[Reefland]

First Test Results:

After having the Bali Alor rock in the tank for 9 days, a 3 pices of misc. fully cured liverock in teh tank for about 16 days, here are the test results (all using Salifert).

Ammonia - <0.5
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 50
Calcium - 420
Alk - 4.80

I am really pleased with these results!

[Minh Nguyen]

Scott,
Close loop add lot of heat to the tank if you use a powerful pumps. I used Amp master 3000 and dolphin 4700 pumps for close loops. They move lots of water for my 450 g tank but all these pumps will add heat to your tank that you need to think about. My tank was in un enclosed cabint and heat is a real issue that can only solve with a powerful chiller.
I also have a Hayward automatic three way valves (1.5 inche plumbing) that I use with these loop. You can use timer or control divise to swich the valve. The advantage to intank waves divices like the Tunzel is the minimal heat it put into the tank but they can be bulky in small tank. Your tank is much smaller, so you need to ude smaller pump, but they will also add heat to the tank.
Because of heat issue, I don't plan to use close loop in the future.

Have you consider surge bucket, either Bornerman style, or Carson. I am setting up a 100 g cube and will use two surges (Bornerman) for circulation. There will be some air bubble with the surge. You can use an automated valve that control by water level (in the dump bucket) to open and close. This will produce no air bubble. Surge divices are great natural water movemt that have minimal componet in tank (only outlet), and no extra pump other than the return pump. These surges are extreemly cheap to build and is problem free. If air bubbles (looks more natural to me) is a concern then the cost will increase a little due to the price of the automatic two way valve and controler.

Your tank looks great. I would not wait two months before adding things into your tank. I would add something to control algae.

[Reefland]

Hi Mihn,

Thanks for those details. Do you have a link to the two way valve and controller? It is funny you mentioned a surge device, I started thinking about trying one just 2 nights ago.

Michelle and I were also talking last night about introducing a clean up crew. I think it will be important to get some snails in the tank to help with algae from the excessive nitrates while the tank continues to mature.

[Reefland]

Just perfomed our first 5 gallon water change today. There was already a slight bit of discoloring to the water that was removed, so I am going to figure out a secure, easy, efficient way to add some activated carbon to the tank.

Not much else happening with the tank at this time. I might order a small batch of snails (T. fluctuosa and Astaea) next week to help with some cleaning activities. There is already some algae growing on the tank glass and rocks that I would like to take care of sooner than later. I would like to see the nitrate drop a little bit before doing so (would be more comfortable adding the snails with a nitrate reading of less than 50).

[Minh Nguyen]

Scott,
Do a search on Hayward two way valves. It run about 300 or so each for various size. You can just get a valve where the natural position is open (open when no electricity and close when you run a current over the valve) and use a water level to turn it to close position when the water in the surge tank is low and open when the water level is high. The machanic of it is simple just the cost of the valve and the controler. I gues about 400 total for parts plus the surge tank and pipes.

[Minh Nguyen]

Here is one of the site where they sale these valves
Search Results for- Hayward Electrically Actuated True Union Ball Valves: Hayward Electrically Actuated True Union Ball Valves - Cole-Parmer Catalog

[Reefland]

We have added some tank cleaners to the tank. We added a BYO package from e-tropicals of various snails. There is quite a bit of algae growing in the tank right now but they are already doing a great job cleaning it up. The crew was added on Friday.

2 water changes have been done, 1 tonight, each of 5 gallons. I will perform a nitrate test tomorrow to see if there is any progress there. Our last (actually first) test for nitrates resulted in 50ppm. I expect with the water changes and slow maturing of the tank that this has dropped.

[Reefland]

Just wanted to post an updated picture. The tank is progressing nicely. The cleaning crew is doing a nice job attacking the algae that was growing and except for some small patches and on the glass, it is gone. That is a good sight to see.

[charlie]

Things are looking up, are they not???? Give that cleaning crew a raise!!!!
Thanx for the update.

[Poseidon]

Looking good Scott!

Boy that is some BRIGHT ORANGE trim work you have there.... LOL J/K

[Reefland]

Yes things are looking up quite a bit. Michelle wanted to paint the trim white, but I insisted on orange. I just can't get right with this camera anymore. I am going to do some work with it to see if I can improve the pictures.

[Poseidon]

It is not the camera, or the operator Scott. What you are seeing is caused by two different lighting spectrums.

Your room is NOT lit by the same spectrum as your tank right? I'll bet you have regular tungsten lighting for the room lights, and you have 14K or 20K bulbs on the tank, right? Well if you light your room with a 14K bulb, then the trim will be white in the pictures.

Our brains process what we know is white to appear white even if the lighting would really make it look yellow/orange whatever... The camera just does not have that ability. Try turning off the room lights, and let the trim be lit by the tank, I'll bet it goes back white again.

You could confirm my theory by replacing your room lights with the GE "reveal" bulbs, or they have another, "edison" series, that does not have the yellow cast.

[bguile]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

It is not the camera, or the operator Scott. What you are seeing is caused by two different lighting spectrums.

Your room is NOT lit by the same spectrum as your tank right? I'll bet you have regular tungsten lighting for the room lights, and you have 14K or 20K bulbs on the tank, right? Well if you light your room with a 14K bulb, then the trim will be white in the pictures.

Our brains process what we know is white to appear white even if the lighting would really make it look yellow/orange whatever... The camera just does not have that ability. Try turning off the room lights, and let the trim be lit by the tank, I'll bet it goes back white again.

You could confirm my theory by replacing your room lights with the GE "reveal" bulbs, or they have another, "edison" series, that does not have the yellow cast.

Good explanation! It's difficult (if not impossible) to balance colors properly inside and outside a tank at the same time, just for the above reason. That's why I typically take all my tank shots with the room lights off. I either block daylight or wait till night if there is natural light in the room.

[Reefland]

Thanks for those tips guys, I'll try a few with the lights off in the room. In the meantime, I picked up a few friends in need yesterday. Here is one of them.

[charlie]

Looks pretty needy to me. Nice add!!!

[Poseidon]

Nice looking piece Scott. Is that a "rainbow" monti?

[Reefland]

Hi Mike,

No, it is a simple green digitata that is in need of some TLC. The colony bleached out in the owners tank after a mishap with flatworms, and is slowly recovering. I wanted to see how quick it would recover in our tank.

[Poseidon]

The green polyps and pinkish skeleton had me fooled!

[Reefland]

Never know how it might turn out.

[Reefland]

Here is another recovering frag that I picked up. This is an orange digitata.