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View Full Version : Seapony's trials and errors... mostly errors.


seapony
05-09-2013, 12:40 AM
when i got into this hobby I was not sure why people have tank journals out there for everyone to see. so i never started one when i got my tank last September.

Now i have come to understand why people do it.

This was my 120gal Reef tank (attempt) 4 days ago.

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag128/shandora69/E6F516C7-62A5-4F3D-A32A-213992B5DA28-11565-00000F51213E532D_zps10d46901.jpg (http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/shandora69/media/E6F516C7-62A5-4F3D-A32A-213992B5DA28-11565-00000F51213E532D_zps10d46901.jpg.html)

note the nice new LEDs sitting on top of the tank due to the lack of 1/16th wire rope clamps in my area of the GVRD.

this is my tank today

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag128/shandora69/40499A1C-3FE3-456C-B0EB-0457A644AD8A-11565-00000F520EE5802F_zpsdbf7baae.jpg (http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/shandora69/media/40499A1C-3FE3-456C-B0EB-0457A644AD8A-11565-00000F520EE5802F_zpsdbf7baae.jpg.html)

why does my tank look like a random pile of rocks now? (as opposed to the slightly organised pile of rocks it was) I've got Ich. my fresh water bane has found me in the salt water venue. how i'm not sure, might have come in on rock when i set the tank up and waited for me to introduce a poor tang to the tank to show it's ugly little head. but there it is... on my poor tang and then on my angles.

good thing i just invested in another 120gal for downstairs to be a FOWLR tank! (that's the excuse i'm using for my hubby, really it was just so i could keep my beloved snowflake eel Boo) so everyone got pulled out of the reef and put in the tank full of dead rock to get medicated and a 3 month staycation.

how does this relate to my tank now looking like a war zone?

Simple anyone who tells you that you can trap dwarf angles lies... :twised:

so now i get to do a tank journal about rebuilding my reef tank. i mean i pulled the entire thing apart and I wanted to add more rock anyways. I've now invested in some reactors that have to be plumed in. eventually i'll find the 1/16 rope clamps and get the lights hung. get the impeller on my new skimmer fixed and do something about the damn alge that was killing my zoas.

I have 3 months to tinker with the tank and think what fish i want, cause i'm not sure i'm going to get the angles out of the FOWLR tank.

Or in 3 months i'll be bald because i've torn all my hair out and there will be a 120 posted in the for sale section.

i think this is were someone tells me welcome to the hobby

On the bright side now i don't have to worry about the eel snacking on me when i try and work on the tank.

oh and just cause someone will ask here's the FOWLR tank

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag128/shandora69/7B36DD5E-27FE-445C-B3DB-50850A6BCD54-11565-00000F549FD79C3F_zpsbd2ff044.jpg (http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/shandora69/media/7B36DD5E-27FE-445C-B3DB-50850A6BCD54-11565-00000F549FD79C3F_zpsbd2ff044.jpg.html)

I embraced my rock piling skills and just went for something that offered the most amount of caves and cervices... the fish love it and my tank looks empty most of the time.

daplatapus
05-09-2013, 04:09 AM
i think this is were someone tells me welcome to the hobby



Welcome to the hobby! :D

Good call at starting with a clean slate. That decision only gets harder to make as time goes by.

seapony
05-09-2013, 04:33 AM
Thanks Daplatapus. I can't imagin it getting harder to restart. It was hard to abandon the tank and start again right now.

But enough whineing time to think of ways to make 100lbs of rock look attactive...

Anyone got any ideas?

monocus
05-09-2013, 08:34 AM
rona carries the clamps as well as the wire rope

spit.fire
05-09-2013, 09:31 AM
Thanks Daplatapus. I can't imagin it getting harder to restart. It was hard to abandon the tank and start again right now.

But enough whineing time to think of ways to make 100lbs of rock look attactive...

Anyone got any ideas?

Easy, sell 50lbs lbs of it :) drill and zap strap the remaining pieces together and don't worry about caves

Spyd
05-09-2013, 11:34 AM
I agree. Run some bio-pellets in a reactor and that will allow you to reduce the amount of rock work you need in your tank. I would highly suggest not piling rock up against any of the glass. This way you can get flow across your entire sandbed to avoid any dietritus build up. Also, you can clean your glass a lot easier.

Get creative. Drilling rock does work, zip ties, epoxy, etc. Just try your best to aquascape to your liking. Larger pieces allow you to make bridges, etc. and make the rock work look more interesting.

seapony
05-10-2013, 05:07 PM
rona carries the clamps as well as the wire rope


thanks for the tip i now have clamps, tonight i hang the lights!

i've got bio pellets now, just need to pumb in the reactor.

hopefully i've have update pics this weekend.

seapony
05-11-2013, 05:02 PM
success! i managed to get the lights up last night, i'm rather proud of this considering i'm 5' tall and only have a 4' stepladder with 10' ceilings

i know it's uneven, my hubby fixed that this morning. :redface:

today I play with rocks

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag128/shandora69/0F15D789-B58B-48FF-B339-2BA7AC5B285E-12633-0000107077CD962F_zps6bb0cf88.jpg (http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/shandora69/media/0F15D789-B58B-48FF-B339-2BA7AC5B285E-12633-0000107077CD962F_zps6bb0cf88.jpg.html)

seapony
05-15-2013, 03:13 AM
ok so i said i would get this done on the weekend. i procrastinated a bit.

2 hours of standing on my step ladder bending over my tank and i have rocks in a new pile!

http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag128/shandora69/C9F2FFCA-1DEC-4996-8BED-EE99F6E9FC9F-14142-0000125DAB2DC053_zps43d21edc.jpg (http://s1302.photobucket.com/user/shandora69/media/C9F2FFCA-1DEC-4996-8BED-EE99F6E9FC9F-14142-0000125DAB2DC053_zps43d21edc.jpg.html)

it's not awe inspiring but it looks rather neat in person. i'm not sure why my Iphone insists on making my tank look blue but it's not. I couldn't resist building a bridge on the right side of the tank. my inspiration was the collapsing inside wall of a reef... not sure i got it right but it looks OK and gives me more room to mount corals then my old layout did. i just need to find some baseball sized pieces to put my zoas on and i'll scatter those around the sand bed.

now on to water chemistry. so um being new to the hobby i didn't quite grasp how important water chemistry was. I've had fresh water tanks for years and you can let those suckers go for a long time before you're in trouble. not so for saltwater i find out. i'm currently in the pain staking process of bringing my nitrates in line so i can move all my Euphilia back in the tank and bring home my new elegance coral. i have a very kind friend who's been baby sitting it for me tell my water's in line.

besides Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate and KH what else should I be testing for? time to sit down and spend some QT with my coral books.

must keep reminding myself that i have 3 months to tinker with this tank before i'm putting the fish back in.

daplatapus
05-15-2013, 02:16 PM
Lookin' good! When the tank is first set up and you're getting things running, the cycle is the first hurdle you'll have to wait through. During that time you want to be testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, then Nitrate in that order of time progression. Phosphate, IMHO, is a bit of a symptomatic thing. If you're concerned if your rock is leaching it, or there's an accumulation from feeding foods with phosphate in it, you can confirm your suspicion with a phosphate test. But more times than not, you'll test but read 0 because the algae growing in your tank will have used up any free phosphate. So while it'll be a problem, your tests may not read any.
The next big 3 are Magnesium, KH and Calcium. You probably don't need to worry about these until you start putting coral in. The fish don't really care. Of those 3, you have to be concerned with your Magnesium 1st. It's level determines your tank waters ability to hold your Calcium and Kh stable and at the proper levels.
There's some great reading material here:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21968

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php

And as always, if you need clarification, just ask. Lots of science nerds here :) There's never a dumb question.