squall7733
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- Jul 21, 2005
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Well I'm a little late in posting this, acctualy on day3 but I'll review each day I missed.
My intention is to record my first attempt at a high end(high price >.<) saltwater reef tank. I think I'll probly ask alot of questions, and I could certainly use advice/suggestions ^.^
Anyways.
Preface:: ((Why I set up this fish tank, you might want to skip this as its long and mostly all about me
Although if thats your thing, read on!)
So I had this great freshwater aquariam set up, nothing too fancy. The most expensive fish I was keeping was a Parrotfish Cichilid. Although what was unique about this tank was I set up a few african aggressive fish with some very timid fish. Of course everyone told me they would end up killing eachother but for some reason they seemed to get along in perfect harmony. Anyways, I was running a 150gallon freshwater tank (31"Tall X 48"Wide X 24" Thick), 2 300w clip on heaters, 1 magnum canister filter , undergravel filter powered by two 200 gallon an hour powerheads, and 1 long normal light fixture, custom hood and stand.
So needless to say, after about two years of use it leaks. By the time I got home half of the water was gone, all leeked into the basement. It was up against the wall so somehow it managed to leak right into my air conditioning intake. I had to cut down the ventalation to get all that water free(what a mess btw ). So I fish out all of my fish (10 in total). With no options I throw all those fish into my 25 gallon freshwater tank that I was prepping to keep Discus. Yea, those fish certain wernt happy, wish I had pictures of it, Elbow to Elbow. They stayed in thank tiny little tank for about 5 days, the mix of highly aggressive fish and very peaceable fish in a little 25gal. I quickly set up a 55gallon tank I had sitting out in the garrage, and attemtped to speed cycle it. Surprisingly the only fish that didnt make it out alive out of this thing was the little Beta previously occupying the 25gallon tank(flush). So all the fish are alive, but now I was left with a 150 gallon with a leak. I did alot of researching, made alot of phone calls. Everyone told me it would be cheaper (and smarter) to buy a new tank rather then getting this 150 gallon repaired, and in the end (after much struggling) I agreed with them. So finaly I call up pets mart, where I bought the tank from. It turns out almost all tanks Pets Mart carrys have a life time warranty(insert Pets Mart plug here). I sure was happy ^.^ , I just took that big tank over to Pets Mart and brought a bran new one home. I've been wanting to convert this 150gallon to saltwater for a long time, but I'm a pretty sensitive guy, I couldnt stand the thought of flushing all those fishys currently occupying the tank. But now I had the opportunity, and after much research... Here we are.
((Sorry for the long paragraphs ))
Day 1::
I went out to the local fish stoors and bought my neccessary supplies. Along with snatching a few things from my dad(he used to have an old saltwater tank but switched to freshwater). So by the end of the day heres what I had, all in all.
1 Dual Tube flourescant shop light (it has the special purple light and the normal flourescant. Seems to put out enough light, maybe too much )
1 150gallon Fish Tank (NEW!) (31"Tall X 48"Wide X 24" Thick)
1 Magnum Cannister Filter
1 Undergravel Filter
4 Powerheads, 200gallons an hour each.
1 Protein Skimmer (got this from my dad, dont really know specs on it, but it pumps 200 gallon an hour according to the powerhead box.)
2 300W heaters, 1 clip on, 1 submergable.
2 Buckets of Instant Ocean Sea Salt
20 Lbs. Live Rock
10 Lbs. Substrate(more like a gravel)
20 Lbs. Sand(ontop of the gravel stuff)
A few reef bones
All my chemicals
Tons of testers
A hydrometer
((I probly left some things out))
So I set all this up. I wish i could snap a picture but I dont have any means to, so here is how its set up.
I've put everything together, all the water is in, along with the salt. Ive got specific gravity to 1.0225. With enough space left to add my LR and Reef bones. So I put all that in. All in all ive only built up the first bottom layer to my reef. The tank is tall (31"Tall X 48"Wide X 24" Thick), so I have a long ways to go. I plan to build the reef almost to the very top of the water surface. My LFS advised me to add the LR slowly, so I guess thats how it will be, a 20-30$ rock a day until its full ^.^
Day 2::
Everything looks ok, all my levels check out , except for temperature, seems a bit high but its workable (78 I believe, it was in the morning as well when i checked.) I took a little trip to the LFS and bought a 10$ Fish, nothing special (competely forgot its name, its a little guy, long with a yellow body with the top part of his body a bright pink). The LFS said he should be pretty hardy, which he has seemed to be so far. When I got him home I noticed the temperature was up to 80. Way too high, I put tons of ice in the tank to cool it down. WHILE addapting my new fish too(not smart), but he lived. I got the tank down to 79 when I finaly got him into the tank. This is the first time I've noticed my little temperature problem. I thought it might be my heaters, one of them seemed a little whacky, so I unplugged both and took them out, time showed it wasnt the heaters.
Day 3:: (this is where i am now)
Temperature is still high, the thermostat is saying about 78.8-79.5, and its night time. Ive built a hood for it that pushes the light fixture a few inches off the glass, I was thinking maybe this is what was adding alot of the heat, time will tell. Oh yea, and the fish is still alive, he's starting to move around now
~Help~
I cant seem to figure this temerature thing out, everything else seems to be going smoothly. Its nighttime now, the air temp is about 78, the tank is starting to cool down to 78 now from what I can tell. But in the daytime even with the AC going it can still hit up to 80 in the tank. I'd like to get the temp down to about 76 with a PEAK of 78. I've looked at chillers but they seem way too expensive for my taste. At the moment all ive been able to do is add ice everytime it gets too high(which only brings it down .5 at a time)
Is this something every new tank has to deal with? Will it eventually work itself out? What can I do ?
Any responses would be greatly appreciated ^.^ I'd love to hear from you guys, I'd especialy love to hear suggestions, criticism, ideas. I AM a saltwater noobies, any help is greatly appreciated. I'll keep posting my little diary here of course, as long as you guys want to hear it. Oh yea, and in a few days maybe I can get a few pictures too.
My intention is to record my first attempt at a high end(high price >.<) saltwater reef tank. I think I'll probly ask alot of questions, and I could certainly use advice/suggestions ^.^
Anyways.
Preface:: ((Why I set up this fish tank, you might want to skip this as its long and mostly all about me
Although if thats your thing, read on!) So I had this great freshwater aquariam set up, nothing too fancy. The most expensive fish I was keeping was a Parrotfish Cichilid. Although what was unique about this tank was I set up a few african aggressive fish with some very timid fish. Of course everyone told me they would end up killing eachother but for some reason they seemed to get along in perfect harmony. Anyways, I was running a 150gallon freshwater tank (31"Tall X 48"Wide X 24" Thick), 2 300w clip on heaters, 1 magnum canister filter , undergravel filter powered by two 200 gallon an hour powerheads, and 1 long normal light fixture, custom hood and stand.
So needless to say, after about two years of use it leaks. By the time I got home half of the water was gone, all leeked into the basement. It was up against the wall so somehow it managed to leak right into my air conditioning intake. I had to cut down the ventalation to get all that water free(what a mess btw
). So I fish out all of my fish (10 in total). With no options I throw all those fish into my 25 gallon freshwater tank that I was prepping to keep Discus. Yea, those fish certain wernt happy, wish I had pictures of it, Elbow to Elbow. They stayed in thank tiny little tank for about 5 days, the mix of highly aggressive fish and very peaceable fish in a little 25gal. I quickly set up a 55gallon tank I had sitting out in the garrage, and attemtped to speed cycle it. Surprisingly the only fish that didnt make it out alive out of this thing was the little Beta previously occupying the 25gallon tank(flush). So all the fish are alive, but now I was left with a 150 gallon with a leak. I did alot of researching, made alot of phone calls. Everyone told me it would be cheaper (and smarter) to buy a new tank rather then getting this 150 gallon repaired, and in the end (after much struggling) I agreed with them. So finaly I call up pets mart, where I bought the tank from. It turns out almost all tanks Pets Mart carrys have a life time warranty(insert Pets Mart plug here). I sure was happy ^.^ , I just took that big tank over to Pets Mart and brought a bran new one home. I've been wanting to convert this 150gallon to saltwater for a long time, but I'm a pretty sensitive guy, I couldnt stand the thought of flushing all those fishys currently occupying the tank. But now I had the opportunity, and after much research... Here we are.((Sorry for the long paragraphs
))Day 1::
I went out to the local fish stoors and bought my neccessary supplies. Along with snatching a few things from my dad(he used to have an old saltwater tank but switched to freshwater). So by the end of the day heres what I had, all in all.
1 Dual Tube flourescant shop light (it has the special purple light and the normal flourescant. Seems to put out enough light, maybe too much
)1 150gallon Fish Tank (NEW!) (31"Tall X 48"Wide X 24" Thick)
1 Magnum Cannister Filter
1 Undergravel Filter
4 Powerheads, 200gallons an hour each.
1 Protein Skimmer (got this from my dad, dont really know specs on it, but it pumps 200 gallon an hour according to the powerhead box.)
2 300W heaters, 1 clip on, 1 submergable.
2 Buckets of Instant Ocean Sea Salt
20 Lbs. Live Rock
10 Lbs. Substrate(more like a gravel)
20 Lbs. Sand(ontop of the gravel stuff)
A few reef bones
All my chemicals
Tons of testers
A hydrometer
((I probly left some things out))
So I set all this up. I wish i could snap a picture but I dont have any means to, so here is how its set up.
I've put everything together, all the water is in, along with the salt. Ive got specific gravity to 1.0225. With enough space left to add my LR and Reef bones. So I put all that in. All in all ive only built up the first bottom layer to my reef. The tank is tall (31"Tall X 48"Wide X 24" Thick), so I have a long ways to go. I plan to build the reef almost to the very top of the water surface. My LFS advised me to add the LR slowly, so I guess thats how it will be, a 20-30$ rock a day until its full ^.^
Day 2::
Everything looks ok, all my levels check out , except for temperature, seems a bit high but its workable (78 I believe, it was in the morning as well when i checked.) I took a little trip to the LFS and bought a 10$ Fish, nothing special (competely forgot its name, its a little guy, long with a yellow body with the top part of his body a bright pink). The LFS said he should be pretty hardy, which he has seemed to be so far. When I got him home I noticed the temperature was up to 80. Way too high, I put tons of ice in the tank to cool it down. WHILE addapting my new fish too(not smart), but he lived. I got the tank down to 79 when I finaly got him into the tank. This is the first time I've noticed my little temperature problem. I thought it might be my heaters, one of them seemed a little whacky, so I unplugged both and took them out, time showed it wasnt the heaters.
Day 3:: (this is where i am now)
Temperature is still high, the thermostat is saying about 78.8-79.5, and its night time. Ive built a hood for it that pushes the light fixture a few inches off the glass, I was thinking maybe this is what was adding alot of the heat, time will tell. Oh yea, and the fish is still alive, he's starting to move around now
~Help~
I cant seem to figure this temerature thing out, everything else seems to be going smoothly. Its nighttime now, the air temp is about 78, the tank is starting to cool down to 78 now from what I can tell. But in the daytime even with the AC going it can still hit up to 80 in the tank. I'd like to get the temp down to about 76 with a PEAK of 78. I've looked at chillers but they seem way too expensive for my taste. At the moment all ive been able to do is add ice everytime it gets too high(which only brings it down .5 at a time)
Is this something every new tank has to deal with? Will it eventually work itself out? What can I do ?
Any responses would be greatly appreciated ^.^ I'd love to hear from you guys, I'd especialy love to hear suggestions, criticism, ideas. I AM a saltwater noobies, any help is greatly appreciated. I'll keep posting my little diary here of course, as long as you guys want to hear it
. Oh yea, and in a few days maybe I can get a few pictures too.
