Corey's first salt water tank

**Iron E** · 08-11-2009, 11:12 PM

What she said!!!

**rayme07** · 08-12-2009, 01:22 AM

Awesome Congrats Corey.

**Coreyz** · 08-12-2009, 02:01 AM

Here is some pics that I took as it was filling up before I went on vacation to Cape Cod MA. for a week where I saw a four story aquarium at the New England Aquarium in Boston, and layed on the beach for many days it was great! The big loop tube that you see is going to feed the refugium, I will be cuttingit down to size one I know for sure everything is plumbed efficiently. Even though there are kinks in the return line right now with the flex tubing I still had to reduce it by %25 I was surprised how power full this little pump is. I will trim the line to the refugium and get it going tomorrow probably.

**CarmieJo** · 08-12-2009, 03:17 AM

That is super Corey! I know you must be excited. I am and it isn't even my tank.

**meoklmrk91** · 08-12-2009, 08:49 PM

Very cool!.

**Coreyz** · 08-12-2009, 11:10 PM

Ammonia 25 ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate .5ppm

I have to pick up a new PH test kit lost my color chart for salt water. Going to get a salinity meter soon as well. I added a bunch of shrimp in a panty hose tonight and tied it to a string in the display tank. I don't have a pump yet for my protein skimmer, I'm looking for a Mag 5 or anything that will do around 500 -550 gph. I hope to be picking up 100 lbs. of dry Fiji base rock tomorrow. Then I'll be ordering 25 lbs. of totanka live rock right before it gets banned in a month I hope. I wanna give the tank some time to cycle before putting in the live rock.

**stefalopod** · 08-13-2009, 04:05 PM

Hi Corey!
Congrats on getting the tank filled! I'm with Carmie in recommending Amp's pvc live rock stands. He uses pvc pipe with holes cut out to lift the rock off the surface of the sand and give fish and critters good hiding places.

I used his idea with three inch wide black pvc and it made it really easy to balance the rock.
Here's one pic of the stands on my carpet after I drilled them

and another where you can make it out under the rock. You can't see them any more though. because I added more sand to the front of the tank after that and sort of leaned the front of the LR over the pvc. It's made some really cool caves.

**Coreyz** · 08-13-2009, 05:11 PM

Thanks for the tip Steph. Its funny you mentioned that because I just got home from Lowes where I bought a 4 foot length of 4 inch pvc pipe just for this purpose. I'll be picking up 50 lbs. of dry Fiji rock tonight with another 50 lbs. on order which should be arriving next Wed. I also picked up a Mag 5 pump for my protein skimmer from my LFS just $10 more then online not bad at all. I also got a new ammonia and PH test kit and a mag float cleaner.

**stefalopod** · 08-13-2009, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by Coreyz

Thanks for the tip Steph. Its funny you mentioned that because I just got home from Lowes where I bought a 4 foot length of 4 inch pvc pipe just for this purpose.

Ha! Goes to show it's a good idea!

You could even build some longer pieces to make towers to prop live rock on or against, it could save you a fortune in LR. I have no idea how much 50 lbs of dry rock adds up to, but I know if it were wet it would be a poor little pile compared to your size tank. So did you go with the black pvc or the white?

**Coreyz** · 08-13-2009, 09:38 PM

I got white pvc didn't see any black yet I plan to cut it just below the sand depth so it should be out of sight. I just put the first 50 lbs. of fiji rock into the tank. I got some huge pieces!!! One was so big there's no way it would have fit into the 5 gallon buckets I brought. We put it all back into the box it shipped in. The price couldn't be beat! My friend had all of the rock in his established tanks for the last three days. One tank a year old and another two years old. He also gave me some giant dead corals skeletons, and some big dead clam shells. He also gave me a huge ball of cheato and some fish line cheato for free he said the fish line stuff is much sought after. He gave me a huge scope of live sand from his two year old tank to seed mine with.

**stefalopod** · 08-13-2009, 10:19 PM

Wow! Great friend! Congrats on the huge rock!

If you haven't cut the pvc yet, I actually suggest cutting it a little taller than the sand because the water will flow under the rock and scoop the sand up in front of the pvc, so you'll end up with a completely supported rock and completely invisible pvc too.

**Coreyz** · 08-14-2009, 04:15 AM

I have not cut it yet. Thanks for the ttip Steph!

**Iron E** · 08-14-2009, 07:24 AM

Hey Corez! That is exciting news!

We need more pics!

Tom

**Coreyz** · 08-14-2009, 08:51 PM

I spent allot of time today fine tuning stuff. I rerouted the electrical wires inside the sump and screwed claps along the top to keep all of the wires above any potential water. It turned out that the flex line going to my protein skimmer was crimped, fixed that. Got it producing skimate for the first time today, now its really going to town. I cut up a bunch of pvc rock stands, and rearranged the rock onto the left hand side of the tank. I'm gonna fill up the right side next Wednesday. Then I will be able to put the canopy back on it and get some better pic's with the lights. The water is pretty yellow and milky right now.

Ammonia 2.0
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .25

**Coreyz** · 08-14-2009, 08:53 PM

**lance** · 08-15-2009, 01:36 AM

nice filtration and sump

lance

**rayme07** · 08-15-2009, 02:11 AM

Its looking good nice sump it looks great.

**Coreyz** · 08-16-2009, 12:13 AM

My boys got to see the tank up and running for the very first time tonight they were so excited after waiting for two years asking when can they have a nemo of their own. They are so fascinated by the protein skimmer they'll watch it produce skimate and watch the bubbles flow through the sump for a half an hour, I'm impressed. They were my leading motivation for starting this project.

OK now onto a more serious note. I am very concerned on the lack of flow or overflow from the surface water. I can see sever particulate building up on the surface of the tank. Every couple of hours I will plug the air hole on the drains to get them to suck down more water and gurgle allot and skim off the surface. I took a couple off pics to show you what I am seeing. The very nice over flows were cut with about a one inch tooth size and they stay at a constant half way never reaching the bottom unless I hold my finger on the air release hole. I was thinking I might have to hook up the crappy cpr overflow box that the previous owner gave me onto the left side of the tank to add two more one inch drains. I sure hope not because I know those can be very unpredictable. I am restricting the flow from the return pump right now by about 10-15 percent I would have thought that I could of had it wide open. It is a good thing that I did not hook up my dart pump it would have been allot more gph. Two days ago I noticed the out flow set up was two high to the water level and I clipped off a bit to make it sit lower in the over flow box. Right now it is sitting just below the water line on both sides, yet I still wish the level of the surface was lower to truly be drawing the surface water off of the tank rather than letting it sit and become stagnant.

Thank you for the complements on my sump/fuge I worked hard on getting it all plumbed up properly and quietly and payed a good penny for it to be custom made. The whole tank is very clear now, I have been cleaning the protein skimmer accumulation cup every 2-6 hours it is doing an amazing job. I have allot of sand dunes to level out still and have been putting it off because I wanted to see it clear out a bit for the first time.

**meoklmrk91** · 08-16-2009, 01:00 AM

Things are looking good Corey, that skimmer looks like it's doing a great job I may look into getting one as I am in the market for a skimmer. I used mostly base rock in my tank as well, and I would do again if I were setting up another tank. I really think it's the way to go, it saves you a serious amount of money plus you get the advantage of watching your rock become live so to speak. Now I can't tell the difference between LR and DR, plus the tank only took 3 weeks to cycle and you can't say anything about.

Its great that your boys are so interested in the hobby, my niece was interested in test kit and wanted to know what the different colors meant, shes only six but she did get the basics of it so I was impressed. A lot of parents get into the hobby because their children wanted to have a pet Nemo, I think it's really nice way to spend time with them.

**stefalopod** · 08-17-2009, 01:26 AM

Hi Corey,
It's just a thought, but before you set up the cpr overflow, why don't you try reducing the size of the air hole? What happens if you cover most of the hole instead of all of it? You can also stick some airline in there with a valve on it for more fine tuning. Good luck!

**Coreyz** · 08-17-2009, 01:43 AM

yeah thanks for the thought Steph... My friend whom I have been getting-it. Tonight I adjusted the return line on the main return pump a few items until it was eventually not returning and almost caused an over flow. LOL I need to drill an air release on my return lines just below the level in the water in the display yet have not yet, I will tomorrow or the day after in case of lose of electricity. Yet even with a smidgen of a turn on the valve if the return I can not seem to get the overflow boxes to truly skim the surface and I know that will be a concern in the future with corals that require very clean water. I am worried that I may have to break down the tank and re plum it better.

**stefalopod** · 08-17-2009, 11:57 AM

My understanding is that surface skimmers are more for the sake of attractiveness to the human eye than truly for keeping the water clean (jump in anyone if I'm wrong). It's mostly the sand and live rock that keep the water clean for the corals.

My own return overflow is basically just a pipe with teeth cut in and a hole at the bottom of it that the water goes through back to the sump, so I'm not really familiar with the function of durso pipes, but the water level in the overflow should be lower than the water level in the main tank when water is returning. My instinct would be to shorten the water inlet on the durso so that it would be lower in the overflow box relative the water level in the tank. Alternatively, you can try reducing the water level in the system a little bit to see if a lower water level at the return teeth speeds up the movement of water at all.

I have a small surface skimmer in my sump and if the water level is too high, it still moves water, but it's not skimming water off the top.
It sounds like you were

**Coreyz** · 08-20-2009, 01:35 AM

Yeah I have been watching the surface water develop long stringy white root like strands if left for a day or two (similar to what I am seeing developing all over the raw shrimp sock) it looks really nasty if I don't plug the overflow air holes and suck them down. I think that once I have power heads in the tank the extra flow will hopefully take it away by breaking up the surface tension of the water and mixing it back down into the water column like I see on most established tanks. Been cleaning the skimmer twice a day.

**stefalopod** · 08-20-2009, 02:56 AM

Sounds kinda gross.

Any long term solutions for the overflow on the horizon?

**Coreyz** · 08-20-2009, 03:50 AM

yeah like you were saying drop the outflow lines below the water..... I did that when the tank first was given flow. Yet that doesn't seem to solve my cosmetic issue at this time because it is still not aggressive enough on the flow. Although I really do appreciate you interest and input. :-)