chris_kerryn

My tank has hit upto 31.5 deg and is now hovering at 29-30 now that I have opened the hood and raised the main lighting hood above the tank. with about a 1cm gap all the way around. I brought a couple of small computer fans yesterday, but thats about all I know how to do at present. I was thinking of wiring it up to the light wiring ??? Also I have basically 2 options. 1. install it in the side of the hood aiming at the lights. there is a cover between lights and water so this would not put wind on the water. 2. install it in the front flap of the hood and aim it down on the water. Which sounds better? any ideas on the wiring of the fan?

My tang died after 1-2 days of noticing it and then 1 week later my clown got it and died after 1 week? I did nothing too apart from add garlic to its food. for the clown I added stop parasites to the tank for about 1 week as I noticed it quicker. I was getting ready to give the clown a freshwater dip, the next morning and then it was dead by that morning. bummer! I saw some tangsin the new shipments at LFS which had white spot from the shipping I guess. It was very minor compared to what mine ended up having. Still dont really know what the problem was. It all started a week after I brought a new torch coral? My shrimp is doing ok and so are all the corals, so not sure if water quality had anything to do with it? Problem now is trying to keep tempreture below 29-30 deg!! (This is after fish had died however) heater is turned off, and I only have flouro lights. Might have to try installing a fan, but no real room in my small hood. How long do you need to leave it before you can add fish again

My brother has a set up, in a 5 ft tank, basically a rock pool in a tank, has everything except mussels, which die off for some reason. he made his own chiller for bugger all. Should get him to tell you how he made it. He has his in a sun room and is not having much problems.

I am aware of that. I am not concerned about air getting in, I am concerned about the water syphoning out of the weir. In my test in the bath I had the hose lying down on the bottom of the bath about 1ft below the weir. as there was no air in it, it was acting as a syphon and as I turned the tap off for the flow through the weir, The syphon in the weir drained until the water went below the priming weir which means the syphon effect it lost. Really, this bleeder hose should have static flow and only allow air to excape and not water. I am tempted to have the hose raised above the tank by 100mm or so (enough that it doesnt suck the water out) then attach it to the venturi inlet hose for my skimmer with a tee junction. this would always act to suck air out if it is there. I cant see how you would stop the syphon effect from the powerhead once the power goes off unless you have it raised enough that the water only heads up a bit in the tube, like I have said above. Is this what you have done?

Ok now I'm worried, my last fish (tomato clown) looks like he has the spots now. I know this is serious as the last fish died of this. He looks stressed as he is hiding a bit as the blue tang did. Garlic didnt do much for the tang although it may have been too late. Does that salifert stuff really work?

I was testing mine in the bath yesterday. I have installed the bleeder nipple and tube, but found that it basically kept draining through the hose and when I stopped the inlet flow the bleeder hose kept going until the syphon was lost. So if you have it hooked up at a powerhead like Melev indicated, how do you stop the flow once the powerhead stops? Essentially it will be sucking a low flow of water continueously unless I'm missing something How did you hook yours up to the venturi? After my test yesterday I'm not keen on running the hose below the weir with any suction.

Look down the page a bit. I started a string, how do you set up sump for existing tank. Reef posted it all on there. I have just built one of these weirs today basically from this design. have just tested it for leaks and will look to possibly install it tomorrow. Have run some water through it and it looks to be working ok. Just need to install the air outlet hose on the top, which will have a thin hose running down to a powerhead inlet for suction and the bulkhead for the outlet, which I will do today. Was very easy to make and I got all the acrylic cut to the sizes I wanted plus some glue for $20 I will let you know how it goes and possibly put up some photos when I learn how. I am only doing this method because my tank is already set up and I dont want to drill hole in it. Chris

reef gave me a good link a little while ago. it is just a wide syphon with weirs to keep the syphon primed. it looks like it would work ok. Not sure if my return pump is big enough though. I have an 800l/hr pump that will probably do 500-600lph once it is headed up. would this be enough? I'm not keen on getting yet another pump. I am probably going to have a go at making one once I have some acrylic

I'm in the same spot as you almost. I managed to find a 30l rubbish bin that is about the biggest container, I can fit in my cabinet. This would give me enough room to put my skimmer, return pump and heater and also a few kg of rock. Only problem is I cant get the water out of the tank safety to run it. Make sure you decide if you are going to do a sump before you do anything. My tank is already set up and am now finding out the benefits I could have if I could have set one up. My other half wont let me drill the tank inside full of water so that idea is now out the window. Only other option is a syphon which can be risky, but am still looking at doing once I can find some acrylic to make it from. If you have polished floors (tongue and groove) rather than drill big holes through it you could cut a piece out between the joists and put a temporary piece in with the holes drilled. then when you move you can replace the piece of good timber.

Take it from me. I set up my 75 litre tank 3-4 months ago and am having problems with it. I have had 2 out of 4 fish die. I am a few months ahead of you and dont know much, but from what I have learned, I advise you to go bigger too. Don't buy a readymade tank with the lights and filter on either as you will soon throw all that away. I am already planning a bigger tank. you are really limited to what you can put in a small tank. All the nice things you see in the shops, you can probably choose from about 1 quarter of them for your tank which sucks. I collect my seawater by St Helliers, as long as the weather is calm. I dont think it is responsible for the problems I've had, but who knows. Others get theirs from Takapuna which is just as clean or polluted and they have no problems.

Doesnt matter now. I found the fish dead on new years day, basically 1 day after I posted this thread. I suspect it wasnt ich but the other one (Amylooddinium ocellatum) which has a lot more spots. It had probably 50-100 spots. but who knows. It was still eating well the night before. I had added a shrimp also as some people had suggested. The clown still looks ok but does look a bit lonely now. I take it that I should leave the system for a few weeks to try to get rid of it or let it recover?

Lots of different opinions, where do you start? I did another water change this morning, which will help, has brought up the salinity a bit. will bring it up slowly from now. I wasnt keen to do that either but we were panicking last night my partner pressured me into it as the forum was down so we relied on our book which said it should be ok in a short burst. Nothing looks too stressed though. I think they are used to it in my tank. I noticed the tang has been hiding out during the day in the last few days but comes out at night. perhaps he has been stressed. I have got some garlic to mix in with the food today from Hollywoods. will try this for a few days. They did mention the bottle mix to kill parasites but have had different opinions on that too. Seems there is a different opinion no matter what you do. I will start feeding them more. will try twice a day now. Have not been feeding much as I was scared of over feeding. had no ammonia problems so this seems ok to do. All tests seem ok. nitrates always been up a bit. My Nitrates are starting to creep up slowly. now at 20mg/l. have normally been about 10 since setting up. I do water changes every week. Not sure how to remedy this. Could it be the trickle filter? I am tempted to just remove it altogether but am not sure if it is needed. Could the nitrates be building up in the noddles? I have some macro algae which is supposed to help but it isnt doing anything. I have about 10kg of rock in the tank (75l ). and heaps of circulation. only about 3-4 kg was brought as live rock and the rest as dead rock but is growing stuff on it. would this be sufficient to remove the trickle filter? I have a small skimmer too. I want to do the sump still but other half wont let me drill the tank, probably a wise move. I brought an alkalininty test kit today also. Kh = 8.8 and Alk = 3.03. Is this too high? Not keen on removing the fish as I would need to clean out the whole tank again which I just did a couple of weeks ago to catch the damsel before putting these guys in. If the garlic doesnt work or fish gets worse I will try the bottle mix you add to the tank. Never ending problems...... Kids should be easy after this.

My little blue tang has got the white spot itch. I noticed it last night. he has heaps of small white spots and is scratching himself and is sitting in front of the powerhead. He also appears to be breathing quite rapidly. My clown fish appears fine. My book advised that lowering the salinity short term can help to remidy this. I lowered it to about 1.020 last night. Can really tell at the moment if it has improved as he is hiding, but I can still see the parasites on him if thats what they are. I dont have a quaratine tank or anything. I could make up a bath in a 20l bucket for a while, but to get him out I will probably have to pull everything out. If I do get him out and treat him, wont there still be the bugs in the tank? Help.

can you do it with a normal drill and glass cutting bit? can you buy them? dont you need to run water over it while you are drilling? not possible in my case. I know some glaziers but they will all be on holiday. already getting good ideas for a new tank, but this has to be a few months away as I am moving house and dont want to move a big tank as hear its a real drama. will probably start building it gradually soon. want to try to get this one a bit better in the mean time. I may look at trying to build an overflow box. would maybe need to place the pump in the sump right near the surface, that if the syphon breaks, then only a small amount can be drained from the sump. better to stuff a powerhead than anything else. I did want to know how much all the other decent stuff costs on the new tank say for 5 foot before I actually jump into it. Im guessing that my tank and stand will be about $1k decent skimmer lights big enough pumps anything else you need that I dont have. sump sound fairly cheap and easy now. Oh yeah, my leather is looking better. I aimed my small powerhead at it and it is cleaning it up. I found out that they secrete a mucus and it needs to be washed away or it can go bad. Cheers for the help guys

Right, I have started a new string for this so hopefully more people will read this. I want to make a sump for my existing tank. I have existing 75l tank with existing trickle filter and an external hang on tank skimmer which I retrofitted. skimmer discharges into trickle filter, which is backwards I know but can't do much about that. Not happy with the level of treatment, filtration that Im getting. I've got it pretty much sorted how to set it up. I have a 30l container that is about as big as I can get in my cabinet. Biggest problem is getting the water out of the tank in a safe and consistent manner. I know the best way is with an overflow weir with a hole drilled so it only drains as fast as it comes in. Note. The tank is operational so I have been advised constructing an overflow weir with hole in the tank would be very risky. Being an engineer, I am convinced there is a solution short of emptying tank and starting again. Is there? I could probably do something about 100mm down from the top. siliconing something at this level would probably be ok for a day. thats about how far it goes down when I do a water change. A syphon has been mentioned, but this could be as risky having a pump at each end (one in tank and one in sump) also drilling a hole in an existing tank has also been discouraged. Has anyone done it? I could have the water below the level of the hole but still sounds difficult, and how do you do it. I have thought about building an overflow box say 100 x 100x 100 in the corner as I would for a normal overflow, and possibly rig some sort of syphon there. It cannot drain the tank, but if you lose the syphon some how or if the flow rate alters it would be impossible to prevent the tank from flooding as Pies also suggested. 3 months into it and I have already outgrown my poor little tank. I might just start building a new tank. how much would it realistically cost to setup a 4-5 foot tank once you have tank and stand? Put your thinking caps on guys Chris

Ho do I do that. the main thing would be to keep it fairly close to the surface so if you have a power cut it doesnt empty your tank. how would you keep the flow regulated so it is the same as the incoming flow? if it is too high you will drain the tank below syphon and then will flood the tank once drain has gone. If is is too low it will then flood tank. I might be missing something. I might need to start a new string for this

I have been adding a calcium suppliment every week as directed. could that be doing it? I am doing this for the others in the tank am was preping it for a shrimp which I am hoping to get soon. It is not that high though, only low to mid 400's. Also adding iodine every couple of weeks. I did have a bit of a spike in the salinity which I gradually brought down over a few days. It doesnt take much in a small tank. I have moved it again to the front of the tank, which should give it some better flow and more lighting. Side issue/tinkering I want to set up a sump on an existing tank. it is possible. been reading the nano tank set up string. I know how I would do it only I could only really take the overflow down about 100mm as I would have to drain the tank partially to glue it in. would this give enough head to drain the tank adequately. could install larger diameter pipe for the outlet. can you buy the drill bits, or do you have to get it done. I have a 30l container ready and waiting to be a holiday project. I have a new powerhead 800l/hr on 75l tank it does 1.5m head I think. would that be grunty enough to push it back up. top of tank is probably 4ft high. could elevate pump also to make diff about 3ft. At the moment I have hang on tank skimmer with the pump at the base of the tank. An alternative would be to divert the outlet from the skimmer down to the sump, then use the powerhead to bring it back up. Problem could be that if flow rates dont exactly match up, one would flood! Has anyone tried this? The poerhead is adjustable, but I wouldnt trust it and I know skimmer is on the wrong end of system. Has anyone put in the overflow in an operational tank? Can it be done? Also the rock. you couldnt put heaps of live rock in could you if it is not lighted? and you cant put heaps of uncycled rock it. Would you just gradually add it. Keen to do something as the old trickle filter doesnt do much for cleaning the water.

Dont know how to put photos up

leather is still looking not so well. not fully extended like it used to be and it is showing signs of yellowness on some of the tips. ie the yellow underlying speckles are beginning to show more as the orange disappears. it looks like the pollen on pine trees if anyone has seen that. tested the water and everything is fine. ph is back up again and fish seem happy enough. bubble, mushrooms and feather duster are now happy aswell after the move. Anyone got any ideas what could be wrong with it? or what could be done. Algae is still growing well. Where can you get cleaner snails? sick of cleaning it every couple of days Chris

My finger leather is looking a little unhealthy. fingers have shrivelled up slightly and there looks to be a slighlty milky tinge to it. It has happened after yesterday as I removed a damsel and had to remove everything to get him out. had it all sitting in buckets of water, and have put new fish in which look happy enough. pH has suddenly dropped to about 7.9-8. everything else seems ok. Could this be the reason leather is not looking good? could it just be from the shift? Leather had been ok up til now which is about 2 weeks. pH has never been a problem. I have just put a bigger powerhead in to give it more circulation. 800l/hr on 75 l tank. not directly at it though. However I have it next to it so it doesnt look like it gets much current at all. Would i be better to aim at it from a distance? How do you get the pH up? I did a water change yesterday too. Also my clown is trying to use my bubble as an anenome. quite funny but don't bubbles sting? will clown be ok? I would like to put an anenome in but have been advised against it in a small tank with other corals. Anyone know of something that could go in. I have a platform area that would fit one, but whether it would stay there and if it would affect other corals, fish and is lighting adequate. Ideas. is pH at this level a major problem?

I might be able to fit a tall plastic container that would take about a 15-20 L or so in my cabinet. On a 75 L tank would it be worth it? At the moment I have the hang on the outside of the tank skimmmer which has a big pump on the base of the tank. this is fairly well hidden. this would probably have to stay there then this would need to discharge into the sump container. I am not keen on drilling into my operational tank either. I know the skimmer should be last but this is the only way that I could rig it unless completely starting over. Once I am in the sump container from the skimmer, then what? I know that I would need a pump to bring it back to the tank. Do I need a filter? I see at the shops they have coral and macro algae but then you would also need lights in there wouldnt you. Would it be worth putting coral rock in there in the dark? Would there be much benefit just having the water in there. I guess a good idea would be to have the pump near the top of the sump especially if I have a tall thin one to get in the cabinet so that any crap can settle on the bottom and be cleaned out during a water change. I could silicon some panels in like I have seen on some sumps. I guess somewhere in there you would need to place a sponge filter of sometype. Having this could I remove the trickle filter? can you get enough treatment with a few kg of liverock in the tank. By the way, I have a fish and it is still alive :lol: . It's only a damsel but I just wanted to make sure it would survive before I replace it with some better less aggresive fish. Anyone need one for cycling a Tank? any ideas?

I would be keen to learn more about the sump idea too as my system is still only new and small. 75l with a skimmer then into trickle filter. Doesnt a sump greatly improve your fish capacity for a small system? anyone have some pictures or know a link to look it up? Chris

I set up my 75 litre system 2 months ago and have had nothing but problems, especially with water quality. Have had fatalities, even once all tests were ok. Not sure what it was. Going to leave it for a while now.everything is covered in green and brown algae even though I clean it 1-2 times per week. Does it cause WQ problems when you clean of the algae and dont get it all sucked up. It looks like it dies on the bottom. My tank is too small to suck heaps of water while cleaning otherwise the water changes are too big. With the money I have spent on this small system because I want to shift house soon and also wanted to try it first before spending too much money, I should have just gone for the bigger one which sounds a lot easier and you can actually put fish in it. Not having the best time with it. One good thing is I have noticed a small anenome of some type starting to grow. god know what type it is though. It will probably grow up and kill something else. I hope I can get my tank lookn like this. How are the chromis with other fish? When I get to put some in I would like a clown and one or two others. Problem is all the small fish either get big or dont get on with each other. ie damsels. probably should have started a new string! chris

I pulled the coral out about 8 days ago. It seemed like it was still alive as it contracted when I pullede it out. I tested the water and the ammonia had started to rise so I bit the bullet and pulled it. I was in hollywoods the other day and saw one that was more bloated than mine and its tenticles were barely sticking out. It looked worse than my one, but I'm no expert. I talked to the place where I brought it and they did not really think any thing was wrong with it how I described it. I had discussed my tank with them on a couple of occasions before I brought it. they did recommend against some corals but not this one. my nitirites and ammonia rose again slightly to about 0.2 so I have just decided to leave it for a few weeks before adding anything else. How long would it need to be steady at zero before adding anything? Can the excessive amount of algae I have be causing any damage to the water quality? I have read that this can cause oxygen problems aswell as having a tight fitting lid and powerheads in the tank. Are there tests for oxygen levels. I have good circulation with the a power head and also the skimmer outlet runs back through the trickle filter with an overflow dropping back into the tank. It seems ok to me. Also, with the trickle filter, I know to change the cotton filter strip every week and I leave the bacteria noddles to grow, but there are two thin filter beds with the plastic balls etc in the middle (same as on scrubbers for chemical wastewater filters). Does this need to be flushed every week or left to grow as with the noddles? I cant remember if I was supposed to be flushing this part. could be part of the problem if I am supposed to flush it. Thanks Chris

It has been recessing quite deeply for the last couple of nights. It only does it at night though really. During the day it seems to be ok. do you think it is on its last legs. would it be too late to transplant it to another tank as some people have offered or is it too late for that. I was hoping not to have to get rid of it as it also has a heap of baby feather dusters growing on it which I would have liked to keep and they seem too small to transplant. I would load up a photo if I knew how so people can see. Aside from that, if my nitrites are at zero which they nearly are now can I not start adding fish? Do I need to wait even further again?