novahobbies
New member
As some of you from Facebook may already know, Sean and I went to visit Amy at the West Boca High School to do a tank assessment and water change for the bowfront SW aquarium they have in the classroom. Amy inherited this aquarium back in February, and it has been in a holding pattern for the entire year. Although Amy has some experience with saltwater tanks (her husband keeps SW), she does not have a school budget of any sort to maintain the aquarium...and quite honestly, does not have much TIME either as a full time teacher! A few days ago, she put a call out to the FMAS members in hopes of some help with getting the tank back on track. Sean and I live close by, and we were able to swing by with a few test kits, some NSW for a water change, and some good old-fashioned elbow grease.
We found some good things and bad things going on with the tank, and we have a number of suggestions to provide. SO"¦.without further ado"¦.here are the results of the Tests. These were done using a combination of Salifert and API test kits:
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0.25
Mag: 1080
Ca: 460
KH: 10-12 (we had 2 test kits with 2 different results)
Salinity: 36
The test results were the good news. As you can see, all the baselines are fairly normal! Sean and I were probably most shocked about the salinity and nitrate levels, but we were happy to see this. Despite the good chemistry levels, the water was VERY yellow, there was a good amount of detritus on the sand bed (more on that later) and there was a noticeable skim of organic material floating on the surface of the water.
We went ahead and performed a 15g water change, cleaned the glass top of the mountains of salt creep, cleaned the light fixture, and cleaned out the canister filter. I gave the glass rings a good rinse in old tank water from the water change to clear out some of the built-up crud, and we found an old but unused container of chemi-pure and a new carbon pad for the canister filter. The polishing pad was very clogged and had caused the filter to barely trickle. Even though we didn't have a new polishing pad, Amy rinsed it out as much as possible and we got the filter back into "œfighting trim" for the time being. By the time we left, the water color was already noticeably better.
Now, here's what the tank currently has on it, and my suggestions for some future additions:
This is a 72g bowfront tank. It has a 2-bulb PC fixture on it running two 65w 50/50 bulbs that are roughly a year old. The LED "œmoonlights" on the tank don't seem to be working well (extremely dim). The tank is filtered by an Eheim Pro II canister with a spray bar on the return. There is no skimmer in place, nor is there a heater. The cleaning magnet they had was a sad, pathetic thing that was so useless I just threw it away.
There is roughly 60-80 pounds of rock in the tank, but not much of this is porous reef rock. I'd say about 60% of the rock is hard slab rock that isn't very conducive to bio-filtration or reef life. The rock is stacked in your typical rock wall fashion. It looks nice, but we could probably do something a bit more imaginative with this. Some of this rock is pre-painted with purple and green "œcoralline." There is NO actual coralline algae in the tank that we could see. The sand bed was fairly loose and open which is a good thing, but it is some strange grey sand that I've never seen before. It didn't even look like naturally-harvested sand, as this is usually a dingy brown color. This stuff looked for all the world like Portland cement powder.
The livestock list in this tank consists of various damsels and 4 A. ocellaris clowns. There is a decorator crab that is covered in mud (he has nothing to decorate with!) and a number of turbo snails and Astaea snails. Sean donated a number of snails last night.
We would like to upgrade and update some of the existing features of this tank, and add some new features if possible. In my opinion, we should upgrade this to a sump-style filter with room for a skimmer, and a fuge section for chaeto production. Alternately, we could consider keeping the existing canister but plumbing a small 10g tank into the system as a pure refugium. I also think we need to upgrade the lighting and re-aquascape in general. If we are switching to a reef setup, I recommend we ditch the glass tops and go with a net top. This is going to increase the evaporation rate, however.
Now, here's the part where we as a group need to band together! Let's make this tank POP and maybe help Amy get some students interested in aquarium keeping and coral conservation. We're looking for donations on the following items:
1: A sump. The existing canister filter is in good shape, but we are looking to upgrade this to help with filtration, flow, and microfauna production. Sean has already very kindly donated a large HOB overflow which we left at the school. If anyone has a "œspare" 20g long or even 30 long that they can donate, I can cut the baffles and form it into a standard 3-chamber sump with room for a fuge.
2: A loc-line return section. We have a return pump that should do the trick, but we will need some flexible tubing and the Loc-line to get up and into the tank.
3: A new LIGHT fixture. Sean has VERY generously mentioned that he may have a spare 4-bulb PC fixture that he can donate. Although I don't want to be one who "œlooks a gift horse in the mouth," I wonder if we can't find some company who might be interested in donating a couple CCLED fixtures or possibly something along those lines. I already know someone who might have some contacts with RAPIDLED as a possible source; he will be looking into that as a possibility later next week.
4: Small items that are needed: A float-mag is definitely needed. A basic set of test kits to start will also be necessary. A new scrub brush for the curved glass face might be nice as well (they have one but it's in rough shape).
5: Does anyone have an old skimmer they're not using? It can be HOB or sump style (if we can upgrade to sump that is) but be aware that there's not a HUGE amount of room behind the tank.
6: If anyone has some "œspare" sand, we may want to consider swapping out the sand bed in portions. Seriously, that grey sand bed is"¦"¦..memorable.
Now, I've already agreed to get a new mag-float for them, and I am going to check with Barrier Reef to see about a discounted price for a set of test kits. I would also love to volunteer my time (and a little $$) to make them a couple rock columns similar to those I use in my own tank. If anyone has some dry base rock that is useable in a tank, I'd be grateful for the donations so I could build the columns. I also have some netting available that I can donate, but I don't have any of the screening framing on hand right now. So if anyone has framing or cornier pieces, feel free to sing out!
Guys, this is what we're all about. Here is a perfect situation where we can "œcloud-source" all our spare equipment bins (I know you all have "˜em!) and see what we can come up with to help improve a teaching resource at a local school. I have a vision with this tank: I want to see a beautiful Softie and LPS dominated aquarium. I want to see coralline growing all over some interesting rock formations. I want people to come into this classroom and see this tank and go WOW. I want it to generate interest and conversation. I want to see students working on the tank maintenance weekly as part of an extra-curricular group, performing water changes, testing water parameters and keeping records, practicing sustainable reefkeeping with coral frags, and down the road, being able to frag out the corals they grew themselves. If we can get ONE student to go "œAha" and strike that spark of reef-fever, then we've helped ensure this hobby continues down the line"¦and more importantly, we can help make sure the hobby grows sustainably as we know it needs to. So I'm asking for help. With spare parts. With spare funds if there's something you want to buy for them. With spare time for water changes to start out with"¦..time is GOLDEN as we all know. Come and pitch in"¦"¦we can help kick-start this!
We found some good things and bad things going on with the tank, and we have a number of suggestions to provide. SO"¦.without further ado"¦.here are the results of the Tests. These were done using a combination of Salifert and API test kits:
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0.25
Mag: 1080
Ca: 460
KH: 10-12 (we had 2 test kits with 2 different results)
Salinity: 36
The test results were the good news. As you can see, all the baselines are fairly normal! Sean and I were probably most shocked about the salinity and nitrate levels, but we were happy to see this. Despite the good chemistry levels, the water was VERY yellow, there was a good amount of detritus on the sand bed (more on that later) and there was a noticeable skim of organic material floating on the surface of the water.
We went ahead and performed a 15g water change, cleaned the glass top of the mountains of salt creep, cleaned the light fixture, and cleaned out the canister filter. I gave the glass rings a good rinse in old tank water from the water change to clear out some of the built-up crud, and we found an old but unused container of chemi-pure and a new carbon pad for the canister filter. The polishing pad was very clogged and had caused the filter to barely trickle. Even though we didn't have a new polishing pad, Amy rinsed it out as much as possible and we got the filter back into "œfighting trim" for the time being. By the time we left, the water color was already noticeably better.
Now, here's what the tank currently has on it, and my suggestions for some future additions:
This is a 72g bowfront tank. It has a 2-bulb PC fixture on it running two 65w 50/50 bulbs that are roughly a year old. The LED "œmoonlights" on the tank don't seem to be working well (extremely dim). The tank is filtered by an Eheim Pro II canister with a spray bar on the return. There is no skimmer in place, nor is there a heater. The cleaning magnet they had was a sad, pathetic thing that was so useless I just threw it away.
There is roughly 60-80 pounds of rock in the tank, but not much of this is porous reef rock. I'd say about 60% of the rock is hard slab rock that isn't very conducive to bio-filtration or reef life. The rock is stacked in your typical rock wall fashion. It looks nice, but we could probably do something a bit more imaginative with this. Some of this rock is pre-painted with purple and green "œcoralline." There is NO actual coralline algae in the tank that we could see. The sand bed was fairly loose and open which is a good thing, but it is some strange grey sand that I've never seen before. It didn't even look like naturally-harvested sand, as this is usually a dingy brown color. This stuff looked for all the world like Portland cement powder.
The livestock list in this tank consists of various damsels and 4 A. ocellaris clowns. There is a decorator crab that is covered in mud (he has nothing to decorate with!) and a number of turbo snails and Astaea snails. Sean donated a number of snails last night.
We would like to upgrade and update some of the existing features of this tank, and add some new features if possible. In my opinion, we should upgrade this to a sump-style filter with room for a skimmer, and a fuge section for chaeto production. Alternately, we could consider keeping the existing canister but plumbing a small 10g tank into the system as a pure refugium. I also think we need to upgrade the lighting and re-aquascape in general. If we are switching to a reef setup, I recommend we ditch the glass tops and go with a net top. This is going to increase the evaporation rate, however.
Now, here's the part where we as a group need to band together! Let's make this tank POP and maybe help Amy get some students interested in aquarium keeping and coral conservation. We're looking for donations on the following items:
1: A sump. The existing canister filter is in good shape, but we are looking to upgrade this to help with filtration, flow, and microfauna production. Sean has already very kindly donated a large HOB overflow which we left at the school. If anyone has a "œspare" 20g long or even 30 long that they can donate, I can cut the baffles and form it into a standard 3-chamber sump with room for a fuge.
2: A loc-line return section. We have a return pump that should do the trick, but we will need some flexible tubing and the Loc-line to get up and into the tank.
3: A new LIGHT fixture. Sean has VERY generously mentioned that he may have a spare 4-bulb PC fixture that he can donate. Although I don't want to be one who "œlooks a gift horse in the mouth," I wonder if we can't find some company who might be interested in donating a couple CCLED fixtures or possibly something along those lines. I already know someone who might have some contacts with RAPIDLED as a possible source; he will be looking into that as a possibility later next week.
4: Small items that are needed: A float-mag is definitely needed. A basic set of test kits to start will also be necessary. A new scrub brush for the curved glass face might be nice as well (they have one but it's in rough shape).
5: Does anyone have an old skimmer they're not using? It can be HOB or sump style (if we can upgrade to sump that is) but be aware that there's not a HUGE amount of room behind the tank.
6: If anyone has some "œspare" sand, we may want to consider swapping out the sand bed in portions. Seriously, that grey sand bed is"¦"¦..memorable.
Now, I've already agreed to get a new mag-float for them, and I am going to check with Barrier Reef to see about a discounted price for a set of test kits. I would also love to volunteer my time (and a little $$) to make them a couple rock columns similar to those I use in my own tank. If anyone has some dry base rock that is useable in a tank, I'd be grateful for the donations so I could build the columns. I also have some netting available that I can donate, but I don't have any of the screening framing on hand right now. So if anyone has framing or cornier pieces, feel free to sing out!
Guys, this is what we're all about. Here is a perfect situation where we can "œcloud-source" all our spare equipment bins (I know you all have "˜em!) and see what we can come up with to help improve a teaching resource at a local school. I have a vision with this tank: I want to see a beautiful Softie and LPS dominated aquarium. I want to see coralline growing all over some interesting rock formations. I want people to come into this classroom and see this tank and go WOW. I want it to generate interest and conversation. I want to see students working on the tank maintenance weekly as part of an extra-curricular group, performing water changes, testing water parameters and keeping records, practicing sustainable reefkeeping with coral frags, and down the road, being able to frag out the corals they grew themselves. If we can get ONE student to go "œAha" and strike that spark of reef-fever, then we've helped ensure this hobby continues down the line"¦and more importantly, we can help make sure the hobby grows sustainably as we know it needs to. So I'm asking for help. With spare parts. With spare funds if there's something you want to buy for them. With spare time for water changes to start out with"¦..time is GOLDEN as we all know. Come and pitch in"¦"¦we can help kick-start this!
