90g FOWLR (first SW tank) journal

[macphoto]

Well, here goes... my first foray into saltwater aquariums.

A little background... I don't have a whole lot of fishkeeping experience. I had a 20 gallon FW about 12 years ago, and just this past summer set up a 16 gallon bowfront FW tank. When I mentioned to my wife my desire to get that little aquarium, she wasn't exactly thrilled, having had a small aquarium when she was a kid that seemed to be a deathtrap for whatever fish she put in there. In the negotiation process (which began with me suggesting we get one of those 6 gallon Eclipse tanks, then grew into a 12 gallon Eclipse, finally ending up with this 16 gallon, the biggest tank I could fit in the small space that was available), I casually mentioned my dream to someday have a saltwater tank. "Why not just get one now," she asked, clearly more excited about having SW than FW.

That set me off a flurry of research on this topic that I knew virtually nothing about, culminating in a disappointing discovery that my favorite SW fish, the Yellow Tang, would need a much bigger tank than we had space for. Even if we could somehow shoehorn a 30-ish gallon, it still wouldn't be nearly big enough. Standing in our living room, I gazed at the large amount of space occupied by a wet bar in the corner... what a great spot for an aquarium, too bad the wet bar was there!

Mother nature intervened... with Hurricane Katrina sending 6 inches of water in our house, the flood repair was a perfect opportunity to get rid of the wet bar, freeing up the necessary space for a larger aquarium. My wife was set on a 55g, though I successfully lobbied for a 75, and was able to up that to a 90 since it didn't take up any additional space.

My wife is smart, as this provided substantial motivation for me to complete the house repairs as quickly as possible!

So, with the repairs now almost done (just need to do the garage and utility room), I ordered the aquarium and stand last week, and also began the unexpectedly arduous process of finalizing all the details (sand bed, powerheads, sump, skimmer, filtration, etc.). I decided on the following:

• All-Glass 90 gallon w/overflow
• "Modern Series" oak stand and canopy
• All-Glass 20H to be used as a sump
• Pentair Quiet One 3000 return pump (might be a little undersized... we'll see)
• ASM G2 Skimmer
• 2 Visi-Therm 150w heaters
• 3 Maxi-Jet 1200 powerheads
• Aragamax sand... 1.5 - 2 inches

I'll also be adding an RO/DI unit, an auto-topoff, and (hopefully) a small refugium if I can fit it.

The skimmer, live rock, and critters will be the tank's primary filtration, though I might run a HOB power filter sometimes if needed.


Friday 12/23/05: The big stuff arrived at the LFS. Well, it's not exactly "local" to me. I have two local shops here in my town (Slidell, LA) that each have a modest SW selection, but they definitely do not specialize in it. We did have one very nice shop that had a lot of SW stuff, but it was badly flooded during the hurricane and looks to be gone for good now.

Aquatic Specialties in Kenner, LA (about an hour drive) has a great SW selection. Sadly, they lost pretty much their entire SW stock during the extended power outage following the hurricane. The people are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. They've got tons of tangs, some really nice looking tank-raised clowns, a lot of neat inverts, even seahorses (not for me though!)... I'll definitely be getting most of my livestock from them!

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/P1010705.JPG

Loaded up and ready to roll! I ended up getting there before the freight driver made the delivery, so my stuff went straight from the supply warehouse's truck to mine (though we did pull the pieces out of the boxes for inspection first).



Saturday 12/24/05: "No, we can't put fish in it yet," I have to keep telling my 2 girls and my wife (and to a lesser degree, myself)! Skimmer, powerheads, and some other stuff arrived today.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1147.JPG

(Need to move that painting). The back of the tank will be painted black or dark blue. The outlet visible behind the tank, oddly high on the wall, is a remnant of the wet bar, but will work out fine for the aquarium. I think the outlet is GFCI-protected from a GFCI installed in the bathroom on the other side of the wall, but I'll confirm this.

Lighting is provided by a double-strip standard fluorescent, with one white bulb and one blue actinic. Hopefully this will be bright enough.

A Maxi-Jet 1200 is installed at each corner, and I plan to add another one (maybe centered on the back pointing towards the front, or on the right hand side with the flow down directed along the back of the rocks).


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1149.JPG

We really liked the look of the All-Glass "Modern Series" furniture, but my favorite feature is the lack of a center post between the doors. I think I can fit a refugium on the right (drilled on the side to overflow into the sump), with an auto topoff reservoir behind it.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1151.JPG

I was all ready to start plumbing the sump, even willing to venture out into Christmas Eve traffic to get to Home Depot, but I was a little disappointed to find that the All-Glass overflow accessory kit came with barbed fitting bulkheads. From the product photos I'd seen, I was expecting MPT, and I had planned to do at least the drain stuff with hard PVC. But, the barbed fittings kind of threw a wrench in those plans. Further complicating the situation is the drain bulkhead, which is referred to as a 1 inch bulkhead, but actually has a barbed fitting for 1.25 inch hose. I'm struggling to find the fittings I'll need to plumb the sump now, since 1.25 inch doesn't appear to be a commonly used size. Rather than try to transition from vinyl tubing to PVC, I'll probably just plumb the whole thing (drain and return) with vinyl tubing.

On a brighter note, All-Glass now appears to include a split outflow instead of just the single.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1150.JPG

The ASM G2 fits nicely in the sump... even with baffles installed, there should be plenty of space for a reasonably sized return section. The G2 reportedly likes a water level of about 10 inches, and the sump is 16 inches tall. So to be able to utilize as much of the sump space as possible, I'll elevate the skimmer around 4 inches (though it's not readily apparent in the photos, there's ample vertical clearance). I've since filled the sump about halfway with freshwater to let the skimmer run for a while, as per ASM's recommendation. It makes a low-pitched hum that seems to resonate through the stand... not an offensive sound, but still noticeable. I'll try adding some sort of cushioning material under the sump to dampen the vibrations.

--Mike

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12/25/05: Skimmer pump noise, and a plan for the cabinet space.

I let the skimmer run overnight (in FW), and this morning noticed a fairly loud and peculiar sound emanating from the Sedra pump... sort of a "low-pitched screech" would be the best way to describe it. I've heard a similar sound from failing computer cooling fans before. I took apart the pump and put it back together, and so far so good.

I think I've finally nailed down my sump/refugium plan. Originally, I planned on a 20H sump, a 15H refugium, and a water storage tank for auto topoff and water changes. However, over the weekend I decided to add an RO/DI unit, and that kinda threw my plans out of whack. I could have fit it on the outside of the cabinet, but I don't think my wife would have been too thrilled about this nuclear reactor-looking thing being visible in the living room. To mount it in the stand would mean having to forego the refugium, or drastically downsizing it and the storage tank. So, I spent this evening trying to come up with a way to get it all in there (while still keeping the filter canisters for the RO/DI reasonably accessible).

After a breakthrough realization that I could place a smaller (5.5 or 10 gallon) refugium ON TOP of the water storage tank instead of trying to squeeze all the pieces in next to each other, here's what I came up with...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/sump.gif

The storage tank was found at http://www.plastic-mart.com. The neat thing about this supplier is that they have A TON of shapes to choose from for any given capacity, so it's easy to find something reasonably close to the space you have available. Also, the tank is "blank" with no fittings installed, so you don't have to worry about it being laid out for an orientation different from how you plan to use it. It sticks out the back of the stand about 4 inches (the tank is not placed directly against the wall), but this won't be visible.

The RO/DI will fill this tank directly. I don't totally trust mechanical float valves, so I'll manually turn the supply once a week to fill it (but will still have an auto shutoff float valve as backup just in case I leave it on too long). I'll cut a hole in the top of this tank and install a deck plate from West Marine, which will give me a way to place a small pump inside for the auto topoff, which will fill the return section of the sump as needed (2 float switches will be used, for redundancy). A few pieces of 2" PVC placed vertically inside the tank will provide support for the refugium.

Also, since I'll have a sewer drain behind the stand, I may add a line to it from the return pump with a diverter valve, so that I can easily drain the sump for water changes.

Anyone see any potential problems with this plan?

--Mike

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12/29/05: Sump plumbing mostly complete, freshwater test underway!

I've been diligently working on getting the sump/refugium plumbed, and on getting the supply and drain for the RO/DI situated. Unfortunately, for me, this means hours (literally) staring at a shelf at Home Depot, followed by coming home and staring at the tank for another couple of hours, before I finally make a decision on how to proceed. I ended up finding the fittings I needed to plumb the overflow drain with PVC instead of flexible tubing, and aside from getting a little carried away with the purple primer in some spots, I think it turned out ok.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1208.JPG
(the aquarium is pulled away from the wall at an odd angle because I'm currently working on the water supply/drain in the wall behind it, and the back of the tank still needs to be painted)


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1209.JPG
(the MRE box is temporary, until the topoff water tank is in place)

My refugium plans changed. I wanted to put a 10 gallon in there, but after getting the plumbing installed, there just wasn't enough room. So, I decided to go with a 5 gallon acrylic tank from Wal-Mart. Yes, a 5 gallon glass tank would have been a lot cheaper to buy, but with the acrylic, I was able to drill the overflow holes myself (saving money and hassle of trying to get a glass tank drilled), plus I was unexpectedly able to make use of the supplied hood/light (don't know if the little fluorescent tube will suffice... we'll see).

I'm a little disappointed that I had to downsize the refugium, and considered omitting it altogether as a result, but I figured a small 'fuge is better than no 'fuge.

Anyway, with pretty much all the tank plumbing done, and with my wife eying me nervously, I brought in the hose and began to fill it up. For someone who recently experienced a flood, and JUST got carpet after living on concrete floors for the past 4 months, bring 90+ gallons of water into the living room is a somewhat stressful event. With the tank full, and the return section of the sump half full, I plugged in the return pump, and held my breath. Of course, there was no reason to believe that anything bad would happen as a result of that... I guess it's just kind of intimidating to see all this water and PVC, and irrational fears of setting off some sort of unstoppable demonic wormhole siphon that dumps the contents of the aquarium onto the floor. Needless to say, this didn't happen... the water began flowing, just as it should.

That's not to say the event was not problem-free. One surprise was that, during my "turn off the pump and see what happens" test, the water level in the sump rose a lot more than I expected. Thankfully, I had not filled the sump as high as I thought I would be able to, but I didn't realize that so much would drain out (I thought this was something that primarily HOB overflow users had to be concerned with, and didn't realize it happened with built-in overflows as well). The level rose to within a few inches of the top of the sump.

I was (and still am) a little nervous about the drain and return pipes in the overflow box... as per the instructions, they're just stuck into the bulkheads, and are not glued in place. Has anyone ever had a problem arise from this? If one of these pipes became dislodged, I assume that the approximately 3 gallons present in the overflow box would be able to freely drain down to the sump. The return pipe is jammed in there pretty darn good, but I'm not so sure about the bulkier drain pipe. Maybe I misunderstood the instructions... are these supposed to be glued in place?

The biggest issue was noise coming from the overflow, basically sounding like someone repeatedly flushing a toilet, as the level of water in the overflow box went up and down, over and over again. Thanks to this (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61710&page=1&pp=15) thread, I was quickly able to determine that the problem was related to having too much return flow, more than the drain could handle. Because I suspected my pump (a 780gph Quiet One 3000, with a flow of about 550gph with the head as installed) would, if anything, be a little undersized, I didn't bother adding a ball valve to the return line. Either the pump is more powerful than it's supposed to be, or (more likely) the drain's effectiveness is reduced from the plumbing that it has to pass through. I'll obviously have to address this, but for now, with the drain to the sump wide open, the only way I could keep the overflow box happy was to increase the flow to the refugium A LOT more than I want it to be. Which brings me to my next issue.

I've got some microbubbles in the tank, and they appear to primarily be originating from the refugium. I mistakenly assumed that microbubbles were primarily a byproduct of skimmers. I didn't realize that they'd be generated simply as a result of the drain coming into the refugium. So, while my skimmer is followed by a bubble trap, the refugium simply dumps directly into the return section via a couple of 3/4" bulkheads, elbows, and pipe.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1215.JPG
(drain from tank to refugium... I'd planned to add something, like a length of pipe with holes drilled in it, to spread out the flow across the tank so that it doesn't blow right onto the sand)


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1210.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1216.JPG
(bottom of overflow pipe from refugium)


I wonder if this problem might be exacerbated by the high level of flow that's blasting through there now. But that's probably not the only cause. Any ideas on what to do about this? I figure I can either add something in the refugium to take care of the bubbles (not sure what, and there's not a whole lot of space to play with in there anyway), or simply extend the refugium overflow lines so that they dump into the the skimmer section instead (I'll have to order and install new bulkheads though... elbows are solvent welded in place).

Any thoughts?

--Mike

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12/31/05: Plumbing for RO/DI complete.

This evening I finished the RO/DI supply/drain plumbing. Here's what it looked like in there originally (a small sink was located here)...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/DSCN7123.jpg


Here's what it looks like now...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1220.jpg


Having the plumbing leftover from the wet bar did make the job easier, but I still had to do a lot of routing to get the copper and pvc in exactly the right place (plus add a p-trap).

I used an icemaker supply box, flipped it upside down, and drilled a 2" hole in the bottom to bring the drain up through it. The valve has a 1/4" threaded connection to which the RO/DI will hopefully hook right up. I'll just stick the waste tube down the drain hole, and secure it with a cable clamp or something. This will also make water changes a bit easier, since I'll be able to pump from the aquarium (or sump, more likely) directly into this drain.

My neighbor (who knows a lot more about plumbing that me) came over to inspect my progress, and was a little concerned about the drain having the elbow right there at the beginning, thinking that it might back up a bit. But I tested this by dry-fitting the assembly together, and using a 370gph pump with 3/4" tubing, dumped a bucket of water into it... worked fine. After the whole thing was complete, I also connected an icemaker supply hose to the valve, stuck the other end in the drain, and let the water flow through there full-blast (to flush out stuff in the copper pipe, test the drain capacity, and check for drain leaks), and all was well.

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/2/06: Redoing the sump baffles.

I've drained the tank, and decided to go ahead and lower the baffles in the sump. The clincher on this one was when I realized that the refugium was not the only source of microbubbles... even when I totally shut off the refugium flow (and gave the existing bubbles plenty of time to dissipate), bubbles were still seen in the return section, and in the main tank. The reason, I strongly suspect, was the long drop the water had to make from the last baffle into the return section. And, because I had more "power-off" overflow from the tank than I expected, I could not simply fill the return section with more water to make it less of a drop.

So, I lowered the baffles by 2.5 inches, making them now each 11.5 inches tall. This way, I'll be able to keep more water in the return section, and still have a little more than 5.5 gallons of overflow space.

The RO/DI unit should arrive tomorrow, and I'm debating on whether or not to do one more tapwater test, or just go ahead and start filling up with the good stuff (since that will likely take at least a few days). Then again, I'm still finishing off the wall behind the tank from the RO/DI plumbing, so I guess there's no big rush for getting the good water in, since the tank will need to be moved afterwards.

A few things still need to be worked out... I need to deal with the noise in the drain to the skimmer section of the sump, and the bubbles from the refugium. I'll probably end up redoing the drain plumbing, to incorporate mogurnda's suggestions on how to reduce the noisy air in the drains, but just for the heck of it, I might see if I can implement the same idea (a vertical vent near the end of each side to let the air out) by drilling a 1 inch-ish hole at the top of the pipe or fitting and gluing in a short section of vertical pipe. If that doesn't work, I'll trash it and start over (but will use threaded ball valves and unions this time!).

For the refugium-originated microbubble issue I'm leaning towards just running the drains from the refugium over to the skimmer section (or, rotating the sump so that the skimmer section is adjacent to the refugium), so that this water will have to pass through the bubble trap. I suppose the downside to this plan would be that it's possible that some of the goodies from the refugium could end up in the skimmer.

I'm also giving some consideration to possibly eliminating the drain that goes to the refugium (so only the skimmer section would receive water from the tank), and doing a tee with a ball valve from the return pump to supply the refugium. I realize that the skimmer will remove stuff that the refugium residents might enjoy, but some of it will get through. If I do eliminate the drain from the tank into the refugium, that frees up some vertical space, making it possible to have a larger refugium.

Decisions!

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/3/05: Dry rock & RO/DI arrive, a change in plans for cabinet space.

My order of rocks from hirocks.com arrived. I ordered a 60lb. box and a 30lb. box... here's the 60lb. box.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1226.JPG


The 30lb. box contents look pretty much the same. I think that once I get it washed off, it will look really nice in the aquarium... the holes and crevices should make good homes for the critters that decide to relocate there from the LR/LS.


The RO/DI arrived also, and I quickly got it temporarily hooked up to try it out.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1221.JPG


With a quick test during the initial "throwaway water" period, I estimated the unit is producing water at a rate of about 65gpd.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1222.JPG

I put it right to work, making about a gallon of good water for the FW tank. Because my tap water has a very high pH, I'm going to acclimate that tank to this water via small water changes over the course of a few weeks. To add back the goodies that FW fish need, I'm using something by Kent called RO Right.


In more significant news, I've made a pretty big change to my cabinet space plans. Originally I was fixated on having everything (sump, refugium, RO/DI unit, water storage) all contained within the stand. However, after receiving the RO/DI unit, I started giving some more thought to just mounting it on the outside of the stand on the right hand side where it would be between the stand and the wall. I cautiously floated a few trial balloons with my wife on the idea (using the "this was the plan all along, didn't you know?" method), eventually receiving full approval. We can always put a plant or something in front of it to obscure it.

So, what does this mean? Quite a bit more room in the stand!

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/sump2.gif

The water storage tank will now sit vertical. The 15g tank I had planned on was just a little bit too wide to fit in this configuration, so I changed the order to a 14g tank. In reality, I think the 14g tank is going to hold more vertically than the 15g would have horizontally... because of the float switch cutoff for the RO/DI, I estimate approximately 3 inches of the top of the tank will go unused. For the 15g tank horizontal, this would take away about 4.5g of capacity. For the 14g vertical, about 1.75g is lost.

Anyway, the space that is freed up as a result means I could now theoretically fit a significantly larger 15g refugium. However, since I've already bought and drilled holes in the little 5g refugium tank, I'll probably keep it for now and see how well it works. If I need to upsize it later, I'll have the room to do it.


Now, I need to texture/paint the patched wall behind the tank, paint the back of the tank (probably black), and figure out the sump plumbing. I'm hoping to start filling the tank this weekend.

My next big decision is whether to go with a small "The Package" from TBS for seed LR/LS and initial cleanup crew, or to get these things separately from other sources. I'm excited about the potential diversity of life to be found with the TBS rock and sand, but on the other hand, I'm not as thrilled about the blue-leg hermits (would prefer scarlet reefs), cucumbers (just too creepy looking), and the reported density of the rock (the 20 - 30 lbs. I would order would probably just be a couple of pieces!). Regardless, I'm leaning towards TBS, but I'm still largely undecided.

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/7/05: Fill-up is underway!

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1238.JPG

I finished patching the wall behind the aquarium, and installed a GFCI outlet behind the tank.



http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1242.JPG

Painted the back of the tank with a nice dark blue (Rustoleum brand "Multipurpose" Navy Blue... in a 1 quart can, not spraypaint) using a foam roller. I had a few minor problems here. First, the roller sometimes would stop rolling and simply slide over the smooth glass surface. Really had to watch out for that on the second coat... I think I did not let the first coat dry long enough (about 2 hours), because at one point, I could see the first coat of paint sliding around slightly as a solid skin over the glass. Second, though I masked the tank trim, paint "wicked" slightly down between the glass and the trim at both the top and the bottom, resulting in a bit of an uneven line in some spots. This is definitely no big deal on the bottom, because it will be hidden by the substrate. On the top, the waterline will probably obscure it. Third, I should have sliced along the tape before I removed it... it peeled up a little bit of the paint, which I was able to press back down and, in some cases, touch up with a brush.

The tank has now been moved back to its normal position, and the RO/DI is mounted on the side of the stand. I left just enough space on the right hand side so that I could squeeze myself between the wall and the side of the tank, and also did not put the tank close to the back wall (left about a 4 or 5 inch gap), both because there is an outlet back there preventing it from being totally flush with the wall (though a power strip with right-angle plugs would mostly take care of that) and because I wanted to be able to reach back there if needed.

Checked to see if the tank was level, and it was off from left to right and from front to back by about 1/4 inch each. Probably not enough to cause problems, and since it's on carpet, it might shift a bit after it's filled. But I went ahead and shimmed the stand anyway. It's still not perfect, but it's very close (maybe 1/8 inch).



http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1244.JPG

Here is the new sump plumbing. I elected to, this time, only have the overflow drain to the skimmer section, and will feed the refugium with a tee off of the return line. I decided on this for several reasons. First, it simplifies the drain plumbing (maybe the long turn elbow will result in less turbulence). Second, it will make it easier to change the refugium to a 15g tall if I decide to do so at some point. Third, the return flow seemed more than adequate, so I don't mind diverting a little bit of it. Fourth, this might solve my bubbles in the refugium problem (the water coming from the return pump probably won't dump nearly as many bubbles into the refugium as the drain line had).

I ended up having to solvent-weld the assembly again... no matter how long I stood and stared at the shelves in the plumbing section of Home Depot, I couldn't figure out how to fit it all in there with male adapters/female adapters (it would have simply been too long). The use of a 1.5x2x2 tee at the end will hopefully solve the "boiling water syndrome" in the sump (thanks Mogurnda!). The bottom pipe that extends into the sump is not glued in place, so that it can be removed to facilitate getting the sump out (or I could just detach the whole thing from the drain bulkhead if needed).

Baffles have been lowered by a few inches (I left the center baffle high, since if the water gets that high in a power-off, it can just flow over the top, but I did also drill a few holes through it). Removing all the cured silicone was quite a project. Also, anyone who has doubts about securing acrylic baffles to a glass aquarium should rest assured... with a heavy bead (and 1" wide braces between the baffles), it was very difficult to get the baffles out. I had to slice away at the joint with a razor. Of course, once they were out, the silicone came off of the acrylic relatively easily, but as long as the baffles don't flex too much so that they pull out of the silicone joints (I used 1/4 inch), they stay firmly in place just from the silicone surrounding the edges.

I decided to go ahead and, in the overflow box, glue the bottom parts of the drain standpipe and the return pipe to the bulkheads. I left the top parts as press-fit, and the standpipe is still fully adjustable... it (and the return pipe) just can't be pulled out of the bulkhead now.



http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1245.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1246.JPG

Substrate is in, and the tank is filling. Lemme tell you, there are few things more exciting than watching a 90 gallon container fill with a tiny trickle of water. I decided to let it fill overnight, despite my irrational fears that the RO/DI unit would somehow suddenly transform into a 800gpd and fill the tank before I awoke. Here's how it looked this morning...


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1247.JPG

The kids wonder why I'm filling our aquarium with milk. I had rinsed the sand pretty well, but it's still very cloudy, almost opaque. I hope it clears!

The substrate is 75lbs of Aragamax. I rinsed it about 15lbs at a time in a 3 gallon bucket, drained as much of the tap water as possible, then placed it in the tank. I don't know whether or not the chloramines in this minimal amount of tap water would cause problems even after being diluted with the RO/DI water, so I put in a little bit of Prime just in case.


Here's what I'm currently thinking of in terms of rock placement...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/rock.gif

(forgive my crude illustration)


Instead of having the rocks distributed evenly across the tank, I thought it might look nice to have one single peak off to the right (since the right side is adjacent to a wall), leaving a lot of open space on the left. This would create a fairly big hiding spot behind the rocks for the tang once he gets bigger. I'm also thinking that, if I build this peak correctly, the fish (especially the tang) could swim "laps" around it instead of having to stop and turn around (perhaps I'll have to make it a little lower to facilitate this). I might also place a smaller peak over to the left somewhere.

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/8/06: Fill-up complete!

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1262.JPG


Took almost exactly 24 hours to fill the main tank, reaching the top and starting to dump into the overflow last night at around 2:00am. I shut it off before I went to bed, and continued today, taking another 3 or 4 hours to fill the sump.

I had added a small Fluval internal filter, visible through the murkiness on the right (will eventually be my hospital/quarantine tank filter) loaded with some fine polyester pads to help try to clear the suspended silt out of the water overnight, but it didn't seem to do much good.

Today, I picked up a Magnum H.O.T. filter, which I've been running for several hours now (had a little trouble getting the top of the filter to seal... it was letting in air, causing problems). PetSmart had it for $89 in-store, $47 on their website. Armed with a printout of the webpage, after a little grumbling from them ("that's half off!"), they gave me the web price. It seems to be doing a pretty good job at clearing up the water... this photo represents a substantial improvement over how it looked just a little while ago.

I also wanted to get the dry rock (90lbs. from hirocks.com) in before the sump was full (knowing they would displace some water). I hosed them down in the front yard, and I'm quite excited about them... with the loose silt washed away, the rocks look even better, with lots of holes, tunnels, etc. (Sorry, forgot to take a photo before putting them in the tank.)

Between the 90 gallon tank capacity and the sump (about 15 gallons operating capacity), and the displacement from the rocks, I guess I have about 100 gallons total water capacity right now, so I had added four 25 gallon salt mix bags. Temp is 78 degrees, salinity is 1.024 (maybe a little high... but I'll be adding a bit more water to the sump).


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1260.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1261.JPG

Through the murky fog, the vague forms of rocks are starting to become visible (couldn't see at all when I was putting them in... made the experience somewhat nerve-wracking).



With the lowered baffles, the sump is much more functional. I can have a higher level in the return section now, and still have plenty of overflow space.


Operating:

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1259.JPG


Power-off test:

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1263.JPG

(looks like I can go even a little higher with the water in the return section and still have plenty of extra overflow space).



http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1266.JPG

I let the skimmer run for a while... a mostly-opaque white liquid is collecting in the cup (could the skimmer possibly be aiding in the removal of the suspended silt particles?).



Overall, the tank is substantially quieter than it was before. In particular, that dreadful "glub glub" sound from the drain pipe is gone, and the whole thing seems to be draining more efficiently. However, the sound of the water splashing into the sump, heard through the top vent portion of the tee. The short section of pipe that I added (to prevent little bits of water from splashing out) seemingly amplified this sound. I solved it by creating a "muffler" consisting of an elbow with some filter floss stuffed in it (I initially tried just putting the floss in the top of the pipe, but a little water was contacting it, so I figured it would eventually become saturated). This effectively quieted the splashing sound, while still allowing ample air venting (to prevent the boiling sump effect).

With everything running, standing next to the tank, a fairly soft hum can be heard, along with a gentle water trickle sound... very tolerable.

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/9/06: Water clearing, but wife deems tank "ugly" :(

The H.O.T. Magnum filter is doing a fine job at clearing the suspended silt out of the tank. After running for a day (having rinsed off the micron filter a couple of times), I can finally see all the rock, and can just barely see the back of the tank.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1269.jpg


Unfortunately, my wife thinks the tank looks like more like a reptile habitat than a saltwater aquarium, primarily due to the barren look of the rocks. See this (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65890) thread for more info.

In other news, it looks like I still might have a microbubble issue. The tank is totally saturated with them, and it's contributing to the cloudy appearance of the water (though the water really is still cloudy, as confirmed by turning everything off and letting the bubbles dissipate). I do know that the Magnum filter (which will normally not be running) is producing a substantial amount of bubbles, but a lot are originating from the sump.

With the skimmer off (and no refugium drain either), a moderate amount of bubbles can be seen in the return section of the sump. I added a "U" (created by a pair of elbows) to the tank's drain into the sump, directing the flow upwards so as to try and force any bubbles to the surface. I think that helped some. But with the skimmer on, I get a lot more bubbles in the sump. I guess my bubble trap is not as effective as hoped. Perhaps I should add a sponge to it (wanted to avoid that, but might not have a choice).

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/10/06: First live rock added, plus a minor mishap.

Well, not a whole lot of rock... just two small pieces and one tiny piece (2.5lbs. total). I was at the LFS down the street from my house picking up some filter media to experiment with (in trying to solve my bubble troubles), and I spotted a few pieces in a tank that I liked. It was cheap... only $2.50/lb. I mainly just wanted to get a starter colony of bacteria in there to help my cycle get underway. They're currently in the little refugium, along with a little media bag containing some fish food (didn't have any shrimp on-hand... hopefully decaying fish food will be an acceptable substitute).

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1278.JPG


Is that white stuff coralline algae growth? I see some red spots too.



I had a minor problem when getting the refugium water supply flowing again. I changed it a bit, with tees instead of elbows for venting (it still drains into the return section... but the pvc is just friction-fit right now so I can change it to dump into the skimmer section later if needed). Anyway, to supply the refugium, I did a 1x1x1/2 tee, with the 1/2 side going through a ball valve and then dumping into the refugium. To get the little tank filled initially, I opened the ball valve all the way. Well, apparently, my pair of 3/4" drains (with elbows and strainers attached) are not enough to drain the full force of water coming in through the 1/2" tubing. I watched it fill most of the way, then started to walk away to go do something in the garage when I heard a click. The refugium had overflowed and spilled water onto a power strip that was in the stand, and tripped the GFCI. Nice to know that it really works, but I would have preferred to not find out that way.

Wasn't a big deal... just a little water inside the stand to clean up. And, I will of course be moving the power strips to a better spot, mounted in the stand somewhere with proper drip-loops to prevent that sort of thing from happening again. On the other hand, had the power strip not been where it was, I probably would have not discovered the overflowing refugium until I came back in from the garage.



I made some significant progress this evening in my war against the bubbles.

The first thing I did was to reorient the skimmer. The primary reason for doing this was to get the output pipe further away from the bubble trap to give the bubbles from the skimmer more distance in which to rise and pop before passing through the baffles. It was right next to the baffles, now it's behind the skimmer to the left.

Secondarily, I wanted to reposition the U-shaped attachment that I added at the end of the drain from the tank. Initially, the drain terminated with a pipe extending a few inches below the surface. I added a pair of elbows to direct the flow upwards to hopefully cause more of the bubbles coming from the drain plumbing to pop. But the only way I could position the U was to have it parallel with the back of the sump, going towards the middle, so that its output was closer to the bubble trap. After rotating the skimmer, I was able to position the U along the left wall of the sump, with it terminating near the front left corner.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1279.JPG


However, studying the flow coming out of the U, even though it was directed upwards, there were still a lot of bubbles originating from this area. So, next I added a short section of pipe to the end of the U so that the water discharged just an inch or so above the surface.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1283.JPG


That helped a lot.

Now, with everything running (except for the Magnum filter), there are SOME microbubbles in the tank, but it's not nearly as bad as it was before. Before, with the skimmer running it almost looked like my return nozzles were powerheads with the venturi air tubes attached, that's how bad the bubbles flowing out were.

I'll have to wait and see if any additional corrective action will be needed. There's still some lingering stubborn cloudiness in the tank unrelated to the bubbles, so it's hard to tell how much of a negative effect the remaining bubbles will have on visibility until the water clears up.

I'm wondering if perhaps there would be some benefit to adding a short angled piece of acrylic across that last baffle where the water dumps into the return section, so that the water could flow down a more gentle slope. Something like this:

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/baffles.gif


I do see some bubbles forming from the water flowing over this last baffle and hitting the water in the return section, but I'm not sure how much of an impact these bubbles are having, since they are fairly large and, for the most part, appear to quickly rise. But I'm also thinking that maybe this sloped baffle attachment would also force the remaining microbubbles from the skimmer section to have more time in close proximity to the surface, which might make more of them pop before reaching the return section.

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/11/06: Live rock & live sand added.

Well, I stopped at the above mentioned LFS today after my meeting. Aquatic Specialties in Kenner, LA, the place from which I bought my aquarium, has a good selection of livestock, and some very nice and helpful people (and I'll still likely buy most of my fish there). But the place I went to today, Coral Connection, was simply incredible.

They only sell saltwater stuff, and have just tons of fish and corals to choose from. It was a 2-story building in a semi-industrial area right next to the airport, a little drab looking on the outside, but inside was a different story.

On the bottom floor there was a room with several large vats of live rock at various price points ($2 - $7), and a couple of even larger vats of live sand with some snails and other critters. This room was sorta "utilitarian" looking.

But upstairs, things changed dramatically. Along with some very pretty nanoreefs, there was an absolutely gorgeous large display reef that looked sort of like a bowfront tank placed backwards, so that the flat side was facing the front, but it was built into the wall. Wild guess, it was probably around 300 gallons. This area was set up nice and cozy with carpet, and a couch for visitors to sit and watch (and presumably entice them into wanting a reef tank of their own). Along one wall were rows of small tanks displaying livestock for sale. In another room there was a large shallow pool with all of their corals. There was also a room with skimmers, pumps, powerheads, etc., and yet another room with an incredible number of new tanks for sale. Despite all the beautiful corals and fish, this sight was the most striking... I'm used to seeing just a couple of tanks in the other LFSs I've been to. This one probably had more tanks than all of the others combined, and many of these tanks were huge!

I could have spent hours there. But I had to stay on-task... I was there to buy rock and sand.

First of all, let me say that buying live rock was a lot harder than I thought it would be... picking out pieces (especially as a newbie) was difficult, since I didn't really know what to look for (aside from the "pick pieces that look like they have some life on them" suggestion that I'd read). But I'd also read that a lot of weight should be given to rock that has interesting shapes.

I ended up picking most of it from the $2/lb. vat, as this rock looked the best in terms of shape, holes/crevices, porosity, etc., and still showed at least some signs of life. I also grabbed a few smaller pieces from the $6/lb. vat that had more obvious growth. In all, I ended up with around 30lbs. of rock.

My only slight disappointment with this LFS was that they strongly encouraged me to go with the Arag-Alive bagged sand instead of the sand in their vats, which they said was from their tanks upstairs (that's exactly what I wanted!!!). I got 20lbs. of this, but it didn't really look like 20 lbs. (water is heavy, I guess!).


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1284.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1286.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1287.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1288.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1289.JPG


I'm not sure how many creatures I'll find, but here's what I've spotted so far...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1301.JPG

Is this a baby cucumber of some sort? It's about the size of a cutworm... maybe 1 inch long. It's just been kinda hanging out in this one spot since I dumped the sand in, slowly wriggling around.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1302.JPG

These appear to be a group of some kind of very thin little red worms. Sorry for the poor-quality photo... I don't have a real macro lens.


It's almost certain that I will not have the large number of hitchhikers (good or bad) on this rock compared to what I've heard about TBS. But in the end, it became clear that TBS is not a viable option at the moment... they're apparently having a lot of trouble harvesting rock right now, so it would probably have been months before I could receive my shipment.



Here's what the tank looks like now (again, the rock was just placed however I could fit it, just to get it in there until I can aquascape).

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1295.JPG


I think I may have too much rock. Well, some of it will go in the refugium, so maybe not.


--Mike

[macphoto]

1/13/06: Clear water, and a bigger refugium!

The water has cleared up nicely now. And, I'm pleased to say, there are very few microbubbles in the tank. I placed a couple of sponges for my quarantine tank filter near the baffle in the return section (to get them loaded with bacteria), which might possibly be contributing to this further reduction in bubbles.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1305.JPG



Also, I decided to go ahead and install the larger refugium. My wife wanted the box of MREs that was serving as the elevating platform for the little 5g refugium, so I figured I might as well put the bigger one in. As a reminder, the small refugium was added before I figured out a way to fit a bigger one in the stand (along with a freshwater storage tank).

I went with an expensive Eclipse 12 gallon acrylic tank because, as before, I figured a 15g tall (a whopping $38 at my LFS!), plus cost of drilling 2 holes ($50), and a cheap light ($10) would put me in the same ballpark as this $90 Eclipse.

I also oriented it better this time. Instead of being positioned sideways, with the soon-to-arrive freshwater storage tank to the right of it, the freshwater tank will be behind the refugium (and will protrude out the back of the stand a few inches) so that the refugium could be placed so that the front was visible, which is much more pleasing!


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1308.JPG


The bag hanging in the refugium has a few pieces of raw shrimp for cycling. And, the skimmer is producing some funky liquid in the collection cup. Everything's moving along nicely! I hope to aquascape the tank this weekend, so that we can get some cleanup critters in there as soon as the cycle is complete, in anticipation of the initial algae bloom that everyone seems to experience in a new tank.


As mentioned before, I don't expect to see a TBS-like number of hitchhikers on this rock, but I have seen a few of these things...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1309.jpg


Is that a tube worm?


--Mike

[macphoto]

1/15/06: Rockscaping sure is hard work!

Well, I think I'm just about done with rock placement. I did it yesterday, and it was pretty much an all-day task. I first pulled all the rocks out and placed them in tubs (with a tap over the carpet... I knew this was going to be a messy job).


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1311.JPG


It was immediately apparent that the biggest obstacle was going to be visibility in the tank. Pulling the rocks out stirred up the sand bed and really clouded up the tank, and I knew that "digging in" with the base rock was only going to make it worse. With the rocks removed, the water level was too low to run the Magnum filter. Not wanting to keep the rock out of the water for a long period of time, I decided which rocks I wanted to use as my foundation, placed them in the tank about where I thought they should be (scooting them back and forth so that they were on or very near the glass bottom instead of just resting on top of the sandbed), then just placed the rest of the rock loosely in the tank (by feel only, since I couldn't see into the tank at all), feeling a bit like I was right back where I started from.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1317.JPG


But I was then able to run the micron filter, and I knew the worst part (in terms of sand-stirring) was over. After a few hours, the water had cleared enough to start moving rocks around. Here's the first draft...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1318.JPG


This one didn't go over too well with my wife, who thought it looked strange to have most of the rocks over to the right, and I wasn't too pleased with the number of "nooks and crannies" in the formation.

Here's what I eventually ended up with...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1342.JPG


There are A LOT of caves and tunnels of various sizes.

Here are top views...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1350.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1352.JPG



Though this looks absolutely nothing like the rough sketch I posted a few days ago, I did still vaguely stick to my plan of having a little more open sandbed/less rock on the left side of the tank. I MIGHT add a few more pieces of rock to the top... I originally thought I wouldn't have enough room for the rock I had, but after having some of the larger pieces half-buried in the sand, and stacking them more securely, they took up considerably less space than planned. But, on the other hand, I don't want to overdo it, as the fish might appreciate the open swimming space in the upper portion of the tank.

For the most part, the rocks are stacked so that they are quite stable, though there are a few that I'll pull out, drill holes through, and secure with cable-ties.

--Mike

[macphoto]

This was amazing! I like the rock formation in the last post, but to be honest I thought it looked really cool in the top picture post #46.
Yes, my wife thought the same thing, and questioned why I was pulling it all out. I kinda liked it too, but there were some reasons for having to redo it. First, I placed the rock in the tank randomly just to get it in there for the time being. So, the biggest issue was that the base rock was just resting on top of the sand, creating a potentially unstable foundation, and the other pieces were not placed with stability in mind. Also, I wanted to create some larger and more clearly defined caves. Last, the rock was a bit too "spread out" and covered most of the sand bed.

Here are a few additional photos that show some of the hiding spots...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1343.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1344.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1345.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1346.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1348.JPG


--Mike

[macphoto]

1/16/06: A really neat piece of rock!

I had a meeting with a potential bride in the city today, so I stopped by the LFS (the one from which I bought the tank), and ended up taking home this really nice looking Florida aquacultured rock...


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1362.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1359.JPG



It's got a lot of very colorful growth on it... red, orange, pink, purple, and some macroalgae growth also.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1356.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1365.JPG




There are many of these cute little fanworm guys coming out of holes in the rock...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1354.JPG




http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1364.JPG

Is there such a thing as BLUE coralline algae?



http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1357.JPG

This is a slimy black blob... any idea what it is?


The rock is currently resting in the refugium as I monitor it for potential hitchhikers before moving it to the main tank. There are no immediate signs of any large hitchhikers like crabs or shrimp, but this rock has a lot of life on it (I guess that's why it's $6/lb. as opposed to $3/lb.). I'm really hoping this colorful coralline growth will spread over time.

I did see what I assume was a 'pod. As I was looking at the rock, something caught my eye in the water column... a little chunk of macroalgae with a little bug-like creature clinging to it like a rodeo cowboy as it sailed through the current.


In other news, the cycle is well underway, possibly nearing completion. Ammonia spiked at about 2.0 a few days ago, and is now down to .5. Still showing some nitrites, and nitrates are up to about 20 now. I'm seeing a little bit of brown growth on some of the rocks (diatoms?), so I hope to be able to order my clean-up crew soon.

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/18/06: Cycle nearly complete, ready to build the auto topoff.
I started cycling the tank about a week ago, and had an ammonia spike to 2.0, and a nitrite spike to 1.5. Now, ammonia is 0, nitrites are .25, and nitrates are 10 (down from 30 just prior to a water change). For the past few days, I've been adding a little food to the tank to provide at least some continuing source of ammonia to sustain the bacteria colonies.

I have ordered a detritivore/refugium kit from ipsf.com, which will hopefully arrive in the next couple of days (brown algae is starting to form on the rocks). I've read mixed reports for IPSF orders on various forums... most are generally quite positive, though there are a few "I paid $99 for THIS?" posts as well. However, to be fair, shipping probably represents half of this cost. Well, we'll see what my reaction is upon receiving my order.

I went with the 9/$99 special, and selected the following...

1. Live sand activator
2. WonderMud
3. MicroHermits
4. Amphipod Breeding Kit (counts as 3 items)
5. Strombus Grazers
6. Tang Heaven Red
7. Baby Bristle Worms

The WonderMud, 'pods, a snail or two, and the tang heaven will go in the refugium, and hermits, the rest of the snails, the bristle worms, and the live sand activator will go in the main tank (I had hoped for more obvious life in the LS I got from the LFS last week... hopefully the IPSF sand will do the trick).

I'm a little worried about the strombus snails' reported tendancy to reproduce like mad... I guess I'm having visions of the entire front glass of the tank obscured by hundreds of snails. I guess I could always remove and give some of them away if it gets that bad.


I'll be doing the auto topoff system in the next couple of days. I'd received the float switches / controller from autotopoff.com a week or two ago, and yesterday the tank itself arrived. I'll need to drain and remove the refugium to get the water tank in position (I guess I'll take the occasion to do a PWC), but first I need to install fittings in the tank (it came blank, no fittings or holes), and get the pumps / tubing in place.

I'm excited... I think I'm on the brink of being ready for a few first fish!

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/20/06: First batch of cleanup crew critters added.
A momentous occasion... today I added the first non-hitchhiker residents to the aquarium.

I ordered the following from saltwaterfish.com:

10 Blue-Leg Hermits
20 Scarlet Reef Hermits
10 Cerith Snails
10 Nassarius Snails
50 Empty Hermit Shells

I ended up building my own cleanup crew, because I couldn't find a perfect pre-built package (many of them included a coral-banded shrimp, and I'm not sure if I want one of those in my tank... I hear they can terrorize other inverts).

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1378.JPGhttp://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1380.JPG


I placed them all in a clean bucket, and started gradually adding tank water, a cup or so every 5 - 10 minutes. A quick inventory revealed that they had thrown in some extras... I ended up with about 11 Nassarius, 10 Cerith, 16 Blue-Leg (actually, I think one of these is a Zebra), and 22 Scarlets. I guess they include a few extras to account for losses enroute, but all of them were alive and well when I added them to the tank.

A few of the hermits lounged on the sand bed, while some of the snails either made for the glass or burrowed into the sand. But most of them went right to work on the rocks that were accumulating some algae growth.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1386.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1412.JPG



When I opened the bag of empty shells, an absolutely awful stench filled the air (I guess that's what dead, rotting snails smell like). Now I know why the order information e-mail they sent me said to boil the shells before adding them to the tank!



Here's what the tank looks like now...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1408.JPG


And the refugium...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1414.JPG



The IPSF package should be arriving Wednesday.

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/21/06: Auto Top-Off Installed, and FISH!

I finished most of it last night, with just a few things to tidy up today.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1419.JPG

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1444.JPG

(I really need to tidy up in there)


I used a 14g freshwater storage tank from plastic-mart.com, and a dual-switch auto top-off controller from autotopoff.com. The second switch, placed a bit higher than the primary switch, is for redundancy in case the first switch fails. Right now, I just have the line for the RO/DI dumping directly into the storage tank, but I will be installing a float switch for this too (the float switch is missing a nylon mounting nut, and I was not able to find it locally today). Unlike the auto top-off arrangement, this float switch is more "mechanical" in nature. It mounts to the tank, and the output hose for the RO/DI connects to it... when the water level rises, it stops the flow, which is also supposed to cease all flow through the RO/DI unit as well (so that waste water doesn't continue to be passed to the drain). Because I'm paranoid about a this one little part being the only thing holding back an infinite supply of water from my living room, this float switch will only be a backup... I'll manually turn the supply on every now and then as needed, turning it off when the tank is full, with the float switch there just in case I forget that it's on.

Two Hydor Pico 500 pumps were installed... one for the auto top-off, and the other to use as a demand pump for filling up a bucket for PWCs. I chose these pumps because they were small, reasonably priced, and would reportedly still pump water even when the level was very low. They are spec'd at 145gph, but I'm sure it's less than that with a foot or two of head factored in.

The tubing for the top-off dumps into the elbow and piece of pipe that serves as the air vent for the main tank drain. The tubing cannot simply go straight to the sump, because a siphon would then be started until the levels of the sump and storage tank were equalized. Keeping the end of the tubing high prevents this.


And, in other news... we brought home our first fish tonight!

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1433.JPG


Also, a brittle star...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1451.JPG


The lady at the LFS said that the clowns are tank-raised Perculas, but I thought they looked more like False Perculas. Can anyone confirm based on this close-up?

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1435.JPG


The clowns initially stuck close to one particular area of the rocks, but have since started exploring the rest of the tank. They were acting a bit stressed at first, but seem ok now.

The starfish, on the other hand, made straight for the rocks (as expected) and mostly disappeared from view, with only the ends of one or two legs visible. It was amazing how he was able to easily contort himself into a crevice that seemed too small. But we all REALLY got a kick it when, after dropping a shrimp pellet nearby, he came out right away and started feeling around for it, quickly locating and devouring it. Those guys must really have a good sense of "smell".

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/23/06: Clowns doing great, but starfish had to go back to LFS

The clowns seem to be doing very well... they're actively swimming around together, and are eating eagerly. Water parameters are still looking good (checking twice a day for now).

Last night, I dropped a shrimp pellet in for the green brittle. It landed maybe a little too far away from him, and he didn't go for it at first. But a crowd of hermits and snails quickly formed and all started trying to get it. A few moments later, the star decided he wanted it, reaching into the pile with one of his tentacles and grabbing the pellet from the mass of crabs and snails.

It reminded me of a football game, when the ball is fumbled, and a bunch of players from both teams pile on top of it (and each other) trying to get their hands on it, with the referee (the starfish in this case) finally having to pry through the pile to get to the ball.

Unfortunately, I discovered that my starfish choice was probably not a good one. While at the LFS saturday, I saw him there and remembered reading that brittle stars are fine. But after reading online last night, most mentions of brittle stars added the caveat "...except for those devilishly sneaky green brittle stars, avoid those at all costs!"

Apparently, they can develop a taste for small fish, and when they get a little bigger, can become quite adept to capturing them. At first, I figured that I'd just target feed him regularly (which is neat to watch anyway), which would hopefully keep him satisfied enough so that he would not go fishing. But I eventually came to the conclusion that keeping him was a bad idea.

Anyway, I captured him... had to move a few rocks, and I barely caught him as he was trying to scoot away (I never thought of starfish as being particularly "fast" creatures... but these are). The man at the LFS said he'd never heard to green brittle stars going after fish, but agreed to take him back. I came home with a plainer-looking (but reportedly safer) brown serpent star. After acclimating, I placed him on the sand near where the other star had made his home, and this one slid right into the same spot in the rocks.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1455.JPG http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1456.JPG
http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1458.JPG http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1460.JPG


I will miss the green brittle star... he was pretty, and very interesting to watch (though, the new one probably will be too).


--Mike

[macphoto]

1/24/06: Mysis shrimp.

I picked up a pack of frozen mysis shrimp today. I chopped one cube in half and thawed it in a cup with a little tank water. The clowns seemed to like it, but I might need to mash the shrimps up a bit next time, as the clowns did the eat/spit-out/eat/spit-out thing quite a bit.

However, though the clowns like it, the starfish LOVED it. I put in some extra so that it would sink down to the sand near where he was hiding out, and before it was even halfway down, he was already coming out. And not just reaching one tentacle out to grab the food... he came all the way out into the open (had a bit of a tough time squeezing out of that little crack on the right... the left has a bigger opening).

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/starfish1.jpg


He immediately began sweeping up the sand, gobbling down these tiny shrimp. Once he decided he'd had enough, he made for the rocks again, leaving behind a few scraps for the snails.

This time, he didn't go back to his usual spot. Instead, as the curious clowns watched on, he climbed began climbing.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/starfish2.jpg


He hung out here for a while, and eventually returned to his little designated cave.



And, from the "what the heck is this on my glass?" file...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/glassthing1.jpg

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/glassthing2.jpg


Noticed these things this evening. I don't think they were there yesterday, and the definitely were not there over the weekend. There are several dozen of them, and they're about 1/16" in size. Any idea what these are?

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/25/06: Indo-Pacific Sea Farms order is in.

My IPSF order arrived today. I'm really mixed regarding the "I paid $100 for THIS?" reaction that some people have. In other words, I'm not thrilled, but I'm not terribly disappointed either.

The order was packed in a styrofoam box, and heat packs were included, but apparently they had run out by the time the package reached me (was send FedEx 2-day), as the contents were quite cool, and the heat packs didn't seem to be giving off any heat at all. But all the snails, hermits, and worms appear to have survived. The amphipods, I'm not so sure about (more on that in a bit).

I had planned to put the WonderMud in the refugium, and the Live Sand Activator in the main tank. However, the LSA was not quite what I expected... instead of sand, it consisted of fairly coarse crushed coral (but with quite a few little creatures crawling around in it, including a tiny starfish). Because I didn't want pebbles mixed in with my sand bed, I decided to add both the WonderMud and the LSA to the refugium, and the bristleworms that were bagged separately (the LSA had plenty of worms in it), hermits, and most of the snails to the main tank. Regarding the WonderMud, I don't know what was in there, because I was not able to see through the murky water after I dumped it in a plastic container.

The hermits (appear to be dwarf zebras) are quite industrious... as soon as I added them to the tank, they were immediately scurrying around to find things to do. Likewise, the snails all dispersed from where I dropped them.

The amphipods were acclimated and added to the refugium. I saw movement in the bag, but looking in the refugium now, I see a few large carcasses on the sand, so obviously some did not make it. Hopefully there will be enough left to build a good population. I do see numerous smaller bug-like creatures crawling around in there, but I think most of those were from the LSA.

The other components of the "Amphipod Breeding Kit" were a bag of flaked food, and what was supposed to be the "Pod Mat" ("their preferred breeding habitat... a lush green mat of Ulva macroalgae"). However, I received some additional "Tang Heave Red" instead (I guess they were out of the Ulva).

In short, I was not blown away by this package, but I do not feel that it was a total waste either. At a bare minimum, I got about 15 neat hermits, a dozen or so snails, quite a few bristle worms, and a lot of other little creatures that will hopefully reproduce.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/ipsf.jpg

"Yes, I'll have the bristleworm and snail soup please."






http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1498.JPG

(I've since moved the macroalgae to the rear of the refugium)





http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1501.JPG

--Mike

[macphoto]

2/1/06: A few new additions.

Added a Royal Gramma today. The LFS had two of them, one a bit bigger than the other. I ended up with the smaller one, because the larger one looked pretty beat up (tail fin was torn up quite a bit).

He looks healthy, and after acclimating him using my quasi-drip method (adding tank water to the LFS water a half cup or so at a time), I placed him in the tank, at which time he promptly disappeared into the rocks. I'd post a pic, but I haven't really seen him much since then! I had a hard time convincing my wife that I actually did indeed buy a fish today. "He's in there, trust me!"

I know I'm rolling the dice with not quarantining this fish... hope it doesn't come back to bite me.

I also added a couple of peppermint shrimp. These guys are pretty fun to watch... they hang upside down in the rock and sway from side to side. One of them appears to be carrying eggs!

--Mike

[macphoto]

1/8/06: Some good things, one bad thing...

Things are going pretty well. The Royal Gramma has overcome the shyness he exhibited the first day, and is now spending much of his time during the day swimming in the open. He's eating well.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1765.JPG


He and the clowns are getting along really well. At first, when the clowns realized there was a new fish in the tank, they were both very interested in him. Eventually one of them got bored and went back to his usual spot on the other side of the tank, but the other was apparently obsessed with the gramma. I wouldn't call his behavior "harassing"... more like "annoying". I got the impression that this was the first time this clown had really seen a fish that didn't look like himself, and he was fascinated by this newcomer of purple and gold. All evening, he hovered right outside the rock that the gramma had made his home, and every time the gramma would be brave enough to come out and explore a bit, the clown would follow him around (not aggressively, just curiously), which I think kinda creeped out the gramma, as he would scoot back into his hole a few moments later.

Eventually, the clown had seen enough and lost interest. Now all three of them hang out together.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1761.JPG



The peppermint shrimp (2) are doing well also.

Sadly, the same is not the case for the serpent star. Several days ago, I saw that he had lost an arm. I also noticed that he didn't seem to have an appetite like he used to. Before, he'd rush out to grab the shrimp pellets I'd drop for him, or whatever other bits of food happened to fall nearby. But now he seemed to have no interest in food at all. He was still moving around to different parts of the rockwork, but he showed no signs of eating. On a few occasions, I tried to drop a shrimp pellet down to him, but the peppermints kept running over and snatching them.

I also noticed a red blister-like mark on his the top of his central disk. I decided to move him down to the refugium. Though not exactly a hospital tank, I figured this would be his best chance, since he wouldn't have to compete with crabs and shrimp for food. Getting to him involved removing a few pieces of rock, but it wasn't too hard.

Once in the refugium, I proceeded to try and feed him. He seemed unable to do the "grab the whole thing with his arm and bring it to his mouth" thing as before. A few times, a small bit of food ended up on the underside of an arm, and he was able to use those "hairs" to transport the food towards his mouth. But, he could never actually get it into his mouth, and would end up dropping it. It was very sad.

Yesterday evening, I was shocked by how much his condition had deteriorated. There were a few "ruptures" on his back, with some red inner tissue sticking out. Clearly, he was not going to survive, and was probably suffering. I had to euthanize him.

I wonder if perhaps I didn't acclimate him long enough. Or, I've read that some starfish cannot tolerate being exposed to air (he was briefly exposed to air both at the LFS and when I first put him in the tank). But he seemed to be doing so well for the first several days.


In other news, I'm pretty sure there are a hundred or so baby snails growing in the tank.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1813.jpg


There are more of these things on the back glass and overflow than I can count.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_1816.JPG


You can see them (little white dots) on the overflow in this pic, and there are a similar number all across the back glass.

Added in edit: Forgot to mention, I'm definitely seeing 'pod population growth in the refugium... I observed last night for a while, and there are quite a few small ones crawling around in there now.

--Mike

[macphoto]

3/12/06: Mama Mia!

A few weeks after adding the hermit crabs and IPSF stuff, I noticed a few red strings partially wrapped around the remains of a dead blue-leg hermit. A spaghetti worm, I presume?

Here's what it looks like now...


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_2510.jpg


I don't know enough about these things to be able to tell whether this is one single spaghetti worm with lots of "noodles", or several worms. But it's blossomed into an impressive mass of red strands that appears to be thriving. Observing during feedings, it appears that this is a really good spot for this kind of creature... the currents of the tank, with the v-shaped "funnel" of these two rocks that it's wedged between always seem to force a few morsels of food to this spot.

Unfortunately, some other creatures have discovered this place too.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_2521.jpg


The amazing thing is that the bristle worms were just added a few months ago, and they were very small... now, there are several quite large (maybe 5 inches log) specimens roaming the tank. This one has taken up residence in the little cave right behind the spaghetti worm, and when the spaghetti worm happens to catch a piece of food, a wrestling match ensues between him, the bristle worm, and whatever hermits or shrimp happen to be in the area at the time (the spaghetti worm usually ends up losing). It must be incredibly frustrating to have to sit there and wait for whatever food happens to roll by, only to have it taken away from you when it finally arrives! But he does eventually get soemthing to eat.



http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_2525.jpg


These little white bug-like creatures are all over the overflow box. I guess they're a 'pod of some sort, though they are definitely not the same as the IPSF 'pods that are in the refugium. And, on the topic of 'pods, the population in the refugium is doing quite well, but I've been disappointed to find neither the clowns nor the gramma seem to have a taste for them. I've sucked up a few with a turkey baster and squirted them into the tank, and usually one of the fish will come over and maybe nip at it once, but that's all.



http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/IMG_2516.jpg


Down in the refugium and in the main tank, some of the snail eggs have hatched, and tiny baby snails are now roaming the glass.

Also, I think there are some tiny brittle stars in the main tank, as I've seen little white legs poking out from underneath rocks.

In short, the tank seems to be doing quite well... my wife is genuinely surprised that the fish have survived this long! I haven't done too many water changes (5% each, once every 3 or 4 weeks), but nitrates are still undetectable.

I'm looking forward to adding a few new residents after my out-of-town assignment later this month.

--Mike

[macphoto]

4/1/06: Just as the tank is starting to mature nicely...

Things are going great in the tank. I'm starting to see some coralline growth, the snails are reproducing like bunnies, there are lots of interesting creatures residing in the sand and rocks, and I've got the rockscaping just how I want it.

What now? Well, we're moving.

That's the bad news. The good news is that we're moving practically right around the corner from our current house (takes about a minute to get there), and we're not selling this house until a month or two after we've moved into the new place (still have a little work left to do here before we can sell it), both of which I'm sure will make the transfer go much smoother than it would under other conditions.

But still, I'm not looking forward to having to totally empty the tank, massively disrupting the non-fish residents living in the rock and sand. The fish I'm not too worried about. I'll get the quarantine tank up and running at the new place and move the fish, along with however many snails and hermits I can round up, over there so that they can have a stable habitat while the main tank is emptied and moved afterwards.

The other bad news is that, although I don't know for certain, I doubt I'll be able to find a spot in the new place that is so perfect in terms of having plumbing right there in the wall. So, I'll have to hook up the RO/DI in the laundry area, and figure out a way to transport top-off water to the storage tank in the stand.

This is going to be a mighty big task, and I'm not looking forward to it at all! But we can no longer cope with the repetitive flooding of this house (once every 5 years since 1995)... the new place, knock on wood, has never flooded.

--Mike

[macphoto]

7/27/06: A long overdue update!

Well, it's been a while! The tank seems to have fully recovered from the move. Bristle worms, 'pods, tiny starfish, spaghetti worms... they all appear to be thriving. I'm pretty sure my lack of netting skills is what killed the Royal Gramma (it took me so long to catch him, chasing him all over the tank with the net, it must have stressed him out too much), but the Clowns are fine.

I've also added more fish... a Yellow Tang (finally!), and a Coral Beauty.


http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/fish.jpg


Other additions include a couple of porcelan crabs, and a cleaner shrimp (they were camera-shy tonight).

The contrast between the activity levels of these new fish vs. the Clowns is notable. The Clowns seem to hover in one spot most of the time. But the newer fish (especially the Tang) seem so "busy" all the time. The Tang zips to one side of the tang and picks at something on a piece of rock, zips over to the other side and savagely attacks the piece of seaweed I put out for him, darts down to the bottom to investigate a hermit crab or something, and never seems to stop. The Coral Beauty seems to really enjoy swooping in and out of the rockwork. When I put the tank back together, one of my goals with the rockscaping was to provide more caves and crevices, and apparently I was successful... this guy can move from one side of the tank to the other without being seen just by snaking around through the rocks.


Here's how the tank looks in our new living room...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/tankLR.jpg


The thing that I like about this arrangement is that I can sit in the recliner and watch the tank from the front... at the old house, the only place to sit and watch the tank was on the left side.

The RO/DI is outside now, directly on the other side of the wall where the aquarium is (in a cabinet, to hopefully protect it from freezing, though winters down here are generally mild), with the feed line coming through the wall.


Here's a closer shot of the tank...

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/fts0727.jpg


My wife and I freaked out when our first electricity bill came... this new house has considerably more square footage than our old house, and when combined with a 30 year old inefficient A/C unit that, although properly sized for when the house was first built, is now undersized considering the additions that have been made by the previous owners, the little unit struggles to keep up, resulting in a much higher electricity bill. Upgrading the A/C is on our list of things to do.

In the meantime, even though I liked to keep it 76 - 78 during the day, and 72 - 74 at night, we now set the thermostat to 82 during the day and 79 at night. I was a bit concerned about the aquarium getting too hot, especially during the day. So, I added a 4-fan unit inside the canopy.

http://www.michaelcaswell.com/aquarium/fans.jpg

This was bought from drsfosterandsmith.com. I had been through several of those cheap clip-on fans, but for some reason they kept dying on me (I guess it was the moisture). Plus, they were kinda awkward to mount and position properly.

After noticing that this new fan seemed to almost cool too much (the heaters were coming on), to avoid excess evaporation, I put the fan on a simple timer. During the day, when it's the hottest, it runs almost constantly, but at night, I have it run for an hour, then shut off for an hour or two. The result is that the tank stays in the 78 - 80 range.

--Mike

[Reefscape]

Discussion found here

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1490810#post1490810