My 55g Coldwater Aquarium

[gabew]

Im not really sure what to make of this. I am starting to get a tiny bit of cyano. I know it is bad in a reef tank, but so is almost any kind of algae (is cyano algae???) so I have no idea if it is good or bad in my tank. There isn't very much, just a few small patches. But it certainly doesn't look good so I would prefer if it were not in the tank. Th biggest patch I can see is also on the powerheads. Any advice on weather this is a good or bad thing would be appreciated. (sorry bad pic)

Well algae is not the only thing growing. Sponges have also started to reproduce and grow!!! Most of the sponges I have are of this one kind. It can be lots of different colors, red, orange, yellow, pink, grey etc. It seems to be a colony of tons and tons of 1mm tunicate type things (I am going to call them "polyps" even though I am almost positive that is totally incorrect.) When it reproduces it sends out its eggs or spores or whatever sponges reproduce with, and when one finds something to attache to it grows into a single polyp. I have been seeing these guys pop up all over the place. Literally everywhere, rocks, glass, kelp, shells, crabs, pluming, literally anything solid. It took me a while to figure out what they were, I thought they were snail eggs, but then they started to multiply. If that one polyp managed to land on a good spot it would start to multiply forming a tiny colony. Well when I started seeing this I pretty quickly realized that these were sponges not eggs. I chose one colony to watch and see how it grew. I just chose a random one on a rock nice and close to the glass easy to photograph. Well here are some shots so you can see how fast it grew. The first shot is from 8/15 and the second if from today.

I was absolutely amazed my how much it grew. I am hoping that now that the mussels are gone there will be much less competition for food and the sponges will start growing even faster.

Anyway that is what has been going on lately. Really sorry about the pluming but hopefully I will get that back in track soon.

 

[gabew]

Well the hurricane ha arrived. So far it hasn't been terrible. It is pretty windy and rainy. We just lost power for about a half hour. But on came back on quickly. Crossing my fingers.

 

[norskfisk]

No diving today then ... ? ;-)

The tunicate like things aren't sponges, they are tunicates ;-). Colony forming sea squirts.

Cyano isn't bad if you just have a little of it. I had it some times, but it went away by itself.

 

[gabew]

No diving today then ... ? ;-)

:lol:

The tunicate like things aren't sponges, they are tunicates ;-). Colony forming sea squirts.

Ohhhhhhhh that would make sense. :fun4:

Cyano isn't bad if you just have a little of it. I had it some times, but it went away by itself.

Ok good to know. There isn't much so lets hope it goes away.

 

[gabew]

Update

Update

Well it has been a little while now since I updated. Not much has been happening. Despite the lack of biological filtration everything seems to be doing good. The mummichogs are getting huge and so are the eels (will update with pics of all that later). However the important thing is I finally (not lying this time lol) got my pluming!!! :dance: I have not gotten the return pump though just the pluming. Hopefully I will buy that soon. Here is a pic to show it all. Not in the picture is the 45mm diamond tipped drill bit I got for drilling the sump. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to start assembling stuff!! :lol2:

As far as i can see the only problems are: 1) the fittings I got for the nylon tubing are too big. Easy to get new ones with a simple trip the the hardware store though so not a big problem, and 2) the flexible tubing doesn't match the black shc 80! :lmao:

 

[iwishtofish]

Keep up the good work, Gabe! Still following along, of course! Glad to hear you weathered the storm ok.

I am eager to see how the new sump turns out.

 

[gabew]

Keep up the good work, Gabe! Still following along, of course! Glad to hear you weathered the storm ok.

I am eager to see how the new sump turns out.

Thanks iwishtofish. I am really glad you survived too, especially considering how much worse it was where you were. I look forward to updates with your tank too!

 

[iwishtofish]

Alright, Gabe - been a month!

 

[gabew]

Alright, Gabe - been a month!

Yes, I know, I am waaaaaay overdue for an update. It has been a really busy month. But I am happy to say I have made a good amount of progress. I am not quite finished, be perfectly honets I could have got a lot more done, I have just been a bit lazy. Anyway I will get an update with the progress so far up very soon!

 

[iwishtofish]

I'm eager to see what's going on!

 

[gabew]

Update

Update

Well finally I am posting an update. The protect over the past few weeks has been a complete overhaul of the sump. This is to fix many problems. All of the little noob mistakes we all first make, for example cheap pluming and valves, baffles to high for the skimmer, ect. Also there were quite a few things I needed to change to make the tank more suited for cold water. Originally I pretty much set up a reef tank with a big chiller but I began to realize that this was the wrong approach. Such problems as not enough insulation, a crappy submersible pump, and not enough biological filtration. So to fix all of this I decided I might as well completely redo it all. To be honest it has been a very big protect, but I am getting it done. As I said before I likely could have gotten a lot more done a lot faster, but I have been a little lazy, oh well. I am not yet finished but I have gotten the biggest chunk done. And I (and others) think it has been far to long since I last updated, so here you go.

After buying most of what I needed, I could start. One slight challenge I was facing was that while I was replacing all of the old equipment the tank wouldn't be running. This meant I would have to get all of the actual removing and replacing done as quickly as possible to insure minimal stress on the animals. So before doing the actual switch, I wanted to get as much done beforehand as possible. I spent the first few weekends doing just that. I drilled and cleaned both tanks. The drilling went well despite being my first time. I attached the styrofaom insulation to the tanks. This time using the method Jon suggested a while ago so insure maximum insulation. I also did other small things, really anything I could to insure a smooth transfer. Then I realized that to greatly simplify things, I could do the new sump setup without the FBF of the new pump. I could use my current pump and just let it sit where the FBF would. This would take a little bit of the work out for the actual switch allowing to let me get those things done later without any extra down time for the tank.

So then over the long weekend I finally decided to do the transfer. I knew it was going to be a big project so I started Saturday.

The first step was to get rid of the old equipment. I removed the skimmer, ATO, reactor, return pump, and all the other things in the sump. I also removed all the rocks, sand, algae, and other life from the fuge and put it all in a bucket. Then I could remove all of the pluming, being careful to spill as little as possible. The unions I had added made doing this much much easier. It also allowed for easy installation of the new pluming. I also moved all of the wiring from in the sump area to the cabinet to the left of the tank. This provides a much safer and more convenient place for it all.

Once everything was out I could drain the sump. I did this with a simple hose siphon. Now I could remove the old sump!

Once the old sump was gone I could remove all the insulation attached to the walls of the sump. I removed this because it wasn't doing much and to allow room for the new sump and fuge. Then I removed the part of the stand that the sump had bee sitting on. If you go back and look at how the stand was built you will see that the sump sits on a piece of plywood supported by two horizontal 2x4s attached to the vertical 2x4s. Well I wanted to remove the horizontal 2x4s so that the plywood was instead supported by several 2x4's running the short way horizontally, which in turn were sitting directly on the floor. I did this for a few reasons. 1) it gives me a few extra inches for the pluming, skimmer, reactor etc. 2) it is stronger, since the old design was only designed to hold ~10-15 gallons of water I didn't feel it could handle the new ~40 gallons of water. And 3) It spreads the weight out a little more. Like I said above the new system has much more water in the sump area so not having this supported by the same 2x4s that support the DT helps spread the weight out over more of the floor.

Finally once I had the new floor ready I could place the new tanks. It was a little bit tricky I go them in and they fit perfectly. Once the tanks were in I could start doing the new pluming. I reused a lot of the old pluming. Mostly for the temporary stuff until I get the FBF and new pump. Here are two diagrams to give you an idea of what I ended up going with for the pluming. The first is what it is currently like and the second is that it will be like when everything is totally finished.

Once the pluming was set up I could start installing the equipment. The skimmer and reactor fit very nicely. I am still not sure whether or not I am going to have an ATO, for now I do not. It isn't really necessary considering how slowly water evaporates in a coldwater tank, but I already have one and it is convenient. We will see.

Then finally finally I could start adding water!!! :bounce1: I was going to get water from the beach but I realized that it was going to be really really crowded so I ended up just making my own. Once both tanks were filled I could turn everything back on! And it all worked!!!!!! (after a little bit of tinkering I will admit) :dance: :celeb1: :lol2:

In the end the project took all of Saturday and lots of Sunday. The tank survived more that 24 hours with no filtration or cooling with no tragedies except one small crab that got eaten by a big crab in the bucket of fuge stuff. I have been closely monitoring the tank for leaks and other problems. A few minor things have come up that I have been able to fix. As it always is with a new setup. The return pump is now pumping much much more water. I can tell because I have to have the valve allowing water back through the sump almost half open as opposed to almost closed before. This actually almost caused a flood when I first turned the pump on as it quickly overpowered the overflow! I am guessing this is because of the use of flex tubing instead or elbows this time. But it really is a big change. Are elbows really that bad? I am not sure if this is related but the chiller also suddenly seams to be turning on for much shorted periods of time. I never actually measured it so I cannot say if it is on less, but it only turns of for a few minutes at a time now. Either this is because of the increased flow making it transfer heat faster or the new insulation insulates better. I am not really sure.

On the list of things I still need to do are. Build and install the acrylic FBF. Buy and install the new return pump. Finish insulating the piping, the double glass for the sump and fuge. Make it all more organized. And lots of other little bits and pieces. That will all happen in weekends and updates to come.

Oh and of course, pics! :thumbsup:

 

[gabew]

Lol it even got its own new page!

 

[iwishtofish]

Hey, good work! I know how hard it is to get motivated to do a big project like that. I am glad you had basically no problems with the animals.

Have you noticed any difference yet as a result of the re-insulation? Also, is that a brick in there?

 

[C-Rad]

Great job! I like the design shown in the diagram. That's how I have my cold water tank set up, with only one big external pump, and a gate valve so that you can control the pressure to your FBF. How will you attach the insulation?

Did you notice any condensation/water damage to the stand when pulled the old sump out? Are you planning to lower your tank temp over the winter to match the local sea temp?

 

[gabew]

Hey, good work! I know how hard it is to get motivated to do a big project like that. I am glad you had basically no problems with the animals.

Have you noticed any difference yet as a result of the re-insulation? Also, is that a brick in there?

Thanks! Like I said I never actually measured how long the chiller ran so I can't give any exact numbers. But it appears to be running for much shorter periods of time now.

And yes that is a brick. Story behind that is that when I first got my rocks, that brick had a large clump of fucus attached to it so I threw it in the fuge. The fucus eventually died and I removed it so now I just have a brick. For now I simply have the rocks form the old fuge in there but eventually I will get some more rocks for it.

Great job! I like the design shown in the diagram. That's how I have my cold water tank set up, with only one big external pump, and a gate valve so that you can control the pressure to your FBF. How will you attach the insulation?

Did you notice any condensation/water damage to the stand when pulled the old sump out? Are you planning to lower your tank temp over the winter to match the local sea temp?

Thanks, I'm glad it gets the approval of a coldwater expert! Yes the gate valve is for precise flow control through the FBF. I am thinking of using the same pipe insulation I used last time. It seemed to work nicely. The only place I saw any water damage was the inch or so of plywood directly in front of the old sump. This constantly got splashed and I had noticed it before removing the sump. I was happy to see however that the damage didn't continue under the sump at all. And yes I will slowly begin to lower the temps again with winter.

 

[gabew]

Quick thing. On Sunday, a very early snowstorm caused a 16 hour power outage. The tank survived alright thankfully. Actually kind of funny, since there was no heating during the outage, by the time it was back on, the tank had headed up by exactly 1 degree!

Also I have been making a little progress with the protect. Hopefully by Monday I will have done enough to be worthy of an update. Stay tuned.

 

[gabew]

Update

Update

As promised a quick update.

I have been making very slow progress with things. At this point I am really in no rush. It is getting to be winter, no more diving, most likely no more collection trips really until next spring. The tank seems relatively stable with the small biolaod. I have pretty much all of winter to get the tank ready for summer, when I will hopefully fully stock the tank, and really get things going. The next few months are going to be pretty boring, I am warning you.

One fairly annoying thing. It seems the ballasts on my lights finally died. I Bought the Odyssea lights knowing full well they were cheap and I was taking a risk. But I am very happy to say that I really had no problems with them, at least until about last week. The ballasts finally seemed to have died and I am looking into replacing them. I started another thread here with more information asking which I should buy. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=19492378#post19492378

I have been getting many of the minor things done over the past week or two. Mostly keeping a close eye on the new setup to make sure there are no leaks or other problems. So far there has been only one leak, the overflow bulkhead. This was a problematic spot last time too if I remember. I need to get that fixed. I have a small cup under it for not so no water can damage the wood.

I insulated the piping with more of the pipe insulation. That should mean very minimal heal loss and almost zero sweating with the pipes.

I also am working on fixing up the styrofoam insulation around the tanks. Adding a little bit more here and there. Also gluing it on as Jon suggested wherever possible.

Originally I was not going to have an ato system, since there would no longer be any room under tank with the new refugium. But after a few weeks of manually topping it off I realized just how much of a pita it really was. Even though the evaporation is slow, maybe only two to three gallons week, it is just more work. So I set the ato back up, this time next to the tank.

Still on the to do list are: double glass the sump, buy the new pump, and make the fbf.


On a different subject, I haven't talked about the tank itself in ages. Not too much has been happening, but there are a few things worth noting.

I seem to be experiencing my first pest in the tank. It is a tiny white worm/slug thing bugging my anemones. I am working on getting a picture, but they are white, maybe a milometer long, ovular, and they move very slowly. I am not sure if it is the worms or the anemone but a mucus layer covers the anemone being attacked. I am not sure how to get rid of them. Are there any fish that might eat them? This might be one of the problems with having a coldwater tank, no body knows what any of the pests are! :debi:

On a happier note, slowly, very very slowly, the sand bed has been coming alive with stuff. From the side you can see patches of red, green, and black. I am assuming this is all the aerobic bacteria developing. Also I am seeing bubbles forming and and coming out of the sand. Again I am assuming this is the nitrogen gas being produced my said anaerobic bacteria. This is diffidently a good sign as it means the deep sand bed is starting to grow, removing nitrates from the water.

 

[iwishtofish]

Hey Gabe, I'm glad you are making steady progress on your system, but sad that we won't be seeing any collection trip photos anytime soon! I do hope you will still post occasional photos of the goings-on in your tank (especially those pests).

Without adding new critters, this winter should really give you an opportunity to see your tank reach some kind of equilibrium regarding the animals' relationships to one another. I hope you post some insight on that.

 

[gabew]

Hey Gabe, I'm glad you are making steady progress on your system, but sad that we won't be seeing any collection trip photos anytime soon! I do hope you will still post occasional photos of the goings-on in your tank (especially those pests).

Without adding new critters, this winter should really give you an opportunity to see your tank reach some kind of equilibrium regarding the animals' relationships to one another. I hope you post some insight on that.

Thanks iwishtofish, slowly but surely! I still hope to be able to go on a few collection trips over winter. The only way that I see though is through traps. Hopefully find some nice new spots.
I won't be able to get any pics up until I get the new ballasts, but don't worry I will still post some.
I hope you are right. That is one of the positives and negatives of coldwater tanks, you are for the most part flying blind!

 

[gabew]

1 Year Anniversary

1 Year Anniversary

Well today is the tanks 1 year anniversary. :celeb1: Well more specifically the one year anniversary of the first post I made in this thread. It comes with mixed feelings. On one hand I wish I could have gotten more done. But I am pretty sure I would have felt that no matter how much I had gotten done, it is natural for a reefer (or coldwater-er). And on the other hand, I got so much done!!! :lolspin: Re reading the first few pages, it is truly impossible to believe how incredible it turned out. And honestly, I am only getting started!

Looking back, I really liked where things started heading towards the end of the summer. And I am hoping that with all of the new equipment, next summer I will really be able to push things. I would like to get more interesting livestock, go on many more dives and collection trips, find some new spots, and use what I learned over the past year to really get the tank to flourish. I have a feeling that in such a season dominated environment, the summers are always going to be about collecting, diving, and finding new livestock. Then the winters will always be about slowing down (not stopping) letting things do what they would do naturally, and observe that to learn even more for the summers. Both in the wild and in my tank, many things die over the winter, leaving more room in the summer to repopulate with new and more interesting livestock. It will be fascinating to see what happens over the next year! Can't wait! :beer: