etannert

Bump. Here is tank empty - needs to be cleaned. I've had some interest in the tank/stand and in the rock, but nothing firm yet. First come first served!

Try a French press... for your coffee, that is, not your tank!

Well, returning to the thread topic, the number of posts per member is up also. At 2500 members we had about 64.4 posts per member and now we're up to 3003 members we at about 73.35 posts per member.

...unless we take Victoly out of the equation, and then we're down to 20 posts per member...

I know they have them at RCA.

My tank is fresh with brand new, clean water if you want me to hold anything. I also have 10g of saltwater you're welcome to.

Thanks Ty!!

Lost mine awhile back, looking to restart with a new frag now that the new tank's up and running! Let me know if you can offer the first livestock purchase for the new tank!!

I did! I put in Dr. Tim's a few days ago. I should do it again tomorrow... thanks for reminding me!

WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! Tank transfer is COMPLETE!!!

I started out with getting all the equipment moved over: ATO, reef keeper, doser, etc. I took my time and velcro'd everything carefully inside the stand, and made sure cords weren't getting unduly tangled (yay for velcro cord wraps). Moving the light was the hardest part, and the biggest "lesson learned" from this whole process: I didn't leave myself enough room behind the stand to get my drill back there in order to put the screws into the stand. Thank goodness for a 90 degree drill bit. It took some patience and ingenuity, but I finally managed to get the thing securely mounted. It's not quite 100% centered, but I'll take it!

After getting all the electrical stuff programmed and settled, I started on the livestock. I pulled 10 gallons of the new water from the new tank and replaced it with water from the old tank; I saved that extra water for future water changes. I moved over the few rocks that had corals encrusted on them, then pulled the rest of the rock and put it in a bucket with water and a powerhead for its future owner. I drained as much of the remaining water as I could into two different buckets, one for coral and one for livestock. I put a couple gallons of water from the new tank into the livestock bucket to act as something of an acclimation between tanks; I put SeaChem Reef Dip into the coral bucket. All the coral came out, then the livestock. My golden coral banded shrimp was none too happy to be caught, and dropped his forearms in defense, but he'll recover. My Helfrichi jumped from the bucket on the way into the tank, but seeing as I've never made it through a tank move without a fire fish jumping, I took this as a good sign. (I picked him up and put him in the tank in a matter of a few seconds.)

Today was just about getting everything in the tank. There was a decent amount of sand kicked up when I moved some of the rock work, so I was sort of blindly placing frag plugs in the sand, trying not to let anything touch. I'll take time the rest of the week to shift things into more permanent locations, once everything has had a chance to settle. Most of the fish have been out and about a bit, with the exception of my Helfrichi, who is shy on even an average day. My tribal blenny is missing in action - once I had all the rock out of the old tank I realized he wasn't in with the rest of the fish, so I pulled all the extra rock from the bucket just to make sure he hadn't hidden in a hole somewhere. He wasn't in the bucket with the extra rock, so I figure he must have hitchhiked into the new tank on one of the few pieces of rock that went straight from one tank to the other. I can't figure where else he might have gone; he's not in the bucket with extra rock and he's not in the old tank (and yes, I did see him this morning before the whole adventure started). Hopefully he'll turn up in a day or two.

The last thing to get figured out is, I have a ton of micro bubbles coming into the display through the return. There's not a lot of room in the sump and I think it's being caused the drain, even though I have it as far away from the return as possible. I'll wait and see how much letting things slime over the next few days helps before I decide if something like a filter sock will be necessary.

Before livestock transfer:

Everything's in! Yay!

Sure. Plenty of folks start out with small AIO tanks because they are an inexpensive entry into the hobby. I started out with a Biocube 14 and was able to maintain 3 fish and decent selection of easy coral (GSP, Kenya trees, various zoas, frogspawn, mushrooms, etc.) in it for more than a year before I upgraded. The only caveat is that sometimes it's harder to get PC bulbs locally, so you have to plan ahead for bulb changes. Other than that, go for it! Do some research on Nano-Reef and you will see plenty of good examples after which to model yourself.

The order actually shipped out midday yesterday - we might have it Monday but more likely Tuesday due to the backlog at the school.

Beautiful tank! I'm interested in the livestock if you part out. I'd take it all but I have my own Solana to sell!

Applied the Weldon 16to the sump and ATO reservoir yesterday and leak tested today - not the full 24 hrs as Bogdan suggested, but several hours, and with more water than I intend to keep in them. Both passed with flying colors and so I was able to get everything hooked back up tonight, finished filling all up, and added salt. Mixing overnight and tomorrow I'll add the Dr. Tim's. Livestock transfer and final equipment transfer Friday/Saturday (depending on the progression of the cold I've managed to catch) and whew, it'll all be done before we go back to school Monday. Provided no disasters strike between now and then...

Regardless of whether a coral is photosynthetic or not, they need varying level of nutrients in the water as well. Despite the presence of the algae I would tend to suspect (based on what little I know of most gorgs' natural habitats - more lagoonal, "dirty" water environments) that your system was too clean for the little guy. Then again I could be completely off base...

Me three.

Thanks for replying, Mike!

Order placed - I'll let everyone know when it arrives!

Ran into a hiccup tonight... 50 gallons in, the sump springs a leak... this is what I get for not leak-testing my own acrylic work! Laziness just leads to more work later. I pumped out enough water to get the water line below the level of the leak, and tomorrow I'll pull the sump, drain it, dry it, and apply a coat of Weldon #16 to all the seams just in case. Not sure why I didn't think of that earlier. Hopefully that will take care of this and any other potential leaks. It sets be a day behind on getting the tank up and running, but that's what I get for not taking care of this earlier.

Note of interest: the sand and rock is displacing more water than I thought it would - between rock, sand, and splash room (it's rimless), I'd guess the tank is only holding about 45-50 gallons. Add about 10 in the sump and a 60g drilled system will hold less than the tank itself is sized...

Order will be placed in an hour. Anyone else?

I'd like to place the order ASAP since it's all dry goods, but I'm sure it won't come in till early next week due to the holiday. Also I'll have to have it delivered to me at school, and for some reason that seems to add a day to the delivery. I can hold things for folks until a mutually convenient pick-up can be arranged.

DShel got me over the free shipping hump so anyone else who wants to add on feel free, but not obligated. I'll give it through midnight tonight and place the order late tonight or first thing in the morning.

Anyone need anything? I'm $28 away from free shipping.

Now that the new 60g is nearly done, it's time for its predecessor to find a new home.

Solana tank and stand

34g Solana AIO

Black Solana stand

comes with return pump, Solana skimmer, glass top, and a nearly-new inTank Solana media rack/sponge holder set

NO LIGHT - I'm keeping the disco ball halide for the new set-up

I'm the set-up's second owner so there are some light scratches and the stand has some small damage from adhesive strips - nothing very noticeable.

Asking $200. Feel free to make me an offer; lowballs will be ignored. I'm willing to discount the price if you're willing to clean the tank - the layout of my apartment does not make maneuvering a big tank in and out of a tub an exciting prospect...

Tunze 9002 skimmer

Also available is a Tunze 9002 skimmer. I'll give it a good vinegar rinse and tune up before it goes to its new home. Comes with pump (not quite sure what I have running it right now, I think a MJ1200?) and inTank Solana lid. Bought this one used as well so not quite sure of its age. Asking $80.

I'm aiming for all equipment to be ready to pick up by next Friday or Saturday at the latest. Once I go back to school on Monday my schedule gets difficult to schedule pick-ups around, so keep that in mind.

I'll have some live items for free and for sale once the tank gets broken down:

used live sand (free)

a little leftover dry sand (free)

some LR I won't need in the new tank (prob around $20/rock)

Purchasers of the hardware/equipment can have first dibs on the above items.

I'll post pics tomorrow. PM with questions. Thanks for looking!

New tank got wet today. 20g in, about another 50 to go. I'm making RO 5 gallons at a time and dumping it in, then plan to add the salt at the end and mix in tank, so this will take a couple days. Good thing I have a whole 'nother week of winter break to go! I have some Dr. Tim's at the ready and plan to finish filling/mixing tomorrow, then transfer livestock around Wednesday or Thursday. Time to get the old tank listed for sale.

Fire shrimp don't eat shrooms. They probably floated into a crevice. They may have dissolved or you may one day move a rock and find them hiding there. Best way to secure a mushroom of any sort is with rubber band or some kind of mesh.

Ditto! And sorry I missed the party!

Hydrometers are notoriously inaccurate, even when the readings are repeatable (when an upward swing of just a few ppm can kill all your livestock, it's pretty important to be correct). Why not go to an LFS, ask them to check with a refractometer, and be sure? The worst that can happen is that they say your hydrometer is dead on. And you might find out that it's not. Better than spiking your salinity up to 1.031 and killing everything, and won't cost you anything but your time and gas.