My new 120g... Take two.

[magdelan]

After much thought, I decided to downsize my 180 to a 120. With this downsize, I am saving quite a bit of money on electricity beginning with my new lighting selection... 4' Tek Light with two blue plus and four actinic plus. I am still running my ASM G4x skimmer and currently have an Iwaki 40 in place as my return. I rearranged the aquascape today and am finally VERY happy with the out come. Here are some pictures that I took tonight. I hope you enjoy them.

 

[pascal32]

looking good! very pretty stack The 120 dimensions are awesome!

 

[Henry Colf]

Nice job Mike, the tank looks SWEET!!!

 

[aquadonkey]

Looks great! Like the rock work - lots of nice swimming room.

 

[Capt_Cully]

Looking good Louis!

Did you get the tank with that overflow? Can you elaborate on what type it is? Thanks. Great rock stack!

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Great rock stack!

x2

:thumbsup:

 

[solRNY]

nice! liking the aquascape

 

[naprestsleep]

nice, good to see you got everything going.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

great aquascape! Is that the creeping Hydno in there?

 

[magdelan]

Mark, that overflow box is a custom Walter Overflow (captain7359). It's a pretty straight forward design. Three black acrylic sides and a clear bottom (to allow light to shine through). Then I have two one and a half in bulkheads in there for the drains. I am going to add a couple Street Elles to it to do the one up, one down. i think it's called a Herbie style overflow??

Gary, yes, that is a creeping Hydno...creeping ever so slowly. I love it though!

I am very happy with the way my stack turned out. When I first began this tank 3 weeks ago, I just threw all the rock in there. Finally yesterday, I took the time to make it nice. I'm very satisfied.

Also, after adding a fourth baffle to my sump and puting a ring of silicone around the return pump.... I still have micro bubbles. I'll add pics later. So now the water in the sump going from right to left goes over, under, over, under, return.

 

[magdelan]

More Pics with a question attached

More Pics with a question attached

I have some New Tank Syndrome going on from the new sand bed and some newly added not so live rock. Should I be blowing the cyano off of my sandbed and rocks daily or let nature take it's course?

 

[magdelan]

Here is a video of my new tank demonstrating the microbubble issue that I have.
Click on the picture to view the ideo.

 

[Steve Canyon]

I envisioned an entirely different situation! When I think microbubbles, I think milky cloudy almost too small to see individual bubbles. If what I'm seeing is what you are concerned with, they seem like a few full size couscous size troublemakers. I don't know if that means that the source is any different though. If you turn off or redirect the powerheads, will they gradually rise to the surface?

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Same. Microbubbles to me look like a dissolving alkaseltzer. I'd be curious if somehow an air pocket keeps forming in the plumbing which slowly gets drawn out? I missed how the search for the source of the leak went. I like the look of your tank. The clear bottom overflow is a great idea. When I was getting rid of cyano I used a piece of airline ran through a length of ro tubing to give it some backbone to syphon it out. It'll get stuck but usually on the end, but for the most part the algae lifts easily away. Further it takes out very little water giving a long working time; syphon to a filter sock in the sump it and there is no need for make up water. The stuff likes to become the dominant nutrient consumer, so I'd keep working on it; some chemical filtration like gac, carbon, purigen I feel helps too if used at a conservative dose.

 

[pascal32]

Those bubble look like they are originating from the rocks and sand bed.

I'm new, but I'll take a swag -

(1) I believe various algae can produce bubbles including Cyano - I know Dinoflagellates produces a lot of bubbles
(2) a deep sand bed can have nitrogen bubbles as part of the dentrification process

 

[Kent E]

I was about to post that I'm always amazed by your rockwork, then as I read everyone else's posts, they said the same thing... so I won't say it.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

like mr.m posted

like mr.m posted

those types of bubbles often appear when an air pocket develops inside plumbing.

what are you running for your main circ pump.......

is it's water intake well submerged? does it have a screen on it?

Nice rockwork! (again)

 

[Capt_Cully]

Awesome rockwork Yaeger

​

 

[Capt_Cully]

On the serious tip, are you finding the 2, 1 & 1/2 inch drains a bit much? I'm debating on the size plumbing to employ.

What return pump (estimated GPH) are you running through the 2 of them?
When you swithch to a Herbie it would then be one down, and one safety correct?

Thanks.

Oh and, great rockwork!

 

[magdelan]

The rock work is pretty good, eh? Gary, my main circ is an Iwaki 40. The return bulkhead is as far down the glass as possible. It runs about 6-8 inches underwater. There is NO screen on the intake.

Mark, I feel that the two drains are only working around 35%-40%. I'm going to try the St. Elles tomorrow. I won't be adding a valve to it so we'll see what happens. i may need to add one down the rd. to dial it in. And yes, I am going to do the Herbie the way you said. The Iwaki 40 is pushing (I think) around 1200gph. I have three returns, but only have two in use.

This may be a good question... I would love to create a Gyre. If I remember correctly, that basically mean that water is circulating in a clockwise motion whether it is east to west or north to south. I would like mine to go north to south meaning flow moving in one dirrection in the upper water colum and flow moving in the opposite dirrection in the lower (sand) colum. With the use of my current returns and some added powerheads, what is the best way to go about doing this? Here is a picture/diagram of my return/power heads now. Any advice on where to point them or where to add more?