I miss salt water fish

So much lift has happened since the last post. If you're reading this, I'll assume you know most, if not all of those details. When I last posted to the blog, I basically had 3 salt water tanks. - 16g nano-cube mostly reef, 2 fish, some shrimp, snails, etc. - 21g long front that was mostly reef, 4 fish, lost of support life deep bed - 51g bow front, all marine. I had made a trip to europe and had a keeper watching over the tanks for me. They knew the basics of how to feed and whatnot. My tanks had been very stable for a very long time, and so I expected nothing to go wrong. Then the power failed, and the HVAC unit didn't work with the power came back on, and I wasn't able to return early to manage the fall out. All three tanks crashed with a 100% loss. I was so devidated by this, that I ended up giving away all the equipment I had. Fast forward many years, and my kids don't have a pet. They ask for a dog, or a cat. I offer Lizard, we compromise on fish. Right now, I have a single 5g fresh water tank. two Guppies, two shrimp, two snails, and absolutely nothing to write home about. Also, I've learned that I hate plastic walled tanks. Scratches are a nightmare.

This is a test... i want this section to come out in the email with a link to ...

This is a test... this section is the top part with some words that fill space.  i really want there to be a 'read more' link in the emails that this site sends how, so here goes...

Testing my new video camera

12g tank looks great!

I have some new images of the 12g tank at the office. Enjoy!

Yellow Sponge Ball::


Peach Flower Sponge::


Green Star Polyps::


Pulsing Xenya::


Torch Coral::


Red Mushroom::


Brown button polyps::


Feather Duster::


Sun Coral (Closed)::


Toad Stool::



Zoanthids::

12g Nano - A couple more changes

After all the changes I wrote about yesterday, I ended up changing things more. I waited a couple hours after I rearranged the chambers and grabbed a water sample. As I had written about, the water tests I have were showing the water as healthy, but there are two important tests that I didn't have... thus I grabbed the sample and headed to the fish store. He also said my salt level was to high (salinity / specific gravity).

The one I usually go to is closed on Tuesday (I always forget!), so I had to go a little further away to get it done. Bill is the owner if Neptune's Cove. I love his shop, and he is solidly the best teacher I know of. He knows his fish, and he doesn't mind giving advice to those who will listen. I had him test my water. He found that my KH (water hardness), and Calcium were way high. In fact they were so high, that in a 12g tank, I'm hurting my fish. As these two measures are so important to life, and I'm so far out of normal... I went ahead and purchased the test kits. I also purchased a pipette to spot feed my coral.

I've been wanting to do something with my water flow, so while I was there, I picked up one of these. I put it in the tank and I love it. I'm going to need to upgrade my pump now... but that will have to wait for payday.

To fix the salinity, KH, and Calcium levels I did a 1.5 gallon drain of the tank, then back filled with fresh water. I've done that twice (once last night, and once this morning). Specific gravity should read between 1.020ppm and 1.024ppm. Mine was at 1.027ppm.

I just tested it again. Salinity is at 1.022ppm (good). Calcium is 440ppm (good). KH is 143.3ppm (low). I've added a 'flick' of buffer to bring it back up.

12g Nano - A LOT of changes

As pretty as the main tank is, the most important part of any salt water tank happens in places you can't see (or can't see well). On the nano cubes, there are compartmets behind the back wall of the tank. When you buy a nano, the come with 3 'chambers' inside the back wall. each chamber has a different design and purpose.

Out of the box, the tank comes with three blocks of sponge that sit in the first chamber. They feel about like a soft loofa sponge that you put in your bath/shower. The sponges catch large particles (like food and waste). Then natures takes over and beneficial bacteria grows inside the sponge.

The second is always empty at first, but I put 'live rock' in it. Live rock is the name that is given to the stones that are created when ocean corals die. The rocks are very porous and life (bacteria and microscopic organisms) literally grow inside the holes. Over time, the surface of the rocks collects beneficial algae. All of these life forms create an awesome natural filter for the water that flows through it. I put a baggie of small ceramic tubes in the second chamber as well. They also have many pours and overtime they also grow life that is beneficial to the tank.

The third chamber holds the pump, and as that takes up a great deal of space, I didn't ad anything to it. I tried to put the tanks heater in there, but the water level in that chamber is always much lower than the levels in the rest of the tank. The heater needs to be submersed in water. If the water level gets low, the heater will overheat, and burn out. To prevent this, I put the heater in the main tank. I never liked having it there, but I didn't have room for it in the back.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I purchased a protein skimmer. It's a really simple (but very cool) device that uses air to blow bubbles into the water. Clean salt water doesn't have enough protein to support bubbles. The more protein there is in the water, the longer the bubbles will stick together. The longer they stick together, the bigger the bubbles will get. Literally the yucky stuff in the water, will rise to the top of the protein skimmer, and fall into a little cup that sits on top.

This has been working pretty well, and every day I've had to clear out the skimmer to remove excess protein. Last night I made a lot of changes...

I took everything out of the back except the pump in the third chamber. Then I put it all back in in this order...

Chamber 1:

Proteins are generally created in the main tank, and the flow into the back through the return grate. That means that chamber 1 will always have a higher protein concentration than the other chambers. So I moved the protein skimmer to the first chamber. Also, because the sponges were no longer in the first chamber, I had room to put the heater in there with the skimmer. This made the main tank look better.

Chamber 2:

Live rock that is broken into small parts if termed 'rubble rock'. I put the rubble rock back into the bottom of the second chamber. Truly the rocks are the best filters for salt tanks. I also stuffed a single sponge on top of it to because it never hurts to have to much filtration.

Chamber 3:

There a LOTS of little chemical packs that you can buy and put into your tank. Each has a benefit unique to it's make up. This time I went with carbon. I'm told that it will clear up my water, and make everything look really crisp. I'm also considering putting a bag 'chempure' in the third chamber for the added water cleaning properties it offers.

All in all, I'm happy with the changes. I waited 2 hours and tested for niterite, niterate, PH, and ammonia. All of them came out perfect, except ammonia. You want it at zero, but mine came out at .25. This doesn't concern me now, because it's not very high, and there is going to be an ammonia spike when you start playing with the filtration.

Next I'm going to take a sample of water and have it tested today. I can't test for all the levels. I need to buy more test kits for that... but the test kits are not free, so new test kits will have to wait.