Marine Discussion: 90g FOWLR (first SW tank) journal

[macphoto]

Sorry for the lack of updates... we finally moved back into our office in New Orleans last month, and getting things rolling there again has kept me pretty busy.

The fish are doing great, as are the other residents. I'm dying to add more fish, especially a Yellow Tang, but I need to get the quarantine tank setup first. I should have done it a few weeks ago, because I'm going out of town in late March to shoot a medical conference, and don't want to freak my wife out by leaving both the main tank and a quarantine tank in her care! So, I think I'll probably have to wait until then to start the quarantine for the new additions.

I'll take some more pics soon... tank pretty much looks the same, but I'm getting what I assume is coraline growth on the previously barren rocks (yellow, green red).

--Mike

 

[aquariumnewbie]

Is all that required the plumbing and stuff the overflow and the sump because i want to start a 75 maybe 90 gallon sw like yours live rock and fish
do i need all of that great tank how much live rock do you have in the tank
do you buy live sand
not to be rude what was your total cost of everything

 

[macphoto]

Is all that required the plumbing and stuff the overflow and the sump because i want to start a 75 maybe 90 gallon sw like yours live rock and fish
do i need all of that great tank how much live rock do you have in the tank
do you buy live sand

If I understand correctly, you're asking "does it really need to be that complicated?" Probably not. I just wanted to put as much of the "ugly stuff" (heaters, skimmer, etc.) out of sight, and also wanted the other benefits of having a sump and refugium (increased water volume, 'pod growth, nitrogen export, easier water changes, etc.).

not to be rude what was your total cost of everything

I don't have an exact number, but a fairly accurate estimate would be about $3,500.

--Mike

 

[itstheantitang]

How is the quiet on 3000 working?
Is it quiet, hot, vibrating, or is there anything bad about it?

Thinking of a sump for my tank.

 

[macphoto]

How is the quiet on 3000 working?
Is it quiet, hot, vibrating, or is there anything bad about it?

Actually, it's working great now. I had previously posted (in another thread, I think) that the pump would often fail to restart after stopping it for feedings, but Big Al's exchanged it, and the new one is working perfectly.

I have no complaints about it now... it's quiet, and although I can't say for certain how much heat it's giving off, this pump draws less power than the comparable MagDrive pump which, from what I understand, means less heat (in addition to being a bit cheaper to run). That said, I've found that I do need a fan blowing across the water to keep the tank temperature in the neighborhood of 80 degrees when the house temperature is in the mid 70's or higher.

--Mike

 

[macphoto]

have you started the move yet?

Gearing up for it now. We're closing on the new house next Tuesday, but the current owners will not be moving until May 1st. Our move to the new house is schedule for May 13th, but I probably won't try to move the aquarium on that day since I don't think I'll have the opportunity to tear it down and move the inhabitants to the 10g quarantine tank until a week or so after (and I think it's going to be at least a 2 day process).

I'm pleased that the spot we've picked out in the new house for the aquarium is on the other side of the wall from the kitchen. I will probably not get as fancy as I did with this install, with the supply/drain box in the wall and the RO/DI mounted to the side of the stand. Instead, I'll put the RO/DI under the kitchen sink and run tubing to the storage tank in the stand.

--Mike

 

[macphoto]

Well, the move is underway! Here's what I've done so far...

1) Removed the rock, placing the best pieces underwater in a Rubbermaid container to minimize die-off. The base rock pieces are in another container, but are not submerged.

2) Set up a temporary 10 gallon tank at the new house, using existing water transported from the main tank. I went ahead and put a few pieces of LR in there both to help with biofiltering (in addition to a Fluval sponge filter), and to give the hermit crabs a place to hang out on.

3) Removed most of the residents (the two clowns, the royal gramma, two shrimp, and a bunch of hermit crabs and snails). As an experiment, before removing the rock, I attempted to catch the fish. Using two nets, I was eventually able to flush out and catch one of the clowns. But the royal gramma would have been impossible to catch that way... he just headed for his little hole in a rock where he lives, and refused to come out. Even when I had most of the rock out, he STILL found places to hide.

4) Transported the livestock to the 10 gallon tank at the new house.

5) Filled a ~40 gallon (newly purchased) trash can with aquarium water, which is now sitting in the living room, and emptied the remaining water in the aquarium down the drain. Once the aquarium is set up again, the stored water will be transported 5 gallons at a time, and I'll mix up new SW for the rest.

6) Scooped out a few "seed" areas of sand where some spaghetti worms and little starfish were located. This was placed in a small bucket with some water present as well, to increase the chance of these guys' survival.

7) Scooped out the rest of the sand and put it in a rubbermaid container.

8) Dismantled the overflow plumbing, sump, refugium, auto top-off, etc. Interestingly, there were some tubeworms living in bottom of the overflow. I managed to get at least one of them out (so far I've only seen one crown emerge... the other tubes I retrieved might be empty), and placed them in the bucket with the seed sand / water.

9) Moved the stand and aquarium to the new house.


So, tomorrow I'll try to put it all back together. Though the aquarium as at the new house, the water, rock, sand, sump, refugium, and a bunch of other stuff are sitting in the living room, garnering nasty looks from my wife. Hopefully by Wednesday I'll have everyone back where they belong!

Right now I am totally exhausted... this was an overwhelming project! (and it's only half over!)

--Mike

 

[macphoto]

An update...

The good news is that the tank is (mostly) set back up now. I still have to finish re-installing the refugium and auto top-off, but the main tank and sump are up and running. I'm relatively satisfied with the rock layout, and I ended up with THREE nice fanworms from the overflow box (they're in the main tank now, but I haven't seen them in a day or two).

Now the bad news. First, I lost the Royal Gramma. He died the day after moving him (and the two clowns) to the 10g. The clowns appear to be ok (they were moved back to the main tank a few days ago). They had worried me a bit too, because they refused to eat the whole time they were in the 10g (hunger strike over their downgraded accomodations perhaps?). But the seem to be eating fine now.

Second piece of bad news... I chipped the glass. If it had happened during the tearing down, loading, moving, unloading, etc., I wouldn't have felt so bad. But no. Yesterday, I was holding a pyrex container, getting ready to go fill it with RO/DI water for evaporation top-off (have to do it manually since the auto top-off isn't hooked up yet), and I somehow tagged the front right corner of the aquarium, taking a nice sized chunk out of it.

Though the chip does extend a bit into the the silicone between the front panel and side panel, I'm thinking that it will be ok... there appears to be enough silicone to maintain watertightness, and because it's not a "crack" (which is supposedly much worse than a chip), hopefully the structural integrity was not compromised.

I'll post a photo in the next few days.

--Mike

 

[Xteme From HeLL]

im new to this, so i might be asking some dumb questions but if you need to make a water change you can do it from the tank at the bottom? and why did you put sand and the rock in there? also i want to set up my 29 gallon tank as a salt water.. would i need to do all that like you did?

 

[macphoto]

im new to this, so i might be asking some dumb questions but if you need to make a water change you can do it from the tank at the bottom? and why did you put sand and the rock in there? also i want to set up my 29 gallon tank as a salt water.. would i need to do all that like you did?

Actually, there are two tanks in the stand... a sump on the left, and a refugium on the right. The sump's purpose is to have a convenient place to hide the skimmer, heaters, etc., and to increase water volume. The refugium (with sand and rock) provides additional denitrification, water volume, a place for 'pods and other little critters to reproduce, and with macroalgea growing in there, it can reduce nutrients in the water.

And yes, usually I do water changes by draining 5 or 10 gallons from the sump instead of from the main tank.

I'm not experienced enough to tell you whether or not a sump and/or refugium is needed (or even practical) for a 29 gallon.

--Mike