Mr Aqua 22 Long

[AlanM]

3 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

Are you using the mag 5? I think you'll be fine. I found the loudest piece was the skimmer pulling air. 

 

Yes, I am.  I wasn't sure if you had something under it so was nervous about setting it right on the plastic floor of the sump with no feet or padding under it.

[YHSublime]

2 minutes ago, AlanM said:

 

Yes, I am.  I wasn't sure if you had something under it so was nervous about setting it right on the plastic floor of the sump with no feet or padding under it.

 

Nope, but I guess YMMV. 

[AlanM]

4 hours ago, YHSublime said:

 

Nope, but I guess YMMV. 

 

OK.  Good to know.  

 

I'm taking the time to glue on all of the light lenses that had fallen off over the years.  Also trying to decide where to mount the big toolbox that has all of the electronics in it.  I may try to suspend it up in the very top of the stand with the open part facing up.

[AlanM]

I'm making water today and filling it up since I'll be home for a few days.  Fingers crossed that nothing leaks. 8)

[AlanM]

I ended up needing to hand tighten some bulkheads on the overflow box once the water warmed up because I saw a couple of drips.  Other than that, no leaks. 

 

There are some quirks to still work out, but it's been pretty good so far.  The drain area overflowing into the filter socks was making some trickling noises, but stuffing just a little bit of floss in the tops of the socks quiets it right out.  

 

It's running at 78F and 35ppt salinity, which I'll keep going for a week or two to make sure everything I know how everything works before ordering rocks and sand.  

 

Next is mounting the light.

[howaboutme]

Excellent!

 

I like to use pipe dope,erector seal, to help with threaded connections. Glad the plumbing worked out! 

[AlanM]

Hung the light and got it all working.  It doesn't look this blue in person.  I may have to break out the orange filters. 8)

 

 

I still have some wiring to clean up and am waiting for my order from Tampa Bay Saltwater the end of January.  The problems with Southwest Airlines have shut down their air cargo shipping operation.  

 

Once I get that in there I'll be ready for fish and corals within a couple of weeks, I think.

[YHSublime]

Putting sand in there?

[AlanM]

6 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Putting sand in there?

 

Yes.  As you know normal sand will get blown around by the powerheads, but I'm hopeful that the Tampa Bay Saltwater sand which is much much coarser and about half broken shells will stay put enough to not look bad. 

 

The sand and rock in there now is the stuff from my 2g pico that I put in just in case it had some life in it.  So far I've seen 4 zoas (rastas and sunkist), an asterina starfish, some aptasia, and a nassarius snail that survived the months of neglect in the pico with heating, topoff, and flow, but no feeding or water changes. 

 

I visited Reef Escape last week and got a few hermits to have something moving around in there and bought an mp10 while I was there.  I'll put another on the overflow wall like you did.  I put the pink fake nem in there to see how much flow gets to that end from the powerhead, and it's not much unless I really blast it on the far end.

[YHSublime]

2 hours ago, AlanM said:

I visited Reef Escape last week and got a few hermits to have something moving around in there and bought an mp10 while I was there.  I'll put another on the overflow wall like you did.  I put the pink fake nem in there to see how much flow gets to that end from the powerhead, and it's not much unless I really blast it on the far end.

 

Doing the reverse of what I did, I started with a MP10 on the back wall, then as the need grew HAD to add the MP10 on the "front." By the time you get rock and heavy sand in there, you'll have both running. 

 

FWIW, I was able to keep a heavily stocked mixed reef, including acro for a few years before adding the additional MP10. 

[AlanM]

39 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

FWIW, I was able to keep a heavily stocked mixed reef, including acro for a few years before adding the additional MP10. 

 

OK, thanks.  Maybe I'll try swapping it over to the back wall to see what happens.  

 

Do you remember what percent you ran the light at when it was in full growth mode and by itself?  I have a few smaller power supplies that I'm swapping in right now because the fans on them are quieter and I'm only running it at 20% just to make sure it's all running.

[YHSublime]

1 hour ago, AlanM said:

 

OK, thanks.  Maybe I'll try swapping it over to the back wall to see what happens.  

 

Do you remember what percent you ran the light at when it was in full growth mode and by itself?  I have a few smaller power supplies that I'm swapping in right now because the fans on them are quieter and I'm only running it at 20% just to make sure it's all running.

 

If you have x2 already, I'd just run them both. For me it was an aesthetic thing, I didn't want to have to put one on the front, but the tank demanded it.

 

I can probably go through and find my notes, but off the top of my head, at peak growth/intensity, I had it ramping up to 75% and then down again. But that's with each channel at a different intensity. 

[AlanM]

I'm waiting for my live rock delivery from Tampa Bay Saltwater on Monday.  Second delivery is a week later.  

 

In the meantime I'm seeing some interesting things while looking at a tank full of mostly nothing.  I had never seen tubeworms like this before.  The feather part is fluorescent green.  The tube is only about 1mm wide.  They're kind of cool.  They retract if I accidentally tap the glass, so they're pretty sensitive.

 

[YHSublime]

Neat! Little feather duster

[AlanM]

Live sand and rock day from Tampa Bay Saltwater!

 

It went on the plane in Tampa at around 1pm and arrive at BWI at 3:40pm.  I picked it up around 7pm.  The water was still 70 degrees, so pretty good.

 

I got 15 pounds of sand and 15 pounds of their "base" rock which is stuff that's been under the bay for years, but doesn't have much growth on it.  I asked for "nano" sized rocks and they did a great job of only sending small stuff.  It ranged in size from about 6 inches to about 3 inches which is perfect.  It's cloudy as heck in there now.  You're not supposed to rinse the sand, of course, just kind of dump the water off, lay the bag down in the tank and shake the sand out.  I had one visible cute hitchhiker, which I think is a porcelain crab.  I'll know better if I catch a look at him again.

 

So here's a basic unboxing series of pics.  Sorry for all the blue in some of the pics.  My lights are kind of ramping down.  I was pretty impressed with their packing and the pickup process from SWA cargo was super easy.

 

Boxes as they arrived:

 

Free Pop Rocks and stickers!  Also a little envelope of dry bacteria which I wetted down in a shot glass and squirted in.

 

Bags rubber-banded inside.  Sand was double-bagged.  Rock was triple bagged.  No leaks.

 

Bag full of rocks and yucky water

 

Pulling the rocks out of the water.  They recommend gloves because there can be sharp stuff on the rocks

 

Fun little crab hitchhiker in the sand bag

 

Cloudy tank.  The rocks just get set in there on the sand today.  In a couple of days I'll start arranging.

 

Now I have to do some ammonia checks for the next week or so, but I don't really expect much.  

 

Fun times and no big spills on the dining room floor!

 

[YHSublime]

Very excited to see! I like the mini rock aquascaping that will be happening! 
 

Warms my heart to see this tank with some life again!

[AlanM]

Cleared up by the morning.  Not too much visible life emerging so far.  Just a couple of limpets and some kind of crab.  It will be a couple of weeks before I make any rock decisions for what goes in the sump and what stays in the display.  Good thing the tank came with a big sump included.  

 

[AlanM]

On 1/24/2023 at 8:16 AM, AlanM said:

Cleared up by the morning.  Not too much visible life emerging so far.  Just a couple of limpets and some kind of crab.

 

Now that everything is clear, I can see lots of life and almost don't see the need for the upcoming second half shipment of "premium" rock, although I'm sure it will be interesting.

 

I'm seeing lots of white banded brittle stars. I've spotted four small green porcelain crabs that hang out upside down under rocks and one small unknown crab.  The rocks have lots of small living barnacles that open and extend feeding fans and retract and close.

 

I thought I caught a glimpse of a gorilla crab when I thought I saw a rock move and looked under it, but when I got my red flashlight I could never find it again. When it comes time to do a real aquascape I may take out the rock and shake them in a bucket of saltwater to see what jumps off. 8)

 

So far it's been worth it and a more entertaining startup to the reef tank than dry rock and bacteria.

[Origami]

Gorilla crabs are not uncommon on TBS rock, which is naturally cured and in Gulf waters. All kinds of hitchikers have been found - sometimes even small fish!

[AlanM]

Porcelain crab feeding in it's typical pose. Also a brittle star up in the rock above.

 

 

[Origami]

Porcelain crab feeding in it's typical pose. Also a brittle star up in the rock above.
 
 

These are one of my favorite crabs to watch. Do you have suspended solids or anything like reef roids to feed it?

Sent from my SM-N976V using Tapatalk

[AlanM]

18 minutes ago, Origami said:

These are one of my favorite crabs to watch. Do you have suspended solids or anything like reef roids to feed it?

 

Yep.  I have reef roids and add them once a day or so.

 

I saw the gorilla crab in the rock so I reached in real quick with my thumb and finger over the in and out holes in that rock and pulled it out.  It's in a beaker now.

 

Check him out, maybe 1.5 inches across including legs, but a relatively small one as they go:

 

 

 

[AlanM]

Got it out of the rock.

 

What do you think? Bad guy?

 

 

[howaboutme]

That's so cool. Almost a shame if it was a bad guy!

[Origami]

Yep. Sump creature or, in my case many years ago, live food for a few hitchiker mantis shrimp that came in on the same TBS live rock that I started the hobby with.