VAreef's quickstart 65

[PRC]

HA! Great Picture!

 

[VAreef]

Got a new test kit today(Thanks Yote great store btw). No more of the test strips. My tests are as follows.

Ph 8.0-8.2 roughly looks more like 8.2 to me
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20!!!???

Tank has been up roughly a week now. If I was going to get an ammonia spike I would think I would have gotten it by now?

Do you think I am in the clear and can just do a water change to lower nitrates?

Nitrates by test strips were saying I had 10 and now are also saying 20. Since I am seeing an increase in nitrates with no increase in ammonia I am guessing good???

 

[wontonflip]

The only ways to lower nitrates are with partial water changes, or having a fuge :)

 

[reeffreak]

It seems like you are in the clear.You can always do the pinch of fishfood trick.Check the ammonia and nitrite in the next couple of days.

 

[VAreef]

I've been feeding fish once daily the entire week. I just didn't have access to a real test kit until today. I have been relying on test strips intead.

 

[reeffreak]

Then it's all good.

 

[VAreef]

whew after working all day on the tank I now have a fully functioning sump. I have cut up the old pvc overflow and now fully using a real one. Also built a spray bar for my return pump as well as doing a water change. I tried using a check valve in the overflow siphon tube but after a few hours I finally gave up and just stuck the airline tubing in the hole. Now it works like it should.


Needless to say my wife isn't to pleased with the mess I have made. Here are a few pics of my disaster of a sump room/computer room/music room. I'm loving having the sump and everything in another room. When we are in the living room you can barely hear a thing from the tank.

 

[yote]

Looks good Va.:D
Did you end up working on the tank all night? :mrgreen:

 

[VAreef]

Na just did all the stuff that needed glueing yesterday evening. I did all the crazy tank stuff today. I guess now Im ready to build sides and doors on my sump area and get some grow lights and some cheato for it.

 

[PRC]

Can you explain the spray bar from the return (i assume that's the picture of the tank with the pvc Tee'd off at the bottom)

What does it do?

Looks great by the way...

 

[VAreef]

Can you explain the spray bar from the return (i assume that's the picture of the tank with the pvc Tee'd off at the bottom)

What does it do?

Looks great by the way...

Yeah I drilled holes all along those 2 pipes. With that I am returning water from the sump all along the bottom of the tank to prevent any dead flow areas there. I figured if I am sending water to the sump from the top of the tank I should send it back to the bottom so as to get the best turn over of water. I then have 1 powerhead at mid level in the tank and 1 powerhead near the top of the tank just to make sure everywhere has some kind of flow.

 

[PRC]

Do you find that doing it this way gives you better circulation of the water? I would assume that you have more head loss because of the extra pipe and the Tee? Or do you think that having the pipe at the bottom accounts for some of the headloss because the water is starting at the bottom and going up rather than pushing down from the top.

I'm asking a ton of questions, because this intrigued me when I saw it, I thought it was a great idea...But I have a 1 1/2 pipe from my return. It would be kinda bulky and not easy to hide, but if it's providing better circulation, I may have to figure something out.

Also how many and how big of holes did you drill?

 

[VAreef]

the headloss of the pump is negligable really once you hit the height of the aquarium. After it hits its max lift you may see some small effects from the tees and such but not enough to really do anything. I tested this setup in the bathtup before putting it in the tank as well. I got a nice even flow from every single jet hol;e I drilled out.

I like this setup in that I have constant flow across the entire bottom of the tank. This prevents low flow areas and high areas of detris build up. Prior to this tank build I had really large amounts of crap(literaly) that built up behind the LR and hopefully this will eleminate that.

they were 1/4 inch holes and I just went crazy. I drilled 1 about every 1/2"

 

[PRC]

Because of all of that water (gph) is coming out of the drilled holes I would imagine that you have some pretty good pressure coming out. I think this is a great idea. What size holes did you drill?

 

[VAreef]

All of the holes are drilled with a 1/4" drill bit. I drilled equal number of holes about 1/2" apart on each side in order to keep the flow somewhat balanced. The sump return pump is a 700gph pump however it does lose some due to a 6ft lift back to the tank. I know i have a very good return flow in the overflow and it is rated for a 120 gall tank.

 

[PRC]

Do you think the same thing would work but instead of running it down the center of the tank, putting it at the corner putting an elbow on at the sand and then running it the length of the tank? Maybe even drill holes in the pipe on it's way down to the sand, and all the way across....

 

[VAreef]

Do you think the same thing would work but instead of running it down the center of the tank, putting it at the corner putting an elbow on at the sand and then running it the length of the tank? Maybe even drill holes in the pipe on it's way down to the sand, and all the way across....

That would definitly work and I thought about doing mine that way but the legs for the lights are in the corners making it difficult to work around. I'm not worried about the look of the pipe since in 6months it will most likely be completely covered in coralline and blend in anyways.

I drilled 1 hole just under the water line as a syphon break. This is very important as if your pump dies for any reason you don't want the entire tank draining back into the sump. I didn't drill any holes in the down pipe as there are two powerheads that are maintaing flow in that area of the tank so really didn't need anymore flow there.

 

[VAreef]

Just a few pics of the button polyps complete with what hair algae I didn't trim from them. They were much worse before. I think they are liking the brine shrimp feedings. The last pic is a poor pic of a nasariassus(sp?) snail. It's not a great pic I just hit it cause he looked like an alien tank with his snorkel out swiviling around and such.

 

[VAreef]

Added a few Zoos this week from Fantasy Aquatica. Sorry for the poor quality pics it's with a cell phone.

 

[VAreef]

WOOOHOOO I have corraline growing all over the place. Several rocks that didn't have any now have eraser sized circles of corralline on them. I also noticed a few tiny spots of it on the spray bar. I can't wait till that ugly white tube turns entirely purple.

Also I found a baby snail!!! I really didn't expect that one to happen. It looks like a baby turbo.