Terrible Eclipse6 office nano experiment

[BrklynArch]

Originally Posted by Glove

Temp. 78
Salinity 1.028
pH 8.0-8.2
amm: 0

...salinity is high.

1.026 is the limit, I would aim for 1.025 so you can have room for evaporation changes.

"no reason to keep your reef chemistry different from natural seawater"

its actually at 1.025 i mis-typed earlier

[nauticac4]

I think one of the biggest things for people in this hobby it to ignore the hype and names. Experiment with equipment I have powerheads and flow devices from 20 bucks to over 400 the high dollar stuff isnt necessarily the best. I have started on the cheap side of things and upgraded what wasnt keeping up along the way.

When it comes to corals and fish do your research to make sure you can provide but dont get something cause of the name. Get it because you like it.

Look into gobies when you get the tank straightened out. They stay small can be paired with pistol shrimp and have some cool behaviors for small tanks.

BTW girlfriends are genetically pre-disposed to hate fish tanks.

[Bamm Bamm]

Originally Posted by GF3

LOL, Im assuming that your purchases weren't being crammed into something the size of a large shoebox either!.. I'm barely pushing 2 months of activity in my BC14 and already have the itch to upgrade to a BC29 system or larger, but practicality says i don't have the room for it, I already had to move my 75g Cichild tank to my parents house cause I needed the room where I live.

come one now look how long I've been on this board did you really have to ask me that? I had a 90g barebottom at the time similar to my current 90g but with 2x250s on it and four tunzes that had been setup for a few years... they were all very rare corals handpicked by my buddy(eddie hanson who is now an importer that just used to own the best lfs in the bay area Tropical Paradise) unfortunately about $1000 of those corals perished-(

[BrklynArch]

Originally Posted by nauticac4

I think one of the biggest things for people in this hobby it to ignore the hype and names. Experiment with equipment I have powerheads and flow devices from 20 bucks to over 400 the high dollar stuff isnt necessarily the best. I have started on the cheap side of things and upgraded what wasnt keeping up along the way.

When it comes to corals and fish do your research to make sure you can provide but dont get something cause of the name. Get it because you like it.

Look into gobies when you get the tank straightened out. They stay small can be paired with pistol shrimp and have some cool behaviors for small tanks.

BTW girlfriends are genetically pre-disposed to hate fish tanks.

Lol that's for sure but to her defense she finally agreed to let me set up a small system in our apartment.....I'll def post a build thread when the time comes.
So an update on the office tank....everything seems stable, I'll post some test results tomorrow when I go in to work....hermits were acting very weird today 4 of the little guys seemed like they were ganging up on one poor guy, thought they were mating but I don't think blue legged hermits are into the orgies lol anyways emrald crab still just chilling with his one claw, shrimp also doing well.....added a small cluster of yellow polyps and they look great and are doing well so far it's been about 12 days. Will post some pics tomorrow

Ok now for the part where I might sound like a dope
I'm thinking about swapping out the eclipse and replace it with a standard 10g. I figure the extra water volume would be a plus and it would be easier to find a light solution that would fit the 10g top, the eclipse isn't really that forgiving with add ons
Also I have an old eheim 2213 canister that I had lying around and thought it may be useful...was thinking about running it with some LR rubble some filter floss and some carbon instead of the the normal media
Im thinking it would provide a good amount of flow and some nice mech filtration. But I hear bad things about nitrate build up.

if I do update from the eclipse tomorrow could I just transfer all the contents into it with some more pre mixed water and maybe some more sand will everything be ok or will there be some kind of mini cycle kicked off from the new sand mixed w the old?

[Jlobo]

I have a 12 week old Eclipse setup (exact same as yours) and I have managed to keep great water quality. My hermits and snails are doing great and I get to buy my first fish tomorrow. People were telling me I could have bought a fish a month ago but I told myself that I wouldn't get one until the tank was 3 months old just to be safe and practice that good patience everyone keeps talking about. It is paying off so far.

[BrklynArch]

I just feel a 10 g will give me some more options down the road and the eclipse can be used as a qt tank in the future.

[Jlobo]

yeah, probably a good idea since the smaller you go the less room for error you have. My Eclipse is actually 12 gal and I won't go any smaller.

[duncantse]

Any updates?

[btb72]

i completly disagree about having to have a high price ticket to have an awesome tank.. Its all about how you shop, if you shop right, local used and clean it all up you can do a tank for almost nothing. for example i have bought a couple tanks and sold them and used the leftovers to make a sweet nano. The only thing that I have bought for the tank is a $100 led diy fixture, and a $7 can of pond foam. Everything else on this tank was free, or technically i have made money on this setup haha. But just because something has a high dollar tag on it doesn't make it any better then the cheap affordable version. You might have to tinker with it to make it work just like you want but i'd rather just save a ton of money and work on equipment so i can learn more how everything works... just my 2 cents

[duncantse]

Originally Posted by Jlobo

yeah, probably a good idea since the smaller you go the less room for error you have. My Eclipse is actually 12 gal and I won't go any smaller.

It's actually the bigger you go the less room for error you have.

[Jlobo]

Originally Posted by duncantse

It's actually the bigger you go the less room for error you have.

that makes no sense duncantse
in a large volume of water, or a huge volume like th ocean, there is high stability because if one little thing changes in the water, like addition of a pollutant or a death, it likely will not have an affect since it's so diluted
In a very small volume, like 12 gals, one little thing could crash the whole system.
Not sure what your logic is there

[BrklynArch]

ok so update time......
probably shouldve left everything the way it was....im not really loving the new tank and lights it came with are terrible and the little HOB filter is giving me lots of bubbles and making me want to pee....lol
i also had a little mishap with the bag of sand and dropped in way more than i wouldve liked
i def need to find a better cover / light solution......all in all i think i shouldve stayed my butt home and left well enough alone

[duncantse]

Whoa, that's a lot of sand.

I know what you mean, the more you try to make it better, the worse it gets.

[bwidner]

Originally Posted by saltjohnswharf

Why does everyone obsess about cost? Because cost is a good measurement for how much tank you can afford. Also a good sign you know the difference between good equipment and cheap equipment.

Yes and no....I literally bought everything minus the sand(because I was dead set on hawaiin black)and the tank from local reefers....half price for all the equipment and its all damn near top of the line...for 30lbs of real live rock(from someones display tank)a bakpack skimmer rated for 75 gallons and a pair for koralias I only spent $170....not to mention that pretty much everything has a DIY alternative that costs 1/3rd or less what buying a pre built one. Just look at leds, thats the next thing I am doing to mine and where going from the CF to the LED NC28 was a $450 price difference I have mine planned out for under $200 with prob higher quality bulbs. How much you spend is in no way an indication of the quality of a build, because if all I threw out there was I bough 30lbs of live rock 2 pumps and a skimmer for $170 it sure would sound like I bought pieces of crap.

[BrklynArch]

I'm not sure if I should scoop some sand out? I feel like I would be doing more harm than good......the lights are the worse part.....it makes everything look so ugly
The title of the thread really rings true on this one :-(

[BrklynArch]

Ok so a small update....
I picked up a Solarmax HO 20" T5 light at a new LFS i found in the area ($85) kinda steep but i coulkdnt take the look of the old light it was driving me crazy.
I was going to go with LED's but the price and options kind of scared me away at the moment.
New light looks great... one armed crab, hermits, shrimp and my new yellow polyp look like there doing well also.
I hooked up my old eheim 2213 for some water circulation and put some chemi pure and filter floss in the baskets....as well as threw on an old HOB i had lying around also for water flow and surface agitation.

my next step as far as equipment will prob be an ATO...havnt figured out how im going to go about that yet

would also like to add some more coral any suggestions?......maybe even a fish?
figured i would wait another couple of weeks for everything to kind of settle before i go and add a fish
i attached some new pics....i tried photobucket but i keep getting errors when i try and link oh well

[BrklynArch]

also the LFS guy gave me a bottle of Kent iodine for the poyps said they love the stuff and will grow quicker? kinda scared to drop in some anyone have any advice?

[Nano sapiens]

I'd suggest keeping the Iodine possibly for a later date. Frequent WCs should help maintain your iodine level in a new-ish tank. When your system is mature after 6 months or so and you have more organisms using up the available iodine, then a daily drop or two can be benficial.

Concentrate on creating a stable enviroment in your tank and in the methods you use to maintain it. This will help your corals and other organisms more than anything else.

[BrklynArch]

Originally Posted by Nano sapiens

I'd suggest keeping the Iodine possibly for a later date. Frequent WCs should help maintain your iodine level in a new-ish tank. When your system is mature after 6 months or so and you have more organisms using up the available iodine, then a daily drop or two can be benficial.

Concentrate on creating a stable enviroment in your tank and in the methods you use to maintain it. This will help your corals and other organisms more than anything else.

yeah i figured as much, i have been very good so far with weekly water changes and i only drop in a few tiny peices of shrimp for the crab and shrimp to munch on maybe once a week at the most

any thoughts on how i should feed the yellow polyp? do i feed or does it do its own thing withing the water?

[cherubfish pair]

For feeding the yellow polyps, a fish in there will do it. Fish constantly urinate ammonia (NH4) and their poop dissolves in the water becoming dissolved organic compounds (DOC). This is food that is absorbed from the water column.

[BrklynArch]

So i picked up a few more inhabitants about a week or so ago.
A couple of green Florida ricordia...a very cool looking blue florida ricordia which seems to be splitting....some xenia...and a couple of small mushrooms that dont seem to be doing so great...
i placed the rics at the bottom of the tank and they kind of just moved around untill they found a cozy spot..... I put the Xenia up higher, and the mushrooms in a low flow area
i thought the mushrooms were getting to much water flow so i twisted the spray bar from the ehiem and angled it upward rather than straight forward
the thinking being it will create more surface turbulence and wont be pushing water directly at the Xenia.
picked up a timer for the lights and I also picked up a copy of the The Conscientious Marine Aquarist and have been learning a ton.......awesome book
any suggestions, advice or general criticism is greatly appreciated!

[bwidner]

Got a fts? Looks like it's coming along

[ange062]

Looks like your second go-around on this tank is turning out well!

[BrklynArch]

So it looks like i was feeling a little to good about the way things were finally panning out.......sometime yesterday afternoon my Peppermint shrimp or "Peppy" as he was known on the block.....turned completely opaque white and started hanging out in the open next to my heater. I assumed he might be molting, but this morning he was dead. My one armed emerald crab had him in the snacking position, and was chopping down. So i removed the remains of Peppy and did a 1g water change.
I tried Google'n but couldn't really find anything...a few people said they experienced the same symptoms but ultimately same results.
checked water, all is well. salinity has been steadfast. no temp fluctuation?
everything else seems to be doing great, even my shrooms that wre looking a bit sickly the other day have been fully extended and full of color. Wonder if peppy was picking at them and somehow the shrooms got him?
anyhow thats the current status, so that scraps my plans of adding a fish for the time being. I want to wait to see how everything else does in the coming weeks.
attached some new pics and some FTS

[BrklynArch]

So its been a while...a few things have changed (for the better i hope)
Picked up a couple of SA vivid clowns and a few frags from Manhattan reefs (awesome store)...got a Duncan, a candy cane, and an orange ric that doesn't really look all that orange...lol
everyone is doing fine and im already starting to see some growth on the candy-cane...looks like another mouth is sprouting
the Xenia has left its original rock and has attached to my rock and is also growing...check out some pics....still gotta find time to figure out this photo bucket thing...i have a video as well that i will try and figure out how to get on here as well.