Finally got approval from the wife to have a "fish tank"

[Jimmy55002000]

Here are the pictures of what I have done with the cooler. The sump lid contains 2-18" florescent grow lights (although I think 1 will be enough) and the biggest computer fan I could find which is pulling air into the sump. The sump has 3 partitions and a bubble trap; one for the skimmer with the water line from the tank, the 12-gallon refugium, and a cavity for the heater/ return pump.

I haven't ever posted pictures on this site and it seems a little funky, but I included them in an attachment. The sump looks inaccessible, but the lid lifts up and clips into the ceiling of the cabinet so it actually gives me a lot of room to get into the sump and work without having to remove anything except the skimmer cup. All in all I think the setup looks pretty clean and I'm pretty happy with it. Now I just need to find out how to get 75 gallons of water from the basement into the tank... After my T-Day break. Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

That looks great. Are there large enough holes in the top to let the air that gets forced in via the fan to easily escape? Be aware that the fan will cause a lot of evaporation, which will cool the water and increase the salinity. That's great in the summer, but maybe not in the winter. Also, since those lights look like they could easily get wet, it would be a good idea to put everything on a GFI plug (Ground Fault Interrupt)

looks good.

 

[DWhatley]

We have had a number of GFI trips, all because something got wet that should not have. One time it was the outlet itself when the fill hose found a mind of its own. Definite recommendation. The other safety device we have added on some of the outlets is an outdoor cover. I don't have them all but have added them where we have occassion to spill water too close to the outlet.

LOL, I was staring at that trying to figure out how you would get INTO it until reading that the lid is not hinged

 

[Jimmy55002000]

Well, My tank has been up and running for a week now and with the exception of a small drip, which was easily remedied, it all went down without a hitch. The cooler sump is operating exactly as imagined, I have only seen a two degree fluctuation in the main tank temp and with the larger volume of water in the sump, even at 100% full of water, I still have just barely enough room to unplug the whole tank without worrying about an overflow (which is nice because the tank is still in my room and I am a very light sleeper). When I wake up, the power goes on and when I go to bed, the power goes off.

I think the curing process of my Aragocrete rock was nearing completion because when the cure started, TDS of cure water would go from 87ppm to 887ppm over the period of 12 hours. By the time the curing process was stopped, cure water would go from 87 to 150ppm over a 12-hour period. Either way, I threw all the rock in my sump to complete the cure. I would like to get some live sand activator and some chaeto going to establish the biological filter, but I don't want to waste the money if chaeto and live sand won't survive because the rock is still curing.

My question is of the hardiness of chaeto and the organisms I will find in the live sand activator. Will they survive? I have 40 pounds of aragocrete in the sump and a tube sock full of activated carbon bobbing around in the display to help suck up impurities that the rock may still be leeching. I also have a 3-inch deep bed of aragonite substrate

My params are as follows;

Salinity; 1.024
Ammonia; .50 ppm
Nitrate; .20 ppm
Nitrite; .10
PH; 8.7
Temp 63.4 degrees F (without a heater)

Keep in mind that the tank has only been running for a week and the only thing I added which might have had some life was a couple ounces of black sand my sister collected from Maui. My plan was to let the system go for another month, do a large water change and if my parameters are still good add a couple Damsels or a cleaner crew about a week after the change.

Oh, and good call on the GFI, the sump lights are very susceptible to condensation.

Thank you D-whatley (and everybody else), no matter how retarded my ideas seem to me, you always provide another angle I haven't thought about.

 

[Jimmy55002000]

Oh yea, I was going to order 3 pounds of GARF grunge to seed the substrate/rock, but I think they are on vacation or something...

 

[Jimmy55002000]

Oh, Oh yea. My wet/dry filter is not going to be used anymore as is will not meet my needs. Normally I would put it on ebay, but since I support the idea of TONMO so much, I will give it to any member providing you pay for shipping. It's been previously used but still in good condition. Will ship complete with bio balls, fitting and tubing. I'm not sure of it's volume, but I read it will work for a tank of up to 60 gallons and it filtered my 55 gal for years with the pervious owner.

 

[Jimmy55002000]

I have a question (well it turned into questions), my tank is in the middle of it's cycle, and I DO NOT want to do a water change until the water (bacteria) stabilizes- Correct? Just monitor and top off?

and also, I have a lot of Aragocrete rocks in the tank I made which have awesome surface area, so will I be able to skip out on live rock? I was planning on picking up a bunch of dead rubble rock for my refugium. I (should) have 10 lbs of garf grunge on the way.

and the last Q; all DSB will eventually crash? Is that true? I have about 4-inch deep sand bed but I designed the tank to be a cuttle tank, and from what I have read they like to burrow in the sand when they are young, could this be potentially dangerous? Should I reduce the sand bed in the tank and leave the anaerobic bacteria in my refugium?

Thanks Everybody!

P.S. Sorry for the long posts, sometimes my excitement gets the best of me... I will work on it.

 

[SabrinaR]

and the last Q; all DSB will eventually crash? Is that true? I have about 4-inch deep sand bed but I designed the tank to be a cuttle tank, and from what I have read they like to burrow in the sand when they are young, could this be potentially dangerous? Should I reduce the sand bed in the tank and leave the anaerobic bacteria in my refugium?

P.S. Sorry for the long posts, sometimes my excitement gets the best of me... I will work on it.

No worries about the long post... at some point or another we all do it lol.

As far as the sand I would say yes take some out. I think personally that a 2 inch sand bed or less would be fine but I am just starting with cuttles myself. From what I have read to much sand can be dangerous for them.

 

[DWhatley]

DSB's are tricky and from my reading should be in their own environment or a reef without sand disturbing critters (fuge, should work well). I also read that unless they are a full 6" deep, you are unlikely to get benefit but are likely to get pockets of poisonous gas. I have a small one in my reef sump and I did start seeing some benefit after about 3 years but when I redo the tank, I will likely eliminate it in favor of having more work room in the small sump.

I have not used artificial rock nor Graf's concoction but did consider it at one time (you were supposed to embed the stuff in your rock as I recall) so I have no feel for how well and how fast it matures a tank.

Most people will do a large water change about midcycle, after the tank spikes and starts to stabalize. Keeping the algae down is probably a good idea even in the beginning. If your nitrate starts to climb, you will problably want to start exporting water on a regular basis.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

I noticed that when my octopus digs in my deep sand bed, my nitrates go up. What I think is happening is that the digging exposes anaerobic bacteria in the sand (which consume nitrate) to oxygen, which kills them, and reduced the amount of nitrate being consumed. I'm a big fan of a RDSB, "Remote deep sand bed" (5 gallon buck full of play sand with water flowing over it). The increased depth houses many more anaerobic bacteria, so it consumes more nitrate, and it's easy to remove from the system if you ever get nervous about it.

It's very generous of you to offer to give away your wet/dry filter. Shipping might be expensive, and it would help people estimate shipping cost if you were to post the dimensions and the weight.

I've always wanted to try aragocrete. Did you flush it for a few days/weeks with fresh water to make it less alkaline. If not, I understand that it will raise your PH dangerously.

 

[Jimmy55002000]

Excellent Information- very useful! Thanks! I have room in my fuge for a 16"x16"x10" DSB. Looks like I'm going to have some leftover substrate...

My Wet/Dry is 20"x10"x16". I guess I'm feeling generous because I didn't have thousands of dollars to blow on this project, in fact I have accomplished very much with very little. So I wouldn't mind giving a good deal to somebody following in my footsteps.

I got sum Cobras (snakes) for sale, too! Haha, Bruce Eisenmann Joke (with bad grammar and all)!

I cured the Aragocrete in hot water for 2 months and it hasn't raised my PH, in fact it seems very stable, it has been hovering in the optimal 8.3 range for quite some time. I Do have another 20lbs of home made still curing, but they are large 5 lb pieces. I was going to get some live rock eventually, but as little as possible- hopefully just 1 big chunk.

When I start a journal I will include everything I have done; recipe I used for rock and all the DIY stuff and how well its working.

If interested in the filter just hit me up and I will get a shipping quote for you.

 

[Jimmy55002000]

Pretty disappointed with Garf and Grunge, unfortunately. It wasn't worth my money (but if you've got enough, maybe yours). When I finally heard back from Leroy he was very nice. Apologized about 50 times for "losing my order". He never found my other order... Thought he would have got me the good stuff for that but it looks like it was scraped off a road... and my bag was 3 lbs short. What I got is worth 50c/Lb... For $5/LB I feel a bit robbed... sorry Garf

 

[Jimmy55002000]

Is there any reason for me to correct a high calcium concentration? I noticed my ph drop to 7.8 so I checked the params; Calcium 580ppm and KH 142ppm. This happened right after a small water change. I haven't dosed anything and am pretty reluctant as everyone looks very content and I have had an explosion of algae. First a slime algae covering the rocks (which the mollies keep in check for me), diatoms and finally coralline. I was pondering Baking soda (or washing soda) because my understanding is it will boost ph and kh and knock down calcum. Any Ideas? Let it run it's course?

I also think I'm going to ditch the RDSB for plants and homes for critters. Looks too small... like a time bomb.

 

[Jimmy55002000]

Does anybody else have fish that try to swim into the test tubes while you are testing water? Lol, they all nip at my fingers while my hands are in the tank and one finally managed to swim INSIDE the test tube last night. Hahaha

 

[ieatfalalfel]

Yes, my freshwater tank has some danios that do that.