New house (sorta), new tank!

apex_seeking

Cleaner Shrimp
#61
View attachment 20596 View attachment 20597 View attachment 20598

A couple of small leaks and a few issues but it’s up and running!

For those running a bean animal, what is the secret to tuning? I’ve run a dual drain previously and I had no problems getting the siphon going and the bubbles purged but I’m getting a lot of air still in my drain.

Also, I am running two danner mag pumps. One is almost silent and the other is pretty noisy. I pulled it apart to make sure there wasn’t anything caught in the impeller but it’s still loud.

Suggestions?


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#62
Could be several things. Would be helpful to know series of mag pump, vertical height, size of return lines and drains to estimate flowrates and full siphon rates.

A pic of the bean animal setup would also be helpful. Relative height of each pipe is very important to get it working right.

I was told to start the bean animal up with the valve nearly closed and then open it up a 1/4 turn at a time until you get only a small amount from the durso line and no cycling between full and no siphon.

Sent from my SM-G986U using MASC mobile app
 
Last edited by a moderator:

apex_seeking

Cleaner Shrimp
#63
I got the bubble situation solved. I just had too much water going down the secondary.

The mag drive is a danner 2400 series. It’s connected to a 1” vinyl hose for about 2 feet then hard plumbed with 1” pvc. Both pumps are identical and plumbed the same way. There is a T about 4’ up from the noisy pump to feed the fuge. They are both set to run at 100% as of right now.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 
#64
I picked up a second matching pump. Swapped it in and still noisy. I’m starting to think maybe it’s something to do with my plumbing.

The pump that’s silent is running straight to the tank and the one that’s making all the noise is running from the sump, T’ing into the fuge and up to the tank. Maybe it’s something to do with the T. I don’t know.

Any ideas? I’m open to suggestions. My family says it’s not that loud but maybe they are trying to be nice after all the time I’ve put in. It is substantially louder than the secondary pump.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 

SynDen

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
M.A.S.C President
M.A.S.C Webmaster
#67
Ya, always the toughest part, but it pays off in the end if your patient
 
#68
Lost one chromis to uronema. But I was prepared for the possibility of losing a few so we just move on. The rest are looking good so fingers crossed the rest pull through QT.

After looking at the rockscape for almost a month I decided that I needed a little change. So I added a slightly larger rock to the center. I think it’ll highlight whatever I stick there better and provide a better transition from tank bottom to rock for the coral to grow out.

Before
View attachment 20769

After
View attachment 20770

Thoughts?


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#70
I like the larger rock a lot more You could even try interleaving (but not actually touching) with a support structure like this to add even more focus there. View attachment 20771

Sent from my SM-G986U using MASC mobile app
 
Last edited by a moderator:
#71
Lost two more chromis. At this rate, I might lose the whole bunch.

But, on a positive note, despite trying to be patient, I did pick up a rainbow from scchase and whoa…! Stunning. Thanks for the hookup! View attachment 20777


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 

SynDen

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
M.A.S.C President
M.A.S.C Webmaster
#72
Ya, chromis are a fickle fish. Hopefully some make it through, but you never know with those guys
 

apex_seeking

Cleaner Shrimp
#73
Woke up the other night to the anemone attacking the Nero 5 power head. I’m assuming he let go of the rock and floated into it. Fortunately I had installed a guard and after turning off the power head, he extracted himself….

….only to float into the gyre! This guys a kamikaze bta.

While I have guards on the gyres, he did manage to get tangled up pretty good.

I got him placed back on his rock and he’s been opening up and healing just fine. I believe it was the gyre settings at night that he didn’t like. I’ve since adjusted them and all seems well. View attachment 20844




Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 
#74
*Updates*

The other morning I averted disaster when I heard gurgling coming from the sump. I discovered my non clamped return lines were about to pop of the pumps. That would have been disaster. I had clamps but was too lazy to install them. I can be my own worst enemy sometimes.

I scored some great frags from Zacoff (thanks!). That let me play around with my lens kit and try snapping some pics.

View attachment 20865 View attachment 20866 View attachment 20867

I did end up loosing more chromis. I’m down to 5 which makes me nervous since all the research I’ve done leads me to believe they will eventually pick themselves off until there’s one. But what can ya do?


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 

SynDen

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
M.A.S.C President
M.A.S.C Webmaster
#75
yep we are all our own worst enemies, and yep that is how chromis roll.
 
#76
It’s been a little while. Had some issues. And some successes.



My sump cracked. Not sure what happened but it cracked from the bottom corner up the front.



That caused some chaos. We had to scramble to get another sump setup. Fortunately my wonderful wife picked up another 40 gallon and I swapped all the equipment over. I don’t have any baffles but I’m actually liking the one open sump.



My tank hit the uglies, during this whole period as well. I did contemplate just calling it quits after the sump cracked because the hair algae was SOOO bad I thought it would never be a proper reef tank. But I spent too much time to give up now.



I picked up 3 turbo snails with the hopes that they would help. They crushed the algae. I was so impressed that I almost got more. But I also had tangs coming, so I figured, they could top off the “clean up crew”.



I picked up the tangs and now the tank is actually looking good. Lots of life and color.
https://flic.kr/p/2nzQSzm
 
Top