New 12Gal Nano DX
- Thread starter Masta_Cheef
- Start date
Update 1/22/06 56K WARNING
Well, I got all the Aragonite and water in, although I'm doing things a bit differently.
First off, I haven't mixed the salt in. Now I don't wanna get flamed for it yet, so let me explain my reasoning.
Secondly, I haven't taken out the filters, again, let me explain.
Now, the salt thing I wanted to let the temperatures equalize before I started mixing anything, as I know that temperature effects SG. I want it to all equal out to about 75-80 before I mix the salt in. There's nothing in the tank right now except aragonite and water. I'll mix the salt in tomorrow when I get home from school and the temperatures have settled out a bit.
The filters I haven't taken out (mechanical) because I want it to clean the water up a little so I can actually see what I'm doing, then I'll take them out, rinse them off, and put them in a bag and never touch them again unless I need them.
I have a bed of about 2½ - 3" of aragonite down, slightly sloped towards the front. It's around 20lbs or so.
I've enclosed a few pictures. 56k beware.
About an inch of aragonite down so far; I liked the look of this the best, but for what I want, it won't be sufficient:
Front shot, completed pouring:
Lights on in room, lights on in tank:
Lights out in room, lights on in tank:
Lights out in room, tank lights on; front of tank:
Well, I got all the Aragonite and water in, although I'm doing things a bit differently.
First off, I haven't mixed the salt in. Now I don't wanna get flamed for it yet, so let me explain my reasoning.
Secondly, I haven't taken out the filters, again, let me explain.
Now, the salt thing I wanted to let the temperatures equalize before I started mixing anything, as I know that temperature effects SG. I want it to all equal out to about 75-80 before I mix the salt in. There's nothing in the tank right now except aragonite and water. I'll mix the salt in tomorrow when I get home from school and the temperatures have settled out a bit.
The filters I haven't taken out (mechanical) because I want it to clean the water up a little so I can actually see what I'm doing, then I'll take them out, rinse them off, and put them in a bag and never touch them again unless I need them.
I have a bed of about 2½ - 3" of aragonite down, slightly sloped towards the front. It's around 20lbs or so.
I've enclosed a few pictures. 56k beware.
About an inch of aragonite down so far; I liked the look of this the best, but for what I want, it won't be sufficient:
Front shot, completed pouring:
Lights on in room, lights on in tank:
Lights out in room, lights on in tank:
Lights out in room, tank lights on; front of tank:
Well, screwed up already. I wasn't thinking and I used tap water, and with my luck, I happened to use the entire box of salt already, so there's $10.00 I'll never see again. I guess it's better that I caught it now, than remembering that I didn't get RO water before I started to add everything.
Does anyone know if the grocery stores cell RO water? How would anyone recommend transporting it all?
Does anyone know if the grocery stores cell RO water? How would anyone recommend transporting it all?
UPDATE!! **4-5-06**
Aww, well, it was my birthday yesterday. w00t. I'm 18 now. Anyways, so for my birthday, my sister and I finally got around to working on this. While I was at school, she went out and got 12 one gallon jugs of RO water. Well, it was sorta overkill because I only ended up needing 6½. But hey, now I've got lots of extra when I need to do a waterchange.
So anyways, for my birthday, she said she'd pay for the liverock if I wanted to go pick some out. We went out to this nice saltwater store not far from here, and picked some out. Here it is in my tank right now! Tell me all what you think.
I got one big piece of Fiji (it's on the left, standing up, pointing towards the top right corner. I forgot what the other kind of rock was, but I think it started with a P or a V LOL! It'll come to me). I also got bit by bristleworms, which is a nice and uncomfortable feeling. The little buggers are like splinters. I had like 50 of them in my hand. They're annoying, lemme tell ya.
I did the whole smell-testing thing on it. I found a few pieces that were really neat looking, but smelled like rotten eggs and sulphur, so I didn't get 'em. Thanks camaro for giving me the first tip on picking out what is good as compared to what isn't.
The Fiji was $5.75/lb
The other kind was $6.75/lb
I got about 10lbs of the stuff, so it ended up costing $74.00 I think. Not too bad, and I really like the shape.
Quick params are:
80.2°F
1.024 SG
Front
Lower Right
Lower Left
Right Side
Top Right
Aww, well, it was my birthday yesterday. w00t. I'm 18 now. Anyways, so for my birthday, my sister and I finally got around to working on this. While I was at school, she went out and got 12 one gallon jugs of RO water. Well, it was sorta overkill because I only ended up needing 6½. But hey, now I've got lots of extra when I need to do a waterchange.
So anyways, for my birthday, she said she'd pay for the liverock if I wanted to go pick some out. We went out to this nice saltwater store not far from here, and picked some out. Here it is in my tank right now! Tell me all what you think.
I got one big piece of Fiji (it's on the left, standing up, pointing towards the top right corner. I forgot what the other kind of rock was, but I think it started with a P or a V LOL! It'll come to me). I also got bit by bristleworms, which is a nice and uncomfortable feeling. The little buggers are like splinters. I had like 50 of them in my hand. They're annoying, lemme tell ya.
I did the whole smell-testing thing on it. I found a few pieces that were really neat looking, but smelled like rotten eggs and sulphur, so I didn't get 'em. Thanks camaro for giving me the first tip on picking out what is good as compared to what isn't.
The Fiji was $5.75/lb
The other kind was $6.75/lb
I got about 10lbs of the stuff, so it ended up costing $74.00 I think. Not too bad, and I really like the shape.
Quick params are:
80.2°F
1.024 SG
Front
Lower Right
Lower Left
Right Side
Top Right
Last edited:
Get a few snails such as nassarius to stir up the sand bed and a couple to clean up any algae that you will get. If I had it to do over I would just do snails and skip the hermits altogether as they perform murder and mayhem shell jacking their buddies and snails. Looks good.......let everything settle in for about a month before you add anything other than the cleaning crew.
Well, I appear to have run into a problem now. My tank's had liverock in it for about a week, but now the temperature has shot up from it's normal 80° to 85.9°. I haven't done anything different. I've been leaving the lights on the same amount of time as I was before, but I've been leaving the LEDs on all night usually. Still, two little LEDs shouldn't cause a 9° difference. I've decided I'll leave the door open and the LEDs off all night to see if anything changes, and then turn the lights on at normal time (around 7:00am) to see if there's still a temperature problem. If it doesn't help the problem, what all would you suggest? 
I had the same problem when I added a large powerhead as well as my lights. I wasnt about to blow money on a chiller for this tank (a bigger tank I Would have) but I turned the heater down until the tank stabalzed at a point I liked. Has worked well for me and havent hadany temp fluxuations. I have my heater set about 72-71 now and it stays at my desired 75-76