My tank begins...with PICS for assistance!!!

[tmnterminator]

Hi all! First, thnx for everybodys help in helping deciding on equipment to setup my first SW tank. So far, so good. Of course nothing's really going on so thats probably why...

At this point, I have pretty much all my equipment. Here are some specs as you will also see in the pics:

- 40 lbs Caribsea Moonlight White Aquarium Sand/40 lbs Florida Crushed coral
- 50 lbs of LR (I decided to get a bit for now since it seemed overwhelming in favor of getting some. Hopefully later I can get more)
- Few of the those coral replicas (my wife said she didnt want to see "just a bunch of rocks" so I had to get something. It was either these or some fake plants, so I fiugred this was best)

I've attached some pics of the LR. Please take a look and tell me what you think. I picked these out myself (using the sticky on LR as a guide - thnx!) so hopefully these look ok. At this point, I guess I just sit and wait right?

Also, I have a Coralife Super Skimmer which I have no idea how to use. The water comes up and fills up the cup. There is a little hole in the cup that seems for piping however Im not sure if I should run the piping back into the tank or not so that the water comes out. Also there is a little outlet on the bif pipe that leads to the "foam box part". When I turn on the skimmer, little driblets of water come out of the hole and fall to the back of the tank to the floor.

The skimmer is my biggest concern so please help me out if you can. THnx!! (sorry for the quality & if the pics are too big!!)

 

[RockingCricket]

Hey Terminator. The LR looks fine. I'm glad you've got your hands wet. I have no experience with that skimmer so I can't really help you there. One suggestion I do have though is that you try to stack your rock a little more. This'll give you more caves, crevises and what not for your tank mates to hide in. I believe it'll aid your filtration because water will flow through the rocks more readily, and it'll also look more natural (this last bonus may just be my personal preference ) You also wanna think about algae growth on the glass. You need to leave enough room for cleaning. 2 or 3 inches is enough (if your using a megnetic scraper). I'd say moving the 2 leftmost and 2 rightmost rocks to the center stack would look good. It doesn't have to all be even. Otherwise, looks good!

 

[S.Reef]

Very nice, what size is that like a 55 or a 75 gallon? It looks really good, i to have heard those coralifes a re tricky yo adjust but in the long run they are suppose to be very nice. One last question fish only or reef?

 

[wayne]

First of all try some different aquascapes while you can. Go up, not across.

The skimmer. First off, I am unfamiliar with this particular brand.... but .....

Also, I have a Coralife Super Skimmer which I have no idea how to use. The water comes up and fills up the cup.<<The water is coming up too high. You can a.move the cup up b. choke back the water supply. What does the manual say>> There is a little hole in the cup that seems for piping however Im not sure if I should run the piping back into the tank or not so that the water comes out<<Well really htis should be where foam reliquidifies to black smelly liquid and should NOT be allowed back in the tank. For most people you can just collect and dispose of this gak HOWEVER if you are creating a lot of gak, especially if you are 'wet skimming' you will overflow the cup a lot - the pipe lets you overflow to a waste bucket>>. Also there is a little outlet on the bif pipe that leads to the "foam box part". When I turn on the skimmer, little driblets of water come out of the hole and fall to the back of the tank to the floor <<god knows>>

Do you know how a skimmer works in theory? If not read the sticky. You need to understand that you are mashing together air and water to create a scum containing the waste, and you have to collect the scum/waste

 

[KahluaZzZ]

the skimmer has a big red knob...turn it to ajust the water flow/level.
Those skimmers are tricky, pretty unstable when the water level change in the main tank. They really are great if your tank is pierced, so the water line is always the same. Another thing : there's a hole in the return tubing, so the air can come out...sometimes when the pressure is too high, some splashing water can come out from the hole, and it wets the back of the tank. I use a air pump tubing plugged at the output so it cant happen again.
Besides those problems, they are so efficient ( well the needle wheel ones ). For the price this is great.

 

[tmnterminator]

Thnx for your help guys...

For one of the questions, this is a 75G tank, and im thinking of fish only with maybe a few inverts; no corals or anything like that though

I will play with the aquascaping a bit and see what I come with. Good point about the cleaning, as I bought one of those magnetic scrapers and need a bit more clearance for it.

And as far as the skimmer, I guess I'll kepp playing with. I don't feel the instructions really help explain how to properly run the thing. Setting it up, the instructions were fine, but beyond that it doesnt go into much detail. Hopefully I can figure it out. One thing, am I trying to have water run over into the cup or no? And what is "wet" vs "dry" skimming. The instructions mention it briefly , but doesnt go into under what circumstances you should use either. Should I wet or dry skim? thnx

 

[KahluaZzZ]

no you wanna reach like 2 inches under the cup's output. The bubble will solidify at that point and so will be more thick, pushing almost only the crap into the cup. That's a better way to actually separate crap from water. Dry is when you collect brown/green solid gunk in your cup. Wet is when there's to much flow and the result is liquid gunk in the cup. I prefer when it's dry...you empty the cup less often, you lose less water, less risks of overflows, and you don't have a weak gunk percentage.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

Think you're at the sea...the flow breaks off the rocks, mixing with air, millions of bubbles...and there's skim floating at your feet. Well this is a skimming.

 

[tmnterminator]

OK..here is the updated rockwork with before and after shots....tell me whacha think...

BEFORE

AFTER...

This is probably the best I can do while keeping it stable. Alot of the pieces just dont fit well together, so this is the what I was able to come up with. Hope its better than the first go round...

 

[wayne]

Probably easier to live with, and better looking. It can be tricky - I stuck mine together with modelling clay to get it better.

Dry vs wet skimming - Genreally when people skim they do as described , they try to get a nice dry scummy foam and collect that. However the argument can be made that by allowing the foam to be wetter you can pull more waste out at the cost of losing larger amounts of water. So this method of wet skimming is more suitable for large systems with stuff like autottopup systems to keep water levels constant.

FWIW you need to just spend time fiddling with the skimmer and experimenting, and also bear in mind that any change you make should be allowed to run for a couple of hours, especially small ones as the effect won't be instant

 

[tmnterminator]

Kahluazzz....

Where shoudl I be seeing the bubbles at? In the big clear canister in the back or in/near the cup cuz right now I see none...

Also, if you look at that pic of my skimmer from above, the big grey tubing on the right has a little hole that I think you said should be releasing air...well, in my setup its running a steady stream of water out back into the tank (i put some tubing there...)...thnx

 

[KahluaZzZ]

Try to get those bubbles up to this point, but stay close, you don't wanna fill the cup. You said the output was shooting water from the air hole. Well it shouldn't spray a lot. This means your big gray water output ( the one that goes in the rectangular box in the tank ) isn't vertical enough or that the box is attached to high. Too much pressure + 2 much water flow in the output will do that. Better lower it before you turn the red know and have a stronger flow.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

Can you take a pic of the back of your skimmer while running ? I wanna check if you have enough air in the skimmer. I had to cut a plastic tubing, the one between the skimmer and the powerhead to get enough bubbles.

 

[tmnterminator]

Yea, I'll snap a pic for you and post it tomorrow...

As far as the parameters of the water I just tested it today and got these results:

pH- 8.1; Ammonia- .50; Nitrite- .15; Nitrate- 15. These, of course, I just rough estimates as I look and compare the color of the water to the test papers. At this point, do I just let the tank cycle and change the water periodically or should I be adding anything or anything else? Thnx

 

[KahluaZzZ]

don't add...wait until your cycle finishes. When ammonia = 0 and nitrite = 0 it'll be soon

 

[yamahaguy06]

looks good man like the tank. what kind of sand is that? its realy fine...good luck with the cycle

 

[tmnterminator]

Thanks for the kind words...

Well, I still havent got my skimmer working yet...Kahl, my cam has been actin up so i havent been able to snatch a pic of it working for you, but I'm going to try again tonite...i have put in another Seio (820) so now I'm done with equipment...oh yea, the wife was too hot with the look of the cables running down the back of the tank and skimmer, so she wanted to get one of those false backgrounds...so I got that and I guess it looks ok...but whatever makes her happy, makes me happy so its fine...i'll snap a pic of the latest setup once I can figure out whats up with my cam...