Kman's tank

[little_fish]

Good catch Mike, i didnt look at the photos.

Those are power compact lights, which dont put out as much usable light. You will find yourself a bit limited with those lights

 

[KMan]

Aquarium Lighting: Coralife Compact Fluorescent Straight Pin Bulbs

those are the bulbs that are in it now - *shrug* i know they worked on my brothers tank and his tank did very well using these.

 

[little_fish]

Its all about the corals you want to keep, some corals with do great with those lights, other more light demanding corals wont.

 

[KMan]

that is very true from what i've learned. Lights are always a thing to upgrade in the near future, i'll probably upgrade once I get into the swing of things and learn about how things work and how to understand the science of it i guess if you wanna think about it that way. This is my first tank so learning about the lights is all from google and co-workers who have tanks. So once i get corals that will need more lights then dog gonnit LET THERE BE LIGHT! and i'll buy some better ones.. Especially after the wedding cause i hear that a lot.. (stop spending money.. we need to spend it on the wedding... ) lol

 

[little_fish]

In this hobby its often better to save up and buy the good quality stuff just once, otherwise you end up spending more money in total replacing crappy stuff. Something to keep in mind for the future.

 

[KMan]

Well once i do the in wall tank i will have no budget :) This tank is definately a learning one for me then will be the biggin

 

[KMan]

So i installed my controller today, and i've a smidge over budget.. although i have no idea where i need to install the PH probe, and iTemp Probe... thoughts? It's a Digital Aquatics Plus. Hopefully i will be able to order some live rock and sand by the end of the week and get the tank wet.

 

[kevdogg]

I think you are going to need to buy another module to run both probes. If you were just running one you can just plug it into the empty slot at the end of the chain.

 

[KMan]

I have the modules and everything to run both probes, I'm taking about placement in the Refugium tank... Do i put the temp in the Return section?, PH in the Refugia part? or both? Temp in the protien skimmer? somehwere to put the heater?

 

[kevdogg]

I would put the temp probe in a chamber before the heater that way you dont get a false reading. I have my heater in the return section right now and the temp probe in the fuge section. I would think that the PH probe would be able to go in any section.

 

[KMan]

Well today my rock came in, and i went ahead and just placed it in the tank after cleaning and such for it's cycle. But i finally got my tank wet! After making some minor adjustments to the plumbing and installing my reefkeeper plus, it's been going good so far. I will plan on Aquascaping soon, and then my sand comes in on the 13th; I've ordered black reef sand and i think it will look good in there. Only issues so far is i have to keep tuning my overflow siphon, because at night it makes a very loud slurping sound. I think i might have mounted it too high by about an inch or so, but i can just adjust my valve underneith and it corrects the problem it will just be a trial and error thing for awhile. I also picked up some wire ties today and going to clean up the wiring and make everything look all pretty and junk.

 

[KMan]

More rock pictures, this is before I will be adding the sand.. I ordered 80lbs of Black Reef Sand from LA, i'll post pictures up when it's done and the aquascaping is done :)

 

[KMan]

So i added my sand, and did a bit of aquascaping, I'm going to get another 40lbs of rock to make it look nice. But everything so far is looking great, once the cycle is done i'll be getting my wavemaker set up and only running the 2 power heads

 

[KMan]

i added the wrong pictures lololol

 

[little_fish]

off to a great start!

 

[KMan]

Thanks little fish! here is my current chemistry

Nitrate: 20ppm
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0.50
PH: 8.0

 

[little_fish]

And we are cycling!!! Hurray!!!

 

[KMan]

So a buddy of mine was texting me about how things were going getting stuff set up.. I freaked him out by the following context..

Friend: Hey bud how is the tank coming along?

Me: Good man, just got my salt water mixed up and everything is going good, even have sand and rock in place

Friend: What kinda salt did you get man?

Me: Oh i picked some up from safeway, Just got a bag of it for $5.99 - and found some rock at the quarry site.

Friend: .... what about the sand...

Me: oh i went down to the sunset beach with a couple of 5 gallon buckets and just started scooping away..

Friend: ... YOU DID WHAT?! Tell me you didn't use Beach sand and Table salt....

Me: Well salt is salt, sand is sand, and rock is rock isnt it?

Friend: Holy crap i'm coming over right now and going to help fix your tank.. you might have just screwed it all up man..

Conclusion: My friend who is a major reefer, but is sooooooooooooooooo gullable.. Considering that my friend was at my house while i ordered the salt, and the rock lol. Anyways i just wanted to share my chuckle.

 

[KMan]

So lastnight i was woke up by a loud obnoxious slurping sound.. come to find out.. one of my clean up crew snails found a little gap into my overflow box and got sucked down and messed up the siphon. So i ended up installing my emergency over flow at 2am. and then also resealed the top of the overflow box lol, adding the second overflow i guess it's called "The Herbie" and it made it very quiet and enjoyable.

 

[KMan]

picture of the herbie