"New" reefer reefs a reef

[Saltlick]

Well, I am placing this in the new reefkeepers forum, because I am building a new reef tank.
But I have been a reefer before, and I had a nice 110 gallon tank back during the turn of the
century. I forgot more than some aquarists will ever know, lol, but mostly scientific names and even
normal names of a bunch of fish and corals and such stuff. The stuff that stayed with me is
the how and why, and the thing that stayed most with me was the urge to incorporate a nice
surge device. So I am looking forward to the build. One thing I took from my last effort is
that I NEVER want to build another tank as big as my last one. So this is my version of a Nano:
It's gonna ge a 40 gallon breeder with a 20 gallon sump. Short of the tanks and the sand, this is
going to start out as a Sanford and Son deal. Re-using old parts. I have a tremendous HOB
Overflow, a stone age Berlin skimmer, old heaters and a PILE of old Live Rock. I am going to
purchase some rock rubble and grungy holding tank sludge and try to bring it back from the dead.

Alot has changed in the hobby and some of the basics have remained the same. It is up to me to
figure out what's useful to me wand what isn't. Being in no particular hurry this time has perhaps
the greatest advantage to offer. I won't kill anything larger than a baby brittle star if I toss live
sand in too early. And I certainly will not be ordering any livestock. But my first research was
in lighting. I have no need for metal halides, and this T5 HO looks promising. I ordered a 36"
6 tube setup today with individual reflectors. :lol:

The focus for the first few months will be strictly bringing the Live Rock back. It is a great mix of
fiji and tonga branch with some old coral skeletons. So I bought two bags of sugar sand as a cover
product for a sand bed, and I am going to set up what I would call a closed loop for lack of the right
term. Overflow into a sump containing macroalgae, spilling over into a second chamber and pumped
into a skimmer, outputting into a third chamber and pumping that water into a Carlson Surge device back into the tank.
The bad levels should be a long distant memory by the time I decide if I want a fish or not. But as
I posted elsewhere, it is sure to be a lunare wrasse. And if the algae farm takes off like some I have seen
pictured HERE, I will have to select a Tang. My favorite used to be Powder Blue, but Achilleus or Atlantic
Blue in standard shape and Clown or Sohal in the other combine to make that decision hard. But there
will not be many fish in the tank. Mostly cause 40 is tight on what I would consider bare minimum specs.
No reason to be cruel.

But to be totally honest, I never EVER want to develop a tank that I need someone's help in moving, plain
and simple.

 

[Saltlick]

Got home last night and filled up the 40 for a leak test. No leaks, so I poured in the salt.
Once it was dissolved, added 60 lbs of aragomax. One day, I read a post from a guy who
had not washed his sand. I was in no hurry for it to fully precipitate out, so I just dumped the
sand in. Kinda wished I had washed it, but no biggie. I will skim out the FPM and again, I
have all the time in the world. Point of this ramble?? I sat in the chair and thought, "WHY in the
HELL did you buy aquariums and salt and sand? You were saving money, your truck was recently
paid off, you LOVE the freedom to take off for a week at a time if necessary. You are an IDIOT.
You are ALWAYS thinking of leaving Memphis. WHY?

Still no answer for that. But now I am pretty convinced I am going to have mushrooms and
gorgonians only, I have to pull back from the precipice. One fish with another for company.
I will try and frag the gorgs and shrooms for fun and profit and at least try to pay off the initial
investment. But when I thought back, the light array was the only thing that REALLY cost some
cash, so maybe I am not overly stupid. And if the lights allow, MAYBE I can frag some other stuff.
But I think when I get some action in the sand and some copepods and some calcareous algae,
I will understand why I did it. The dead live rock could have stayed in that crate forever, at least
til I moved away from here. sigh. :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

You can automate and get your breaks from Memphis. This has been an interesting read.

 

[Len]

I rinsed the heck out of my aragonite and it still created a 72 hour milky calcium storm. Don't freak out ... it'll settle in due time.

 

[Saltlick]

You can automate and get your breaks from Memphis. This has been an interesting read.

I couldn't understand this for a moment. Now I get it. With the proper automation, there is no reason to be chained to my
reef here in Memphis. Haha, OK, I got it. I almost PMed you , then I thought, wait, re-read what you wrote first. Thanks

 

[Saltlick]

I rinsed the heck out of my aragonite and it still created a 72 hour milky calcium storm. Don't freak out ... it'll settle in due time.

I also rinsed with my first reef, and after 20 mins, I realized it would never run clear. Later that night
when I had time to stop and take a breath, I read somewhere in a forum that this would never happen, lol. SO at least I only
wasted 20 mins on my first tank, lol. But I agree with you, and since I had nothing but time to kill, I figured, WTH.

I WILL say that "nothing but time" gets relative real fast when you see the tank up and lit and wet. I am getting itchy.
But until the old, white, dead live rock is beginning to be lived in, why even think about adding anything. Tonight I am
going to cut some glass and silicone in some compartments in my 20 gallon for a sump. I am regretting only getting a
20 now, since it's length along the floor is so short. I was thinking about where on earth I could place a bubble trap,
but between a drain section, a skimm section and a return section, I am out of sectionable tank, lol.

 

[Saltlick]

Tonight I guess I will also take a phot of my old rock laid out. I had some nice stuff. I am not even sure
today how I got it in that crate. Obviously I dried it out somehow, and then toseed it in a double milk crate.
But I have NO memory of this activity. And LEN, I looked at your build thread, you came up with such a
wicked assemblage of rock. I was trippin on the look. And I loved your photoshopped coral growout plan.
It was hilarious.
Alas, after my evening of regret last night, I am going to have to come up with some kind of way to keep the
money down this time. I used to spend every Saturday morning in the fish store when I lived in Meridian, MS.
It was a 90 min drive, but I was single, renting, and had cash overflowing. I bought every coral I liked and every
fish I liked and just reefed like I was never going to move again. This time I am going to culture more and buy
less. But as I said earlier, this 6 lamp fixture is going to give my frags a fighting chance this time. In the old
days, it was 48 inch shoplight fixtures from Home depot. I would READ that the corals needed more, but like
every idiot, I thought I WAS the one person who could do it their own way and succeed. Derh. But I had a nice
tank. Tonight I will post some pics. It was not attractive, but it was nice.

 

[Anonymous]

You can automate and get your breaks from Memphis. This has been an interesting read.

I couldn't understand this for a moment. Now I get it. With the proper automation, there is no reason to be chained to my
reef here in Memphis. Haha, OK, I got it. I almost PMed you , then I thought, wait, re-read what you wrote first. Thanks

Sorry it was so terse. I'm pretty distracted with a 2yo running around.

Automation is our friend. So is Rubbermaid and her tubs.

 

[Len]

Thanks. Glad you liked my silly drawing

Take it really slow. Resist the itch. Take it from me ... fast is very bad. I tried to get my rebuild restarted too quickly, and I ended up losing all but one fish.

 

[Saltlick]

Maiden, you weren't "terse" by any means. I just couldn't figure out what it meant at first.

In any event, here is my original tank. This is prior to the addition of just a little bit more live rock
that led to a much better aquascaping layout. Not sure where those last, best pics are. But even now you
can see that I had a fetish for buying coral. NOWADAYS, I would never put a Wellsophylia that close to a torch,
nor would I put a Wellso. up on a live rock peak. Back then i did not know they like to be on the sand bed.
But i remember placing them on the sand and the sand, it seemed to me, caused it to peel off it's skeleton somewhat,
like soe corals do in the presence of hair algae on their skeletons. And i DID have an actinic lamp, but it is not great for
my old camera. That is a sea cucumber on the sand in that large pic. And DIG the hillbilly hood, lol.

 

[Saltlick]

Today was disaster day. Last night I partitioned a 20 high with two pieces of glass, and some clear sealant.
This afternoon I watered it up and plumbed the system. An hour or so later, the panels started to ooze and
slide over. I about $hit. (haha, the system censored the word $hi+) So I read the very small print, and it says
"not for use in contact with water, lol".
So I decided maybe I would take some powerful glasses to Home Depot this time, and got some OTHER clear
sealant. I knew I was good when I saw the dried bits at the base of the roll tube...cloudy clear like aquarium
sealer. Cleaned all the surfaces and dried it and re-partitioned the thing. Tomorrow after the Saints advance
to the super bowl, I will run the plumbing again and start again.

Went and got a nice piece of seed rock today, it was sweet with three separate kinds of macroalgae on it, and
a zooanthid and a mushroom. Not likely the 'corals' will survive, I am just starting this tank up from scratch, but
I needed the rock and the copepods and the bristleworms. It will be a bonus if everything makes it, I saw some of
that nice lavender blue sponge on the underside, and some yellow as well. I passed on what would have been a
much cheaper rock with 5 colors of Coraline on it, I wanted that macroalgae bad. Only thing I did not like is the
one thing I saw move in the cloudy water of the tank was an isopod. It came out and walked on the sand next to the
tank face. It had smaller eyes than the parasitic kind I have seen before, so MAYBE I am OK, but who knows at this point.
But it was not a scud or a copepod, so I am a LITTLE worried. More tomorrow.

 

[Saltlick]

OK, I proomised a few pics, and man do they suck. The photos, oh they are fine, well-focused, etc. Problem
is the subject matter. This is a look at the general setup and the "white rock" and the seed rock. This is
NOT aquascaped obviously, just trying to get some coralline growth and life transfer going at this point.

 

[Saltlick]

A look at the rock that is alive. A lot of Macroalgae, here is some of the red shreds. no copepods or Bristleworms
that i can see. A few segmented worms, long and thin. A few zooanthids or anemones in the rock, but man are they
retracted. For clarification, this is a piece of LFS rock, I got ONE CHUNK. I figured it would be the only way to bring my
old white rock back to life.

 

[Saltlick]

Got some nice rock rubble from Premium Aquatics today, a big ten lb bag. There is a
good representation of origins in there, I can see some pieces that I can imagine came
from rock named Fiji, some Vanuatu, some tonga...some coral skeletons, some Bali-looking
stuff, based on the bizarre coralline colors. Lots of various coralline morphs and
some macroalgae. I am going to prep up a tank tonight to cure it in with some sand to
host anything that is coming out to stay out. Maybe in a week or so I can split it and add
it to the display tank and the refuge area of the sump. I have heard a few great reviews
of their stash of rubble. One bad one, the rest fine. Based on the variety of rock they get
and the volume they ship, I expected alot and got what I expected. Alot of nice broken off
pieces from what must have been alot of nice rock. I only need it for the life transfer,
having alot of fraggle rock for later is a bonus.

------

edit: Ironically, there wasn't much life in the rock. Guess it got too cold in transit. The
macro lived, there is some sponge that is coming back, but I would give my leftie for a
single scud.

 

[Saltlick]

Tonight was a nice night on the old Nouveau Reef. On a rock of button polyps I picked up, two
startlingly beautiful Aiptasia...tiger striped across the face and tentacles. But they had to go, and I was
not even going to let them go through the acclimation period. Took em out of the tank, placed the rock
on a damp towel and jabbed a razor blade into the largest one. After it spurted out it's attempt at living
on through it's children, I walled it off into it's hole with a blob of reef epoxy and moved onto it's smaller
brother, who I did not poke at, just toyed with it til it shrunk into it's hole and walled it off as well. I cut off
three polyps that were hanging off the side on a cracked-off chunk of rock and used a third piece of epoxy to
slap them on a rubble chunk. Then I put em both back in the tank with a chuckle. Bye-bye Aiptasia. Sucker.
--------------------------------
Edit.....IRONICALLY, turns out MAYBE I didn't kill Aiptasia after all, although they SURE looked like it. I wasn't
gonna take a chance, but I was reading up on Zoanthidae, and came across this...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... invert.htm

Apparently I killed two Neozoanthus. Bummer. Sure LOOKS like one of the many morphological versions of
Aiptasia I have seen. And after all, IT DID retract into a crevice, so Yeah, it was Aiptasia. But it looked
JUST like this....except maybe the mouth. And these just "close" like your regular polyp.

 

[Saltlick]

More comedy on the fish purchases. Got my tank params down to an acceptable level and visited, of all places, PETCO.
There is a good reefs only fish store here in town, but all their coral tanks were full of Aiptasia, and all their corals start
at 55 bucks. Just thought that getting a fish by that time would reward kind of a lack of husbandry attention. It's not like
the economy is so booming and business is so brisk that you can't do a little maintenance on your system. But i digress.
Petco has their problems too. ANYWAY, Two stupid things done by me. 1.) Hepatus Tang purchase for a 40 gallon.
2.) Buy only one Green Chromis. (cause the tang is going to get big). That's only dumb cause I KNEW IN THE STORE I was
gonna smarten up and get multiples, but I allowed myself to leave the store with 1. So I have to drive BACK to the store to get
two more. So now all is well in the Blues City Reef. Hepatus is only 1.5 inches long. Everyone is eating greedily.

Sporting a yellow polyp rock, a star polyp rock, a button polyp rock, a neon green spot mushroom rock, a single orange ricordia,
and single Purple yuma, and three brown SPS species. Alot of Autumn colors in the Blues City Reef, lol. So now it is time to
stay out of the fish store. Mardi Gras next weekend babay!!

And I have a fellow reefer to take the hepatus tang into his organization when he grows if he should grow restless.
Lots of swimming room in my 40 though.

 

[Saltlick]

Bit of a disaster yesterday. First, on another day, one of my Chreen Chomis kicked the bucket
after the lead dog pestered it to death. He got some damage to his side, and you could see the
skin color had gone from grey-green to pinkish, abbrasions or something. Slapped it in the refugeium
and he still succumbed the next day. Or rather he was swimming bizarrely and breathing rapidly, so I
wrapped him in a moist paper towel and froze him. No sense in letting him continue on like that.

ANYWAY, got home from work yesterday to find my return pump had blown it's hose off the barb and
the tank was down 5 inches, the sump was full and there was some water on the floor. I hopped up
onto a chair and reached down and unplugged the GFCI adapter and then got to figuring out how the hell the
tank had drained so much. The spray bar is on a diagonal along the back wall, and I guess it just
kept draining to the next hole along the line. But that is impossible, the first hole should have broke the
siphon, and the overflow box couldn't have possibly lget that happen. How it got 5 inches down, and
why it stopped I have no idea. It could have emptied the tank. Hooked everything back up and got to
worrying about the SPS near the top, the acropora looks to have just survived the hours it was dry,
the Montipora digitata looks like it may have just RTN'd, although the bottom half was wet....it could be
that the two varying shades of drained out brown with no visible polyps are just and indicator of deep shock
and all might be better tonight. Or it's toast. Everything else was lower and made it fine.
Tightened but have yet to clamp the mysterious return hose. Might eliminate that diagonal spray bar as a return
mechanism and either go straight across the top or return to a Carlson Surge like I wanted to originally.

DAMMIT, I just realized what happened. It had nothing to do with the spray bar. I have the air tube that
my overflow box uses to suck-start the siphon attached to a venturi power head to keep air from building up,
It had to have emptied the tank THROUGH the powerhead, through the airline, into the sipon tube of the overflow
box and down into the sump. I'll be damned. All I have to do now to prevent that is to not have the powerhead
so low in the tank. What an idiot. of course, it was the return hose from the Quiet One coming loose that
began the fiasco, but luckily, there is a cover on the sump, haha, that kept it from shooting 3 feet in the air
and covering the floor with water well before the level of the powerhead was finally reached breaking the siphon.
Holy crap, what a screwup.

 

[Saltlick]

Well, not much activity on this thread, but in a day or so the photos of where we stand NOW will
go up. In the coral realm I have a selection of morphs of mushrooms, blue, purple, spotted green.
I have a Montipora Digitata in stunning brown, a forest green unknown species sent to me as a
green Montipora Digitata, but it ISN'T, and I didn't complain. I am having no luck typing it. I have
two patches of Yellow Polyps, a forest of Green Star Polyps, a STUNNING Stylophora Pistillata in
golden brown with neon green polyps, and some orange Ricirdia Florida. Brown Button Polyps round
out the original stock. Today I received 4 zoanthid rocks in green Fiji, orange Fiji, mixed Fiji and
a Tonga species that I will have to see tonight what color morph. Additionally, a rock of Green Button
Polyps. I have purchased a Yellow Zebrasoma, a Lunare Wrasse and have two leftover Green Chromis.
Tank Full.
Pictures tomorrow.

 

[Petsolutions]

I've enjoyed reading through your build log, I'm glad it seems to have all worked out in the end after the mishap with the sealant. I look forward to seeing your new photos.

 

[Saltlick]

A comedy of doofus errors last night. I picked up a Resun "Wave maker" controllable power-blaster deallie
on closeout, seemingly where I get everything. Once I got it in the tank, I realized I might as well get rid
of my spray bar. Well, the flow from my return was INTENSE just as a nozzle, so I decided that instead of
a diagonal whole back wall pipe, I would go with a 15 inch vertical in the corner to push against the Resun flow.
In my adjusting the direction of the holes by rotating the pipe, it became disconnected from it's rubber hose.
This dripped a ton of water on my power strip....the lights flickered, and then smoke came out of strip 1.
Now this pisses me off, but I didn't know how much for another hour. So I unplug everything and try to find
a way to get everything else on the other strip. I get about half the needed wires plugged up, thinking I would
figure out the timers tomorrow. Now these are NICE powerstrips, they have a built in digital timer with a ton
of programming features. And now I am down one. So I get things fixed up and the RESUN is kicking up a ton
of substrate, it ain't no slouch. So I get to fiddling again, and I screw up that pipe fitting again and SPLASH,
zapp-fizz, I kill the OTHER power strip. So now I got nuthin'.

Now the cursing really gets started. It's about 6:30 pm, and I am thinking at work that I was going to have a fun
and relaxing evening watching the tank's reaction to my new pump system. Instead I have to put on some pants
and go to Home Depot. I get there and there are NO MORE NICE TIMER POWERSTRIPS. Not one.
So I do something I rarely do, I curse, hop in the air and turn around and stomp. Sure, I am getting out
of home depot cheaper than I thought, but now I have no awesome timer powerstrips. I might get a few today at
lunch on this end of town, but DANGIT!

On the plus side, the Resun is pretty sweet. It has three settings, low, med and high, and each setting has to run for
SOME TIME, between 2 and 10 seconds, but it is knob adjustable, so you can make each of the three cycles last
for whatever time you choose in that range, and then it goes through the cycle all over again. Not ideal, but better
that a bunch of powerheads. By the time I get home tonight, I should HOPEFULLY be able to relax and enjoy the tank
and finally take some photos. After my recent purchase of 4 Zoanthid rocks, it is pretty much full now.

On the subject of the Resun, everything everyone says about them is true. It IS COOL. And it works right out of the box,
but as soon as you lose power once, it ceases to run a program and stays on low. So you unplug it and plug it back in and it
works again. It has been discovered on other threads that it is not the action of the plug and unplug sequence that
fixes it, it is the movement of the unit during the action of the unplug/replug, since there seems to be $hitty soldering
going on in china these days. Some people have re-soldered questionable joints and never had any more problems.
This is what I will do, too, if it ever stops again. but for today, it is cycling through it's speeds. The push unit is pretty
dang big, but my rockwork hides it nicely.