Newbie's 9 month 29 to 90 upgrade (with some pics) - Page 2

chip721 · 09/05/2006, 01:45 PM

I moved the new rock (~ 60 #) into the tank along with a cup of sand from one of my other tanks. No real aquascaping here. Just a pile of rocks. It took over 3 weeks for the NH4, NO2, and NO3 to zero out. I'm not quite ready to pull all the live rock away from my 29 just yet. Meanwhile I've started getting parameters in the 90 where I want them. Only running the lights about 4hrs a day at this point.

Temp: 79 degrees
SG: 1.025
pH: 8.1
Alk: 11.2 dKH
Ca: 440
Mg: 1350

chip721 · 09/05/2006, 03:42 PM

Sorry this is out of sequence. It should go back with the microbubble problem I had with my CL. This pic give a better shot. The bottem of the 90 elbow just above the water line is where my intake was sucking air.

chip721 · 09/06/2006, 08:21 AM

With everything running and lights on 4 hours, I noticed the tank was evaporating ~ 2 liters or 1/2 gallon of water a day. No surprise, but with the addion of lr and sand, now the tank started going through a little cycle. NH4 remained undetectable, but N02 and NO3 were creeping up. At this point I went ahead and added almost all of the rock from my 29. It took another week for things to settle back down to zero. I increased my lighting to 5 hours a day. Ca and Alk were also fluctuating. I was manually dosing between 30 to 60ml of B-Ionic every other day or so to maintain target levels of 450 and 11dKH.

chip721 · 09/06/2006, 09:09 AM

Time to bring the fuge online. I ordered some chaeto off ebay and quite honestly wasn't impressed with what I received. It was shipped 2nd day and when I opened the baggie, it smelled like a wet diaper. Phew ammonia!! I didn't even want to use it, but I paid for it, so in it went. It looked pale and thin for about a week. I left the fuge light on 24/7 and gradually could see it improving.

I've reduced the lighting down to 12 hours now - midnight to noon. I may have to start harvesting soon.

Sump shot.

Return side.

chip721 · 09/07/2006, 11:04 AM

I'm continuing to manually dose B-Ionic for Ca and Alk. Overall tank parameters are acceptable. As you can see in my fuge, I've started adding some of my clean up crew.

chip721 · 09/07/2006, 03:12 PM

Another week has elapsed and none of my cleaning crew has gone belly up yet - as far as I can tell anyway. Here is where I do something a little atypical and the seasoned veterans will probably scold me sternly. But at this point I actually started moving some of my corals over into the 90 (softies first). I'd watch things for about 4 or 5 days, then move a couple more. Watch and move more. I have to note, I've had all of these corals for at least a year or better. So I've had a chance to observe them doing well ...or not. Wow a whole year!! We all know that's still plenty wet behind the gills for a reefer.

My goal was to create a stable environment first and then add fish last ...also just a couple at a time. Once the fish go in, I didn't want to stress them anymore, by sticking my hands in there every few days trying to place corals. So here you can see my pile of new rock intermingled with some of the coralline covered rock from my 29. So far so good. Corals and inverts, but a fishless 90.

Temp: 79.8
SG: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Ca: 440
Alk: 11.2 dKH
Mg: 1410
Evaporation: 2 liters
NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4: Undetectable

This brittlestar was actually the first creature to hitch a ride over to the new tank. I couldn't shake him from the rock, so in you go.

chip721 · 09/08/2006, 07:13 AM

I'm about 90% done now. Still fishless - but not much longer. My clowns weren't too happy with me when I removed their anemone. Pretty easy to distinguish rock from the 29 vs the new.

Eashton123 · 09/08/2006, 08:29 AM

Beautiful

I think I almost cried.

Absolutly love it.

Have Fun

chip721 · 09/08/2006, 09:50 AM

Thanks Eashton. It's truely been a labor of love. I'm pleased with how things are turning out so far. But still not quite done yet. I really want to pull the 2 way OM squirt with it's overflow and replace it with a 4 way super squirt. The flow from the squirt is decent, but I really got it for another tank. I wanted to check it out before sinking money into the SS. Maybe Santa will let me know if I've been naughty or nice this year. Bah humbug!

chip721 · 09/08/2006, 11:38 AM

Didn't think I was going to have room, but I managed to find a spot for my Derasa clam to spread out.

So I have fish now too. Here's my Orchid Dottyback and female Maroon Clown exploring a cave. What's kinda funny to me is that I expected one day to maybe get a larger fish - something like a Hippo Tang. But when I see these few small fish swimming around reasonably comfortable; I question if my 90 is even big enough for a Hippo - sheesh!! Cause another upgrade ain't gonna happen!! I'll proably post a few closeup shots in another thread so folks don't have to wade through all my plastic tub shots just to see a few pictures.

chip721 · 09/08/2006, 12:45 PM

Here's one of my ustifications for an upgrade. This was even obvious to my wife, especially since she selected the Torch over a year ago.

Then:

And now:

chip721 · 09/09/2006, 09:33 AM

My 60gpd RO unit.

My RO product water vessel with float. I've read where some complain of a noisy solenoid. I've listened for it. It is detectable when the unit opens and closes. Fortunately my setup is in my basement laundry room so it's not an issue for me.

Here are my last gallon containers of B-Ionic. I have the ingredients for Randy's 2 part recipe and will be switching over soon. I'm currently dosing 85ml a day to maintain my Ca Alk levels and continued coralline algae growth. But since I push these additives over 40 feet to my tank, I dilute them 9x1. So instead I dose 850ml continuously over 24hours. Hopefully the dilution will help minimize any blockage in the lines. Why the colors? Again it's with the wife in mind. If she looks under the sump, she knows that red and yellow are chemicals, and blue is just RO water. I've thought about kalk and have some Mrs. Wages. But in the event I have to go away; I don't want to start something that won't get maintained. I even considered a kalk stirrer to deliver saturated kalk. My wife just doesn't have time to be dealing with pickling lime and I'm not going to ask it of her.

When I go to Randy's 2 part, I'm also switching out the gallon jugs with these. At 800ml per day, the gallon jugs last me ~ 5 days. With these I'll be able to reach close to the month mark. They're durable, vented, and don't take up too much space. I've carried enough of these in my day and it's probably the one thing in this hobby I understand

.

thor32766 · 09/09/2006, 10:59 AM

that torch coral is beautiful

chip721 · 09/09/2006, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by thor32766
that torch coral is beautiful

Thanks. I used to feed it regularly whenever I fed the anemone. But not so often any more.

chip721 · 09/10/2006, 12:00 PM

And finally I have a confession to make. I had the assistance of 2 professional plumbers along the way. And they weren't cheap either!! They wanted to be paid in "Gummy Bears."

These 2 future reefers are my grandaughters. It doesn't matter to them if I'm feeding the fish, changing water, or emptying a skimmer cup. They ALWAYS want to help. Love 'em.

09/09/2006, 10:59 AM	#38
thor32766 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Chuluota, FL Posts: 6,072	that torch coral is beautiful __________________ "Live your life so no one has to lie about who you were at your funeral" click on my red house to see my tang compound! Current Tank Info: 29 gallon in Wall!

09/05/2006, 01:45 PM	#26
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	I moved the new rock (~ 60 #) into the tank along with a cup of sand from one of my other tanks. No real aquascaping here. Just a pile of rocks. It took over 3 weeks for the NH4, NO2, and NO3 to zero out. I'm not quite ready to pull all the live rock away from my 29 just yet. Meanwhile I've started getting parameters in the 90 where I want them. Only running the lights about 4hrs a day at this point. Temp: 79 degrees SG: 1.025 pH: 8.1 Alk: 11.2 dKH Ca: 440 Mg: 1350

09/05/2006, 03:42 PM	#27
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	Sorry this is out of sequence. It should go back with the microbubble problem I had with my CL. This pic give a better shot. The bottem of the 90 elbow just above the water line is where my intake was sucking air.

09/06/2006, 08:21 AM	#28
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	With everything running and lights on 4 hours, I noticed the tank was evaporating ~ 2 liters or 1/2 gallon of water a day. No surprise, but with the addion of lr and sand, now the tank started going through a little cycle. NH4 remained undetectable, but N02 and NO3 were creeping up. At this point I went ahead and added almost all of the rock from my 29. It took another week for things to settle back down to zero. I increased my lighting to 5 hours a day. Ca and Alk were also fluctuating. I was manually dosing between 30 to 60ml of B-Ionic every other day or so to maintain target levels of 450 and 11dKH.

09/06/2006, 09:09 AM	#29
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	Time to bring the fuge online. I ordered some chaeto off ebay and quite honestly wasn't impressed with what I received. It was shipped 2nd day and when I opened the baggie, it smelled like a wet diaper. Phew ammonia!! I didn't even want to use it, but I paid for it, so in it went. It looked pale and thin for about a week. I left the fuge light on 24/7 and gradually could see it improving. I've reduced the lighting down to 12 hours now - midnight to noon. I may have to start harvesting soon. Sump shot. Return side.

09/07/2006, 11:04 AM	#30
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	I'm continuing to manually dose B-Ionic for Ca and Alk. Overall tank parameters are acceptable. As you can see in my fuge, I've started adding some of my clean up crew.

09/07/2006, 03:12 PM	#31
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	Another week has elapsed and none of my cleaning crew has gone belly up yet - as far as I can tell anyway. Here is where I do something a little atypical and the seasoned veterans will probably scold me sternly. But at this point I actually started moving some of my corals over into the 90 (softies first). I'd watch things for about 4 or 5 days, then move a couple more. Watch and move more. I have to note, I've had all of these corals for at least a year or better. So I've had a chance to observe them doing well ...or not. Wow a whole year!! We all know that's still plenty wet behind the gills for a reefer. My goal was to create a stable environment first and then add fish last ...also just a couple at a time. Once the fish go in, I didn't want to stress them anymore, by sticking my hands in there every few days trying to place corals. So here you can see my pile of new rock intermingled with some of the coralline covered rock from my 29. So far so good. Corals and inverts, but a fishless 90. Temp: 79.8 SG: 1.025 pH: 8.3 Ca: 440 Alk: 11.2 dKH Mg: 1410 Evaporation: 2 liters NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4: Undetectable This brittlestar was actually the first creature to hitch a ride over to the new tank. I couldn't shake him from the rock, so in you go.

09/08/2006, 07:13 AM	#32
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	I'm about 90% done now. Still fishless - but not much longer. My clowns weren't too happy with me when I removed their anemone. Pretty easy to distinguish rock from the 29 vs the new.

09/08/2006, 08:29 AM	#33
Eashton123 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Indiana Posts: 129	Beautiful I think I almost cried. Absolutly love it. Have Fun

09/08/2006, 09:50 AM	#34
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	Thanks Eashton. It's truely been a labor of love. I'm pleased with how things are turning out so far. But still not quite done yet. I really want to pull the 2 way OM squirt with it's overflow and replace it with a 4 way super squirt. The flow from the squirt is decent, but I really got it for another tank. I wanted to check it out before sinking money into the SS. Maybe Santa will let me know if I've been naughty or nice this year. Bah humbug!

09/08/2006, 11:38 AM	#35
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	Didn't think I was going to have room, but I managed to find a spot for my Derasa clam to spread out. So I have fish now too. Here's my Orchid Dottyback and female Maroon Clown exploring a cave. What's kinda funny to me is that I expected one day to maybe get a larger fish - something like a Hippo Tang. But when I see these few small fish swimming around reasonably comfortable; I question if my 90 is even big enough for a Hippo - sheesh!! Cause another upgrade ain't gonna happen!! I'll proably post a few closeup shots in another thread so folks don't have to wade through all my plastic tub shots just to see a few pictures.

09/08/2006, 12:45 PM	#36
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	Here's one of my ustifications for an upgrade. This was even obvious to my wife, especially since she selected the Torch over a year ago. Then: And now:

09/09/2006, 09:33 AM	#37
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	My 60gpd RO unit. My RO product water vessel with float. I've read where some complain of a noisy solenoid. I've listened for it. It is detectable when the unit opens and closes. Fortunately my setup is in my basement laundry room so it's not an issue for me. Here are my last gallon containers of B-Ionic. I have the ingredients for Randy's 2 part recipe and will be switching over soon. I'm currently dosing 85ml a day to maintain my Ca Alk levels and continued coralline algae growth. But since I push these additives over 40 feet to my tank, I dilute them 9x1. So instead I dose 850ml continuously over 24hours. Hopefully the dilution will help minimize any blockage in the lines. Why the colors? Again it's with the wife in mind. If she looks under the sump, she knows that red and yellow are chemicals, and blue is just RO water. I've thought about kalk and have some Mrs. Wages. But in the event I have to go away; I don't want to start something that won't get maintained. I even considered a kalk stirrer to deliver saturated kalk. My wife just doesn't have time to be dealing with pickling lime and I'm not going to ask it of her. When I go to Randy's 2 part, I'm also switching out the gallon jugs with these. At 800ml per day, the gallon jugs last me ~ 5 days. With these I'll be able to reach close to the month mark. They're durable, vented, and don't take up too much space. I've carried enough of these in my day and it's probably the one thing in this hobby I understand .

09/10/2006, 12:00 PM	#40
chip721 Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Posts: 1,260	And finally I have a confession to make. I had the assistance of 2 professional plumbers along the way. And they weren't cheap either!! They wanted to be paid in "Gummy Bears." These 2 future reefers are my grandaughters. It doesn't matter to them if I'm feeding the fish, changing water, or emptying a skimmer cup. They ALWAYS want to help. Love 'em.