Woooo Woooo! 95G Tank build! (1st tank ever)

inkedsparkster · May 4, 2014

gettaReef said:
+1 on the Finnex titanium heater. I've been running 2 150watts in mine for 2+ years now w no problems (and tank is in basement with coold Iowa winters). I Also used Dr. Tims solution to cycle my tank years ago (via the review and advice from Mr. Saltwater Tank) and it worked great, no problems whatsoever. Good luck chromis/damsel fishing!

Haha, thanks man! I came close to getting him today, but still failed. And I will look into the finnex titanium heater for sure.

Alright, so here are yesterday's and today's test results.

May 3rd
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.5

May 4th (may the 4th be with you)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 76.2

ak_reefer · May 4, 2014

Nice to see your numbers are holding steady. Also Barrier rents fish traps.

inkedsparkster · May 5, 2014

Oh do they!? Well, I guess I'll be going to Barrier sometime this week. Thanks Javier!

ak_reefer · May 5, 2014

No problem Eric. Give them a call not sure on the price.

mfinn · May 5, 2014

I have a fish trap you could borrow.

inkedsparkster · May 5, 2014

Thanks Marty. I am thinking of just pumping the water in the tank way down into garbage cans and just not giving him many places to hide. But I might take a trip down and come borrow it from ya. I'll keep ya posted.

inkedsparkster · May 5, 2014

Captains Log, Day 5

My skimmer is still varying in bubble height. It has yet to settle in to one position so that I can adjust the valve to get it dialed in. The valve is currently all the way open, however I am sure that everything just needs to be broke in (only time will tell). I put in a piece of LR into the sump today. I was debating whether or not I was going to but I just decided to go for it. I got this rock from a friend who has had it sitting in a big tub of other LR just hanging out for the past 6 months, prior to that it sat dry for months. I had purchased an API ammonia test kit and decided to compare it to the Red Sea test kit I've been using.

Test Results:
API Ammonia: 0 to 0.05? It was the slightest shade off of 0. It could have just been my eye, but I would say it is a trace amount.
Red Sea Ammonia: 0 to 0.05 (If I was to have just done the Red Sea test I think I would have called it 0ppm but since I saw a subtle difference in the API, this could have played a factor in me seeing the slightest change in color for the red sea)
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Salinity: 1.024 (started the tank at 1.026 but due to tinkering with stuff and the skimmer always filling up the skimmer cup cause it's breaking in and acting up, water keeps getting taken out, gonna keep the tank at 1.025 so I will have to mix up some salt water and raise it back up.)
Temp: 77.2

Still haven't caught him. Most likely gonna drain the DT down really low so he doesn't have as many places to hide and get him with a net.

Los · May 6, 2014

Everything is looking great! Params and everything look good. I'm def going to try out this Dr tims

inkedsparkster · May 9, 2014

Alright, time for an update.

I've been working nights this week and it's thrown off my whole schedule, so I haven't had time to give an update. Recent tests haven't showed anything really. Everything is coming out at 0ppm. Nitrite might have been at .1ppm yesterday but I'm still trying to get used to the tests and matching up the colors. Currently I am still trying to get my skimmer dialed in. It's got a bunch of bubbles but no foam at all (maybe since there isn't barely a bio load it isn't making foam? I'll be talking with Mike from OBD to get it dialed in. Anyways, gonna go pick up some chaetto tomorrow to add to the fuge.

skinz78 · May 10, 2014

Sounds like you may be ready for some corals, let me know when you are ready and I'll hook you up.

ksed · May 12, 2014

Looking forward to an update

inkedsparkster · May 12, 2014

Alright so update on the tank. I was picking up a backup skimmer (might end up being a replacement since I can't get my current one dialed in,) and the guy I bought it off was also selling some frags. So I decided to give it a go since my tank was all stable. Now yes, it had only been 10 days since the tank was truly started but all tests were good and I said what the heck. Frags were doing good the first couple of days, now they aren't looking so good and my parameters had changed (obviously).

Last night my tests showed Nitrite at .25ppm and Nitrates at 2ppm and my PH was dropping. Now Nitrate being at 2ppm isn't a big concern as I researched. But the nitrtites should be at 0. Today I decided to do a water change. I did a 10% change and immediately my PH was almost back up to 8. Gonna give it some time and then do a few more tests.

Oh and the skimmer I picked up is a ATI Bubble Master 200. I cleaned it up as good as I could and I just finished building a stand for it out of some leftover smoked acrylic I had. I'm about to drop it in and fire it up. I'll post up some pics of everything when I'm done. And I'll update the test results when I get them.

inkedsparkster · May 12, 2014

@Ksed, it was total coincidence that I happened to be typing up an update as you asked for one! Hahaha.

ksed · May 12, 2014

Has the ATI been performing well.

booth2010 · May 12, 2014

As most others have said, I love that stand! I was thinking something similar when I do my next (or final) upgrade

inkedsparkster · May 12, 2014

Thanks Booth! And Ksed, it is the older version I believe (didn't realize it till I got it home). Hooked it all up and I honestly don't like the noise it puts out. I put back in my airstone skimmer. Just gonna keep messing around with it until I get it right. See if someone wants to buy the ATI off me on craigslist. I'll be taking a loss, but I just want it gone. It was a bad decision on my part.

ksed · May 13, 2014

your air stone one might need more time to break in. I was wondering why you took it out so fast.

inkedsparkster · May 13, 2014

Yeah, I put the airstone skimmer back in and I did more research on them. And yeah, they can take awhile to break in, and if you don't have a big enough bio-load then you will get bubbles but you won't really get foam to rise up out of the neck. I've been slowly making adjustments to the gate valves and I'm making progress. I just did what most newbees do and freak out blaming something for not working correctly (even though I don't know what correctly is). Owell, live and learn.

Test results came back good though. After my water change today, my Nitrite's are back down to 0 and so are my Nitrates. Ammonia is still at 0 as well. I might do another water change tomorrow. See if it helps bring my frags back to life.

Anyways, today really kinda showed me that no matter how much research you do, it sometimes doesn't mean anything until you get out there and experience it.

mfinn · May 13, 2014

inkedsparkster said:
Thanks Booth! And Ksed, it is the older version I believe (didn't realize it till I got it home). Hooked it all up and I honestly don't like the noise it puts out. I put back in my airstone skimmer. Just gonna keep messing around with it until I get it right. See if someone wants to buy the ATI off me on craigslist. I'll be taking a loss, but I just want it gone. It was a bad decision on my part.

One thing that I learned on the air stone was that they need to be soaked over night before using.
Hoping Mike explained that.

Give the tank time. It's needs to have something in the water before the skimmer will work right.

On the ATI skimmer, does it have the psk 2500 pump or the psk 1000 pump?
The psk 1000 is a much better pump, but still noisier that the OBD skimmer.