MThompson - First S/W adventure (120gal)

[Mthompson]

I have a few updated pictures. The first is a full view of the tank, it is still pretty empty though. I am still on the look out for some good live rock to purchase.

The stuff I have in there now came from two different LFS's, the stuff on the left is about a week newer. I also have about 20lbs. curing at the LFS where I got the ones on the left (fig. 2). They have a huge open curing vat (~1000gal), and they get their live rock in the vats 12hrs. after coming out of the ocean (at least they said so). It looked really fresh, and smelled damn ripe too. We also picked up a Falco hawkfish, 2 yellowtail blue damsels, 1 three-stripe damsel, and 1 four-stripe damsel.

The rock on the right came from a LFS that doesn't know what they are doing, as the tank I got these from was about half empty (fig. 3). After being in my tank for a day, about 6 mushroom corals came out, which I guess were hiding in their old tank. I guess it is good for me, so far they seem to be doing good, as they are getting bigger and opening up more.

That's all I got for now. Oh, I also made a DIY kalk dripper. I used it to raise Ca and alkalinity to proper levels, and now use it for fresh RO/DI top-off everyday (until Ca demands are higher).

 

[Casimir]

Great start! Nice work on the sump.
Do the two overflows have to be balanced in some way?
What happens if you loose siphon on one of the overflows?
Excuse the noob questions, I am just a beginner.

 

[mr_X]

gravity feeds the overflows. if one is higher than the other, it will just draw less water. if one loses siphon, the other will continue running the tank.
Mthompson- with the mag7 return, do you need both overflows? i imagine you just doubled them up to double your chances of a continued siphon in the event of an outtage.

 

[Anonymous]

What a perfect little fish!

 

[Mthompson]

Casimir - The two overflows do not have to be balanced. As X noted, if they are uneven one will only drain more water than the other. I did however use a laser-level to make sure they are even. Not necessary, but I had it out for another project when I set the tank up. If one siphon goes out, the other overflow has enough capacity to keep water moving.

X - I do not need both overflows with he mag 7. Just as you guessed, I have a safety if one goes out. Plus the tank would have felt lopsided if I only had one (I have a weird urge to make everything symmetrical, e.g. - using a laser level for the overflow boxes, which are both exactly in the center of their respective section). :roll: I can also get a larger pump in the future if I want, which may happen, as I felt to return flow this morning and it barely pushes any water...

SHW - I wouldn't say he is perfect. He chases the heck out of the damsels and also forced my last molly (for cycling) to jump out of the tank (I'm guessing). He has however made quick work of the 30+ baby mollies throughout the system. But overall, he is pretty fun to watch. He like to perch on the powerheads and weight for the damsels to come out (or a baby molly). I suppose that once I get more rock in there, this behavior will be tamed down a bit.

 

[mr_X]

from experience, not with that hawk, but with other fish:
he will never calm down. he will get worse as time goes by. if you are not happy with his behavior, i'd think about how attached you are to him, and consider him for eviction.
i hope that's not the case, should you choose to keep him, but believe me when i tell you: the more rock you put in the tank, the harder it is to catch an unwanted inhabitant.

 

[cindre2000]

Hawkfish can become 'terrors' when they are introduced early in the system and become territorial. Adding rock will definitely help break up his territory, but it may not be enough unless later fish are moderately aggressive rather than passive.

 

[Mthompson]

I am thinking that I might give the hawkfish an 'in-school suspension' down in the fuge, that is until I get some more rock and livestock in the display. I can definitely seeing this one becoming a royal PITA in the future, especially if there is a bunch of rocks in the tank (as X said).

Any reasons why I should move him to the basement? Or, are there better options for this?

 

[Mthompson]

Here are some updated pictures...

Last weekend we added 40lbs. of live rock and did some aquascaping. Still don't have enough for stacks, but plan to get more rock when the right deal comes around. We also added a marine betta, a valentini puffer, a lawnmower blenny, and several snails. Finally got a bunch of macro algae (chaeto and caulerpa) too, so hopefully the combination of grazers and nutrient deficient water will help seal the deal on my hair algae problem.

That's all for now.

 

[Mthompson]

Here are the fish...

 

[mr_X]

is that florida rock?
alot of halimeda on it. i'm pretty sure you need a good calcium level to keep that particular macro.
everything looks nice!
right now i have been noticing some sort of dark slime algae on my sand bed. it looks like red slime, but almost black. i blew it off the sand bed with a powerhead, and then when the lights came back on, it "bloomed" again. very weird stuff.

 

[Mthompson]

I am not sure where the rock originated. I got it from a LFS and they said that it comes out of the ocean and is in their curing vat within 12 hours. Some of the pieces are really light and some are fairly dense.

I do realize the calcium requirement of helimeda. I am set up to dose limewater once the level starts to drop (currently at 420).

Hopefully my nuisance algae is subsiding, but I noticed my sand bed is turning dark again. During the aquascaping I scooped out the top 1/2 inch of sand and put it in a bucket to kill the algae. I plan to rinse the sand out later and put it back in (this was my wifes idea, so I obliged and said we could try it - anything to get her involved so that she sees it as our tank, not mine, and doesn't get upset when we spend money on it :wink: :wink: ).

 

[mr_X]

hmm...note to self- include the wife.

 

[Mthompson]

Sorry for the absence over the past couple of months.....I am sure you all noticed.....right ......

Anyway, duck season down here in Arkie means a few months of me not be around, except when catching a few hours of sleep from 10pm - 3am....then its back into the flooded timber.

Now that the season is over, I noticed that my tank was showing signs of neglect. My cyanobacteria problem subsided due to a green hair outbreak (but more slimy this time). I think that the season actually helped all this out, as I paid little attention to it, therefore did not mess with it.

The cyano came and went. Green hair came, covered the substrate and most rocks (lawnmower has his three rocks he keep spotless), and then began to die-off and turn brown. This is when I returned from 'vacation' and the hair algae just sloughed off of everything real easy.

I figure I have one or two more water change/algae removal spouts and the stuff will be gone. The macros underneath the hair mat were a bit stressed due to lack of light, but they have already begun to perk up. I will try to get a few updated pictures soon.

As for the livestock, the few mushrooms (4) I had are now a few more (9), although most are still small. I mysteriously lost the three-striped damsel over the x-mas holiday. Never saw a skeleton, and he's not behind the tank, and no fish big enough to eat him. I also lost one of the yellow-tail damsels last week....found him in the middle of the kitchen floor after I felt a little crunch under my foot. I had just grabbed the mag-float out of the tank to scrub another, but can't imagine that he was stuck on that thing....anyway another mystery?

 

[mr_X]

the damsels' demise are blessings in disguise. wow..i just rhymed bigtime! i should start my own reeftank-rap group :lol:

meanwhile, they just jump ship, sometimes. possibly when something scares them...you walk by...a giant magfloat moves all of the sudden.
the bright side is- now you have room for the fish you want, but don't yet have! :wink:

 

[Mthompson]

That's the way I kinda felt, but the wife likes 'em. And they eat all the scraps that the messy eaters don't. We affectionately called them the 'artards'.

I am hoping to get a goby-shrimp pair sometime ...and then start getting some soft corals - carnation tree, kenya tree, pulsing(or pumping?) xenia, and maybe a few more. Hopefully some frags show up for sale on RDO, cause the LFS I go to is an hour away and expensive!

Anyway, its good to be back on here, but, I fear my wallet is not going to be as full as it has been.....

 

[Anonymous]

I like the camaflouge on your hunting companion :lol:

He looks like he has a lot of fun out there chasing ducks with you!

Make sure you throw a few pics up when you get a chance to show the progress! :wink: