My 34G Shallow Adventure

Obsessed Reefer · Sep 3, 2020

Welp, I got bit by the upgrade bug. For years I’ve wanted this tank, but never had room for it. Well now that I have a guest room / office, I have the space. It then became a problem of finding the tank. It was originally Deep Blue, who has since gone out of business, and was bought by Seapora. I couldn‘t find them at any LFS. I gave up searching, and basically settled on getting a prebuilt combo, probably a red sea system, when I wanted to upgrade my tank. But then I found one on craigslist, about 90 minutes from where I live. Brand new, never had water in it. Picked it up and started getting everything I needed.

It’s gonna be a slow upgrade. Money is tight right now, but thankfully I had most of what I would need on the 10G anyway. The main thing I need is to improve my lighting. Either get a second Prime, or get a Hydra and sell my current Prime.

So here’s what I got so far that’s new:
- 34G shallow 36x18x12
- Bashsea BioFuge Sump 20x10x14
- Sicce Syncra 2.0 return pump
- 150W Eheim heater
- RedSea DIY Mesh Screen
- Vinyl tubing for drain and return
- 40lbs of CaribSea Fiji Pink (Probably won’t use all of it)
- CaribSea Life Rock and Real Reef Rock

What I’ll be using from my 10G:
- MP10
- AI Prime
- IceCap Nano skimmer
- EcoTech Versa dosing All For Reef

I’ll be transferring all the livestock from my 10G, the two clowns, the RBTA, and zoa frags I have. Additional stocking plans will be one or two sand dwelling fish, probably a wrasse of some sort, and eventually would love a pair of mandarins once my fuge has a well established copepod population.

My main question has been one I’ve asked a lot and just want as much feedback on, which is the transfer process. I have 16 gallons of Nutri-Seawater, the live sand has bacteria in it, and I have MicroBacter XLM on hand. So I feel I should have enough live bacteria in the new tank to sustain the livestock when I transfer them. I would love to transfer the rock from my 10G, but it has a vermetid snail infestation, so I have to solve that problem first. I was also advised to not re use my sand without rinsing it first, but I’m not sure if I’ll need it.

Should I try to give the live rock a head start, and put it in a bucket with saltwater and some bacteria? Or would that be extra work that’s not needed? Am I missing anything else or should I be ok with how I have everything planned? Any advice is welcome.

Obsessed Reefer · Sep 5, 2020

Alright, got some progress made today. Of course I’ve gotten all but one shipment of supplies that I need, and it’s the one that includes my return pump! I wanted to make some headway, so I partially filled in the tank with water, to be able to get the sand and rock in there. I threw a heater and just a filter to clear the water up.

The big issue I’m running into is plumbing the drain. The return will be simple, I got 3/4” braided vinyl tubing for that. The drain that is included, is a 1.25” barbed bulkhead. I picked up some vinyl tubing from Home Depot, but I can’t seem to get it to fit right, and it just has the bend in it. I even soaked it on hot water to try and get it to straighten out.

I’m guessing at this point I should have just ordered the braided vinyl tubing for the drain as well.

Any input input on plumbing the drain? I’m guessing the braided vinyl tubing is more flexible than the stuff I got from Home Depot. I was hoping not to have to order it online, but I can’t seem to find it locally.

Thanks, and here’s some photos!

Obsessed Reefer · Sep 12, 2020

So I’ve made a lot of progress. I ended up ordering braided vinyl online, but that still didn’t work. I think it was putting too much strain on the bulkhead and was causing it to leak. So I bit the bullet and went and ordered additional bulkheads and bought PVC. Honestly not as bad as I was expecting it to be, the annoying part was just waiting to get the bulkheads in the mail. I have the drain plumbed, but was having a lot of noise issues. If the drain pipe was above the waterline, my durso pipe started whistling, and if the drain was below the waterline, it was bubbling and splashing like crazy. Got some advice from someone on the #StraightReefin group on facebook, the Syncra 2.0 is too much GPH, and I only need about 300ish. So I turned the pump down as much as possible, and it helped, but still not great. Ordered the 1.5 to replace it with, and that should be here tomorrow. I also added a 90º elbow onto the end of the drain pipe, and have that going right into the filter sock which has helped with bubbles and spray.

I’m hoping I can everything transferred over the next few days and that the new pump works out better. Still unsure about my rock work. The two pieces at either end are bonded, and just the other pieces scattered in the middle. I eventually want to add the rock from my 10G, after I get rid of the vermetid snail problem.

Obsessed Reefer · Sep 17, 2020

Over the past few days I must have made like 50 different attempts at dry fitting the tank with PVC to reduce the noise. I swapped out the Syncra 2 for the 1.5, but even that was noisy. I tried putting a gate valve on the drain, but couldn’t seem to get it right and was too concerned with not having a 2nd drain. So I finally got to my final PVC layout, and it dramatically improved the sound, and reduced the large bubbles and splashing.

I also finally got a heater for the tank. I’d been using a space 75 watt just for time being, but got the BRS 200w titanium heater today. Using it with my ol reliable ReefKeeper Lite. With the PVC plumbed and the tank temp stable, it was finally time. I added a bottle of Dr. Tim‘s, and transferred the clowns and the anemone. I have a few more items to transfer, but have to work on cleaning them first. I moved two Trochus snails over, but first had to scrape their shells because they had vermetid snails on them. I also moved one of my zoa frags, same thing though, had to razor the frag plug to remove the vermetids. I have three other zoa frags, but have to do the same thing to them.

I have an order from @reefcleaners on its way, including a bumble bee snail to help clean up the 10g.

Obsessed Reefer · Sep 19, 2020

Trying to think of stocking plans. Currently I have a pair of Onyx clowns and a Rainbow BTA.

Here’s what I want:
- Something that dwells in the sand, like a goby/shrimp combo
- Some wrasse that will swim around and is colorful, probably a pink-streaked wrasse, unless there’s a larger variety that can live in this size tank.
- Maybe some sort of goby to swim around, as long as it doesn’t clash with said sand dwelling goby
- A pair of Mandarins, once I can get a pair of captive bred, but I also want to build up my refugium and copepod population first.

Obsessed Reefer · Oct 9, 2020

It’s been a few weeks since an update. I got a Biota captive bred Court Jester Goby and am super excited because I found a pink streaked wrasse on Live Aquaria, and it should be here next week.

I also added some marine pure gems to the sump, and am patiently waiting to get some Cheato to add to it.

I picked up a Hydra 26HD and mounting kit from the marketplace here as well, should be here next week. I stained and mounted a shelf above the tank for lightweight storage of misc items and to hang the Hydra off of, and am working on a DYI controller board to cleanup the mess of wires next to the tank.