Magic Kiwi's Tank Journal Thread
 

Here's my current gear:

24g JBJ Nano Cube (Frag Tank)
• 150 HQI Hood
• Hydor Power Head/Wave Maker
• JBJ 150w Titanium heater/controller
• JBJ Nano-Zapp UV Sterilizer
• Tunze 9002 Protein Skimmer (replacement collection cup by mediabaskets.com)
• Replacement Media Basket By Mediabaskets.com
• Running Purigen, Chemi-Pure Elite
• Tunze Nano-Osmolator ATO

90g Reef Display Aquarium
• 2x250w HQI Bulbs (14k) + 2x54w T5 (Actinic) + 8x3w 420nm Actinic LEDs
• 20g Sump With HOB Overflow
• Eshopps PSK-100H Protein Skimmer
• Dual Chamber Media Reactor (Purigen+Chemi-Pure Elite)
• JBJ 300w Titanium Heater/Controller
• Coralife Turbo-Twist UV Sterilizer
• Tunze Osmolator ATO
• Ecotech MP40 Power Head/Controller

All tanks offline due to house renos

Repainted the back of the larger tank from an ocean blue to flat black. Used Behr premium paint and primer exterior latex and it took three coats before I stopped seeing light through the paint. Gave it two more and called it a day.

Just flooring and baseboards to install and then I can set up my tanks again!

The worst thing in this hobby is staring at an empty tank!:lol:

This is true, although I finished painting the basement so it's on to flooring and baseboards and then I am ready to fill them up! Ordered a chiller and some odds and sods from J&L so naturally I am having trouble concentrating on the damned basement.

Empty tank sysdrom is dangerous the symptom are compulsive buying, buying multiple by mistake and being broke. :-)

~Tony

are you intending to keep the tank in the basement?

Yep, that's the plan. Why do you ask?

I like where this is going...but...

http://www.expeditionportal.com/msco...%20pichers.jpg

Haha, pictures very soon! I'm desperate to get my tanks going again but damned reality keeps getting in the way... Here's an idea, I'll take a picture of the hell that is my basement ATM and you can see all the construction tools and other crap getting in the way of my fun! :D

Back to the basement question: Is there a reason why it would be inadvisable to put the tanks in my (developed) basement?

Just curious. I don't know anyone in Calgary that runs a chiller on their tanks so that's a bit different :-) (that doesn't mean that there aren't Calgary tanks with chillers.. I just don't know any of them).

That comes from having a 150w HQI bulb an inch or two from the surface of the water in my 24g Nano. :)

A friend from work has a RSM 130D and he's having heat problems with it. He's looking at getting the same chiller as me.

The only regret that I have ever heard from people with basement tanks, myself included, is the visibility (or viewability) aspect. Some people, again not ALL people, find that having their tank in the basement reduces or limits its visibility. A lot of home activities happen on the main floor, and by the end of the day you're exhausted and go to bed, without even seeing your tank. Then you sometimes get into a slump where your mindset is something like, "there's a tank in the basement, it needs a skimmer cup clean, glass cleaning, there's a frag rolling around on the sand bed, new dosing solutions need too up, this, that.." But because you don't see the tank it's easy to procrastinate and let maintenance slide. I'm not suggesting that this is what's going to happen to your tank. Simply that this is the only reason that I know of not to have a basement tank. Having said all that, TONNES of people have successful basement tanks :-).

Now, you're probably going to say that your developed basement is intended to be the prime recreation or entertainment area. That's good, it'll help. Again, this goes back to visibility of your tank. Ultimately, the more you see it the better off it'll be. Even if you're just glancing at it from across the room. How's that saying go.. Oh ya, "out of sight, out if mind." :-)

An inch from the water?!?? Yikes!! And ya, I can definitely see heating issues on an RSM. Those tanks tend to be sealed up with a lid which reduces evaporation thus limiting cooling. An open top (and possibly a strategically placed fan) goes a LONG ways in helping to cool a tank. A chiller will get the job done too though :-)

My Nano Cube is one of the "Next Generation LED" tanks. Essentially JBJ's first kick at an LED hood, so they were really anemic looking. The MH hood is incredible (after I swapped out the fans), I will have no time raising frags in it. (Other than some possible bleaching at first with that much light)

The RSM set ups are really good looking IMO but yeah, I don't dig the sealed tops. My friend also has the tank set up on his main floor with no central air and a south facing room.

As to your other post I can totally understand what you're saying. For my house the basement will be the main living area, so keeping it in the fore front of my mind shouldn't be an issue. The problem will be with leaving it alone instead of constantly fiddling :)

Ya, the all-in-one units do look pretty sexy. The newer models with the LED lights are nice, plus I think they've caught on and now have open tops on their newer models. Main floors with a south facing windows can be a challenge. That's what I have to battle. My tank sits in my living room with a giant south facing living room window. I have an open top with a fan and central AC though so that helps. I still have to keep my blinds closed in the summer. Ironically, in the winter when the sun does blast through the windows more its cold enough outside (and in the house) that I can keep the blinds open mostly all winter.

Constantly fiddling will be something that both you and your tank will suffer through for at least the first 6 months. Possibly up to a year. After that, it should get better :lol:

Finally got the flooring in! Astute readers may notice the lack of baseboards though...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...750/photo2.JPG

I just notice the magical freestanding pants :)

Oh ye old reno basement. I too have that problem. Although it does make you feel really good about yourself when you take those before and after photos! Cheap rah rah rah moments for the win.

I have a basement tank. Hell the thing had to be built in my basement. I love it. However my basement is also where my television and gaming areas are, its also where puppy snuggles are best given and received.

So there is some truth in whats mentioned, but if your basement is a destination for something other then just your tank, it might work out better.

Yes, they are amazing. Too bad they don't wash themselves.

Water test last night! Time to start hooking everything up now. So close I can almost taste it. (Not the salt water, that's just a figure of speech.)

Will follow up with more pictures once I have something interesting to show.

If only, if only.

Big night last night for the set up of my large aquarium. Got most of it pieced back together, still a couple small items outstanding. The following was assembled last night:

- sump installed and hoses, pumps, overflow and return set up

- small cracks along the bottom of the sump where the main bulkhead meets the floor. I siliconed them inside the sump, I hope they won't leak...

- UV sterilizer installed on return from sump
- Dual media reactor and pump installed
- Protein skimmer installed (HOB)
- Heater and controller installed
- ATO unit set in position to be configured when system is wet
- MP40 unit installed, still need to position and configure the controller

Not bad for a guy that went home from work sick earlier in the day. For some reason I am taking a long time to get better...

Remaining items:
- hang light fixture and solder/install moonlight LEDs
- configure ATO when system is wet
- position and install MP40 controller
- configure protein skimmer when system is wet
- rock work! (this could take forever...)

I haven't touched the nano-cube set up yet, it's been a big job getting the large tank set up again. Will take pictures of the set up tonight when I get home.

I stressed when I got my 33 gallon going was so much stuff to buy then when I started my 95 gallon I stressed again because so much stuff to buy again and learning how to make it all work.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your tank

If I had it to do from scratch again I'd probably just buy one of the larger all-in-ones like the RSM 250D or possibly even one of the smaller S series systems. I've spent enough on the larger aquarium that it would make it economical to do.

Wow! Sick as a dog again this weekend but for some reason I couldn’t just sit and stare at an empty tank during my misery. I managed to set up the entire tank on Friday night and almost the entire day Saturday in between vomiting and napping.
Friday night:
- Completed rockwork and placed it in the aquarium on white egg crate (matches the sand better than the black)
- Installed heater in display tank (There wasn’t enough room in my sump with my very large circulation pump and small reactor pump)
- Heater controller was installed in cabinet
- Installed UV sterilizer in cabinet
- Installed dual media reactor in cabinet
Saturday:
- Ran plumbing for main sump, return pump (Quiet 6000), UV sterilizer, media reactor (Ehiem Universal 600)
- Installed media in reactor chambers (.8 Carbon in chamber 1, Phosban in reactor 2)
- Purigen and Coppersorb in sump
- Installed protein skimmer (HOB style, not as pretty but couldn’t fit one in sump)
- Mixed water and pumped into tank
- Pressure tested all plumbing, fixed one small drip on return but touch wood it all seems to be tight
- Started circulation pumps
- Started protein skimmer
- Started heater (500w heater brought water to temp overnight)
Sunday:
- Half dead by this time
- Tested water in the AM and ammonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate=0, phosphate= not measurable by test kit
- Went to Gold’s looking for live rock but they didn’t have any pieces that were interesting to me so I went to Pieces and bough 20lbs of very well shaped rock with at least some coralline and remnants of leather corals, sponges, etc with the hope that some may come back
- Placed rock in tank
- Installed HQI bulbs in fixture and holy hell they are bright as the sun


Once again everything was done as a sprint so naturally the setup process has NO pictures. OCD > Me... This morning I did find a nice blue sponge that is attached to the LR I bought. Hopefully it survives :D

Sounds like you had a very productive weekend despite the fact you you were busy trying to see your insides :wink:


When your done dying :biggrin: how about posting some pictures so we can ohh and ahh

I thought I was going to see my shoelaces if I kept it up...

Will post a picture as soon as I can figure out how to share from Google+. The first one was a fluke lol.

As promised here is one crappy camera phone picture. You can't see my DSLR off to the right side on a tripod. Will be looking forward to working my macro lens :)

Yes I do know the rock work looks like crap but I was TRYING for a natural reef look while maintaining lots of ledges, cracks, tunnels etc. More reminiscent of my recent trip to PVR. The two pieces on the far right are actually for my daughter's tank and will be removed in a few weeks.

Oh yeah, and you can see one of my dog's bum in this picture. He's just shaking his booty for you.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...h528/photo.JPG

Congrats on your second photo linking fluke! It looks good. Whats in the back left? A little bit glow-y in the corner?

Tell your dog he? she? needs a cameo from the front end.

It's looking good

Thanks, the photo sharing went a bit better than I was expecting.

The pink glowing stuff is actually fluorescent whiteboard marker. With just the actinics going it really pops! So I wrote the starting tank parameters on the side. :)

Dog is a he, I have two male standard poodles that are my boys. I think we can arrange a photo-op with the two of them and my tank :)

OK so last night I installed the ATO unit. So far it seems to be working well at trying to keep my sump at a constant level. Although the water level in reservoir seems to be dropping more rapidly than I expected. Still some fine tuning to do with the return pump as it seems to empty the sump faster than the overflow box can fill it.

Salinity is in line now. After I added the live rock from Pieces the salinity went through the roof. Temps are great, despite the basement being very cool.

The protein skimmer is still breaking in so there is a TON of micro-bubbles being released into the display tank. Fingers crossed that will calm down in a couple days.

You may want to invest in some lids for your tank and any open water sources. My tank is also a basement set up and I found I gained back a certain degree of evaporated water and heat loss by adding lids. It also helps save a few pennies on your electrical bill!

Yes that is a good idea. Once things stabilized my plan was to cover the open chamber for the sump and the overflow with Saran Wrap. I have a glass lid for the tank but I'm not sure if they will work with my overflow, return hoses, skimmer, etc. hanging off the back.

I can see how that would be an issue! In the winter (January/February) the difference adding those lids made was pretty obvious from one day to the next. Hopefully you're plan will work well!

Definitely when the air gets really dry and cold covering the water will help. Hopefully the saran wrap will do the job on the sump and overflow though. I figured it's water and air tight and cheap, disposable and would be easy to wrap the whole thing.

OK here's a couple more iPhone pictures until I can process the ones on my DSLR. The first one is the main display tank with the HQI and T5HO lights going. Extremely bright! The second photo is my sump with the return pump, reactor pump, and ATO sensors. As you can see I have a little tidying up to do with the wires, hoses etc.

Main Tank:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y...25281%2529.JPG

Sump:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l...0-no/photo.JPG

If you are feeling the empty tank syndrome, I like to add some brine shrimp eggs in there, and just watch the little buggers swim around...helped me through the cycle period!

Measured most tank parameters last night:

Ammonia= undetectable
Nitrates= undetectable
Nitrites= undetectable
Phosphates= undetectable
pH= 8.1
Salinity= 52.8mS
Temp= 81deg
Calcium >400 (crappy test, will use my colorometer tonight to measure)
Alk test kit was a piece of junk, will use colorometer tonight to measure.

I'm starting to see a couple little purple corals, not sure what they are. There appears to be a couple orange sponges gaining mass. Near the output from my MP40 there's a few tiny things that look like hairs with tentacles extending from the very tip. Could be aptasia but I'm pretty sure they aren't. Just not sure what they are.

Going to add a zoa frag this weekend and see how it does. I know it's too early but I've been dosing with Seachem's stability and there just doesn't seem to be any waste material in the water column. The skimmer is producing foam but it's not dark, more of an ivory color.

With these params do you think I'm jumping the gun?

That is a clean and shiny sump you have there!

I don't know how to convert mS to SG for salinity..but your other parameters look good for livestock. I don't think low dKH (not saying you have low levels) would impact zoas at all.

I do like the brine shrimp idea though.