Lots of updates

So a few things have gone on since the last update. The Royal Gramma went into the Display Tank and a Firefish was added to the Quarantine. The Firefish has since moved upstairs to the Display Tank as well and has been joined by a pair of tank bred ocellaris clownfish. A few additions of corals have been added, a couple of acans, a pair of zoas, a brain, leather, mushroom, frogspawn and spaghetti finger, and a couple of others I forget the names of :) Here's a recent full tank shot.

I've also went out and bought the Reef Angel aquarium controller. This is an open source arduino project and you program the thing in C++ so the possibilites of what you can do are endless. Right now it's managing my lighting schedule (no more timer dials!!) and giving me some control via my iPhone to turn things on and off which is huge. It will also manage feeding mode and water changing mode so I don't have to go pulling plugs out.  Here's a shot of all the equipment mounted on the stand door. It really came out pretty nice if I do say so myself.

A very shy fish...

Been very tough to get a good shot. This is a shy little fish... any way... for your enjoyment

Time for some animals!

Ended up working late and didn't get home till almost 7:30 last night. Luckily the fish store is open till 9. I was looking for a Royal Gramma, but they didn't have any at Aquarium Village. Most of the good fish that were starters are jumpers and I wanted to be able to keep the hood off the quarantine tank to help keep it cool, since it's in the basement and pretty hot down there. I ended up heading back to Petco where they had 2 I had seen the night before.  So I also picked up my clean-up crew (10 snails and 10 hermit crabs) at Aquarium Village in addition to calibration fluid for the refractometer.

So I get the fish in the water and the snails in the main tank after some acclimation. Now I decide to play with the refractometer. I put the calibration fluid and I see that I'm off a little bit. I adjust and re-test the quarantine and the display tank. The display tank is great at 1.025, but the quarantine looks like it's less than 1.020! Damn, I knew I should have mixed the extra salt water last night!

I started up the pump in the salt water barrel, and added up my salt. Gave it around 30 minutes to mix and did a 2-3 gallon water change. Managed to get the quarantine to 1.021 which at least is the orange zone on the hydrometer... Woke up in the middle of the night and did some more, and again this morning. I'm now at 1.023-1.024 and our Royal Gramma definitely looks a bit better. Every time I come into the room though, she runs and hides behind the heater in the tank. I can spy her from the doorway, but it would make a horrible picture... I'll try and get a good shot soon.

In the meantime, here's some snails and hermit crabs to look at. They've been having a feast in the display tank and definitely doing their job!

Quarantine Tank setup

Ok, so the last week has been used to get my quarantine tank setup. I went with a 10 gallon starter kit from walmart, since it had all the basics I needed. I picked up the stand at Petco, along with some AmQuel, and Bio-Spira to establish some bacteria in the system. Added some salt and we're on our way... The goal is to pick up a fish and start the process, while I add the clean-up crew to the main tank and wait for the cycle to finish (if it hasn't already...)

All setup with and plugged in.

Added some PVC hiding places and lights are on!

The action has begun!

So, I've been writing down 0ppm (parts per million) for my Ammonia levels, but in actuality, it's been a bit higher than 0, but not much and definitely not 0.25 which is the next color on the reference sheet. Well, I got a little bored and decided to add some fish food to help boost the ammonia levels. 

Well guess what! This morning I woke up to some diatom blooms which is a typical part of the whole cycle process. I re-measured my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and we've made some progress! Ammonia tested a perfect 0 this time (opposite of what was expected when adding in some fish food to rot...) and Nitrite tested 2ppm which was definitely at 0 the day before. I should have taken some pics of the test results. Oh well, maybe next time. Nitrates are still at 0, so we're still toxic for livestock, but I'm stoked that we've moved on to the second phase of the Nitrogen Cycle. 

Here's some close-ups of the algae that has bloomed. I've turned off the lights to limit the algae growth. 

I also added a GFCI outlet to the whole setup for safety purposes... after a slight mishap, that I won't go into. Either way, make sure you do this in your own setup!

The waiting continues...

So I bought an extra pump for the saltwater mixing station. One will be dedicated to filling up the saltwater side and the other will be for mixing the saltwater. I drilled a hole in the tops to feed the cord and hose through and it's looking good and ready for action. It will be a while before I need to do any water change, so right now, I have both tanks filled with freshwater. I'm still playing with the levels a little bit in the tank so the salinity is a bit of a moving target. Right now it's a bit below 1.025. I really don't want to get it any higher. Preferably I'd like it at 1.024. 

Also, made some improvements with my extra ATO reservoir. I drilled a hole to use for filling up the ATO reservoir and found a perfect lid. It's actually a blood sugar test strip holder that was sitting around the garage.. I cleaned it up and cut off the bottom so it was basically a cylinder with a cap on it. I tried silicon but it was too flexible and kept pulling out. Ended up using hot glue which worked perfectly and is much more secure. Here's the pics with it open and closed.

Fixing the ATO

So, the section that I had the float valve in it will never change in level so the ATO was never going to work where it was. The issue was I was running the return section of the sump at the MINIMUM water level instead of higher up. The correct level is just under the baffle from the refugium section. Any higher and it would raise the level in the other sections which is not what you want. So now I have plenty of room in the return section for evaporation and if the ATO fails or runs out, I won't cause any damage to my return pump. 

Here's the close-up and full shot of the whole system now. It's really nice where it is, because you can see if the water is flowing in or not. This is a major step forward in having everything running properly.

Fully operational... now what?

So, at this point, I'm done setting up all the hardware. I have the heater working the way it should, the auto top-off is setup (have to see how this goes over the next few days...), lights are on the timer, and I've started checking my levels. Right now pH is at 8.3, Salinity is at 1.023 (still want to get this a bit higher..) and Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are at 0. I've tested the ammonia twice so far and it does look there is some buildup happening, but still too low to be at the next color on the test strip, but definitely not as yellow as the 0.

Everyone keeps asking me when I'm adding fish... well, that's going to be a while.. The current process involves waiting for the ammonia levels to rise at which point bacteria will start to grow which will take care of the ammonia. They will leave behind nitrite. Both of these are extremely toxic to fish and invertebrates. After the nitrites rise, more bacteria should grow that will consume that and I should see both the ammonia and nitrite drop to 0 while the mostly harmless nitrates start to go up...

This is called the "Nitrogen Cycle". At this point, I can slowly start adding things. The first job is to add our clean up crew, which will start adding bio-load to the tank (basically more ammonia) which will get process by the bacteria. This needs to happen gradually, so the bacteria can grow and keep up with everything that is going to be added to the tank.

For now, it's just sit around and wait for the process to happen....

Mixing Station update..

So, I had a little extra time tonight after finishing the Auto Top-Off. I added the bulkheads and faucet assemblies to my water tank setup. I plan on getting an extra pump I can keep setup between the fresh water side and the salt water mixing side. Then I can use the faucet's to dispense as needed!

Auto Top-Off Time.

So, spent quite a while looking for the perfect container that would fit into the stand and be able to go in and out. I found this at Wal-Mart. It's a letter size filing cabinet box. Fit perfectly!  I bought 2 since they stacked nicely and I could use the bottom one to elevate the actual reservoir tank.

Here it is with the bulkhead installed. The one that I ordered online leaked. Strange since it didn't leak in between the bulkhead, but rather from the quick connect. Maybe a got a bad one, since I've seen people using a similar piece for theres. Anyway, I ran to Lowes and bought a quick-connect to threaded adapter and then siliconed it in. Luckily too the nut from the first bulkhead fit around the 3/4" threaded end to secure it to the case.

Valve installed if doing any maintenance...

And here is the EShopps float valve that I bought. The bracket is very nice and adjustable. My only problem right now is that I have it setup in the center section of my sump. I'm not really sure that the level here changes much, since it seems that the return pump section is where I'm losing water... however this may be because I didn't have the auto-top off working yet...

Reservoir in place.

Here's the shot showing everything.

And we're off...

Got the call that everything was going to be delivered at 4pm! Dived out of work to get home by 4:15 and everything was already inside and the store owner was there to make sure everything was delivered. There were some issues.. the canopy they brought was the wrong one and no hose for the return pump, but otherwise I had everything I ordered... including the rocks and algae.. uh oh, better get this together soon!

After getting everything unpacked and laid out.....

I set out to put the background on the tank.

Everything else went pretty smoothly. I had to run to the store after I got the background setup to get the return pump hose and the right canopy. I also had to run out after to get a new hose clamp as the ones I had gotten weren't big enough for the drain hose...

Time for some water...

 

and more water....

Thanks to my amazing wife who lugged up bucket after bucket with me, especially when she had wanted nothing to do with this! Thank you so much baby for your help! We did great!

Full and looking good:

The lighting was an issue. I was up till 4 in the morning (while adding salt...) trying to figure out how to mount the lighting. After a trip to Home Depot today.. I worked it out. 

So the whole system is running now and looking amazing. I can't believe it's so clear after such a short amount of time. I still have to check all my levels tonight so I have a baseline, and hope that some algae and bacteria's are starting to develop. Come on Nitrogen Cycle, do your thing!

Next up, the auto top-off build...

Valves and more

Made the run to Home Depot yesterday and bought the ball valve and parts I'll need for the return pump.

Also came out of there with bucket lids, plastic shims and hose clamps. I ordered the parts to make my auto top-off too! Getting ready for delivery tomorrow!

Fill'er up!

Installed the check valve and pressure valve ob the RO/DI and float valve into the freshwater bin. Stopped at the store and picked up a mixing pump, a bulkhead to attach to the freshwater bin so I can put a spigot on it. I also bought some hose to connect to the pump, so I can fill buckets from the saltwater one.

On the shopping list, shims for stand, ball valves, misc PVC parts, stainless steel hose clamps. PVC glue/primer, barbed to threaded adapters.

Delivery is tentatively set for Friday night. Oh and the stand is pre-assembled! That just saved me 3 hours of work!

Saltwater Mixing Station

Time to build something!!

Managed to get out a bit early today, so I ran to Home Depot for my containers. Did research all day on ways to setup saltwater mixing stations. There are some really good setups out there, but trying to KISS for now. Ended up coming home with 1-32gallon, 1-20 gallon a pair of Home Depot 5 gallon buckets and a tee fitting for the laundry room faucet :)

Pictures coming soon...

The Devil is in the Details

So, after spending a small fortune, what do I have to show for it? Let's see...

65 gallon glass aquarium
Tank stand and canopy
Eshopps RS-100 Reef Sump
Eshopps PSK-100 Protein Skimmer
Deep Blue Triton-3 850gph return pump
Aquarium Village 12" LED light fixture
Fluval LED light for refugium section in sump
Bulk Reef Supply 75gpd RO/DI unit with float valve
Heater, Test kits, Salt mix.
65 pounds of live rock
65 pounds of live sand
10 pounds of LR rubble
Timer power strip

I'm probably missing a bit..but that's the main thing. I walked out of the store with the RO/DI filter so I could start making water in advance and the next step is getting lots of buckets (garbage cans actually!).

Next up, a bit more shopping and the build begins!

The Plunge!

This all started a few weeks ago, so I've got a bit of work to get everyone caught up...   With my new favorite TV show on hiatus (Tanked), the fire was lit! I'd always admired saltwater tanks, was this something I could do? I did have freshwater fish when I was a kid... So, my research began and I started to scour the Internet  for info. About.com makes things look so easy! Hmm, perhaps this won't be too bad. Next up was the price of admission...what would it take to actually get started? 

Next step was checking Craigslist. Found some great setups that I could have picked up at fairly reasonable prices. After visiting some of the local fish stores (LFS), I decided to scrap that route. You just don't know what you're inheriting. Either cheap equipment, copper contamination, or the expense of moving it all and trying to keep everything alive in the process! 

After spending about 4 hours talking to the staff at Aquarium Village (with son running around!) I am now the owner of everything I need to setup my first saltwater reef aquarium! I ended up with a 65 gallon tank that should fit much better in our living room than the 75 gallon I was considering on Craigslist! Apparently this size is still considered pretty small in the saltwater world!

Next up, system specs!

Lee

Greetings and Salutations!

Hi everyone!

Since this is the first post, I'll start with an introduction. My name is Lee and I get addicted to things. Every hobby I've participated in, I get obsessed with. The list is long and varied: model rockets, balsa wood airplanes, Native American crafts, EMS, cycling, brewing, SCA heavy combat, fishing, rollerblading, archery, home theater, home automation, coin collecting, stamp collecting, Disney everything, just to name a few!

I live on Long Island with my amazing wife and awesome 3 1/2 year old son and our P.I.T.A mini-schnauzer puppy Princess. I am 36 years old and an IT professional, specializing in UNIX, SAN, and virtualization. Other than spending time with my family and going to work, I spend a lot of time reading fantasy fiction (lots of dead time on the train). Currently, my reading is on pause as the next obsession has taken charge...

I hope you guys enjoy the ride!

Lee