Chris' Nano Journal

[chr15_8]

Poll in tropical chat to get more views on the background
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=297816

 

[chr15_8]

went to stm again today to pick up my bulkheads which i got as well as some special 90 degree bulkhead connectors.

i was also hoping to pick up my eheim 1260 and eheim compact+ 2000. but they didn't have either of them! so a 1 hour+ journey each way for a few bulkheads (took almost 2 hours ech way due to traffic!)

looked at the livestock. fish wise it consisted of about 15-20 tank with a few different fish in each. had a lovely looking pair of clowns but that was all.


ive just siliconed the bulkheads in so tommorow night i hope to be cutting/gluing the pipes into place.

lat week i also made my weir combs out of blue acrylic so it now matches the background. will post a few pictures of these later tommorow one ive finished te pipe work

 

[chr15_8]

The weir comb

Some dodgy pictures (really need to clean the tanks glass) of the blue bulkheads. not to sure on these color wise, hopefully once the tank is maturing they will probably b covered in algae anyway

 

[TigerIssey]

Looks a very nice and neat job

 

[ben1987]

looking good mate

 

[chr15_8]

thanks for the comments

i glued all the pipework in on sunday and am just about to glue the last part of it.

my eheim pumps have came so hoefully it will give me a kick up the #### to get this finished. Im going away in 4 weeks time and would like to get it salty wth LR.

Will live rock be ok left for 2 weeks? with no skimmer?

thanks
chris

 

[ben1987]

the rock should be fine, i would run the system at a lower SG, turn the lighting off and the heater down a bit to try and stop eveaporation as much as possible.

 

[chr15_8]

cheers ben. I was thinking about a lower temp but was going to be putting the lights on for an hour or so or is there no point?

 

[Anguilla82]

with the lights on you may come home to a tank full cycled rock but also alot of algae, which will then take extra effort to get rid of.
The live rock itself will not need any light in order to cycle.

what would the lower sg do?

i agree with the lower temp to slow evaporation, something around 23-24

 

[TigerIssey]

what would the lower sg do?

In 2 weeks you will get some evaporation even wihout the lights on. The lower SG to start off means the SG will not be as high by the end of the 2 weeks.

 

[chr15_8]

cheers. would there be any benefit in putting some CUC in before i go?

A few pictures of the pipe work (and one of the pumps because i had my camera out lol)

All this so i dont have any powerheads in the tank

you might be able to see the holes on top of the pipework (2 for each outlet) This should break the syphon if there was a power cut ( I have also aloud enough space in the sump for the entire pipework to drain into the sump if there was a power cut)

Pumps Couldn't believe the size of the eheim 1260 and compact+ ( i didn't check the pump size)

 

[Anguilla82]

yeah the 1260 is a beast ain't it!!!

cracking pipe work there. out of interest are you just leaving the anit-siphon holes like that? (won't water just spurt out of them?)
sorry maybe i missed something earlier on in the thread.........


certainly wouldn't add CUC before you go, as the rock cycling will most likely kill them.

 

[chr15_8]

yeah the 1260 is a beast ain't it!!!

cracking pipe work there. out of interest are you just leaving the anit-siphon holes like that? (won't water just spurt out of them?)
sorry maybe i missed something earlier on in the thread.........
Thanks yea water will squirt out of the holes. Im going to be putting airline on it and run it back into the tank or weir. Hopefully there wont be too much water comeing out

certainly wouldn't add CUC before you go, as the rock cycling will most likely kill them.
ok. i was going to be buying the rock from another reefer so hopefully there should be to much die (probably wont make much difference

 

[chr15_8]

Tanks full off water now.

Few little problems though.

1) weir combe slots arnt big enough to allow the full flow though.

2) Alot of noise coming from the sump inlet. There seems to be alot of air coming thoght the pipe that goes into the sump, but carnt see how its getting into the pipework as theres only 1 small hole at the top if the durso (its not making any noise itself)

 

[chr15_8]

Its been a while since an update as most will know ive had a problem getting the durso silent. While messing about about with the durso's air one of the anti syphon pipes flicked down the back. as its such a slow steady flow i didn't notice until the pumps started to run dry. So i had around 4 gallons on the floor.

So that night i drained the tank down (11.30ish at night) and moved the stand so it didn't get to wet. So the stand is luckily in good condition although the wardrobe next to it is swollen abit its not too bad. I then painted the stand in pva to waterproof it fully.

It went to about 3 days and the water still weren't dry so had to pull that corner of the carpet up. and put a few fans to help dry. This done it in a day (yesturday). While the floor/carpet up was i rewired part of the ring so i have some proper sockets in the wardrobe for the tank.

Today i put the stand back in its place with tank and filled up again. Then i put a ball valve on the pipework below in the stand. It is now completely running silent at 4000 lph (both pumps on full) with no bubbles in the sump at all.

When i get the glass cutter i will be drilling the 2nd hole in the weir to create the twin stand pipe. Fingers crossed the tank doesn't crack as the holes will be quite close together.

I did start getting abit pissed of with the tank while i was waiting for the floor to dry and felt like leaving the tank till i get back of holiday but know its working almost 99.9% correct im abit more motivated