gibs

No problem, glad to help. I've been having a little more time lately since we are selling off the business.

A typical sump will have 3 chambers. Intake...where I like to run the skimmer, refugium and then return where the return pump goes and the last chamber is always the chamber that has evaporation.

You could get some glass cut and sylicone them into the 25g tank. Last section should have a bubble trap....this just makes the water travel longer to pop all of the bubbles so they aren't sent to your display. Google sump designs and you will see what I mean.

Thanks Cob this is the kind of stuff I am looking for

Really appreciate the support and comments Mr Cob! One question my "sump" that came with this tank is basically just a another 25g tank. You talked about running the skimmer in the first chamber? Are you talking about maybe putting a divider in the sump? Maybe I should be looking at picking up a different sump?

Thanks again for all the advice!

Well one 3/4 is very easy to bend if you can just find you something sturdy enough and big enough to bend it around. 2. when you go to home depot walk across the aisle grab a bender and just do a rough measurement and bend it right there. (The will also do this for you if you find someone and if you have the measurements they can get it pretty close with out doing any cutting). 3. Same home depot will rent one for 10$ a day I think with a 50$ deposit.

Well here a few photos of my new tank for 400$ I dont think I did to bad.

Stand looks ok but its a little rough think before I put it together going to sand it and redo some hardware.

Tank has a bunch of calcification and detrius but everything I have heard is a little vinegar and elbow grease will clean this right up!

Overflow looks awful lol!

Hood. Lights don't work supposedly they did before but I think I am going to DIY LED kit anyways!

Sump!

Well I know that the apartment I stay at has a huge water softener and a DI unit because our water out here is so hard. But yeah I need to invest in a UV light since I am fixing to be doing water changes in 85 gallon tank!

If anyone can identify the reddish looking snail the black one and the big white one that I have one pic of cause as soon as I put it in it burrowed under the gravel and haven't seen it but one other time LOL, I would appreciate it.

The burrowing one is a nassarius. They don't eat algae, but they clean up leftover food and possibly some detritus. When you feed the tank he will most likely appear.

The small dark one is a cerith. The light one by the return is a nerite. The cone shaped one is a trochus. I think the one on the overflow is a margarita, but someone may want to confirm this.

As far as your additives, I would leave the tank alone and just keep up with weekly water changes. In my experience it's unnecessary at best and dangerous most of the time to mess with parameters in a tank this small. Do 10 - 20% water change per week with good matched water and you should be fine. If you get your water at the same place every time, it should be about the same every time you do a change.

If you're going to be in South Austin any time soon I have some chaeto you can have.

Thanks for the identification jestep! Yeah I have quit dosing the tank and everything is fine it just seems like I do water changes and the nitrates never go down. Let me know a good time for you and I will be more than happy to stop by and pick up some cheato from you thursday through sunday whatever is good for you. Thanks man I really appreciate it!

gibs,

If you need water, let me know. I can make 15-20g for you. That should last a while. Pick up a couple of those big plastic water containers from walmart and bring them over. short drive for ya lol You will need salt though, not sure if you have been getting pre made water or if you do it yourself like most of us do.

Derrick I have just been using the aquatek water but the last water change was with my tap water here dechlorinated and it seems to test out fine. Testing before the mix and after all the levels are fine my tank water just wants to stay at 5.0 p.p.m no matter how many water changes I do but ammonia and nitrites are 0.

Who is a good person to talk to about getting some? Found a few places online I can order it from if that is the best route.

My tap water has zero nitrates also tested ammonia, and nitrites nothing on any of them.

Copper very unlikely. If any was in the tank, minimal amounts would be absorbed by the silicone. A good scrubbin with vinegar and all should be well. There are some chemicals out there that absorb copper though if it was to show up. Your on the right track though. Slow is good. Patience is the hardest thing to come by in this hobby....lol

Thanks Derrick and yeah I know patience is what is required but some times it is really hard LOL

Supposedly this tank had nothing but corals in it previously and no copper ever added. Anyway to actually test this though? Maybe when I fill it with tap water to double check leaks once I get it all hooked up I can let it run for a few days then test for copper?

Hey guys I couldn't help myself I am loving my Nano tank but all of my research that I have done says I need a bigger tank for the fish I really want to keep!

This is a used tank that looks solid but needs a little bit of cleaning up. I really want to plan this out completely before adding a bunch of stuff so over the next few weeks I am asking you guys to help me with my parts list and livestock list (though I will be adding livestock slowly). So I am making a list of things I need and plans for what I want to put in it. I will add pics tomorrow when I pick it up and more info on the lighting it already has.

Hardware:

This tank already has a overflow built into it and drilled with a 25g sump and light for it. I want this sump to be a refugium with some LR and macroalgae to help control nitrates and extra filtration. A list of things I need below.

1. Pump maybe - numerous pumps? How big what brand is good? I have a apex controller so eheims I think I can control with it?

2. Protein skimmer - Again what is a good one how big should I get?

3. Calcium reactor? Kalwasser reactor? Do I need these what should I look for?

4 ATO? I believe this is just for evaporation? How big of a container do I need for a tank this size for top off?

5 What else am I not thinking of?

Livestock

I really want some dwarf lion fish and a golden dwarf moray eel. I am thinking 2 lionfish with the eel and one or 2 other brightly colored fish. (my kids really want some ocellaris. I am thinking something like the tomato ocellaris or the black ocellaris which are a little bit bigger would do okay). I want to stick with mainly some mushrooms and some leathers for corals and eventually a bubble tip anemone but that will be far down the road. So hear is the list.

1. Dwarf fuzzy lionfish

2. Dwarf zebra lionfish (not 100% on either of the lionfish yet but they will be around that size maybe a fu man chu?)

3. Golden dwarf moray eel.

4. Maybe some larger ocellaris? Open to suggestions

5. CUC? What works good with these predator fish?

6. Would love a big seastar or 2

7. Mushroom corals couple different colors/species suggestions?

8. Blue and red sponge (I know these are hard to get without being exposed to air but supposedly easy to take care of if shipped properly and I think they are beautiful)

9. Toadstool leather

10. Would like a big centerpiece coral any suggestions? Lots of color!

Any help guys would be appreciated Thanks in advance!

Hmm even doing 3 gallon water changes every other day my nitrates are still at 5.0 p.p.m. Any thoughts or suggestions?

oops sorry should read more never mind LOL

any pics?

LOL I recently added some snails to my tank and one of them immediately burrowed in the sand. When my ammonia levels went up a hair a few days later and I hadn't seen him again I thought he had died and spent half a hour slowly sifting through sand till I found him. Pulled him out, he was moving so I put him back in and haven't seen him in 5 days now LOL.

Keep a reservoir of premixed SW and add auto topoff. It will make your life infinately easier.

Not sure I understand that correctly, The auto topoff would be for water evaporation so it should be normal distilled water right? If I understand right the SW I should be mixing like a week ahead of time and just using a simple up to aerate it and get it thourghly mixed correct?

pm sent

Pm sent

Hey guys sorry I haven't updated this week its been a little crazy with the holiday here is a link to some pictures I took. The first one is my live rock covered in algae after getting the tank cycled second one is how good it looked 2 days after adding some CUC. On 7/1 I added 6 hermit crabs and and 7 snails. If anyone can identify the reddish looking snail the black one and the big white one that I have one pic of cause as soon as I put it in it burrowed under the gravel and haven't seen it but one other time LOL, I would appreciate it. Aquatek was really busy when I picked them up and the sales guy was extremely busy, and was going to write the names down for me but soon as I paid turned around and started helping someone else and I didn't bother to wait and wish I had. On Thursday I added one frogspawn, green star polyp, and zoanthid. Wasn't really planning on getting anyone yet but was out with some friends on the 4th and a friend of a friend I met was taking down his nano cube and basically gave these to me for coming to pick them up. So I guess good or not I got them and if they don't work no loss right? Ammonia and nitrites went up after adding the cuc calmed back down 2 days later after doing water changes and just letting the tank settle. Ph sits a 7.83-7.94 but alkalinity is at 10 dkh so not sure if I should be concerned about the low ph but baking soda just seems to increase my hardness and not my ph. Everything looks good the polyps and zoa's opened up after just 30 minutes after acclimating them and adding them to the tank. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions feel free to chime in

Forgot to add the link

https://plus.google.com/photos/117278173773073762131/albums/5762586361103796577?authkey=CJ_nmIWp0ejFpAE

Welcome and good luck! Small tanks are tricky, test often.

Welcome. Small tanks are tough. I kept a 5 g - frequent water changes is key. Good luck.

Welcome! Looking forward to seeing your build; always coveted that nuvo tank at aquatek!

Thanks for the welcome guys! I have indeed already learned that keeping a small tank with stable water quality is a challenge and wishing I had gone with a larger tank as my first one! Oh well next step is learning how to mix my own saltwater already tired of going down to austin to aquatek for water every week!

Thanks again!

Welcom! I'm new myself as well and have gotten far more friendly and fast advice on here than in much larger forums. Even scored some awesome equipment from the classifieds. One piece of advice id give, is if you're going for a damsel, I recommend an azure damsel. They're probably the most gentle and peaceful of the damsels and really nice looking. Most other damsels are quite aggressive from what I've read

Thanks to all for the welcome. Bpb I think I was thinking of something else when I said damsel but if I do it will be the only fish in the aquarium but don't think I am going that route. Thanks for the advice and welcome

Thanks for the advice! I will do a small dose tonight with a water change and see what happens. Yeah I know it needs to go slowly so I will thanks again to all who responded.

On a tank this small, there is going to be swings due to the low volume. Good luck getting it stable. Would get on a very strict routine of dripping at super slow rate, or like Rob says, lots of water changes.

I guess that is my problem it has been extremely stable usually only moving a few .01 in the whole day but as soon as I put my CUC in in dropped and I don't know why! It is stabilized at 7.86 and hasn't moved the whole day and I tested with my chemical tests to confirm. I guess now my question is should I do another 3g water change? Just leave it as long as it doesn't keep dropping? Should I do something else to increase the ph? I don't think this is going to bother my snails and crabs much as they have been gorging themselves on the algae that is on my live rock since I put them in and have been moving all over the place. I can already see a dramatic change in my live rock where they have eaten the brown algae, but I want to put some corals in here in the next week and from what I have read the PH really needs to be in the 8.2 area? Temps are rock steady at 78.9 and doesn't really move much and alkalinity is at 2.0. Anything else I should be checking?

Yes I did check the premix with my red sea test kit it is at 8.1 so it should be fine?

Also, did you check the pH level of the pre-mix?

Don't know if this will help, but check out: http://www.advanceda...02/11/chemistry particularly look at the section for Zone 3. Also, within that article, they refer to this: http://www.advanceda...002/6/chemistry

Since you are just breaking in the tank I assume the Apex is newly set up too. If so, do you have another way to test pH in case the Apex is simply needing the probe reset?

I also agree that 7.89 is not something to worry about; but maybe measure again 2 - 3 hours after lights out or look at the Apex graph the next morning.

-Bryan

I am have been doing a normal chemical test to make sure that the apex is giving accurate readings and it was right on this morning. Haven't retested with my red sea test kit yet was going to wait till morning to see if it stabilizes. It has been extremely stable since I have started cycling the tank going between 8.0 and 8.1 max (usually more like 8.08 to 8.11) Never seen it go below 8.0 and thought the PH was supposed to stay above 8 thats why I am freaking a little.

The short answer is no; although that is a pretty good drop.

IMO, pH is not something one should worry about excessively. If you are swinging from 8.1 to 7.8 every day, that would be an issue.

If it stays 7.8-7.9, it's ok.

Stability is the key.

Robb and Bryan thank you both I know that sometimes PH will dip a little then come back but it just freaked me a little when it has been so stable then I finally get to put some life in the tank and it starts dropping lol.