New 29g and rockwork opinions/suggestions wanted

[Siffy]

2 weekends ago I finally upgraded my 5g nano to a 29g. I'll go ahead and get the pics I took tonight out of the way before I say much about the tank to see what people think of it (any suggestions of things I've forgotten are welcome).

Here's a slideshow. Soon as it gets to my roommate in a purple shirt goofing off or his dogs, the tank pics are over.

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b152/uahpimp/?action=view&slideshow=true

Ok, now that's out of the way. The tank is an AGA 29g that I and c_stowers on here drilled for a Calfo style overflow in the back left corner. There's currently just a pvc elbow there until I silicone an acrylic box in its place. The sump is a 10g that used to be the refugium on my nano. I'll be upgrading the sump to a 20L with a refugium section shortly. The skimmer was picked up at the Chattanooga frag swap and the make/size is unknown to me. It's currently not running because the Mag 5 I have for it is too big and 2 things, 1 I don't have a gate valve and 2 I don't really know how to set it up as this is the first skimmer I've ever run. The return pump is an Eheim 1250 with a HydorFlo. The powerhead for more flow is a Seio 620. I have a 5g bucket of RO/DI with CaCL and CaCO3 already added for my auto topoff via a Tsunami AT1 controlling the pump from my old piece of garbage Current Fission skimmer that pushes 20gph when turned all the way down. Lighting, 2x96watt quad 50/50 PCs. I'll be building a canopy once my 2nd reflector and moonlighting get in from HelloLights next week. The reflectors will be cut so the lights can be staggered with moonlights in the free areas to the sides of either set of bulbs.

The sandbed is 15lbs of sugar fine oolite AragAlive, 10lbs of sugar fine Fiji Pink AragAlive, and 15-20lbs of coarse aragonite from my old refugium. Yes, 45-50lbs of sand in a 29g. The rock I'm uncertain of the lbs. I bought all a reefer shutting his tank down had. I cherry picked what I wanted for my tank and the rest once I'm finally satisfied (not sure what to do with my rocks right now, hence this thread) I'll be donating what's left (quite a bit as it came from a 125g) to the St. Judd tanks. The one large rock on the left side of the tank that's covered in hair algae came from my old refugium. I'm not sure whether I should keep it or dry it out and get rid of it.

As for inhabitants, the two spotted goby that was the only fish in my 5g passed since the 4th of July. He just disappeared. There are a few margarita snails, a single astrae, a dozen or so blue leg hermits, an emerald mithrax crab, skunk cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, and a newly added, as of Sunday, Court Jester/Rainfold Goby.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=164
I'm hoping he will help with my hair algae problem.

I have a reeftopia order arriving tomorrow to get my cleanup crew going in the tank. I'll be adding 50 small golden astrae snails, 50 nassarius snails, 12 cerith snails, 40 blue leg hermits, 2 emerald crabs, and 3 peppermint shrimp. I also decided to pick up a Royal Gramma from them while I had free shipping.

Oh, and the few corals I have came from the 5g that had been set up since December '05 also. A kenya tree, a montipora cap, orange ricordea, green palys, some reddish brownish zoas, and a small rock of green star polyps.

Any questions, comments, or suggestions?

I haven't tried it since shortening the hose (it was too small a pump with long hose for the skimmer), but I've considered putting the Eheim 1250 on my skimmer and using the Mag 5 as my return pump and adding a 2nd HydorFlo for it. For anyone that knows skimmers really well, Would the drop from 500gph to 317gph (minus the foot or so of head) affect my skimming severely? Which way would you recommend?

Thanks,
Wil

 

[acro-wrasse]

maybe it's just me, but the link wants me to log in as "uahpimp" to see the photos on photobucket.

 

[crumbletop]

Hey, Wil!

The slide show doesn't work for me. I get a login screen when I click the link.

Sounds like you are getting quite a cleanup crew. If they don't take to that hair algae, adding something like a mexican turbo could help.

RE your skimmer, when you bought it, it looked like it needed some airline tubing added along with the gate valve. If I recall correctly, the water intake for the pump was around 3/4" inner diameter (maybe it was 1/2" ID). The Mag5 is 1/2" threaded on the output, so you should be able to fit that pretty easily. You'll need the gate valve, some tubing for the air intake (venturi) and a ball valve that fits the tubing to adjust the air intake.

Jack

 

[Siffy]

hmm, I thought it would let people view the slideshow w/o being logged in... as me even. odd. Maybe this will work better. A few of the shots.

Jack, the skimmer was 1/2" input. I have a short 1" long piece of 1/2" hose with 3/4" braided vinyl (non kink) hose slid over that on one end and over the mag's output on the other and both clamped. It slides on tight and seals well with a clamp. The air inlet on the skimmer (it had a venturi when I bought it) is 1/4" ID tubing. I have 10ft of that on there and another 20ft waiting if I need it to get fresh air. My thought was to put the airline in the air conditioner's vent to help both cool the tank and get that constant 10-15% fresh air. But with the placement of the tank it seems my small heater is always on so I may rethink that idea. I was worried about heat issues a week ago. I know I'll need a gate valve to slow the water input into the skimmer, you think I'll need a valve to reduce the air intake as well? Will that be to produce finer bubbles or what?

And yes, I love big cleanup crews Especially Nassarius snails... I got excited when I happen to see 3 of them come out at night in my nano and I can't wait to see what 50 might look like when the lights go out or when feeding and they come from "no where".

 

[crumbletop]

Yeah, those snails are cool. Yes the air valve would be to dial in the right amount of bubbles. With tubing that long, you might already be restricting the air flow (resistance). I'm actually not sure what tubing that long would do to the bubbles.

So do you have it running (the skimmer)? It sounds like you have the pump hooked up. I think 1/4" id tubing is like 3/8" OD which should fit into a john guest ball valve that you can pick up at any home depot or lowes.

 

[crumbletop]

Oh, and I like your rockwork. I'm not sure how stable that one rock in the middle is, though (the one with the orange cap on it).

 

[Siffy]

The skimmer is hooked up and in the sump, but not running. Without a gate valve or more head the mag 5 is simply way too large. It just pushes water into the skimmer and into the skimmate cup faster than its outlet can drain the body when it's submerged in my sump. My 2 potential solutions are to raise the skimmer body (quite a bit, almost out of the sump) and/or use a gate valve to slow the flow. I will likely end up doing both, just not so extreme with raising the body.

That middle rock isn't quite as stable as I'd like it to be. And the coralline covered rock on the left side is pressed up against the glass right now. Not how I'd like it, but I was basically trying to find/create a low flow area for my kenya tree. It's temporary. I was thinking my rocks need to be rearranged. That's why I was looking for opinions. To see if at least a few didn't think it looked really odd. Most of the rocks I picked out have nice shapes, mostly arches, to create caves and crevises for fish to hide. Several have hollow insides already. The right side of the tank has a lot of hiding spots. And if you can make out the black spot on the bright white rock dead in the center on the sand bed (behind my little clump of chaeto), that rock is almost a perfect upside-down bowl shape with an entrance on 2 sides. That's where my court jester goby currently hides and calls home.

Ok, it's past my bedtime and the tank lights are off.

Thanks
Wil

 

[crumbletop]

Oh, now I understand what you mean by too large. I thought you meant the output pipe size was too large. Yeah, try the 1250.

You also have a good point there about the rock being on the glass on the left and it looks like the rock is very close to the glass on the front and side on the right. That'll be harder to keep clean.

 

[kev-dog1]

Noticed you're from Huntsville...we were down there a couple of weeks ago for a dog show and this weekend I'm heading back with a bunch of guys to play golf at Hampton Cove...maybe I should take up residence

As for your rockwork - I like the layout. You may want to keep it away from the glass...far enough so that I can get my hand or a scraper in there to clean away algae. Kinda hard to do with these tanks only being 12" in depth (mine's a 55g so I have the same issue...next tank is gonna be at least 18" front to back)

Are you gonna cover the back?

 

[Siffy]

Yay, my reeftopia order looks well. Bags are floating and I'm off to PetCo to see if the 20L tanks apply to their sale: AGA tanks $1 per gallon.

kev-dog, I'm actually from Florence, AL, attend school (but not atm) in Huntsville, AL (was there when I signed up for RC), and currently working and living in Memphis, TN. I plan to move a few off the glass enough for my magfloat to get by. Just haven't figured out where is slow enough not to rip my kenya tree apart. As for covering the back, I plan to try a natural covering... Coralline.

Jack, I'm going to mess with moving the 1250 and Mag 5 around tonight to give me something to do while drip acclimating.

Off to buy even more, thanks,
Wil

 

[Siffy]

Well, instead of messing with my skimmer last night while acclimating I messed with the rocks a bit more to get everything more stable and off the glass. Here's a few more pictures I just took to update my thread.

The new royal gramma and my court jester seemed to make friends after less than an hour in the tank. While I've been home this afternoon the basslet has followed the goby everywhere he's went. The 160 new snails and 110 new crabs seem to have already made a dent in my hair algae problem.