Our 20L progression thread

[kroniclove]

great job on your tank...looking really nice


i want to ask you questions about driling your tank?? i have a 60 gallon. and i am planing to get it drilled. get you give me some advice or details and what kind of pipings i need. thanks

 

[ssbreef]

HA!!! I LOVE IT!! I KNEW IT!! If youââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢re already thinking about it, Like I was right off the bat. YOU WILL DEFINATLY WITH NO DOUBT IN MY MIND BE UPGRADING SOON! 75G?? I would go 180 at a minimum! LOL

 

[Conceyted]

haha, see, the problem is that we plan on moving soon. and in a few years out of state as well so big tanks like that would be a waste. maybe once we settle down though...

Kroniclove, I drilled my tank in the bottom and used a 1" bulkhead. I made a 1" standpipe using the design that nagel came up with. There will be a page out soon about the design but for the time being you could just use a 1" pvc on a 1" slip bulkhead and it would give you the same effect.

 

[spoon671]

Good job so far! Be aware, your tank will have a nitrite/ammonia spike within the next couple weeks or so. New tanks do this, I am sure you know it is called the "start" of the cycle. The inhabitants you have added so far seem to be pretty hardy species so you might not lose anything. The shrimp I bet might be the most delicate, they don't like parameters that swing large amounts, especially salinity. A diatom algae (brown hair) bloom should occur within a month, so be sure to have a few Trochus snails in there, those thing are like lawnmowers.

Hmm, can't really think of anything else. Oh and I am not sure how you acclimate your livestock but make sure you get into the practice of "drip" acclimating. I haven't seen you mention it yet so I figure I might explain it. Instead of just "floating the bag" try placing the livestock and water into a small bucket. They have small black 2 gallon buckets at the hardware store. That's what I use. Then you just take some small clear plastic tubing (1/8" or so) and use the tube to siphon water from the display tank into the bucket, so that way the tank water will mix with the LFS water. You will need to tie a couple knots in the tubing because you only want about 3-5 drops a second to go through the tubing. Let the livestock acclimate in this manner for at least an hour, maybe two and you will have greater success with your additions. Hope that helps.

Pictures?

 

[AJP]

Hmm, can't really think of anything else. Oh and I am not sure how you acclimate your livestock but make sure you get into the practice of "drip" acclimating. I haven't seen you mention it yet so I figure I might explain it. Instead of just "floating the bag" try placing the livestock and water into a small bucket. They have small black 2 gallon buckets at the hardware store. That's what I use. Then you just take some small clear plastic tubing (1/8" or so) and use the tube to siphon water from the display tank into the bucket, so that way the tank water will mix with the LFS water. You will need to tie a couple knots in the tubing because you only want about 3-5 drops a second to go through the tubing. Let the livestock acclimate in this manner for at least an hour, maybe two and you will have greater success with your additions. Hope that helps.

Pictures?

He did drip acclimate

 

[Conceyted]

Oh, we drip acclimated. The floating of the bag was just a temp solution while we went to get airline tubing. :-D All of the fish etc seem great. If I get an ammonia and nitrate spike should I go buy denitrate and ammonia remover now and have it on hand for when this happens? More pictures coming soon.

 

[Conceyted]

Also, when should my next addition be? I am thinking the next piece of live stock is a ocellaris clown. We were going to do a pair but we wanted 3 different types of fish so we decided on:
1 Ocellaris Clown
1 Royal Gramma
1 Lawnmover Blenny

Another concern of mine is that the cleanup crew and blenny wont have enough algae for ALL of them to eat... hope this doesnt happen.

 

[K-Dubbs]

If you run out of algae then you could always stick some acrylic sheets in some tankwater out in the sun and let it grow on there, then throw in tank when needed, use a few and you can rotate them out.

 

[AJP]

Or nori, it costs like $1 at the asian market

 

[neotekz]

why are u worried about 0.2 nitrate? that's very low considering how new the tank is. mine was at 10 when i started adding livestock and nothing died. i wouldn;t get ammonia remover either just let your tank build up the necessary bacteria to do the job.

 

[spoon671]

Ya know what I heard? Clams reduce nitrates. Oh yeah and sorry, for some reason I didn't see your drip acclimation picture, DOH! If it's any consolation, as you saw by my thread early on I had the same exact lighting you have right now, and my clams did fine. Just a suggestion, keep the pictures coming Jamie & Chris!

Peace...

 

[bullfish]

I was reading how you were having some trouble with your PVC plumbing. Just looking to see if you have fixed this problem and if so, what did you do? Maybe some pics of the new plumbing?

Oh yhea.. Tank looks super sweet!

 

[Conceyted]

I was reading how you were having some trouble with your PVC plumbing. Just looking to see if you have fixed this problem and if so, what did you do? Maybe some pics of the new plumbing?

Oh yea.. Tank looks super sweet!

We did not fix it yet but we have the fix for it. We need to put a check valve in the way to stop the back syphoning when there are no holes present to do so. The holes stopping the back syphoning were bringing air into the return lines so when you would restard the return it would shoot o ut tons of air bubbles.

Anyway here is an updated pic of the tank and its inhabitants.

And one of the entire aquascape even though it is a little ugly right now. WE NEED CORALS!

One more...

Oh and I have good news. We will be starting up another tank shortly. A 12"x12"x12" cube. It is about 7.5 gallons. Already have everything picked out, just waiting to see if we can afford to make it happen right now. Entire setup cost will be under 300 dollars.

 

[DHarms]

Hey neighbors. Looking good so far! I set up a 29 gallon last December and have already moved up to a 70. Here's my thread if you want to look.

 

[ssbreef]

Oh and I have good news. We will be starting up another tank shortly. A 12"x12"x12" cube. It is about 7.5 gallons. Already have everything picked out, just waiting to see if we can afford to make it happen right now. Entire setup cost will be under 300 dollars. [/B]

HAHA:lol: hahaHA! Already getting a second! I told you this was addicting

I also had the EXACT same light fixture on my first setup and had no probs with clams.

By the way, find out about the warranty on your Orbit, my ballasts burnt out about 1 year later.

 

[rjwilson37]

It looks great, keep up the good work.

I did not read everything, but just a thought on that overflow tube you have in there if it hasn't been mentioned already. You may want to put a screen over it or something like that so nothing can get in there and clog it up. A fish, a snail or something, or you may have a real big mess on your hands when your return pump is pumping more back into your tank than is coming out because of something in the way of the flow. You do not want a flood and a burnt out return pump... Ick!!!

 

[rjwilson37]

Oh.. I have two damsels in my tank with clowns, royal gramma, Banggai Cardinal, Chromis's and such, they are just fine. Usually it is best to add them last though if you want a particular one and not the agressive ones, only the semi-aggresive ones which is what you have there.

I can not add another fish though because of my 3 stripe damsel, he was the last fish added. He respects everyone else's space just fine because they were already there when he came, but the new comers have to fend for themself and he just does not give them a chance.

 

[Conceyted]

Standpipe has a filter now. I actually dremmeled some 1" pvc and made a quiet strainer for it. Works great but thanks for looking out.

We caught the damsel tonight actually. We had to drain the tank and remove some rockwork but he was caught. Tomorrow we head to the fish store! Two ocellaris clowns are coming home and the blue damsel will be up at the LFS looking for a new home. Cant wait for our clowns!

 

[dwculp]

Oh.. I have two damsels in my tank with clowns, royal gramma, Banggai Cardinal, Chromis's and such, they are just fine. Usually it is best to add them last though if you want a particular one and not the agressive ones, only the semi-aggresive ones which is what you have there.

I can not add another fish though because of my 3 stripe damsel, he was the last fish added. He respects everyone else's space just fine because they were already there when he came, but the new comers have to fend for themself and he just does not give them a chance.

I have four azure damsels in my 40 gallon with my Percula clown and they are fine. Blue tailed and azure damsels usually are much les aggressive than other damsels.

 

[Conceyted]

Some pics of our new additions under actinic lighting only. Full Tank pics will be here soon.