Chipp's Shallow Reef Starter

[chippwalters]

April 7, 2012- Part I

Hi everyone! Just getting started here with ARC, and I'm having a great time. What a wonderful group!

Well, I've finally moved on from Picos to Nanos-- but not too far as the Nano is pretty small. A couple months back I ordered an ADA 60-F shallow ~8 gallon tank.

First, some background on this new build:

Some of you I've told of my 3.5 gallon Pico going since last summer. Recently, I added a Tupperware Sump and was truly amazed at how adding another couple of gallons-- and chaeto-- helped my Pico. Wow!

By now, my poor little Pico was just about full-- or at least seemed so. The acans were crowded and complaining, the zoas didn't seem to get enough current, and I made some big mistakes when I started this one up-- being a newbie and all.

Mistake 1: Sand WAY TOO fine. Any stirring at all and there's a snow storm-- AND snails and CUC can't really do anything but bury themselves in it. Plus, all the 'rubble parts' seem to float to the top and just make it look really bad.

Mistake 2: Attached my very first coral, encrusted gorgonian, (like GSP) to LR. Ugh-- while it is a beautiful green under the correct lighting, the stuff grows like a weed and once attached is there to stay. As you can see in this picture of my Pico (now cleaned out), it's clear the stuff has spread all over!

Mistake 3: LFS LR had tons of hitchikers-- some really interesting, but some created problems. Zoas seemed to be continuously attacked by something (not the Sexy shrimps), aptasia galore, many many worms and colonial hydroids, brittle and asterina stars-- and me not knowing which is good, bad or indifferent. Plus there's these white dots and spots all over the LR-- perhaps more worms, or snail eggs? I dunno.

Mistake 4: Added 2 Damsels. One bullies the other and they're impossible to catch. Won't do that again!

Even so, things seemed to do pretty well in the tank for the most part, but I was forever 'on the watch' for new aptasia and trying to figure out what's killing what.

So, after seeing this video:

I ordered an ADA 60-F and about a month ago it arrived:

Man, those Japanese do a really nice job of packaging! And the build quality and clarity of the sapphire glass is in stark contrast to my other tank.I knew I would take my time figuring out the best way to do all this.

[chippwalters]

Part II:

So, I researched all over the web-- looking at other ADA 60-F's and putting together my 'list' of must have items.

And, I took a page out of Mark Callahan's book and decided my new tank would use dry rock and dead sand. I found the best sand I could, Tropic Eden Reef flakes, and some GREAT dry rock from Dave Beck aka 'prof' from here in Austin! He also helped drill my tank (only $25). For those of you who don't know, Dave has a stockpile of superb dry rock dry mined out of Florida. It is old coral reef and sold for $2.50/lb-- and wow is it nice looking-- and clean. I had to take it to the shop and chisel it apart to get the sizes I wanted:

(OOPS, forgot to mention I also picked up a new MP10 from Aquatek)

OK, now I had a 3.5 gallon Pico with a Tupperware sump and a drilled but empty 60-F with dry rock, a Vortex and no water. What next?

I needed a plan.

I decided I would connect both tanks together-- through a sump. This way I could quickly create a water column of mature and bacteria enriched saltwater in my new tank. Furthermore, I already had a Walmart 1 1/2 gallon which I used to keep snails and excess chaeto-- which was getting nastier by the month! So, I purchased a 10 gallon glass rimless at Aquatek for under $50 and put the Walmart special (after cleaning) directly in the middle-- with all the chaeto from both it and the Tupperware sump, thus creating my 'fuge chamber.'

After much debate on skimmer vs reactor, I opted for a Little Fishies Phosban reactor filled with Purigen. I know I don't need a skimmer yet (if ever) and I've preferred Purigen over Chemi-Pure Elite, so I set it up in the Sump-- to which it immediately dumped half the Purigen out of the reactor onto the sump floor-- which required a complete restart includine emptying the sump, cleaning it out and refreshing the water. Ugh! I did add a fine filter pad in the top of the reactor which keeps the Purigen inside, and things seem to work fine now.

Next, I hooked up the 3.5 Pico to the 10 gallon sump (only 1/2 filled) and got things running.

[chippwalters]

Part III:

Now onto the ADA tank. I first added sand, then the rock, then filled it up with freshwater (we have sterilized rainwater here in the country) and started mixing saltwater (using the MP10 powerhead-- man is that thing fun to play with!).

After it mixed for a number of hours, and checked out with the refractometer, I then began the process of hooking up the ADA to the sump/fuge. I used a 3/4" high density PVC elbow (because it's gray not white) for my overflow intake. Then I added some PVC sprinkler gray and black components for the return (again better than white and all available at local Lowes/HD)-- some valves and tubing and-- GOOD TO GO.

So, I started pumping water to the ADA and thankfully, after a few minor adjustments, things looked good. I kept the flow ultra slow, so to no shock anything in the 3.5 Pico, and let it sit for 24 hours.

The water goes from the ADA into the sump. The return from the Pico goes into the fuge tank inside the sump, which overflows to the sump. For now, I'm also running the exit from the reactor into the fuge tank inside the sump as well. As soon as everything settles down and the ADA water is more 'dirty' , I'll run the media return into the sump and the ADA return into the fuge.

I also added a single Ecoxotic Par 38 (12K), thinking it would hold for awhile, but turns out I needed two of them. They do look nice and I like the color more than my Pico fixture. Plus-- I hope they can work on my pitiful acro-- which is just not meant for this tank. If not, I'll be giving it to another reefer hopefully soon.

After a few talks with some respected reefers, Bruce at Aquatek and Hunter at Aquadome, I decided to NOT wait for a full cycle, as there was plenty of enriched water moving between the three tanks, and I put a few frags of the encrusted gorgonian in the new tank, and it went GREAT. Slowly over the next few days I started migrating healthy corals, one at a time, to the ADA, and for each one, they seemed to really like the new tank much more.

[chippwalters]

Part IV:

I put in the Sexy Shrimp, some snails, added the acans, the candy canes and torch-- everything good.

So, my next move is to wait a month, then tear down the Pico, store the live rock and try and drill the back. I'd eventually like to make a display fuge out of it-- or get rid of it altogether.

Oh, and take the Damsels back to LFS, and purchase a pair of tiny clowns for the ADA.

Some thoughts:

• I'm now a big believer in decent and varied flow. The MP-10 is amazing and it's clear the corals much prefer it to the smaller and consistent flow of the Pico Rio pump and HOB filter.
  
• Can't say enough about the Tropic Eden Reef Flakes. They don't blow around much, contained little to no dust making them super simple to wash-- and are beautiful to look at.
  
• I'm hoping the 'tank within a tank' model for my sump will make it super simple to clean. I can just remove the smaller tank, drop the chaeto and LR into a bucket, clean the tank in the sink and be done with it all.
  
• Much, MUCH, more noise than before. Most of it is due to the siphon overflow on the Pico, which is a temporary solution.
  
• Wow. Water evaporates FAST. Up to now I've always had the Pico covered and only added 1/2 cup per day. Much different with all 3 tanks with open tops. For now, I've added a JBJ ATO with an Aqualifter from Aquadome. We'll see how it does. I'd eventually like to get a full-on tank controller.
  

That's it for now! Comments, questions, admonishments WELCOME!

Video:

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[Grim]

nice tank can't wait to see it up and running......

[chippwalters]

Updates from the ARC meeting:

FTS

Went to a the ARC frag swap. Ended up purchasing from Jake a torch and he threw in some ridiculously green gsp, and Xenia. I also purchased a baby anemone, and a duncan from brian.srock. Also, later received some kenya from Ian, after my Xenia died from dipping.

Kevin gave a clinic on dipping, but I killed the anemone and Xenia by dipping it Coral RX. Bummer. Turns out Coral RX doesn't seem to be good for softies.

Also, I gave up my tricolor acro to Don of FragsAndMore.com who was selling some incredible SPSs at the swap. I'm hoping he can do something with it as I don't think my Par38s are up to the task.

Anyway, here's some shots. The duncan opens and closes-- right now it's closed, but healthy!

Here's Jake's trumpet (yes the encrusting gorgonian is pissed since the dipping as well-- I dipped them as well as they seemed to be suffering from something.)

Acans pretty much bulletproof-- always have been...

My old candy canes doing well along with acans. You can see the gsp, duncan and kenya in the back left. The green polyp is closed but I'll grap a pic when it opens back up.

Photosynth blue sponge I got from Hunter's personal stock at Aquadome and it's also quite hardy. More acans and the second kenya frag.

I haven't yet figured out where everything is going to go in this tank so things are 'just spaced out so.' I'm waiting until things settle down before starting to serious aquascape this. Currently, there's nothing glued down, which of course is a treat for my Mexican Turbo who likes to knock things over!

One other thing. Purchased a cleaner shrimp which the blue damsel terrorized from the start. He had also bullied the 3 stripe damsel so she wouldn't ever come out either. Finally decide to banish him to the old tank which is now some sort of fuge/frag tank (I'll be taking it down soon to drill it).

While chasing the little devil, somehow my large sexy jumped the overflow and I found her days later when cleaning out my chemi-pure sock in my sump. I had already washed it out with fresh water and the little gal was just barely wiggling when I noticed her.

I carefully put her back in the tank in a quiet place. She laid on her side for a day, barely moving. Then the next day she moved a bit but not much-- and today she's up and running around. I even fed her a shrimp pellet which she devoured (is that wrong feeding shrimp to shrimp?).

My little male was spotted only once and not seen again. The cleaner shrimp molted (I think it was a molt) and is MIA since. And the 3 stripe yellow damsel hides in the back of the rock-- I'm thinking of turning the **** thing around as it's now host to my male sexy shrimp, cleaner, pom pom and damsel!

Anyway, here's the current setup:

And I've added Seachem's "the Bag" as a filter sock to both tank drain lines. I put Chemi-Pure in one and a 4-day Phosban in the other. And of course the reactor is still moving Purigen. All in all, I'm pretty sure between the sump config, daily cleanings and my voracious Turbo (what a work ethic!) I seem to have my previous algae problem well under control.

One more FTS:

[jaggedfire]

Loved the read and the tank is gorgeous. Where did you end up getting the PAR 38's?

[chippwalters]

Thanks for the kind words!

I got the Par38s from Aquatek. I believe they are the 12K ones. Bruce let me try them on in a fixture in the store, which sold me on them. I might add another 18K for evening...don't know.

[victoly]

Just stunning. Well done sir.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mFrame]

Amazing tank, I'm loving it! I really like the low format and the time and effort you put into planning everything out.

One correction, I think you gave your tri-color acro to Don Duncan, I don't think Don from FragsAndMore was able to make it to the swap (or did I miss him?)

[+KimP]

FragsandMore was there. I got some nice pieces from him. Great guy! I've always been happy to get coral from him. He sure drove a while to get to the swap!

I think the tank looks great too. I'm looking forward to seeing it all aquascaped!

[mFrame]

FragsandMore was there. I got some nice pieces from him. Great guy! I've always been happy to get coral from him. He sure drove a while to get to the swap!

I think the tank looks great too. I'm looking forward to seeing it all aquascaped!

Wow, can't believe I missed him!

[Drew Mendez WTR]

That was a great read, wonderful pictures, and thank you for sharing the newbie mistakes with me (I'm a newb)

[cMidd]

How high and how far apart did you hang the par38's???

[chippwalters]

FragsandMore was there. I got some nice pieces from him. Great guy! I've always been happy to get coral from him. He sure drove a while to get to the swap!

I think the tank looks great too. I'm looking forward to seeing it all aquascaped!

Thanks! Me too!

That was a great read, wonderful pictures, and thank you for sharing the newbie mistakes with me (I'm a newb)

Much appreciated! I, too, find it's nice sometimes to learn from others mistakes

How high and how far apart did you hang the par38's???

About a foot off the surface of the water and about a foot apart (center to center)

Amazing tank, I'm loving it! I really like the low format and the time and effort you put into planning everything out.

One correction, I think you gave your tri-color acro to Don Duncan, I don't think Don from FragsAndMore was able to make it to the swap (or did I miss him?)

Thanks for the props. I actually got his card and on it it said, "Donovan Randolph, www.fragsandmore.com"

[mFrame]

One correction, I think you gave your tri-color acro to Don Duncan, I don't think Don from FragsAndMore was able to make it to the swap (or did I miss him?)

Thanks for the props. I actually got his card and on it it said, "Donovan Randolph, www.fragsandmore.com"

Yeah, I'm totally embarrassed that I missed recognizing him.

Glad you made it, Don!

[sifuentes31]

Wow great tank. love how you had the tank on the counter with the sump in the cabinet. My wife would beat me with a broom if i tried anything like that! Great Tanks bud!!

[chippwalters]

Wow great tank. love how you had the tank on the counter with the sump in the cabinet. My wife would beat me with a broom if i tried anything like that! Great Tanks bud!!

Thanks, though the sump isn't in a cabinet, it's on a table from Ikea. I suppose I need to rethink ht at some point. The whole apparatus is in my man cave so for now, I get a pass!

[chippwalters]

Spent some time cropping and tweaking some photos this evening

[chippwalters]

[chippwalters]

[chippwalters]

[sifuentes31]

LOL thought that was a kitchen!! Then NICE Man Cave then!!!!

[+brian.srock]

Awesome tank. Keep up the good work and keep us posted on everything.

[chippwalters]

Hey folks. Here's an update on everything. First, FTS. I've been watching my water params and things are proceeding nicely:

Next, the *BIG* news. Some of you may know I lost my baby BTA I bought at the frag swap. I dipped it oh so quickly, but the next morning it was a mass of jelly on the floor of the tank.

Today, I'm spot feeding some corals and I noticed this under a rock overhang (look at the center of the pic).

I'll be dam**D! The little fellow is alive and 'kickin-it' down under! Wow. But now I wonder what it was that I picked up off the floor? (I haven't seen my cleaner shrimp since I found it's empty carcass, which I thought was just a molt...hmmm.

NEW ADDITIONS: This week Brian contacted me about a small duncan and hammer frag he had for sale. His previous Duncan (which I bought at the frag meet) is getting crazy fat as the little guy loves the spot feeding. So, here's a pic with the older guy on the right and the new little Duncan on the left. Both are looking good! And behind is the GSP I received so kindly from Jake.

And here's the little hammer I bought. He's taking turns extending and hiding. I've moved him around a bit trying to find a good place. Turns out not too much light and not too much current.

Also, I believe I got these green polyps from Jake. They really like spot feeding as well!

And finally a picture of the kenya from Ian. Actually, there are two different pieces of this-- one slipped it's mount and took a trip through the powerhead-- I'm nursing him back in my frag tank.

Lastly, another freebie from the meet. This is a very small frag of frogspawn and he's finally starting to show after I mounted him to the rock.