Floridiot's 157 Nano build

[Floridiot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13440339#post13440339 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gasman059
capable just not at that size of sump.

The tank is looking very very nice.

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. I agree that I can't grow enough chaeto to keep my tank phosphate, metals, and nitrate free. But any chaeto that grows will absorb these, and when harvested will remove these, will it not?

In addition to nutrient removal, chaeto also helps to supply a place for pods to grow, feed and reproduce. I also will be using activated carbon, and of course the BK.

If I end up with a phosphate problem, I'll consider a reactor later on. For now, I'm planning on not using one.

 

[brians4671]

that said today i finished sectioning off an additional 20 gallon space from my oversized sump. now i have 2 fuges for macro can only help matters.

 

[Floridiot]

Update time.

I went down to the farm today and picked up a couple of pieces of live rock I'll use to seed my dead stuff. I rearranged my rock a little bit to fit these pieces, and I like it much better. I'll post pics sometime in the next couple of days.

Now for the bad news... The BK Red Dragon 1500 has experienced an early death! I unplugged it today to clean the collection cup. When I plugged it back in, nothing. Dead. Deceased. Departed. Lifeless. Kaput. I removed the pump from the skimmer, and I can turn the impeller with my fingertips, so it is not frozen. I need to borrow a metric allen wrench from my dad later tonight so I can take apart the rest of it, but things are not looking good.

I called Proline Aquatics and spoke to Shane. I'm awaiting a return call. I guess I'll get to see first hand how good their customer service is.

 

[carlosngloria]

well hopefully it aint to bad

 

[brians4671]

i would have warned you the screws that go through the bottom and into the pump are very soft. a scredriver that fills the standard screw slot is best so it doesnt wallow out the screw. i will be ordering a new one because my hole wasnt machined big enough freezing the screw in place. between that and the softness of the screw caused it to get damaged. it was frustrating but nothing a dremel didnt fix up.

 

[Floridiot]

Shane returned my call, and they'll be shipping me a replacement pump today. Hopefully it won't take too long to get here.

 

[Floridiot]

So for the heck of it today, I decided to plug in the red dragon pump and see if it is still dead. It now works! There must be some kind of overload sensor built into the pump which tripped and then reset itself. I reassembled my skimmer and now have it working once again.

When I get the replacement pump in, I'll definitely swap it out since there is obviously something wrong with this one. In the meantime, I'm skimming again.

My tank is now showing measurable nitrites and ammonia, but not much of either. The water has finally cleared up and is now crystal clear. Thanks to the clear water, the shimmer lines are now so intense, it is almost annoying. I can't wait until it cycles, so I can get some stuff going in there.

 

[streetjudge79]

I love your tank!! The aquascaping is beautiful. I'm currently tearing down a 34 gallon RSM and putting up a 170 gallon reef. I have some nice live rock,corals and a few fish if you want to pick some up cheap.
Give me a shout at caspid@aol.com.

 

[Floridiot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13478200#post13478200 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by streetjudge79
I love your tank!! The aquascaping is beautiful. I'm currently tearing down a 34 gallon RSM and putting up a 170 gallon reef. I have some nice live rock,corals and a few fish if you want to pick some up cheap.
Give me a shout at caspid@aol.com.

Thanks for the compliment.
I sent you an email.

 

[AquamanE]

Any updates??

 

[gasman059]

YUP time for some pics buddy!

 

[Floridiot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13508969#post13508969 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquamanE
Any updates??

I still haven't received my replacement BK pump. It's a good thing the old pump started working, but I'm afraid to turn it off to clean the collection cup.

I'm still awaiting the tank to cycle. 10/3 was the last time I had measurable ammonia. Nitrites are currently showing between 0.2-0.5ppm. The 4 chromis and the yellow tailed damsel seem unaffected by the nitrites, so all is good in that front.

Once the Nitrites go to zero, I'll start increasing the photo period and I'll add a clean up crew. I may take a drive down to Key Largo to get a bunch of blue legged hermits. I believe you're allowed 50 per person, so with my wife and son we should be able to bring back 150 of the little buggers. I'll buy a few Mexican turbos for the glass. At this point, I'll be ready to add more fish.

Once I get the calcium and alk to my desired levels, I'll add a few serpent stars too. I know they don't like alk changes at all, and I'm currently running the Ca reactor in overdrive until I get the levels up. It will probably take another week or two to get to my desired levels of about 420-440 & 3.0 Alk. Right now I'm showing 400-420 & 2.8.

I'll take some pics once I get past the cycle stage, and I get a clean up crew. Hopefully I can get some more fish in there by then too.

 

[jjvanb]

Floridiot,

I have never owned or run a calcium reactor, so i dont know how much they can produce, I was just curious about your time frame for bringing up the calcium and alk. You said one to two weeks to raise it 20 ppm and .2 meq/l I believe?

If it takes so long to raise it so little would the calcium reactor be able to maintain the levels once the tank is full of corals and corraline algae?

I guess I always just assumed that a reactor is capable of producing much faster changes in the calc / alk.

 

[Floridiot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13511942#post13511942 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jjvanb
Floridiot,

I have never owned or run a calcium reactor, so i dont know how much they can produce, I was just curious about your time frame for bringing up the calcium and alk. You said one to two weeks to raise it 20 ppm and .2 meq/l I believe?

If it takes so long to raise it so little would the calcium reactor be able to maintain the levels once the tank is full of corals and corraline algae?

I guess I always just assumed that a reactor is capable of producing much faster changes in the calc / alk.

Yes, the reactor will have no problems at all keeping up the calcium requirements for a fully loaded SPS/coralline filled tank (I plan on going a mixed tank route, so it's really not an issue). My calculations of it taking one to two weeks is purely a guess. I kicked up my reactor effluent/CO2 a few days ago, and I'll be checking my levels every other day until they get to where I want.

When I mentioned I'm running the reactor in overdrive, I mean it is running at a faster rate than will be necessary for quite a while. I could easily raise my levels faster using the reactor alone, but I have no real need to. Right now I'm running it at 120 drips per minute of effluent + 30 bubbles per minute CO2. If I double these values, I can get it to my desired levels in half the time. As long as you use the coarse media, you can increase the CO2 levels considerably without having to worry about the reactor clogging.

The main reason I'm not trying to raise it too quickly is because Alk definitely has an effect on bacteria growth. I want this tank to cycle as quickly as possible. Had I used reef crystals instead of standard IO, I'd already be where I want.

 

[Floridiot]

Update time.

Got the replacement motor block on Thursday from Proline. Swapped it out, and will be sending back the old one early next week. The new one draws the same 42 - 43 watts as the old one, so I'm guessing that wasn't the issue.

My Nitrites are well over 1 ppm right now. Lights are off since I'm starting to get some brown algae spots growing on the rocks. Once the tank cycles I'll resume the lighting and I'll add some mexican turbos until I can get the blue legged hermits.

My wife has Thursdays off of work. I'm thinking about taking this Thursday off of work myself to make a hermit crab / Robby's Marina / Orantique trip down south. I'd leave my son off at school at 7:00am, get to Robby's with my wife by 9:30, feed the tarpon for about an hour, collect a hundred blue legged hermits off the side of the road by noon, and make it to Orantique by 1:00pm for a nice lunch before heading back to Broward. I know I will end up spending more in gas (not to mention lunch ) driving down there than it would cost to buy a hundred hermits, but I always love a reason for a road trip.

My only fear is that the tank doesn't cycle before Thursday. I have until Tuesday morning to decide since my work requires 48 hours notice. I'm holding off taking any full tank shots until the tank has cycled and I get some coralline growing.

 

[AquamanE]

Your tank is going to ROCK!!!!!!!!!!! Ill continue to follow this thread and gasmans since Im a copy cat for my upgrade.
:lol:

Ortanique is a nice choice, didnt know they where open for lunch, ive only had dinner there a few times.

Where is Robbys marina? you get your own hermits?? Cool.....

 

[Floridiot]

http://www.robbies.com/tarpon.htm

I guess I spelled it wrong. It is Robbie's and it is in Islamorada. You buy a bucket of sardines for a few bucks and hand feed the tarpon hanging out around the dock. There are similar places up here where you can feed tarpon (Lighthouse Point Marina, 15th street marina in Lauderdale), but none hold nearly the same amount of tarpon as Robbie's.

You can collect all the blue legged hermits you're allowed to by stopping on the side of the road and turning over rocks on the shoreline. You'll find that they tend to congregate by species. Some areas will be all red legged hermits or brown legged hermits (not good for reef), and other areas will be all blue legged hermits. The blue legged ones are normally smaller. Throw them in a bucket with an portable air pump and they're good for the day until you get them home.

Orantique has a lunch menu: http://www.cindyhutsoncuisine.com/dsp_miami_menu.cfm - I can't wait to try it.

 

[Floridiot]

The tank is still in high nitrite stage. I forgot how long it takes for a tank to cycle not predominantly using live rock. I'm now in day 14 of the nitrite cycle. Day 22 since I put fish in the tank. I know it should complete the cycle any day, but it seems like it is taking forever.

It also looks like my Keys trip got scratched for next week, since the limits on invertebrates has been reduced to 20 per day: http://myfwc.com/marine/recreational/recharvestmls.htm. I will bring home some blue legs the next time I head down there for another reason, but it really isn't worth driving down for 20 per person.

I still plan on making it to Orantique for lunch soon, but I'll probably be combining it with a trip to Fairchild Tropical gardens instead of a keys trip.

I'm now stuck in a holding pattern awaiting the damned bacteria. I can't wait to turn the lights back on so I can get some stuff in there!

 

[gasman059]

Two important notes.

The reactor will only maintain the deisred levels of calcium and alk , and in no way shape or form is designed to increase them. U need to get your calcium and alk where u want them and then your reactor will do the rest.


As far as the cycle- depends on many factors.

My tank frist day water same day some fish.- no deaths to account for.

For example in my case with cured LR(previous tank) denitrator and so forth after 1 week of water and slowly increasing my photoperiod I'll be ready in no time.

As a friendly reminder:
You should see a large spike in ammonia levels, which then goes to zero as the nitrites spike. The nitrite spike should then drop to zero as the nitrates spike. After the level of nitrates drops, your tank should be cycled and fish ready.

 

[Floridiot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13560438#post13560438 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gasman059
Two important notes.

The reactor will only maintain the deisred levels of calcium and alk , and in no way shape or form is designed to increase them. U need to get your calcium and alk where u want them and then your reactor will do the rest.


As far as the cycle- depends on many factors.

My tank frist day water same day some fish.- no deaths to account for.

For example in my case with cured LR(previous tank) denitrator and so forth after 1 week of water and slowly increasing my photoperiod I'll be ready in no time.

Actually, just yesterday I dialed my calcium reactor back down to a slower CO2 & drip rate. I now have Alk at 3.0 and calcium reads 440 - 460. I have absolutely nothing in my tank right now absorbing calcium, which is why my levels were able to rise. I do agree that under normal circumstances, it is very very hard to raise levels much with a reactor alone.

I'm definitely jealous of the fact that your system is going to be ready for corals before mine, especially since I had water in mine 2.5 weeks sooner than you. This is just the price I'm paying for starting with 90% dead rock. I'm checking my levels daily, and will be picking up some snails as soon as the nitrites go to zero. I then plan on increasing my lighting period, and adding more livestock and some of the palys, zoas, rics and/or shrooms. I'll also start with a couple of easy SPS frags to see how they do.

I also have no fish losses. My chromis and damsel seem absolutely fine and happy. It just sucks waiting...