33g nano journal

[kwirky]

Most Recent Picture:
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/new33gtank.jpg
taken Nov 12, 2007

I'm gathering the bits of equipment I need to get a tank up n running again. I have almost everything. It's a 24g bowfront nano. It will house softies and maybe a little bit of LPS. No sps since I'll have to move it in about a year's time.

Here's the equipment so far:
24g bowfront tank(24x12ishx16)
5 gallon tank for top-off resevoir
JBJ auto top off unit
aquaclear 70 HOB (400gph)
koralia 400gph pump
4-5 maxijet 1200's
coralife aqualight pro (need to choose HQI bulb) (150hqi/2x65actinic)
RO/DI purifer
UPS backup power

I also have a mag 700 internal/external pump I might be able to use. don't know how exactly but it's kicking around.

and I have about 70-90 pounds of liverock cooking at my mom's :idea: . I think I'll seed it with some else's liverock as well when the time comes.

So I'm on the way to having a tank again. It's not overly ambitious like the 120g was so it won't get out of control on me.

checklist of things to do:
hang the light
transport the rock here (big job)
decide my flow design once rock's in the tank. maybe set up a wavemaker :biggrin:
leave rock in for an extended period of time until things settle (wish me luck i'm so impatient lol)
proceed with buying coral (the fun part :wink: )

[kwirky]

Just finished hanging the light. Thought I'd post a picture of the tank so far.

I'm going to clean it out, then paint the back black.

I like it's location. I'll be able to watch the tank while sitting at the computer.

oh and the speakers are because fishies like rock music ;)

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/07-11-01/07-11-01_hung_light.jpg

[SeaShell]

My husband would LOVE to hear that fishies love rock music.... but I think they love classical!

:)

Welcome back... you had a reef tank before, too?

[kwirky]

My husband would LOVE to hear that fishies love rock music.... but I think they love classical!

:)

Welcome back... you had a reef tank before, too?

yeah here's the old journal thread to my 120g reef i previously had.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26766&highlight=120

I still have the tank and the chemicals n test kits n such but the lights and all were sold off. unable to keep up with such a large tank, both in time and $$.

oh and I just finished painting the back of the tank black. there are some things I'm going to try do that I should have done with my 120g. like be patient...

[kwirky]

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/07-11-04/07-11-04_not_aquascaped.jpg
not aquascaped yet

ok so I put about 30-35 pounds of the old liverock into the 24g tank. I tested the nitrates a day later and they tested at 25ppm:eek:

So I grabbed a maxijet and slowly blew off each rock meticulously. After they were all cleaned off and in a separate bucket the tank water was so nasty you couldn't see 2" into the water.

I did a 100% water change with tap water and now, a day later, it tests 0.5 ppm nitrate. Much better levels.

So I've got an AC70 HOB hanging on the back for aprox 350gph water flow. I have a hydor koralia 400gph pump on the left end. I have two maxijet's as well, one on either end, that alternate on a coralife light timer every 15 minutes.

I'm gonna source out a few very nice pieces of liverock, either from an LFS or from other reefers to kinda "seed" the tank with. I think leaving the liverock in the bin has produced a benefit. Almost all the liverock I have in the tank has no coraline on it. It's died and flaked off, leaving nice open liverock. I won't be aquascaping the rock for a few days.

new to-do list:
install RO/DI unit
Find a good piece or two of liverock as seeder
final rinse of all rock pieces
100% change with RO/DI water
monitor for a few days before turning light on
turn light on, buy coral :D

[kwirky]

bit of an update...

still waiting on the zeovit rocks. I'm considering a skimmer. maybe an aqua-c remora. heard good things about it and i'd rather not have the skimmer in the tank interfering with the light. Limited tank space as it is.

I'm still debating whether to get some liverock to seed my rock again. I'm finding live feather dusters on some of my rock so I'm thinking it might still be ok.

no pictures yet because the tank's not officially "up" yet.

oh and getting my potassium up to 380ppm or so is a PAIN!

[kwirky]

ok I set up a remora skimmer and took a picture. Lots of microbubbles atm cuz the skimmer's breaking in. I'll be running the HQI for 6 hours a day as I wait for the zeovit to come in. I'm seeing feather dusters come out, little ones. It's nice how I haven't been able to see any pests :D

here's a picture of the tank. Because of the tank's small size I was really able to play with the depth of the rocks in the tank. It's too bad you can't really see the way the rocks are arranged from front to back. The straight on photo doesn't do it justice:
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/07-11-12/fullshotsmall.jpg

here's under the tank. the little 10 gallon's my top-off resevoir:
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/07-11-12/undertanksmall.jpg

I will be dosing zeovit, k-balance concentrate, amino acid, and 3 part trace daily. If I find I need calcium I'll begin dosing calcium/alk daily too.

I've got my watch set for 10:30pm each night to make the dosing part of my regular daily habits. I want this tank to turn out well so I've gotta get into a routine.

My coral decisions will probably be LPS colonies (no frags) and ricordia and duncans. I have a real small tank compared to my old 120g so I can stock it with real nice coral at a fraction of the price it would have cost me in a larger tank.

Getting excited! :D

[kwirky]

found a possible aiptasia on one of the new rocks I introduced. Joe's Juiced it using the stagnant water method. We'll see if it's gone in a few days. It's about 1/4" across from tip to tip of it's spread tentacles

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/aiptasia.jpg

[kwirky]

the tank's starting to look pretty good. No algae now even with the lights on and some fresh rock. I'm getting into the habit of the regular dosing. I'm dosing the following daily:

Grotech ABC Solution (1mL each)
Zeobac 4 drops (until the 24th)
Zeofood 4 drops (until the 24th)
ZeoStart 0.5mL twice daily (morning/evening until Dec 1st)
DIY 2 part mix (4mL each to start)
daily washing of zeovit media.

I'm growing in anticipation daily as I find new living stuff on the rocks I thought were dead and as I watch the couple days of bad algae completely recede.

http://www.kwirky88.com/gallery/Aquarium/content/bin/images/large/CRW_6828.jpg

[kwirky]

I came home, cleaned the glass, posted on canreef, then proceeded to record a little video about my tank for the hell of it. During the recording I notice a bit of water surrounding my tank dripping to the floor. IT SPRUNG A LEAK!

so now i've begun the process of converting my old 33g sump from the 120g system back into a tank. This is going to be the world's fastest sump cleanup followed by an ultra fast move from the 24g bowfront to the 33g.

It's one of those "made in china" bowfront tanks. I'm going to never buy one nor recommend one again.

Wish me luck!

[Delphinus]

Yikes, good luck!!!!

[marie]

A leak is my biggest fear with my bowfront. Good luck

[kwirky]

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/leakytank01.jpg

so things are kinda in the new tank. I'm doing a real quick job of mixing up the rest of the salt water. I've got 450W of heating and 1000gph for aproximately 15 gallons of water in the blue rubbermaid bin :D. once it's up to temp I mix in the k-balanc, then the salt, then dump 'er in.

the light collides with the skimmer on the back of the tank now and there's not enough rock for the tank. I might dig out some of my dead/dried-out rock and rinse it well and use it as temporary filler or base-rock at the bottom. No $$ for fresh LR atm.

i'll post an update when the tank's a little more sane in an hour or two.

[kwirky]

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/new33gtank.jpg

finished moving and rearranging everything finally. No wavemaker on atm because the longer tank requires both the maxijets to be on full force for proper water movement. I'll get another two maxijets down the road.

I'm going to have to upgrade the light. I'll procrastinate on that and do it when the mh bulb needs changing in 6-8 months. I might upgrade to a T5 system, we'll see.

[michika]

Wow, that was quick! Very nice recovery.

[kwirky]

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/pocicolony.jpg
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/pocicolonyactinic.jpg

this is the pocillopora that I got that had the pump walk into it and was kinda bleached from the LFS from the start. It's no longer bleached and I think I'm recognizing new growth. I took a picture so I have something to compare against in a few weeks. The first picture's under the 14k+actinics and the second picture's under just the actinics. When I got it it didn't flouresce much at all under the actinics. Now it's bright green under the actinics and it's just starting to show it's colour under the MH. The top picture doesn't show the green ends the colony has under the MH. I couldn't get my rebel to capture the colour. (old 6mp rebel 1st gen)

I have a 0.29 amp 12v panaflo fan turn on when the lights turn on and it helps maintain a proper temperature but I get 2-3g of evaporation a day lol. Thankfully I have an auto-top off unit but my 120g with T5's only had 4g a day evaporation...

[marie]

http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/pocicolony.jpg
http://www.kwirky88.com/images/aquarium/pocicolonyactinic.jpg

this is the pocillopora that I got that had the pump walk into it and was kinda bleached from the LFS from the start. It's no longer bleached and I think I'm recognizing new growth. I took a picture so I have something to compare against in a few weeks. The first picture's under the 14k+actinics and the second picture's under just the actinics. When I got it it didn't flouresce much at all under the actinics. Now it's bright green under the actinics and it's just starting to show it's colour under the MH. The top picture doesn't show the green ends the colony has under the MH. I couldn't get my rebel to capture the colour. (old 6mp rebel 1st gen)

I have a 0.29 amp 12v panaflo fan turn on when the lights turn on and it helps maintain a proper temperature but I get 2-3g of evaporation a day lol. Thankfully I have an auto-top off unit but my 120g with T5's only had 4g a day evaporation...

I don't think that is a pocillipora, it is an acropora of some type

[kwirky]

I don't think that is a pocillipora, it is an acropora of some type

has some pretty cool polyp action going on for an acropora then :). I'm still new to the SPS and the LFS. I asked one of the guys at the LFS if it's pocillipora and he said yeah. I thought it was because of the longer polyps but I was thinking the other day it might not be because it doesn't have the rounded tips like pocillipora.

Whatever it is exactly I took the pictures so I can log it's progress and keep track of it's health because things are changing a little slower than I can notice.

I'm waiting until payday to add a few more corals. Probably some LPS towards the bottom of the tank or some zoos mounted sideways on the rocks.

[EmilyB]

I hope it's not one of the same 33g tanks from a few years back. They blew out. A couple of us on here had that happen.

[michika]

Your colonies are definitely acropora of some type. They are quite nice! Where did you pick them up from?

[kwirky]

Your colonies are definitely acropora of some type. They are quite nice! Where did you pick them up from?

gold's. they had 3 colonies. I convinced dennis to sell me one whole. I can tell he was going to frag them up :)

[michika]

Well don't forget to share a few frags in case of catastrophic crash! :D

I really like the green shades in the second one. I will be excited to see how they change over time (my favorite thing about sps).

[kwirky]

today's "catchup day"

i was in banff at the beginning of the month for a week and I had already procrastinated a little before then on some maintenance. When I got back my tank was in pretty sorry shape (lots of filamentous algae).

The corals are doing well. Today's a water change and correcting the alkalinity (at 5dkH!). 440ppm calcium. I'll be adding baked baking soda slowly over the course of the next 4 days. I'm not going to be using oceanpure pro again after this bucket's empty. I'm either switching to tropic marine or reefer's best if it's available in calgary when my bucket's emptied.

[kwirky]

I put in an order for a new tank. It'll be 24Wx24Lx18H (44 gallons). It'll be drilled for a 1.5" overflow pipe and dual 3/4" return pipes. I'll be running the return through a SQWID for wavemaking action. I'll run my remora skimmer in the sump along with all the other unsightlies. I'll keep my aqualight pro 150W light and possibly mod the PC's into T5's later on.

It's going to be an upgrade from the current 33g tank. I'll have more water volume because of the sump and it'll be lit properly by the MH light. Hopefully it'll be ready for when I move into my fiance's but I doubt it because Gary's quite backed up.

I'm going to see about storing the few corals I currently have at Gold's while the new tank is cycling. I'm going to get all new rock and cycle the zeovit as if it's a new tank.

I've got nasty algae problems in the current tank because I put in dead rock without soaking it in RO water before hand. I think I've introduced too much phosphate for the zeovit system to handle adequately.

Oh well, live & learn *sigh*