Reef in the Snow

[nursedude]

We just bought an SCAquariums PNP 66 gallon rimless aquarium, it is traveling as I am writing. Ya! This will be a mixed reef sps, lps, some softies with a light fish load. I had some requests for an equipment list so here it is. Input appreciated.

Lighting
KESSIL A360W-E TUNA BLUE LED AQUARIUM LIGHT - WIDE ANGLE
KESSIL SPECTRAL CONTROLLER
A-SERIES MOUNTING ARM - KESSIL

Heating
(2) 150W EHEIM JAGER AQUARIUM HEATER
BIG DIGITAL TEMP ALERT - LIFEGARD

Water/Salt
BRS 4 STAGE VALUE RO/DI SYSTEM - 75GPD
HW-MARINEMIX REEFER SALT MIX 160 GALLONS

Live Rock/Live Sand
(2) 20 LB. FIJI PINK ARAG-ALIVE! REEF SAND
(50#) BRS REEF SAVER DRY ROCK (I’ll add some live rock from LFS, and other hobbyists in the area )

Water Movement
(2) TURBELLE NANOSTREAM 6040 (53 - 1,190 GPH) - TUNZE
PH2500 utility return pump

Protein Skimmer
SCA-302 SKIMMER

Dosing
BRS 2 Part Calcium & Alkalinity Total Package with Dosers

ATO
Haven’t decided which setup yet

Misc.
REFRACTOMETER FOR READING SALINITY WITH CALIBRATION FLUID
RED SEA MARINE CARE TEST KIT
FLIPPER MAGNETIC CLEANER
PlUMBING PARTS

[nursedude]

I copy and pasted my equipment list from the cart I had it saved in and man it looks weird. Anyhow, I am really excited I just bought a Kessil AP700. It was used from Ebay. It was cheap enough (680.00) that I felt like I could take the risk. The seller stated it was only used for three months at 30%, who knows if that is true (it looked good in the pics). This was the light I originally wanted, but man is it expensive, so I thought it was out of budget.

I'll update this thread once I receive the light and take some pics as well. The tank should be here next week. Once it arrives I'll get some photos of it as well.

[nursedude]

I am terrible about taking pictures, and I really wanted to document this for other reefers; because, I diligently searched and still had many questions that I now have the answers to. So here we go (bear with me I haven't uploaded photos yet so this might look weird).

Aquarium Delivery:

Just about a month ago I received my aquarium and most of my equipment all on a Friday, I managed to get off work. Over 18 boxes. The UPS truck backed up to the garage and we unloaded from there.

The aquarium showed up first. This was one of my "unknowns" how big and heavy was this going to be. Would it arrive on a semi, or a lift truck. With the SCA aquarium you had the option of paying for a truck with a lift gate. I didn't hoping we could mange the load, 50 bucks is 50 bucks. The bill of lading was weighted at 325 lbs in two pieces. Well my gamble paid off, and it was delivered with a lift gate and pallet jack. It was taken right into the garage. If in doubt pay the 50, because that was super convenient.

Lesson #1 I wanted to share, (I wish I had pics). I opened the box and inspected the aquarium, all looked intact. In my excitement, I didn't even look at the box until hours later, which had been damaged by a fork lift that punctured the box and the styrofoam within an inch of the aquarium's back glass. I would hope that any damage would have been seen when I looked inside, but the damage would have been the first place I would have looked. My advice, take a moment to inspect the box as well as the contents. I'll admit I was super excited!

The packaging was excellent; the sump is placed in the aquarium with the protein skimmer and misc equipment. The reason I mention this is once the sump is removed the aquarium is not that heavy. So, someone could take the package apart and handle this with two people no problem. You have to pull this out to look at the tank anyhow, just do it on the truck unloading in pieces. The stand came preassembled it was the 2nd piece.

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The Boy playing Vanna.[IMG][/IMG]
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[nursedude]

BRS had a 10% off sale over the Christmas holiday. I took advantage, and I used as many coupons as I could by doing separate orders. Yup, that was a pain, and they ended up sending me a coupon for larger dollar amounts which meant I could have placed one order. Live and learn. I only ordered three items incorrectly: filter sock holder that was to big for my sump, and Tunze connectors with the photo sensor that were the wrong model. I also ordered only one Ap700 arm and had to order a second.

A shout out to BRS for great customer service, two of my orders were stuck in software hell and never shipped. I called and they overnighted the orders to me, amazing. Salt was broke in transit, of course they sent me a new bucket.

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The 65#s of dry rock, a mix of Pukani and BRS Reef Saver

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I cured the rock in a RubberMade 44 gallon brute. Later, I placed my skimmer and a 300 watt heater in the bucket. Before placing into the bucket, I hosed down the rock and removed what ever organic material I found. As it was my ammonia started spiking after a week and a half. The Pukani has plenty of organic material to start a cure. I was worried about phosphates so I ordered a test kit and tested regularly, but never had an outrageous amount.

I believe it worked out as planned with the mix of the two types of rocks. I had read the Pukani can take some time to cure, but is an excellent light weight porous material. So, I used it to bring organics to the dry rock hoping it might cure quicker and it did. If you have the patience the Pukani is really beautiful, natural looking, and worth the effort.


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I left the rock in the bucket for about three weeks. I got really mixed messages about cycling and curing the rock. I decided once the stinky stage of curing was complete I would move it to the DT to cycle. This worked great for me. After a week in the DT I added Biospira between that and the 45lbs of live sand from two different brands I figured my cycle would finish quicker. I waited and tested. I also went to the LFS in Grand Junction and bought a 7 pound piece of live rock to help with the cycle and seed my dry rock with coralline. I got a free shroom as a hitchhiker.

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It took all day to finish my plumbing, move the dry rock to the DT, have enough water mixed, aquscape, and put in the sand. By the end of the day my fingers were raw, and I was super grumpy. Thus, no pictures of tank, day one, with water...

[Goatonfly]

I really like that dry rock. What is the benefit of curing it in a bucket vs just cycling your tank with dry rock in it?

[nursedude]

My aquarium is right in our living room and I often have people over. I just didn't want the stinky rock in the house while it was curing. The rock was pretty clean going into the tank too, none of the detritus and die off in the tank, which there was a lot of in the bottom of the trash can.

[Goatonfly]

Originally Posted by nursedude

My aquarium is right in our living room and I often have people over. I just didn't want the stinky rock in the house while it was curing. The rock was pretty clean going into the tank too, none of the detritus and die off in the tank, which there was a lot of in the bottom of the trash can.

Oh ok, I just through my dry rock in my tank and cycled with a seed rock from my lfs. No stinky smell, maybe I was lucky.

Looking forward to see your tank grow.

[nursedude]

Originally Posted by Goatonfly

Oh ok, I just through my dry rock in my tank and cycled with a seed rock from my lfs. No stinky smell, maybe I was lucky.

Looking forward to see your tank grow.

Thanks, me too! I didn't actually get a terrible smell either, more of a fresh earth smell for about two weeks.

[Xandernfs]

Looking forward to your build!

[nursedude]

So, I had the bright idea of designing and building some of the dry rock outside the tank using a piece of styrofoam the same dimension as the tank. Part of this worked great, other parts not so much. I was able to glue some really cool shapes before they went into the tank, that part worked great. The individual pieces were glued in such a way that they were made to look like larger pieces. Given, once a few of the pieces were glued they were a bit cumbersome, but it allowed great aquascaping opportunities that turned out very natural with deliberate flow, and design.

Once glued, I epoxied areas of the rock that provided needed stability. I was incredible cautious when moving the pieces into he tank, understandable, and it did take some arranging to find the best placement and height. Ultimately, I am very happy with the layout. It has been a crowd pleaser as well.

The unforeseen negative was styrofoam embedded in the rock and it took days to remove the tiny pieces form the water column. Next time, I'd still glue outside the tank, but use cardboard instead for sure.

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I used two types of live sand, one I got from Petco because it was a clearance item and super cheap (20lbs for 10 dollars). I used 2 bags of the Petco sand and one 5lb bag of the Oceans Direct from BRS. I was hoping for biodiversity in the bacteria load.

My only frustration with the Petco sand was the lack of information about granule size. I gambled, and sorta won, and sorta lost. The Ocean Direct from BRS was great stuff. Consistent sized granules, very nice. With an unlimited budget I would have bought this solely. The Petco sand ended up being a mix of oolite, and random sizes. At first, I was bummed about this, but now that I have had the tank running for a bit I like the look of this sand and am very happy with it. This was a budget saving measure all the way that worked out in the end; I got lucky.

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The rock cycled for about two more weeks when I added Bio Spira. My ammonia had already spiked when in the container. Now I was just waiting for the final traces of ammonia and nitrates to dissipate. Once this happened my Nitrates were 100, oh ya we had a cycle. I gave it a bit more time, and they came down to about 50 at which time I did a 50% water change and was able to half the nitrates and they have slowly decreased to somewhere between 10 & 25.

[nursedude]

After asking around on the forums I decided to go with the Tunze 6040s. I am very happy with this choice. First, they move water incredible well, but more than that the adjustable of the flow especially with two is awesome. The flow from the front of the pump of course is evident, but there is secondary movement around the pump from the water draw to the pump. So, now you have the two pumps working in an alternating pattern (40% of maximum for 7 seconds then the opposite pump at 100% of power for 7 seconds) with the secondary flow created by uptake to the pump as well, great movement. I purchased the moonlight/night mode led adapter that allows the pumps to be slowed at night. If you are using this setup you want to order Moonlight Photo sensor 7097.050 and the Y Adaptoer cable 7090.300. This was one of my oops I ordered the wrong parts and had to send them back. These pumps are really small too and very easy to hide, which was a plus.

As in all- in-one deal setup my return pump is some random brand included with the tank PH2500 utility pump, it works and that is all I'm looking for. Just like with the skimmer, I am fine upgrading down the road. I had trouble figuring out the intended connection from the pump to the flex tubing that was included. There were 3/4 barb connectors coming from the provided bulk heads with the same size tubing. Maybe I did this wrong, but I had to use an adaptor from the return pump because it is 3/8 with only one threaded barb provided, and the threading didn’t fit any of the standard threading at Depot. If the manufacturer provides the pump and tubing can’t we make those jive without a custom fix. Again, maybe I did something wrong here.

The tank is drilled with three one inch holes, so I did a Herbie style over flow. I referenced this articles as it explained things in the easiest manner (Herbie Overflow Method Reef Tank Plumbing Guide).The return plumbing was preassembled, a big white cross of PVC. The issue with this is, it is totally viewable from the front of the tank, as it sits in the over flow. For that matter so is the emergency drain pipe. My solution was to use Rust-Oleum FlexiDip black to paint all the exposed pipe. I did some research on other forums and found it to be reef safe once cured. The chief complaint about this product is is can peel off- as designed. However, the areas Im using this I don't need durability.

The skimmer was included with the package and so far seems to be working fine. I bought a cheap LED light off of Amazon for the sump. I also order some cheato from eBay, it survives a 23 degree day in my mail box, impressive.

So, the tank is up and running. We added our first fish and Orchid Dottyback after the TTM, and a week in quarantine.

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[nursedude]

I'll post more about the lighting when I have time. There is a lot of discussion about the AP700 Kessil and I am happy to through my two cents in.

[nursedude]

Originally Posted by nursedude

I'll post more about the lighting when I have time. There is a lot of discussion about the AP700 Kessil and I am happy to through my two cents in.

Worst autocorrect ever through when meant throw, Yikes!

[MOSSJER]

Wow, looks like you stole my tank. I have a 65 Planet Aquarium rimless I just fired up a few weeks ago. I'll tag along to see how you are going about things.

[nursedude]

Originally Posted by MOSSJER

Wow, looks like you stole my tank. I have a 65 Planet Aquarium rimless I just fired up a few weeks ago. I'll tag along to see how you are going about things.

Sounds, good. I hope I can share some mistakes others can avoid.

[dcom]

Originally Posted by nursedude

Sounds, good. I hope I can share some mistakes others can avoid.

Happy to heard both mistakes and success stories.
Someone recommended a new company and I ordered some lights from them. They havent arrived yet but really hope they are good. Will see.
Keep on going with your tank!

[bo0sted2g]

This is an awesome looking tank! Looking forward to seeing it progress!
I live in Gypsum CO! Cool to see other reefers close by!

[nursedude]

So my wife keeps reminding me we are not even at the two month point. A comforting thought when you get into the uglies like we are now. Some of this I can attribute the tank stabilizing some I will blame on my Chaeto incident.

I decided to put macro algae in the sump, Chaeto to be specific. My LFS, didn't carry any so I ordered some from eBay. Of course the week the algae is to arrive my work is hellacious, add to that the we had a cold-snap, into the twenties.

I forgot the Chaeto sitting in the mail box overnight. In hind sight, I should have just tossed it in the trash. Instead, I opened it and pondered-viable? Next, I turned to that expert Google and did some research to see if I should add it. It appeared Cheato was pretty hardy, sure, lets just see what happens and I added it. Why not trust that forum from that random post that says Chaeto can totally handle the cold. Dumb! Why risk the stability of the tank for something like 20 dollars. Well I did and guess what- the Cheato died. I believe it released phosphate into the tank, because soon after my algae blossomed.

I have scrubbed and siphoned, turned out the lights, and got a new ball of Chaeto, all the while still testing 0 phosphate, which I understand is bound to my new sea of green. Bummer. Which brings us back to the uglies.

I was uncertain if this was a phase of the new tank uglies, or something more. I have read time and time again- this to shall pass as the tank matures. Personally, I felt like the algae death created another level of the uglies; I worried it might become a problem that could extend into the future.

Before things got really bad we had decided on a pair of black and white clowns that were available at the fish store in Grand Junction. Again, I used the TTM, and hope we have an ich free tank. I also added a frogspawn that was at the LFS. I promise this was not an impulse buy. I had been shopping for a frogspawn and they happened to have some. I can say with confidence my frogspawn is thriving. I felt it was doing well but after seeing the kin to this specimen still at the LFS, mine looks great. I did impulse buy a bottle of pods, they seem to be thriving. I also bought some rubble live rock, hoping for more biodiversity.

Back to my algae issue, I have a firm plan in place. Unlike my prior efforts I see now I have to be more aggressive to nip this. I ordered a GFO reactor from Bulk Reef and once it arrives I will do the lights out thing. I also got a light clean up crew, a few hermits and snails. I hope these combined will get things back on track. I wonder if the skimmer being lack luster may be contributing as well.

A few random screw-ups: My ATO siphoned about three gallons before I noticed. I now have a siphon break in the tubing just before it leaves the ATO storage tank. I dosed 10 times the amount of Alk, (in my defense the BRS calculator was confusing, thats more story and I'm sticking to it). I was using the wrong dosing media within the calculator.

The water parameters have been excellent. I was testing every three days for piece of mind, but now just once a week. I test everything from Nitrates to Alk. I still need to build my water storage station. Truthfully I have been neglecting other home improvement tasks taking care of the tank, so the water station will have to wait. An hour away I found a fellow hobbyist who sells beautiful frags, over 300 in stock. He GAVE me the Chaeto for my sump. I can't wait to buy some corals from him. This is a huge relief because shipping live stock sucks. Plus, I can see what I am buying in real life verse over a screen.

Even in the uglies the tank is supremely enjoyable. Just today I noticed how much the live rock in the sump has exploded with new life, a new brittle star, a baby mushroom, and pods galore. Our fish are thriving too, and just yesterday I noticed our first spot of coraline in the DT.

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[nursedude]

Originally Posted by bo0sted2g

This is an awesome looking tank! Looking forward to seeing it progress!
I live in Gypsum CO! Cool to see other reefers close by!

I hear that, you live closer to Denver, have you had a chance to visit any of the stores there? It is quite the drive for us, and I haven't been yet. As I mentioned in my post earlier, we have a local reefer with three grow out tanks, full of coral, amazing corals! I can't wait to buy something.

BTW, your tank is looking great and coming along.

[dimasv]

Wonderful thank , great job. Whats the name of the rock did you use ?

[nursedude]

Originally Posted by dimasv

Wonderful thank , great job. Whats the name of the rock did you use ?

I used the BRS dry rock and their dry Pukani, very happy with both.

[bo0sted2g]

Originally Posted by nursedude

I hear that, you live closer to Denver, have you had a chance to visit any of the stores there? It is quite the drive for us, and I haven't been yet. As I mentioned in my post earlier, we have a local reefer with three grow out tanks, full of coral, amazing corals! I can't wait to buy something.



BTW, your tank is looking great and coming along.

Yeah I have went to Aquamart, Stone Aquatics, and am hoping to get to Aquatic Art or Elite Reef on my next trip down. I also went to Reefstock while it was in town.

Luckily I'm about equal distance from Denver and Grand Junction. Got my Cardinal fish from J&M in Junction. Are there any other Local fish stores in GJ?
And also would you be able to point me in the direction of the "local reefer" with the grow out tanks? I know a couple people from Denver who sell stuff out of their houses and am pretty impressed with the pieces and the prices from private sellers compared to stores.

Feel free to PM me so I don't clutter up your build thread
Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[nursedude]

Originally Posted by bo0sted2g

Yeah I have went to Aquamart, Stone Aquatics, and am hoping to get to Aquatic Art or Elite Reef on my next trip down. I also went to Reefstock while it was in town.

Luckily I'm about equal distance from Denver and Grand Junction. Got my Cardinal fish from J&M in Junction. Are there any other Local fish stores in GJ?
And also would you be able to point me in the direction of the "local reefer" with the grow out tanks? I know a couple people from Denver who sell stuff out of their houses and am pretty impressed with the pieces and the prices from private sellers compared to stores.

Feel free to PM me so I don't clutter up your build thread
Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No problem about the build thread, not worried about clutter. We do have another good store in Grand Junction, Western Slope Aquatics. I actually prefer them as a store. They carry a lot of really good products and their fish are healthy. I picked up my frogspawn coral there and my clowns. They have a couple beautiful display tanks, and they are family owned and been around forever. Limited corals, but still cool. J&M, is hit and miss, but I still go there. The local supplier is in Cederedge, I reach him through his Facebook page, here is a link:https://www.facebook.com/michael.weldon.104

[nursedude]

The tank is improving. I felt I needed a more concerted approach to the algae issue, only because it was getting much worse, even after I scrubbed the rocks twice, filtered the aftermath, and went lights out for three days. It only helped temporarily.

I have a theory about dry rock and algae. This is based on my limited experience with past tanks, with live rock, verses my new tank, with dry rock. I believe we see more algae on dry rock. Why? I am not sure if it is because it is devoid of life, or has more available surface area, not sure. I have never had an algae bloom like I have had with this dry rock with any of my past aquariums. I'll tell ya, I made every mistake know to reefers with those first couple tanks. I should have had waving sheets of green but I didn't. Just an observation, nothing scientific to base it upon.

So, what I ultimately did seems to be working. First we added 6 snails, and had already added four hermits. I started the mini carbon GFO reactor from BRS (BRS large particle activated carbon and BRS high capacity GFO); I scrubbed and siphoned; I turned out the lights for three more days, and did a 20% water change. Voila! We have progress. The multi prog approach is working, 80% of my rocks are algae free and I am seeing budding coralline. Is it all just coincidental timing, I am not sure. I am just happy to see bare rock again.

My two other frustrations, actually three. First I broke my protein skimmer. It had a load of algae in the bubble chamber and I cleaned it. While it was drying I bumped it and it fell over breaking where the pump is connected to the housing. I wanted to replace this at some point, but not yet! I begrudgingly ordered another from SaltwaterAquarium.com a Vertex Omega 130, this is a polarizing skimmer. Truth be told I just hope it fits. It was on sale and I placed my order as there were only three left. I placed my order based on the foot print dimension listed on their site. I happen to notice that the foot print is listed as larger on BRS's site. In fact, to big to fit my skimmer chamber. I contacted them and they pulled it from the box and measured, assuring me their dimensions were correct. I don't think they accounted for the pump, we'll see, if not, back it goes. So, I have been skimmerless for a week. Which leads me to my next development, my alkalinity.

I have been dosing kalkwaser form my ATO. I have gradually been increasing kalkwaser as I tested and noted the use to dose ratio. Which has actually been surprising, I have had to increase the amount I was placing into my reservoir steadily until now it is at the maximum amount, two teaspoons per gallon. The problem I have my alkalinity is still dropping dramatically after several days. I have supplementally dosed to appropriate values only using the kalkwaser top off as the stabilizer, but it is not keeping up. My research has shown this may be related to coralline growth, or large amounts of nutrients, or CO2. What is strange, my calcium is more stable but my alk keeps dropping. From my understanding they should fall at a correlating rate. This last week which was crazy, found my Alk. going from 7.3 (dosed to increase to 8.0) to 6.7, ugh! I dosed and did a water change. Now testing 8.6.

The last issue, stupid Photobucket. I no longer am able to access my account. I have either been hacked, or lost in the Matrix. It doesn't recognize my email recovery, name, or password. I am starting over with Flickstr hoping it works. At this time I can't post any photos, so no awesome pics of bare rock and fish. Sorry, for the wall of text. I just hope to provide some insight for those on the same journey.

[nursedude]

[IMG]Algae alk post by don bennett, on Flickr[/IMG]