Dr. D's Deeply Dubious Mariner 100 Build

[Johnd651]

Thanks— I never considered that they might have something

They actually have a small sw section including live.

 

[2Plus2]

Making some good progress today.

It's too cold outside to hook up the hose, so I washed sand in the kitchen sink in a large bowl, a few handfuls at a time, rinsing each batch a number of times until the runoff was relatively clear. It wasn't too tedious. I stopped after washing 60 lbs, since that looked about right in the tank. The package recommends 1 lb per gallon of tank, but 100 lbs seems excessive to me. I can always judge it again later.

I took my RO/DI system from its usual perch in the utility room and set it up closer to my tank. Using it is satisfying, like I'm running my own little water treatment plant. Got a 25-ft length of 1/4" tubing at Home Depot, and I was ready to make water....

My RO/DI says the water from the tap has 88 parts per million of dissolved solids. Is that typical?

In stage 2 it actually reads higher, around 90 ppm, which struck me as odd.

Luckily the final product reads zero!

This process produces way more waste water than I expected-- for other noobs, don't think you can use a trash can for the waste line and walk away. Luckily I had it draining outside.

I worry that my right-hand rock structure is too high. Are there any corals that like the light but don't grow tall, for the top of Mount Everest?

I've installed the AI Hydra 32 lights. The brackets are nice, but I don't care for the way they aren't level when installed, unless I did something wrong. I think I can remedy this by placing some rubber between the back tank wall and the vertical bracket arm inside the tank, forcing it to 90 degrees.

I've ordered two clowns and three cardinals from Dr. Reef as my initial fish, for delivery later on.

Overall a satisfying day!

Now when you say stage 2, is that right after the carbon filters? Usually TDS is higher after the carbon filters.

To measure the TDS properly after the R/O I go by the membranes recommended PSI which is roughly 60psi so using a pump helps me achieve that, then I look at the % listed on the membrane which tells me it has a 98% rejection rate and since my TDS going into the sediment filter is 250 and 260 after the carbons, I expect no higher than 5 tds leaving my R/O membranes, which is 2% of 250 tds.

I run 2 R/O membranes to reduce waste, I have a 1/1 ratio.

 

[Dr. D]

Yeah, I screwed up. I had misplaced the bag with the instructions and the membrane cartridge, and forgot about it completely. When I finally hooked up the unit, turns out I was actually running it without the membrane cartridge installed! Hall of Fame stupidity. I started another thread here, and within minutes had responses. People helped me realize my mistake. The unit works like a charm now, with 0 TDS generally coming out of the RO part (my tap only runs 55-90 TDS).

 

[Featherweight]

This should be fun

 

[Kooma]

here for it!

 

[Dr. D]

Update: I’ve added an XP8 to my Hydros collective, giving me 8 more plugs. I find these much more useful than the drive ports on the Kraken. I’ve used very few of those because most things won’t connect with them physically.

The marine battery is connected to the Kraken, which is really the only use I’m getting out of that unit. I’ve tested it and it runs my power heads during an outage.

My wife was unhappy with the giant pile of Hanna test kits and other stuff I was keeping in a big cardboard box nearby, so I searched for some side cabinets that would pass muster. That was much harder than it should have been. Personally I liked a few IKEA cabinets, which seem to be popular choices, but they were not acceptable to Management. (I love my wife, truly. She is always correct, of course.)

After scouring every website in the world, I finally found some small cabinets available from Home Depot for only $111 apiece:

They’re not as deep as I’d like, but they can hold the things I truly need by the tank. I was able to modify the right cabinet to hold my 10g ATO Reef Can. Unfortunately I lose that drawer, which now has a false front attached with magnets.

None of which matters to my fish: three Onyx DaVinci Clowns and four— well, three it now seems— Banggai Cardinals.

No idea what happened to the fourth. They all seem to get along, and I didn’t notice any issues. I’ve ordered a Pintail Fairy Wrasse, Foxface, 7 Chromis, and a goby/shrimp pair to join them.

 

[Blennioidei]

Its really hard to plese them right? Mine also named Fluffy, we are basic :D

Following along, looks like a great build. Watch out, Cardinals and Clowns can be pretty agressive if there is more than 2+, even 2 can be trouble if they cant change sex. I do think I lost my first cardinal, because I picked up 2 same gander ones.

 

[Dr. D]

I voted for a classier name like Ophelia or Iphigenia, but I was overruled.

 

[skey44]

Loving this thread! Tank looks great.

 

[Dr. D]

I have an overseas trip coming up soon, so I’ve deferred delivery of my new fish from Dr. Reef. Hope to get them mid-March. I’ve also ordered some live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, just 15 lbs as a supplement to my DT for some biodiversity. Picking that up at the airport late March. I can’t wait to tell my wife that I’m paying nearly $300 and driving three hours round trip for some rocks! That’ll go over like, well, a box of rocks.

It took some doing, but I finally figured out how to get my Avast Plank feeder controlled by Hydros (thanks, as usual, to kind folks here). I’m having some trouble with the little Hydros ATO pump, which sometimes needs to be smacked to wake it up. No big deal normally, but I do worry about my trip. Too late to do anything about it before leaving. (I did attempt to clean it— even though it’s new and lives in pristine water—but either I stink at cleaning or it just didn’t help.)

@Johnd651 was kind enough to give me some snails, who are doing great work for low pay; sadly, I think I’ve somehow killed the two coral frags he gave me. I don’t have the heart to tell him. Oh crap. Sorry John! I tried!

On the equipment side, I purchased a new Ultra Reef Akula 160 skimmer from another R2R member. It’s an Italian import, and beautifully made. Just solid, like the Maserati of skimmers. I’m still learning how to tune it, but I can tell it was a great buy. From another member I bought a used Red Sea Reefmat 500. Set that up today and it seems to be working like a charm. My sock-cleaning career was mercifully short.

One of my favorite upgrades cost all of $12.99 on Amazon: colored Velcro tags for my growing nest of wires:

Sometimes it’s the little things.

 

[Johnd651]

I have an overseas trip coming up soon, so I’ve deferred delivery of my new fish from Dr. Reef. Hope to get them mid-March. I’ve also ordered some live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater, just 15 lbs as a supplement to my DT for some biodiversity. Picking that up at the airport late March. I can’t wait to tell my wife that I’m paying nearly $300 and driving three hours round trip for some rocks! That’ll go over like, well, a box of rocks.

It took some doing, but I finally figured out how to get my Avast Plank feeder controlled by Hydros (thanks, as usual, to kind folks here). I’m having some trouble with the little Hydros ATO pump, which sometimes needs to be smacked to wake it up. No big deal normally, but I do worry about my trip. Too late to do anything about it before leaving. (I did attempt to clean it— even though it’s new and lives in pristine water—but either I stink at cleaning or it just didn’t help.)

@Johnd651 was kind enough to give me some snails, who are doing great work for low pay; sadly, I think I’ve somehow killed the two coral frags he gave me. I don’t have the heart to tell him. Oh crap. Sorry John! I tried!

On the equipment side, I purchased a new Ultra Reef Akula 160 skimmer from another R2R member. It’s an Italian import, and beautifully made. Just solid, like the Maserati of skimmers. I’m still learning how to tune it, but I can tell it was a great buy. From another member I bought a used Red Sea Reefmat 500. Set that up today and it seems to be working like a charm. My sock-cleaning career was mercifully short.

One of my favorite upgrades cost all of $12.99 on Amazon: colored Velcro tags for my growing nest of wires:

Sometimes it’s the little things.

That's the whole point of training frags... lol.. better that then some $500 high end.

 

[Liquid361]

That's interesting-- I've been researching cowfish, but unfortunately my 100g display tank is way too small for one long term-- they can grow up to 18"! The smaller ones are cute as a button, but the thought of an Andre-the-Giant-sized head floating around freaks me out.

The consensus seems to be that dead-cowfish nuking is a myth, with no recorded cases-- mind you, I'm just parroting back what I'm learning--but maybe your dad was spectacularly unlucky!

I lost an entire tank when my box fish, SpongeBob square fish, got caught in a power head and nuked the entire tank. Everything died FAST.

 

[Dr. D]

Yikes! That’s awful.

 

[Dr. D]

Today is an exciting day. I received my latest order from @Dr. Reef, my first batch of corals from @SBB Corals, and some pods and phyto from @Dinkins Aquatic Gardens (I’ll make a separate post about the latter— particularly good experience):

From Dr. Reef I ordered a Foxface, Goby/Pistol Shrimp pair, Splendid Pintail Fairy Wrasse, Fire Shrimp, 7 Chromis, and some hermit crabs and snails. There were two DOAs: one chromis (luckily they had added an extra, so I still have seven) and sadly, the wrasse. Upon arrival it was still colorful but lying motionless in the bag, with only the slightest hint of breathing. I hoped it was just in shock, since I’ve heard they travel poorly. But within an hour of opening the bag, it was dead. I have no worries and know Dr. Reef will make it right. Here are some pics, taken with no lights and an ancient iPhone:

The pistol shrimp is teeny tiny— at first I thought the bag was empty. The fire shrimp is much larger.

Everyone seems to be getting along well, especially since I added lots of pods as a snack, which even the brand new fish zoomed after. I was surprised and happy to see that. It certainly gave extra life to the shy new tankmates.

You’ll notice another resident, a Hippo Tang. I had a gift certificate from PetCo and there was a sale, so I gave them a try (online order). The tang is about 2” and seems very healthy. She’s the one resident who wasn’t QT’d, and I know that could bite me down the road. It’s rather illogical to spend more on QT’d fish only to add a non-QT’d fish from a different source. But this fits my personality type, which is largely risk averse with random, inexplicable bouts of lunacy.

Frankly I was more worried about retail snobbery— I feared my Dr. Reef’s fish would snub their PetCo colleague. So far everyone seems to get along, though, with only my Banggai Cardinals looking grumpy. But then they have resting b***h face and always look grumpy.

Next up: corals, which for some reason worry me more.

 

[Johnd651]

Today is an exciting day. I received my latest order from @Dr. Reef, my first batch of corals from @SBB Corals, and some pods and phyto from @Dinkins Aquatic Gardens (I’ll make a separate post about the latter— particularly good experience):

From Dr. Reef I ordered a Foxface, Goby/Pistol Shrimp pair, Splendid Pintail Fairy Wrasse, Fire Shrimp, 7 Chromis, and some hermit crabs and snails. There were two DOAs: one chromis (luckily they had added an extra, so I still have seven) and sadly, the wrasse. Upon arrival it was still colorful but lying motionless in the bag, with only the slightest hint of breathing. I hoped it was just in shock, since I’ve heard they travel poorly. But within an hour of opening the bag, it was dead. I have no worries and know Dr. Reef will make it right. Here are some pics, taken with no lights and an ancient iPhone:

The pistol shrimp is teeny tiny— at first I thought the bag was empty. The fire shrimp is much larger.

Everyone seems to be getting along well, especially since I added lots of pods as a snack, which even the brand new fish zoomed after. I was surprised and happy to see that. It certainly gave extra life to the shy new tankmates.

You’ll notice another resident, a Hippo Tang. I had a gift certificate from PetCo and there was a sale, so I gave them a try (online order). The tang is about 2” and seems very healthy. She’s the one resident who wasn’t QT’d, and I know that could bite me down the road. It’s rather illogical to spend more on QT’d fish only to add a non-QT’d fish from a different source. But this fits my personality type, which is largely risk averse with random, inexplicable bouts of lunacy.

Frankly I was more worried about retail snobbery— I feared my Dr. Reef’s fish would snub their PetCo colleague. So far everyone seems to get along, though, with only my Banggai Cardinals looking grumpy. But then they have resting b***h face and always look grumpy.

Next up: corals, which for some reason worry me more.

Excited to see how them grow up.

 

[Dr. D]

Lots of updates to report. I bought a bunch of corals from @SBB Corals at auction. I think I killed three because of inept mounting on my part, but the other 8 seem to be doing well. All LPS/Softies. Paid $385 for all of them, shipped. I'm no expert but I think the torch, frogspawn, and hammer are pretty nice, and I don't think I way overpaid. If that's wrong please don't let me know!

Next week I pick up 15 lbs of TBS rocks from @LiverockRocks, which is exciting. I told Fluffy I'm driving 3 hours round trip and paying $300 shipped for a box of rocks. She no longer speaks to me.

My big issue now is a possible dino outbreak and a definite hair algae outbreak. I've posted a separate thread about that, so won't repeat here.

 

[Dr. D]

Live rock arrived yesterday at the airport (Southwest freight). Came in a five gallon bucket and looks pretty cool. Lots of colorful growths:

I’ve also added two strawberry conchs and a starfish to help with cleanup: the starfish thinks he’s hiding, the same way Fluffy does:

I’ve added a number of LPS and Zoas, and we’ll see how they do:

I still don’t have confidence with corals. I’ve lowered my lights after checking with a cheap PAR meter I bought from Amazon. Trying to keep everything under 100 PAR. SPS scare the bejeezus out of me, so none for now.

 

[Dr. D]

The tank is going though its adolescent phase, with all that comes with it. I have hair algae and what I assume are cyano bacteria. I'm not too worried about either, and prefer to let nature take its course. Other than adding the live rock and some Microbacter 7, all I plan to do is add some extra flow (probably through gyre(s), TBD). I think I'm also getting coraline algae on the back glass?

 

[robwcormack]

Did you get your lid installed? Do you like it? Where did you get it?

 

[Dr. D]

Yes, I've had a custom polycarbonate lid from Walter Lids for a number of weeks now. It works just fine, and seriously cuts down on the amount of ATO water I need. I haven't been using it lately only because I do like the lidless look, and none of my current fish seem to be jumpers. It was way less expensive than the mesh lids everyone else seems to get-- I priced one of those and it would have been more than $500 for my 100g... too rich for my blood. Mine was well under $200.