Craig's Tank Journal

[waynemah]

Tagging along!

[craigwmiller]

Okay so I did the ZEOvit 14-day cycle process, and am very impressed. Today is Day 18 (the system was started Dec 16th).

The tank went through a massive diatom bloom from day 6 through 13, with the snails added on days 11 & 14 cleaning up the loose/lingering growth by yesterday (day 17).

The middle shelf-like rock and the small one (front-right) in the sand were the only 'live' rocks (total 8 lbs). All the rest was dry white marco rock.


I started adding livestock at day 10 (as per the instructions), with one small clown. Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate have always been nearly unmeasurable (small ammonia spike to around 0.50 on day 5-7, which all but went away on day 8+. Livestock additions will continue, slowly, just to be safe & humane (or the aquatic equivalent term)... But what I have added is doing great, and the corals I've transferred from one of my other tanks are showing better extensions and more brilliant color (Vega's, fair enough) than their previous established homes.

[craigwmiller]

Here are my ZEOvit dosages (first 14-days, and normal thereafter):
(good to have this documented somewhere also for when I want to reference it )

...My actual system volumn calculation is roughly 75 gallons of water.

1 Litre package of ZEOvit media (replacement schedule yet to be determined)


14-day cycle:

Day 1:
ZEOStart3 - 30mL
ZEOFood7 - 9mL
ZEOBak - 15mL

Day 2-3:
nothing

Day 4-14:
ZEOStart3 - 0.3mL, twice daily
ZEOFood7 - 6 drops
ZEOBak - 3 drops


Normal Schedule*

ZEOStart3 - 0.3mL, twice daily
ZEOFood7 - 6 drops, twice per week (Monday & Friday)
ZEOBak - 3 drops, twice per week (Monday & Friday)


*These dosages are subject to change as tank parameters require, and I will update the thread as I change.

[Edmonton newbie]

lookin good

[Doug]

[kien]

it looks like you've got everything well at hand here. Carry on :-)

[craigwmiller]

Here is my water change regiment and rig.

While I was planning out the water changes, I had a couple rules in mind:
- The first rule about water changes is they must be easy or they won't happen regularly for weeks/months/years on end
- no towels should be required in preparation for a spill or even a drip
- no buckets to haul water
- slick & nerdy enough that it's actually kinda fun to do it, making me look forward to the process!

I'm changing roughly 8 gallons of water, every Sunday... here's how:

Rigging:
- RO/DI equipment (aquasafecanada.com 100GPD setup, which consistently makes water at 2 TDS post-RO and 0 TDS post-DI -- incoming water is 190-210 TDS)
- 32 gallon Brute (containing a 100W heater, circulation pump, and Mag-Drive 3 for transferring the water upstairs)
- ~75' of 1/2" clear PVC tubing to connect 4 locations together (with 6 shutoff valves to control where the water goes). Locations: sump/display, Brute, storage room access hose, basement bathroom sink drain (direct/permanent installation)

Process:
1. The Brute is first filled and heated to match tank temperature, and then salted to match tank salinity (currently using Fluval salt at the time of this writing)
2. Water is siphoned from the sump upstairs, directly to the drain under the basement bathroom sink. (siphon is always started from water remaining in the in-between-floor hose from the last change, but can be restarted easily via the access hose - hanging coiled up in the picture).
3. New water is then pumped from the Brute up into the sump.

What type of sand did you go with Craig? Do you plan on maintaining it (stirring or vacuum)?

[craigwmiller]

Aragonite 1-2mm reef grade sand. Not "live", just sand. I soaked and rinsed it several times with RO, until it was as clear as I could get it.

As far as maintenance... Nothing planned. I have several nassarius snails, and also a six spot sleeper goby (who moves enough sand around to free up any loose detritus). When I get more established I might add a sand sifting starfish to churn it up some too.