My 55 gallon reef project
- Thread starter dcombs44
- Start date
dcombs44
New member
I have a timer. The issue is with the ballast not lighting the lamp without a bit of wiggling, so the lamp shuts off on time, but will not light without me there to convince it to do so.
I had to leave, and left it on before I got a response. I may have to start this one over. I'll be back late tomorrow night, so hopefully it won't be too late.
Thanks for the help guys.
I had to leave, and left it on before I got a response. I may have to start this one over. I'll be back late tomorrow night, so hopefully it won't be too late.
Thanks for the help guys.
dcombs44
New member
Well....I arrived home minutes ago to find things on the brink of disaster. My autofeeder had overfed my qt tank, crashing it, and killing my remaining clown. The autofeeder also missed the tank a few times and spilled food all over the floor. The top off float switch on my display also stuck drying out my sump.
On the bright side, the sump return didn't burn up and is working fine now, the phyto culture is darker than I left it, and everything in the display seems to be fine.
Seems I have some fine tuning to do before I leave again.
And now, I suppose I can have that pair of true percs after all.
On the bright side, the sump return didn't burn up and is working fine now, the phyto culture is darker than I left it, and everything in the display seems to be fine.
Seems I have some fine tuning to do before I leave again.
And now, I suppose I can have that pair of true percs after all.
melev
Well-known member
Getting everything set up well in advance before you leave town is the best method. Even then, a flawless system can still go haywire any time of day or night, whether you are in town or out of town. Murphy's Law states that it should happen at the worst time possible, so your being out of town just taunted him to strike. 
FroMan
Insane in the Brain
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11377561#post11377561 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Odds are there are many with reef tanks around you that are totally unaware of their neighboring hobbyists. You should consider forming a club.
Marc is right on this one. A guy in the local CTARs club actually sits on the other side of the cube wall from me in another group. I've said hi to him in passing, but never really spoken to him. Last january I happened to notice him at a meeting. We've been chatting ever since.
BTW nice work on your tank. I've had my 55 up for ~2.75 years now. If you can I would suggest adding a larger sump. I've noticed fewer fluctuations since I added mine about 1.5 years ago.
I custom built a stand so that I could fit up to a 55 gallon under the main display.
dcombs44
New member
Riddle me this.....so I go into the LFS to replace my clowns. I have a sample of my QT water as there is a 7 day guarantee on livestock with a water sample.
The little girl that tests my water says that there's an ammonia reading. No big deal. I can guess why.
I explain to her, that I had an issue with my autofeeder overfeeding my tank and "crashing" it so to speak.
I told her that I replaced about 90% of the water in the tank with water from my tank (that is already cycled). I said I guess I could just dump the water in the QT and replace to whole amount with tank water, and she said, but then your tank would cycle again.
I stated that if I used cycled water, with a sponge from my sump (used for bacterial base), that I would avoid any cycle other than the small spikes of the additions of livestock to the QT. She then got smart with me and said, "Do what you gotta do dude," and walked off.
At this point I was a bit stunned. If I'm entirely missing the basics of the nitrogen cycle here, please correct me.
She said that there's new substrate (no there's not) that will cause the tank to cycle. I calmly stated, "I'm not trying to anger your or make you mad, I'm just telling you if you add cycled water and a mature bacterial base to a glass box, your cycle will be minimal at best."
She didn't like that either. So anyway.....I left. I wasn't trying to talk my way into the guarantee, I was just planning on going home and letting the tank do it's thing for a day or two and try again, while educating someone a bit in the process. Backfire.
Anyway, I just tested my QT for ammonia at home, and it seemed that there is even more ammonia than tested at the LFS. I may have to scrap the QT water, start a new sponge in the sump, clean the qt tank and start over. I don't want to have to go through a whole cycle just to throw some fish in QT.
The little girl that tests my water says that there's an ammonia reading. No big deal. I can guess why.
I explain to her, that I had an issue with my autofeeder overfeeding my tank and "crashing" it so to speak.
I told her that I replaced about 90% of the water in the tank with water from my tank (that is already cycled). I said I guess I could just dump the water in the QT and replace to whole amount with tank water, and she said, but then your tank would cycle again.
I stated that if I used cycled water, with a sponge from my sump (used for bacterial base), that I would avoid any cycle other than the small spikes of the additions of livestock to the QT. She then got smart with me and said, "Do what you gotta do dude," and walked off.
At this point I was a bit stunned. If I'm entirely missing the basics of the nitrogen cycle here, please correct me.
She said that there's new substrate (no there's not) that will cause the tank to cycle. I calmly stated, "I'm not trying to anger your or make you mad, I'm just telling you if you add cycled water and a mature bacterial base to a glass box, your cycle will be minimal at best."
She didn't like that either. So anyway.....I left. I wasn't trying to talk my way into the guarantee, I was just planning on going home and letting the tank do it's thing for a day or two and try again, while educating someone a bit in the process. Backfire.
Anyway, I just tested my QT for ammonia at home, and it seemed that there is even more ammonia than tested at the LFS. I may have to scrap the QT water, start a new sponge in the sump, clean the qt tank and start over. I don't want to have to go through a whole cycle just to throw some fish in QT.
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Id clean the tank, get new spounge and use water from DT. Call JRE's and see what he has, unless you wanted some more of the misbars. That "LFS" is funny sometimes I watched a piece for about 3 months had some star poylps, green palys and 1 other thing on it. I asked how much it was and the guy told me it wasnt for sale! go in the following week and they told me it sold few days prior!!! pizzed me off big time.
Thursday spoke with manager about this BTA he says its a bigger one Ill take $45 for it witch I was cool with ( its 5-6" ). Go backin friday night he was gone spoke to one of the girls got it for $31.99!! I was happy as hell till I woke up @2:30 this morning and it was in the filter!! All good now though. I was surprised when it took food already.
Good Luck on your clown hunt.
Thursday spoke with manager about this BTA he says its a bigger one Ill take $45 for it witch I was cool with ( its 5-6" ). Go backin friday night he was gone spoke to one of the girls got it for $31.99!! I was happy as hell till I woke up @2:30 this morning and it was in the filter!! All good now though. I was surprised when it took food already.
Good Luck on your clown hunt.
dcombs44
New member
Update: My phyto culture hit the two week mark, and did not crash over my three day lights on episode.
Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have time to split it.
On another note, I found out I'll be out of town for 2 weeks toward the end of January, so I'll probably put off buying new clowns for until the beginning of February.
I'll post pics of the phyto tonight if I get a chance.
Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have time to split it.
On another note, I found out I'll be out of town for 2 weeks toward the end of January, so I'll probably put off buying new clowns for until the beginning of February.
I'll post pics of the phyto tonight if I get a chance.
dcombs44
New member
Some people swear by dosing phytoplankton, and some swear against it.
It is particularly recommended to use when feeding baby clams, rotifiers, pods, and it is thought by some to be beneficial to some corals (if I understand correctly).
http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html
It must be dosed sparingly because it could cause a phytoplankton bloom in your tank (turning your water green) or cause a nutrient spike due to the possible amounts of phosphates in the water that the phytoplankton is grown in.
I'm not an expert on the subject, that is just some of the input I've received from the boards here.
Myself in particular dose it because of my mandarin. I'm attempting to sustain the copepod population for her because I've yet to get her to eat processed food.
I'd like to set up a separate tank to raise pods in, but I currently don't have the space. Then I wouldn't have to dose the tank directly with phyto.
It is particularly recommended to use when feeding baby clams, rotifiers, pods, and it is thought by some to be beneficial to some corals (if I understand correctly).
http://www.melevsreef.com/phytoplankton.html
It must be dosed sparingly because it could cause a phytoplankton bloom in your tank (turning your water green) or cause a nutrient spike due to the possible amounts of phosphates in the water that the phytoplankton is grown in.
I'm not an expert on the subject, that is just some of the input I've received from the boards here.
Myself in particular dose it because of my mandarin. I'm attempting to sustain the copepod population for her because I've yet to get her to eat processed food.
I'd like to set up a separate tank to raise pods in, but I currently don't have the space. Then I wouldn't have to dose the tank directly with phyto.
dcombs44
New member
Here's a question and response from WetWebMedia that I came across concerning sustaining pods. It's basically stating that the pods will thrive on leftover food and rotting algae. Maybe if I make it a practice of feeding my sump a bit now and again, that would be enough to sustain them. Thoughts?
Promoting Pod Growth - 11/20/03
Thanks for all the help in the past and your continued dedication to hobbyist.
always welcome.
I recently set up a new reef tank and want to get all the beneficial critters really thriving in it b/f I add anything that will prey on them.
a good notion... and even better to do this I a refugium. Either way do provide a dense matrix for them to grow in like Chaetomorpha spaghetti algae
Do I need to be adding something for the pods to eat, or will they find enough to eat/reproduce in the Fiji live rock.
small amounts of foods/organics will sustain them... rotting and live algae and a bit of prepared fish foods will accelerate all
There will not be anything in there to produce extra detritus and there are only a few very small pieces of visible macro algae on the rocks. Also, the rock was curing in another tank for approx 3 weeks after import so not expecting any cycling, might also help to mention that I am running a ASM G2 skimmer with little to no skimmate production at this point, and have a 15gal refugium plumed into the system as well that I put a couple of smaller less attractive pieces of rock and some rubble in, it's pretty empty at this point. Thanks for your help,
Ryan
an effective skimmer/brand... just needs tweaked/tuned. Do seek others on the message boards that own this same model and get perspective on how to adjust it. Best of luck, Anthony
Promoting Pod Growth - 11/20/03
Thanks for all the help in the past and your continued dedication to hobbyist.
always welcome.
I recently set up a new reef tank and want to get all the beneficial critters really thriving in it b/f I add anything that will prey on them.
a good notion... and even better to do this I a refugium. Either way do provide a dense matrix for them to grow in like Chaetomorpha spaghetti algae
Do I need to be adding something for the pods to eat, or will they find enough to eat/reproduce in the Fiji live rock.
small amounts of foods/organics will sustain them... rotting and live algae and a bit of prepared fish foods will accelerate all
There will not be anything in there to produce extra detritus and there are only a few very small pieces of visible macro algae on the rocks. Also, the rock was curing in another tank for approx 3 weeks after import so not expecting any cycling, might also help to mention that I am running a ASM G2 skimmer with little to no skimmate production at this point, and have a 15gal refugium plumed into the system as well that I put a couple of smaller less attractive pieces of rock and some rubble in, it's pretty empty at this point. Thanks for your help,
Ryan
an effective skimmer/brand... just needs tweaked/tuned. Do seek others on the message boards that own this same model and get perspective on how to adjust it. Best of luck, Anthony
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dcombs44
New member
Also found this quote supporting the phytoplankton angle.
Copepods are sometimes called the insects of the sea because there are so many of them, about 10,000 species! They can be found in fresh and salt water. Copepods are very small, usually not more than a few millimeters long. The largest copepod, the Pennella balaenopterae, lives on the finback whale and can grow to be over a foot long! Copepods are crustaceans. They have two antenna, a shell and segmented bodies. They graze on phytoplankton and zooplankton. Copepods are the largest source of protein in the ocean!
Copepods are sometimes called the insects of the sea because there are so many of them, about 10,000 species! They can be found in fresh and salt water. Copepods are very small, usually not more than a few millimeters long. The largest copepod, the Pennella balaenopterae, lives on the finback whale and can grow to be over a foot long! Copepods are crustaceans. They have two antenna, a shell and segmented bodies. They graze on phytoplankton and zooplankton. Copepods are the largest source of protein in the ocean!
