until the end of the week. Hope to get to work on a fuge when I get back.
 
Lol, I'm not running out of chaeto any time soon. Looking forward to seeing this beast in person! Will make my nano look like a wet thimble!
 
Finally have some fish!!!

Stopped in at The Fish Room in Raleigh on Friday afternoon with a water sample and nitrites are finally reading zero. 6 weeks of patience has paid off! Unfortunately, the harem of green chromis I had hoped to add as my first livestock were pretty well gone. A couple of smaller stragglers remained so I opted to go with some ORA false percula clowns for starters. I also picked up a couple of zoanthid frags, one a bright green and the other a decent orange. Got them all acclimated and added to the tank Friday night and spent a short time on Saturday trying to get some decent photos but no luck yet. I just can't seem to get a decent macro shot with my camera. It's a Nikon Coolpix 8800. Decent megapixels and supposedly awesome macro mode (can take pics as close as 1.2" from subject) but not and SLR and for whatever reason, I haven't been able to find the right settings yet for the tank. Right now, the camera won't focus on subjects in the tank at higher zoom levels. Time for some reading and lots of trial and error with the manual settings. Once I get something worthy of posting, I'll add the first livestock pics.


Maintenance Update: Had an impeller in one of the three Eheim 1260 pumps on the H&S skimmer crap out on me over the weekend. With the water drained from the skimmer, I spent some time cleaning the other two pumps while waiting for a replacement impeller assembly. Not liking the replacement costs but with help from the kind folks at FinsReef.com, I should be back up and running either tomorrow or Wed at the latest! Even with just two pumps currently active, it's still creating some very nice, dry foam!
 
Tank Looks Awesome

Tank Looks Awesome

Hey I just saw you tank today and it looks awesome. I was actually at Fish Room this week and I am waiting on a quote from them for a 300g tank. They said there is a guy in Wake Forest that likes to show his tank...is that you? I would love to see your wave box some time.

Thanks

Eric R.
ewrosen@gmail.com
 
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