azcummins' Blog

[+mcallahan]

I decided before I go starting a blog, I'd put some background down on my tank(s) so everyone knows where I'm coming from.

20g

My 20 gallon tank was a birthday gift from my wife. She bought an all-in-one setup and had the intention of it being a FW setup. I had a SW setup when I was a kid, so I knew what I had to do...CONVERT IT TO SW! Her immediate reaction was...aren't those really expensive?

$400 later I converted it over and we were off! After 2 months of having fish and inverts, my wife says, "we need a bigger tank". DING, DING, DING! Access granted to upgrade program..!

55g

Going the 100% new route was way too expensive, so I turned to Craig's list. There were several nice tanks out for sale, including a 120 gallon setup that was a dream of a system. The seller probably had $10,000 invested and was ready to let it all go for $1200. The problem was it would have been WAY too big for our 1200 sq ft house.

I also found a nice 75g setup, but the guy wanted $650 for it...a little out of the budget. Plus I'd have to put another $400 to bring it up to speed (new skimmer, sump, overflow, etc), so I let that one go as well.

Then I stumbled upon a 55g setup that the owner was letting go of for $100. $100 for the tank, lights, pumps, LR, LS, fish, inverts, etc. SOLD! I needed a stand, but found one on craig's list for $20.

Transporting the tank was easy as the owner gave me 25 gallons worth of buckets to transport the old water. The LR went into a bucket and some went into the cooler with the fish. I went ahead and got 20# additional pounds of LS as there was only a 1" sand bed in the tank.

My wife and I pulled all the sand out of the tank knowning that we'd stir up the nitrates, etc, but we wanted to give the tank a good scrub as the algae growth was a little out of hand. (The previous owner didn't have any snails in tank). We took the tank outside and scrubbed it down, then applied the black backing to the tank. We then added in the old sand and mixed it with the new LS, placed the rock and filled the tank with the old water and new SW I got from Aquatek. 2 hours later, the fish went in and the water testing began.

I knew the nitrates would be an issue and I was worried about what fish and inverts wouldn't make it through the nitrate spike, but surprisingly, everyone made it with flying colors. Initial nitrate readings were 80 ppm, so I did a 50% water change 3 days after the move. The next morning, the nitrates were back to 80ppm. Esch...with all the bacteria in the tank, I felt like they should be dropping, but I knew i was gambling with the removal of all the sand.

I had a protein skimmer (Tunze Nano) running the whole time and it was busy pulling out gunk from the tank. Ever had a really bad sinus infection and you pull some nasty greenish/tanish looking snot from your sinuses? Yeah, that was what was appearing in my skimmer. It was pulling out so much stuff that I had to empty it 2x daily. This rapid accumulation of organic matter in the skimmer would explain my nitrate issue.

I did a 20% water change after a week, and the next day the nitrates were still high. I knew a refugium would fix my issue faster than just letting the tank cycle, but I'm just not a fan of overflow boxes so I did some investigating into hang on back (HOB) refugiums. I'll post about my experience with that in another entry, but it did the trick. 3 days after adding it, the nitrates dropped to 30 ppm. Time to add more fish!

Here is the tank as I found it at the previous owners house

[+mcallahan]

When I needed to add a refugium to my 55g tank, I knew had 2 options - HOB or overflow box. Drilling the tank was out since the tank was already established.

I wasn't a fan of the overflow box idea due to the danger of a hose coming off and dumping water all over the hardwood floor. I know it probably would never happen, but I didn't want to risk it.

My initial research on HOB refugiums was largely worthless. I couldn't find any personal accounts of people using them. In addition, I couldn't decided if I wanted to get an all-in-one (light, mud, pumps, skimmer), or just get the box and pump and make it custom. The price for an all-in-one was about $400, while I could get into a custom one for $150. I'd still need to buy an external skimmer with the custom refugium, but I was ok with that fact as I am a HUGE fan of the TUNZE skimmers b/c they work. Yes, they are more expensive, but they work, so they are worth it in my opinion.

After scratching my head for several days, I decided to stop by Aquatek and ask them what they thought. They agreed that getting a good skimmer is key and they said I could get the lights that the HOB refugium maker sold, but that I could probably get good results just from getting a light @ Home Depot/Lowe's. In the end I bought the sump & pump + mud for $175 vs. the $400 for the all-in-one. Thank you Aquatek!

Putting the refugium together was easy. Just place it on the tank, tighten the screws and connect the pump. the pump was a little hard to get onto the pipping, but with some wiggling, it was secure and ready to go. I added the mud while there was no water in the refugium, then poured water from the tank into the refugium itself. As expected, the mud got stirred up, but I let it sit for 2 hours before turning on the pump. Once the pump was on, some of the still suspended mud got into my tank, but it wasn't enough to notice. Next I added several pieces of branch LR to help with the bacteria seeding.

After the LR was in there, I headed to Lowe's and picked up a small fluorescent light and mounted it behind the tank. There was no indication on the bulb what colors it threw, but for $20, I decided I could gamble.

I stopped by Aquatek on the way home and grabbed some Cheato algae to help suck up the nitrates in my tank. Mounting the light was easy, I just mounted it to the wall behind the tank and I plopped in the algae.

3 days later, my nitrates dropped to 30 pm from the 80 ppm where they had been and I headed back to Aquatek to add more livestock.

If you are looking for a cheap alternative to a sump or overflow box, I'd highly recommend the HOB refugium route. My total cost was $200 for the refugium, mud and light and I don't have to worry about hoses becoming disconnected and causing a flood.

Final setup:

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[+ACampbell]

Nice entry! Featuring it for a little while.

[+mcallahan]

Ooohh...should I check my grammar?

[beefytang]

I'm using the same HOB refugium on a frag tank. I dig it. Cool article. Hope to see more. Thanks.

[+mcallahan]

I'm using the same HOB refugium on a frag tank. I dig it. Cool article. Hope to see more. Thanks.

Do you have miracle mud in the bottom of it as well? If so, what has been your experience with the mud? Someone today mentioned they thought it put more nitrates in the tank than sucked out of it.

Thanks for the reply.

[beefytang]

Looking forward to how this tank evolves!

[+mcallahan]

Update:

The chaeto doesn't seem to be growing as fast as I'd like, so I've purchased a cheap power compact for the refugium. $12 off ebay and it should be here by the end of the week.

Jebo light for refugium

[+mcallahan]

As many of you know, I got my 55g tank off of craigslist.org. When I got the tank, it had the following fish in it:

- 2 yellowtail damsels

- 1 maroon clown

- 1 royal dotty back

- 1 yellow tang

The tang had no fins...I mean no fins. See pic #1. I'm guessing the damsels ate them off. The tang was happy as could be though. He cruised the tank, would stop and look at you, etc. No worries! He looked like hell though.

Tang after the move

When I moved the tank, I pitched the damsels into my 20g nano to see if the tang would recover. Sure enough, after a day of distress (he spent he day hovering parallel to the sand), the next day he starting eating like a monster and swimming around normally. I started feeding him dried algae and he'd eat a 2"x3" piece in an hour. After a couple of days, his fins started to grow back.

Then one day I noticed my long spine urchin had hooked itself to the dried seaweed I feed the tang. The tang was pissed off and decided he wanted his share, so he'd carefully try to work his way around the urchin to get a bite. The tang did get a couple of bites w/out getting stabbed by the urchin, but they were really close calls!

However, the next day, the tang was stuck in a vertical orientation. He could straighten himself out for about 3 seconds, then he'd be back to being inverted. Before he'd go vertical to pick through the sand, but now he was staying vertical for hours on end. This wasn't good.

Inverto-tang

I thought for sure this would be the end of the guy. He stayed inverted for 2 more days w/out showing any signs of improvement. By the 3 day though, he was spending about 50% of the day inverted and 50% swimming around. He could eat again by day 3 and by the start of day 4, he was swimming around like nothing had happened. This tang is a tank!

I can only guess that the tang might have gotten stabbed by the urchin and was temporarily paralyzed by the poison in the spine. I have no proof to substantiate this claim, but its the best I can come up with as nothing had happened with the tank that'd make the tang become inverto-tang.

People on other forums and my wife had written the tang off for dead, but I decided I'd give him 3 days to either die or improve. He must of heard me talking b/c he's back to being the yellow tang that could!

I believe it was in the movie "Sea Biscuit" where the trainer played by Chris Cooper tells the owner of Sea Biscuit -

"You don't throw something out because its old and part wore out" (the actual line is different but I don't own the movie to do an exact quote).

Point taken.

I'll keep updating everyone with pictures so we can see if I can ever get him to be a 100% normal tang again.

[+dapettit]

That's AWESOME! Glad to see the little guy is improving.

[+dapettit]

Very nice start. I always love a bit of history.

[+mcallahan]

Its been 1 week since I did my last water change so I decided to do one today after I checked my nitrates - back up to 60 ppm! What the heck?! I haven't added any fish in over a week, my clownfish has stopped burrowing and while I feed a lot when I feed (2x a day), everything gets cleaned up by the fish and cleanup crew.

As far as I can tell, there isn't anything dying in the tank unless one of the bumble bee snails died somewhere that I can't see him. I figure the arrow crab would eat his dead remains even if he did die somewhere in the tank. Nonetheless, my nitrates just won't drop.

I've come to 2 conclusions. Either:

1. Since the tank had a lot of slime algae before I got it (the old owner didn't have any snails for cleanup, just crabs), and since the turbo snails have eaten off all the algae, the rock surface is now exposed and is re-generating bacteria. Nothing to do except to wait for the bacteria to spread.

2. My cheato algae isn't getting enough light. The home depot cheapo I bought might not be throwing off the right spectrum so the algae can't grow and therefore can't suck up the nitrates. In fact, it might even be slowly dying. Luckily I ordered a small compact fluorescent that arrived today. $12 for a 7W bulb that throws off light in the 6500K range. It says it is specifically made to make aquatic plant life grow. I'll wait to see if the chaeto picks up speed.

Either case, I'm stuck waiting for nature to do its thing. I'll keep everyone updated.

Pics of the new light:

[cmanning]

Water changes will lower your nitrates, also if you can cut back on the feed. As for the lighting.....I think you made the right decision on increasing lighting for your macro algae to grow. It wouldn't hurt to add some carbon in the refugium on the return side ( just remember to change it before it becomes a nitrate factory.) Good Luck!

[+mcallahan]

Water changes will lower your nitrates, also if you can cut back on the feed. As for the lighting.....I think you made the right decision on increasing lighting for your macro algae to grow. It wouldn't hurt to add some carbon in the refugium on the return side ( just remember to change it before it becomes a nitrate factory.) Good Luck!

Hmmm...I'll try the feeding reduction. I just try to feed enough that some of the food gets past the fish so that the starfish can eat some solid chunks of mysis. The pecking order is basically this:

- yellow tang (tie w/Maroon clown)

- dotty back - she mainly hangs off to the side till the tang and clown are done

- pink spot goby - hovers mid-water waiting for something to get past the tang and clown

- arrow crab (will sometimes steal food from stars)

- hermit crabs

- nassarius snails

- starfish - 2 serpent stars

[cmanning]

I forgot to add.....are all your turbo snails accounted for....if not, may I suggest you find any dead ones. They can pollute your water so quickly that you don't even notice they're the cause. Just another possibility to check it out.

[+mcallahan]

well the turbos are for sure still alive - you can't miss those guys!

Feeding reduction was started today. I'll keep everyone posted.

[+ACampbell]

Try to cut down on feeding, at least for now. I had a brittle star in my tank for a year and a half and never once spot feed it. It was in a tank with a lot of tangs that would quickly eat any food. Just trying to say that it found other food sources. Detritus, micro fauna, etc...

[+dapettit]

I had a nitrate problem for about six months. Overfeeding was the problem. I cut back to feeding every other day and feeding a sheet of Nori on the off feeding days.

I have had micor algae in my sump for over a year without any growth. Its growing now! Is that weird or what?

Dave-

[+mcallahan]

I had a nitrate problem for about six months. Overfeeding was the problem. I cut back to feeding every other day and feeding a sheet of Nori on the off feeding days.

I have had micor algae in my sump for over a year without any growth. Its growing now! Is that weird or what?

Dave-

Do you recommend Nori over the dried algae that come in sheets?

[+mcallahan]

Ok...Ok...Ok, before you flame me for complaining about nitrates, then going and doing a complete teardown of my tank, look at how much cooler the tank looks!

Old arangement:

New Arrangement:

Left side of tank:

Right side of tank

Also, I had to get the yellow tang out as he developed black ick and since I tore the whole thing apart, I decided to get rid of the dottyback. Now I'm down to the maroon clown and the pink spotted goby. I now have more flexibility on what I want to add to the tank. I'm planning on adding 2 green chromis for some green color, then I'l have to find some good yellows and reds/orange. Next step after that...an anemone for the clown.

I'm sure my nitrates are sky high now, but I'm going to do a 20% water change on Sunday to try to knock them down, then leave this tank alone for a while!

Finally, I stopped by Aquatek on my way home and picked up these new snails. They are awesome!

[Headless_donkey]

Those snails are super sweet! Does your shrimp actually clean your clown?

[+mcallahan]

I'm not sure about the shrimp. Before today when I took out the dottyback, the shrimp only lived in a 4"x4" section of the tank b/c the dottyback would beat the crap out of him if he touched the LR. I'll keep an eye out to see if the clown will let herself be cleaned.

[cmanning]

Nobody is flaming you for nitrates . We been there and we know how frustrating it is to either loose livestock or trying to accomplish optimal water parameters for any additional livestock you might to bring in.

We're just trying to help.

Love the snail.....what are they listed as(name)?

[+mcallahan]

Nobody is flaming you for nitrates . We been there and we know how frustrating it is to either loose livestock or trying to accomplish optimal water parameters for any additional livestock you might to bring in.

We're just trying to help.

Love the snail.....what are they listed as(name)?

Surprisingly, I checked my nitrates this am and they are @ 30ppm. Not bad for the teardown I did yesterday pm. I'll do a 20% water change tomorrow, then check them on Monday am. I think the new light on the cheato is doing the trick!

I can't remember the name of the snails, but one thing is for sure, they are noctural! They scattered over night, but during the day, they just sleep.

[+dapettit]

So are you quarantining the Yellow Tang that could?