August 22 , 2004

Well it has been 3 months since I last made an update here. I guess you can tell that it is summer. Both tanks have been running nicely all summer and I have not had any water quality or temperature problems. My chillers on both tanks have been working nicely in limiting temperature. This summer I also changed out the PC bulbs on the nano tank after 10 months of service. The corals seems to respond nicely after the bulbs were changed. Within the next month I will be changing the bulbs on the big tank. So far I have the MH bulbs ordered. Today I am also changing the way I supply water to my calcium reactor. Up until today I have been using an Aqualifter diaphragm vacuum pump to siphon water out of my sump and them supply it to the reactor. However the aqualifter lifter pumps are extremely sensitive to ANY particulate in the water (due to them being a diaphragm pump) that after at most 2 months of service they would become clogged. Cleaining them would only prolong life another month or so and by that time they would need replacement. I even tried the suction filter that they sell but I was highly disappointed with the quality of the filter and because I had to fabricate my own gasket for it to prevent it from leaking. Also it seemed to clog up quickly and was hard to clean so I gave up on the filter. What this meant was that I was going through a 15 dollar pump every couple of months and also when the pump clogged it inhibited flow to the reactor which would cause a CO2 bubble to form in the reactor - not a good thing. So what I have done is bought an Aquaclear 301 Powerhead and am using that to supply water to the reactor. Because it is a centrifugal pump with an impellor I wont have to worry about minute particulates clogging it up. I chose the 301 because it had a high shutoff head than the 101 and because the little airline input into the discharge of the pump can be used as a sort of min flow line. That way I will have some protection against calcium deposits forming from a pump running at shutoff head all the time. It did take me a while to figure out how to get the water line sized down to airline tubing sizes. I just could not find any type of adapters anywhere that were not made of metal but after talking to a gearhead friend he recommended going to an automotive shop and looking for a vacuum hose adapter. He actually got one for from me our local Autozone store. It works nicely with some plastice hose clamps securing it just for some added safety.

May 7, 2004

Over the past week the tanks have been doing fine. We had one day where the temperature outside was in the mid 80 which made my apartment room temperature approach 80 degrees. The chillers on both tanks kicked in and worked nicely. The chiller on the big tank kicked on at exactly 82 degrees and it took about 2 hours for it to lower the tank temperature to 80. I was happy with that since it lets me know that the chiller seems to be working fine and that nothing as fouled up its cooling coils during the winter. Also this week I did get my shipment of Zoanthids in from The Logical Reef. Everything was packaged nicely and the zoo's opened up within minutes of putting them in the big tank. They are nano sized frags so I plan on moving a couple of them over to the nano tank in the next week or so. I have also began modifying an AC500 filter to put in the nano tank to get rid of all of the powerhead/heater/temperature probe clutter. It is going to take a few days for me to get all the glue set but I think it will make the tank look "cleaner". The plan for this weekend is to do a full set of water tests and then do a 1 gallon water change on the nano tank and a 5 gallon water change on the big tank. I will also do a last minute specific gravity check on my rubbermaid water Saturday morning that way I can adjust it if necessary and give it a full days worth of mixing before I do the water changes. Also if I get motivated this weekend I will work on breaking down this page and seperating 2003 entries into a seperate page.

May 1 , 2004

Today I just finished cleaning the impellers on my MAG12 and MAG7 pumps in the big tank. I was expecting to see some calcium deposits on either the impeller or the pummp internal housing but to my surprise none were evident. That made cleaning a heck of a lot easier. This was the first time that my main pumps in the big tank have been shut down since I first started the system on Thanksgiving weekend of 2003. Because of the lack of calcium deposits I have decided to push back maintenance on my calcium reactor pump for 2 weeks...that way I will be close enough to the 6 month period.

April 29, 2004

The last 5 days have been kind of busy tankwise. On the 25th in the nano tank I performed a thorough cleaning of my tank power heads, heater, temperature probes, ice probe chiller probe, and the AC150 filter box and impeller. I was surprised at the amount of calcium deposits that had formed on the ice probe shiller cold finger, the siphon tube on the AC150 filter, the AC150 filter box, and the AC150 filter pump impeller and housing. I ended up soaking the impeller in white vinegar for 30 minutes as well as letting some white vinegar sit in the magnetic impeller housing. This made cleaning the deposits much easier. I also had to clean off various forms of corraline algae that had formed on the back of the tank near where the suction cups are for the heater and the 2 powerhead 101's. I am not at all impressed with the suction cups that come with the powerheads. After the cleaning they are just not attaching right. I pondered it for a few days while I was at work and today I went out and bough an AC500 filter that I plan on installing in the Nano tank this weekend. Tomorrow I will need to go to the glass place and have some acrylic cut for me as I want to add some baffles to the AC500 filter box to chamber it in case I want to convert it to a refugium. I also ordered new impellers for my MAG12 and MAG7 pumps in the big tank as I plan to shut down the sump for a couple hours and clean those pumps in the big tank. Early next week I have a shipment of 5 zoanthid frags coming from the guys over at The Logical Reef. This is my first order with them but I can say that I am impressed with the personal service that they are giving me. They are the first place to actually email me and ask me what is a good day for me to receive my shipment without me having to specify a ship date as a special request.

April 24, 2004

Well it has been an interesting week. This week I had one of my timex digital timers that powers the big reef tanks 10k PC bulbs have its electronics fail. So, I immediatly went to Lowe's and bought another to discover that the following day near the end of the light cycle it was automatically changing modes and not following its timer cycle. I finally ended up moving the timers farther away from the metal halide magnetic ballasts. I am theorizing that when the halide ballasts fire it is creating a strong enough magnetic field that is messing with the timers. Since I moved the timers farther away from the ballasts they have been working fine. I just wonder why it took so long for this to happen. I also added 2 varities of candy cane coral and a nice green star polyp piece to the big tank. I also discovered a Heliacus Snail on one of my zoanthid colonies and immediately removed it. Below is a closeup picture of it.

April 14, 2004

Wow it has been a long time since I last updated this page. I just returned from a long trip to the Philippines where I brought back my fiance to the US after a lengthy immigration process! During that time my brother was maintaining my tanks. I am sad to report that both of my peppermint shrimp in my nano tank died after living there happily since the beginning. I also had 4 blue leg hermit crabs pass away. I think it was due to lack of food because my breother was really worried about over feeding. I also miscalculated the dosing requirements so calcium was over dosed and alkilinity was underdosed. So yesterday I went out and purchased 2 more shrimp, and 4 more hermits for the Nano Tank. The big tank is coming along just fine. I bought an Acro head for it yesterday. I am battling Aiptasia but Joe's Juice is working really good at killing them.

November 17, 2003

Today my calcium reactor arrived. I got the Korallin C-1502. I was not happy with the quality of CO2 tanks available locally so I ordered one. It should arrive in 3 days. I am still waiting on the chiller to arrive. Once that it done I will drain the 120 tank, plumb the chiller in and then begin making saltwater for it. It will probably take 20 hours or so to make all the DI water. In the Nano tank I had a minor crisis. My pulsating xenia decided to start attaching itself to my heat and then one branch got caught in my HOB filter suction. I dont think a couple of its "pods" are going to survive. I will keep a close eye on it.

November 14, 2003

Kh is now 8. So I have managed to get it back up to the minimum range. Will continue the dosing. I have noticed increased purple coralline algae growth on the HOB filter intake pipe and also I have my first purple coralline algae growth on the back of the nano tank.

November 13, 2003

Today I ordered a calcium reactor and a chiller for the big reef. I decided to do this to be safe with water temperatures and to minimize the amount of dosing I will need to do. The sump has been running for several days now and no problems. I installed some 2 inch PVC standpipes on the return lines feeding into the sump to cut down and noise and to try to cut down on the micro bubbles.

November 11, 2003

Because of my working on the big tank over the weekend I procrastinated on doing the weekly Nano tank water change. I did most of my water tests today and did a 1 gallon water change in the tank. I will make sure to do it weekly and be sure not to stop on the alkalinity dosing as I noticed that my kH was 7! Not Good!. I have decided to dose with 2 mL B-Ionic Alkalinity twice daily until I get kH back up to 9-10. I am also dosing 5 mL B-Ionic Calcium every day.

November 9, 2003

After much cursing the sump is all plumbed and the big tank is filled with city water to perform a leak check. I also installed some 15k MH bulbs instead of my ushio 10K. The Ushio are nice but they are so bright and I was looking for a different color for the tank to simulate some deeper water so I went with a bluer light. The sump and protein skimmer were fire up for the first time. All looks good.

November 8, 2003

Started plumbing the sump for the big reef. It is taking longer than expected.

November 5, 2003

I got my sump tank into the stand. I had to take off a support beam to do it. While I was at it I added some bracing to the floor of the stand so that I wont have to worry about the sump breaking through.

November 3, 2003

What a headache this return piping from my sump for the big tank is becoming. I am not sure of going the hard pipe route is worth it. There is just so little room to place with in the stand. Hopefully I will be able to get the sump in the stand this week then start painting the back of the tank this week. On the Nano side I have my first bit of purple corraline algae growth on my HOB suction pipe! Woo, another positive sign that water conditions are good. My cleanup crew has totally eliminated the hair algae that had started growing during the tank cycle.

October 29, 2003

My Oceanic Model 2 Sump arrived at my LFS today and I picked it up. My AquaC EV180 protein skimmer also arrived today. I also bought a small rock of Zoo's and 2 small branches of Capnella for the Nano. I now have all the major parts for the big reef. I just need to figure out the plumbing setup for the sump. I have runo into so many differing opinions on whether or not to use hardline piping on the return pump that I have decided to do it. I am sure I will be making a couple trips to Lowe's to get all the correct fittings etc. I will also need to do some temporary modifications to the stand in order to get the sump in it. I do not forsee any problems.

October 28, 2003

My MAG 7, MAG 12, and MaxiJet 1200's arrived today. I am trying to figure out how to plumb the big reef. Some people say use flex tubing, others say to hardpipe it. I am getting confused. Also read something saying not the throttle your return pump flows...did a water test in the bathtub with the MAG 12 and it does require some backpressure else the pump goes into runout and you hear cavitation. On the Nano side I am trying to get my LR siturated the way I like it. I moved the Xenia up closer to the light and moved the polyps a bit. Noticed I have 2 baby polyps forming! The peppermint shrimp are doing really well. I think one of them has doubled in size since I bought him. The whole tank just goes nuts over MYSIS shrimp. I slowed down on the Magnesium dosing and have upped the calcium and Alkilinity dosing.

October 24, 2003

Ordered my sump, skimmer, sump and return pumps, and 4 maxijet 1200 powerheads today. For the sump I decided to go with an Oceanic Model 2 Reef Ready sump. I ordered it from my LFS and it may be 2-3 weeks before I get it because it is a special order. For the protein skimmer I chose an AquaC EV180. The pump for the skimmer will be a MAG7. The return pump will be a MAG12. I also picked up a small Pulsating Xenia for my Nano tank.

October 22, 2003

Today I got a friend to help me haul back my 120 AGA Tank and stand. Man is it a big tank. I cannot wait until I can water into it! My ballast for my PC bulbs also arrived today. Apparantly FEDEX misloaded the box and it went to Indiana instead of Michigan. The lights look nice and are damn bright. The hood does get pretty warm to the touch after a couple hours of operation with the metal halides on.

October 21, 2003

Good news on the big reef tank. My LFS called me today and said my 120 AGA tank, stand, overflow kits, and glass cover are ready for pickup! Also my Hamilton Hood arrived today - but only partly. For some reason the ballast for the power compacts didnt come in the shipment. I have left an email with reefgeek.com asking about it. I am having a bit of decision making trouble in chosing a sump. I have chosen an AquaC EV180 as my skimmer but I am not sure what sump to get. I will use a Mag 7 pump for the skimmer and either a Mag 9 or Mag 12 for the return. I also need to work out the plumbing. On the Nano side all is well. I just cannot believe the amount of life there is. Also it looks like my Zoos are starting to grow another polyp!

October 20, 2003

Not much progress made on the web page. I have been trying to find a gallery front end that I like but have not found one. I may just have to do it the hard way. As far as the Nano goes one of my Blue Leg Hermits and a Peppermint Shrimp molted today. I also have a TON of little pod-type life crawling all over my live rock and tank walls. I dont think I have anything in the tank that eats them yet.

October 19, 2003

Things are going good with the Nano. I managed to get some pictures of my Emerald Crab and a Peppermint Shrimp. These guys have been kind of shy and whenever they are out I do not seem to have my camera ready. I have been working on this site also. It's slow going but I am getting parts of it up.

October 18, 2003

I finally solved my magnesium problem! Ever since I started my nano I had been plagued with low magnesium problems. Even after dosing the problem only seemed to get worse. Well stupid me! I was reading the instructions on the test kit wrong! So noy my magnesium levels are 1350. It is a little bit high but I will just stop dosing for a few days. I also ordered the Big Reef tank - a 120 gallon AGA Reef Ready. It should be at my LFS in a week or 2. The weekly 1 gallon water change went without any surprises. I also picked up some MYSIS shrimp and will be feeding with that as well as the brine for a variety.

October 17, 2003

I went to my LFS just perusing etc and eneded up getting an Emerald Crab. I also got a 4 poly frag of zoo's. They are my first! 30 minutes after they were in the tank they opened up fully!