Cool another Orca 450l owner
While not wanting to "pimp" my own journal take a look at the nano journal in my signature (this is an orca 450l) as I mentioned a lot of the pros and cons for this tank and think I covered most of what I did to get started. There are much prettier tanks on here but I think mine shows that you can keep a nice nano as a beginner as long as you are willing to put the effort into it.
Hopefully the below is helpful
if you have any questions just ask.
Setting up the tank:
*Consider getting one of the other cabinets that are available for this sized tank and the standard one gives you nowhere to hide/store equipment.
*Set the tank up in a suitable location and make sure it is level.
*Remove the bio-balls.
*Remove the bio-rings.
*Add LR rubble and/or Phosphate/nitrate removal media to back chambers.
*Sort out the skimmer (see below).
*Replace the fans (You might want to replace the fans with some decent "PC" fans as the ones used in the hood are cheap and get pretty noisy. I haven't got around to doing this yet but it shouldn't be overly complicated (there are only two wires per fan and they just unscrew from the hood).
*Add an extra powerhead to the display (depends on what you are planning to keep. I would recommend a korillia nano in addition to the stock pump and the additional pump in the left hand chamber (see below)).
* Fill with RO water and leave for a day or two with all pumps and heater running, you can cut the air supply off to the skimmer for the moment (Leaving it makes sure it doesn't leak, it is level and to help leech out any chemicals that potentially may be in the tank).
* Empty the tank and refill with RO, turn the pumps and heater back on and wait for it to get up to temperature.
* Once the tank is at the right temperature start adding salt. How much salt depends on what brand you have (and even on what batch it is). As a very rough guide I add about 2 and a half glasses (half pint) of salt to 1 bucket (think its 5l) of water to get 1.025sg. Add the salt gradually and leave it to mix for awhile before checking the SG and adding more salt (if needed). If you overdo it then remove some of the water from the tank and add pure RO water to lower the SG.
* Once the tank is at the right SG leave it again for a day and then double check the SG is still the same.
* If all is good now you can add your live rock and sand. It is best to put the liverock in first (directly on the bottom of the tank) and then add the sand around it. It is easier to remove about 1/3 of the water from the tank (keep the remove water to hand though in a clean container). Once you have your LR and sand how you like it top back up with the salt water you removed and sit back to start "rock watching".
* The next step is just waiting for the cycle to finish before you can start stocking and depends on the quality of your LR. You need to monitor for Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I'm going to assume you know about this so will skip this part. If you have questions though just ask
Sort out the skimmer - sorry this is going to be a big block of text (yes another one )
The skimmer and chamber design sucks and a plague of micro bubbles is common in this tank. I actually got so fed up with it I went without a skimmer in the end but as you have not got any stock in yet you have a chance to try and fix it.
The problems with the skimmer are:
*The collect cup does not extend down far enough to "catch" all the bubbles so a lot get swept to the next chamber.
*In the next chamber (the one with the heater) there are holes in the back wall of the tank (where the heater clips in). A lot of the micro bubbles escape from here.
*In the left hand chamber there is not a great deal of water flow and the middle chambers tend to just overflow over the top rather than under the dividers (the bubbles obviously rise to the surface so just overflow into the tank).
*The "air tube" gets kinked under the foam so make sure it is pulled up straight with no kinks in it (You can have it running out of the side of the tank under the cable holder).
*Last thing is that you currently have nothing in the tank to skim which makes the problem even worse.
Fixing these problems
You will need:
Superglue, Clear acrylic sheet or other reefsafe plastic (4mm will do, doesn't need to be thick stuff), something to cut the acrylic with, Marine putty/epoxy, Extra Pump with a 16mm output (I use a Newjet 400 pump), some 16mm tube (standard stuff used on most canister filters).
Increasing water flow through back chambers:
1) Remove the foam block from the right hand chamber and cut it in half.
2) Put half back in the right hand chamber and half in the left hand chamber (these need to be taken out and cleaned on a regular basis, ie once a week).
3) Rest your extra pump in the left hand chamber with the 16mm tube attached. You now have two options:
A) Put the tube output through the hole next to the spray bar and use a flow directing nozzle on the end (you can then also remove the spraybar and cover the hole)
B) Attached the output tube to the spraybar and cover the hole next to it.
NOTE: You may not have to completely cover the hole in either case. You will need to experiment with it. The reason for covering (or partially covering) the hole is that with a decent pump in here the water gets pulled through the hole rather than through the back chambers.
If you cover the hole over completely the pump has to pull the water through the back chambers. The problem can then be that the pump pulls to much water through and the water level in the chamber drops too low. You need to adjust it so that it is pulling the most water it can through the back chambers and only just pulling enough through the other hole to stop the water level in the chamber dropping. You need to "fiddle" with it so that the water level is kept just below the dividing walls of the back chamber.
Covering the heater holes:
1) Remove the heater from the tank. You will find that there are two clips which clip into the back wall of the display tank. Unclip these and remove them.
2) The holes that these clip into are where you will get a lot of micro bubbles entering the tank. Mix up some of the marine putty (you can get this at your LFS, it comes in to sticks and you mix equal parts together to make a putty which can set underwater and is reef safe).
3) On the Chamber side of the back wall cover the holes with a small amount of putty.
4) Push the heater clips back into the holes through the putty. Smooth out the edges of the putty on the chamber side to fill in any gaps.
5) Remove any excess putty that is on the display side. Don't worry about leaving some behind in the little slits as it will eventually be covered in coralline algae anyway.
Modifying the skimmer (haven't tried this myself but think it will work):
As mentioned the main problem with the skimmer is that the collection cup sits about 5 inches above the top of the skimmer outlet and there is nothing to guide the bubbles up to the collection cup (so they all get blown into the next chamber). What you need to do is to modify the collection cup so the edges of the bottom of the box overlap the top of the skimmer output.
In theory this then means that the bubbles have nowhere to go except up to the cup and the water can still flow back down and out of the bottom of the chamber.
You will need to basically build 4 "walls" on the bottom of the collection cup from acrylic. These need to be slightly shorter than the edges of the cup so it can fit inside the back chamber. They need to be just long enough to overlap the top of the skimmer (the cylinder in the second chamber from the right) by about 1 inch (I would try two inches first and then trim them back depending on how the water flows). You can use superglue to stick the walls together and to the bottom of the collection cup.
This should take care of most of the micro bubble problems. It might sound like a lot of hassle but it can all be done in less than an hour. The other things to note is at the moment your water has nothing to skim (so there will be more micro bubbles) and it has just been filled (so more dissolved gasses then once it has settled = more bubbles). Even after you have done all the above it might still have microbubble issues until the tank is stocked and the skimmer has "broken in".
phoned the supplier and a million and one reasons for the delay. So, just sitting here with an empty tank......watch the bubbles of my skimmer making prity patterns.
Finally my stand, sand media bags, bits and bobs have arrived.......Now the fun can finally begin.
, cant wait......I'm thinking of getting 5KG of live rock and then 1kg of live rubble to put in the chambers at the rear (as mentioned by xxBarneyxx above). Then the fun will begin.
