matt_longview

Looks really neat, Matt! Looks like a nice future pad for the BTA and clowns!

What kind of filter are you planning on running in there, 'fuge and maybe a loose sponge and/or chemipure thing? That's worked pretty well in the AIO boxes that I've put together lately.

Looking forward to see it with critters in there!

I'm running filter pad, chaeto algae then purigen in the first chamber. Second chamber has a bag of chemi-pufe elite and the heater. Live rock rubble, ato switch and return pump in 3rd chamber.

It's identical to my 29g's filtering.

Very nice Matt... clean and elegant! Couple questions though... purigen in a bag? How much flow from the return? LRR on the bottom of the chamber? What kind of light fixture are you running pointed at the chaeto? Sorry so many questions but I have an old 29G I have just resealed and I am debating (in my own mind how to set it up.
Thanks.

Thanks jim!

Yes I have my purigen in a bag on the bottom of the media rack. They sell it already sealed in bags in the 100ml size or you can do what I did and buy any media bag 180 micros or less.

144gph on the return. I'm going to increase this within the next six months or so to 200gph with an eheim compact pump.

I used lrr (live rock rubble) in the return chamber because I used so little live rock in the tank. I also really like areas that are not lit and clean up crew members cannot get into. Sponges, feather dusters, and all sorts of non photosynthetic filter feeders grow very well in those areas. Pods also multiply very well there...

The light fixture is simply a spot light that holds a typical bulb. I found one that had some reflecting ability inside and would lok decent sitting beside the tank. Simply used an energy efficient bulb (aka curly compact florescent) at 6500k.

No problem with the questions. Ask away. If you need pics or better explanations of anything just ask!

Beautiful! Very nicely done - great Zen quality to it. The center rock has a natural upward spiral climb to it that is nothing short of spectacular. Congratulations!

Thanks Slappy.

I would hate to describe how much time I spent aquascaping the tank. Haha... and only a hand full of rocks in a 10g too! That rock was the first in the tank and through most of my attempts I had it out towards the short end (furthest from the filtering). I tried everything and wasn't happy. Finally I took all of the other rocks out and decided where I wanted that one. Center looked best and the rest of the rocks were too big... so I took a hammer to one of them and split it in half. Haha.

Today I tested some ammonia, so the live sand is causing another mini cycle. Will wait until everything tests 0 and then another weekish before adding my clowns. :-)

Thanks for all the insights Matt! I was wondering if the tank would cycle as new despite the seasoned LR... but yer way ahead of me! LOL Did you fill with all new saltwater, use some of water from the LR container, etc?

I started curing the live rock with brand new water 2 & 1/2 months ago. I did some water changes in that tank with the rock curing over the last few weeks getting it ready. The nitrates were at 20 on my API test kit several weeks ago. I've been doing water changes since then and it was down to 5, so I used that water to start up the tank. I actually want this water to be a little bit dirtier than my other tank (my other tank is too clean to grow zoas well) so I'm using the "dirty" water (0 nitrates all the time) from my 29g for this tank's water changes. I'll keep a close eye on test results, but with no clams or SPS in this tank I won't have an issue with calcium and it's 0 nitrates so I don't believe I'll have a problem. Maybe I'll do a monthly water change with brand new... I dunno... I'll keep an eye on tests and decide. :-)

Oh, I also did a 4g water change today. That's right big tank owners... you read that correctly... I did a 40% water change!!! ;-)

Added some frags to the tank today.

Got 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 10 nitrates. I'd love to keep 5 nitrates in this tank. :-)

Looks good, Matt. Make sure the surface area stays clean, or adjust flow to keep it rippling so that stuff stays in suspension and can be filtered out.

Yeah... I've got to hook a pipe up to my return so I can lower the water level in my filtering area. Right now basically the whole 10g is filled up... so the water is moving through the filtering area, but the overflow isn't really surface skimming. It'll be Friday before I get to it, but it'll get filtered out quickly after that. :-)