My misadventure with a 7 gal - and now the 20 gal..

[Kittikity]

Note to self: do NOT try to set up another tank half awake..

No, I am not normally this dingy.. Please don't laugh too hard but here it goes.. I work nights so I got off work about 6am.. Took husband to work about 7 am and went back home until about 9:00.. Figured the LFS wouldn't be open until about 9 or so.. Raining lightly outside but no biggie.. Go to Lowe's first to get some gloves for work.. Get to LFS about 9:30 and they're not open.. Didn't want to get out of car so didn't check what time they opened.. Instead headed over to a small mom & pop pet store with a small fresh and saltwater section.. Got there and could see from the car that they didn't open until 11.. It's now almost 10..

Head back over to the LFS to at least check what time they opened.. It's on my way back home anyway.. Get back to the LFS and they opened at 10.. Could have saved myself the trouble if I'd just checked first.. Go inside and they didn't have the mini compact flourescent bulbs that screw into a regular light fixture.. Say they can order some but now I forget when they saw they'll arrive.. See that they have 9" cps with the regular pins.. But they don't have a fixture for it.. So, no lights for me right now..

I go ahead and get a couple bottles of chemicals to test for ammonia and nitrites.. Had test tubes at home from an old freshwater test kit so figured I'd just use those.. Also get about 4 lbs of live rock and a box on Instant Ocean that says 25 gal.. Figure that's plenty for my 7 gal and extra for water changes.. While at the counter I remember that I need a hygrometer..

Head home and it is poring buckets.. Half way home and I realize that I don't have a color chart for the ammonia and nitrites.. Get home and realize I forgot to get RO water.. Luckily I had saved a bunch of gallon tea jugs for another purpose.. Of course they're outside.. Go out and notice that some of them are cracked from being out in the sun too long so I go through them until I find ones that seem good.. While being rained on, of course, but it was slow again.. Also had an arizona tea jug in the house so bring that too just in case I have a problem with one of the other jugs..

Go over to the local grocery store where there's a Glacier water machine outside.. Goofy me actually parks in a parking space and totes 4 jugs over at a time to the machine.. Takes about 3 trips to fill up all jugs, including the arizona tea jug.. So I have 11 gals of RO water in the back of my little hatchback car.. On the way home, it starts poring buckets again..

That's about it for my goofiness.. Got home and rinse out the 7 gal and proceeded to put water in it.. Put in 6 gal.. Wanted room for any adjustments.. Put the salt in the tank the way the box suggested.. 1/2 cup for ever gallon.. Stirred it up well until there was only a little residue of salt left.. But when I tested it with the hygrometer, the needle slammed to the top.. Don't know what I did wrong.. Maybe I added half a cup too much by accident..

I took the little underwater filter out of the turtle's tank and rinsed it off and removed the filter media.. Gonna use that to mix the water a little better.. Check it again once I'm done sleeping.. Need to get to bed soon, btw..

I didn't get any sand because I wanted to ask what I can/should get.. They sell live sand there but I didn't pay attention to how much it was.. I had just planned on buying a bag of sand anyway and let it get live on it's own.. Didn't really like the look of the sand in the bags though.. I recently saw somebody's tank here that looked like it had a very fine sand.. Believe they said it was playsand or something like that? What are the pros and cons of using that kind of sand?

Right now I've got the live rock still in the bag from the store just floating in the tank.. I have a light that came with the tank.. It's a flourescent and it actually says on the bulb that it's for fresh and saltwater.. Not sure much else about it though.. Don't want to take the live rock out of the bag though until I'm sure about the salinity.. Also forgot chemicals to check ph.. I also can't find the test tubes that I thought I had.. Will swing by the LFS tomorrow and get that, hopefully along with a color chart for the ph, ammonia, and nitrites..

Can anybody say noob?

 

[Len]

That was entertaining lunchtime reading

Take your time. The more time in between each step, the better you are. Since you have the rock already, it should be fine to add. I would've personally waited a bit longer for the water to come into its own. Playsand is cheap aragonite sand that is sold at some Home Depots. Some people love it because it's economical. I've read some horror experiences about it too. You can get Caribsea aragonite sand that is very fine like that too, It costs more, but I don't hear horror stories about it.

 

[Kittikity]

Yeah, I was under the impression that you could get the live rock when you set up the tank.. I took out some of the water and replaced it with RO and it's around 1.021.. I put the rock in and so far I've noticed some little white shrimp looking things swimming around in the water and what I believe was a tiny white starfish with thin arms.. Below is the only picture that I got before my camera battery died on me.. (Add it to my day..) I'll try to take better pictures once the battery is recharged.. The starfish went into hiding after the first picture so hopefully he'll be more sociable later.. Will definitely look into the Caribsea.. Thanks..

 

[Anonymous]

:lol:

Just think, from here on out everything will be soooo much easier. :wink:

You might be able to get an LFS to give you a few scoops of sand from one of their tanks. With a 7g, you wouldn't need much. And getting sand from an established tank will help speed your cycle and add biodiversity.

 

[Kittikity]

Ok, here are some better pictures.. Saw the little starfish looking guy but just a couple of his arms.. Moved the pieces around a bit to see the coraline algae better..

This is the rock that the starfish lives on.. He hangs out toward the bottom front..

The smallest piece with a nice splotch of coraline algae..

Third piece.. In the bottom center you can see something that had been growing there.. It's definitely dead now though.. Just noticed it when I turned the piece over..

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like very nice rock, and a cute tank.

Third piece.. In the bottom center you can see something that had been growing there.. It's definitely dead now though.. Just noticed it when I turned the piece over..

The yellowish thing? If so, it may be a sponge. (And if it is you might consider rolling rock back over again so it's on the bottom.)

 

[pcardone]

Kitty welcome to reefing, Your not blond are you?

 

[Kittikity]

Nope.. lol But I was blonde as a baby.. Does that count?

 

[Kittikity]

Here is a picture of my little starfish buddy.. Can anybody tell me what he is and if he's a good guy? Thanks..

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like a brittle star.Cool!

They are good for your tank.

(Just be careful with water changes and evaporation: starfish don't take salinity changes very well. :wink: )

 

[Kittikity]

Ok, got some Caribsea oolite live sand from the little mom and pop store this Saturday.. Of course, the bag would have been too much for the little 7 gal and didn't want to waste the sand so ended up using almost all the rest of my salt to start up the 20 gal also.. But what an excuse to start up the bigger tank, eh? The water got real clowdy and foamy and I put the turtle's little internal filter in the 20 gal.. By morning it was cleared up but still had some foam.. I switched it to the 7 gal and it was cleared up by the end of the day..

I put one of the bigger pieces of live rock in the 20 gal, the one with the little brittle star on it.. Unfortunately I haven't seen him again yet.. I hope he's ok.. The salinities in both the tanks weren't exactly the same so I think he may not make it.. Also wonder if the coating of sand all the rocks got might have been bad for him.. But the salinity in the 20 gal has been perfect from the start.. I really think I accidentally put an extra scoop in the 7 gal when I started it..

Right now I have a regular flourescent light on the 20 gal from a 35 gal I have sitting on the front porch.. Unfortunately the 35 gal has some pretty major cracks in the glass so I can't use it at all..

The people at the mom and pop store were really really nice and had a nice selection of small softie and LPS coral frags.. The LFS unfortunately seems to have mostly SPS corals or large pieces of LPS.. I don't need pieces that big and they, of course, cost more.. So I'll probably be going to the mom and pop store from now on, unless there's something they don't have or can't order for me..

I also got an actual API testing kit, instead of just the bottles.. I'm going to do the first test today since the water is clear now and the foam is mostly gone.. Here are current pics of the 7 gal and now the 20 gal.. Also some sort of worm that has appeared in the 7 gal.. If anybody could give me an ID please? It looks like it's trying to split into 3 new worms..

 

[Kittikity]

Ok, here are the stats as of now..

20gal - 2 days old
SG 1.020-1.021
ph 7.8
ammonia .50
nitrite .25
nitrate 5.0

7gal - 1 week old
SG 1.020
ph 7.8
ammonia 1.0
nitrite 1.0
nitrate 10

I guess today I'll be making a run to the store for something to raise the ph.. Is there any other way I can raise the ph? Will the ph stay higher once I get more rock in there? But other than that, everything else seems to be moving fairly normal.. Once everything gets to 0 I plan on getting more live rock.. I'll keep doing that until I got a good amount of rock work and then I'll start on inverts and corals.. I figure that will be about 3 or 4 months from now.. I think the rock I have now is fiji and the rock at the smaller store is tonga.. The rock at the smaller store also seemed to have some small things growing on it already.. Probably been in there longer since I'm sure their turnover wouldn't be as high, being a smaller store and having a big fish store about 5 miles down the road..

Also, since this has become more of a development thread for these tanks, could somebody please move it over to the members tanks forums.. Thanks..

 

[Kittikity]

Ok, a little more than a week later.. I spotted some brittle worms in the rocks in the 7 gal about Thursday or so.. Got some chaeto from seti007 Saturday.. Did some water tests and here's where everything stands..

20gal - 1 week old
SG 1.020-1.021
ph 7.8
ammonia .25
nitrite 2

7gal - 2 weeks old
SG 1.020-1.021
ph 7.8
ammonia 0
nitrite 2

I didn't do nitrates because I figured I'd wait until everything read zero before I did the nitrates again.. Besides, it takes a lot of shaking for the nitrates test.. My arms get tired.. :lol: I'm not really sure why the ph hasn't gone up.. I was told the chaeto would help increase the ph but it didn't have any effect at all.. I'm thinking that it's probably because there isn't enough water movement in the tanks.. I need to get some powerheads..

Once everything reads 0 I'm not sure if I plan on getting some more live rock or a clean up crew.. Maybe both.. I'd really like to get the clean up crew for some life in the tank.. But don't want to rush it if I have any more ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes.. I really need to get some more live rock in there though..

 

[mr_X]

you should raise that salinity some. 025 is about the sg of the reef.

 

[Kittikity]

Well, put a couple airlines in the tanks and the ph now reads a steady 8.0.. Haven't done any other tests since Saturday.. Inlaws are in town.. Will do a water change this weekend and try to get the salinity higher.. I just need to get more salt.. Haven't been able to because of spending time with the inlaws.. And they don't understand my hobby.. Why spend all that money on a fish tank?

Haven't gotten any powerheads or anything either.. Want to get two powersweeps for the 20 gal and one for the 7 gal.. I like the feature that the "head" moves back and forth.. I figure those will create some nice wave motion.. Found a website(www.bigalsonline.com) that has them for $11.99.. Called the two stores here and they cost $21 and $25.. So figuring that I'll be getting 3 of them, the online price is just a better deal..

Have a small diatom explosion going.. Hopefully it doesn't get much worse but I'm sure it probably will.. But I figure this means that the cycling is proceeding as normal..

Still looking at lighting.. My tastes keep getting more and more expensive the more I look at the lights and inching my mind up to the prices.. :lol:

 

[Kittikity]

Found another little clam looking critter in the 20gal the other day.. Only really a glimpse though since it was backing up into a hole in the rock.. These are the only images I got of it.. It is sort of a pinkish red but I'm not sure if that's because of the diatom bloom or that's it's actual color..

Here's a bad pic of the diatom bloom with some bubbles on the surface of it..

I don't really care for the chaeto just sitting on the bottom of the tank so I got the idea of using those plastic livebearer breeding container to hold the chaeto instead.. But I actually found something better.. It's an in tank betta housing unit that's 12" long and 4" deep.. It has slits in the bottom of it and it's actually recommended for saltwater inverts also.. It will work as sort of an in tank refugium..

 

[Kittikity]

Ok, lights and powerheads.. Got a coralife 20" 96 watt powercompact quad and coralife 24" 2X65 with moon lights coming.. All for $115 shipped.. Also 3 aquaglobe 200gph powerheads for $24 shipped.. Other then the usual live rock and livestock, I'll only need a protein skimmer for the 20 gal.. Wonder if I can route it so that it skims the 20 and the 7 gal.. Still thinking about just making the 7 gal a refugium.. But I also like having two tanks for corals and such.. We shall see..

 

[Kittikity]

Got my powerheads today.. *does a little dance* The flow in both the tanks is already SO much better.. Now for the lighting to arrive hopefully Monday or Tuesday, buy a protein skimmer (planning on an octopus skimmer), and I'll have all my equipment.. Thinking of when I get the skimmer, I'll have it draw water from the 20 gal, flow into the 7 gal, have a line that takes water from the 7 gal to the 20 gal, and then back into the skimmer from the 20 gal.. I'm also going to build a lot of my rock work with base rock and have live rock as the finishing pieces.. Just cheaper for me that way..

 

[Kittikity]

Think I'm going to go with buying the premixed saltwater from the LFS.. I'm not having any luck getting the ph up and their's should be right with the ph and the salinity.. It's been almost a month now and I'm not seeing any progress with the ph.. Probably get that later on today.. Also need to price the base rock and some more live sand.. The 20 gal only has maybe an inch of sand on it, if that.. Might just go for a 3 inch sand bed.. Also need lights for the fixtures I have coming.. Will probably get those off of ebay though.. The quad compact is normally $40-$50 online and there's somebody on ebay selling them for $20.. Yeah, gonna go the cheaper route..

Well, I changed the 7 gal to a refugium.. I have the powerhead in the 7 gal pushing water to the 20 and one of the two powerheads pushing water to the 7 gal.. Might have to get more powerheads now just for more water movement. Will see how these little aquaglobes do though.. Had to adjust the flow on them a little because it seemed one was pushing a little more water then the other.. Not sure why.. Maybe because they're plugged into different outlets.. The wiring in this house is weird.. I moved the rest of the live rock into the 20 gal and put all the cheato in the 7 gal.. Will get pics tomorrow along with water stats..

Probably fill the 7 gal about half way up with base rock and then a couple pieces of live rock with some good coraline growth just to seed the other rocks.. Then have the chaeto filling up the top half of the tank.. It'll be closer to the light that way.. Then I'll work on the 20 gal..

I'm so itching to buy my first coral.. Can't decide which one I'll go for first.. I like the brain corals (open and closed), the candy cane corals, the zoanthids, xenias (most soft corals actually), gsp, sun coral, frogspawn, hammer coral, mushrooms, ricordia, clove polyps.. There are more, of course.. But I know it's not time yet.. I want to have everything going for at least 2 months and a lot more rock work in there first.. Some people get into saltwater for the pretty fish.. Us reefers get into it for the corals.. The fish are a plus..

Anyway, guess I should try to get some sleep.. One of the things that sucks about working at night is that it doesn't work well with everybody else's sleep schedules.. I'm awake when the rest of the U.S. is asleep..

 

[mr_X]

you have 27 gallons total volume, right? 20 gallon tank and a 7 gallon sump. why are you using base rock instead of live rock? i would have as much live rock as possible. for that small a tank i wouldn't put anything in it that wasn't contributing to the tank's health or looks.
also, i think you described a powerhead pushing water from one tank to another, and vice versa. i don't think this will work. i think you are eventually going to have a mess on your floor.
there are many variables that will dictate how much flow is transferred back and forth. if a piece of something gets stuck in one of the powerheads, that tank will overflow. if one of the powerheads fails, that tank will overflow. if one powerhead has just a tiny bit more hose than the other, it will push less.
if you would like to keep a sump for your 20 gallon, you need to do 1 of 2 things:
1. have the 20 gallon drilled
2. use a HOB(hang on back) overflow box
i would suggest to have the tank drilled. it's much neater looking and alot less aggravation.

:wink: