My Marine Adventure

[Chris7]

i will look in lfs for some silicone or something. I removed the worm it was dead.

I cant lower the water until i have the grills covered up as the water just passes through the grills.

Will see what happens after i block the grills.

 

[gregswimm]

Just remember, silicone needs 2 days to dry, you may need to move your rock to a bucket with the power head in it.

 

[Chris7]

Hmm too late. I stuck some plastic to the back of the grills with special silicone from the lfs. I also got another 2.5 kilo's of live rock to bolster up my current batch from online.

I explained what i did and the guy was very helpful. I got 3 nice sized pieces from him and they look good in the tank.

After sealing the grills i left them to dry for a few hours. Seems to have worked. After a little tinkering i now have the chambers sorted, There running a lot better than they were put it that way. I have swapped a few things around too. At the same time i attempted to put my rocks how i wanted them and i quite like the way i did it after a while of messing about. Its a little harder than i thought lol.

I will take some pics tomorrow and post them up.

 

[Chris7]

Here is a picture of the chambers after i blocked the holes and filtered some water out of the chamber to get the right levels.

I struggle to get my skimmer in somewhere but managed to get it in the second chamber after placing it on a plastic container to keep it the correct hight.

The water is now running through the teeth well into the first chamber, I have the heater in the first chamber. It then runs through into chamber two where my skimmer is and then filters over into chamber three, I added my carbon into chamber three and put a piece of foam above it to catch any crap that goes through. The water then drains through the foam filter past the bag of carbon and into the pump chamber on the end and then back into the tank. The water is running much better and im more than happy with it. I will get a video up asap and you can then see there is a whole difference.

Thanks Greg for you help with this matter.

I took time to re arrange by rocks when i had the water out and here is the latest picture.

Things are looking good after all this time

Will now leave it a day or so and do some water tests over the weekend, Will be the first time i have tested the water so not expecting great results and will have to work on it lol.

 

[gregswimm]

Looks good

Test that water. Keep your eye open for ammonia which can indicate die off (expected with new rock).

 

[Chris7]

Cheers Greg.

I did a water test today.

Let me see if i get this right.

This is what i want:

PH between 8.2 - 8.4
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Ammonia 0ppm

This is what i have:

PH 8.0
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm
Ammonia 0ppm

 

[gregswimm]

Humm, already at 20ppm of nitrate, sorta high this early imo. Are you using tap to mix your salt or RO water? Either keep your lights off or leave them on with some chaetomorpha in the tank. Either of these should help keep bad algae from taking advantage of your nitrates.

Check your KH, Ca, and Mg so your can optimize coralline algae growth.

 

[Chris7]

OK I thought having the lights on will help the rock and they have been on all day every day since the rock has been in there.

I have now turned them off for a while. I am not using tap water, I got all my water ready mixed from my lfs. It has been in the tank a few weeks before i put the rock in there. Maybe a partial water change would help.

I dont have a test for KH, Ca and Mg yet. I only have the ones i used.

 

[gregswimm]

You are using Reef Crystals right? Most salts, other than instant ocean (i think) should have decent levels @ a gravity of 1.023 or more. If you use red sea coral pro you may need to dose for KH, @ 1.023 it only has 6-7 dKH (i keep my tank at 12 kh)

I should correct what I said in my previous post, I was half asleep when I wrote it. You can leave your lights on, but limit it to 5-6 hours; you want to encourage coralline algae growth. People have had good results from dosing purple up

I wouldn't try and reduce your nitrates via water changes yet, you have no stock, salt water is pricey and 20ppm isn't dangerously high (but not ideal). Toss some chaeto or caulerpa in there to manage it.
I could send you some chaeto and coralline scrapings if you want (free, you pay shipping ), just message me so I don't hijack your thread.

 

[Chris7]

I am not using reef crystals and dont understand the should have decent levels @ a gravity of 1.023 or more. If you use red sea coral pro you may need to dose for KH, @ 1.023 it only has 6-7 dKH (i keep my tank at 12 kh) lol.

OK, so with the water tests the way they are now it would be safe to add a small clean up crew maybe.
I will have a look around for some chaeto. All i have in my chambers is a skimmer and some carbon.

 

[gregswimm]

I am not using reef crystals and dont understand the should have decent levels @ a gravity of 1.023 or more. If you use red sea coral pro you may need to dose for KH, @ 1.023 it only has 6-7 dKH (i keep my tank at 12 kh) lol.

OK, so with the water tests the way they are now it would be safe to add a small clean up crew maybe.
I will have a look around for some chaeto. All i have in my chambers is a skimmer and some carbon.

The gravity is the measurement for salinity, you measure it with a hydrometer. so the higher the gravity of the salt mix the more concentrated the mixture will be (with regards not only to salt but to whatever else the manufacturer puts in the mix).

As for stocking you can add chaeto whenever you want. You may want to add a single hermit in a few days and another in a week or so. Don't add more then 4-5 blue leg hermits; its pointless, they will just kill each other. You can add some snails once you get some algae growth, just stay away from margarita snails (they are cold water species). Remember that there is no such thing as a 'reef safe' crab with the exception of the porcelain crab.
It should take you at least a month to stock your cuc. Stars and urchins can go in at the 4 month mark (check with Donya about the urchins, just an area where I'm not so well versed). You are looking at roughly 2-4 months before you add any corals, and longer if you are keeping fish.
This really depends on who you ask, some people argue not to add stars or SPS till you hit the 12month mark.

 

[Chris7]

OK well im not in a massive rush to add corals atm as there so expensive, I also am in no rush to get fish in there until i get the water fully sorted.

I'll add a crab maybe and see how it goes.

 

[Chris7]

OK I went to my lfs this morning and there very helpful there. I bought a hydrometer and will test for salinity tomorrow after soaking the hydrometer in the water for 24 hours.

I bought 2 red hermit crabs, But my god is it easy to go in there see something you like and buy it there and then, I didn't but so could have done. I wanted a sand sifting starfish but held off until i get things sorted. I also see a little red scooter blenny in there, OMG he was well cute

I also got some chaeto and added that to the tank.

 

[gregswimm]

Nice, I think the 'red hermits' you have stay small. Make sure you get some empty shells for them to grow into, or they may yank each other out.
Scooter blennys are cool, but they get too big for your tank, check out the royal gramma or Liopropoma swalesi (two of my favorites).

 

[Chris7]

Here is two pics of the hermits. I will get some better ones asap.

They are digging around a lot and scratching stuff off the rocks, Pretty impressive to watch lol.

While i was looking at them i see this little fella scurrying across the front of my tank.

Hope you can see him, Hes only small. Any ideas on what this is thanks.

The scooter blenny was amazing but i checked and believe you need a tank around 130 litres or something. How big do they get. 4 inches or so.

I will check the other fish you said about. Thanks Greg.