Our 20L progression thread

[Conceyted]

So, the new update. Let me start it off with a few pictues...

As you can see, the light came in! And this time it was the right light so we have everything we need now. We have one problem, however. MICROBUBBLES! Well, no matter what we do we cant seem to get rid of the things, they are all over. I finally realized that the way all of our returns were setup was creating the bubbles. We drilled holes in the pvc to break back syphoning and upon restarting the return the air shoots out and makes tons of tiny little bubbles that just keep getting chopped up by the powerhead and create even more. Needless to say, we took the pvc out for now and we are going to order a clear pvc check valve for the return plumbing. This should eliminate those little eyesores

On a better note, we are going to buy our live rock today! As soon as Jaime gets home we will be going to a LFS or two and picking up 25-30 lbs of live rock. I cant wait to get this stuff into the tank.

Check back later for the rock pics

 

[neotekz]

looks good so far, the microbubbles will decrease in time when your tank matures and slime start building up on the equipment

 

[bullfish]

I have a quick question about plumbing. I am in the process of plumbing my tank soon and it will look kinda like yours. How do you stablize the PVC pipe so it doesn't move around. Do you just hang the ruturns on the back lip of the tank and that is enough? Or is there a way to clamp it or something to a solid object ie. a wall or the stand, so it can't get bumped and moved?

Sorry if the question doesn't make any sense, it is hard to describe what I am talking about.

 

[neotekz]

if u are using 3 90 degree elbows like the pics above u should be able to angle them over the lip in such a way that it holds still, u will see when u do your tank. u shouldn;t need anything extra to hold it in place.

 

[bullfish]

if u are using 3 90 degree elbows like the pics above u should be able to angle them over the lip in such a way that it holds still, u will see when u do your tank. u shouldn;t need anything extra to hold it in place.

great, thanks for the info!

 

[Conceyted]

Yep, it should just clamp onto the top of the tank. I ended up removing the PVC today, I am going to be adding a check valve to the mix before using the PVC again. For now we are using the clear vinyl tubing like we had before.

Anyway, the tank is up and running with the live rock in! Man oh man... aquascaping that tank was so tedious. I am one of those people who can't accept something that isn't done perfect so we had it done good the first time and I messed it up fooling with it. Jaime was pretty patient with me but I was an idiot messing it up so many times. The aquascape came out great, I like it a lot. Pics to come soon! Right now its in a cloudy mess of water due to the sand. I guess we will give it a day or two to settle before we can see anything! Heres some pics we took while aquascaping and playing with the live rock...

 

[Conceyted]

oh yeah and as you can see in the first pic we found a nasty little bugger. Bristleworm, we guess?

 

[AJP]

oh yeah and as you can see in the first pic we found a nasty little bugger. Bristleworm, we guess?

Bristleworms are your friend. They can be a welcome addition to your tank as they like to eat fish poo and other waste. I have always welcomed them in my tank.

On to the micro bubbles, it could be that you used to small of pvc. I would try at least 1" PVC or 1.5" also don't put to much faith in a check valve, it will fail at some point. Also give the tank some time as micro-bubbles are not uncommon in a new set-up, once the pipes have a few weeks to slime up the bubbles tend to disappear.

Oh and looks well planned out and should be a nice tank, I would have gone with halides from the begining though as those orbit lights cost about as much as a 175w metal halide pendant would have.

 

[Conceyted]

Thanks, AJP! Well, I have an updated pic of the tank but I will save it till the end of my reply. We ended up losing the bristle worm because he got lost in the dirt when we were cleaning the live rock off. We did to a lot of planning and are hoping that our planning will be enough to come out with a great looking tank. As for the halide suggestion, I almost went ahead and bought a halide pendant but I love the look of actinics and I also love the simulation of day and night that this orbit does when paired with a good timer (our reefkeeper). For that reason I stuck with the orbit. In the future... who knows.
We actually have another 20 long we aquired while building this tank and we plan on doing something with it, maybe the halide will find its way on this tank and the orbit will cover the latter. Regardless I am extremely happy with how this tank is turning out! I can't wait to get some live stock in here, but patience is a virtue and I will be sure to wait untill the time is right.
Lastly, I leave you with a good night and a picture of the tank after it settled from the sand dust. Not completely clear just yet but ALMOST!

 

[AJP]

You can get halides with actinics, thus you can make the dawn dusk. Since you are on the fence you might want to think about it, as you can probably still return the orbit. I like the rockscape, many palces for coral and such.

 

[spoon671]

Chris and Jaime...
Nice job so far... that FAT rock on the bottom left looks PERFECT! What a find, that rock is like gold. Perfect anchor for whatever rock or coral.... it is a BIG plus to have that "low profile" rock chillin on the bottom of the pile! Damn man I am sooooo envious of you guys. Not only do I LOVE the 20L, but you have TWO! Do you have any idea what you can do with the other one?

As you get into this first tank, you will start to stock the tank with various animals. As you stock the tank with these animals you will, and I emphasize WILL, fall in love with some other species ro another that just might not be compatable with your current livestock. Herein lies your spare 20L. Oh man, you could stock the second one with all sorts of animals that wouldn't be compatable with your first tank. This is why I am envious of you... and your 350Z but that's another forum :0

Peace out guys, I am drunk, later!

*note from nagel*

Please do not try to circumvent the profanity censor!

 

[spoon671]

Oh yeah, and tell me, is that micron pad a gift from god or what? Your tank WOULD have been cloudy for 2-3 DAYS without that pad....

 

[Conceyted]

The micron pad is freaking awesome! BUT! it clogs the **** out of my wet dry. Water just constantly overflows from the media tray but it just overflows into the sump so I am not worried about it. As long as MOST of the water is flowing through the filter it will pass through sooner or later.

 

[Conceyted]

Our first hitchhiker find! It's a baby feather duster! Now we will try to keep it alive :-D


Parameters for the tank:

Temperature: 79.5
Salinity: 1.021
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0.1(basically 0)
ph: 8.2
alk: 3.5-4
total ammonia: .1
free ammonia: .03

Do these seem normal? It doesn't really even look like the tank is going to cycle! When we bought the rock it was very normal smelling, there was no odd smell and still there is none, maybe we got our rock completely cured.

 

[spoon671]

Raise your salinity to about 1.024... if you go any lower than 1.020 you are asking for an algae bloom.

 

[tsquad]

Hey, great job so far! Looks awesome.

Do you still have those plans for that standpipe? I'm planning a similar tank, and I PMd Nagel and got no response..

 

[Nagel]

tSquad, I'm putting together a page with the details... sit tight

 

[Conceyted]

Second day of parameters:

Temperature: 80.8 degrees (we raised the temp a little (set the heater cutoff to 80.0)
Salinity: 1.022
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0.2(approx.)
ph: 8.2
alk: 3.5
total ammonia: 0
free ammonia: 0

Maybe the tank won't cycle and we got some great cured rock. I am hoping so because today Jaime got a little antsy and guess what ended up in the tank...

I know they are aggressive and mean but they are very hardy and I told her if she HAD to have a fish we would go get one and take it out and return it to the LFS before we bought any other fish. I am NOT looking forward to catching that little bugger when the time comes.

He has been fun so far, but is very scary. Seems to hide a LOT and since we made so many hiding places in the rock he has a tons of places to move to. He is eating well though, very cute little buggar.

 

[Conceyted]

A side note...

When the water evaps I have been adding in a higher salinity salt water to slowly adjust the salinity like Spoon suggested we do. Tomorrow it should be even higher.

We also added a packet of Aqua Clear Active Carbon to the media tray. The water trickles down over the carbon before it gets filtered. Not sure if it has helped yet but tank looks great either way.

Oh, and the protein skimmer... it is doing absolutly nothing yet.

 

[neotekz]

save your carbon, i don;t think it will do much when your tank is still cycling. skimmer probably just needs to be broken in for a few days