The (relatively) low cost reef project - build thread

today's update

today's update

I got some base rock from Fran at indmas yesterday, and put it in the tank to get a head start on seeding from my other stuff. I put some water change water in there again as well as rubble from my nano to get things going. The tank already has that distinctive smell, I think that's a good thing. I'm picking up lots of sand and some rock tomorrow that's already in an established tank, I'm really looking forward to that. I added a Koralia 1 that I got for $16 and sold my old SCWD today too. I had an old 48" light strip in the garage that I put on the tank just to see what's going on in there while I am putting things together, and it had an actinic 03 bulb in it! I have no idea where it came from, but it looks pretty cool while it's up there.

057.jpg


058.jpg
 
Just noticed that my wife made it into the pic via the reflection on the glass. I'm sure she'd be THRILLED to know that one!
 
sand!

sand!

Thanks to transmatt, I now have a DSB from a tank that was already running! He also hooked me up with some beautiful kaelini live rock for $1 per pound. I put it in there, and needless to say the water is a murky mess. The bristleworms seem to be digging in the sand just fine, hopefully they'll survive this part of the process. You can also see that there is duct tape on my light fixture now, that's because I got impatient and tried dumping sand in from a bigger container, knocking the light back and to the floor. It still works, but the plastic rivets all broke. The duct tape is the only thing holding it together.

withsand001.jpg
 
Its looking good! Also if you need a little more rock once your sure its stable, I am sure I can pull a litte more. That way any pod die off can be replenished. When I moved the rest of the rock to my sump it looked like a POD CIRCUS!
 
Thanks again! It looks like I have enough rock, but I won't be able to tell until I aquascape. I'm currently trying to remove the millimeter or so of silt on top of everything, but I figured that would happen. I have bristleworms running around in the sand and asterina stars on the glass, so everything must be going pretty well.
 
I forgot to tell you about all the stars. I am sorry about all the detritus. The tank was used for live rock holding /propagation untill I was able to set up my 90.
 
cycling

cycling

Got all the rock and sand working, aquascaping pretty much done, and I've been cleaning out detritus all week, but it's making progress. Since all of the sand and almost half of the rock came out of an established tank, I thought it would be pretty much cycled already. Man was I wrong! Check out these tests!

cyclingtank001.jpg


The detritus is doing it's job though, it's a nice bacterial food source. Somehow the bristleworms and asterina stars that came with the rock and sand aren't all dying off.
 
??

??

So after taking these readings, I go check out the tank and there's a cerith snail crawling on the glass just above the sand. He's been in there for 5 days, should I leave him in or move him into the nano with much better water?
 
The tank I pulled the sand from had a 4-5 in sand bed and their were not a massive amount of stirrers left in it. The only thing I can think of is or might even be its called hydrogen sulfide gas. I did not see any bubbles come up fom the sand and their were no dark spots in the sand I pulled or any smell from a dead pocket of sand. The tank was alive and doing great before I shut it down!
I am very sorry! I expected some die off but nothing like this since I pulled the sand only 30-45 min before meeting up with you.
 
Don't worry about it. I guess it's because more than half of the rock was not live yet, and I've heard that when you pull up an established DSB there are lots of anaerobic bacteria that die because the rush of oxygen kills them. That's likely what the die off is from. I'm guessing that the tank will stabilize sooner than one with brand new sand. I'm still very happy with it.
 
Aquascaping

Aquascaping

I've always used my own DIY rocks in tanks I've put together, so this time with the Fiji and Kaelini it's a totally new experience for me. I've never been happy with my old aquascaping, so I looked at lots of pictures and came up with this. I have 2 motivations for the design:

1. I wanted some sort of a channel in the middle to emphasize fish and give them somewhere spacious to swim.

2. I'm working a trade for a canopy with a 250 watt MH in it, but only one for now. I can put everything on one half of the tank until I get another one in there. I'm starting on the left.

I have a cove on the left and a hill/plateau on the right. I'm still going to move a little around (like the rock in the channel) but that's basically it. Every rock with coral in the nano still has to come in as well.

aquascaping003.jpg


aquascaping002.jpg


Let me know what you think and if you have any great ideas tell me!
 
So I'm looking around the tank with a flashlight to see if there's anything moving around, and I see some feather dusters, copepods, and of course, an aptasia! That's the first I've ever had in a tank and I haven't even added anything yet. Maybe I'll get a peppermint shrimp and see if he eats it once the tank is cycled.
 
hey dan thought i would tell you one of my rbta's split sometime today or last night after lights out. i know your tank is not ready yet so i will sell this one
 
It won't be much longer though. I took another test today and my ammonia readings are much lower, down to the 3rd level on the chart from the worst after only 2 more days. The nitrites are up slightly too, so hopefully it'll be good to go after a few more days. If you don't sell as soon as you'd like I may have a spot for him. I need a better anemone in there than the 2 aptasia I found.
 
cycled and ready...almost

cycled and ready...almost

Lots of stuff in the update, but no pics. Last night I started getting 0/0 readings, so it looks like the cycle is done and stuff can live in there now. I'm not brave enough to put my fish in there yet though. I want to get the water quality up a bit first. On that note, I sold some stuff in the garage and used the money to get some stuff for the tank. Most importantly, I got a Remora Pro skimmer for $50 minus the pump. I bought a Rio 1400 at Premium Aquatics today for around $27 (I love their walk in day) and got the skimmer going tonight. I put a Maxi Jet 900 with sureflow 1600 mod in there, and now I might have too much flow. 2000 gph in a 55 gallon tank, wow. I also got a hydrometer (can't afford the refractometer) and digital thermometer. Last but not least, I got some clean up crew. It consisted of 12 hermits, 12 large nassarius snails, 2 peppermint shrimp, and a brittle star. I was a bit afraid of putting everyone in there, but some hitchhikers have been doing well. I put the new powerhead in there and it really kicked up the detritus that I didn't get cleaned out yet. I hope that didn't mess up the water and hurt the cleaners. I did lose one peppermint shrimp and I haven't seen the other one in a while, that worries me. I have noticed 2 issues though: 1)my salinity was a lot higher than I thought, about 1.029. I have to get some RODI water ASAP and get that number down. 2)the heater I put in is not very user friendly, and when I raised it a little bit the temp went from 71 to 75 in just a few hours. I need to get that nailed down fast. The remora pro is pretty loud too. I hope that a canopy will bring the sound level down, otherwise this will be a part time skimmer. On the bright side, it's already pulling out a good amount of brown foam. Hopefully I can wake up in the morning to a healthy cleanup crew (except for the unfortunate shrimp...RIP).
 
Stuff's moving in

Stuff's moving in

The cleanup crew has been doing great, with the exception of that one shrimp and a hermit crab. After a couple days with no real issues, I started moving everyone over. My fish trap caught tons of cleanup crew, but no fish. I moved some crabs and snails over, but don't want to take too much out of the nano just yet. I managed to get the clownfish into a huge net filled with food, and now he's in the 55 too. He looks great in there, so I will soon be moving everyone over. Now for some pictures:

clownmove001.jpg


Here's the skimmer
clownmove002.jpg


And here you can see across the tank is the modded Maxi Jet 900
clownmove003.jpg
 
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