gweston's 125 + build thread, my first large tank.

[gweston]

I have to say, the Beananimal overflow is DEAD SILENT. Very impressed. It was very easy to tune in. The 40B is the loud tank in the room now. Kinda wish I made that into a Bean too. But that is ok. I kinda like a bit of water ripple noise. Don't let little kids run aroundthough, or the tinkling fishtank sound will surely result in puddles on the wood floor. LOL.

I moved a bit more liverock into the 125 this weekend and tossed in a couple cups of extra livesand from the 29g. Waiting the cycle out. I haven't really been testing YET. Testing like mad is kinda pointless and I'd rather be installing more stuff into the sump room at this point. I'll probably test a couple times this week.. next week I may up tests to every 2-3 days so I can keep a closer eye on trends. Its still very early yet. I am expecting a 6-8 week cycle time, on top of the time the system has been running already.

Both the 5g and 10g hospital tanks are in the sump room. The 10g is running/cycled. I always keep that one running. The 29g will eventually become the primary quarantine tank. The 10g serving as a hospital tank for more serious ailments. The 5g is a backup.

I installed a JBJ ATO on the sump this weekend, with a 5 gal bucket as the reservoir. This is temporary. The Apex will eventually be hooked up to float switches via an I/O break-out box. I'll probably re-purpose the JBJ ATO. Maybe for the RODI/mixing barrel (?). Alternately it could serve as a top-off for the 29g QT. Evap has been quite up there over the past week or so. A gallon+ a day has been typical. I should be able to knock this down by covering the sump a bit. I insulated the return lines going out to the two tanks. It actually seemed to help keep the heaters from cycling as often.

I have an Aquacave order coming in tomorrow morning. An Apex EB8, a pile of tubing for RODI (to run water over to a to-be-built mixing station), plus some other misc. I have an Apex with a single EB8 at the moment. I'll have one EB8 under the 125. The other EB8 will be in the sump room with the Apex head. I drilled a pass-through in the wall to run a 15' Apex USB cable through to hook everything up. I still need to get a network cable long though from run from my router upstairs through the floor and into the sump room. I'll think about going wireless. But that'd just be more $ and more equipment. Trying to avoid that if possible.

My Icecap ballast is to be sent to Coralvue for repair hopefully this week. Its $60 for repair. If they find it unrepairable, apparently they can swap the board out for $90 total. Still cheaper than a new ballast.

 

[gweston]

Last night I installed a wireless bridge (range extender) networking device. It connects to my home router wirelessly. I can connect devices to the bridge (range extender) directly using Cat5/6 cabling. It has 4 ether ports. Or devices can connect to it wirelessly. The reason for this is I was getting a rather weak signal in the man-cave/basement area. With the new bridge in, looks like I am getting very strong signal from most everywhere in the house now. The plan is to hook up the Apex and eventually other devices to the network via the wireless bridge. I may add web accessible tank camera(s) someday.

A new/second Apex EB8 arrived yesterday... plus a bunch of 1/4" RODI tubing that I will use to run a line from the RODI unit to an 'eventually to be built' mixing station. I installed the EB8 in the sump room, but it isn't really usable until I get the Apex downstairs. I hope to move it from the 29g tank to the sump room within the coming few days. The 29g upstairs will need to run without a controller for a while. I may break down the 29g's sump and transfer the bit of rock in there to the new sump. The 29g will likely run on it's own with a HOB skimmer and chaeto basket for a few weeks until the cycle is done and everything can be safely transferred. Its a very mature tank (2+ years), so it should be fine running without a sump for a short while.

I found a small leak on the 1" return flexhose going to the 125. Good thing I tiled under the tank and stand A bit of a puddle there. I sealed the leak with some JB Water Weld. It is holding just fine. I will cut out that part of the plumbing and re-do it eventually. Simple fix. Cut flexpvc, stick in new 1" T. Done. If that turned into a big leak, it could have been a disaster. Oh well. The risk we take for having all that water in our homes.

The ETSS800 skimmer is pulling out some gunk, so is doing its job now. It took about a week to break in probably due to it being such a new system with little organics in the water column. I found it very easy to tune in. I'm going to let it run through the cycle. Some people skim, some don't. I skimmed for the 29g, and it worked just fine. So I'll do the same again.

I have been 'ghost feeding' the tank a little bit every other day to help kickstart the cycle.

The 40Breeder also recently had a bloom of mini pods and sponges. Life emerges!

 

[gweston]

I should be getting a pair of Melanurus Wrasse tonight. Hoping for a M/F pair. Cross fingers! If not, I'll snag a female pair. Eventually one should become male.
Also may snag some Anthias. Thinking 1x Male, and 2x-3x Females. I really want Bartlett's, but I am ok with Caryberri or the more common Lyretail.

Trying to start QT'ing livestock. By the time I get them through a full QT, the cycle will hopefully be done with.

New pics to come soon. The work I've done recently is probably not all that interesting. That is unless you like pictures of wires, networking equipment and epoxy drying.

 

[gweston]

Got a male and female Melanurus from Jay's yesterday! They are in QT and were sleeping in the sand as of this morning. They weren't as skittish as I expected them to be. Didn't hide at all right after acclimation. Super colors. I'll get pics when they emerge. Hopefully at tonight's feeding. The fish are mostly juveniles I suspect, but one is definitely showing very male markings. The other is a female, and somewhat duller in color as is the norm. Jays had some 5-6 of them. Glad they did. They didn't have much else in stock though. Supposedly last night they got a huge order in. I am keeping an eye out for Anthias..

 

[gweston]

No updates in a long while... been cycling! No pics on hand at the moment, but I have some on the camera that I need to save off.

Tank went through it's cycle in good time. I think the some ~100lbs of liverock + sand I used sped things along nicely. While cycled, it obviously is still a very very green tank. Had the usual spike. Params are set now. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0. Nitrates are now around 10ppm, lowered notably after water change from being elevated. I think my phosphates may be up, but shouldn't be too bad. I'd suspect a bit of leeching from the dry rock, as is to be expected. I need to measure it again tonight. I plan to get the GFO reactor installed soon. It will be a TLF reactor for the short term. I have a BRS deluxe reactor to use for GFO, but I need a new GFO container that goes into the reactor. I thought I had 2... apparently I had 1. The other was used for the carbon reactor.

The algae bloom from the cycle was a bunch of diatoms. The CuC I added recently took care of that quite nicely. Some hair algae. CuC is chugging through that as well. I have some spots of what I think are 'green' coralline on the Marco rock. Lots of corraline on my already cycled/established rock.. so I expect it'll start spreading in good time. I see a bit of cyano in the 40B. Probably caused by low flow. I need to add a small powerhead. I have a Koralia set aside to use from the 29g. Once cleaned/unjammed (covered in corraline), It'll be going in.

-carbon reactor is in (brs deluxe with mj1200 and lignite/pellet carbon)
-29gal QT is in place (old tank re-purposed finally!)

a few to-dos:

-gfo reactor
-water changing station
-air intake (from outside) - to skimmer intake.
-air exhaust (on humidity switch)
-repair icecap660 ballast (4x T5 supplemental still isn't running)

I'm sure there is more...

With the QT's all set (10gal and a 29gal), I am on the lookout for livestock. I think these are on the to-get list, among other things.

- 4-5 Bartlett's Antias (M + Females) : Carbarryi Anthias are a possible alternate choice : Lyretails are a fallback if availability is an issue.
- Yellow Tang (My son wants one)
- Sargassum Trigger - I'd love to have one of these, but a bluethroat is an alternate possibility.


Oh, I also got a Smithii Mantis the other weekend from a local reefer. Super healthy little guy. He took to his new home in the 40B quickly and made himself right at home. Tunnels/burrows all over the place.

 

[focus]

Aww he doesn't want a large sail fin tang???

 

[gweston]

 

[gweston]

 

[gweston]

Tested water tonight.... params are dead on. Even phosphates aren't reading. That surprised me, I expected a good spike. Nitrates have also been slowly going down, thanks to the fuge. Chaeto is growing and the 5 mangroves I got a week ago are waking up. Got the carbon reactor in the other day. Still can have phosphates, so considering to put the GFO reactor in eventually. I think I may hold and test over time, just to see if it eventually creeps up. Why waste pricy GFO?

 

[focus]

Looks great!

The clowns still hanging on the left side?

 

[gweston]

Yep, clowns are on the left. They were hanging in the back only, but started coming forward more after the wrasse was added. The wrasse swims around a good bit, and may be encouraging them.

I may take a well earned break this weekend. Minimal new tank work other than the day to day stuff. But, if the mood strikes I may check a few LFS for anthias... assuming any LFS decide to cut some father's day deals