Aquarium Homies Thread

[El Diablo 4,232]

17 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

There is a reason I haven’t done mine yet. So far I’m up to 2 half barrels, thinking about a third tier. Same reason I don’t have a tank set up right now, or have a koi pond. I keep planning, and a nice idea ends up massive.

 

I just had a vision of several barrels stacked along with some rock and railroad ties with pumps and waterfalls, lily pads and fish. Maybe some ferns or bromeliads.  Thanks a lot, asshole.

[thunderlounge 7,582]

Welcome to the 7th circle of hell. Could be worse; it could be walmart. 

[El Diablo 4,232]

On 7/23/2019 at 8:05 PM, El Diablo said:

 In other news I started up the spare 20 gallon tank I had sitting here. Just water, bacteria in a bottle and ammonium chloride. I think I started it on Wednesday or Thursday of last week and just yesterday I started to get some nitrite and today it's up to between .5 and 1.0 ppm. The instructins are to dose the tank to 2ppm ammonium but I went full steam ahead and dosed it to a little over twice that.

Re: THIS^, I've got nitrates now and lots of 'em. I started getting nitrites 3 days ago. Ammonia is back down to ~2ppm so I'm trying to decide how much I want to dose now. I may just wait until tomorrow to see where the ammonia is then as it will give me a better idea of how much is being consumed daily and I can go from there. I'll just keep feeding it and once the nitrites are gone I'll do a big water change and bam! Fish ready! (still no idea what I might put in here tho)

[El Diablo 4,232]

Got home from work and checked the levels and 0 ammonia. Little bugs are eating the hell out of it. Dosed it back up and will just keep doing that until the nitrites are getting consumed in 24 hours and she'll be done.

I also ordered some new plants that I thought were going to be here today but ought to be here tomorrow. Nothing fancy, simple plants for a simple mind. Anubias, some Wisteria, a Dwarf Water Lily. I did a little rearranging to get ready for 'em and also did a little vacuuming. Once I get everything in order I'll take a pic and post up. 

[El Diablo 4,232]

Here's the tank that I'm cycling. It should be done soon, maybe by this weekend, definitely within 2 weeks. 

 

And one of the 55 after some cleaning and a few new plants.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by El Diablo

[El Diablo 4,232]

So the 20 gallon project tank that I'm cycling, I did a water change on it and not thinking I used Seachem's Prime to condition the water. Prime locks up ammonia and I used it not thinking about that so basically shot myself in the dick, at least temporarily. Doh! I've got API water treatment which just removes the chlorine/chloramines but just wasn't thinking.

[thunderlounge 7,582]

How much water are you using? If not a ton in one shot, there are small R/O units the will do 50-100gpd that are pretty reasonable ($50-$100 off amazon). Would take a few hours to get water, but might be worth it in the long run if you’re going to be doing more with all this. 

Example: for a 20% water change on a 30gal tank, that’s ~6 gallons. A 50gpd R/O gives out about 2gal/hr. So it would take 3 hours to get the 6 needed on a 30g tank. Or an hour for a 10, etc. With a 100gpd, that’s 4gph, so cuts the time in half. 

Where shit starts to suck is when you need 50+ to do a change, or on an initial fill. But you can just direct the output straight to the tank, then keep an eye on it.

 

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Bulk reef supply sells RO/DI units from 50 GPD up to 200. I have their 75 gallon per day unit and love it. No more trips to the LFS for water changes.

 

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

My FW tanks don't need RO/DI, assuming the comments were for me? Adding a little bit of water conditioner is standard practice, I just forgot on this tank I don't want to use Prime. No biggie. It locks up ammonia for around 48 hours or so and then it will be free ammonia again. It's fine if you're doing a fish in cycle where you don't want to poison the fish in their own waste but on this tank I WANT ammonia for the bacteria to feed on.

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Doesn't the ammonia eventually break down to nitrates over time? I'd didnt think ammonia was beneficial in a aquarium beyond the initial cycle. Is that different in the FW world?

[El Diablo 4,232]

9 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

Doesn't the ammonia eventually break down to nitrates over time? I'd didnt think ammonia was beneficial in a aquarium beyond the initial cycle. Is that different in the FW world?

No different. I'm doing an initial cycle and used a product that was counter-productive. I'm 2 weeks in and waiting for nitrites to start going down now, ammonia is disappearing pretty quickly.

[El Diablo 4,232]

Speaking of water changes, my tap water right now is running around 85 degrees. I'm filling up my 44 gal Brute trash can and letting it set overnight to get water that won't scald my fish. There's about 2 weeks a year when it's just right coming out of the tap. At least in the winter I can add hot water and get the temp right but in summer? Fuuuccckkking forget it, it's just play the waiting game. I'll fill it tonight and do the 55 tank first thing in the morning then fill the Brute again and do the other tanks in the evening. I'll end up spending half the day fucking with these fish.

Edited August 2, 2019 by El Diablo

[thunderlounge 7,582]

May be time for a redneck chiller:

Take a big ass cooler, put two 5/8” holes in it, one each at the top center of each end.

Fill 4 1gal jugs with water and freeze. Add to cooler. 

Take long ass 1/2” hose, run enough out one end to make it into your big container.

Start wrapping hose around the closest jug, then move to the next.  Be sure to leave enough hose to make it out the other hole and back to the sink/faucet, and attach that end. 

Turn cold side on, until water comes out the other end, then back it down to where it’s coming out slowly and wait for it to fill up the bucket/container/trash can. 

 

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Great ideal, I freeze liter bottles full of water then float then in the tank or sump to bring down the temp.

[thunderlounge 7,582]

You can also adapt it and put both holes on the same end. Hook one end to a pump/powerhead, and recirc water. Small pumps with adjustable flow work best. Slower = colder at the outlet, and the key is enough tubing inside that wraps around the jugs.

It’s a quick fix, but can be used well if you always have a replacement run of jugs ready.

At some point it becomes a pain in the ass and you end up buying a chiller. 

[El Diablo 4,232]

The only way I'd ever go the chiller route is if I wanted to keep a species that absolutely required cool water like an axolotl. As it is I just fill up the tub, which I was going to do anyway, on Friday night. Use the water on Saturday morning, refill the tub and then do all of the small tanks later Saturday or Sunday. 

But yeah, I've seen similar contraptions used for beer at tailgates. 

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

I am getting out of the hobby.  Things you guys get first shot at.

 

150 AI prime HD with black mounting bracket.

180 Apogee sq 420 par meter with case. This is the model that plugs into window or apple via USB.

100 Reef breeders RPM wave maker. 

100 Reef octopus classic 100 job skimmer.

50 each, 2 Chinese black boxes

325 reefbreeders Photon 24-V2+

 

At those prices I will cover shipping. 

 

I still have stock that I am rehoming, some of that stock is using some of the equipment I have listed.  If you want a piece of equipment let me know and I will get fish and corals moved around so I can get stuff to you ASAP.

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

Disregard.....  Apparently the answer I am looking for is a rimless 90g cube. And ill be needing most of that.  Bigger and more is always the answer in this hobby.  I hate it as much as I enjoy it.

[thunderlounge 7,582]

I'll have to look into that PAR meter a bit more, but I've been looking for one. Will it work out of water as well? I've been looking for a good used one so I can monitor my indoor garden/seedling setup.

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Thanka for posting it up on here first. I totally understand the upgrade bug. I've moved up two tanks and want to upgrade again but it will have to be the right tank as I'm limited on space.

Speaking of cube, I looked at a 93g marineland cube tank & stand at my LFS last month. Bit to high for me at $760 but the right tank will come along. When you get your cube up and running post some pictures.

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

8 hours ago, thunderlounge said:

I'll have to look into that PAR meter a bit more, but I've been looking for one. Will it work out of water as well? I've been looking for a good used one so I can monitor my indoor garden/seedling setup.

It will.  I'm gonna keep it so I can set up a new cube.  But I will be more than happy to lend it to you so you can set up any lights you need.

 

When I told the wife I was going to break down tanks and concentrate on other things she was somewhat upset not angry just kinda sad about it.  So I am going to keep these two tanks running until I move in 3 months.  Then do either a large cube was specifically looking at the marineland 93g that mother Mopar mentioned.  That or a 48 x 24 x 20 frag tank set up as a lagoon.

 

But seriously, if you want to borrow it, I'll ship it your direction

Edited August 9, 2019 by JoseMedinaDeJesus

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

On 7/31/2019 at 11:03 AM, El Diablo said:

Using prime

Amazon, "RO buddie" with di stage.  It's a whole set up about 55-60 dollars and it's what I use in my condo because they won't let me set up a more permanent solution for water.  

 

But I use this thing for all top off water and waterchanges on a 75 and a IM 14. Perfect 0tds water, no more prime.  I keep a huge bottle of prime for an oh fuck I need water moment.  But in three years haven't had to use a drop of the stuff.

[El Diablo 4,232]

10 minutes ago, JoseMedinaDeJesus said:

Amazon, "RO buddie" with di stage.  It's a whole set up about 55-60 dollars and it's what I use in my condo because they won't let me set up a more permanent solution for water.  

 

But I use this thing for all top off water and waterchanges on a 75 and a IM 14. Perfect 0tds water, no more prime.  I keep a huge bottle of prime for an oh fuck I need water moment.  But in three years haven't had to use a drop of the stuff.

That's a good price and a nice solution if I needed RO water. I just have to have water at a correct temperature or close to it. On top of that I amend my already hard water a bit for the livebearers that I have so I'd be filtering water that I want mineralized. I filled my 44 Brute last night because I'm going to do some water changes today. It was 85.6 coming out of the tap, I just came in from work and it is a comfy 74.5 right now. I'm single so there's nobody to tell me I can't have a trashcan full of water sitting in the living room. Might be why I'm single but that's a whole other story.  

In the last year I've used a 16 oz bottle of the API water conditioner at a cost of ~$8. I'm not even sure now why I bought the Prime but for this particular project it was the wrong thing to use. Not terrible, might have cost me a day or two in the grand scheme of things. 

[thunderlounge 7,582]

14 hours ago, JoseMedinaDeJesus said:

It will.  I'm gonna keep it so I can set up a new cube.  But I will be more than happy to lend it to you so you can set up any lights you need.

 

When I told the wife I was going to break down tanks and concentrate on other things she was somewhat upset not angry just kinda sad about it.  So I am going to keep these two tanks running until I move in 3 months.  Then do either a large cube was specifically looking at the marineland 93g that mother Mopar mentioned.  That or a 48 x 24 x 20 frag tank set up as a lagoon.

 

But seriously, if you want to borrow it, I'll ship it your direction

 

Thanks. I’ll check scale and see if it will work for my lights. 

Lagoon tank? Well subscribe me right now for that. 

Wave maker?

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

That reef breeders RPM will handle wave duties.

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Be careful with marineland aquariums as they can have issues with the glass seams. Look for air bubbles in the sealant, tell tell sign.

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

3 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

Be careful with marineland aquariums as they can have issues with the glass seams. Look for air bubbles in the sealant, tell tell sign.

Funny you say that.  I was just in my garage and realized that the 48 bowfront that spring a leak was a Marineland. Kind of scratched them off because of that.

 

This is the one I am thinking that would be most fun. 

 

 http://deepblueprofessional.com/rimless.html

 

But, I don't want it drilled in the corner.  I want to put a glass over flow on a bean animal.   So I have to see if they will either drill for a bean animal or not drill at all.

 

 

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Good catch man! Bean over flow will be requirement on my next tank. I have a durso no and it too loud and you have Ron prime it.

Those tanks looks nice, how ig you going? SCA makes some nice tanks as well but a little more coin for sure. If your going to do it, do it right from the jump. Learning that with my cube now.

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Been battling high phosphates for weeks and couldn't figure it out. Tested my water out of RO/DI filter setup and that was the cause. Emptied all my full jugs of pre made water and bought an additional 3 stage kit from BRS. Did a 30 gallon water change this morning and phosphates are about 0.10 now compared to 0.25 earlier in the week which is astronomically high for a mixed reef tank.

 

Switched out my carbon and GFO in my reactors so hoping to get it down to normal levels

 

[JoseMedinaDeJesus 207]

15 minutes ago, Mother mopar said:

Good catch man! Bean over flow will be requirement on my next tank. I have a durso no and it too loud and you have Ron prime it.
 

I've looked at the SCA stuff also

  I have a deep blue already, tiny little 12x 12 cube.  All it has is a mangrove in it.  But the glass is very nice, the seams look great.  If they put the same effort into that frag tank it's a deal.

 

As to bean animals, even my nano got the BA treatment.

Edited August 11, 2019 by JoseMedinaDeJesus
Photo

[El Diablo 4,232]

Today is 5 weeks since I started cycling my 20 gallon long. I think it'll be done in the next few days so I'm starting to think what I might want to do with it. I'm off work for the next couple of weeks so I'll probably do something with it soon. I'll post pics when I get it figured out.

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Added a few new frags to the tank this week. Some higher end pieces, TSA Bill Murray, JF Fox Flame and a run of the mill blueberry styloforma. All great additions to the tank, which is slowly turning into more of a SPS tank.

Dosing is up to roughly 25ml of alkalinity and 23ml of calcium daily. Battling some high phosphates lately and am dosing nopox to knock that out.

[El Diablo 4,232]

I've never done salt and am pretty stupid on it, where are the phosphates coming from?

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Orginally, I determined that my RO/DI filters were bad and the water I thought was good post filtering was actually contributing to high phosphates. So I upgraded my filters and that has been resolved. My second theory is that the additional dry rock I added when I upgraded to a bigger tank up in June is leaching phosphates. It should be near the end of running its course but my phosphates are still 0.20ppm. Ideally they should be less than 0.03ppm.

I have a bad bubble algae issue in my sump and in the past 2 weeks have had a small green hair algae break out in my display tank. Since dosing that has subsided a bit and combined with my emerald craps it is getting smaller. What confuses me is I've been running a GFO reactor to eliminate my phosphates and it barely but a dent in it. Thus my decision to dose nopox, which is basically carbon dosing on a more refined level.

It does have side effects, as it decreases oxygen in the water, so to counter that I turn my protein skimming efforts up a bit to wet skim. Some corals are a bit upset but most everything else is good.

[El Diablo 4,232]

The guy that I bought my 55 from had been doing salt and said he was giving it up because he couldn't afford to keep fighting the phosphates and blamed it on the water here in Waco. Not sure how true that could be but it's what he said. I guess some source water is just more difficult to work with. I know my FW tank will grow algae like a mofo and it's not really from too much light or overfeeding the livestock and I suspect that it's phosphates in the tap water that they're feeding on. Not a big deal to me, the fish I keep love the water and algae is just a part of it. I try to stay ahead of it but the coarse hair mossy stuff can grow ridiculously fast. If I go a month or so without jacking with it I'll pull out big gobs of it. It attaches to the plants, glass, wood, you name it.

Edited August 22, 2019 by El Diablo

[Mother mopar 3,262]

What's crazy is every tank is different. My water by the saltwater purists is considered dirty but my corals, for the most part, grow like weeds. Just depends I suppose.

[El Diablo 4,232]

Nobody has bumped this in a little while so here's a pic of my tank as of today. Well, the 55 gallon one at least.

 

My first Betta, Carlos, died a week or so ago. I think he was only around 2 years old. Just slowed down on the eating for a couple of weeks and then spent a day on the bottom laying around and then croaked. Stupid fish. I'm going to order a small group of Blue Silverado Endler's Guppies this weekend and stock the 20 gallon tank that I've been cycling for the last 6 weeks. It's not consuming the ammonia as fast as I'd like but for a half dozen 1" fish it should be fine. 

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Looking good man.

[El Diablo 4,232]

My 20 gallon project is getting close to ready for fish. Taking just 48 hours to process a dose of ammonia. Added some plants today. I think I may go to PSmart tomorrow to see what they have in the way of Cory cats. I think with the bare sand bottom they'd look good in here.

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

Another shot of the tank, shows the plain white sand substrate a little better. The Cories I have in my 55 like to hang out among things they can hide in so I might end up adding some Sag to this tank but I'll wait and see how they act first. I'd kind of like to keep it clean/bare.

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

I tore down the tank that my oldest fish had been in and then tore down another one to give it a good cleaning and get it emptied out so I could move it to where the other one had been. Got it all put back together. Shit took me the better part of 3 hours. Anyway, Eddie seems to like it.

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

On 9/20/2019 at 8:12 PM, El Diablo said:

My 20 gallon project is getting close to ready for fish. Taking just 48 hours to process a dose of ammonia. Added some plants today. I think I may go to PSmart tomorrow to see what they have in the way of Cory cats. I think with the bare sand bottom they'd look good in here.

 

I did not get any Cory cats for this tank but I did order some fish for it today. They should be here middle of next week. I bought 3 pair, they're a guppy hybrid so by this time next year, if they do what guppy do, I'll have probably a hunnert of 'em. Anyway, was messing around with the big tank tonight and saw my bristlenose pleco "Scruffy" so I grabbed the camera to get a picture. He's pretty much nocturnal and I hadn't seen him in well over a month. I put some zucchini in for him and he went right after it. Also a shot of my Pearl Gourami, "Snoop". 

[Mother mopar 3,262]

The gourami is beautiful!

 

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

The pleco is vegetarian but even the Pearl don't fuck with him when it's feeding time and the Pearl is the dominant fish in the tank during daylight hours. 

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Well finally found my next tank. I've been wanting to upgrade for a while but didn't want a conventional rectangular tank, as mu current space is limiting. So I found a 110g rimless cube with a trigger sump and nice stand. Headed to georgia Sunday morning to pick it up. I'll set up all the plumbing, do a leak test with tap water and begin making a crap ton of saltwater and start the moving/transfer process.

I'm excited about the upgrade but transferring/setting up a new tank is always a pain.  

[El Diablo 4,232]

On 10/17/2019 at 9:23 AM, Mother mopar said:

Well finally found my next tank. I've been wanting to upgrade for a while but didn't want a conventional rectangular tank, as mu current space is limiting. So I found a 110g rimless cube with a trigger sump and nice stand. Headed to georgia Sunday morning to pick it up. I'll set up all the plumbing, do a leak test with tap water and begin making a crap ton of saltwater and start the moving/transfer process.

I'm excited about the upgrade but transferring/setting up a new tank is always a pain.  

With the type of fish that I keep it's not so hazardous but I'd imagine with salt it can be a bit tricky as some of those critters are a bit sensitive, no? Then again most if not all of the inhabitants were wild caught, right? So they've already made some adjustments at some point. 

Anyway, just messing around with the camera and snapped a couple shots of my Betta, "Colt McKoi". Here's one that is just okay, slightly out of focus. Fish wouldn't stay still.

 

[El Diablo 4,232]

Oh, and the yahoo in Michigan who has some fish I want finally, supposedly, has shipped them so I think I'll have some new fish in a day or so. We'll see!

[Mother mopar 3,262]

Drove 9 hours today and picked it up. It is extremely heavy with 3/4" glass. I was able to get his 36"trigger tideline sump as well. Truly the best sump you can get.

Forgive the plumbing laying inside, I just needed somewhere to store it before I start messing with it. Plan is to do a dry run and get it all set up. Need to pick up a few new seals but most of the stuff is there to put it together.

[thunderlounge 7,582]

What a beast! Nice find!

 

 

[Mother mopar 3,262]

After measuring everything last night, its actually a 120 gallon tank not the 110 I was told. It will be a few months before shes operational as I need to get bigger power heads, more salt, rock, water etc... should be fun though