What to do with a 55gal?

[jenjen]

This is after 3 trips downstairs to get water:

This is going to be even less fun than I expected! Blessedly, that's all the SW I have mixed at the moment. Taking a break while the RO/DI works away.

I used a fine grain sand, and I definitely notice it stirring up more than the sand in my other tank. I think the goby will appreciate it though, and if I do decide to add seagrasses down the road I won't have to change the sandbed out this way. The sand bed is 4 inches deep.

 

[sltloser]

Looking great, can't wait to see it all up and running!

 

[twok2lcdcnc]

I once saw where a guy used his old water from water changes to build/stock a smaller tank that was "down stream" of his setup -- every week the tank got a nearly 75% change of "fresh" water. No need to run skimmers/sump all the time he had some old antiquated filters running, but then decided to go without them and everything worked out just fine. It'd be cool if you could plumb your water change water that you'd normally send down the drain thru the house and up to the 55g.

He used his for a qt tank, but I don't see why it couldn't be lightly stocked with fish/corals.

 

[jason2459]

This turned out to be a great thread full of ideas. Can't wait to see how your tank turns out jenjen, Good luck!

BTW, if you could get even a vinyl hose ran up to the tank from the basement it would be so much easier then dragging water up and down. I use to drag water from my lfs and dump them all into a brute can and mix it right there in the dinning room that the tank was in. Now I have my own ro/di unit with my new setup in the living room and have it mix in a brute can in the basement and push water up to the tank with a large mag drive. Also have the vinyl hose going to a drain in the basement and siphon water out that way too. HUGE help.

 

[jenjen]

This turned out to be a great thread full of ideas. Can't wait to see how your tank turns out jenjen, Good luck!

I agree, I've gotten some awesome advice and ideas... thanks everyone who's contributed so far!

BTW, if you could get even a vinyl hose ran up to the tank from the basement it would be so much easier then dragging water up and down. I use to drag water from my lfs and dump them all into a brute can and mix it right there in the dinning room that the tank was in. Now I have my own ro/di unit with my new setup in the living room and have it mix in a brute can in the basement and push water up to the tank with a large mag drive. Also have the vinyl hose going to a drain in the basement and siphon water out that way too. HUGE help.

For fun I measured the distance from the water supply downstairs to the tank upstairs. I'd need to run 55ft of hose. Plus the pump needs to be controlled from downstairs, so it'd take 2 people unless I could rig up some sort of a tap.

Interestingly, the tank is almost directly above the fish room where the water gets mixed, so it has crossed my mind to just plumb it up. Haven't managed to convice my husband of this one yet though.

 

[jason2459]

I have my ro/di unit and mixing container in the basement on one side of the house and the fishtank on the first floor on the other side of the house. Which I actually have a fairly small house now and that was about a 30 foot run of vinyl hose. I used the solid black to reduce any algae build up. It comes to around 14-16' of head height and the mag 1800 works great for it. I ran an extension cord with the vinyl tubing to plug the mag drive into when I'm up stairs by the tank so it's only a one person operation. I connect the vinyl tubing to the mag drive. Plug the drive to the extension cord. Go upstairs and have the vinyl tubing pointing into the tank and plug in the extension cord. Once to the level I want I just unplug the extension cord. I use the same vinyl tubing and attach an inline hand primer pump thing that you find for priming gas to an outboard engine. I connect a vacuum attachment(optional) to the primer pump to clean the substrate. In the basement I have the vinyl line split with a manual ball valve type switch between the mixing contain and the drain. This allows for stale water to be flushed out of the line before filling back up with a fresh mix.

I also have the RO/DI unit plumbed to a 5gal bucket under my tank cabinet for ATO which with the water pressure it has no problems at all getting there. I have a ball valve that I turn on to fill the backup manually but have it still connected to a float valve just in case I get distracted and forget to turn it off and it doesn't overflow. I do not leave pressure going to the ATO bucket because I do not trust the float valve enough for that.

It's been great not having to lug water around anywhere.

 

[jenjen]

Hmmmmmmm... I just might give that a try. Pretty sure I have some tubing around somewhere, and I'm sure there's an extension cord in the garage. Thanks for the idea!

 

[jenjen]

Ok here's where we're at. I got a blue background on there today. Also picked up some rocks. The three on the left are Marco rocks, the one on the right is just a big rock that has lots of crevices in it.

FTS:

From the Right:

I really wanted large free-standing rocks rather than piles of rocks. I think I'll play around with the placement of the rocks to try and create a bit more 'depth'. Unsure if I'll keep all 4 in there, I may remove one and go with a few smaller pieces instead.

I've got a K2 (right) and a K3 (left) and for now I'm pleased with the water flow. I have a bit more water to add and then I'll play around with the placement of the powerheads.

 

[sltloser]

looking good! are you still going to try and do a fuge in the back, or have you just decided to do the total simplicity tank?

 

[jenjen]

I'm definitely going to get some sort of fuge in there. I really want some chaeto in this tank and I'm set on a mandarin. Now that I see it with rock in there I'm thinking I may do two fuge areas on the back wall rather than one continuous one. That project is waiting on my husband having some time to help me construct it.

Now, I have what I know is a controvcial question but I'm going to ask it anyway. So since I went with lace rock and dry sand, there is nothing to cycle in this tank. I've added a couple scoops of sand from my established tank to seed the sand, and I'll add a piece or two of rock from the sump. I don't expect any cycle at all. So assuming I add enough live rock from my other tank... how long do I wait before the clowns can be moved to this tank???

 

[sltloser]

well with the addition of the sand form your other tank, and some liverock you should get a cycle. I guess if it were me i would take this nice and slowly, just watch the nitrate/nitrite levels and once they zero out (or close to) you should be able to add the clowns. After adding the clowns just keep watching the levels, they will be a small bioload so i wouldn't expect too much of a fluctuation but i'm just a cautious person . If you wanted to you could definitly add a nice chunk of cheto to the tank while its cycling. This should bring in som good pod life from your fuge and help to jump start things a little bit

 

[jenjen]

Oh, I'm definitely cautious and taking this tank slowly... and Mr & Mrs are happily in QT. But I don't see how I'll get a cycle when there's nothing to 'die'.

 

[sltloser]

Well by adding the sand and the live rock you have actually put bacteria, and many micro orgamisms into your tank. Although you probobly won't ever see them the bacteria is already starting to bloom and work on decomposing stuff that is dead in the rock that you bought. Depending on how long the rock has been out of water you probobly still have some sort of bacteria, or material decaying deep w/in the rock. This is a great article, by eric borneman, to read and will help answer the question much better than i could. http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic23945-9-1.aspx (one idea is that you could add a little bit of brine shrimp into the system, this will start to decompose and will probobly give the bacteria something to "eat" ) glad the mr. and mrs. are doing good in QT you should post a picture of them for us . hope the link helps!

 

[jenjen]

This is a great article, by eric borneman, to read and will help answer the question much better than i could. http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic23945-9-1.aspx

I hope you follow all of my threads, I may never have to do a search again! Thanks for yet another awesome link... I'm going to add some raw shrimp and monitor the water parameters and see what happens. I'm in no rush to add anything, more just curious since I've never done a tank with all 'not-live' rock & sand.

Pics coming later this evening.

 

[jenjen]

Well, the fish are impossible to get a picture of in QT. Mrs seems to be able to see the camera and immediately flattens herself out under the PVC I have in there. Mr then hides in the corner, apparently with no idea what's going on. Once the camera goes away, all is well again. So I guess I'll have to sneak up on them somehow.

In the meantime, the tank is finally full and the water has cleared up nicely. I moved the middle two rocks a little and am much happier with it.

Parameters as of right now:

SG - 1.025
temp - 76 (no heater as of yet, guess I'll have to add one)
ammonia - 0
nitrate - 0

My next question is what type of goby/pistol shrimp should I be looking out for? I want an 'interesting' pair who won't just hide all the time if possible, and nothing that will get too big for the tank. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[iceman79]

Yellow watchman and a tiger pistol shrimp dont forget to target feed the shrimpy

 

[sltloser]

well i'm glad i can be of assistance , i've defenetly subscribed to this thread so if i can i'll keep post'n articles i think will help. My tank at home is completely natural (no skimmer reactors etc.). I have a 75 with a 20 gal fuge underneath with an ATS, some livesand, liverock rubble, and a huge ball of cheto. I think that natural is the only way to go and i've been trying to push for it with my fellow reefers , when you think about it what is the point of a skimmer? they've never been scientifically proven to reduce nitrite/nitrates so we're spending between hundreds and THOUSANDS of dollars on stuff that we don't need and actually hurt the coral more than they help. Coral polyps are very small and can only grab matter that is smaller than the polyp, and skimmers take all of this out. When you feed oyster eggs the corals get a good hunk, but i'm willing to bet if you were to skim at the same time and then take that skimmate and look under a microscope you would see tons of oyster eggs just sitting in your skimmer decaying. and i'll leave you with yet another article about skimmers by who other than eric borneman haha...http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic52254-9-1.aspx?Highlight=Skimmate

 

[jason2459]

sltloser: Interesting thread you linked there. To bad it never was concluded. Last post there was over a year ago by Eric saying he may be finishing it off soon but never did. Must have got a payoff by the Skimmer manufactures. :lol:

 

[sltloser]

yeah, he's a busy man and i'm hoping it'll come to conclusion when he has time lol

 

[jenjen]

Alright, I'm all for taking things 'slow', but I added bleached base rock plus a couple pieces of rock from my existing system. Sand & rock went in on the weekend. I added dry sand with a couple scoops of sand from my existing system. I added a piece of shrimp last night and by this evening I still have no detectable ammonia or nitrates.

What else should I be testing for at this stage, and how will I know when the tank is 'ready' if I can't get anything to register on any tests? Don't take my question as impatience, miraculously I'm actually being paitent with this project. With my other tank it was 'easy' because the cycle was a noticeable spike which took the predictable 4 weeks to run it's course. I just don't know what I'm watching for this time... so how will I know when it's done?