30G Bow Tank.....Leaping into the darkside

Nice new additions. Tank is looking good!

Love it buddy! I'm glad you like the hammer!

Thanks guys.
Reilly the 6 Line is a wonderful addition, it cruises the tank, after sorting out the demarkation line between it's area of cruising and that of the Orchid Dottyback.

Skimmer - Sport - Science - Alchemy - Finger in the sump?

From my reading I discovered that a skimmer is almost like A) A bicycle seat - in that you have to suffer the pain of breaking it in, which is a pain in the butt - before it works for you B) A case of sitting watching it as the sump level fluctuates through the day, and comparing that to the air flow you have set through the air tube C) You threaten the whole damned thing with it's replacement with a ton of Chem-Pure Elite D) You twist and turn the air in take nozzle, and sit and watch just what difference it has made, getting up every 15 minutes to look for disgusting foam frothing into the cup. Foam climbs most of the way up the tube to the cup, but no frothing like a cappuccino into the cup.

It must be doing something as 4 days shows about 1/4 inch of dirty yellow water in the cup, but no foam flowing over. So it's being erratic....or the cats lifting the lid and peeing in there.

Is this normal? (I mean the lack of foam, not the smart cat using it as it's own urinal).

I'd help out with the skimmer but I'm too busy laughing at the post.

LMFAO!

What kind of slimmer do you have?

ritter678 wrote:

What kind of slimmer do you have?

Slimmer? Auto correct got me!

Do you have an ATO? In sump skimmers don't work very well unless the water level is constant.

I didn't know I needed a slimmer too, hell, now my fish are too fat, looks at them ))))ooOOoo;> so that's them to fat? Hell, so now I have to get them into FatFish Club? I thought the skimmer made them slimmer, taking the proteins out of the water.
It's an Aquarium Systems something or other, I got it from Jason, who knew I have a 30ish Gallon tank, so it's going to be suitable in capacity .... it was running his 80G frag rack at one time. But darn it, this is alchemy, then again I am learning that Reefing is a lot of alchemy mixed with some science.

Just we don't know which part is Alchemy, and which part is Science.

Ahh the something or other. You just turn the thing-a-ma jig. Easy as pie...

You've got to know the model because some need a certain water height to work well. If a feed pump and gate valve determines the internal water level turn the air all the way off, set the water level (which will be specific to the model) then adjust the bubble height with the air valve. :-)

My ATO is me, and my bottle of RODI, so that may be the problem.
So I either top up when I get up, get home and when I go to bed.... or set up an ATO!
Matt you have so much to live up to "Reef tanks take less care than a Freshwater tank once the tanks set up".... yeah, when you have the whole world of chemical elements plumbed into timed feed. Cracks up.
Don't get me wrong, I love this tank in so many ways that even my FW Peacock Cichlids can't match.
But I didn't know I would have to learn plumbing, Calcium solubility, Phosphate & Nitrate fluctuation, the fact that CO/2 has an effect upon the pH of a tank. Do I need to add Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Iodine, Kryptonite, Whatthehellganese, Maganese, Weakknees, Phytoplankton, Zooplankton, Forrestgumpankton.

I am honestly perplexed.
I have Monti Caps that at one time were struggling, and now are thickening in their shelf, then one day the bright green looks dull, but the browns are thriving, and then 2 days later the centre of the green goes super bright green.
My Pinks Birdnest was growing wonderfully, then started to die back, such that I fragged it, and think I may have one frag alive, and yet the Pinote, which they say is much more sensitive was thriving.
We are talking an area of maybe 6 inches by 9 inches with all these frags in.
And now my Pinote is fading fast..............but the Monti Cap is blushing in colour!
And yet other things grow beautifully.

Dam but I find this tank so intriguing, but also so amazingly baffling.

So my Watchamacallit has to have the air set to dingibell with the water at howsyourfather and everything will be hunkydory. Why didn't anyone tell me that before?
Jeez it's just basic science!

Yeti wrote:So my Watchamacallit has to have the air set to dingibell with the water at howsyourfather and everything will be hunkydory.

Yes!

I just changed it to those settings! I wish you had told me sooner, I now see a whole load of crud coming out, and lots of foam.
Much as I like talking to you... I just have to go back and watch the crud-extraction!

Oh hell... does this mean I am addicted?

Yeti wrote:
Matt you have so much to live up to "Reef tanks take less care than a Freshwater tank once the tanks set up"

Did I say that? Maybe it was "i couldn't care less about a freshwater tank" lol.

I'll admit, I'm a terrible person to compare the two. I had a freshwater tank running for a total of about three weeks. It's actually my current 29g! Lol.

There is a lot to learn, and even when you learn all you can you still run into mysteries. It's why all of us are such a close knit group... because we experience what 99% of people never will right in our homes, and it wouldn't be possible without the group knowledge. Just this week I had a coral that was great in my tank for weeks... I moved it to the bottom of the tank after lights were out and before the lights come on the next morning 1/3rd had rtned. No idea! I went from a 3.5 inch colony to two frags in 24 hours. Everything else is great! :-s

So yeah... when I said easier I absolutely did not mean less maintenance. I actually don't know exactly what I meant. Hahaha. I do think it's easier though. I sucked at freshwater!

And yes. You're addicted! Just own it.

Cracks up. When you want to keep FW let me know, and I will show you the easy way. 55G Tank, and once every 3 months do real maintenance.

BUT... for real involvement, stress, pleasure, glee and pain... that has to be Reefing.
In the UK I was a damned good Gardener. I could grow most plants, and had a garden that others enjoyed.
Over here, oh heck, Texas is like growing in the Sahara for me. I just mow grass.

Reefing is like gardening. You have to learn what your garden is. The soil (Sand/coral gravel).
Which part of your garden is East/South/West or even North facing, and which plants thrive in the different light intensity of the day.
Are the plants needing protection from the wind, moderate wind, or can take full exposure.
Are they Ericaceous? Like Azalia needing acid water or the Clematis that like the alkaline soil?
All that and keep fish happy.

Reefing, is saltwater gardening, just I don't have to wear Wellington boots, and use my shovel.

Key is you don't have to. You still can if you want to... ya know... just because you love shovels.

You're right. Gardening except plants randomly die.

OK, so you learn, learn......learn some more...and then realise you still have a whole encyclopedia of learning in front of you. You can't say this hobb....passion, gets boring.

I have my sump up and running (no comments Jason), things were looking good. I'm trying the 60 LED mains hang on flashlight I got for $14 on sale. I have the skimmer (alchemy 101), and my Eheim 1048 return pump.
This is where I'm hoping my Father isn't reading this. I messed up.
He was an Engineer working on Slurry Pumps, which naturally work with water, the mix of the aggregate (solids) and the water (fresh or salt) have to be pumped up onto either land, as in a mine, or a barge, as in dredging.

So even when I was 11 I knew about a "head of water", at the age of about 16 I knew what cavitation sounded like in a pump. And still I messed up.

I miscalculated on my pump. I love Eheim products, and I have no complaint about this pump. It does what it says on the box.
My complaint is on my maths, I messed up.

I couldn't work out why I have the cleanest, protein free water in any tank, scum... I laugh at the idea of dirty scum or froth.
That would be because my return pump isn't powerful enough, so the water in the skimmer end of the sump is so clean.
I've been turning over just 80G per hour in total, and that includes the refugium area. Fortunately I have 2 x 550G Koralia and 1 other (around that size) Koralia in the tank, so in tank flow is good.

I am now thinking I need something like a Mag 5, which will at 4FT head of water give me 282GPH which will, allowing for volume of LR, give me about 10x turnover of water.
Hopefully this will mean the skimmer will start to take the yellow cats pee out of the water again, and still allow a controlled flow through the LR/Sand bed.
I'm just hoping Petco has them in stock in L'view tomorrow.

Ahhhh. Yes that's a great lesson learned! Check with Sean as well... he may have something you could use at a better price. :-) When you're done you'll get to hook it up, stand back and feel proud though... so you've got that to look forward too!

Oh and by the way... while babysitting the feather duster I've decided I'll never get one in this tank. I didn't realize just how violent my mp10 moved the water until I put this guy in there. Goodness I felt sorry for him. I turned it down for the rest of the day. :-) It's doing very well.

I love your optimism. I am thinking I'll connect the pump to the tube, plug in, and put Beach Boys "Everybody's Surfing now" on the CD machine, and then flick the switch for the pump.

Hey dude, catch some waves!

I think Sean has megatron pumps, which would be pinning everything to the glass.