How to increase my posts (and build a tank)..

[rampantmarine]

I have been reading many of the build threads on Reef Central and subscribe to a few. I have benefited from many of the wonderful designs and installations I have seen. I have learned much, and most importantly learned how to increase your post level to participate in this community with a custom avatar.

Actually, I have always decided that as soon as I reached a stage that I felt I would not be laughed off the forum and when the Tang Police would not arrest me for the sad and sorry state my wee little Hippo Tang was in I would include the contents of my build tread I created on our local reef clubs website..


So here goes, enjoy ( I currently have 20 posts)...and the tank under moonlights today. He is how I got this far.

 

[rampantmarine]

So I have done freshwater for many years and decided on July 4th, 2007 to start a salt water tank. At that time I had a 25 gallon tank and a 30 gallon tank, both with fresh water fish in them and we desired a change. No one ever changes the tank around right? :lol: So off to the LFS I went. The saying a fool and their money are soon parted comes to mind.

I got the following advice. Add water, and salt wait a week. come back and add Live rock, then a week later you can add fish. Damn, that's not too hard.

So I picked the 30 gallon, with two florescent lights, heater a fluval 204 and aquaclear 10 and away we went.


Items Actually needed:

Refractometer $110
Hagan Master Test Kit $69.99 on sale from $99 Hot deals eh?
Salt Bag marked "not for resale" for $15.00 (the boxes had little clownfish on them and the bag was cheaper then the pail)
Bag of Sand $30

Notice nothing here was listed in the advise I got on the phone. Remember the fool part?

Now I'm rocking, actually waiting. (you pic hounds have to read until I get the camera at christmas - sorry I was spending money on SW101)

Here is from my log book:
July 4/07 1.023sg ph 7.9 nothing else showed.
July 7/07 1.023sg ph 7.9
Purchased 20 Lbs Indo Premium Live Rock ($200)
July 14/07 1.024sg ph 7.9
Took skeleton of crab to LFS - asked is this a dead crab or what - Told it was a crab molt (I thought birds molted??).
came home with 2 Clowfish - they are the same as Damsels".
Did water change fish listless on bottom before change.
July 28 1.023sg ph 7.9
added chemi-pure and opti-carb to Fluval Filter
Cleaned tank from brown algae
added 5 astrea snails
July 30/07 Large Clowfish died (23 days)
Aug 4/07 1.023sg, 8.5ph Ammonia .1 nothing else.
partial water change, clean tank
Added 1 royal gramma and another small clownfish
Small clown has a white puffy thing on right side - dipped in freshwater 5 secs. (Remember this was a year ago - we all start as noobs :rolleye1: )
Aug 7/07 2nd clownfish added July 7 died (31 days)
Aug 9/07 Royal Gramma died - Fins badly eroded
(caught and removed a crab the size of a toonie!!)
The clownfish on Aug 9 was stuck deep in rocks and was hard to pull out....hmmm wonder why??

The crab was taken to LFS and the fella id'd him - Bad Crab. We fed the crab to the triggers - sweet revenge (he ate $70 worth of seafood - that's better than me!!)

Skip forward to Oct 3/07
Clownfish from Aug 4 died. (now I have no fish)

Sept 29/07 added bi-colour Dottyback (bought as a royal gramma)
and a regal tang.

Ordered Bob Fenners book "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" and discovered the Dottyback. first of many smart purchases.
Discovered Wet Web Media...
1.023sg ph 8.2

On October 25/07 I upgraded my tank. Surprise Surprise.

 

[rampantmarine]

After much discussion and debate about what type of tank looks good in the center of your house, what fits with the decor, makes an impression, etc. We decided on a 90 Gallon Oceanic Reef Ready tank with oak stand and canopy was the ticket to salt water tank happiness.
Remember the equation: Fool - Money= LFS + Money
Problem. No one can order it in for less than 2,000. Thanks to the global economic situation the CDN dollar strengthened so I can get a tank in Grand Forks for 1300. One week later I was on my way to do a little cross border shopping. The store owner was nice enough to offer me a 10% discount on anything else I wanted â€"œ added one pail of salt (my bag ran out and I knew I would need a lot of salt as it was a very big tank.
Here is a pic.

 

[Mikeeal]

EVERYONE here made plenty of mistakes before they knew what they were doing, (more or less.) I like your aquascaping, that looks good.

 

[rampantmarine]

So what are tiger barbs doing in a Salt Water Tank? Well aren't they brackish? :lol:

October 25/07
So now with my tank I head to the LFS and after much discussion (he knew he had a live one now and all he had to do was land him in the net). So what did I do..
Sump & Octopus Needlewheel all in one Skimmer $599
Return Pump (Resun King 1200) $139
Two 150 watt heaters $34 each (I have since shorted five of them out and returned each dead one except the last time when I tossed it as I only use them for mixing salt now).
Plumbing parts, hoses, etc.
2 cases of dead base rock $49 each
Didn’t buy my lights at this time as the canopy is very tight, I had my heart set on the Coralife all in one fixture with moonlights and 2 HQI bulbs.
And getting home and finding in the bag a free t-shirt that the store employees wear â€"œ priceless. :lol:

So I eagerly set it all up. And started it all up.
“What is that noise â€"œ is it supposed to sound like that? It kinda smells” â€"œ Wife :eek2:

 

[rampantmarine]

Wait - It gets better....

October 26/07 called LFS (I know feel real sorry for the owner having to answer my questions). He say's try this, tune this, talks about bio-load. I really want a salt tank, and know that I have to have the skimmer, and I love the oak tank, the size. (Remember I have no lights yet!) yet across the room glaring at me is my darling wife who has in her mind just seen the new living room furniture turned into a noisy, salt smelling tank that just is “not doing it”.

October 27/07 I was instructed to call and see if I can return the skimmer and we would like our money back. â€"œ Couldn’t do it. Partially, because I am a believer in Caveat Emptor, partially because I really wanted a salt tank. But in the course of the call (I told the guy â€"œ look if I can’t quite this down it’s going Fresh water) he suggested this website “Reef Central” .....

October 28/07 Off to another petstore
Fluval 405 ($99) another sale!
Coralife freshwater lamp ($79)

October 29/07
Broke down 90 gallon â€"œ became Freshwater
Two Sw Tanks â€"œ 25 & 30 Gallon

Fish at this time 2 yellow-tail damsels, bi-colour dottyback, and a regal tang. And a happy wife.
Basement accumulates a box with a very large sump/skimmer, big tub of dried baserock. 10 ice cream pails of rinsed and dried coral sand.

 

[rampantmarine]

So let’s skip to February of 2008.

Here is what I had 1.025sg and ph 7.9
I had been frustrated with my lack of ability to stay at 8.3 (I used reef crystals and they tested at 8.3) so I did the aeration test as noted on RC and no change. Only went up after adding Chemi-pure and stayed up for about 4 weeks then dropped slowly. Ca = 340-360 (I am sure I messed up the counting) dKH = 10
Some pics of the crew at that time (damsels in one tank, the dottyback and tang in the other).

 

[IridescentLily]

I like the way you keep your maintenance logs, with more notations on how things look, the status of your livestock etc, included with the water parameters.
Very helpful.
I like your rock design too.

 

[rampantmarine]

So I still wanted the big tank. oh, what to do....what do I do..

UPGRADE!!

120 Gallon custom made with overflow, black trim.

So time for another cross border run - now the CDN$ is better then the US$ Whoo hoo!! Downside - the day we left on the day trip it was a blizzard.

I picked up a coralife PC fixture (yup - it's got moonlights!)
2 Koralia 4's and another pail of salt. Then I hit Menards for building supplies.

The Ebo jager heaters I obtained locally.

My Skimmer (six months old and ran for 3 days)

 

[rampantmarine]

Thanks, call being anal an occupational hazard. :lol: :lol:

So where to put this new tank? Now that I have been introduced to Reef Central, ordered even more books (J. Sprung Vol3, Eric B.'s Corals, and a few others I am getting really smart and feeling real stupid too.)

Well I always liked the in wall builds - I would follow a thread for a couple of hours - then forget which one I was reading as I didn't subscribe and well - i am sure you all know where that leads. 2am, too tired and the laptop dies and you didn't even see the fella put water in the tank yet!

So where is a wall, the house is new, so upstairs is out of the question, Reason - See October 25 to 27.

So here was a wall in the basement - convienently not yet covered in drywall.

So to enclose it you get your brother-in-law to yet again come and move a fish tank. So understanding and only asks for one beer :lol: :lol:

Then you play with the lights.....

 

[rampantmarine]

Feb 19/08 1.025sg ph 8.2
Collapsed the 25 gallon and moved everyone in to the 30 gallon tank.

Jump ahead to about April 24/08

When the 25 gallon was in the way downstairs it was sold, construction and glass tanks don’t share the same space very well.

How do you pass your pre-cover Plumbing & Electrical inspection?

Have an inspector that likes fish and you talk about your in wall tank sitting on a stack of 75 sheets of drywall!!:lol:

That and *of course*, you do it right!

Green Moisture resistant drywall on the inside - regular outside.

A little tape and mud....

You plan your plumbing, on the never ending stack of drywall...

 

[rampantmarine]

Along the way you use RC to find these little fella's

"Flatworms - baby" I was told...harmless.

Add an Emerald Crab on Mar 29/08

I decided I wanted some flow - so I planned my returns, got around to cutting everything and test fit it all together.

The good thing about posting this on a forum is when you look at it after you see that you should swap the union and the ball valve around.

 

[rampantmarine]

Back in April I piced up Seachem's Reef buffer and builder, and added some buffer on May 11/08 (1 tsp.) it helped bring up the Ph

May 27/08 1.027 ph 8.3, ca 420-440ppm, dKH 9-10
Ammonia .1, No3 5.

30% water change. I was by now getting a bit lazy on maintenance of the tank, and knew I had to get off the pot on the in wall tank. So I glued and primed the pipes together and let them set for 24 hours.

Somehow it took me another 6 weeks to get to the following point...WATER

I woke up early July 12 with the goal of getting my occupants of my 30 gallon in to a new home. By this time I had noticed and it was very clear that my tang was suffering from HLLE. The others forced it to retreat to the rock work far to much.

Still No Leaks !!

:dance:

 

[rampantmarine]

:eek1: :eek1: :eek1:

Tested the overflow and

That's what happens when you put the gasket on the wrong side!!!

Solution:
Get out the shopvac and suck the overflow dry...Check
Go search RC, Hope the search works! and find a solution...Check
Curse the fact that even after you work the bulkhead nut loose you can't get it over an elbow nor can you get an elbow up an overflow...Check

get a Power tool...

Go to Store and buy a new Elbow, coupler, and reducer. Clean up bulkhead - double check everything. Test fit and test with water before glue!!

Go and have a beer. Job done.

:beer:

 

[nikon187]

looking good.. How long till livestock?

 

[mattpenn]

looking good

 

[rampantmarine]

Thanks for the kind words...

So with water in the tank, the leak plugged it was time to go back to the LFS and pick up a few choice pieces of Live Rock.

I let them run in a bucket with an airstone and a heater overnight while I played with prospective rockwork.

The lone island

This was actually the most unpopular design. On the local reef club website (we call it the fish forum as it is both Salt and Freshwater). No one voted for it in the poll I ran.

The Two islands with a valley was a design I had seen before in build threads and I created this version:

This design was tied with the design next design, a letter M or E shape...

The family was polled and they picked the last one, so that was what I set out to build.

 

[rampantmarine]

When it finally came down to putting the rocks in the tank, it was hard to replicate the design I had done on the table. After letting the base rock sit in the salt and after the sand was added I had to let it clear. I was very surprised at how quick the sandstorm cleared, in two days I was ready to add the live rock I had been keeping in my 30 gallon tank.

Here is the finished view... Tank Right Side....

Tank Left Side...

and the full tank shot....

 

[rampantmarine]

So with the new Live Rock, come more hitchhikers...

and this fella,

I used this forum to try to find out about the hiker, and answered my own question on Marc's Site. It is called a Stomatella.

http://www.melevsreef.com

It is an awsome resource to id things, if you have not visited it.

So I have to get rid of Aptasia, I have been advised to try injecting them with Vineagar. Will this harm the other occupants of the tank?

I should note that I tossed in a cocktail shrimp to help the cycle spike up before adding any of my inverts from the old tank (they were in QT for the time being, along with regal tang, dottyback and two damsels.

The ammonia spiked and within a couple of days dropped off to zero on my test kit. I guess the 20Lbs of rock transferred from my 30 gallon helped the cycle. (I have a total of 30Lbs in the tank). When the Diatom bloom occurred after 5-6 days I added my inverts (test kits are not showing any Ammonia, Nitrate/Nitrite). I also know that I needed a few more, so again off to the LFS....

Total existing and added to tank:

16 Astrea Snails
2 Star Snails (the shell is star-shapped)
7 Cerith Snails
6 Hermits (Blue Legged)
2 Emerald Crabs (one was added previously in the 30 gallon and has not been seen during transfer or since - he is shy).

Total that day ($70)

 

[rampantmarine]

Okay, Here is the part where the Tang Police come and haul my butt in jail.

I have noticed that my Tang had MHLLE, at least that was what I was pretty sure it was. I eventually found a picture of what the signs were and here is my Tang on July 13.

So here is my treatment over the past 14 days...

Selcon is added to the flake food. The Damsels were sold along with the dottyback to provide peace and rest. Diet was alternated between Brine shrimp, nori and flake. He does not eat the nori all that heavy, but picks better at it when I soaked it in garlic guard.

July 20/07
The R&R and food is paying off..

Today he had the first taste of mysis shrimp, soaked in Slecon. Here is the condition today...

I see improvement. I will not be adding to the display until he is showing good feeding behaviour and the majority of his colour is back to normal. Once he has adjusted to the display and is doing well I will add another fish to the QT tank. No aggressive fish will be added. I am sure that the dottyback was preventing the tang from feeding properly and giving it too much stress. Still not pretty.