G. Ternatensis Tank Build!

[Islandoftiki]

This evening, ammonia was back down to zero. Nitrite also zero. I did a 90% water change to ditch the nitrate. I will run a full set of parameters tomorrow. If all goes well, Chuck will be getting acclimated to the new tank tomorrow!

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[nmotz]

Wow, congrats, it's been a very interesting project from start to finish. I'll definitely reference it for any future tank builds that I do. Great job!

 

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, I did a 90% water change last night after confirming that ammonia and nitrite were zero.

I added the Chemipure elite, Purigen and the filter floss.

I just tested the water and I'm still around 10 to 20 ppm nitrates, which seems a bit high still for the mantis. His current tank is 0.

I just setup a softball size ball of chaeto in the back chamber with a light which should help bring the number down a bit and I'll do another 5 gallon water change tonight.

I'm going to be adding dwarf cerith snails probably this weekend to help clean up the diatoms. I'll be keeping the lights off until the nitrates are 0.

What do you think wait, or do you think it's ok to add him yet? I'm tending to think wait. I may add a fish to keep the tank cycled.

 

[nmotz]

Dude you are way more cautious than I am. The mantis will be ok with low nitrates. It's of course preferable to not have them at all, but it's not going to be lethal.

I'm surprised that there are still nitrates even with the protein skimmer. I guess you'll just have to give the chaeto time to work its magic. I say let him loose into his new home!

 

[Fartin'Gary]

I would just wait and let it do it's thing. If you keep changing the water it will just take longer to cycle.

 

[Kharn]

90% water change wouldn't that just be like effectively starting from new...since the 90% new water added hasn't matured yet / cycled ?

 

[Islandoftiki]

All of the denitrifying bacteria are on the surfaces of the rock, sand, etc. Little to none of the bacteria are in the water column, so doing a large water change simply removes nitrates that show up at the end of the cycle.

Today, I swapped the skimmer from the temporary tank to the 25 gallon tank and got it up and running. It's already producing skimmate since it was already broken in on the temp tank.

The addition of the skimmer to the first chamber caused some issues with the plumbing for the chiller as it's all a very tight fit in the first chamber. I think I'll go to Home Depot tomorrow and pick up some parts to make the chiller plumbing work. I'm contemplating drilling the back of the tank at the first chamber for a couple of bulkheads. I'm also thinking about running the plumbing discreetly directly into the main display. We'll see how that goes. The chiller isn't absolutely necessary at the moment, so I have plenty of time to come up with an elegant solution.

I picked up some dwarf cerith snails, a couple of small bumblebee snails and the biggest turbo snail you've ever seen. The guy at the LFS also dug around through the tanks for about 20 minutes collecting bristle worms for me. I got about 5 decent sized ones... and they're bristle worms and not fire worms, thankfully.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Here are some pictures of the tank as it is now. We also added some shells and such that will probably make good building materials.

 

[Fartin'Gary]

All of the denitrifying bacteria are on the surfaces of the rock, sand, etc. Little to none of the bacteria are in the water column, so doing a large water change simply removes nitrates that show up at the end of the cycle.

Today, I swapped the skimmer from the temporary tank to the 25 gallon tank and got it up and running. It's already producing skimmate since it was already broken in on the temp tank.

The addition of the skimmer to the first chamber caused some issues with the plumbing for the chiller as it's all a very tight fit in the first chamber. I think I'll go to Home Depot tomorrow and pick up some parts to make the chiller plumbing work. I'm contemplating drilling the back of the tank at the first chamber for a couple of bulkheads. I'm also thinking about running the plumbing discreetly directly into the main display. We'll see how that goes. The chiller isn't absolutely necessary at the moment, so I have plenty of time to come up with an elegant solution.

I picked up some dwarf cerith snails, a couple of small bumblebee snails and the biggest turbo snail you've ever seen. The guy at the LFS also dug around through the tanks for about 20 minutes collecting bristle worms for me. I got about 5 decent sized ones... and they're bristle worms and not fire worms, thankfully.

I caused a mini cycle in an established freshwater tank by changing out a large amount of the water to put into another tank. I ended up killing a very nice cichlid.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Tonight will be the night that Chuck gets transferred to the 25 gallon tank. I did one more big 50% water change last night to get the nitrates down below 5 ppm. The chaeto in the back chamber and 20% weekly water changes should take care of the rest. Now, to rob all of the discosoma mushroom corals from my 10 gallon tank that aren't happy because they get too much light. Then it will be time to start collecting mushrooms from wherever I can find them.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Chuck went into the new tank last night! He immediately ran to the back of the tank and it hanging out near the back of the tank on the far side. No big surprise there. Hopefully he'll make himself comfortable and start exploring soon.

Acclimating:

Hanging out, while he acclimates:

Chuck visits the kitchen!

Chuck checking out the living room. My fiance checking out Chuck. She loves him.

Here's a good reference picture for people wanting to know how to determine the sex of their mantis. Feel free to use it...

The acclimation went well. I had already matched the salinity and temp of both tanks before moving him, so it should have been a pretty easy transition.

When I first netted him out of the temporary tank he was all fists of fury, I'm glad I didn't try to pick him up by hand. LOL

 

[nmotz]

Ha, love the "boy parts" graphic...glad he's finally in his new home. You took all the precautions in the world, I'm sure he'll be back to his old self in no time.

 

[Islandoftiki]

I just talked to my fiance who is home today. She just fed him some scalops. He's been checking things out. Still mostly in the back, but she caught him peeking at her around the corner when she went to get some coffee.

Here's a little video of Chuck hanging out in the acclimation box last night.

And a really short video of him going into the tank. Not much to see, just him going in and straight to the back.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Ready for some pictures? Here we go. I picked up a whole bunch of mushrooms at upscales. They were having a buy one, get the 2nd half off, so I went kinda nuts...

Chuck peaking out from a hole in the rock.

Chuck lurking while I take pictures. He's been very active and poking his head out from every nook and crannie.

This one had a rhodactis mixed in. I guess I'll leave it.

Yes, they are that iridescnet.

Everything is going well in the tank. I have a bunch of snails on order from Reef Cleaners and some of the Live Rock Ranch live sand that I'm going to add to all of my tanks.

After the holidays, I'll start adding more mushrooms as I find them.

 

[Islandoftiki]

More pictures, because who doesn't like pictures?

I finally had a few minutes to sort out the chiller plumbing and get it all dialed in so the canopy could go back on and I could call the mechanical part of the tank 100% complete.

Here's the chiller plumbing. Stainless Steel clamps and black vinly hose:

I decided to return the chiller to the filter chamber. Seems to be working very well. The light for the chaeto is the old original LED fixture for my Fluval Spec. Ideal for chaeto.

This was the original problem. I needed a hard line to connect the chiller pump so the vinly hose wouldn't kink and it would clear the canopy and the skimmer cup. That needle valve is part of the Tunze 9002 airline modification. Well worth the 5 minutes to do it.

This is the first chamber with the skimmer and the pump for the chiller.

The canopy is finally back on and the tank is looking finished!

Full Tank Shot under the actinics:

Chuck comes out for a visit!

Hey, this is MY tank... Don't make me have to hurt you!

 

[Islandoftiki]

It looks like the chaeto did it's job. The nitrates are down from 5 ppm to undetectable with my API test kit.

A Reef Cleaners order will be arriving probably next week. I'll be adding a bunch of dwarf ceriths, some zig zag periwinkle snails, some dwarf planaxis and some pods and display macro algaes.

I've also made a small order from the Live Rock Ranch for some of their insanely awesome live sand that I'm going to add to all of my tanks to given them a bit of a recharge of little critters.


So far, Chuck hasn't bothered with the couple of bumblebee snails in the tank. He looked at one for a while but didn't bother it. It think it was too small for him to bother with.

Most of you have seen this, but if you haven't, here's a great TED talk about mantis shrimp: http://youtu.be/RHTTIg7HY80

 

[Fartin'Gary]

How did you acclimate him? Did you only temperature acclimate or did you do drip?

Just for everyone, you should always drip acclimate. Inverts need quite a bit longer. I do mine for about 2 hours. That tank and set up looks great. Why do you have a chiller? Is is very hot in your home?

 

[lljdma06]

It looks like the chaeto did it's job. The

Most of you have seen this, but if you haven't, here's a great TED talk about mantis shrimp: http://youtu.be/RHTTIg7HY80

Fun lecture, thank you. Haha, Kharn needs to copy the sounds for his movie. :lol:

 

[Islandoftiki]

How did you acclimate him? Did you only temperature acclimate or did you do drip?

Just for everyone, you should always drip acclimate. Inverts need quite a bit longer. I do mine for about 2 hours. That tank and set up looks great. Why do you have a chiller? Is is very hot in your home?

I acclimated him for about an hour, but prior to that, over about a week, I adjusted temperature and salinity of each tank to match. pH was the same in both tanks. Basically every measureable paramater was identical save for 5ppm nitrate in the new tank (which was quickly comsumed by the chaeto). Both tanks use the same salt as well, so I felt comfortable enough in a shorter than average acclimation. I used a turkey baster to do a pseudo-drip acclimation. Same thing as a normal drip except I used a turkey baster and stood here for an hour slowly dripping the new tank water in.

A couple reasons for the chiller...

As with most smaller AIO tanks, the pumps are in the back chamber and they tend to generate heat. Add to that a couple powerheads in the display area and you have a recipe for a warm tank in the summer. I like to keep my tanks around 78 degrees and in the summer, we set the A/C in the house to 78. Add heat from the pump and the powerheads and this tank would probably be running at 84 degrees or more.

The previous owner found it necessary to add the chiller, so I bought it from him when he sold me the tank. It was such a screaming deal that I would have been dumb not to buy it.

This tank is about 90% covered on top, so evaporation is almost none. The skimmer keeps the oxygen levels up, but most of the heat stays in the tank. Thus, I have a chiller.

My little 2 gallon AIO tank also needs a chiller in the summer.

My 10 gallon tank doesn't have a chiller, but I'll be adding one before the summer. Last summer, I had to run a fan on that tank 24/7. That tank has an ATO, so it wasn't a problem, but I'd be happier with a chiller on that tank.

 

[Kharn]

Fun lecture, thank you. Haha, Kharn needs to copy the sounds for his movie. :lol:

I'm trying to find a 1080p HD quality version then maybe