Dawn's 30g XH coral Pony corral!

vlangel · May 19, 2014

My husband said to me last night that he is worried that our house is turning into Dr Dolittle's with fish tanks every where. I don't even consider myself an addict with only 2 tanks! LOL. ...but then do addicts ever admit they are addicted? Ha ha.

vlangel · May 20, 2014

I did an ammonia test this morning and got around 1.0 ppm so the ammonia is rising. Yay! I guess this is the only time in the life of the tank that I will celebrate that!

Diamond1 · May 20, 2014

Wow Dawn I love the look of the tank. Very creative and nicely done. Looking forward to watching this one.

vlangel · May 20, 2014

Diamond1 said:
Wow Dawn I love the look of the tank. Very creative and nicely done. Looking forward to watching this one.

Thanks Diamond, I appreciate that and very kind of you to say. I can't wait until it is cycled and I can move some of my macro algae, mushrooms, acans and leathers into it. At that time I will be able to add the overflow box and connect the two tanks together. That will answer a lot of questions I am wondering about, like how high will both tanks run with the flow being split between them? Thats an advantage to using overflow boxes, I can make them higher in the tank if necessary. Will both tanks run the same temperature, or will the seahorse tank run a degree or so cooler with the chiller going directly to it? This is such a new venture for me!

vlangel · May 21, 2014

Tonight I ordered an Eshopps nano overflow box from Amazon. It was under $50 so that seemed OK. It will be here by the 28th. Tomorrow I will do another ammonia test to see where we are in the cycle. I can't hook the tanks up together until the pony tank is fully cycled.

vlangel · May 22, 2014

The ammonia test today is .50 so I think its going down. I did add some crushed rock to the substrate so that may slow down the cycle a bit.

Diamond1 · May 23, 2014

Hey Dawn let me know if you like the eshopps overflow I'm thinking about getting one for my 10 gallon so I can get a sump set up for it. As for the temp in both tanks if you are running a common sump I would lean towards both tanks are going to be running at the same temp just because you're basically heating or cooling the entire volume of water. Your water level in either tank will not be affected by splitting the return, it's just a matter of setting your overflow in the new tank to the desired level. If you do split the return pump to two different tanks, you will have a reduced turnover rate in your bowfront and it may affect how much nutrients are being exported from the tank because of the reduced flow to the sump. Not that it would be very significant but it may be something to consider.

vlangel · May 23, 2014

Diamond1 said:
Hey Dawn let me know if you like the eshopps overflow I'm thinking about getting one for my 10 gallon so I can get a sump set up for it. As for the temp in both tanks if you are running a common sump I would lean towards both tanks are going to be running at the same temp just because you're basically heating or cooling the entire volume of water. Your water level in either tank will not be affected by splitting the return, it's just a matter of setting your overflow in the new tank to the desired level. If you do split the return pump to two different tanks, you will have a reduced turnover rate in your bowfront and it may affect how much nutrients are being exported from the tank because of the reduced flow to the sump. Not that it would be very significant but it may be something to consider.

Yes Diamond, I will be sure to let you know what I think of the Eshopps overflow. This will be the third overflow I have used so I should have a good idea how it compares to what I have now and used prior.
Thanks for the heads up, you are right, I will have a reduced turnover in the bowfront. I plan to add a power head to make that up and am even considered adding a HOB filter pump because I plan to move my HOB skimmer to the seahorse tank. Apparently seahorses have no stomachs so their food goes in one end and right out the other which is inefficient so they have to eat a lot, and you know what else they do a lot of as a result. LOL
The seahorse tank is a few inches taller so I may have some loss of flow due to head loss on the pump, it shouldn't be much.
I talked to my son about the temperature difference in the 2 tanks and he agreed with you, that they both will be the same temperature so I am now planning accordingly. Right now I am running the bowfront at 74-75 degrees and all the corals look fine, even the clam. I will slowly lower it a few more degrees and probably run the system at 72-74 if the corals will tolerate that. They won't grow much but they are big enough anyway. We will see.
I appreciate all your input.

vlangel · May 29, 2014

Still in cycling mode. Tested this morning and the ammonia is between 1-2 ppm so it may be awhile yet. I am out of town until Monday so I am hoping that the ammonia will be dropping by the time I get home. I saw a tiny snail and an asterina starfish that must have come from the live sand I seeded with. Poor little guys. I probably should have dropped a shrimp pellet in for them to eat.

revhtree · May 29, 2014

Thanks for the update!

vlangel · May 30, 2014

revhtree said:
Thanks for the update!

You bet! Just wish there were more to report. All in due time, right?

vlangel · Jun 3, 2014

Well, I spent a long weekend with my son and daughter in law, (which was wonderful) and checked the cycle on the corral when I returned. The ammonia was 1.0-.50 ppm I think. I've never cycled mostly dead rock, (always had mostly LR in the past) so am finding this is a slower process even with the addition of nitrifying bacteria. That's OK, I am not in a hurry and my overflow box got shipped and delivered in Salt Lake City. I live near Pittsburgh, PA ! Haha. Hope it finds its way here eventually but until the tank is fully cycled I'm not ready for it anyhow. My skimmer and timer for the lights did arrive so that is good. They are ready when I am.

vlangel · Jun 4, 2014

I checked the ammonia again this morning and I thought it was .50-.25ppm. My lfs had my Rio 90 that I needed to pick up so I decided to take a H2O sample and see if there were any nitrites, as I don't have a test kit for that. The poor girl that worked there came to me very sympathetic to tell me they were pretty high, not knowing that I was hoping they would be! 2.0ppm so the cycle is progressing. Also I noticed a little diatoms near the bottom of the tank. When I got home I installed the 2nd Rio and they work great so that the flow at the bottom of the tank keeps particles suspended. I am wondering if there is any benefit to running the skimmer at this point or should I wait for the cycle to be complete?

vlangel · Jun 8, 2014

My cycle is nearing its completion. My ammonia is 0, my nitrites are .5 and my nitrates are 30ppm. Also the tank is getting a very good diatom bloom. As soon as those nitrites are 0 I will do a large WC and get a cuc in there. Should be the beginning of this week.

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 8, 2014

Woohoo!!!!

vlangel · Jun 8, 2014

SeahorseKeeper said:
Woohoo!!!!

Krista, I've been wondering if you are moved and have your seahorse tank redo up and running yet? If not I imagine you are also chomping at the bit to get things moving!

SeahorseKeeper · Jun 8, 2014

vlangel said:
Krista, I've been wondering if you are moved and have your seahorse tank redo up and running yet? If not I imagine you are also chomping at the bit to get things moving!

I haven't moved yet. Settlement was supposed to be tomorrow but that fell through and I'm trying to get things figured out. Looks like the seahorse tank will be put together a little quicker than what I wanted.

vlangel · Jun 9, 2014

I did a 9g WC on the seahorse tank to lower the nitrates. I am doing the test right now and its looking promising. Perhaps I will connect the tanks tonight and get a clean up crew in there.

vlangel · Jun 10, 2014

I drilled a 'break the syphon' hole in my return that I put on the seahorse tank, ( since it is 3-4" taller than the coral tank) and installed the Eshopps nano overflow box. Because its a nano it was a bugger to get the syphon going. Actually with a piece of airline tubing it was easy to start but very hard to retract the airline tubing once it was started. Anyhow it is working great now. I stopped and started the return pump multiple times and it started right up. It does not seem to accumulate any air bubbles at the top of the U tube either, I guess because it has a small diameter. I think I will do another 10g WC today and check the parameters in the tanks tomorrow. Its nice having both tanks as one system.