Project Erebor

yman182 said:
Got my skimmer today! This thing is a beast.

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I am a little confused though. The instructions say to have the skimmer in 5.5" of water, but the water line drawn on the skimmer is about 10.5" up. You can kind of see the line in the picture. Anyone have any input on this as this is my first full size skimmer?

Thanks,

Yury
Click to expand...

The line is that high because that is where you want the water level when the pump fires up. The water level In the skimmer will be higher than in the sump. It depends in the amount of water and air you're mixing and sending into the skimmer. Fire it up. You'll see what I mean.
 
Hey Yury, I do not know much on that particular skimmer, but it appears they mean 5" above that white bottom, above the pump. That is just my guess anyways. I am sure you will get several different theories on your last post, regarding BP's.

Here is my 2 cents.... I spent 120 bucks on a reef octopus BP reactor and another 120 bucks on a nice adjustable Eheim pump and then another 30 bucks on some two little fishies BP's. I started with half the recommended dosage of pellets and never increased the amount. This was 3 weeks after I fired up my system. I had read several incidents where people recommended starting your system with one as opposed to waiting until it was fully stocked, as it could cause a crash.

I am certain that I had a fairly light bio-load and probably should have started with 1/4 of the rec. dosage, but anyways, I had a sludge fest accumulate on my sand bed, back walls, rocks, every where but the sump. Being that the only thing I did different was add the BP reactor, i decided to take it offline and sure enough, within 10 days the bacteria sludge fest was over and the snails mowed it down and my tank has been sexy every since.

Now I relate the problem to the fact that my bio-load was fairly low at the 3 week mark and I had a huge bacteria bloom, which fed the funky algae that ended up covering my tank. And trust me, it was not diatoms. I researched and reviewed images, for days and THEN started seeing the negative effects of BP reactors. My nitrates were reading zero the entire time the reactor was online, but phosphates were at .04. The corals I had at the time starting looking like crap and black / brown nasty algae outbreak had my gears spinning.... Everything I read after that stated I basically had water that was "too" clean, which is bad. I did have my BP return going straight into the skimmer intake and yet I was still getting all this micro-whatever entering the main display and feeding this craptastic algae.

My point is, if you set it up early on, do not even consider going anywhere near the amount recommended on the instructions of the pellets. Also, having the adjustable flow style reactor is definitely the way to go. Each tank is completely different and you will need to adjust the pellet dosage according to your bio-load, so you do not strip all the nutrients from the water and crash your system. I know for a fact that the BP's WORK, 100%, but they are risky until you have the balance down for your system, so just go very slow with them.

I currently have mine offline until I have a much larger bio-load and then I am going to baby step them back online to help with the rising nitrates. I still do not believe they have a large impact on phosphates and will continue to run a separate reactor with (what I am currently using and loving) Extrax-phos by Brightwell, easy to use and cheaper than GFO, with the same results. I am also dosing Brightwell's Microbacter and Biofuel. My nitrates are staying in check and my phosphates are starting to drop, even after I continue to add coral and fish.

I highly recommend researching until you are sick to your stomach on this subject, it may save you some headaches, cash and time.

Good luck man!


EDIT: Sawdonkey beat me to post about the skimmer! listen to him, not me lol ;)
 
I really like your tank and I'm always impressed by people who have the guts to do DIY LEDs.

I just started biopellets about a month ago (to my well-established tank) and I think I already like what I'm seeing. I've never really been able to get my nitrates where I want them. I've got a handful of big messy fish. I tried vodka......cyano outbreak. I tried vinegar......cyano outbreak. I put a about a quarter of the recommended biopellet amount into a modified TLF reactor and started to see a little cyano. I treated with chemiclean and it has been gone for two weeks. Tested nitrates a few days ago and they are lower than they have ever been (2). My water is looking really clean and my skimmer is producing some sick-*ss-sh*t! I'll slowly add more pellet over time, but so good so far.

I'm no expert, but I'd probably wait and see how your tank does without them. Add them (SLOWLY) later on if necessary.

yman182 said:
reading up on biopellets and cant decide if I should get a reactor to start up or see if I need one after the tank has established.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks guys! I think I will wait on bio pellets until i get some stock into the tank...while researching bio pellets I ran across Zeovit. Now I am reading into that. I feel like I am just going down a rabbit hole every time I start researching something new!
 
Exciting day today. Finished the plumbing, got the lighting mount done and got the floating top done.

I haven't seen anyone else do this, but I thought it was a good idea. Instead of painting the back glass with spray paint, I bought some dark car windows tint and applied it to the back glass. It gives it a very nice smoked look instead of just black. I think it will look great with water shimmering on it.

Here is a sneak peak of the picture heavy post that will be incoming in the next day or two.

The tank is finally coming home tomorrow!!

ffff
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Ok here is the big one! I just got the tank home and just got it setup.

WARNING: This post is picture heavy.

To start lets look under the hood (or the stand in this case)

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On the left you can see the extra tall ATO containers. This was made by Will Lutman.

In the middle you can see my Sump. The sump pretty much takes up most of the room under the tank. This was by design. I am purchasing a stand that will stand by my tank that will house all the extras.

In the sump I have a Super Reef Octopus XP1000SSS. To the right of that I have en Eheim Pump. I will go into plumbing in detail in the next section. The Sump is broken down into 3 portions. The left is where the water drains into the sump, the middle is the return and the right is nice refugium area. Once I get a refugium started, I will hang a light I have in the cabinet for that. Above the sump on the right hand side where the Skimmer is not there is a BRS canister for GFO/Carbon. It fits well above the sump and gives me ample room to swap out the media when needed.

Next Picture...Plumbing!

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The plumbing in this is fairly simple. I put in unions wherever I can to make it easer to disassemble. Before every gate valve is a union. The left most gate valve is for the 3/4" line for the herbie siphon drain. The middle gate valve is the 1" herbie backup drain. The next gate valve to the right is for the return pump. The return pump line is a flexible hose going from the return pump to a PVC pipe that goes to a T. One side of the T goes to the gate valve that then goes to the display tank. The other end of the T goes to the right to another union and gate valve. This is to feed the refugium with water. The refugium then drains back into the return area of the sump. The sump was also made by Will Lutman.

This is my first plumbing job in an aquarium. Hoping it works when the water starts flowing.

Lets move to the display tank.

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That is a picture with the LEDs at 35% for every channel.

Below is a picture at 100%

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The photos really do not do it justice to how bright these **** things are. I am not sure if I will even need to run them at 35% Anyone got a Par meter I can borrow?? :)

Angle Shot

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Here you can see how I hung the LEDs. They are hung by two 1/2" conduit that was bent and spray painted black. I then attached it to the stand with clamps. The clamps let me adjust how high I want the fixture to hang. I want to give props to Mr. Reeflogic for giving me the idea of how to hang the lighting!

Also in the picture above you can see the top that is on the aquarium. I know some fishies like to jump, so I created an acrylic top that is suspended about 1" above the aquarium. I figured this will let the tank keep its rimless look (you really cant see the top unless you really look from a distance) and it will allow heat to dissipate out the side while also stopping some evaporation. The top is held in place by pieces of acrylic that act as feet that hold it to the tank top.

Better Picture of the top.

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The acrylic glue is still drying so you can see it, but when it is dry it is supposed to be clear.

I put some Reeflakes and Miniflakes that I purchased from MMReef into the aquarium and the BRS Reef Saver rock that I purchased.

That is about it. Not sure what I will do with the rock work yet. I put the rocks in, but I am not yet sure if I like how it looks. Any suggestions?

Also,

I am not sure how high to hang the light fixture. Currently it hangs about 18" above the tank and seems to be hitting the center of the tank hard and the outsides a little less. Not sure if I should lower it a bit more or put it higher.

Finally, This is the tank that will slowly be migrating to the new one!

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Yury, looks fantastic!! Quick question though! Did you include a check valve for your return? Or does the siphon stop fairly quick on it? Also, just curious how you are going to do the wiring harness and power supply? Is there long enough wiring to mount it behind the cabinet, where you wont see anything? I keep telling myself that I will drill and fish the wires down the conduit hangers, but I've been lazy haha. I just cheaped it up by using that plastic wire conduit stuff with the split, where you can cram all the wires inside, looks ok I guess.

One last thing, show me how you clamped up your hangers!! A pic would be great!! Can't wait to see you get that awesome nano moved over, looking awesome and I'm sure you are excited to get to this point!!!
 
I did not include a check valve. I was debating it, but I did some maths and I should have enough sump room to hold any water that siphons down. This is something I will test. If it doesn't work I will be installing a check valve. The wires are long enough for the power supply for the lights to sit behind the stand. it is just currently up there to make it easier for me to dial in the voltage. I was planning on using the plastic conduit also. Pictures as requested below.

Top clamp

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Bottom Clamp

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Both

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Also, I forgot to mention. I covered the back aquirum glass with 35% car window tint and it looks awesome with the lights on!
 
Ahhhhh!! Same clamps as mine, was hoping you found an easier style clamp lol. I didn't even think about window tint, that's a great idea!!
 
It is looking great Yury, beautiful tank. My concern is your top screen, looks great, but I really don't think it will keep your fish in tank if they decide to jump. ( hopefully I am wrong ). That one inch opening is too big for most wrasses or gobies. Anyway can't wait what you will do next with your tank. :)
 
I was kind of hoping they didnt have that good of aim to jump through the holes on the side! I may get some dark plexiglass for the sides and close it up. Give it kind of a rimmed ribbon look. Thanks for the tip!
 
Most fish don't jump the traditional way from aquarium, they just dart up along a glass all the way to the top and just flip over to the other side, that's why the opening around the edges makes me worry.
 
The tank is finally Salty!

Added a crap ton of salt yesterday. Mixed the last of what I had of the Red Sea Coral Pro with the Seachem Salinity salt. Have been wanting to try the new salt for a while so I went out and purchased a bucket.

I also added some Dr. Tims bacteria. Not sure if this is just snake oil or not, but I am going to give it a shot.

Now it is a test of patience to wait out the cycle.

Also this tank is almost silent. I have my biocube in the same room and it is louder! The herbie drain works as advertised.

Below is a short video:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ymaryan/9538967321/

Nothing to exciting.
 
Haha, I dont know about a QT tank....but I just might.

I got some new stuff today.

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I got a PM2 to measure salinity for my Apex. I also got the lunar module. I know it is useless, but I think it looks cool to have the different intensities throughout the month. Finally of course is the WP-25. Thank you Jason (Jayjerk) for setting up the group buy. This thing is making some great waves in the tank. I think I may be in for a few more

Other than that, the tank is coming along well. Just playing the waiting game now.
 
Yury,

I rolled for years having reefs since the mid 80's, of course back in the day it was mostly softies and huge walls of live rock, but I never ran quarantine tanks before. I also never spent more than 60-70 bucks for any fish and I just rolled the dice. I never had issues with Crypto and of course there wasn't an internet warning about it. I can now say that I was either very lucky or maybe the fish caught back then were genetically stronger for some reason? Who knows...

All I know is that I learned the hard way this go round that rushing fish into my tank was a huge mistake, because now that I can afford expensive fish and more of them, I got hit hard with crypto (of course) and I have lost several fish. I wont go into full details, but I lost a few fish due to starvation because of being QT'd while my tank underwent fallow treatment. My tank has a nice population of pods and I just couldn't bear to put them back in the tank too soon and they wouldn't acclimate to any prepared foods and I slowly watched them starve, which sucks. I also lost an anthias trio from the crypto severity and then cupramine treatments. On a better note, my purple tang was covered completely and I managed to save him. I have the remaining fish still in my 40g QT and they are 100% disease free after 4 weeks of cupramine and prozipro treatment, but I will not be adding them back into my 90g until 4 more weeks, just to be safe.

I now have my double decker 40g breeder system in place. One for fish and one for corals, rocks, snails, etc. Nothing goes straight into my tank until 30 days of QT and of course the fish will be treated for worms, flukes, ich, etc., corals will be dipped and watched closely and everything else will just be in there to ensure any possible ich on them will have died. I am not f*ing around anymore when it comes to fish disease and preventative measures. Once you feel comfortable with the preventative side of fish/coral keeping, it really doesn't add too much extra work and the peace of mind you will have knowing you are disease free, is priceless.

It's not fool proof and there is always a way a diseases or parasite can enter the main system and wreak havoc, no matter how relentless you are at prophylactic measures. You can certainly eliminate 98% of the chances though. Your system is nice and you were methodical about building it, don't make the mistakes so many make, including myself, by not QTing! Why haven't I updated my tank build in a month??? Simple, because I was impatient and careless.

There are hundreds of people who flop fish right into a display system and deal with ich using good husbandry and being well fed, corals too. I used to be one of those people. Wait until you have a $200+ dollar fish covered in ich and you have to tear down your system to catch the **** thing + the other fish and find yourself scrambling to save the fish, or you just let it ride out and hope for the best like many others do. Just food for thought!!

Price tags on a fish do not really matter to me, I want to provide the same care for a $20 dollar fish as I would a $500 dollar fish, so losing one angers and saddens me. I lost a few this round, but I now have everything under control and am almost guaranteeing a happy healthy system in about 4 more weeks. So I take that **** you as a big THANK YOU!!! ;) Sorry I get long winded sometimes.... But I'm certain i got my point across lol.
 
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