DIY 20g Long- Phase II- SPS Haven [Archive] - Reef Central Online Community

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 05:27 PM

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to read this thread and for sharing your thoughts and comments. This hobby is so wonderful because of the people involved and the interactions that increase our knowledge and abilities.I hope to provide a forum for that here. I will make every effort to answer every question and comment. Please be patient as I am just beginning a new job, but I will do my best.

Many threads and individuals on reef central have influenced me over the years. There are pieces of my tank I can contribute directly to inspiration from other's visions and creations I have watched develop here. Specifically, I would recognize Chingchai and Nineball/Mr. Wilson. I hope to achieve a small percentage of their success in reefkeeping and community building.

This is the second iteration of this tank. During the first iteration, I wanted an all-in-one to keep the tank simple. I was in grad school and lived in a different city than my wife, leading to lots of travel. The tank went through many ups and downs, mainly as a result of the travel. More can be read about that here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1895397

With the current set-up, I want to focus on two things. First, building a tank that incorporates what I consider best practices. This does not always mean following the current trends and chasing the latest technology. Second, exercising selectivity. I want to stock the tank with no more than ten corals and selecting only the best specimens of each of those corals. I want to provide ample room for those corals to grow in and focus on how the tank will look as it ages, rather than seeking immediate gratification.

Lighting: I have debated making the switch to LEDs. I think the technology is sufficient and I am on the fence about this. For the immediate future, I will run the Actinics TX5 fixture I ran before and will consider moving to LEDs in the future. I feel at the current time the expense does not equal the rewards and my current lighting is not a limiting factor.

Flow: I will use a closed loop set up in a gyre fashion. I will speak more on that decision in a subsequent post. I will start with an Ehiem 1262 since I have it on hand, but have plans to change to a controllable DC pump in the near future.

Rockwork: Chingchai's tank and the new Siam Reef Club tank greatly inspired my rockwork; they are both incredible aquascapes. I wanted to create an open rock work design that incorporated a rock bridge. I wanted to make the rockwork as open as possible while also hiding the massive closed loop plumbing as much as possible.

Filtration: I drilled the tank to run a sump. I will use a 10g sump with a maxi jet utility 1100 return pump- I hope it will provide around 100gph back to the display. I like to use slow flow through the sump. I will use the skimmer I built for the AIO version which uses a MJ1200 with a meshwheel impeller. I will run carbon passively in the sump. A filter sock will be used on the drain and will be changed every 3 days. I am incorporating a small refugium chamber that will have a 6" DSB and use cheato. I am debating whether I will run GFO in a reactor or whether I will dose lanthium chloride as necessary. Please share any insight/thoughts about this decision.

Livestock: Corals will be exclusively SPS except for a dendro. I would like to focus mainly on millis with a couple stags and a couple encrusting monti's. As far as fish, I would like a platinum clown and a pair of ORA green banded gobies. I may also have a single wrasse or a couple more small gobies.

In subsequent posts, I will try to narrate the building of the stand, the rockwork and the equipment. Thank you again for your time and I look forward to your comments.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4083.jpg

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 05:51 PM

This post will focus on the equipment of the tank.

I built a holder to all of the lines and probes going into the sump. I wanted everything to be nice and clean and not have to worry about probes or lines coming undone and causing problems. Each hole has a nylon screw that can be tightened to secure the line or probe running through it. I currently plan on using the holes in the following order: pH probe, ATO line, Ca line, Alk line, vinegar line, temp probe on controller, temp probe on heater, ATO high level float. I added an additional mount to the left side to hold the ATO lower level float that is not shown in the picture- you can see it in the third picture if you look close. The whole holder is held onto the tank using two nylon screws to ensure it can't be accidentally knocked off.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4099.jpg

I wanted to incorporate a dedicated refugium and DSB area in the tank. I also wanted it to be easily removable in case there ever becomes a problem. I bought a kitchen storage container and drilled a hole in the top for the inlet and will run the line to a MJ600 in the sump. I used a hole saw to drill two holes and then connected the holes using a file to create a drain. I tried to design it so the flow would be circular in the container to tumble the cheato and provide sufficient flow across the top of the DSB. We will see how it works in reality. I mounted a flexible necked lamp to the stand side and will run a CF lamp for the fuge. I wanted to be able to have the light close for efficiency but be able to move out of the way for maintenance. You can also see the 3g ATO container beside the sump. I wanted a small ATO container so I would have to worry less about an ATO failure that pumps all the water in the tank.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4101.jpg

I chose the MJ 1100 utility pump because I have always been a fan of MJ's product. The latest pro model has been a disappointment, but the old style maxi-jets were workhorses that would last for years. I have heard the utility pumps are like the old ones. I also wanted to make waterchanges and sump draining easy and so I incorporated a tee into the return line with a valve and nozzle that allow water to be removed from the front of the stand. I mounted these to the wall so they would be stable and clean.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4104.jpg

As discussed above, the closed loop will currently be powered by an Ehiem 1262. The pump is currently locked away in a storage unit that is being delivered to my new apartment Thursday, so I have not been able to finish the plumbing yet. The Ehiem will be mounted to a shelf inside the stand at the top. It will run through 1.5" soft tubing to the hard plumbing you can see at the bottom of the pic above. I want to run the soft line to stop vibrations and reduce noise. The soft tubing is braided so that it has some flexibility, but will not kink. I used the same tubing for the return line. I used a hair dryer to heat up the tubing and allow me to bend it as desired without creating kinks.

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 06:22 PM

Flow

I spent a lot of time determining how I wanted to provide flow in the tank and the characteristics of that flow. I am a strong believer in creating intentional flow patterns that work together to increase the overall flow rate. This is best achieved by creating a gyre flow, or circular flow patter, in the tank. When this is done, the flow rate can be increase above the level of the flow provided by the pump itself. You can easily see this if you place a power head in a bucket of water. If you aim the powerhead across the bucket at the opposite wall, it will create a decent amount of flow. However, if you aim the flow of the water along the edge of the bucket, the entire water column will begin to spin and the flow rate will be substantially higher.

To achieve this, I chose to use a closed loop. Using a closed loop, I could precisely place the intake and the outlets to create the desired flow patterns and to work together. I like closed loops because you effectively double the flow rate of the pump because you are pushing the stated flow rate through the outlets, but at the same time you are pulling the stated flow rate through the intakes. If you effectively use these together, you can create excellent flow patterns.

I believe closed loops have fallen out of favor in recent years as a result in the advances in powerheads. New generations powerheads provide variable flow rates and high flow at low electricity uses. They are also easy to move and change flow characteristics. However, I do not like how hard it is to hide power heads, especially when you have a particular flow patter in mind. While I could easily incorporate powerheads into the rockwork as I did with the closed loop plumbing, it is much harder to incorporate them in a way where they are both hidden, but also easily accessible for necessary maintenance. Also, with the advances in the last year or two in controllable DC pumps that can be used in closed loops, I think closed loops may start to come back into favor. Finally, I feel like most pumps that are used in closed loops tend to last longer and have fewer issues than the current generation of high performance powerheads.

Below is a picture out the return plumbing for the closed loop. I tried to angle the two returns to spin the water column. The left outlet is angled slightly to the front while the right outlet is angled slightly to the back. I sued 1.25" plumbing on the outlet and the inlet mainly because I did not want to restrict any flow and because I planned on using 1.5" on the closed loop plumbing for my next tank and wanted to get some experience in using larger plumbing and incorporating rockwork into it. It is certainly overkill for this tank, but I am ok with that. Also, I wanted to use thicker pipe to act as a skeleton for the rockwork. I plan on hiding the plumbing in the front under the sand.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_3964.jpg

This picture shows the inlet plumbing. I intentionally placed both inlets drawing water from the rear because I knew with the way I wanted to aquascape the tank that it was important to focus on having a little stronger flow along the back of the tank than the front. Each inlet has a strainer to protect the fish.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_3965.jpg

The outlet you see on the back of the inlet plumbing is there so that I can prime the closed loop plumbing easily. Also, I wanted it there to use as a siphon break. I incorporated a tee into the outlet plumbing leaving the pump with a valve. The idea is that I can open both valves and drain the water out of the closed loop piping so I can perform maintenance on the tank by breaking the siphon in the CL plumbing since it is lower than the tank.

This picture shows both tubes together and how the flow pattern should work.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_3963.jpg

The return plumbing runs in between the two closed loop pipes and comes out in the middle height of the tank facing across the back of the tank. This helps push the flow across the back of the tank to the overflow. I ended up not using the overflow design shown in the picture above because I did not leave enough space in the CL plumbing to create a dedicated overflow box. Instead I decided to use a straight pipe for the drain using 1.25" pvc. I was concerned that noise would be an issue with the configuration but I hoped the slow flow rate through the overflow would make it not too bad. Luckily, when I filled the tank the first time it was rather quiet and did not bother me at all.

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 06:36 PM

Rockwork

I wanted the rockwork to be as open as possible to allow room for coral growth, but also to hide the massive CL plumbing. I really wanted to incorporate a rock bridge across the middle. I built all the rockwork and then went back and tried to cut out and unnecessary rock that would make it more open but keep the general space I wanted. I also build the rockwork while keeping in mind the types of coral I wanted in each area. Finally, I wanted the rockwork to be seamlessly integrated with the plumbing and be a single piece that could be lifted in and out of the tank if necessary and that would be stable and I would never have to worry about avalanches. I also tried to focus on ensuring the rockwork did not interfere with the flow patterns.

I ended up making a large single piece connected to the closed loop plumbing and another small section on the left side that covers the overflow pipe and is easily removable to allow the overflow pipe to be removed if necessary. I also added a valve to the overflow plumbing so that it can be closed and the overflow pipe removed without draining the entire tank.

I used pukani dry rock from BRS. I ordered 20 lbs which came as two large pieces. I broke those pieces down into a bunch of smaller pieces. I prefer using dry rock and seeding it with some live rock. I bought some lanthium chloride to use to help remove the phosphates the pukani rocks are notorious for.

Below is a sequence of pictures showing the process. I think it probably took 12-15 hours from start to finish. A lot of that time was just sitting back and staring at the canvas and "engineering."

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4004.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4005.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4006.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4007.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4008.jpg

This picture also shows how I fiberglassed sand to the plumbing. I did this so that if the sand gets blown around and exposes the piping, perhaps it will not look as bad as it would if left white or painted black.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4013.jpg

You can see the placement of the return plumbing in this picture as well.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4016.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4018.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4019.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4020.jpg

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 06:44 PM

More pictures of the rockwork

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4024.jpg

I then used Krylon Fushion satin black to try and hide the plumbing not hidden by the rockwork.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4031.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4036.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4037.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4039.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4040.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4041.jpg

I then used some hydraulic cement to hide some of the plumbing where I wanted it to look like rockwork.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4045.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4077.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4080.jpg

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 06:50 PM

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4081.jpg

After this picture was taken, I chopped down the left side a little bit so that none of the rock stuck out of the water.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4080.jpg

Finally, here is a video showing the rockwork to help give another perspective. Sorry for showing so many pictures, I just want to show the process for anyone else considering something similar.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DwLisxhQ59U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 07:09 PM

Stand

This was the first time I had built a stand and it was a very educational and humbling project. While I am very happy with the finished project, there were a lot of frustrations and things having to be redone throughout the process.

I wanted the stand to be tall so that I did not have to be sitting to enjoy the tank, but also not too tall that I could easily view the tank from above. I also wanted to have a ledge around the tank so that I could easily sit corals on when working on the tank and that would act as I nice elbow rest when viewing from the top. My mom had some extra tiles from a bathroom remodel that I love so I decided to tile the ledge.

I also wanted the stand to, I am not sure what the word is, have utility and be built to last. It was important to me to build it in such a way that the contents would be neat and tidy and have a proper place. I wanted to make sure I created a way for the electrical wires and outlets to be clean and avoid the rat's nest that so often befalls our tanks. I also wanted to create a dedicated electrical area that would able to be kept dry and to keep all the electronics in a single and safe place.

A few other elements I added were leveling posts on all four corners and stand lighting. The electrical area has its own light that is controlled view a switch inside the area. The rest of the stand has two lights that are wired into a pole switch mounted to trigger when the door is opened. I wanted the main stand lights to turn on whenever the door was opened and to make sure they turned off when it was closed to save electricity and to keep me from forgetting them. Also, both the black and the white paints used were a polyurethane based paint to provide water damage protection.

Enough blabbering, here are some pictures.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4003.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4014.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4015.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4026.jpg

Start of the electrical section

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4027.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4029.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4030.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4055.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4057.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4065.jpg

bobssecrtsn

09/24/2012, 07:11 PM

very nice build! subscribed!

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 07:16 PM

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4067.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4071.jpg

http://s926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/?action=view&current=IMG_4074.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4075.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4083.jpg

I added a shelf to the door to hold food.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4105.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4083.jpg

The last thing I have to do is add a shelf above the left side of the sump that will hold the dosing pumps and chemicals.

I hope to get the tank set up in the next week or so. I move into my new apartment on Thursday and then will be at MACNA all weekend. I start work on October 15th, so I will certainly try to have it up and running by then.

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 07:19 PM

very nice build! subscribed!

Thanks, bobssecrtsn! Really glad to have you along.

bobssecrtsn

09/24/2012, 07:51 PM

can you please tell me who build your probe holder? im looking for one myself and the temp probe on the apex is humagaganitc. i also want to use it to hold my dosing lines and ato lines.

JasonBJones

09/24/2012, 08:25 PM

can you please tell me who build your probe holder? im looking for one myself and the temp probe on the apex is humagaganitc. i also want to use it to hold my dosing lines and ato lines.

I built it out of some scraps I had laying around. I used a heating element made for bending acrylic to allow me to make the bends on the clear acrylic. I then made the marks for the holes in the black piece and then drilled then. Then polished the edges and glued it all together.

Here is another picture showing the mount for the low ato sensor.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4108.jpg

Just filled the tank up to run another dose of lanthium chloride to try and pull the phosphate out.

This shows the flow coming out of the return.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4106.jpg

I have affectionately named the overflow the black hole.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4107.jpg

bobssecrtsn

09/24/2012, 10:23 PM

nicely done. are you going to cover the black h0le?

KafudaFish

09/25/2012, 07:17 AM

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 10:29 AM

The build is looking really good and I like the open look of the rocks.

Do you think in a year or two after the sps fill in all the plumping will be hidden?

I agree that MJ are work horses and the originals seem to last forever. Also I think I read somewhere the new MJ are not made by the same company any more and the original MJ are made by Cobalt in Italy vs. China.

Confussed yet?

Looking forward to what you have to do and good luck.

Congrats on graduation too.

Thanks for the comments on the tank and graduation! I am excited about having income coming in rather than always going out.

Once sand is in the tank, the only plumbing you will see is the plumbing coming out at the back right and the top pvc piece running along the back wall. Since both of those are painted black like the back wall, I really barely notice them. Perhaps that will change when the tank has a light above it. I think that the visible right pipe exiting the tank will be hidden by coral, but not the back wall pipe. The back wall pipe is mainly hidden by the bridge, so I think it will be ok. You can also see both inlet strainers and I am not sure there is much I can do about those. The one in the middle of the tank has no rock behind it so it does blend into the back wall some, but I doubt it will stay that way once critters start encrusting onto it.

I have heard the same thing about the MJs. I feel like I remember reading that the utility pumps are either made by cobalt or are made to the specs of the old MJs and are much better. The 18 hours I have had it operating have been great and quiet, but that doesn't say much.

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 10:34 AM

nicely done. are you going to cover the black h0le?

I was actually looking at that last night and think I will build a large strainer out of egg crate to keep any wandering snails or hermit crabs from getting in the overflow and clogging things up. I will post some pictures once I decide what to do.

Another thing I noticed last night was the overflow seemed louder than it did the day before, perhaps I just had the shop quieter. The noise seems to be created by the water running down the sides of the pipe hitting the bulkhead at the tank bottom. I found that if I stuck a finger along one small part of the pipe it broke up the water running down the pipe side and quieted it down some. I may play with breaking up the flow with the strainer and see if that helps.

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 10:45 AM

Spent some time last night trying to decide on the stocking list. This is what I am currently thinking:

Corals:
--Bushy
----RR Avengers
---- Garf Bonsia
---- Red Dragon
--Millis
----RR Triad Milli
----Tyree LE Margarita
----ORA Red Planet
--Stags
----Oregon Tort
----Pro Coral Rainbow acro
--Encrusting Montis
----Pokerstar monti
----Sunset monti

Fish:
----Platinum Clownfish
----Pair ORA Green Banded Gobies
----Red Elongated Dottyback

KafudaFish

09/25/2012, 12:42 PM

Here is a suggestion for both your black hole and the strainer "issue":

I picked up an all pvc drain cover at HD for my DIY skimmer to help hold the airstone in place. It is a 2 inch diameter but there were other sizes. Maybe one of these could be used and if necessary a drop or two of superglue to hold them in place.

They run less than $2 ea so that would fit with your DIY scheme of things.

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 01:14 PM

I really like your suggestion. I modified my current standpipe and came up with the picture below. It seems to be working well so far, but I think I am going to experiment with your idea as well. I want to try building a larger diameter standpipe and see if that makes it quieter. I will also try your suggestion on that standpipe.

The eggcrate part is removable and I made two so they could be changed and cleaned.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/strainer.jpg

michaelangello

09/25/2012, 01:55 PM

Too... Many.... Clever.... Ideas...! I want to rob them all! Great tank. Looking forward to watching this develop.

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 04:01 PM

Too... Many.... Clever.... Ideas...! I want to rob them all! Great tank. Looking forward to watching this develop.

Please do! Take them, improve them, and then share them. Thanks for the comments. I look forward to watching this develop too and am glad to have you along!

Jadams

09/25/2012, 05:58 PM

Excellent thought being put into every detail! :thumbsup:

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 07:47 PM

Thanks, Jeremy! I have learned over the years that I really appreciate the small details. It is much more satisfying for me to do things three times and get them just the way I like them to leave them in a state I am unsatisfied with and deal with it for years afterwards.

On that note, I spent a couple hours playing with standpipes tonight and settled on a configuration. I will stay with the 1.25" standpipe I had with a different strainer configuration than the one posted earlier. I learned some interesting things while experimenting with different set ups, some that were counter-intuitive to me.

The first standpipe I built tonight used 1.5" pipe and had a 2" pvc adapter on top with one of the PVC drain covers kafudafish was talking about. It was a very clean looking standpipe, all though more obtrusive because of the size. Surprisingly, this was louder than the 1.25" pipe I had been using. I assumed the larger pipe size would allow a greater surface area for water to travel and would quiet down any splashing sounds, this was not the case. I then cut off the 2" adapter and left just the 1.5" pipe to see if this was any better, it wasn't, it was still loud. This gave me the idea to go even smaller.

I next built a 1" standpipe. I tried it first without any sort of screen and it was awesome. Very quiet. I was actually pretty with it and thought I would stick with it. I then tried adding a x shaped screen about 1/2" below the top of the standpipe to protect it from snails getting into it. Unfortunately, this made it around the same volume as the 1.25" pipe, and maybe a little louder. I also played around with plugging the pipe with a finger or two to simulate a fish getting trapped or a snail and I could easily block the pipe enough that the water level in the tank would rise until it would spill over. If I was willing to risk running the pipe without a strainer, this would be a great choice, but I was not willing and it was too loud and the draining capability was limited with a strainer if it became clogged. This led me to experiment with the 1.25" standpipe again.

I liked the x shaped strainer I built for the 1" pipe and decided to try that on the 1.25" standpipe. It fit well and would block the pipe from larger snails but allow fish to make it through and not clog the drain. Additionally, it really quieted the drain down. It was perfect, the little Goldilocks of standpipes if you will. Here is a picture of the final configuration.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/strainer-1.jpg

I must say I am rather nerdy and found this whole process rather interesting because the results were different than I expected. This is why I love spending the time to try and figure out the most effective method for any particular application.

Finally, I think I am going to cut down the rockwork on the back left of the tank. As I have been thinking about my coral selection and where they will go, I want to create a little more vertical room in that area.

KafudaFish

09/25/2012, 09:16 PM

Sorry that my idea did not work. I was hoping it would since I have thought about using it myself.

I have one other idea that I have seen on RC that may work. The only problem is I have to figure out how to search for it since I have not seen the picture for years.

KafudaFish

09/25/2012, 09:20 PM

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=993625&highlight=stand+pipes&page=3

The post is 5.5 years old but somehow I remembered it.

It only took 4 minutes. Who says the search function doesn't ever work?

Kayo2289

09/25/2012, 09:29 PM

Haven't been able to go thru the entire thread yet as I just stumbled upon it but very interesting indeed, tagging along for further reading.

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 09:36 PM

Kafudafish, no problem on the idea not working. Never know until you try.

I love the thread you posted. I have had that thread bookmarked for several years. Mr. Wilson is such an asset to this hobby. I actually looked it back over before using hydraulic cement on this tank to refresh on some of his pointers for using it.

I also really like that overflow. I think it may be too big for my application but it looks like it incorporates a stockman overflow, which I could try next. I don't like that the stockman sticks out of the water, but I think it is worth trying to see how much quieter it is.

JasonBJones

09/25/2012, 09:37 PM

Haven't been able to go thru the entire thread yet as I just stumbled upon it but very interesting indeed, tagging along for further reading.

Thanks, Kayo2289. Glad to have you along. Feel free to share any comments or questions here.

james1990

09/25/2012, 11:01 PM

im really enjoying this build. And I completely agree with your methods and mentality on how you went about your flow and plumbing. This is what I plan on doing when i upgrade to a 150gal but its really awesome seeing it executed on a small tank, especially when the person is skilled and good at DIY.

Veganbrian

09/26/2012, 12:17 AM

Super cool bud! Cannot wait to see more go down! following

JasonBJones

09/26/2012, 10:13 AM

James1990- Thank you for the comments and compliments. Please post a link to your build thread whenever you get going, I would enjoy checking it out.

Veganbrian- Glad to have you along! I have enjoyed watching your build.

Well, I am back at the standpipe quandary again. I blame Kufudafish. As I looked over the link to Mr. Wilson's thread once again last night I realized how much I liked the standpipe he built. I have been wanting to try building a stockman to quiet things down as I have used them before and they are effective, and I liked the way Mr. Wilson incorporated it into a larger pipe and covered it with cement.

The one thing I did not like about the set up in the link was the stockman part of the overflow sticking out above the top of the plumbing. With the very open top look I have I thought that would be distracting. I went to sleep contemplating the issue and trying to see if there was a way I could resolve it. I should know by now not to do that. I woke up at 3:30 and spent the next hour designing a way to hide the stockman part and keep the clean look. So here is the beginning:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/Standpipestart.jpg

I will post updates throughout the day as I progress on it.

Once I finished designing the standpipe in my head around 4:30 my brain was still going 100 mph and my thoughts turned to my skimmer. I had thought about going to a commercial skimmer in the near future because there were a few elements about my skimmer I did not like. First, it is not recirculating. Second, and because it is not recirculating, the flow rate through the skimmer is too high. I subscribe to Escobal's flowrate for skimmers, which is roughly 1.3 times the system volume per hour. According to this, I should be feeding the skimmer 35-40 gph, not the roughly 150gph it currently gets. By making the skimmer recirculating, I can control the flow rate into the skimmer. The third thing I did not like is the way I had designed it to adjust the water height. Basically I have a tee and push a PVC pipe down the top of the tee to block the water coming through the side part of the tee and draining out the bottom of the tee. It is really hard to make fine adjustments to this. So, today I will also be modifying the skimmer to address these issues by making it recirculating and by changing the outlet to a gate valve to allow easy control of the water height in the skimmer. Stay tuned.

KafudaFish

09/26/2012, 11:00 AM

JasonBJones

09/26/2012, 11:35 AM

Well, although you created more work, which I secretly love, it was work worth doing. I have just finished creating the basic stockman and tried it out. I wish you could all hear the difference. It is not that the old standpipe was obnoxiously loud, but it certainly had the sound of running water. The stockman is silent. If you put your head above it, you can hear a slight whistle from the vent hole, but that is about it. So, onto the building process.

I started by cutting holes in the actual standpipe. I looked around at the best way to do this and my eyes came to rest upon the bench grinder, worked very well. Just make sure you make your holes level and even. You want to open up as much of the pipe as possible while leaving enough material connecting to the piece above the opening so that it is still structurally sound. In the pictures you can see the 4 pieces needed.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4124.jpg

I used a 1" pipe, a 1" pvc plug, a 1.25" to 1" adapter (slip x slip) and a 1.25" coupling. Very simple to assemble. Glue the plug into the side of the adapter that has the deep opening for 1" pipe (the other side of the adapter will only let about 3mm of 1" pipe in). Then glue the adapter into the 1.25" coupling.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4125.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4126.jpg

This give you the basics of the stockman, you then just glue this to the top of your pipe with the area you made the cutout going into the coupling. The final step is drilling the vent hole in the top of the stockman. The slower your flow rate, the larger the hole you need. I started with a very small hole.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4127.jpg

It is really easy with this style overflow to tell when your hole is too small. The tank will begin filling above the bottom of the coupling and will keep going until it reaches the point where you cut the opening in the pipe. If your vent hole is the right size, it will just sit there and operate silently. If your vent hole is too small, it will create a siphon and make a loud sucking noise and siphon water down to the bottom of the coupling and then it breaks the siphon and starts filling again. At this point, drill a slightly bigger hole. Keep doing until it no longer flushes. I then drilled a little bit larger hole than necessary so that when things inevitably get dirty and some clogging happens, I won't run into any problems. When it is all said and done, it looks like this.

Now back to working and the next part of the overflow, the outer shell that will allow me to hide all of this.

JasonBJones

09/26/2012, 12:07 PM

Built the outer shell and it is working perfect! Hats off to you, Kafudafish, for inspiring me to make these changes.

Basically, all I did was find plumbing large enough that I could fit the stockman inside of with enough room for water to flow in between them and then find an adapter to connect that piece to the pipe below the stockman part. I found that a 1.25" coupling used for the stockman was too large to fit into a 2" pvc pipe with enough room for water to flow but fit perfectly into a 2" coupling. So I glued a couple of those together to make it tall enough for the stockman to fit inside and be hidden. I then had to hollow out a 2" to 1" adapter so that I could slide a 1" pipe all the way through it instead of hitting on that stop that is normally there. This took a good bit of sanding but worked well because I was able to make it where a pipe could slide in and out with a little bit of force, but it was still essentially water tight. This provided an advantage because I can simply raise or lower the outer casing and change the water level of the whole tank. I made need to do this once the closed loop is running depending on how it affects things.

Here is the final product. I will paint it, cover it with rock and concrete and finalize it tonight. For now, back to home depot once again for a part I forgot for the skimmer.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4128.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4129.jpg

KafudaFish

09/26/2012, 12:30 PM

You are welcome. I am happy to have help create all that extra work for you.

Also I want to thank you because this is the first time I have understood how the pipe works. Usually I am a visual learner but with certain areas I have to be hands on in order understand it.

Your walk through answered several of my questions.

JasonBJones

09/26/2012, 07:32 PM

Glad it came across clear enough.

The afternoon was productive; I was able to modify the skimmer and finish "rockworking" the overflow. The skimmer was actually quite a pain to modify, but I was able to get everything working. Hopefully the gate valve will come in by the time I can set the tank up next week. Here are a couple of picture of it. You can see the recirc piping on the left and the new inlet at the top right.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4131.jpg

I am using an old style MJ600 with a tee to power both the skimmer and the fuge. I played with several configuration and ended up with the fuge line and the pump line along the straight part of the tee and the skimmer line coming off the t side. I then had to put a valve on the fuge line to be able to slow the flow to it just a hair to get the flow rate I wanted to the skimmer. The skimmer is now getting 36 gph, a little bit higher than the 1.33 goal, but close enough for government work.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4132.jpg

Here are a few pictures of the steps to finish the standpipe. I will assemble it tomorrow after the cement dries up a bit.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4133.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4134.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4135.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_4136.jpg

Veganbrian

09/26/2012, 10:33 PM

Lookin good so far! Questions, how many gph circulation will you be aiming for in your tank? Also what is that brown stuff on the standpipe for and called?

KafudaFish

09/27/2012, 07:23 AM

DON'T go back and rework anything but if you do any more you can take a chopstick and tap the cement after it starts to dry. This will give it a more detailed look.

KafudaFish

09/27/2012, 07:27 AM

Here you can see an example:

That is not cheating just using your resources.

Next to the PH box:

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af197/KafudaFish/nano%20build/tank003-3.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af197/KafudaFish/nano%20build/tank021-1.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af197/KafudaFish/nano%20build/tank016-1.jpg

http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af197/KafudaFish/nano%20build/tank021-1.jpg

Sorry for the glare from the window and my reflection in the front glass.

JasonBJones

09/27/2012, 10:55 AM

Exactly, thanks for posting that. Btw how is your tank doing, I haven't seen anything about it in a while. Wish I would have know the chopstick trick but I am happy with it and it is in the back. I really just wanted to distract from the large piece of PVC and I think I did that well enough.

Veganbrian- as you can see from his pictures it actually dries grey and looks pretty close to natural rock. It's hydraulic cement mixed pretty close to 1:1 with water. It starts hardening a minute or so after mixing and you can then blob it on. I used some smaller rocks and poked the cement with them as it dried to give it more texture. The great part about hydraulic cement is it has a very fast cure time and can be used in saltwater the next day versus using Portland cement.

KafudaFish

09/27/2012, 11:12 AM

I agree that you did a good job in covering the pipe work and in a few months it won’t matter because the CA and corals will fill everything in. My tank build is probably on page 3 or 4 in the zoa forum. It is mostly me just rambling on whatever comes to mind and that is a good thing because it makes me keep track of things. A reef build thread is most valuable to the OP.

I neglected the tank for most of the summer because I had no time to care for it but I have re-focused my efforts and the zoas are looking much better but I am battling GHA right now. It comes and goes: I kill it with H2O2 and then a few days later a different patch pops up in another area. For the last polyp count in August there were 2502 in the tank which isn’ bad considering I started with a single 5 polyp frag in December, 2010. I just wish I could keep tailspots from trying to use the aquaclear intake pipe and not one of a dozen blenny tubes I have throughout the tank.

When you get the 1262 hooked up can you take some pictures please? I have a 1260 and have thought about using my sea swirl like a closed loop if I ever do a sps nano.

Thanks.

JasonBJones

09/27/2012, 10:26 PM

Here is the finished standpipe in place. I think it gives a much better context and you are not overwhelmed by the concrete. I am quite happy with it.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/finishedstandpipe.jpg

I was able to get the closed loop hooked up for testing tonight, although the pump is not all mounted up and such. First impressions, it is very hard to judge the water flow in a barren tank with no sand. However, watching little particles moving around in the water, it looks like the flow should be quite good.

I was surprised to find the flow rate from the two outlets was not equal. I had always heard if you ran a closed loop into a circular manifold the pressure would equal between all the outlets. I think that is true when the water enters into the manifold in a T and comes in from the bottom part and hits the opposite wall and splits equally, mine does not do that. Also, I think I am actually hindered by having such large pipes for a smallish pump because I think a manifold makes equal pressure by the pump being able to pressure the manifold, I think my pump is too weak for that. I had a similar issue on the inlets. The middle inlet, which is closer to the pump, was sucking in substantially more water that the left inlet (which I would prefer to be stronger since it is farther from the outlet aimed in its direction).

To address the issues I restricted the flow to the left outlet and the center inlet. It was hard to visually notice any difference in the inlets from the change, but I could feel the left inlet had a bit more suction after the restriction. The change to the outlets was noticeable and actually more favorable than anticipated. By restricting the left outlet, the right outlet starting pushing more flow. This is great because that outlet is directed towards most of the corals. Restricting the left actually had another unintended benefit. By restricting the pipe diameter, it caused more of a jet to come out of the left outlet which pushed the water across the front of the tank more powerfully and could be felt all the way across the the tank. I would not want a stream of water shooting at the corals like that, but it is perfect for pushing water back across the tank and creating the circular flow I am aiming for.

Here are a couple of videos. It is harder to see the in-tank movement, I tried to follow some particulate around. I am very curious to see how the flow will change when the sandbed is added.

Top view
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7cW76JTX8lI?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In-tank view: It is hard to see on this. I feel like I can only see the movement in the first ten seconds.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FDMv4S7gi70?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I added lanthium chloride to the closed loop before I turned it on in this video to try and show the stream exiting the outlets. You only get to see it for about 2 seconds before it is all pumped out. Wish I had a helper so the start wasn't all shaky.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jWjqNfbZZbE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Veganbrian

09/28/2012, 12:01 AM

Man, I never heard of using hydraulic cement before. Thanks for the info bud! The closed loop system looks great and so does the hidden standpipe. I am quite surprised you're not getting even distribution of flow throughout your closed loop system. Flow looks wonderful to me though. I cant wait to see some sand in there covering up the pipe. GJ!

JasonBJones

09/28/2012, 09:03 AM

I am not sure why hydraulic cement has not caught on more. It is very easy to use, hides plumbing or overflows very easily and looks great, plus it has a very short curing time. It is an ideal product in my book for taking things to the next level.

I won't be able to work on the tank again until Sunday since I will be busy at MACNA. If anyone is going, I hope to see you there and please come say hi if you see me. I left the tank running to help pull any decay out of the rocks.

I have a lot of travel over the next few weeks so I dont expect to have everything up and going for a couple of weeks. I will try and move the tank to my apartment next weekend and then fill it up with salt a week or so later. I am starting to get excited.

JasonBJones

10/01/2012, 06:14 PM

Hey guys and girls. Time for another update.

First off, MACNA was incredible. Both the venders and the speakers were wonderful. I was very excited to have the opportunity to play with the RLSS Waveline DC-5000, which I have wanted since I first saw the press release. The pump is even better in person than I expected and I really liked the character of the owner. They will release a model in 4 months with some upgrades and the ability to be controlled by an standard reef controller. I am really excited and will upgrade to this pump when it is released. Overall, MACNA was well worth the time and the money.

I decided over the weekend that I wanted to add an emergency drain. While the chance of the overflow getting clogged the way it was designed, but I decided it wasn't worth the chance of causing a flood. I was able to put it right next to the regular overflow and then blend them in together. Here are the pictures of the process.

Here is the tank drilled. I spent a while measuring to find the exact spot where I could put the bulkhead and have room for the emergency drain without having to modify the rockwork. I knew I would have to modify the rock on the overflow, but that is pretty easy.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0035.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0036.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0038.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0039.jpg

Here is a shot of the both parts of the drain plumbing. You can also see the acrylic shelf in this shot that I plan on using to hold the dosing pumps and chemicals.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0039.jpg

One of the things I try to always do is keep up with the literature in the hobby and not just read the forums. I think forums such as this are an incredible place to find information and ideas, but sometimes it takes a while for scientific advances or discoveries to be incorporated into the general knowledge of the forums.

Late last week I was reading an Advanced Aquarist article from earlier this year comparing the efficiency of different T5 reflectors. They made a surprising discovery doing the testing that painting the back of the tank actually reduces the light in the back of the tank by roughly 25%. Discussing the results with a physicist, the authors learned that both the inside edge of the glass and the inside of the outside edge of the glass reflect light coming into the tank from the top. However, when the back is painted, the light no longer reflects of the inside of the outside edge of the glass. They realized that if you instead used an old school background instead, the light is still capable of reflecting completely because of the air pocket between the background and the glass. So, I decided to strip the paint off the back and use a background instead. I love finding little things like this that can improve the tank with little effort or expense.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0046.jpg

I also finished mounting the closed loop pump and getting it all plumbed. It took several tries to get the plumbing right. Here is a shot of it, unfortunately my pump is missing the top cover.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0041.jpg

A couple more little things. I decided to buy a couple of locline fittings this weekend that way I could adjust the output of the closed loop to find the best angles to spin the water and to allow adjustments as the corals grow. I installed these and then used hydraulic cement to blend them in. I also went through and covered any exposed plumping epoxy with a little bit of the cement to help it look more natural. Here are the final pictures of the rockwork. I think between the last set of pictures and this set of pictures I went back in and cut out some of the rock (very small bits) to open it up more. Here is the final rockwork.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0049.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0050.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0051.jpg

Finally, here is a video of the flow with the closed loop all finished. I am very happy with it. This thing moves some water.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AdYGxpQHHj4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

JasonBJones

10/01/2012, 06:33 PM

Hey guys and girls. Time for another update.

First off, MACNA was incredible. Both the venders and the speakers were wonderful. I was very excited to have the opportunity to play with the RLSS Waveline DC-5000, which I have wanted since I first saw the press release. The pump is even better in person than I expected and I really liked the character of the owner. They will release a model in 4 months with some upgrades and the ability to be controlled by an standard reef controller. I am really excited and will upgrade to this pump when it is released. Overall, MACNA was well worth the time and the money.

I decided over the weekend that I wanted to add an emergency drain. While the chance of the overflow getting clogged the way it was designed, but I decided it wasn't worth the chance of causing a flood. I was able to put it right next to the regular overflow and then blend them in together. Here are the pictures of the process.

Here is the tank drilled. I spent a while measuring to find the exact spot where I could put the bulkhead and have room for the emergency drain without having to modify the rockwork. I knew I would have to modify the rock on the overflow, but that is pretty easy.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0035.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0036.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0038.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0039.jpg

Here is a shot of the both parts of the drain plumbing. You can also see the acrylic shelf in this shot that I plan on using to hold the dosing pumps and chemicals.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0037.jpg

One of the things I try to always do is keep up with the literature in the hobby and not just read the forums. I think forums such as this are an incredible place to find information and ideas, but sometimes it takes a while for scientific advances or discoveries to be incorporated into the general knowledge of the forums.

Late last week I was reading an Advanced Aquarist article from earlier this year comparing the efficiency of different T5 reflectors. They made a surprising discovery doing the testing that painting the back of the tank actually reduces the light in the back of the tank by roughly 25%. Discussing the results with a physicist, the authors learned that both the inside edge of the glass and the inside of the outside edge of the glass reflect light coming into the tank from the top. However, when the back is painted, the light no longer reflects of the inside of the outside edge of the glass. They realized that if you instead used an old school background instead, the light is still capable of reflecting completely because of the air pocket between the background and the glass. So, I decided to strip the paint off the back and use a background instead. I love finding little things like this that can improve the tank with little effort or expense.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0046.jpg

I also finished mounting the closed loop pump and getting it all plumbed. It took several tries to get the plumbing right. Here is a shot of it, unfortunately my pump is missing the top cover.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0041.jpg

A couple more little things. I decided to buy a couple of locline fittings this weekend that way I could adjust the output of the closed loop to find the best angles to spin the water and to allow adjustments as the corals grow. I installed these and then used hydraulic cement to blend them in. I also went through and covered any exposed plumping epoxy with a little bit of the cement to help it look more natural. Here are the final pictures of the rockwork. I think between the last set of pictures and this set of pictures I went back in and cut out some of the rock (very small bits) to open it up more. Here is the final rockwork.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0049.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0050.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0051.jpg

Finally, here is a video of the flow with the closed loop all finished. I am very happy with it. This thing moves some water.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AdYGxpQHHj4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

JasonBJones

10/05/2012, 06:09 PM

Here is a quick teaser.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/TankSetUp.jpg

Tank is in place, set up with saltwater and running. Really happy with how the tank looks with the sand. The rockwork opens up a lot and looks more minimal. The flow is absurd. Tank holds roughly 22 gallons total. I added 4 LEDs to each side of the light fixture to light the ends of the tanks. 2 XTE RBs, 1 XPG NW and 1 TV. I will post a more substantial update later. Very excited!

Fretfreak13

10/05/2012, 06:17 PM

This. Is. Awesome!!!

+Rise Against. <3333

Subscribed for sure.

Veganbrian

10/05/2012, 06:58 PM

wow, tank looks amazing! everything is hidden so well!

JasonBJones

10/06/2012, 03:43 PM

Fretfreak13- Thanks a lot for the support. I am a huge Rise Against fan, one of my favorite bands. Funny enough, that was actually just what was playing on the radio when I took the video.

Brian- Thanks as always. I am really happy with how everything is hidden. The tank looks so clean and natural to me. I love not seeing a mass of powerheads and cords in the tank.

I have had an issue with the closed loop having a slight leak at the pump intake. Luckily the slow drip (once every 5 seconds) lands in the fuge so not a big deal, but the pump sucks in a little air and the microbubbles are bad. I was just working on it and realized I cracked the cover that tightens the volute onto the pump. I have another cover back at the family shop where I built the tank, but not here. I tried a little superglue fix to see if I can get it to work temporarily. I need to take some pics of the sump area. Everything came out really clean and most of the wires are hidden, happy with it.

JasonBJones

10/09/2012, 04:48 PM

A few updates to report.

I started dosing ammonium chloride today to initiate a fishless cycle. I am following Dr. Tim's protocol for the process and have also added some of his one and only bacteria.

I also bought a small piece of live rock to provide some biodiversity to the tank. The rock will be removed in several weeks. It has a small bonsia looking SPS frag on it, so it will be fun to watch how that does. It is also well encrusted with coralline algae. I scraped some of the coralline to help spread it around the tank, and will repeat this process several times. I have seen a few pods running on the rock and a small starfish has now been crawling around the front glass. Great to see some sort of life in the tank.

Tomorrow I should get the new cover for the Eheim, so I will be able to get the closed loop going again. I have been running an MJ900 in stream mode while I wait on the closed loop (thanks for the free pump at MACNA!). I also have the final fitting coming in tomorrow to allow me to get the skimmer up and going. Once that is in, I will post pics of the sump and inside the stand. I have finished running almost all the wires, plumbing, dosing lines, etc... I am really happy with how clean everything looks considering how much there is.

I wanted to take a little bit of time and discuss my filtration/husbandry mentality. I am a firm believer when keeping SPS in maintaining a large nutrient import with the capability for large nutrient export. I like to feed multiple times a day and create enough nutrients to feed the corals and have fat and happy fish. However, to do this without polluting the water and feeding algae, I try to set up multiple nutrient export pathways.

For nutrient export this tank will rely mainly on a refugium with a deep sand bed, an oversized skimmer running ozone, filter socks to remove detritus, and carbon run passively. I will use GFO or lanthanum chloride if necessary for phosphate removal and will consider dosing a carbon source if I am unable to effectively process the nutrients with the above. I like to use multiple pathways for redundancy purposes and because each provides some unique benefits and drawbacks. I also plan on weekly 4-5g water changes.

COMEKS5150

10/09/2012, 09:37 PM

Ive lurked thru reef central for years and finally started an account, i love going thru completes custom DIY reef tanks, your build is amazing! i will definately be following this thread! great job!

JasonBJones

10/09/2012, 09:43 PM

Thanks, Comeks. I feel honored you decided to post here. I look forward to having you along.

COMEKS5150

10/09/2012, 09:54 PM

I too have a 20L sps dominant in the works, but i wasnt allowed to do anything crazy (fiance) :/ your not to far from me, where you at DFW MACNA?

JasonBJones

10/09/2012, 09:57 PM

I was indeed. Luckily, I have a very tolerant wife!

If you have a build thread, post a link here. I would love to check it out.

COMEKS5150

10/09/2012, 10:07 PM

I too was at MACNA! well she would be more tolerant if we where in a permanent home, i cant really get too crazy in this apartment! but when i get my first home, i will definately be looking for a home to build my tank around! ha.. no thread yet, waiting for a little more growth from my sps but within the next month or so i will be posting something up, keeping my eye out for some nice sps frags though since real estate is quite tight in a 20L.. well good luck with the build, ill be tagging along.

KafudaFish

10/10/2012, 09:31 AM

I think we can all see why you are happy with the tank.

I really enjoyed your other one but I have a feeling this one will blow it away.

It seems that one area many people skip over is rock work because they want to get wet and have corals but this is as if not more important.

Have you mapped out where the corals are going? I have a link that someone gave me discussing coral placement and color choices if you are interested.

JasonBJones

10/10/2012, 10:08 AM

I really enjoyed my old tank as well, but I have my fingers crossed that this one will take things to the next level.

I have actually spent a lot of time thinking about coral placement. Please do share your link.

To begin with, I am a big advocate of using a color wheel to help determine coral placement. Take this color wheel (hopefully this isn't repetitive for everyone):

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/ColorWheel.jpg

Colors across from each are complimentary colors. When you place these colors near each other, it makes each color appear more vibrant than they would appear by themselves. Another great way to pick colors is using the triad method. This means taking an equal lateral triangle and placing it anywhere on the color wheel (you can also just move four colors over each way on the wheel). The three points will land on three colors and create a triad. These colors also help make the colors appear brighter than they do on their own. With those basics covered, lets move to coral placements.

Left side of the tank will have an oregon tort and a sunset milli. The blue, orange and green will create a triad and should help the colors pop.

The left to mid left will have a red dragon and palmers blue milli. 2 Parts of a triad, I may have to add a yellow caroliniana in there to complete the triad.

The middle to mid right will be a little heavier and have a Tyree margarita milli, garf bonsia, hawkins echinita.

The right side will have a pokerstar monti, a red planet and a Pro Corals Rainbow Acro. This will be red, green, and blue, another triad. I will try and place the pokerstar in between the other two to break up the reds.

KafudaFish

10/10/2012, 10:16 AM

Paul Whitby has been doing talks for reef clubs about aquascaping and the golden ratio is part of that. He did his talk/lecture at NERAC last year;
http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/100520-aesthetics-aquascaping.html
http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/111388-aesthetics-aquascaping-part-2-a.html

You pretty much are thinking along the lines of these articles.

There is a part 3 that you can search for that deals with structure.

JasonBJones

10/10/2012, 09:51 PM

I will take a look at those posts tomorrow. Thanks for sharing them. Paul Whitby is definitely a master aquascaper. I have heard him speak a couple of times and he has been very influential for me, especially when it comes to coral placement.

The skimmer is up and running! I am really happy with the changes I made and the performance I have seen so far. The entire chamber is filled with very fine bubbles and the head is very stable. I think part of the stability is the slow flow rate through the skimmer, I think this may help reduce turbulence. The only issue I see so far is that I need to add a T on the outlet to help reduce some of the microbubbles from entering the sump. The chamber full of great bubbles is causing a decent amount of bubbles to escape the outlet. By adding a T and forcing the water to exit the bottom, I hope the bubbles will be able to rise and escape from the top of the T and keep the bubbles going into the tank at a minimum.

I am awesome really excited about the ozone reactor. I picked up the Red Sea Aquazone Plus on Ebay for $10 because the seller was not sure if it worked, it was missing the probe. Picked up a probe from BRS for $40 and the unit works great!

Spent some more time running things in the stand today, it is getting close. Here is a picture of the current state:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/InsideStand.jpg

The parts for the closed loop will arrive tomorrow. I was really bummed when they did not come in today.

JasonBJones

10/14/2012, 04:52 PM

Just wanted to post a quick update.

The closed loop is up and running and leak free and micro bubble free.

The skimmer is working really well and creating a nice head of foam. Also, as it has broken in the bubble leakage has reduced dramatically and is no longer a problem. I will probably still add the T to the outlet to reduce any bubbles that escape.

As of yesterday the ammonia in the tank had not dropped yet. I think that with a relatively sterile tank and only a small piece of live rock, it will take a little bit of time for the bacteria population to develop.

If anyone wants to see pictures of anything or explanations about anything, just ask.

JasonBJones

10/21/2012, 09:42 PM

Time for the weekly update. Not too much has changed. The tank was able to process the initial ammonia dose and read 0 ammonia and nitrite on Friday. I dosed the tank again and brought the levels up to 3 mg/l on Friday and today it is reading .5 mg/l, seems to be on the right track.

On Friday I also got a cup of live sand from a friends fuge and some cheato. I split the sand evenly between the display tank and the fuge to help seed those sand beds. The cheato is interesting, I am not sure it is actually cheato. It is very thin in comparison to normal cheato. I have seen several pods and a bristle worm in it, so glad some life was imported.

The coral in the display tank is not looking super, but is doing ok. It has lightened up a bit, probably from being close to the surface with the lights blaring and probably also from the ammonia dosing. I have noticed it has encrusted over a couple of areas that had broken off but there is some tissue recession around the outer area of the base.

Planning on putting the first frags and fish in the tank in two weeks. Its hard to wait, but I know it will be worth it in the end. As has often been repeated here, few good things happen in our tanks quickly.

Here is the tank as it stands now. You can see the piece of live rock I added in the middle left.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/FTSOct2112.jpg

Here is a shot of the fuge.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/fuge.jpg

Only issue I am having is temperature control. I keep the tank set at 80.2 right now. I have it set a little high to provide a warmer environment that will help the bacteria reproduce a little quicker. When the lights kick on, the temperature slowly creeps up throughout the day to around 82.8. I am going to have to put a fan in the stand blowing into the sump to control the temperature, however that will cause the evaporation rate of the tank to increase. My ato container is good for about 2.5 days now, so I expect that to be reduced in half or so once the fan is added. I may be searching for a new ato container soon.

JasonBJones

10/24/2012, 09:46 AM

Tested the water again last night and the ammonia and nitrites were 0. I put in another dose of ammonia. I will call the tank cycled after it clears the ammonia in a day.

Only other change is I moved the single piece of live rock lower in the tank to see if the coral would stop lightening. I didnt realize how much that rock was impeding the flow in the tank. Now the gyre flow is back full force and the whole water column is moving much quicker.

I am still getting the stringy white growth, which I assume is bacteria. I scrubbed most of the rockwork yesterday and am curious if it continues to come back. I assume once there is other life in there to compete with it for nutrients it will really die back. Getting closer to first fish time!

Markemark

10/24/2012, 11:10 AM

Very impressive build

JasonBJones

10/24/2012, 12:49 PM

Thanks! It has been a lot of fun so far.

Veganbrian

10/24/2012, 03:59 PM

looks great! the annoying part is that waiting for the cycle.... so glad to be done with that. lol

JasonBJones

10/27/2012, 09:08 AM

No kidding. I think the cycle is officially done now. It is clearing the ammonia out in a day.

I am planning on ordering the green banded gobies and getting them into quarantine. After talking with the guys from ORA at MACNA, I have decided to go with a group of 5. They talked about how much fun they are to watch as a group and that they tend to do much better in groups than in pairs or singles.

The coral I was concerned about is actually coloring up pretty well and encrusting. It is beginning to get a purple around the coralites and the new growth areas. I think the polyps were green initially but are now a somewhat opaque clear. I am interested to see how it changes.

I dont think I have ever talked about my QT system, so I will do that now. I will be using a 10g tank with a heater and an aquaclear 30. The tank will be bare except for a couple pieces of PVC to provide hiding places. I bought two extra foam sponges for the aquaclear and I have had all three of them sitting in the sump of the big tank since the beginning to grow bacteria and seed the QT tank. I will set the QT up using 5g of water from the main tank and 5g of new water. Between the water from the tank and the foam sponges, the tank should be stable and able to handle the bioload of the inhabitants. I will keep the fish in QT for 28 days to make sure they are disease free. I will also house any corals in there for a similar time to make sure they are pest free. I am hyper vigilant about pests and so I try to take all measures to prevent them. I will dip the SPS in an iodine bath and a bath in Bayer Advanced Insect Killer to help kill any pests before they go into the QT tank and will monitor them closely while they are in there.

JasonBJones

10/30/2012, 07:30 PM

When I got home from work today I could see tons of tiny life crawling around the glass. Very exciting!

I have the first frag in QT, a beautiful blue milli from my favorite LFS. Unfortunately, the milli had some sort of bug on it, similar in size and shape as red bugs but without the distinctive yellow body and red head, it was all brown. After dipping the coral in the Bayer Advanced Insect Killer, there were about 30 dead bugs in the bottom of the container. I dipped it a second time tonight and did not see anymore. At least 3 weeks in quarantine for it anyway. I was only able to notice the bugs because part of my acclimation procedure for all SPS is to let them sit out dry for 10 to 15 minutes. This dries the skin and makes the skin a flat color, while any bugs or acro eating flat worms stay shiny and are much easier to detect. It also causes the coral to slime up a little and when you place it in the tank it takes the slime a while to come off so the coral slowly acclimates to the tank. Corals spend hours exposed to air in low tide, so this small time dry is no problem. I have done this for years without issue. Some smooth skinned acros lose some color from it, but everything opens polyps very quickly and is happy within no time.

I have also placed an order for the following corals: Red dragon, hulk milli and a red table. I decided to go with the red table versus the red planet because I really wanted to ensure a tabling formation where I was placing it. I love the red planets, but sometimes they grow up several inches before they table, and I just don't want to give it that much vertical room.

I have also placed an order with the LFS for a small platinum clown and have them on the hunt for the green banded gobies.

Finally, a new FTS. Not that much has changed. You can see where I moved the single piece of live rock.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/Oct302012.jpg

JasonBJones

10/30/2012, 07:47 PM

Just wanted to add a picture of the coral that has been in the tank. It was all brown when added. You can see some purple starting around the edges and on the coralites. Cannot wait until I have a real camera!

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/CoralOct302012.jpg

CJ03

10/31/2012, 10:01 PM

ange062

10/31/2012, 10:37 PM

KafudaFish

11/01/2012, 07:55 AM

Love the thought process going into coral placement on this. My biggest lessons learned now that I've got a 2-yr reef are aquascaping and coral placement with future growth in mind, and it looks like you are covered on all accounts. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

I wonder if this contributes to one of the reason why many nano tanks are broken down around 2 years of growth in hopes of getting things "right"?

Just a general question and statement vs. critique of your tank since I think it is a great one btw.

JasonBJones

11/01/2012, 08:07 AM

Wow man a lot of planning for this build. I wish I had the discipline to plan ahead and think things through rather than do and hope for the best. Every step of your build is inspirational and makes me stop and think about a lot of the ways I go about my tanks. Also there is a lot of useful information from your self and your color wheel and the links to Paul Whitby's methods of aqua-scaping. I am going to take some time and read those articles over a couple times in hopes that my future tanks will be more aesthetically pleasing.
Keep up the great work and the informative posts!!!

Cj

Cj- Thank you for the comments. It is really encouraging to hear the feedback!

I was never a planner growing up and would generally fly by the seat of my pants through most things. However, my wife is on the other end of the spectrum and plans every detail of everything she does. I don't know that I could ever be that meticulious, but I have watched how much success she is able to achieve as a result, and so I have adopted some of her ways.

Love the thought process going into coral placement on this. My biggest lessons learned now that I've got a 2-yr reef are aquascaping and coral placement with future growth in mind, and it looks like you are covered on all accounts. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

Thanks, Ange. The last full blown SPS tank I had around 2005 was done without any thought process to growth shape of the corals. I had lots of awesome colored sticks everywhere, but I never envisioned how they would all grow out. I also had way to many frags and no room for them all to grow out. That is one of the main reasons I am trying to limit the number of corals I put in this tank, although I am struggling with it everytime I see a coral that I would love to have.

I wonder if this contributes to one of the reason why many nano tanks are broken down around 2 years of growth in hopes of getting things "right"?

Just a general question and statement vs. critique of your tank since I think it is a great one btw.

I think this is very true. Nano tanks are easy to disassemble and start anew because the cost of doing so is much smaller than in a big tank. Plus, I think many people get a nano tank because it is a low cost of entry into the hobby and not necessarily because they love nano tanks. As they become more involved/obsessed, they want to upgrade to a larger tank. My goal is to keep this tank up for at least five years.

louie310

11/01/2012, 03:55 PM

thats a hell of a tank you got there!

CJ03

11/02/2012, 01:32 PM

Cj- Thank you for the comments. It is really encouraging to hear the feedback!

I was never a planner growing up and would generally fly by the seat of my pants through most things. However, my wife is on the other end of the spectrum and plans every detail of everything she does. I don't know that I could ever be that meticulious, but I have watched how much success she is able to achieve as a result, and so I have adopted some of her ways.

Oh yes my better half is like OCD with planning every little detail of dang near everything in her life. I don't know how she does it. Just watching her makes me dizzy and gives me a headache. I drive her nuts cause I am still for the most part a fly by the seat of my pants type of person in most cases. I leave everything till the last minute and she so want's to hang me most of the time. Somehow though we manage to have an extremely awesome relationship and get a long as a couple great.
I could sit down and try to attempt to plan out a tank step by step and what I want exactly but after 5 minutes I'm done with that and right back to doing and hoping for the best. :spin1:

SERVO

11/04/2012, 06:30 PM

Jason,

You are the DIY king. Just wanted to tag along. I need to give you a call and come down to check it out and bring a little house warming gift. :) I hope your ETOH poisoning was only mild. Keep the vodka dosing to the tank Mr Esq.

JasonBJones

11/04/2012, 10:35 PM

I feel quite honored to have the great doctor following along. Housewarming gifts and esteemed visitors are always welcome! The results celebration was a night to remember.

On tank notes: I got an email that my small platinum clown has come in to the store. Hopefully I can pick it up this week. The SPS order should come in Tuesday morning.

Tested the calcium and alk for the first time. 420 and 8.0, perfect. The phosphates were up to .05. I think the rock is still leaching a bit of phosphates. I added half a drop of lanthanum chloride to the overflow.

Speaking of overflows, I lost the rockwork on the overflow. The other day I decided I wanted to try and lower the overflow a 1/4" because a little bit of water keeps splashing over the emergency drain. I was lazy and was just tried pushing down on the overflow. Well, that cracked the cement on the overflow and it has subsequently been falling off. I realized I should have scuffed and scratched the pvc up to create something for the cement to grab hold to. I will have to take it out and redo it sometime soon. The worst part of the whole thing is that gray cement flakes have are now spread around the sandbed.

JasonBJones

11/06/2012, 10:38 AM

Got in the package of corals from Copps today. They were packaging was excellent, the corals all look happy and healthy, and the frag sizes are excellent. A wonderful seller.

Here they sit in the QT.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_6049.jpg

louist

11/08/2012, 08:53 PM

SpinyReef

11/08/2012, 09:03 PM

This little tank has a great potential. This is the sickest closed loop... ever!

JasonBJones

11/13/2012, 06:47 AM

Nice build! I admire your DIY prowess!

I see that you are using a MasterFlex peristaltic pump from Cole Palmer. Are you using this for ATO? I used to use one for my ATO. It was the DC, variable model with 2 channels. I wired the flow switch directly to the unit since it was able to take external signal. That setup lasted only about 2 months before the pump's internal circuitry went crazy and was stuck on full speed. Luckily, my wife was home and she turned it off else it would have emptied the RO tank into the display.

Not sure if mine was just a lemon, but given how expensive those pumps are, I expected better reliability.

Thanks, Louist. I am actually using that pump to dose calcium. It is really good to know it doesn't make a goot ATO pump because I have been considering switching to a peristaltic pump for my ato, I will probably just get one made for that purpose then.

This little tank has a great potential. This is the sickest closed loop... ever!

Thank you very much. I have been really happy with the closed loops performance so far and have actually had to turn it down a little bit.

Sorry for not updating as often as I would like, work has been absolutely crazy. The tank is doing really well. I picked up my platinum clown, he is from Proaquatix. I debated back and forth and decided to put him into the tank rather than the QT. I decided that since he was tank raised, the chances of parasites are far less and as the only fish, he would be easy to catch and move to the QT if necessary. This probably was not the wisest move, but sometimes I get impatient! Still hunting to find my group of green banded gobies. I added some snails, an emerald crab, and a cleaner shrimp to the tank too, nice to see some life in there now.

I also placed an order from Rocky Mountain Frags for the following, which I am very excited about: a rommel's rainbow, Red robin stag, red matrix, blueberry acro, pink lemonade, and garf bonsai. He is also throwing in a jedi mindtrick monti. They should be coming in the next week or so after the frags heal. The only coral left after that to acquire is a pokerstar monti. I am really debating adding a pearlberry as well as there is a spot that will have nothing.

adam1980

11/13/2012, 03:17 PM

tagging along. looks great so far!

RVANANO

11/13/2012, 06:34 PM

Seriously impressed!!!

JasonBJones

11/13/2012, 08:21 PM

Thanks, adam1980 and Rvanano!

Here is a picture of the clownfish. I think he is a cute bugger.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/clownfish.jpg

adam1980

11/14/2012, 03:28 PM

awsome clown!

adam1980

11/15/2012, 09:42 AM

how long do you plan on leaving your new sps in qt before we get to see shots of them in the display?

JasonBJones

11/15/2012, 09:45 AM

Thanks, Adam.

Should be another week. I did not see any pests on the corals when I got them, nothing came off during the dips, and I still have not seen anything since then. I feel fairly confident they are pest free, plus they came from a very reputable source. However, I want to give them just a bit longer to make sure. I am pest paranoid!

adam1980

11/15/2012, 12:33 PM

Understandable, i have been thinking about ordering from copps myself. He has some really nice stuff. Cant wait to see how they do.

JasonBJones

11/19/2012, 08:12 PM

The corals are now in the tank. Here is a current FTS:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/Nov192012.jpg

The hulk milli browned out a bit in QT and the red dragon lightened. I raised the lights in the display tank and cut the photo period to give them a chance to recover.

I had not intended to put the corals in the tank so quick, but I needed the QT tank back. I grew increasingly worried about the clown as last week progressed. I was having a hard time getting him to eat and his swimming pattern was becoming a little more irregular. I was concerned and reached out to Proaquatix. I have never had a problem getting tank raised fish to eat just about anything, and Proaquatix echoed that sentiment. They were concerned that he may be sick as well. I also started to notice some white discoloration near his head on both sides. Into the QT he went.

I did a 2 minute dip in malachite green and then put him in the Qt tank. I have been slowly dropping the salinity in the QT tank from 1.026 down to a final goal of 1.14 (at 1.021 right now). Ammonia is less toxic at lower salinity levels and the fish are better able to fight off parasites. I have also dosed copper to an initial level of .2 ppm for the treatment of Amyloodinium and external parasites. I have dosed neomycin to 250mg/gal to treat any bacterial infection and 2 ppm of praziquantel to treat any flukes and flatworms.

The fish has always had a black spot above his right eye that I thought was simply a spot, but it has been changing color and healing since the initial dip, so it was some sort of parasite. The fish is eating better and swimming a bit better now. I am hopeful I can get him all sorted out. This has really reinforced my belief in quarantining every single fish (and coral). I regret rushing and putting him in the tank.

On other notes, the skimmer has been working really well, I am very happy with the upgrades I did. I have been unable to really see what the bubbles in the chamber look like because the only clear side of my skimmer is now facing the wall. I took a picture the other day and was very happy. The whole chamber is full of bubbles and they all look tiny.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0166.jpg

JasonBJones

11/19/2012, 09:35 PM

Thought I would post a few pictures of the fish. Here is the spot before treatment, sorry my pictures are terrible. You can see the spot above the gill.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/FishSpot1.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/FishSpot2.jpg

And here he/she is in the QT now:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/FishinQT.jpg

If anyone has an idea what it may have been, I am very curious.

JasonBJones

11/21/2012, 01:03 PM

My order from Jared at Rocky Mountain Frags came in today. Everything looks nice and healthy and was very well packaged. The frags are generally a good size, though we always wish they were a little bigger. He threw in a free jedi mind trick and the coral in the back right of the picture, not 100% sure what it is.

I set up a second QT tank to house the corals in. Here they are straight out of the back:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/Corals.jpg

I noticed today that the red table in the tank has already encrusted a good millimeter or two.

KafudaFish

11/21/2012, 01:23 PM

Glad things are going well and I hope your clown is on the mend.

Will the freebie mess with your triads?

ange062

11/22/2012, 12:32 AM

Great looking livestock man! Once your tank grows out, I'll have to stop by when passing through the Big-D and snag from frags from ya!! ;)

tinola

11/23/2012, 04:22 PM

Wow I love this tank! I'll be following this one

JasonBJones

11/25/2012, 10:02 PM

Glad things are going well and I hope your clown is on the mend.

Will the freebie mess with your triads?

The clown seems to be doing well. The spot has gone from black to red and seems to be healing up well. He is eating much better. The gills on the side where the spot was are a little inflamed and red, they have been for a while. I am not sure if he was exposed to high ammonia at some point, which is a cause of inflamed gills, or if he has gill flukes. I dont think the latter because he has been medicated for them, but I also think it is weird that it is only one side. I wonder if it could have been from high ammonia if it only affects one side.

As far as the freebies, I passed one along to my good friend Servo. I still have the jedi mind trick and am debating what to do with it. I have decided to add several more corals to the tank plan because there are some main sections that will be left without corals if I follow the initial plan. They may not fall exactly within the triads plan, but the triads will still be there and should be very effective. More on the new corals later in the next post.

Great looking livestock man! Once your tank grows out, I'll have to stop by when passing through the Big-D and snag from frags from ya!! ;)

Thanks, Ange. You are welcome any time.

Wow I love this tank! I'll be following this one

Thanks, Tinola. Really glad to have you along

JasonBJones

11/25/2012, 10:17 PM

First an update on the corals that have gone into the tank. They are all beginning to encrust, especially the red table. All corals have lightened up since moving into the tank. I think it is likely a result of the strong lighting and the lack of nutrients. I raised the lights up about three inches and cut the photo period. I have also started feeding the shrimp and CUC a bit of sinking pellets every day to add some nutrients to the water. I will monitor and make adjustments as necessary.

The corals I received from Rocky Mountain Frags are still in the frag tank and will be there until right before Christmas. I think something happened in shipment because I lost the red matrix and the rommels rainbow within 12 hours of arrival, I have never lost an SPS that quick. Jared has been excellent and is taking care of things, really a top notch seller.

To expand on my added corals mentioned in the last post, I have decided to also add a Tyree ponape birdnest, a green and blue tenius, a tyree rainbow stylo and a red and green acro. I am the most excited about the red and green acro. I gave a rock with an unknown coral on it to Servo in 2005 that had encrusted for over a year but had never grown out. Over the years it has grow into a beautiful colony that resembles the ORA red planet, but with a little softer colors. It looks really nice and is absolutely awesome to have a frag back of a coral I had 7 years ago. I went to Servo's house tonight and procured one of each of the corals I decided to add. His tank is looking awesome and I am really looking forward to the 1000+ gallon tank he has in the works.

Here is the coral QT tank now:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0192.jpg

Tyree rainbow stylo:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0193.jpg

The red and green acro, bad picture:

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0194.jpg

bobssecrtsn

11/26/2012, 12:04 AM

This tank is coming along nicely, I'm moving in 4 days and planning to redo my rocks and add a qt as well, also you need to do something with that filter sticking out of the rocks it's an eyesore!

JasonBJones

11/26/2012, 07:13 AM

Thanks for the comments. Glad to hear you are setting up a QT! What filter are you referring to?

coraltastic

11/26/2012, 07:29 AM

Wow I must say this build Is amazing for a small tank. Looks well thought out, and planned.

JasonBJones

11/26/2012, 09:03 AM

Thanks! I have such a passion for the hobby that spending the time to plan everything is almost as enjoyable as watching the tank grow, so it is pretty easy for me.

Veganbrian

11/26/2012, 05:11 PM

Lookin Good! Jealous of those beautiful clowns :)

SERVO

11/26/2012, 08:54 PM

Speaking of planning, thanks for the brainstorming! It looks like you have an inappropriate proportion of the Ponape's Seriatopora. :)

JasonBJones

11/26/2012, 09:31 PM

Lookin Good! Jealous of those beautiful clowns :)

Thanks, Brian! I really love the clown. I have wanted a platinum clown since I first laid eyes on them. I am really fortunate to finally be able to justify it to the spousal unit.

Speaking of planning, thanks for the brainstorming! It looks like you have an inappropriate proportion of the Ponape's Seriatopora. :)

That is certainly one perspective. Another perspective is that I have an inappropriate proportion of all the other frags! :D I think I like that perspective better.

JasonBJones

11/27/2012, 10:02 AM

I have been considering adding an algae turf scrubber to the tank for some time. I am still undecided on the issue, although I am leaning towards adding it.

I thought I would share a conversation between Scolley and I on the topic to express my thoughts.

Quote:
Originally Posted by scolley
As to the ATS, I love that thing. Oh, don't get me wrong, it is a PITA to maintain. I've taken to only cleaning half of it every other week. But I've found I can control my phosphate level by modifying the ATS's photoperiod. Too cool. It makes it really easy to keep just a little bit in the tank. Right now I run it at 16 hours a day. If I crank it up to 18-20 I could pretty much strip all phosphates out of the tank. But my SPS would not like that.

ATS's - IMO - get a bad rap because of all the magical properties ascribed to them. Plus many people use them as their only filtration - and reduce or eliminate water changes. That causes them to get blamed for a lot of woes that are actually the result of the non-standard husbandry. But to use one - as I do - as just "Chaeto on steroids" is great. I'm got a skimmer, run carbon, and change my water at a rate of over 50% a month. Adding an ATS to that is just another nice tool in the arsenal. And FWIW, when I clean it, I rip a surprisingly good sized mat of algae off it. One look and you've got to think "Wow, am I glad those nutrients are not in my water, and that this algae decided to grow here and not somewhere else!".

From me:
I think we share exact sentiments. I do not think an ATS is the end-all, be-all of filtration methods. However, I do think it can very effectively reduce N and P without the problems associated with chemical media.

If I decide to incorporate one on my tank, I will use it in the same method as you- a compliment to the existing filtration systems. I want to create a low nurtient environment, not an UNLS, while being able to feed heavily. I find this to be the best approach to SPS keeping. I think an ATS is a very powerful tool in such a system.

drifterstudios

11/29/2012, 08:56 PM

Cuzin the sump... Good to see the clown is safe.

JasonBJones

11/30/2012, 08:51 AM

Hi drigterstudios and welcome. I am not sure what you mean by the first part of your comment. As to the second part, me too!

The clown is actually doing really well and is eating like a pig now. He is also eating anything I throw at him, which is awesome. I am hoping he will only spend a couple more weeks in the QT tank. The spot on his has almost completely healed now and is becoming less visible each day.

I am ready to get him back into the tank so I can order the greenbanded gobies! It seems liveaquaria has them in stock somewhat regularly now.

Not much else to report with the tank, not much is changing yet. I hooked up one of the dosing pumps to start dosing alk yesterday, it is beginning to drop daily. I also started seeing the first signs of coraline algae on my intake filters to the closed loop. Both of them have a bunch of tiny coraline spots. The corals have stopped becoming lighter, but they have not colored back up either. I dont think there are enough nutrients going into the tank still.

SPS Samurai

11/30/2012, 11:27 AM

Jason, you've got some serious plumbing skills. Can't wait to see you drop some Acro's in there. Great job!

JasonBJones

12/06/2012, 10:38 AM

Thanks! Is it weird that I really enjoy plumbing projects...

Speaking of SPS, I think the frags will all be migrating from the QT to the tank tonight. I saw no bugs when dipping all the corals and have not seen anything on them in my hours of watching them, so I am confident we are good to go. Should be a fun project.

Not much else to update on. Starting to see a little bit of dinos, just part of the normal cycle. I took the GFO out a couple of weeks ago and PO4 is still testing at 0.00. I have hooked up the alk dosing pump and am working on getting that dialed in. I am shooting to keep it around 8.5. The corals in the tank are all encrusting well, especially the red table and the milli I got from Copps.

I redid the concrete on my emergency drain Tuesday night. I am going to let it run in this weeks dirty water change water for a few days before putting it back in the tank, then I will redo the main drain. I made the mix with added this time as well as making it a little drier in hopes it will have more strength. I also really roughed up the PVC.

Clown is eating like a pig and mostly healed up now. Excited about getting him back in the tank in a week or two.

JasonBJones

12/06/2012, 10:33 PM

Corals are in. Hope to get some shots tomorrow

kad1979

12/06/2012, 10:54 PM

Fantastic tank!!

JasonBJones

12/07/2012, 08:56 AM

Thanks, Kad! Glad to have you along.

JasonBJones

12/12/2012, 10:14 PM

Sorry I haven't updated, work has been crazy. Fish is still in QT and eating like a pig. I was able to fix the overflow pipes this weekend, I think the mix was much better this time.

I need to figure out how to fix the part of the left side of the tank where the concrete part has some issues, which you can see in the new video posted below. This new page was sad with no pictures. Starting to see a little color coming back to the corals! Not that you can see much in the poor quality of the video.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4wnRj39ujGk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

JasonBJones

12/24/2012, 03:50 PM

A few updates.

The clownfish has made his way back into the display tank. It is great having him in there. I ordered my green banded gobies yesterday, they should arrive thursday. I ended up ordering 6. I originally planned on five, but figured there was a decent chance I would lose one so I would rather be safe. Plus, one more is just more fun. I am also ordering the last few corals to be delivered next week.

I had a little bit of an alk spike that caused a little tissue burn on the tips of some corals. I am still dialing in the dosing pumps and got incredibly busy at work and didn't monitor as well as I should have. Everything is recovering nicely, so that is good.

Today's water tests: PO4: 0.00 (wish this was around .02); Nitrates: 0.1; Ca: 420, Alk: 9.2; Mg: 1200 (working to raise this, also my Mg test is almost out of date so I have ordered a new one); salinity: 35 ppt.

Corals are still light but coloring back up. Hopefully as more fish go into the tank the PO4 will rise a little and help the color. I have not run any phosphate absorber for a month or so and have been feeding the tank every day, but it has not increased at all. Fuge is doing its job. I am still considering an Algae Turf Scrubber, but wont put one on until I start to see some rise in PO4.

Happy Holidays to all!

JasonBJones

12/27/2012, 08:08 PM

Christmas came a couple of days late, but has arrived. Today I received an order from Liveaquaria. Even though the box was 2 hours late and the weather was very cold, everyone seemed to survive the trip. I got 6 green banded gobies, a pair of fire shrimp, a porcelain crab and a pom pom crab.

I am a little concerned about one of the gobies. There was one that was a bit lethargic in the bag and there is one in the tank hiding under a rock by itself, I assume they are one and the same. It was also the only one that made no effort to eat when I fed the tank a little bit ago. Hopefully he/she will come around in a couple of days.

Here are five of them out and about. I am really excited!

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/GreenBandedinQT.jpg

JasonBJones

12/28/2012, 11:00 AM

I am hopeful the sixth fish is going to be ok. He is the smallest of all, but was out and about this morning and went hunting for food when I fed the tank. All 6 now seem to be eating and acting normal. Right now there seems to be 4 that hang out together. The smallest one joins that group sometimes but also still hangs out kind of alone (he seems like the kid brother trying to fit in). There is a single larger one that hangs out alone, although he interacts with the others when they come around. There are 2 larger ones, I am wondering if they are currently both males and that is why the one stays out of the group.

Greenbanded gobies, like clownfish, change sex. They start as females and change into males. They can then change back to form breeding pairs if two males are present. From what I understand, when you have a group of them there will usually be one male and a group of females. It will be interesting to see what happens here.

As an aside, when I have fish in QT, I try to feed 2 or 3 times a day in small amounts. I try to use this time to fatten them up and get them as healthy as possible while they have less competition for food than they will in the display tank.

JasonBJones

12/28/2012, 08:27 PM

Took some new pictures of the tank. Some of the corals are looking great, others have not yet colored up since I have received them. I have been increasing feeding even more since phosphates and nitrites are still completely undetectable.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0294.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0293.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0292.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0290.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0289.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0289.jpg

This one is doing the best right now, its the unknown piece I owned back in 2005.
http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0286.jpg

JasonBJones

12/28/2012, 08:28 PM

Took some new pictures of the tank. Some of the corals are looking great, others have not yet colored up since I have received them. I have been increasing feeding even more since phosphates and nitrites are still completely undetectable.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0294.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0293.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0292.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0290.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0289.jpg

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0287.jpg

This one is doing the best right now, its the unknown piece I owned back in 2005.
http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0286.jpg

prjct92eh2

12/28/2012, 11:29 PM

Awesome build! I'm following along since I currently have two empty 20 Longs in the basement that i want to setup as my first reef.

JasonBJones

12/29/2012, 04:04 PM

Awesome build! I'm following along since I currently have two empty 20 Longs in the basement that i want to setup as my first reef.

Thanks so much. Best of luck on setting up your first tank! Feel free to ask any questions you have here.

cubical

12/30/2012, 11:27 PM

This whole is build is simply stunning! In fact, Kumar's dad would say it is nothing short of spectacular...

yukyuklee

12/31/2012, 12:08 AM

love the rock work and setup! very original

KafudaFish

12/31/2012, 09:01 AM

It looks like things are really coming along nicely and all of the planning has paid off.

Do you have any plans for the arch in the center such as another triad of an acro(s) and/or maybe a monti/table in the front where the shrimp is hanging out in the second picture of #117?

JasonBJones

12/31/2012, 11:04 AM

This whole is build is simply stunning! In fact, Kumar's dad would say it is nothing short of spectacular...

Thank you so much. And great reference.

love the rock work and setup! very original

Yukyuklee, thank you so much. I dont know if I would say it is very original, it is inspired by so many great threads and tanks on here. But I really appreciate the comments nonetheless.

It looks like things are really coming along nicely and all of the planning has paid off.

Do you have any plans for the arch in the center such as another triad of an acro(s) and/or maybe a monti/table in the front where the shrimp is hanging out in the second picture of #117?

Thanks! Slowly but surely. I am planning on having 2 millis front and center on the arch, a Rommel's rainbow and an Aqua SD Rainbow.

I have an area where I want to place one more encrusting monti. Anyone have any recommendations. It will go behind a blue acro.

studcoop

01/02/2013, 01:46 PM

Looking good.

JasonBJones

01/03/2013, 09:52 AM

Thanks so much and thanks for stopping in.

The green banded gobies are doing great. All 6 eat like little pigs and are fattening up nicely. I haven't seen any signs of disease on them, so hopefully it will only be a few more weeks before they are in the tank.

The main tank is going well. The clownfish seems to have fully recovered and also eats like a pig. He will eat sinking bellets out of my hand. The two new bloodshrimp have been a lot of fun to watch. One of them is huge and he is out all of time. Sadly, I have not seen the procelean crab or the pom pom crab since they were added. I found a molting of the porcelean crab, so hopefully he will start coming out soon.

Corals are looking much better and have fully recovered from the high alk incident. The Red Robin stag is starting to encrust nicely and hopefully will start growing up shortly. Everything is pretty much just encrusting right now and not really growing taller. The only coral starting to grow up is the red dragon, which seems to not really encrust.

JasonBJones

01/03/2013, 09:44 PM

Took this picture when I got home tonight, thought it was pretty cool. For some reason the emerald crab decided to hitch a ride on the snail, never seen him do this before.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_0311.jpg

JasonBJones

01/13/2013, 09:11 PM

A few updates- I decided to move the green banded gobies into the main tank. Everyone was eating very well and had never shown any signs of disease, so I was comfortable that they were ready. But more importantly, there had been some aggression shown between them since they went into the tank. A couple of them had started to become very dominant and were chewing the fins off a couple of the smaller guys. I decided they needed really needed to go into the bigger tank where they would have more room and would have rocks to hide in. Plus, I felt the cramped and bare quarters of the QT were exacerbating the aggression. I am hoping now that they have moved it will calm down. I spoke to some of the guys from ORA at MACNA and they recommended keeping them in groups, I am interested to see how their advice pans out.

To replace them in the QT, I decided to pick up my last fish. I decided on a captive bred yellow assessor. I had really wanted an elongated dottyback since the beginning of this tank, but more research seemed to suggest they could be quite aggressive, despite the claims that they are less aggressive than other dottybacks. I wanted to find something colorful and unique that would be less aggressive. I kept coming back to the yellow assessor and was very intrigued by their unique swimming pattern. It is a lot of fun to watch him swim sideways and upside down. He has been eating really well and seems really healthy so far.

The tank is doing well. All the corals are continuing to encrust but nothing is really growing up and out except the red dragon.

http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/YellowAssessorQT.jpg

bobssecrtsn

01/21/2013, 01:01 AM

any updates? your corals must be adults by now!

JasonBJones

01/22/2013, 02:31 PM

I wish! Thanks for checking in.

I have been struggling a little bit with the tank maintaining the alkalinity. I have started manually dosing because I could not get the dosing pumps dialed in. Every time I does alk I have a couple of corals that react really poorly and get burnt tips even when the alk addition is small and I do it in a remote location in the sump away from the corals, I cannot figure it out. The blueberry acro has it the worst and I am not sure whether or not it will make it. It has had burnt tips for quite sometime and is showing some slight STN now as well. I have one tenius and one milli that also show signs of stress every time I dose that have some slight STN as well. I am hoping I can get it figured out and everything will resolve itself. I am not adding any corals until I can figure it out. BTW, the alk never gets above 8.5dkh (based on a milwakee handheld alk checker), I may try a different test kit to double check.

On other notes, the tank is still running too clean and sterile. I hooked up an automatic feeder to feed twice a day. I have also been dosing amino acids. I turned the ozone reactor off this weekend to see if that will help as well. The cheato is growing a little faster, so that is promising that there are more nutrients available, but the display tank still grows very little algae (there is only a dusting on the glass after 4 or 5 days) and the corals are still too pale for my liking. The red dragon has really been coloring up beautifully and the hulk milli I purchased from Copps shows great coloration on the new growth, however the rest of the coral is still browned out. It is a bit frustrating, but one of the challenges of any new tank is figuring out how to dial everything in for that particular tank.

All the fish are doing really well. The assessor is doing excellent in the QT and eats like a pig. I am excited about moving him over to the big tank in a few weeks. Only other thing to report is that I have started noticing a lot of hard shelled feather dusters start popping up all over the tank, that is fun.

prjct92eh2

01/23/2013, 01:19 PM

I forgot if you mentioned, but what product are you dosing? An off the shelf 2 part or a DIY maybe?

JasonBJones

01/23/2013, 01:29 PM

I forgot if you mentioned, but what product are you dosing? An off the shelf 2 part or a DIY maybe?

Great question and something I have been thinking about as well. I am using BRS's 2 part. The jug I am using was mixed 1.5 - 2 years ago and I think this is really the first time I have used it. I have thought about buying some B-ionic and see if it has any different effect or just mixing up a new jug of the BRS. I still need to test the water with another test kit to see if my Hanna meter is off, but my other one has expired and so I need to grab a new one.

bobssecrtsn

01/23/2013, 02:58 PM

Buy a new b ionic 2 part they do dissolve mineral

JasonBJones

01/23/2013, 03:08 PM

Done. New alk and test kit ordered.

Quaday

01/23/2013, 08:46 PM

Beautiful setup. Especially love the way you hid the bulkheads.

JasonBJones

01/23/2013, 10:04 PM

Thank you very much for the kind words. I really like using the hydraulic cement covers the overflow plumbing, it hides it very well and makes it look much more natural. I owe the inspiration for that to Mr. Wilson on here.

tommer725

02/01/2013, 01:16 AM

We gonna get an update on this thread? Ive been following it from day one!

JasonBJones

02/01/2013, 08:48 AM

Sorry about being slow to update, the wife and I have been house shopping and have just entered into a contract on our first house, so that has taken a lot of my time.

A short update. I received the new alk test kit and alk solution. The test kit read the same as my hanna checker, so I guess that was good. Alk has been between 7.5 to 8, so not sure why the corals were reacting so poorly unless the other alk solution had gone bad. A couple of the corals have started healing where they were STNing, so that is good. One milli has lost a lot of tissue and I am not sure whether it will make it. The corals that have been unaffected the whole time have really started picking up their growth in the last week or two, which is great.

I have less exciting news to report with the green banded gobies. I think the advice I was given on them doing well in a group may not have been the best. They have slowly been disappearing. I have never found any bodies, but I think I have lost two. The first one disappeared shortly after moving them over to the tank, but he/she was also the one that was very beat up and prompted the move, so that was not all that surprising. Then a week or two later I noticed I was only seeing 4 around. And lately, I have only really been seeing 3 out and about, but I did see a fourth one out at feeding time yesterday. I am hopefully that maybe they are breeding and so the mom or dad, I dont know who watches the eggs with them, has been tending the brood and not coming out much, but I fear that is likely just wishful thinking. I cant think of anything in the tank that would be a predator, there is only a small pom pom crab and a porcelean crab (I havent seen the emerald crab in a couple of weeks) and a cleaner shrimp and blood shrimp.

Still have very little coraline algae showing up in the tank, just a little beginning to grow on the intake strainers for the closed loop. I have had an explosion of tiny feather dusters that grow a calcerous tube and have a red duster part, there are thousands of them. Some areas of the tank I can count 15-20 in a 1 square inche area. The yellow assessor is in the tank now and has been doing great, really enjoy watching him.

I will try to get some more detailed pictures soon, but for now a quick couple of shots to show the amount of growth on the red dragon.

Red dragon when received
http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/IMG_6049.jpg

Red dragon now
http://i926.photobucket.com/albums/ad106/jasonbjones_photos/RedDragon_zps1aeb2e5b.jpg

Not a ton of growth, but really starting to pick up.

Chrisrush

02/07/2013, 08:53 AM

Looking good Jason.

I need to stop over the next time I'm in Dallas. Let me know when you make it back down to Austin.

Do you have any of the motors that we used for the swirl-steins or a unit already built? I was thinking about adding 2 to my tank. I also need to build a rock wall to cover up my overflow. I'll snap a picture of what I'm thinking about doing.

Hope all is well with you and your wife.

ckprax

02/16/2013, 11:41 PM

This is a very inspiring build. I can really appreciate all of the time and effort you have put into the planning and execution of this little reef.

JasonBJones

02/18/2013, 03:15 PM

This is a very inspiring build. I can really appreciate all of the time and effort you have put into the planning and execution of this little reef.

Thanks so much for the message, really appreciated.

The tank has been frustrating. I have not been able to figure out what is causing the STN and I have ended up losing a tenius and a blue milli. 2 other corals are barely hanging on. These are the same corals that have been struggling for a couple of months, all the other corals are doing well and growing. The color of the other corals still is not where I want, but they are getting better.

All the fish are doing well. I still have four of the green banded gobies and they seemed to have settled in well.

I took the skimmer out last week and cleaned the airlines and the pump. The skimmer has been working really well and has pulled out some nasty gunk since then.

In other notes, my wife and I got the house and will be moving in March 15. We are really excited about it, but the downside is my aquarium budget will be diverted to the house for the next little bit. Hopefully I can use this time to figure out what is causing the issues and getting back in line.

Latest tests: Cal: 410, Alk: 7.8, Mg 1400, Nitrates: barely detectable, Po4: 0.00 (wish I could get this up to 0.03).

bobssecrtsn

02/18/2013, 11:51 PM

sucks to move Jason, I've done it to many times.

on a side note, did you recently changed any gfo or carbon out?

JasonBJones

02/19/2013, 02:13 PM

I have not used GFO since the first couple of weeks of setting up the tank. I have been using BRS carbon the whole time, but I think I may have switched containers roughly 2 months or so ago (actually roucghly corresponding to the same time some of the issues started arising). I may try running without it for a while since I have the ozone turned off, so I don't really need it in there at this time.

noobofthereef

03/03/2013, 07:14 PM

Updates?

Graham670

03/06/2013, 12:49 PM

Just read the whole thread in one sitting! Haha awesome build man, congrats. Are you concerned about having to move the tank so soon? Good luck! I'll be tagging along and can't wait to see this thing grow out......I'm thinking NTOTM eventually!

Surefire1

03/06/2013, 06:04 PM

Looks great! I like the rock work.

bobssecrtsn

03/29/2013, 12:01 AM

Hey jason, How did the move go and did you have a smooth time moving the tank?

maddmaxx

03/31/2013, 02:48 PM

different but still sweet looking 20L

Smith62

04/14/2013, 02:12 PM

Great tank, tagging along to maybe use some of your ideas on a future build :p

JasonBJones

04/29/2013, 02:00 PM

Hey everyone, sorry I have been so quiet lately. Work, move, setting up the new house and discouragement have kept me away.

Things with the tank have not been going too well. About two weeks before the move, I replaced three of the bulbs in the t5 fixture and raised the fixture about three inches to help compensate for the increased light. Between doing that and moving the tank, I really hardly saw it because of work and setting up the house. I guess I did not raise the light high enough and bleached most corals in the top half of the tank. That, combined with the stress of the move, did most of those corals in. Additionally, once I moved the tank I had issues getting my RO unit set up and I was running low on water. We had the gas heater running at the house combined with a small leak from the protien skimmer line I left sitting out of the tank caused the tank to start losing 3-4 gallons of water a day. This led to two problems. First, I thought it was just evoporation from the dry air in the house caused by the heater and was not keeping a close enough eye on the salinity, it dropped to 1.019 before I realized it and slowly brought it back up. Two, the water level got below the intake to my fuge pump and the fuge went with minimal minimal flow for 24-36 hours, which seems to have been enough to cause a loss of oxygen in the deep sand bed in the fuge and kill the sandbed. I didn't realize it occured until I started losing more corals and a couple of green banded gobies. I took the fuge offline and removed the sandbed. One other bad thing to report was the container I purchased to move the rock with turned out to be a little too small and some of the rock structure ended up coming apart when trying to make it fit in the container.

As of now, things are going ok and everything that has survived all of the above seems to be doing well and getting its color back. However, the casulties were pretty significant. I think I have 6 corals left and I think I have lost all the green banded gobies, leaving only the yellow assessor. Interestingly, all the crabs and shrimps seem to have weathered the storm just fine.

On some positive notes, the coralline algae is finally starting to take hold and the rock is looking much better with some color on it. The corals that are still around are showing a bit of growth and color is starting to look pretty good, better on some corals than ever before. I am contemplating the future of the tank right now. The demands on my time and money outside of the hobby are so great that I am considering making the tank a mixed tank with easier corals that will take less time and effort. We moved my wife's 12g tank up from Houston and I am considering putting all the corals into my tank and taking hers down.

Wish I had generally more upbeat news to share, but I believe in not hiding the problems and mistakes so that we can all learn from them. I wish I would have bought a used 75g or something similar that I could have set up at the new house and just moved everything into it temporarily to make the transition easier. I should have known with how complicated this tank if, for a 20g tank, that alotting 3 hours to move it on a Friday night after a long week was probably not the best idea. Also, if at all possible, take a lot of time to monitor a tank after a move to be able to see problems forming before they become a real problem, I did not do that. I was able to check the tank every couple of days and that was simply unnacceptable.