Progress

The tank has been progressing nicely. Most of the initial hair algae has been consumed. Corraline algae has started to form on the back of the tank and power heads.

All of the cleaner crew is still alive and kicking. Soon I'll need to remove the Lettuce Nudi. He will not have much to eat and will slowly starve. So off to the LFS with him.

The only causality I have had was my Perc. Not sure what happened. One night he's swimming and eating fine. The next morning he on the bottom breathing heavy. All tests came back fine. Nothing else was having trouble. I just don't get it.

Another three weeks and I will start with some corals. Ah the waiting game!

They're HERE!

Cleaner crew arrived today. SaltwaterFish.com is a great store to work with. With the storm that hit last week they actually held my order as to avoid any delays! Fellow reefer Wes split the cost for the crew. Thanks Wes!

Everybody arrived well. After we split the bounty, I started the drip acclimation period. I used rigid white tubing. The kind used on RO/DI systems. I cut one piece about 4 feet long, inserted a valve and then use another piece of tubing 1 foot long that ran to the gallon container holding the crew. I ran the drip at about 6 drips per second for 40 minutes and then increased it to even flow for another 30.

Hardest part was prying the Turbos off of each other.

Now get to work cleaning!

I have decided on my fish.

1. Sixline Wrasse
















2. Black Perc






















3. 4-wheel drive/Signal Goby
















4. Chalk Basslet

The crew is coming.

Ordered my cleanup crew last night from saltwaterfish.com. Here is the breakdown:
10 Nassarius snails
15 Turbo's
1 Emerald Crab
1 Cleaner
2 Peppermint
1 Lettuce Nudi
1 Serpent Star
1 Fighting Conch

Going to do another full round of tests tonight as well as a 5 gallon water change in preparation. I will drip acclimate them over a 2 hour period and then move them to the tank with only moon lights on. One step closer!

Finally

The hood is complete. 5 sided box of smoke acrylic. Here you can see the main support legs.

Main support top and sides.

Main support resting on lip of tank. 2 sides are then added to the legs.

Here is the complete "box" support for the tank rim.

Complete structure minus the fixtures. Now the fun (NOT) part. Lights need to be stripped from their existing housings. 4 switched need to be mitered into the side of the box. Holes need to be drilled for main power wiring.

Here you can see the holes mitered for the switches. I had to create 4 of them approximately 1/2"X 3/4" Flexible shaft tool did a nice job.

Switches installed. Wiring done. Both reflectors were suspended by bolts hung from the top.

The light mods begin!

So I got my fixture back from Finnex today and promptly started tearing it apart. I have a surface area of 14X24 inches to squeeze 96Watts of T5's and 130 Watts of PC into the Black Acrylic hood I made.

The Finnex proved to be a little harder then anticipated. The grommets that hold the main power cords into the side panel were glued in place. Normally these grommets pop right out. Not that lucky. I sorted out the switch wiring and just snipped the cords. I will solder and heat shrink these connections to make them solid and water tight.

Here you see the full fixture as well as the ballast. In case you need to replace one.

This next pic shows both the Coralife and Finnex fixtures together in hood. Ballasts for PC's will be mounted behind reflector. Finnex ballasts are already secured on top of the reflctor. There will be about a 1" gap between the reflectors and the top of the hood. Stand off's installed with long screws and locking nuts.

In other action, I have installed my American DJ power station. What a great addition to the stand. Layout is straight forward and simple. Now there is only ONE cord visable outside the stand. 1=Main pump, 2=ATO, 3=Skimmer, 4 both 50 watt heaters, 5= 8 bank Coralife digital controller, 6=8 bank Coralife digital controller, 7 and 8= Tunze Nano Streams (left and right)

Today I discovered some green algae growing on my LR and sand substrate. Not sure if a tank can cycle that fast. LR was cured but sitting out of water for a week wrapped in wet newspaper. After adding to tub(in there for 2 weeks) and then to main tank I noticed NO smell.

I was given a small packet of...ummm I can't remember the exact name of the product but it was live bacteria. There are tons of pods all over the glass and some algae.

Hummm....... wait or start looking at cleaning crew?

Just waiting.

Still struggling to get salinity up where it needs to be. Currently at 1.021. Close, but a bit more and I'll be happy. Temp holding at 78.3-78.8 Started 2 part dosing today. I'll start checking PH,KH/ALK and CA Monday. Get base numbers and see where we need to go.

I received the 10K/50 actinic Friday. They look very nice. Custom hood in the works. Black acrylic, full length about 3 inches off the surface. Speaking of lights, my T5's are on their way back from Finnex. Bad ballast!

I'm going to strip both fixtures and build one that consists of 96W and 130W fixtures. Ballasts will all be mounted under hood covered by acrylic box.

The Remora NANO skimmer has been producing nice skim mate and a LOT of micro bubbles. I hope the bubbles dissipate over time.

I have ordered individual reflectors for the Coralife PC's. I plan on mounting them on each side of the T5's. I have also ordered a QuiteOne 3000 for the pump. I want to add the LocLine and the second return to the system for more flow.

A few new shots. Skimmer running nicely!