In-wall/Behind-wall, 180g peninsula, with a basement fish closet

[laverda]

Some anthias are much harder to keep than other. Lyretail's are one of the easier anthias to keep. Anthias are one on my favorite fish. I have had several groups in the past and currently have a trio. My trio started out as 4 females. After one transitioned to male it chased the others around a fair bit. At some point I lost one of the females. I have always started out with all females. I would set the auto feeder to feed small amounts twice in between your other feedings.
I would wait until the tank gets established, not just cycled. They are not that hardy initially, so not a good choice for the first fish going in a tank in my opinion.

 

[New&no clue]

Some anthias are much harder to keep than other. Lyretail's are one of the easier anthias to keep. Anthias are one on my favorite fish. I have had several groups in the past and currently have a trio. My trio started out as 4 females. After one transitioned to male it chased the others around a fair bit. At some point I lost one of the females. I have always started out with all females. I would set the auto feeder to feed small amounts twice in between your other feedings.
I would wait until the tank gets established, not just cycled. They are not that hardy initially, so not a good choice for the first fish going in a tank in my opinion.

I had read Lyretail is one of the easier ones to keep, and I love the males' red color. I debated whether it was better to get a group of females and one male or all females and let one transition. I've heard good and bad points both ways, but I was leaning towards all females, so glad to hear it worked well for you. Do you feed pellets or flakes mid-day, and if so, what type? What specifically about a newly cycled tank makes it not suitable for them?

 

[laverda]

I had read Lyretail is one of the easier ones to keep, and I love the males' red color. I debated whether it was better to get a group of females and one male or all females and let one transition. I've heard good and bad points both ways, but I was leaning towards all females, so glad to hear it worked well for you. Do you feed pellets or flakes mid-day, and if so, what type? What specifically about a newly cycled tank makes it not suitable for them?

I typically feed a variety of flakes manually in the morning. My Utopia feeder feeds a variety of pellets during the day. I feed frozen occasionally in the evenings.
I don't know the answer to your question about a newly cycled tank. The same applies to BTAs and other harder to keep animals and corals. There are things we just do not understand about our tanks still. Since you no longer new and have a clue now, I think you will due better than newbies would. Start cycling your rock asap, especially if your using dry rock. I would add as much as pratical a bit at a time to your existing tank as well. That will make a big difference in getting your tank established quicker.

 

[New&no clue]

Starting aquascaping last week, and I've been having a tough time with it. I wanted to try the Tidal Gardens super glue and sand method, but I could not find dry sand for the life of me. My LFS only carries live sand, and so does BRS. So I decided to go with the Aquascaping Mortar that BRS sells. It looked easy enough to use. The problem I had was there are little to no instructions on how to mix it. It's basically pour some liquid and some powder together until it is the right consistency. But not knowing what the right consistency as I was guessing. I got a couple of pieces to glue together, but for the most part, after 24 hours, the mortar just cracked, and it fell apart. So I am back on the hunt for dry sand. I was able to get a structure mapped out, though. I will be adding all my live rock from my current tank and then building another structure out of the dry rock. I'm having a hard time conceptualizing my current rock with the new rock. I'm not sure if I should try to connect them or leave them separated.

Here is a FTS of my current tank. All of this rock will be moving over to the new tank.

Here is some pictures and video of the new dry rock

here was my thought on adding them together. I would like to somehow connect them, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.

 

[New&no clue]

Last week I hit my breaking point with my mixing station. To make a long story short, I had ball valves in my first mixing station and didn't like them. I found it annoying that you couldn't regulate the flow of water coming out. So When I did this water station, I put gate valves everywhere. But I learned something... I hate gate valves even more. For starters, why would I need to regulate what circulates? The only place I care is what is coming out of the spigot. Secondly, it is a pain not to be able to look and see if a valve is opened or closed. Before I do anything, I have to check and double-check that what I want to open is opened and closed is closed. Third, to get a valve to open, you have to turn it again, and again, and again. I lost it. So I took the whole middle section out (thanks also to the countless people who said put a union everywhere) and replaced the gate valves with ball valves. It took some time as I'm not the greatest at "measure twice cut once," but I had a lot of leftover PVC, and I did a dry fit of the whole thing before I glued it, so it worked out.

But the real exciting news is I've been on the search for a new puppy for about six months, and I'm ecstatic to say this little girl will be ours in a couple of weeks.

 

[sp1187]

Last week I hit my breaking point with my mixing station. To make a long story short, I had ball valves in my first mixing station and didn't like them. I found it annoying that you couldn't regulate the flow of water coming out. So When I did this water station, I put gate valves everywhere. But I learned something... I hate gate valves even more. For starters, why would I need to regulate what circulates? The only place I care is what is coming out of the spigot. Secondly, it is a pain not to be able to look and see if a valve is opened or closed. Before I do anything, I have to check and double-check that what I want to open is opened and closed is closed. Third, to get a valve to open, you have to turn it again, and again, and again. I lost it. So I took the whole middle section out (thanks also to the countless people who said put a union everywhere) and replaced the gate valves with ball valves. It took some time as I'm not the greatest at "measure twice cut once," but I had a lot of leftover PVC, and I did a dry fit of the whole thing before I glued it, so it worked out.

But the real exciting news is I've been on the search for a new puppy for about six months, and I'm ecstatic to say this little girl will be ours in a couple of weeks.

congrats on the new fur baby.

 

[New&no clue]

Two fun things this week. First, I heard from the tank installer that the tank and stand were being shipped last Thursday. It typically takes five days to arrive. Once it came and he made sure it looks good, he would call to set an install time, hopefully, mid-April. YAY! Next, I finished my new rock structure. I used the method of using super glue and sand. It worked well. The only downside is it is a slow build. I found it was best to do a little and let it dry and then do the next piece. I bought this rock tree from BRS and then built arches off it.

South Seas Coral Tree - Dry Live Rock Aquascape Kit

CaribSea’s South Sea’s Coral Tree kit provides the materials you need to create incredible aquascapes faster and easier than you would have thought possible. Wow your friends and family with rockscapes that turn natural reef rock into gravity-defying, awe-inspiring structures. The Coral Tree...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I was then able to take each level off the rod to start to cycle the rock.

I am using this to cycle the dry rock.

Microbacter Dry Rock Bacteria Starter Kit

Everything needed for fishless cycling a new system with Dry Rock is in this kit! This kit is designed to be used with unseeded dry rock such as Marco Rock or artificial live rock replacements. Plain dry sand is recommended instead of so called 'live sand' which may have been seeded with...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Once the tank is in, I can restack the tower back up in the water pretty quickly, add in my rock from my current tank, and hopefully not have a mini cycle. From reading, I may have been fine not to worry about cycling the dry rock beforehand. I have a good amount of rock in my DT, and I have LR in my sump and some bio block. If I had transferred all over, the bacteria should have been enough to handle the current bioload, plus the additional fish slowly added. But why not be extra safe and give the new rocks a head start. Also, I want to add a group of anthias who need to be fed heavily.

 

[New&no clue]

In tank news.... nothing. Still no tank. I almost had it, and then the shipper damaged the stand and had to start all over again. They said they were putting a rush on the stand but still no news on a shipping date.

However, being impatient, I ordered fish from TSM back in February, thinking it would be installed end of March. I assumed there would be some delays, and I picked fish that would be done quarantining at the end of April. Well, here we are, fish ready and no tank. Luckily I threw my new rocks into my old 55 gallons to start cycling. That was over a month ago, and the tank has fully cycled. I have a bunch of bio blocks in my sump. I could add a couple of those into the 55 as well, as they are nicely seeded with bacteria from my current tank.

My concerns are adding a group of fish to a freshly cycled tank and the biofiltration not being prepared for multiple fish at once. Typically I add one fish at a time over a couple of months period. I plan to do several water changes each week to help with nutrient exporting and lower the risk of ammonia spikes. However, my biggest concern is I ordered a sand sleeping wrasse. This tank has no sand in it, and I don't particularly want to add any either. I have heard of people adding a Tupperware container with sand for some fish. I could add him directly to my DT, but I have another wrasse in there, and I think 75 gallons with two wrasses may be pushing it. Also, while these fish should be okay, what if it has ich or velvet. I don't want to add that into my DT. I have a small 10 gallon QT tank that I could put sand in and have the wrasse in there. But now I am taking care of 3 tanks.

I'm still debating what to do, but for right now, I am going to grab some snails from the LFS to add to the 55 and maybe a cleaner shrimp to help with eating extra food.

 

[fishguy242]

hi yes bowl of sand is great idea ,will make it easy to get out when ready also
i agree with not risking DT ,55 can serve as qt for now

 

[New&no clue]

The fish have been in there holding tank for a week now. So far everything is going well with them. I’m monitoring ammonia closely.

 

[New&no clue]

Some movement on the tank, just not what I had hoped. I received an email from my tank guy two weeks ago that the new stand had shipped. Originally I was told it takes about five days for shipping, so I excepted to get word last week that it had arrived and schedule a time for install. I did not hear anything last week or this week. So I reached out to him to see what was up. He said the stand still hadn't arrived, and he is estimating it won't be here until next week, maybe. Once it comes in, he would get a hold of me to deliver the tank the week following. But he can't do the plumbing the same day and would schedule that for a "later date."

At this point, I am pretty frustrated with this guy. I was initially told the tank would be in and set up in March, which turned to April. The stand was damaged and pushed to May, and now he is saying June. I ordered this tank in January. I've had a giant hold in my dining room wall since January. I'm debating telling the guy to deliver the tank, and I will do all the plumbing. I hired an outside person because I was intimidated to do a basement sump by myself. However, I am worried if I don't just take the reigns and do it myself, this project will continue to drag on for another five months.

 

[New&no clue]

The tank has arrived

The sumps are getting set up

 

[New&no clue]

Plumbing is done… and it leaks;Facepalm. Slow and steady wins the race.

 

[schuby]

Has the puppy arrived?

 

[New&no clue]

Has the puppy arrived?

Oh yes, she’s been here a little over two months. Pictures of when we first got her and then a couple weeks ago.

 

[New&no clue]

Leaks fixed, YAY!!!

The tank has been filled, and the dry rocks that were cycled have been added along with live sand. As a result, the tank is a cloudy mess.

I bought the BRS screen lid kits for the top, and it was reasonably easy to put together. Maybe because I actually had a saw this time and because there were no cutouts for overflows or lights or cords (thank you MP40).

The tank installers were so nice to put the tank and stand snug against the wall, not even an inch gap between them. This is great, so you don't drop things behind the tank and never see them again. However, it is pretty miserable to try to get a plug through the non-existent gap. Nope, rephrase that... it is impossible to get a plug through the space. So, as a result, I have my powerhead controllers and plugs outside the stand.

I have been trying to rush to get this tank finished to move my poor fish in the holding tank over. But, unfortunately, I didn't make it in time. I believe one of my anthias died. I counted them every day, and I noticed I only saw eight out, but they moved so fast and hid when I fed I wasn't sure. I finally saw the dead one and tried to get it out, but it was under all the rocks, and I mistakenly thought my snails and shrimp would take care of it. Unfortunately, they didn't, and another three died that night. I had an ammonia spike and did big water changed the following day. By that time, most of the fish were breathing heavily and not swimming much. I did another significant water change that night, but the following day four more were dead. At this point, I debated adding the surviving fish into my DT. I didn't see any signs of illness and assumed the deaths were caused by ammonia in the tank. However, I would hate to take out all my fish by moving a sick one over. So I decided to keep up with the water changes. So far, my sole survivor is a Melanurus Wrasse.

 

[New&no clue]

Working on getting all the equipment into the sumps.

 

[New&no clue]

Let's talk about the sumps. I went with two Trigger Systems-Plantium 34 that are plumbed together to a Reef Octopus VarioS-8 return pump.

Sump 1: Refugium
I plan to have a group of anthias. As they eat several meals a day, to deal with the increased feeding and possible increase in nitrates, I want to have a large amount of macroalgae growing. I also have a mandarin and two wrasses, so I need to keep a good population of pods available. I plan to have a couple of small pieces of live rock for the pods in the sump.

Equipment:
Kessil H160 light w/the gooseneck mount
Eheim 250W
Ink Bird Controller
Marineland Maxi-Jet 600

Sump 2: Mechanical Filtration
Nothing too fancy on this side. However, room to add if I find more things are needed.

Equipment:
Reef Octopus Regal 200INT
Eheim 300W
Ink Bird Controller
BRS GFO & Carbon Reactor
Tunze 3155 ATO
Kamoer X1 dosing pumps

I have the ATO pump in my freshwater storage barrel, which is nice that I don't have to keep filling an ATO container every couple of days. However, I do have some concern that with a continuous supply of FW, there is potential to overfill the sump. However, Tunze has several backups to prevent this, so hopefully, it will be okay.

 

[schuby]

Can you elaborate on how the two sumps are plumbed together?

 

[New&no clue]

Can you elaborate on how the two sumps are plumbed together?

There are two drain line in the overflow, one goes to each sump (the flex pipe). Each return section of the sump was drilled and piped together at a tee. The tee connects to the pump. Because one sump is closer to the pump it has a valve to equalize the flow out. The return is hard plumbed upstairs and the split with a tee into two return lines.