Peter's Petite Pair Of Picos

[GrayScale]

Very cool Looking forward to seeing those pics.

 

[castiel]

Okay here they are!

FTSs:

'Hers'

'His'

 

[castiel]

I also wanted to take the opportunity to add a couple of photos of the back of the tank.

This shows the three compartments, left is the drip tray and media, middle is where we put the heater, right is the pump. We ditched the bioballs and added in some live rock fragments in the left chamber, currently sitting between the sponge and the carbon, with wool on top.

One concern I have is the heater placement and utility. It is set to 27C, but the thermometer we just put on the tank (the stick on outside strip kind) shows just 21C. Is the warm water from teh chamber not flowing through the tank sufficiently? Or do we just work out what the thermometer temp should be so the outer tank is at 27/28C? Ie it might need to be set to 34C.


(#41####, seems I lost the ability to edit the post above! Oh well, here's what I was going to add)
The guy at the LFS advised us to buy some carbon and wool, said that the rock might cause a bit of a stink as it goes through the cycle! To change the wool every day almost, and the carbon media weekly, to keep the smell down. He also advised to ditch the bioballs before we get to the nitrate stage and replace with LR, so we decided to do that now while we have spare rubble.

Cheers

 

[bae1994]

Looks very good



But I'd be inclined to ditches the sponge and wool as unless you wash the sponge twice weekly they can cause issues too

 

[castiel]

Yeah I had that advice too (from Gray via PM, I think! haha). I figured it would be useful initially at least, given the amount of crap in teh tanks at teh moment. Will definitely take a look at it after a week or so though. Plus, it currently holds the LR off the floor of that chamber ... or doesn't that matter?

 

[GrayScale]

Looking good. Personally, I can't stand the stick on thermometers. I can't say i've ever had one that would work correctly. too many variables can mess with them like ambient temp. But thats just me . it wouldnt be a bad idea to maybe just get 1 kind of a different therm to see how much difference there is between them. If you've got time for it, even though its something simple, maybe you could do an experiment with submerged vs the stick on outside thermometer and doing a little write up for the resource center on what you did and your findings, especially if there is a big difference.

Edit: just read your last post, guess you posted while I was writing this up. The wool will help take out particles but like bae said it could cause clogging issues if you dont clean it out regularly. But if your alright with that, then run it until the end of your cycle then maybe switch it out for a filter sock filled with a phosphate remover me thinks.

 

[bae1994]

With regards to keeping the rock off the floor I run it on the floor of mine in the back chamber with cheato above it and all is fine but if your worried then use abit of egg crate to lift it off the bottom

 

[castiel]

Thanks, both. Yeah I'm not too convinced by the thermometers either, so will probably order some others. If I do I'll be sure to do a comparison =0)

The media chamber has both floss and a sponge. The sponge is large, takes up half the chamber, then on top of that the live rock, then the carbon pouch, then the floss, then the drip tray. We bought a large package of floss on the advice from the LFS, who said to change it daily for the first week or two. But are you saying we should just ditch the sponge?

I have looked into Chaeto, but will it grow in the back chamber? Didn't think it would get enough light back there ...

 

[bae1994]

No you would need a separate light but it can cause ph swings so in such small tanks I wouldn't bother

If your changing the floss daily it'll be fine but I wouldn't buy any more when you've ran out and I would ditch the sponge

 

[GrayScale]

I have seen people using sponges to reduce noise. Ive also seen submersible led strips that you might be able to modify to fit in the chamber for chaeto. You could keep the sponge but I would definately keep an eye on it for debris collecting on it. Since youve got the floss, it will collect most particles before hitting the sponge so switching it out daily would be alright. And while your in there just glimpse at the sponge just to make sure water is flowing as normal.

Edit: bae beat me to it yet again.

 

[castiel]

Cool, will do. Thanks again =0)

Just spotted more signs of life already! Little tubular worm thing with a green tip - didn't realise it was so alive until I accidentally left my phone's flash on and realised it had withdrawn after the picture!

 

[bae1994]

Weird although it's upto you but when I ran sponge on my 100 gallon within a month it was nackering my water even with regular maintenance and in this size tank the noise will be minimal so it's really of no benefit to you I'd get rid and again with the cheat its not really worth it

 

[castiel]

Thanks, will ditch the sponge and go with the LR, carbon and floss changed regularly.

Also, more life:

 

[bae1994]

Nice feather duster or Christmas worm possibly ( more likely the first )

 

[castiel]

I knew this moment would come ... but what on earth is this? Good, bad, or just ugly?