New Member - getting back into the waters. Lots of questions!

[bzb]

Had a late night, but worked on the sump since my baffles came in yesterday. I have one more panel to silicone up today after work... looks like my fuge is going to be super tiny - maybe 2" - not even sure if it's worth trying to work that.

My office smells like a vinegar factory. Just a few more days and we're ready for water!

 

[jpcollins3564]

Got the 90g full w/ water Monday night, ended up with small leak from uv light, but, tank is cycling now. added bio sphere, live rock I cured for 3 months in a qt tank. Need to capture damsels from old dt or add ammonia. Anybi=ody no a good way to catch Damsels out of a biocube full of rock and frags???? I prefer to go old school on cycling by using fish for ammonia and nitrate cycle. Also, I need to learn how to post pics

 

[ZapataInc]

Got the 90g full w/ water Monday night, ended up with small leak from uv light, but, tank is cycling now. added bio sphere, live rock I cured for 3 months in a qt tank. Need to capture damsels from old dt or add ammonia. Anybi=ody no a good way to catch Damsels out of a biocube full of rock and frags???? I prefer to go old school on cycling by using fish for ammonia and nitrate cycle. Also, I need to learn how to post pics

If you are posting from a computer just click on the picture icon on the tool bar.

If you are posting from a phone tap on the attach files button right below the text box that you are typing in. Then from there you can choose to insert a ful image or a thumbnail.

 

[bzb]

I put a fan on my sump for the last three days and had no real smell left, so I opted to start filling it late last night. Figured I'd go ahead and start doing the tank too and test out my plumbing. So far, so good! And this is the cleanest fill I think I've ever had... washing the sand really helps!

The skimmer has been going and it's making bubbles, but no foam. I suppose that's a good thing since there shouldn't be anything in the water yet, right?

And yall were right on the RODI... just needed more water pushed through it. After about the 10 gallon mark, it was reading 0ppm, so I guess just needed to flush out the chambers.

Looking forward to finishing the fill tonight, after I put the doors on!

 

[schwaggs]

Looking great! How is the overflow muffler working?

 

[bzb]

I still have about 20 gallons to go before it's overflowing Tonight!!

 

[bzb]

So I freaked out over nothing and just stopped ALL the pumps, restarted and I'm good to go. Let's go cycling!

The chamber that has the sock filters is really quite loud, though. Any way to quiet that down? The water just tumbles down.

Looking great! How is the overflow muffler working?

The muffler works amazingly well!

 

[bzb]

At the suggestion of @schwaggs I raised the sump level - it quieted a little bit, but the sock area is still the noisiest portion. I may move to filter cups and filter floss to see if that quiets that section down.

Unfortunately my skimmer is now submerged, so I've got some more building to do today! Planning on a 3" platform made of spare PVC legs and eggcrate. I still need to finish the doors and some cable management.

I added three drops of ammonia hydroxide last night, and crushed up a tiny bit of food. I'm going to pick up some tests from a LFS today or tomorrow.

The water is shockingly clear for day 0.5, overall quite happy and excited! Wifey apparently likes it, she moved the seating next to the tank.

 

[schwaggs]

@bzb before you leave the sump level higher, test what happens when the power goes out by turning everything off and letting it drain into the sump. Make sure all the water fits in the sump without overflowing when the pumps and skimmer are off!

 

[ichthyoid]

You might also try adding an extension pipe into the socks, possibly with a 'T' at the bottom, to help quiet the inflow.
That should stop most splashing which is likely the source of noise.

 

[bzb]

@bzb before you leave the sump level higher, test what happens when the power goes out by turning everything off and letting it drain into the sump. Make sure all the water fits in the sump without overflowing when the pumps and skimmer are off!

All good! still got room for another 5 gallons or so, but I installed a check valve on the return so should be good to go.

You might also try adding an extension pipe into the socks, possibly with a 'T' at the bottom, to help quiet the inflow.
That should stop most splashing which is likely the source of noise.

Interesting idea! I might try that design. I ended up twisting the socks until they started flowing better (instead of trickling down the sides) and that quieted it down considerable. For the pipe, I ended up doing two 45 degrees and a union, and that seems to have done the trick to get it down to a low rumble. We'll see how this holds up.

Also: filter socks are disgusting. I already had to wash them this morning.

 

[bzb]

Another day, another fun issue to solve!

So I raised my skimmer up by 3". The water level should be at 6-8" according to the instructions, and it's currently sitting just over 6". I could lower the sump level below the output by another inch. I could potentially get the sump level to 9" (total 12 inches) and submerge the output.

The issue: constantly getting loads of wet skimmate when the gate valve is wide open, and I've lowered the water level to the very bottom of the output elbow. I've opened the cup drain plug to see if it just needs some time to settle.

What am I doing wrong here?

 

[bzb]

Eventually, I hooked up the hose to the skimmer cup and just let the skimmer pull off about 1.5 gallons of wet bubbles, and it finally slowed down. I continued dosing ammonia to ~1-2ppm (5 drops per gallon, 67 total gallons) and tested every couple hours. Yesterday, I dosed to 1ppm and within an hour, the ammonia and nitrite was at zero.

So my daughter got her wish, and this is her new friend, Squidward. Yep, he has his own home in the bottom right of the photo:



Before I added him, I dosed some Bio Spira (4 oz) and turned the skimmer off, so that should be a fun experiment when I turn it back on tomorrow evening.

 

[bzb]

My tank was holding pretty well at 76 degrees (tested with an instant read meat thermometer... might have still had some pulled pork on it). But I went ahead and added two 150W heaters to the sump along with an Inkbird controller with two heating plugs. With the LED fixture and DC pumps, it's not looking like I'll ever need a chiller thankfully. Still need to do a bit of cable management.



Used some values I found on another site to setup my light, and I adjusted it down by over 50% intensity. Will slowly increase those values over the next couple months before I add any coral.

Skimmate is very dry now, and nothing has flowed over into the cup yet. It's looking a bit yellow in the bubbles in the neck, though, so I may need to adjust.

Everything still testing at zero, even after heavy feeding, because everyone wants to feed the little fish. Mr. Squidward is already eating flake from the kids' hands. Incredible - this is one huge reason I missed having a saltwater tank! Forgot to post a pic with the doors on:



Since I'm *technically* still in a cycle (maybe?) and I'm getting nothing on ammonia/nitrite/nitrate tests, should I avoid doing my first water change this weekend?

 

[lmm1967]

if you see Ammonia - I'd do a water change since you have livestock in the tank.

You're still not really cycled until you see some nitrate & no ammonia.

 

[bzb]

if you see Ammonia - I'd do a water change since you have livestock in the tank.

You're still not really cycled until you see some nitrate & no ammonia.

As of 8AM this morning
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
pH 8.1

When I was dosing ammonia last week, I was able to raise the NH3 to about 2PPM using about drops of ammonia hydroxide per gallon (approx 300 drops... took a while!) and it would drop to zero pretty quickly. I haven't dosed ammonia since adding the fish. I did dose a total of 12oz of Bio Spira over four days.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Awesome looking build!

 

[bzb]

Awesome looking build!

Thanks! It's been a fun re-entry

Hope yours is recovering!!

 

[bzb]

As of 6AM, I'm still testing undetectable on ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate... less confused on the ammonia and nitrite, because I did see those values higher last week when I was dosing ammonia hydroxide. It's a little strange to me that I have no detectable nitrates because this tank is definitely getting overfed by the kids constantly asking to feed their new friends.

Also added a small GSP frag from Atlanta Aquarium. It seems quite happy in the tank. Visually, everything seems great, which makes me quite curious.

I think I'm going to order a low range nitrate test kit. Or maybe I should just be happy with it and leave well enough alone.

 

[bzb]

Welp... it's been 3 days since I added the Diamondback Goby, and I haven't seen him since. Skimmer is working well and pulling out a few ounces a day of tea. I'm topping off with RODI each day, approximately 1/2 gallon.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally got a tiny bit of detectable ammonia (still zero on nitrite/nitrate). This morning it's the same, somewhere between 0.25 and 0.50 ppm. The only thing different that I did yesterday was feed mysis.

Time to tear up the tank and find a body? Or since it's staying that low, is it more likely the mysis?