200G IM EXT (First tank ever)

[vittpsu21]

It was a busy night for the tank, I setup the Reef By Steel Phytoplankton setup! Basically it has a magnet + stirrer that keeps the food suspended while hooked up to the doser! Nifty tbh! Also got the copepods and droped those in both up top and down bottom in the sump! Also picked up our first bit of cleanup crew! Now all we are waiting on is the first shipment of quarantined fish to show up and we will be hurry up and waiting :) I also pre picked up food from the LFS to save myself some trips also!

 

[UncommonSense]

yeah the lfs has them separated so I should be ok I think but can also just qt. With inverts though you can't use copper from what i've researched so I am mostly just watching them then?

Many fish borne parasites (such as ich) cannot thrive indefinitely without a fish host (see “fallow tank”) to complete their life cycle… So quarantining inverts also serves to kill off any fish parasites they may be harboring!

 

[vittpsu21]

Whole lot of hurry up and wait, the snails have went into the DT after I cleaned them and they did come pre quarantined! I did lose 1 of each, unsure if it was just adjustment or not, but I had my powerheads on a higher level from testing early and didn't realize for about 10 hours! Poor guys where in a storm for a while!

Hoping to here from Dr. Reefs soon, was told I would get an invoice about a week or so before they are about to ship! Currently just waiting on that, which did leave to ghost feeding the nassarius a small amount which was kinda cool to watch for the first time!

 

[vittpsu21]

Well most of the snails survived lost 1 of each I think out of 10/11 and I have put the lights on at a very low amount for very few hours to try to promote just a little bit of algae growth while I wait on the QT fish to arrive! I’ve been fairly good on patience up to this point but boy I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was ready for fish!!! Here is what it currently is looking like while we wait, the micro dosing phyto has been very nice on top of everything also! My view from the couch!

 

[UncommonSense]

Well most of the snails survived lost 1 of each I think out of 10/11

In my experience, 5-10% attrition rate on new livestock is to be expected; don’t feel like you’ve done anything wrong here!

 

[vittpsu21]

Well most of the snails survived lost 1 of each I think out of 10/11

In my experience, 5-10% attrition rate on new livestock is to be expected; don’t feel like you’ve done anything wrong here!

Yeah I was reading on that a bit too, two of the trochus just couldn’t keep themselves up right and flipped over night a few times! Bit of a learning curve on everything as I’m not sure what’s normal or not! So lot of research being done over and over again!

I also tried to tune my skimmer since it’s been running for about a week but I think the tanks just too clean atm to really pull anything out! So it’s mostly just helping with its other useful parts for the water for now I think! I’m
Hoping to hear about the fish this week and maybe get them the week after, at the very least my sponge filter is going to be good to go for the next batch as it’s been in since the 18th. I’m sure the copepods are all over that and the live rock in the refug atm

 

[vittpsu21]

yeah the lfs has them separated so I should be ok I think but can also just qt. With inverts though you can't use copper from what i've researched so I am mostly just watching them then?

Many fish borne parasites (such as ich) cannot thrive indefinitely without a fish host (see “fallow tank”) to complete their life cycle… So quarantining inverts also serves to kill off any fish parasites they may be harboring!

I did research this and it looks like the timeframe was way less than I realized that it could live without a fish!

 

[vittpsu21]

The other big update for me, was I finally ordered the battery backup! I’ll have to do some research and testing on what I will be able to plugin and for how long based on a power outage but I did go with one I’ve used before in server rooms so I know them to be reliable!

 

[UncommonSense]

I also tried to tune my skimmer since it’s been running for about a week but I think the tanks just too clean atm to really pull anything out!

That’s a good thing!

If you want to play with the skimmer a bit, you can try opening the air inlet control all the way, and cranking up the power to the skimmer pump!

You don’t want the skimmer to constantly overflow into the cup, obviously… the large knob next to the cup is typically the skimmer’s internal water height adjustment…

I usually leave the skimmer internal water height adjustment wide open, air wide open, and pump turned up as high as it will go (assuming it doesn’t overflow the cup at 100%, even with height adjustment wide open)…

From here, you’re mixing as much water/air as is physically possible within your skimmer… not very efficiently, but that comes later!

— Now that skimmer pump, water height adjustment(drain), and air inlet are all wide open… Next step would be to slowly close the skimmer height adjustment (drain) knob! — this will make the water height/foam head inside the skimmer rise towards the collection cup…

Stop increasing skimmer water height when the foam head is at the base of the skimmer’s parallel-walled neck, and let it run there for a while to see what sort of foam head it starts producing/pushing up the neck on it’s own!

From here, numerous further adjustments can be made; this is just a proverbial quick start guide to get your skimmer pulling something out of the water!

 

[vittpsu21]

I also tried to tune my skimmer since it’s been running for about a week but I think the tanks just too clean atm to really pull anything out!

That’s a good thing!

If you want to play with the skimmer a bit, you can try opening the air inlet control all the way, cranking up the power to the skimmer pump!

You don’t want the skimmer to constantly overflow into the cup, obviously… the large knob next to the cup is typically the skimmer’s internal water height adjustment…

I usually leave the skimmer internal water height adjustment wide open, air wide open, and pump turned up as high as it will go (assuming it doesn’t overflow the cup at 100%, even with height adjustment wide open)…

From here, you’re mixing as much water/air as is physically possible within your skimmer… not very efficiently, but that comes later!

— Now that skimmer pump, water height adjustment(drain), and air inlet are all wide open… Next step would be to slowly close the skimmer height adjustment (drain) knob! — this will make the water height/foam head inside the skimmer rise towards the collection cup…

Stop increasing skimmer water height when the foam head is at the base of the skimmer’s parallel-walled neck, and let it run there for a while to see what sort of foam head it starts producing/pushing up the neck on it’s own!

From here, numerous further adjustments can be made; this is just a proverbial quick start guide to get your skimmer pulling something out of the water!

Yeah I might sit there again tomorrow and mess with it. I was doing it for a while, sicce suggests 65% plus the air adjustments but I was wondering if I should turn that up more or not? Skimmers are honestly kind of confusing, for 900 dollars you’d think you’d get a bit better directions

But I did mess with it at 65% and stopped the bubbles at the top and adjust the air slightly, the problem is it was pouring over and was pretty much entirely water. So I drained it cause nothing bad came out and the. Readjusted it again to be close but not going over! Perhaps I’ll mess with this a bit and post some pictures later tonight or tomorrow depending how long our birthday dinner goes tonight!

I found a third fish shop today and went to visit it also! It had a way larger selection and some pretty good looking fish! Their coral we’re not looking great so it looks like I’ll be going 1 of 3 places based on what I need at the time!

Sicce replacement pump also showed up, but while waiting the other one just has been working? So it seems like I might have inherited a maybe broke maybe not return dc pump lol

 

[UncommonSense]

Sicce replacement pump also showed up, but while waiting the other one just has been working? So it seems like I might have inherited a maybe broke maybe not return dc pump lol

I’d replace the questionable return pump at your next round of work; it’s your primary life support equipment and should be trustworthy!

The questionable pump would make a great add-on equipment pump, and/or a utility pump for moving/mixing during water changes!

 

[vittpsu21]

Also a few other updates that I did last week bus isn’t really post on. Reefbysteeles setup for the auto doser is kind of nifty! I fill the container with 7 days worth and the magnetic stirrer keeps it moving, I put the rest in the fridge and shake it every few days!

Also got some leds setup so I can finally see in the sump!

 

[vittpsu21]

 

[vittpsu21]

Sicce replacement pump also showed up, but while waiting the other one just has been working? So it seems like I might have inherited a maybe broke maybe not return dc pump lol

I’d replace the questionable return pump at your next round of work; it’s your primary life support equipment and should be trustworthy!

The questionable pump would make a great add-on equipment pump, and/or a utility pump for moving/mixing during water changes!

Yeah mixing pump or oh **** something broke pump was my thoughts too!

 

[X-37B]

Well most of the snails survived lost 1 of each I think out of 10/11 and I have put the lights on at a very low amount for very few hours to try to promote just a little bit of algae growth while I wait on the QT fish to arrive! I’ve been fairly good on patience up to this point but boy I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was ready for fish!!! Here is what it currently is looking like while we wait, the micro dosing phyto has been very nice on top of everything also! My view from the couch!

Turn your lights up. There is nothing in your system for the snails to eat.
You need algae on the glass minimum for them to survive.

 

[vittpsu21]

Well most of the snails survived lost 1 of each I think out of 10/11 and I have put the lights on at a very low amount for very few hours to try to promote just a little bit of algae growth while I wait on the QT fish to arrive! I’ve been fairly good on patience up to this point but boy I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was ready for fish!!! Here is what it currently is looking like while we wait, the micro dosing phyto has been very nice on top of everything also! My view from the couch!

Turn your lights up. There is nothing in your system for the snails to eat.
You need algae on the glass minimum for them to survive.

Yeah I have them on Kessils acclimation mode for tuna blue, most of my research says that should be good? Are you thinking I should skip the 30 day acclimation?

 

[X-37B]

Yeah I have them on Kessils acclimation mode for tuna blue, most of my research says that should be good? Are you thinking I should skip the 30 day acclimation?

I have never done a dead rock start. 50/50 worked well and algae only was present on the dead for 3-4 months.

The snails will die without food.

With all the surface area of the dead rock the algae will come in force once the lights are up and you start adding coral.

I have never ran acclimation mode on any of the leds I run.

 

[Ken S]

Congrats on the tank! I essentially have the same tank & same sump (my tank is a peninsula, sump is plumbed thru wall). I could never grow cheato in my fuge with the IM cheatomax light. It would always turn white & die. I found a used Kessil A360x refugium light on Ebay for cheap. Now I have cheato out of the you know what. I pull out a 5g bucket twice a month. Keep that in mind if your fuge doesn't take off like you want it to. Enjoy that tank!

 

[vittpsu21]

Congrats on the tank! I essentially have the same tank & same sump (my tank is a peninsula, sump is plumbed thru wall). I could never grow cheato in my fuge with the IM cheatomax light. It would always turn white & die. I found a used Kessil A360x refugium light on Ebay for cheap. Now I have cheato out of the you know what. I pull out a 5g bucket twice a month. Keep that in mind if your fuge doesn't take off like you want it to. Enjoy that tank!

Thanks! I had heard this and went with AI blade fuge light and we will see how it goes!

 

[vittpsu21]

Well got an update the fish will be set to ship the week of 9/15. So more time to get the pods going and maybe keep the tank stable! Very much looking forward to some fish!

I have ran into a little back and forth on myself which is, I will want to pull the sponge filter out to get my QT tank going for the second set of fish(since it will take time to run them through it) however I’m sure my copepods are using it as a resting place currently. I do not wish to disrupt their population boom so I feel kind of stuck on when I will be able to pull it out and not impact that!